Drought Story 'Round Here

Blessed rain comes, and soon the earth is dried and cracked all over again. Trees look very unhappy. I look at them and wonder whether my old friends will be back again next year. Even the hardiest of hardy, my walnut tree, looks as if it's going to die any time, now. The shoreline of Sandusky Bay is shrinking. Plants in the garden are slow to produce. Fruit is half the size it was last year around this time.

The weather here has simply not been very nice to living things, and no relief is in sight once the rainfall has gotten this far behind. NOAA reports show rainfall average statistics as only 3.4 inches for the Sandusky Bay area. Only one city, Toledo, has a lower average of 3.2.

According to NOAA,"17-day deficits ranged between 1.5 to 3 inches from the central Great Plains to the eastern Ohio Valley, and temperatures averaged well above normal. Triple-digit heat was common during the first week of July. Current NLDAS soil moisture anomalies . . . reveal widespread moisture deficits on the order of 5 to 8 inches."

I feel so dehydrated after I work outside. It's as if every living thing is competing for moisture. I think I'll buy some stock in a company that produces lotions for dry skin, or hair. I had to go to the Hair Hut for my hopeless hair. It was so dried out from the heat that it turned into an utter frizz ball. Hair salon owner, Janet, gave a sigh of relief once the dead ends laid in a thick pile on the floor. "There - that's better," she said.

The future is bleak weather-wise. According to Associated Press writer Jim Suhr, half the counties in the U.S. are categorized as disaster areas. More than not knowing what to expect, or the anticipated high prices, the whole situation makes me feel helpless. Extreme droughts don't come along often enough to anticipate what's going to happen to affect the harvest . Are there any remedies? Watering doesn't help after a time. Plants need the ions that thunderstorms produce. The next time it rains, I'm going to go out and play in the puddles. Maybe, I'll do a thankful rain dance, and hope for a happy ending to this depressing extreme drought.

Red sunrise signals hi temps

 There’s not much to harvest

 Unhappy

Apples look a little better

                                          See the difference - this cabbage is from last year




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