Last year we had over 70 days in the 90s. Here it is June 9 and we have had 14 days in the 90s already, today up to 98 degrees. Hot and dry, a good rain seems to disappear in hours here. We have had a wet spring, now spring is long gone with these 90 degree days at 14 days already.
The soil here has 1/2 inch cracks already, some years they open to a full inch. Today I returned the 100 garden hose I got at Costco, we unrolled it and it had 6- 8 serious kinks in it. So I went to Home Depot and got a kink free hose like my 5 year old ones that work great still. A new sprinkler and a timer so we can run the sprinkler and it'll turn itself off. We use a well and have 3 rain barrels that we use when we have the time to use them.
Finally we are getting gutters on the addition! Meg wants rain chains. I have a customer that I built a deck and screened porch for that has lily cup rain chains these are beautiful, but clog with debris quite quickly. I like these tear drop cups yet Meg has not looked at them yet. We have an oak tree over our deck so a rain chain that does not need cleaning weekly would be great. And we don't want it to splash water everywhere either as the door had leaked due to heavy rains splashing off the roof. The door leaked because we bought a door without a solid one piece threshold. We might just seal the door off and make into a fixed door lite.
Our rain chain install will be quite different as the chains will drop onto the deck into a custom made planter with a PVC drain going to a rain barrel then over flowing to a drain pipe into the pond. I am looking for one of these 275 gallon square containers to have under the deck for our rain barrels.
Also the Beaver Queen Pageant did raise the money it was hoping for $7028! Yeah for preserving wetlands!!
10 comments:
I will keep my fingers crossed for you to get some rain. Love your photo.
I like rain chains. Getting them clogged with oak flowers would not be pleasant.
And here's me moaning about lack of rain here. But the big difference is our temperature of approximately 60 degrees. Still our soil is sandy inspire of copious amounts of compost. My astrantias are drooping....
How do you cope with the temperature of 90degrees?
We've been hot and dry too. Have you thought about rain barrels? I bought one for $65 at Lowe's. It's looks good and it's good for the garden (rather than our treated well water which has too much salt in it).
Thanks for the ID on the clematis.
Janet the Queen,
Yes we get lots of oak flowers, might need to clean rain chains 6-8 times a year where we want to put them.
Janet,
you must be thinking Celsius, we use Fahrenheit here.
Appalachian Lady,
We have 3 rain barrel just like yours only I made them myself for a total of around $65. I find most of the store bought rain barrels need input improvements and out put improvements. One of the ones being sold around here has a 5/8 inch hose pipe over flow, I like a 2 inch pvc pipe over flow.
Oh, 14 days in a row with that kind of heat? We wimps here in WI just came through two days of 90+ temps and we were all roasting. We can take the snow, but turn up the thermostat and we melt like a snowflake in a campfire. Now it's back down to a more reasonable 58 degrees.
I love rain chains, Carl's been thinking about making some for years. I have four rain barrels here and have been looking at the big plastic tanks for water storage, too. It's such a shame to let all the wonderful rainwater run off the roof. Today we are having a cold drizzle, after our very wet spring we didn't think it was that dry, but the 90's take it out of the soil. Hope your weather cools down soon. Beautiful daylily.
That is one hearty Lily! I can't imagine all those days in the 90s. 80s year-round would be nice, though! Sounds like you're very resourceful with your water use. Kudos!
I've had the devil's own time finding kink-free hoses here. They all seem to be cheap and cheerfully constructed, and kink or split at a moments notice. I remember owning quality hoses once, just wish I could find them now! I can't believe how warm you've had it so far this year, we've barely cracked 80F all year! So much for California weather ;)
Oh well, you dont know yet our story, of cracking soils and dying fruit trees. But that is ended now as finally rains come, but of course here when it rains there are also landslides and floods. But that lily is so beautiful and sturdy.
I can empathize with you about the heat. It seems a lot of the country has been enduring extreme heat. We are starting our 120 days of over 100 degree temps in the desert. Be thankful you have rain!
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