I came home the regular way from my blood draw today, along the ridge tops, so I can’t say this still holds true, but the last time I came home the back way along Wheeling Creek, I noticed that all the weeds that grow on the sand bars in the creek bed were bright green.
Typically, they are dusty, as when it rains, the creek rises and silt from the runoff coats them. May and well into June was dry enough that that never happened. Usually, there is a pretty good flow all of May, but we are having a dry year, hence the unusual sight of green creek weeds.
We had a gully washer last night, with winds strong enough to break small branches out of the catalpa trees out front. It may have been enough to add up to a 1/2 an inch, but was the kind of a rain that comes down so fast it runs off before it soaks in, so it has little value. A July or August kind of rain.
When I garden, I always form my beds with little ridges around the edges of the beds to catch those rains and hold them. On the slopes of the hay fields and pastures though, it just runs off.
The lawn is turning brown so I know the pastures aren’t growing. Fortunately, New Vrindaban has excess grazing lands now, but in the past in these conditions, we would have had to start feeding hay months before the winter rolled around. That is expensive.
The Synders were here baling hay across the road from me and off the meadow between me and Sudhanu. They said their hay was a little light this year, due partly to lack of rain, though there was sufficient to get a decent crop. The other reason was that due to the cost of oil being up so high, the cost of fertilizer has doubled and they didn’t think that the increase in yield would justify the expense, so they didn’t spread any this spring.
Chemical nitrogen fertilizer is made from oil.
This latest dry spell had less effect on the first cutting of hay, but if we don’t start getting some regular soaking rains, there will be no second cutting to be worth the cost of cutting, and the pastures will be finished prematurely.
Ultimately, we are dependent on the mercy of the Lord in the form of rain.
