Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Drought!

We have been having an awful drought here in TN. Have I mentioned that before? We have lived here since Janurary 1999 and have never experienced anything like this summer. I am thankful that we had drip irrigation in our garden or we wouldn't have produced a thing. I don't think we have had rain on our farm for more than 4 or 5 days altogether.

Our farm runs down to a small mountain ridge and then part way up the mountain. There is a year round creek that runs at the base of the mountain. It is a good deep creek - fun to play in during the summer...Elijah had asked to wear his bathing suit for this purpose....but it was a bit too cool. I have seen this creek overflow many times and flood our lower field. The boys and I headed down there last week to gather Jewelweed. Did you know that Jewelweed is God's provision for us...it is an antidote for poison ivy. For years I have made a tincture to treat poison ivy externally. Last year I began making a salve. This year I plan on making lots more salve and some soap to treat that awful rash. I'll write more about Jewelweed later.....

Imagine my surprise when we got to the creek....

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This is where we normally access the creek/mountain. I couldn't believe my eyes.....DRY!!! This creek has never run dry before! As you can see Elijah is wearing his muck boots in expectation of wading in the creek. We all wore surgical gloves....this will be explained in the post on Jewelweed...coming soon!

The day before this picture was taken, we actually had our first really good day of rain. You know, that all day steady down pour....I was so shocked that, although we saw some puddles, the creek was dry as far as we could walk or see.tn_100_4591.JPG

Looks like a lovely country lane doesn't it? This looks down the length of our property at the base of the mountain....I am standing in the middle of the "creek"!

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And this is the view in the other direction. Elijah had lots of fun turning over rocks and looking for critters. The puddles that we found were filled with life, fish, crawdaddys, frogs and salamanders...and one other unusual creature....

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Our faithful guard dog, Faith, follows us everywhere. She found great relief in the few puddles that we found. She would wallow while we worked. When we began to walk on, looking for the next patch of Jewelweed, then she would run ahead of us looking for the next puddle.

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Normally the depth of this creek is way up beyond where the green begins to grow. Jewelweed grows in shady and moist conditions....needless to say that the patches were quite small this year. The tributaries to this creek, that also cross our property, were also dry. We were able to walk through some of them. Quite interesting...I was so glad that we had extra trash bags....we all gathered trash as we made our way down the creeks.

The almanac is predicting a very cold winter this year. It has cooled down considerably, and quite early. Our windows are open (despite my allergies....which are much worse this year!) and the nights are chilly. This could explain why our horses were developing their winter coats during a heat wave when the days were 105! God's provision for them as He knows what they need.

I am hoping wondering if we will get some of the precipitation that we missed this summer during the winter months. I wouldn't mind a good deep snow....or two :)

Stay tuned....more on Jewelweed soon!

6 comments:

  1. My parent's creek/branch went dry this summer, too, for the first time in anyone's memory. (We're north GA, so pretty much the same weather pattern ya'll have had.) The birds, especially the blue heron, had a feast as the little puddles dried up and the prey was easily accessible.

    Last week we got some precious Humberto rain, about 6 inches in 24 hours, and they puddles have filled back up and in a couple of places they are connected again. An encouraging sight.

    I noticed today that the oaks are letting go of acorns already (which is early) and I saw a funny little squirrel with a huge walnut in his mouth headed for his home. That also seems a bit early, if that walnut dropped instead of being plucked. I would love a good cold winter and some high-nitrogen snow to go with it.......MrsBurns

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  2. Hi Cheri, we are also in drought conditions up here in northern ND. I can't remember when we last had a decent rain. The forecast tomorrow is for thunderstorms, and we'll see if they are right! We are thankful we at least had a lake to pump water out of to take care of our gardens.

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  3. Cheri, Thanks for sharing the photo's, and info on your drought conditions. I'm wondering does the drought drive away alot of your wildlife?

    Here in Western WA, we've had just the opposite of most folks. We've had a very wet cool/summer. Most people think WA State is a wet and dreary place, but really, we get this type of weather only once in a while. We've had beautiful summers for the last 5-6 years at least. This year was the first year we didn't put out our irrigation pump to use in at least 5-6 years. It was very poor summer for hay...which makes for extremely poor selection of hay, and cost is extremely high.

    We started farming seriously 5 years ago, and have had optimal growing conditions during that time. This year, we were challenged...and became aware of what stuggles farmers face, when growing food. We were gifted the past years, and now reality has set in. That's ok...it's made us appreciate the foods we've grown that much more.

    Cheri, your blog has been a great encouragement to me! Thank You!

    Kris in WA

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  4. Hi Cheri,

    I forgot to ask: Would you mind sharing what elevation your farm sits at?
    Thanks!

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  5. I guess we got all your rain in OK this year! We had 37 continuous days of rain in May, June, July here in Tulsa. I heard that one of our local lakes was 13 feet over flood stage earlier this summer! It usually rains a lot in June, but not long, heavy, all day, every day rains like it did!

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  6. Mrs. Burns,
    I agree completely on the snow....asking God to bless us this winter :)
    Cheri

    Lynn,
    Praying that you got your rain! Still dry here.
    Cheri

    Kris,
    Seems that the animals are coming closer...needing to drink out of the farm pond since their creek is dry. I lived in WA (Marysville) for manny years - loved it there!
    Not sure of the elevation...need to check on it.
    Cheri

    Andrea,
    I am envious - although I don't think I want THAT much rain :)
    Cheri

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