PS, --- #102

Seems like there has been a lot of that going on for a while now.

When Southern New England has a winter with barely any snow, one knows that something is not "right" and when my heating bill does nothing but drop in usage every single month during the heating season;

Well one knows there are some very, very strange things going on in the world.

Temps have been above normal in MA for months and months now.

It makes "us old timers" no that this is not normal, not good, and the odds are that it is a man made problem for sure.

Putting into the environment what isn't normal is never a good thing and will not bring about anything good.

Wonder what it'll take for the doubting Thomases to finally get it?

Yes, climate change undoubtedly has increased precipitation in many areas. Snow is a result of moisture. Unusual cold is not required.

I live in zone 5. This is not normal by a long shot. The roses should be beginning their first flush right about now... not finishing it.

Common sense and logic tell me that the more we pollute our air, land and waters... the more holes we punch in the ozone... the more we change the landscape by ripping down entire rain forests and drying up swamp and wetlands, the more we ruin mangroves and suck anything valuable out of the earth, and the more overall pollution that exists, the more negative changes there will be to our planet.

Unless someone knows of another planet that will support life, I suggest we start taking better care of this one... before it's too late.

My only consolation is that one day Mother Nature will have her revenge and everyone will live with the consequences.

"Climate scientists aren't at all surprised that there are more drenching rain or blizzards in certain parts of the country," says Dr. Brenda Ekwurzel, a climate scientist with the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). "That's consistent with well-documented climate change trends over the past several decades. Unless we take some dramatic steps to curb global warming, we likely will see a lot more regional precipitation over the next few decades."

After statements like that the well oiled & well paid for engine of climate change denial usually goes into play with the yuck yuck factor pumped to the max. (why?)

I'm not a scientists but it's easy to see from old gardening magazines growing seasons & zones have changed but even that is still a feature of weather.

Because of humankind, normal migratory patterns have changed for many animals, others have gone extinct at our hands, etc.

If one steps way back and looks closely at the really big picture, a lot is changing at a very fast pace... which is not normal, as far as I can tell.

"If one steps way back and looks closely at the really big picture, a lot is changing at a very fast pace... which is not normal, as far as I can tell."

This article talks about "way back when"--

EVERYTHING YOU WANTED TO KNOW
What Is a Dinosaur? : Anatomy & Evolution : General Behavior : Where Did They Live? : Why Did They Go Extinct?

Why Did They Go Extinct?
Introduction : Alvarez Hypothesis: Origin and Evidence : Effects of the Asteroid Impact : Other Extinction Hypotheses : Deep-sea Evidence for the Impact Hypothesis : Post Extinction Recovery : References

> Why Did They Go Extinct? 1 : 2 : 3 : 4 : 5 : 6 : 7
Introduction
Sixty-five million years ago the dinosaurs died out along with more than 50% of other life forms on the planet. This mass extinction is so dramatic that for many years it was used to mark the boundary between the Cretaceous Period, when the last dinosaurs lived, and the Tertiary Period, when no dinosaurs remained. This is called the Cretaceous/Tertiary (or K/T) boundary, and the associated extinction is often termed the K/T extinction event.The name "Tertiary" is a holdover from the early days of geology, and many geologists now prefer the term "Paleogene" for the time period that immediately follows the Cretaceous. These scientists refer to the Cretaceous/Paleogene or K/P boundary, which represents the same moment in time as the K/T event. Since their discovery in the nineteenth century, the reason for the dinosaurs' demise has been a matter of speculation and debate. Early paleontologists, working prior to Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection, suggested that dinosaurs represented the remains of animals that had perished in the Biblical Flood. This explained both the fact and speed of their disappearance. But as other extinctions came to light, and Darwin's theory gained acceptance, this explanation fell out of favor.

For many decades, the fossil record of dinosaurs was poorly known. During that time it was clear that dinosaurs had gone extinct, but it was not yet understood that this extinction was relatively sudden and simultaneous with those of many other species. Only at the end of the nineteenth century did paleontologists realize that nearly all dinosaurs had gone extinct within a brief period of time at the end of the Cretaceous Period.

For most of the next century, scientists focused on explanations for how the extinction might have occurred. Most theories focused on climate change, perhaps brought on by volcanism, lowering sea level, and shifting continents. But hundreds of other theories were developed, some reasonable but others rather far-fetched (including decimation by visiting aliens, widespread dinosaur "wars", and "pal�oweltschmertz"�the idea that dinosaurs just got tired and went extinct). It was often popularly thought that the evolving mammals simply ate enough of the dinosaurs' eggs to drive them to extinction.

Regardless of the details, most of these theories shared the common thought that dinosaurs were a group of animals that had reached the end of their evolutionary life. Their extinction was seen as inevitable, the product of having evolved for too long. In most extinction scenarios, the dinosaurs were simply unable to cope with competition from mammals and the changing climate, and so they all went extinct.

As dinosaur science began to alter this hypothesis, producing a new view of dinosaurs as successful and viable organisms, many of these extinction theories became less tenable. New information from fossil localities suggested that many other organisms, most unrelated to dinosaurs, had also gone extinct at the same time. New theories were required to explain these new discoveries and newly understood facts. A favored theory was that tectonically induced climate change interfered with food chains, disrupting them enough to cause widespread extinction among many different organisms.

How are your gardens/farms doing?

Doing a small garden on the roof this year even though I said I wouldn't. Sowed some beans/peppers and herbs. Think I will plop some cherry tomatoes in a couple of large pots where the lettuce did not do well.

Need to plant cantaloupe plants this evening.

We haven't had much rain at all, drought conditions.
I had sprinkler system activated this week, went outside yesterday only to find a leak they missed, water pouring over the driveway. I guess the pressure blew out the pipe and the pump stayed on. Turned off power to the pump so still no water to anything until that is repaired, hopefully Monday or Tuesday, unless I use hoses. I watched my husband repair enough I could probably do it and probably should learn.

Plumbing course on bucket list, along with electrical course. ;)

If I ever get water on the property I'll redo some beds.
I was just too busy this spring to get everything done outside. By this time of year people are already giving up because of the heat and drought. Not me, not yet.

I think we have a pretty good chance of rain the next few days. Maybe I should put on my Native American moccasins and do a rain dance !

Carry on.

Never mind.

Tomatoes sound wonderful ... I usually pig out on summer tomatoes because those winter ones in the grocer just have no taste at all. Salsa !

Have to check with my farmer this weekend and see how things are going for him ... my apple farmer lost his whole crop.

Bummer

My fingers are crossed for the predicted tomorrow rain.

We are promised rain tomorrow also, hope we get some.

A conservative advocacy group says it's spending almost $1 million on ads to corral support for an upcoming Senate effort to overturn Environmental Protection Agency rules that require cuts in toxic emissions from coal-fired power plants.

American Commitment is running ads starting Friday in four states taking aim at "Obama's war on coal" - the phrase critics use to allege the EPA rule and other White House policies create costly burdens that will kill jobs and raise power costs.

The ads running in Tennessee, West Virginia, New Hampshire and Maine urge senators to support Sen. James Inhofe's (R-Okla.) resolution to overturn the rules that EPA finalized late last year. snip

Inhofe is trying to overturn the EPA rules - which require cuts in mercury and other emissions - using the Congressional Review Act.

The mid-1990s law allows lawmakers to nullify federal rules, and CRA resolutions are immune from filibuster, meaning just 51 votes are needed for passage.

-snip-
American Commitment is a recently formed group; Kerpen spent more than five years as a top policy and legislative strategist with the conservative group Americans for Prosperity.

Kerpen, in the interview, declined to say whether American Commitment receives funding from the coal industry. "We protect the privacy of all of our contributors," he said.

snip -

Critics of EPA say the air toxics standards and other regulations will together force closure of significant numbers of coal plants, harm the economy and jeopardize power reliability.

But backers of the standards call them vital public health protections and say allegations of economic harm are inaccurate.

EPA officials say the power plant rules have enough flexibility to address reliability concerns, and advocates of the emissions regulations point to reports from the Congressional Research Service and the Energy Department to back them up.

EPA estimates that the air toxics standards will prevent 11,000 premature deaths, 4,700 heart attacks and 130,000 cases of childhood asthma per year.

The agency has also pushed back on claims that the rules will scuttle jobs, instead arguing that requiring plants to install pollution controls will help create employment. EPA estimates that rules will create tens of thousands of temporary construction jobs and 8,000 permanent utility jobs. " end article

Not mentioned is that with the huge supply of natural gas now available, it is less expensive - and much cleaner - for the power companies to build new plants. Resulting in less-expensive electricity for consumers.

Can't find it now, but there was recently a push to have power consumers in these states agree to a 40% increase in rates so they can clean up the coal fired plants.

No A/C here .. gave my small window unit away and have one fan. Looks to be like a "long hot summer".

Today we are looking at 90 degrees ... yuck

I've been irrigating the farm since late April on a regular "summer" schedule. We've been harvesting summer squashes, pole beans, tomatoes, and other "summer" crops now for 3-4 weeks, or about a month earlier than last year. I'll have sweet corn before July 4th (unless we do get fogged in.)

Higher atmospheric temperatures leads to higher absolute humidities (stored water, so to speak), and therefore great potential precipitation rates and volume. Of courxe airmasses are not uniform and some are subsiding and therefore warming and drying. Get a high pressure system parked over your piece of the earth and watch in vain for the range to report precipitation. Storm tracks slide around domes of high pressure.

Get crops in the ground.

40 mph winds, 12 % humidity, 70 % beetle killed forests. Smoke plume is in Nebraska, 140 miles away. Not the haze, the smoke. Its making its own weather now.

My sister lives 8 miles east on the road leading into the heart of it, and they're packing up.

Seems that your home owners insurance will pay for a hotel, as long as its mandatory.

I've had the experience of a mandatory evacuation, and it was terrifying.

There was no need to spend the night in a hotel since the brush fire roared through so quickly. Out by noon, back in by 11:00 PM. So many years have passed, and I no longer live in the chapparal, but I still search the sky for smoke during the Santa Ana winds.

Today they will declare the Colorado fire a 'type 1 incident" which should pull out all the stops for a nationwide resource response. The huge fire in New Mexico is already a type 1.

But if any more fires get started around the west, its going to be a heckuva mess. Given the drought, beetle kill, record heat, lack of winter snow, and early onset, thats more likely than not.

Rain fell south of us and out across the lake apparently, but not a drop fell at my house ... I cry FOUL !! (^_^)

My farm family: lost their entire sour cherry crop along with peaches and apples, they were able to put the corn in early and are picking this week (unheard of in this neck of the woods)

Locally, the smoke from the fire burning north of Pagosa Springs was trapped in some sort of inversion, and there were warnings out last night all along the Piedra River to stay inside due to the dense smoke.

And 20 miles east of here, we have a new one, went from 3 acres to 3000 acres in 3 hours, filling the valley with smoke.

Of course, that 400 ppm CO2 has nothing to do with this, its just a natural phenomenon, one of those cycles, you know.

So vote Republican, and we can dispense with all this silly science studying climate change, take off the job killing regulations on coal plants, and put America Back To Work!!!

In all seriousness... I hope for rain, a stop to the winds, and anything that will help the area.

The Supreme Court's upcoming health-care ruling, Sandusky's trial by jury, and this 68-year-old, bullied bus monitor aside, the big news everyone seems to be talking about this week is WTF is up with our nation's weather?

In northeastern Minnesota and northwestern Wisconsin, three days of torrential downpour forced nearly 300 people from their homes, drowned more than a dozen zoo animals, and caused $80 million in infrastructure damage. Fifteen large, uncontained fires are blazing in 10 states; in Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona, deadly conflagrations have scorched more than 400,000 acres of land. On the other side of the country, a giant heat wave is engulfing the Northeast and parts of the Great Plains.

Yo, Barney, lets go bowling!!! YABA-DABA-DO!@!

That short post on Twitter captured the fear and horror that engulfed Colorado Springs on Tuesday as the erratic, fast-moving Waldo Canyon fire leapt into the western edges of the city, destroyed dozens of homes in Mountain Shadows - including the historic Flying W Ranch - and forced the evacuation of tens of thousands of people in the northwest quadrant of the city.

"This is a firestorm of epic proportions," Colorado Springs Fire Chief Rich Brown said during an evening news conference.

-snip

Officials in charge of fighting the fire said it was too early to pinpoint how many homes were destroyed, but starting in the late afternoon, police and fire scanners were filled with tales of multiple homes burning at a time. Firefighters went into "triage" mode, going past homes that were beyond help to save those that could be saved.

"We can't save this one structure, but we're going to save everything around it," one firefighter vowed on the fire department radio.

Coincidentally, the flames exploded as officials in charge of fighting the fire held an afternoon news conference to discuss their tactics and their concerns over the fire's rapid spread north around the Queen's Canyon area. The briefing was interrupted with a stark, horrifying announcement: Everyone in Mountain Shadows and Peregrine needed to evacuate immediately.

"This has been a very bad day," Mayor Steve Bach said.

"That fire exploded. Many of you were here when it happened. I was here," he said. "It exploded far beyond what could have been predicted." / snip end quote

And remember everybody .....

Stay safe, David.

Under the best of circumstances, moving is stressful. Under these circumstances....I can't even imagine.

Under the best of circumstances, moving is stressful. Under these circumstances....I can't even imagine.

The heat is on in the city by the lake.

Where I am, we're now getting dry lightening, which is starting up small fires all around - strong smell of smoke all night. The major one just east of us seems to be getting under 'control', we're not getting the huge pyrocumulus clouds every afternoon. And it looks as if the fire around Colo Springs is doing 'better' as well. At the link is a blog form their big newspaper that's interesting to follow, with rapid updates.

What a mess.

At the link is a column by a friend of mine re climate change and the fires.

He did not get invited to many parties. Nor was he very popular even amongst activists, ecologists or academics. I owe that guy a hug. These Colorado fires are most likely just the beginning of a terrible wildfire season. I just looked at Inciweb and the number of active fires over 1000 acres currently is nuts! And in Indonesia, they seem intent on burning as much as they can on rubber & palm oil plantations right now.

So pray for some good old fashioned CO2 scrubbing by the ocean and terrestrial plants this summer, or we will zoom past 400 ppm so fast that it will leave you breathless! Kyoto and post-Kyoto failed. Rio, UNCED and Rio +20 have largely failed. I had a really nice day at the beach though yesterday, LA's weather has simply gotten more beautiful season by season recently during climate change. I'm thinking of taking up the fiddle, so I can play it as I walk barefoot in the surf. Because nothing is getting done, as the young genius said, until we change industrial culture. Which we won't, until forced to.

Heat is turned on, rain is turned off .. watering the rooftop garden twice a day.

Walked to the store this morn, the ground looks like dust, even the russian sage that is drought tolerant is dying off. The dogwood tree in front of my window has few leaves left.

Some rain would be welcome. Highs in the 90's again. Yuck

"... looks like Florida is "falling apart", literally. Or is is not unusual for you to get sinkholes?"

________________

Wikipedia has good info on sinkholes. Not a global warming phenom--in part, Wikipedia's piece on sinkholes says:

"The state of Florida in the USA is known for having frequent sinkholes, especially in the central part of the state."

I used to live there, and new sinkholes, while always an unpleasant surprise, were not that unusual.

I live in fear of the power going out because if it does, I'll lose all my valuable koi in less than an hour.

It is caused by the lowering of the water table caused by drought. It is hard to say that could not be connected to climate change.

How sadistic!

For the climate change deniers, I hope YOU are one of the millions without power today in the triple digit heat.

*

I am so disappointed to see this statement in black and white.

"For the climate change deniers, I hope YOU are one of the millions without power today in the triple digit heat...I live in fear of the power going out because if it does, I'll lose all my valuable koi in less than an hour."

What!? "Your valuable KOI"?

Gee, Lily; maybe if you take your "valuable koi" to a cooling center (you know, where the "valuable human beings" go in an emergency heat wave situation), they'll let you keep your koi there.

And you think Romney has too much money to be in touch with real people?

Then again, it's likely projection.

"Note it is ok to call posters stupid, when they do it, that is."

_____________

"they"?

In reality I do feel very sorry for the people who are without AC in this horrendous heat. It's just people like Rush Limbaugh and all the naysayers about climate change that I wish this on.

And Elvis..pipe in as you always do. Yes, Mitty and I are best friends. He has a little more money than I do but we still hang out and compare our koi. You are pathetic. Slam me for caring about my pet koi who eat out of my hand. Some I've had for 15 years. When we lost power last year, five of my biggest and oldest ones died very quickly . I'm glad you find that amusing. That make me one of the 1% because I can afford to buy koi at Petsmart.

I know several people who dug, created and stocked their own koi ponds Elvis, it's not that big a deal. Where did you get the idea that it is? You have to know what you are doing, of course, that is true of any living thing you take responsiblity for.

Posted by lily316 z5PA (My Page) on Sat, Jun 30, 12 at 17:51

"How stupid anyone who doesn't see this happening before our very eyes. The same people who believe the earth is 4000 years old."
Posted by lily316 z5PA (My Page) on Sun, Jul 1, 12 at 2:41

"I called no one personally stupid... So house, who homeschools, thinks the world is 4000 years old. Pity her ill educated kids."

Looks like Lily called HF stupid. And she did it first.

______________

Posted by lily316 z5PA (My Page) on Sat, Jun 30, 12 at 11:53

"For the climate change deniers, I hope YOU are one of the millions without power today in the triple digit heat."

That's just plain nasty. And then to further de-humanize those who don't agree with Lily, she worries about her valuable koi (aren't they oversized goldfish?).

_____________

You ever wonder what global warming is going to look like? In its early stages, exactly like this.

Global warming is underway. Are we waiting for someone to hold up a sign that says "Here's climate change"? Because, this week, we got everything but that:

- In the Gulf, tropical storm Debby dropped what one meteorologist described as "unthinkable amounts" of rain on Florida. Debby marked the first time in history that we'd reached the fourth-named storm of the year in June; normally it takes till August to reach that mark.

- In the west, of course, firestorms raged: the biggest fire in New Mexico history, and the most destructive in Colorado's annals. (That would be the Colorado Springs blaze: the old record had been set the week before, in Fort Collins.) One resident described escaping across suburban soccer fields in his car, with "hell in the rearview mirror".

- The record-setting temperatures (it had never been warmer in Colorado) that fueled those blazes drifted east across the continent as the week wore on: across the Plains, there were places where the mercury reached levels it hadn't touched even in the Dust Bowl years, America's previous all-time highs.

- That heatwave was coming at just the wrong time, as farmers were watching their corn crops get ready to pollinate, a task that gets much harder at temperatures outside the norms with which those crops evolved. "You only get one chance to pollinate over 1 quadrillion kernels," said Bill Lapp, president of Advanced Economic Solutions, a Omaha-based commodity consulting firm:

"There's always some level of angst at this time of year, but it's significantly greater now and with good reason. We've had extended periods of drought."

In the markets, all this news was taking its toll: prices for corn and wheat were spiking upwards, rising almost a third on global markets as forecasters suggested grain stockpiles could shrink by as much as 50% as the summer wears on. But in the political world, there wasn't much reaction at all.

The Obama administration said it would grant Shell leases to drill for more oil in the Arctic, and they auctioned off a vast new tract of federal coal land at giveaway prices - even though it's the carbon in that coal and oil that drives the droughts and fires. Even that didn't satisfy the GOP, as Mitt Romney demanded yet more pipelines and wells.

Amid it all, the CEO of the biggest oil company in the world, Exxon, gave what may go down in the annals as the most poorly timed - not to mention, arrogant - speech in the firm's history: Rex Tillerson, speaking to the Council on Foreign Relations, admitted what his company spent many years denying, that humans were heating the planet. But then he added:

"We have spent our entire existence adapting, OK? So we will adapt to this. Changes to weather patterns that move crop production areas around - we'll adapt to that. It's an engineering problem, and it has engineering solutions. And so I don't - the fear factor that people want to throw out there and say, 'We just have to stop this,' I do not accept."

Against the backdrop of the burning Rockies, it's pretty clear this is not an engineering problem. Engineers, in fact, have performed admirably. One day last month, Germany generated more than half its electricity from solar panels. We've got the technical chops to solve our troubles.

No, this is a greed problem. In the last five years, Exxon has made more money than any company in history. For the moment, Exxon and other's desire to keep minting money - and our politicians' desire for a share of that cash - has conspired to keep our government, and most others, from doing anything to head off the crisis.

And unlike the healthcare predicament, this crisis comes with a time limit. If we play politics for a generation, then weeks like the one we've just come through will be normal, and all we'll be doing as a nation is responding to emergencies. As one scientist put it at week's end, the current heatwave is "bad by our current definition of bad, but our definition of bad changes." snip / end quote

cue the delegates at the 2008 Republican convention chanting "Drill baby Drill. Drill baby Drill

And to this I will say Amen! Meanwhile back at the ranch the citizens of this fair country argue back and forth petty partisan politics, while and Dems and Repubs rake it in and enjoy fat pensions and healthcare on the citizens dime.

You just can't make this stuff up.

Unless you do it yourself. Occupy the sun!

It's a wake up call, but it's too late to change the course as long as some don't think it's occurring.

I said before Al Gore will be looked on by history as a man before his time. Weather has the ability to destroy one's quality of life.

There is that dangerous ever-present fallacy. It implies the magic techno-fix allowing the continuation of the growth paradigm and bringing ever more people into the standards of living established by the hydro-carbon age.

Illogical, and impossible.

We have the technical chops to mitigate - not solve - some - not all - of our troubles.

Maybe he's angling for the government contract to place a giant umbrella in-between the earth and sun.

Let the planet burn while we drill the hell out of it...

It's a free country, anyone with the brains and the determination can come up with an answer.

Until a person refuses to use all petroleum products and STOPS using gasoline in their vehicles, they are part of the "drill the hell out the planet" gang.

Some is just supplying your need.

Elvis, I think you have gathered the facts and exposed the intentions. Can we just let it go and get along? We all have our personality quirks and comfort zones to defend.

_______________

Okey dokey, Marshall ;-)

Since, different species of bark beetles have now gone on and attacked the pines and spruce with additional millions of acres now full of standing dead timber, stretching all the way into northern British Columbia, 'exceptional droughts' are now common all over, etc.

Back to the same drought conditions 10 years later, and if we don't get rain this season, and another dismal snow pack, next year will be horrible.

I have to say anybody that has not recognized the temp and weather pattern changes since we were young are not telling themselves the truth or they have problem with long term memory.

We had one snow storm with seven inches in October, not one flake after that resulting in very dry start to the year.

And, as usual, 99 climate scientists are long past trying to 'prove' anthropomorphic climate change and are all studying the effects and how to begin to mitigate whats coming down the pike, what with rapidly rising sea levels (5 inches in 20 years, anyone?) the impact of nation-wide droughts on food production, etc etc, ...... the press focuses on the one or two odd ball religious fanatics who say 'eh its all just natural cycles'.

And of course the congressional Republicans run with the nutter, and want to cut all funding for the EPA, do away with efforts to contain pollution ("job killing regulations" ) and stop funding any studies of the effects of climate change. eg North Carolina outlawing it.

I would have been tempted but my place is far too small to hold a pond of any sort of any size, much less a koi pond.

A friend of mine has even named her koi and swears she can tell who is who. She had a little footpath bridge kind of thing built over her pond (husband/sons in construction did it all for her) and we can stand on it and see them, it really is gorgeous. She did talk about the digging and installation of the pond as being a big deal but never talked about the koi as big deal except for the panic when it was discovered her heater was failing one winter.

Unfortunately Pinky (my original one) and little Pinky were the first to die last year in the power outage so I'm lucky to have a Baby Pinky again born before the kill.

I have way too many inches of koi to gallons of water but what to do?. We have a footbridge too. My husband did the major work and we ran into limestone which makes the pond floor uneven.

Ask your friend how they maintain theirs. Not easy, I'll bet, but they are beautiful and zen like to sit and watch them.

"More than 2,000 temperature records have been matched or broken in the past week as a brutal heat wave baked much of the United States, and June saw more than 3,200 records topped, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said Monday.

Accuweather meteorologist Alex Sosnowski said the number of records broken was very unusual. He said that while some aspects of the heat wave are unknown, much of it is because of a lack of snow cover during the late winter on America's plains.

Instead of the sun's heat melting snow, it instead heated the ground, which in turn warmed the air. The increase in temperature even made crops grow ahead of schedule until now; Sosnowski said the lack of rainfall has stunted crops' growth.

About 2.1 million homes and businesses remained without power on Monday after violent storms and soaring temperatures killed at least 18 people since Friday, many of them when trees fell on their cars or houses."

I've read everything you have written about your whole place, it sounds so beautiful and peaceful - exactly the kind of place I would imagine as a home you would create for yourself and your family.

We are witnessing the real beginning of the shift in crop productivity by regions. The process will be slow and extremely costly.

Beautiful koi, lily.

I've been using the soaker hoses that seep slowly at the root zone, and only at night, trying to conserve without losing any stock plants.

I wish we'd get some decent rain...

Stellar summer in the Northwoods; warm (86 F right now) and sunny with cool nights, plenty of rain but not too much, mosquitoes not intense. Summers here almost make up for the really really cold winters ;-)

Many people are still sadly without power and we can hear generators in the far distance. Not sure how we got lucky as we're usually the first to lose power, large branches were broken in the yard and a Richmond landmark the "Surrender Tree" where the city was handed over to the Union Army took place was felled during the last bout of storms. Gardens will cook under these temps no matter how much watering, tomatoes fail to pollinate among other garden problems. Having electrical power during this time is much more than just a creature comfort.
I'm always out side at this time but not today, I have used up all my heat credits.