U.S. faces widest area of drought since 1956

[CanadaSue]

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/ar...ght-since-1956

This is becoming more & more ominous. Check your cupboards folks & keep track of what you routinely buy. Start stocking up when/if you can.

[Mousehound]

I wish I could send you all some of our rain. I can't remember ever seeing such a wet summer here.

[dyrt]

I was a small boy but remember a few things from the early 50s. The first is that the city ran out of water. They had rolling water outages. Our section of the city would have the water turned on for about 2 hours per day. The quality was terrible and pressure was low. We would collect what we could in the tub, sinks, bottles and buckets. My dad had a normal 50 mile round trjip commute but he added another 50 miles to go to a guys house who still had a working well. He brought home about 10 gallons of day and shared it with a couple of neighbors.

I remember the bad dirt storms, the payment melting, burning my hand on a tool I left outside.

Then I remember the flood that killed a lot of people and filled up the lakes.

In my part of the world, this drought has a long way to go before like the 50s.

[rb.]

That reminds me...we seem to have a very buckled bit of sidewalk not far from me. Can concrete sidewalk slabs do that in heat?

[dyrt]

Originally Posted by rb.

That reminds me...we seem to have a very buckled bit of sidewalk not far from me. Can concrete sidewalk slabs do that in heat?

If there are no tree roots then it may be the ground under the concrete.

[oldasrocks]

Its so dry our fish are taking walking lessons. The tomatoes we pick taste precooked.

[rb.]

Originally Posted by dyrt

If there are no tree roots then it may be the ground under the concrete.

Hmmm....if we weren't on solid clay around here, it'd be a dust bowl. I'll have to check for a tree next time I drive by it. The sidewalk is only two years old.

My maters aren't growing, the peppers stopped flowering. Can't keep he garden wet enough.

[CanadaSue]

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/ar...r-experts-says

[LvDemWings]

Originally Posted by CanadaSue

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/ar...ght-since-1956

This is becoming more & more ominous. Check your cupboards folks & keep track of what you routinely buy. Start stocking up when/if you can.

This is something we started this week. Normally I do a big stock up in the fall but this year I've started it now. I'm buying all the pasta, brown rice, wild rice and whole grains/seeds I have room for. I also have to find a way to store the birds food long term. Hopefully it freezes well.

[CanadaSue]

Looks like the lag between commodity prices & the hit at the grocery store CAN be 6-12 months. But I'm not gambling on it & my stocking up will start ASAP:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/stor...canada-us.html

[Feather]

They announced on the news today that we will be starting Sunday and going until Wednesday or longer. I get paid Wednesday and I will be starting my winter stock up early as well.

http://www.kcci.com/news/central-iow...c/-/index.html

[Ross]

All of which reminds of an old Australian poem .

SAID HANRAHAN by John O'Brien

"We'll all be rooned," said Hanrahan,
In accents most forlorn,
Outside the church, ere Mass began,
One frosty Sunday morn.


The congregation stood about,
Coat-collars to the ears,
And talked of stock, and crops, and drought,
As it had done for years.


"It's looking crook," said Daniel Croke;
"Bedad, it's cruke, me lad,
For never since the banks went broke
Has seasons been so bad."


"It's dry, all right," said young O'Neil,
With which astute remark
He squatted down upon his heel
And chewed a piece of bark.


And so around the chorus ran
"It's keepin' dry, no doubt."
"We'll all be rooned," said Hanrahan,
"Before the year is out."


"The crops are done; ye'll have your work
To save one bag of grain;
From here way out to Back-o'-Bourke
They're singin' out for rain.


"They're singin' out for rain," he said,
"And all the tanks are dry."
The congregation scratched its head,
And gazed around the sky.


"There won't be grass, in any case,
Enough to feed an ass;
There's not a blade on Casey's place
As I came down to Mass."


"If rain don't come this month," said Dan,
And cleared his throat to speak -
"We'll all be rooned," said Hanrahan,
"If rain don't come this week."


A heavy silence seemed to steal
On all at this remark;
And each man squatted on his heel,
And chewed a piece of bark.


"We want an inch of rain, we do,"
O'Neil observed at last;
But Croke "maintained" we wanted two
To put the danger past.


"If we don't get three inches, man,
Or four to break this drought,
We'll all be rooned," said Hanrahan,
"Before the year is out."


In God's good time down came the rain;
And all the afternoon
On iron roof and window-pane
It drummed a homely tune.


And through the night it pattered still,
And lightsome, gladsome elves
On dripping spout and window-sill
Kept talking to themselves.


It pelted, pelted all day long,
A-singing at its work,
Till every heart took up the song
Way out to Back-o'-Bourke.


And every creek a banker ran,
And dams filled overtop;
"We'll all be rooned," said Hanrahan,
"If this rain doesn't stop."


And stop it did, in God's good time;
And spring came in to fold
A mantle o'er the hills sublime
Of green and pink and gold.


And days went by on dancing feet,
With harvest-hopes immense,
And laughing eyes beheld the wheat
Nid-nodding o'er the fence.


And, oh, the smiles on every face,
As happy lad and lass
Through grass knee-deep on Casey's place
Went riding down to Mass.


While round the church in clothes genteel
Discoursed the men of mark,
And each man squatted on his heel,
And chewed his piece of bark.


"There'll be bush-fires for sure, me man,
There will, without a doubt;
We'll all be rooned," said Hanrahan,
"Before the year is out."

Around the Boree Log and Other Verses, 1921

http://www.middlemiss.org/lit/author.../hanrahan.html

[NowVoyager]

Originally Posted by LvDemWings

This is something we started this week. Normally I do a big stock up in the fall but this year I've started it now. I'm buying all the pasta, brown rice, wild rice and whole grains/seeds I have room for. I also have to find a way to store the birds food long term. Hopefully it freezes well.

Not sure what kind of birds you have, but I used to be owned by a B&G macaw, Umbrella Cockatoo, Bare Eyed Cockatoo and African Grey. I'd buy millet in bulk then vacuum seal it packages to freeze and it worked well. Just vacuum sealing it and storing in a cool, dark closet also worked for up to a year, though I'd freeze it for at least 24 hours first, to kill off any possibles pests.

I feed a fresh diet of cooked grains, legumes, veggies and pasta, along with fresh fruit and nuts along with high quality pelleted avian food and some seeds.

Since at that time I was canning / preserving most all of our own food, I would dehydrate extra veggies (carrots, peas, green beans) and store a mixture of that just for the birds which I could add to the cooked grains.

Also peppers, the Bare Eyed and Umbrella really seemed to love peppers, both sweet and hot.

[NowVoyager]

Originally Posted by Feather

They announced on the news today that we will be starting Sunday and going until Wednesday or longer. I get paid Wednesday and I will be starting my winter stock up early as well.

http://www.kcci.com/news/central-iow...c/-/index.html

Hubby hasn't had to be aware of food prices for a couple years and talk about 'sticker shock' when he's been watching me just do our basic marketing.

He freaked out over the cost of meat and when our electric bill came him he almost lost it. Explained despite cutting back on the a/c and electric overall, we've had rate increases which pretty much wipe out any potential savings based on my conservation efforts.

I hope to go through / rotate our back stock, try to store more basics and maybe get some more dehydrated stuff to use.

Despite our area getting dumped on by tropical storm Debby, our county is still under a watering restriction order.

Hubby wants a new lawn put in .. I'm not keen on that idea so I'm pointing out that even if we got a waiver due to a new lawn being laid, it's way too hot to be a good time for doing it.

Besides I'm cheap; OK?

Keep the place up, keep it clean, neat and in good order, but I can't rationalize expenditures for something basically ornamental, at this point with property values tanking.

[AndreaCA]

Now - where do you live? Here in Central Cali, about the only time you can put in a lawn and expect it to grow is early Fall. This way it has time to establish serious roots before our triple digit Summer starts.

[NowVoyager]

Originally Posted by AndreaCA

Now - where do you live? Here in Central Cali, about the only time you can put in a lawn and expect it to grow is early Fall. This way it has time to establish serious roots before our triple digit Summer starts.

FL. And out here we do the sod thing as basically our 'soil' is just sand. Early spring or late summer seems to be when we see most getting their lawns done. Allows for roots to be established before extreme heat and or before it get cool to the point of the lawn going dormant.

[Feather]

I've had people ask me why our yard looks much greener than the others in the neigborhood, the houses are pretty much all the same age. We over sow grass seed in th fall. It's still a bit warm so it can grow a bit before winter and then in the spring it starts coming in full force.

[Dreamweaver]

Senior Vice President of research for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association Michael Miller said prices for beef, poultry, pork and milk could rise 10 percent if the drought continues.
Corn is such a pervasive ingredient in the U.S. diet that food prices overall rise about 1 percent for every 50 percent jump in corn prices, USDA economist Richard Volpe said.

Read more: http://www.upi.com/Business_News/201...#ixzz21LoYOSFz

[blue gecko]

^^^Thats encouraging Dreamweaver...3 more months of this is a pleasant thought...NOT! It frightening to think about what the world will look like then. We're seeing lots of dead and dying trees and understory. Its a crispy critter out there.

[CanadaSue]

Walking downtown & back yesterday, I had a careful look at vegetation. Lawns are seared stubble fields & most weeds are dead or dying save for low growing, tap rooted natives. Smaller trees are starting to die & the larger ones are looking very stressed with a lot of yellowing & falling leaves & in some cases, smaller, dead branches.

We're expecting another 6 weeks of drought broken by the rare shower or thunderstorm.

I love my summers - but not 'three summers in one'.

[Sonny]

DroughtMonitor Map
http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/


More Drought Monitor Maps: Current Conditions
http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/current.html

[LvDemWings]

NV I have a new baby Timneh African Grey (he came home this past Wednesday). We are still learning his likes and dislikes but so far he doesn't like dehydrated anything or cooked grains. I haven't tried legumes and beans yet so that is still a maybe. Yesterday I was able to get a 25lb bag of his mixed seed for $54 with a use by date of Oct 2014. My SO won a raffle for a 5lb bag of millet spray so we are set on that for a while. I just have to vac seal it in smaller quantities. I would like to find the bulk bags of nut blend pellets but they just don't seem to be available for retail sale. Jake loves his fresh vegies, beans and hot peppers. He will accept dried chili peppers but I have yet to find whole dried jalapenos to try them out. Normally I wouldn't push to have him try so many different foods at once but I really want to bulk buy what I suspect will be hard to find like things made of wheat, corn and nuts. Reports here are of walnut trees spontaneously dropping their nuts. I don't know if this is happening across the country but if it is that will add to the stress on the overall food supply.

Originally Posted by NowVoyager

Not sure what kind of birds you have, but I used to be owned by a B&G macaw, Umbrella Cockatoo, Bare Eyed Cockatoo and African Grey. I'd buy millet in bulk then vacuum seal it packages to freeze and it worked well. Just vacuum sealing it and storing in a cool, dark closet also worked for up to a year, though I'd freeze it for at least 24 hours first, to kill off any possibles pests.

I feed a fresh diet of cooked grains, legumes, veggies and pasta, along with fresh fruit and nuts along with high quality pelleted avian food and some seeds.

Since at that time I was canning / preserving most all of our own food, I would dehydrate extra veggies (carrots, peas, green beans) and store a mixture of that just for the birds which I could add to the cooked grains.

Also peppers, the Bare Eyed and Umbrella really seemed to love peppers, both sweet and hot.

[blue gecko]

The first link that Sonny posted shows an "exceptional drought" spot in Arkansas. We're in the top left quadrant of that spot.

[Feather]

It looks like we are moderate right now but the severe goes around us to the right and top. My MIL is in the severe area. Maybe because of the two rivers going through town?

[rb.]

Today was our second day of hazy air, due to forest fires north west of us. Not fun with high temps, and high humidity.