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Wednesday, August 10, 2016

Lazarus Lettuce



We need Lazarus lettuce seeds next year. My lovely wife and I went away for a couple of days. Without us there to water the garden, the lettuce fell over. Watering them only brought a few back to life. If these hot drought conditions become regular we are going to need plants that can come back from the dead.

Our garden is pretty tiny but the fresh veggies usually add some nice variety to our meals. It's been a tough year. The southern part of the state has it worse than we do. In my friend's town in southern NH they have water restrictions in effect.

Of course, there are thunderstorms predicted for the weekend -the weekend we were going to go sailing and tent camping. That's not going to happen. Thunderstorms are better than nothing, but what we really need are several days of soaking rain.

The local farmers are not set up to deal with drought conditions. A local dairy farmer was complaining on the radio that his hay crop is way down. Nobody irrigates hay as it's too low a value crop. The cost of diesel to run the pump is prohibitive.

At least our county hasn't had any major forest fires. A friend of mine works for the Forest Service. He's had to travel to the southern part of the state for fires, but it's been pretty good up north. No idea how long that condition will hold.

My shallow dug well is producing enough to overflow. Not too shabby for a 5.5 foot deep hand dug well. For that I'm thankful.

-Sixbears

7 comments:

  1. 5.5? WOW Ours at the farm was 44 feet!

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    1. That's what happens when a dowser has to hand dig a well.

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  2. So... you say a few plants did come back? Well, let them go to seed, save them, and grow them out next year, and pretty soon, you'll be the proud creator of Lazarus Lettuce :-)

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  3. I'm amazed about your well. Mine is 440 feet down and it went dry temporarily when we had a fairly long dry spell. Of course I was trying to water two gardens. Luckily I only had to shut the circuit breaker for 30 or so minutes and had water again. The gardens had to suffer a bit after that since I didn't want to have it happen again. Luckily we are having quite a bit of rain now. I'll try to send some your way.

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    1. Location is everything. The well was dug in the exact location where three different water sources came together.

      You are lucky your pump didn't burn out. They are not meant to run dry.

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  4. Things are pretty dry here at my place. The grass is all discolored and dying up, too.

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    Replies
    1. It's been pretty bad over a lot of the country.

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