One Glorious Day

It might not have been rain falling for several days soaking the parched land of  My Town, but the dry front yesterday brought a most magnificent day today.

The air cooled overnight into the 50s and this morning we felt the chill of the season's change.  It is finally here.

I awoke early after some eleven hours of sleep.  I must have needed the rest because sleep could not be denied or delayed.  Not the audio of the high school football game nor the emails could keep my eyes open.  I surrendered to slumber and my body was at rest.

The morning found me with my energy returned and before 9:30, I was putting away the groceries from shopping at the local grocery store.  My purchases are fairly routine as I seldom stray from products I know are healthy for me and My Son.  We then headed to the Producers Market and I secured locally raised and processed meats for the week.  I was delighted to find a large tomato there as well.  It did come home with me.  I always thought eating healthy would cost more money but actually, the grocery bill has been reduced.  Some of the items are priced higher but when you eat less fattening foods, you don't find yourselves starved all the time.  The body gets what it needs and isn't constantly craving foods in it's effort to secure the nutrients it needs.

This afternoon, the air was warm but so much cooler than it has been.  I watered the surviving pepper plants and pondered the plight of my tomatoes.  They have simply not grown much and it has been such a struggle to keep them alive during this drought.  It has taken time and money with absolutely no yield.  I have come to the decision that I will thank them for trying and then gently pull them from the soil.  That garden will be put to rest for the winter.  The peppers now have blooms on them and I expect to have a yield before the first bite of winter arrives.  That is certainly all I can ask from plants that have suffered so much during the intense heat of the past few months.

This glorious Fall day found highs in the 80s.  The air feels clean and clear.  Its a most beautiful day to be outside.  It feels like we have finally made the turn and hopefully the cooler days are ahead.  We need that as the sting of this past summer does linger.

It became official this past week.  The Texas drought is expected to last for years, perhaps a decade.  While most people would hang their heads in defeat, we naturally look to a form of adaptability and sustenance.   If the ground will remain dry all winter, then when it does rain, it must be harvested and used.  People  have survived droughts and we will be no different.  It just takes embracing the reality and preparing for it.

As with life itself and the curve balls it tends to throw at us now and then, preparation and adaptability are critical to quality of life.  So we prepare, we adapt and we find quality.  The answer to any question is there, you just have to seek it.  The solution to any problem is obtainable, you just have to be brave enough, resilient enough and determined enough to find it and then put it into action.

When Spark Meets Drought

There are few words that scare people living in a drought more than the word fire.

Cell phones sound, emails fly and there is a mass communication about this one word.  The entire area around my town is a timber box.  The grass is long dead and dry, trees wilting under the oppressive daily heat. Temperatures today again reached 106 degrees.

Then we see smoke.  Your heart sinks and your stomach tightens.  A thousand thoughts pass through your mind.  You wonder, am I ready to evacuate my home?  Am I ready to surrender all I have to a fire?  Is this the day the drought and a spark change my life and my world?

With the radio scanners going, clinging to information, we wait.  We watch the sky to the north and the smoke that covers it.

Its so very hot.  I think about the men and women fighting a grass fire in 106 degree weather.  I wonder which way its moving.  I wonder who and what is in its path.

The drought will claim many victims as it progresses this year.  Animals, trees, crops, homes and so much more.  I'm not sure why mother nature has turned so cruel to our state.  I just know the cruelty is nearly unbearable.

Normalcy Bias

As you can see I'm compiling a Recipe page so that I can share the healthy recipes I find and actually prepare and like.  Nutrition is important if we truly want to stay out off of the medical treadmill.

I'm watching the stock market as well this morning. There are those that believe that the market will continue to sustain itself as well as the American economy.  I am not of that belief.  With the switch within the economy from the industrial revolution to the service industry as a nation, the loss of jobs and the inability to create jobs, I can not see our economy sustaining itself.  That is a concern.

With this year's flooding in the Midwest and the drought everywhere else, food production will be down.  Another concern.  This will give us several options as I see it.  We will either have less food availability,  higher prices for what is available or we will be dependent on foods imported from other countries.  I don't have much of confidence in products imported from China and many other countries do not adhere to the same safety standards we have set in place in the USA.  Either way we will be affected financially and nutritionally.

Many people I've talked to in casual conversations say "Oh, that's ridiculous. The stores are full of food and if they don't have enough food generated from this country, we can always find it from other countries.  I refuse to be one of those food hoarders."  There it is, a fine label for preparedness.  A label for those that prepare for the worst case scenario, be it man or nature.  A label for those that think ahead, strive for some sense of self sustainability.

My mom was not labeled.  She was cut from the cloth of the great depression.  I watched her learn to bake  her own bread as well as can and dehydrate foods.  She remembered what it was like to have to provide food for yourself.  She remembered that it was important to not depend on anyone unless you bartered for items and food.  She understood that you needed to know how to sew a shirt or dress and make a blanket with some yarn and a hook.  As she used to say, "You just never know whats going to happen".

The great depression was a different scenario for the people of this country compared to how it would be if we, God forbid, found ourselves in a similar situation today.  Back in those depression and dust bowl years, 90% of the American people knew how to live off the land and how to sustain themselves.  If we had to endure that same kind of depression now, only 10% have the skills it takes to survive on their own.  That does not create a pretty picture in my mind.  We are technology driven and comfort driven.  We have our homes, all kinds of  food in the stores and instant communication.  A world without those things would be quite the shock.  I heard it said once that most Americans suffer from what is called Normalcy Bias.  That being, if people have not experienced something, they don't believe it can happen.  We've never experienced a full depression so we don't believe it can happen.  We've never experienced an extended period of time when the soil has turned to dust and food is not available, therefore it cannot happen.

Nothing my parents taught me has gone to waste.  Not one idea, not one skill was without merit.  I listened to my grandparent and learned from those days as well.  Those generations did not suffer from Normalcy Bias.  They knew things, even bad things, could happen and they knew how to survive.

I've taken action for the past year to secure enough to sustain my family for a time when bad things happen. I encourage all that read this to do the same.  

To those that don't think that its important to be prepared in every way, they need only look to their own government websites that TELL them to be prepared.  http://www.ready.gov/

And with that, its time to start building a greenhouse.  Winter is coming.

Timing Is Everything

Its almost 3am.  Ive been up for over an hour answering emails and thinking about this post.  Normally I am sleeping but I decided to play automatic sprinkler system.

It has been so hot and so dry here in Central Texas that the word desperate has creeped into our daily vocabulary.  We are desperate for the heat to break and desperate for rain.  I am beginning to wonder what comes after the word desperate.

The forecast called this week for temperatures well over 100 degrees each day.  And no rain. Just a repeat of all the days and weeks before it.  We have grown accustom to the idea that rain will not fall today or tomorrow.  We try to not think about how many days it has been this summer without rain.  I remember not long ago being hopeful that somehow, someway this long hot streak would break.  I don't feel that hope much anymore.

So last night, I was thinking about watering this morning.  We are now on restriction and can only water on Wednesdays and Saturdays, we water all day long and it seems to change little.  Everything is dry and in various stages of dying.  I was thinking about how many days I have hand watered or moved a sprinkler over the past month and a half.  I thought about those around me that had the ease of automatic sprinkler systems and how nice and green their lawns looked while mine struggled.  Mine was desperate.  Yesterday, I mowed what little grass we have watered. It was like mowing dirt.  Dust went everywhere.  Its a very sad thing to experience.

That's when I decided to play automatic sprinkler system.  I set my alarm for 12:30am (well into Wednesday morning in case the law did a drive by) and then went outside to start the sprinkler.  I know there are those lawn enthusiasts that would say you should never water at night.  It is probably bad for the grass.  They may be right but I know watering during the day, when the temperature is close to that of the surface of the sun, is also bad for the grass.  So we will try something different.  Seriously, when you are desperate for water, what can it hurt?

The sprinkler has been going now for two hours and having just checked it, I can see no standing water on the ground.  How dry my piece of this Earth has become.

I will move the sprinkler to another location in an hour and delight yet another piece of my Earth.  When the light of day arrives, I'll hand water the tomato plants, sunflowers and peppers.  That's all that remains of my garden.  I pulled the corn plants and half of the tomato plants to focus on the new starts that will struggle through the rest of July and August in hopes of a yield after the heat of this summer releases us from its grip.

It wasn't a bad idea to get up in the middle of the night to play with the sprinkler.  The world is quiet and the air cooler.  The perfect time to be outside.  I think both the grass and I will get something out of this bright idea of mine.

God Is In The Rain

In the year of an exceptional drought, life is different. Sure we go through our days, meeting deadlines, taking care of responsibilities and preparing for the next but in a drought, life is different.

During my summer break from work, which happened to coincide with this exceptional drought, I have seen a different summer. Beyond the obvious dry grass and dying landscape that is Central Texas, there is a constant thirst. I have grown used to dirt that has become powder and mornings that consist of watering everything from gardens to trees. In a drought there is a preoccupation with water. And there is that constant thirst.

As temperatures rise to the century mark and above each day, the air becomes less comfortable to breathe. People and pets move a little slower if at all. Summer becomes the enemy and the night our savior.

I have driven past corn fields where the crops have baked in the summer sun. Corn plants that should be tall and lush and green have dried and died in the hot Texas soil. I have seen fields plowed under early as hope of a yield was abandoned. A drought touches everything and everyone. It is a game changer.

Every morning I fill the bird bath which has become like the watering hole in an African desert. I have seen every living creature in and near my yard come for a drink. Lizards, wasps, squirrels, cats, birds, opossums and raccoons. Every living thing, plant and animal alike has an exceptional thirst this year.

But every now and then, as it did yesterday, the rain will fall. Sometimes its only for a moment, sometimes just a little longer. In the year of an exceptional drought, seeing rain is magical. It is a "get out and let it hit you" moment. It is a "be a child again" moment. It is a "see it for the first time" moment. It is summed up in a single word, glorious.

Some years are just like that. Some years are just a drought. Some years everything is just more difficult and there is that thirst for what used to be. What we need to remember is that all droughts eventually end. When the rains return and that life giving moisture is absorbed, life will find it's normal rhythm again.

While droughts are remembered with disdain and a physical shudder, their mere existence makes the promise of rain, the smell of rain, the taste of rain all the more sweet.