Thanks, Dawn. I guess Sandy's impact evaporated and 60% of Virginia is back to abnormally dry or in moderate drought. For last three years, the local corn burned up in the fields. It's depressing to drive by miles of dried up corn stalks, and think about all the time, energy and $$ that went into that crop.

But we don't hold a candle to y'all.

When Pete and I built this house, we also designed a rainwater harvesting system for the house water. This allows me to use water from two shallow (8'-10') wells in the gardens. When our rainwater runs low, we call the "Water on Wheels" guy - he sells 3,000 gallons of town water for $200. 3,000 gallons lasts us a long time.

The mainstream news media are doing more stories about the drought and rising sea levels - how much faster the seas are rising than predicted just a few years ago. I haven't decided which problem we need to worry most about: the drought or the rising seas.

I found an interesting product in the Farmtek catalog - Poly Geogrid for stabilizing applications (erosion control, retaining walls, dredging, etc). We have rip-rap (rocks) along the shoreline to stabilize it and prevent erosion. The rip-rap falls, sinks, gets buried in the sand, or a storm comes and knocks it down. It's a never-ending job to keep the rip-rap in place. This Poly Geogrid may give us a second line of defense by helping us build up dunes faster.

You're welcome, Pam. I was shocked when I noticed how much of Virginia was back in drought. I thought to myself that Sandy didn't help the state overall as much as I thought it would.

If there's one thing that this region, and not just OK, but Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri and Texas are good at--it is drought. Not that we want to be good at drought, but we have it so often lately that it is just ridiculous.

It bothers me to see such a huge portion of the US in drought, including parts of Alaska and Hawaii. It is a big news story here. Our fire danger is very high this weekend (and we've had grass fires yesterday and today) and that's the big topic on our local news/weather.....it is hot, it is dry, the wind is forecast to blow strong....be careful and don't burn trash, brush, etc. They're also talking about the deepening of the drought, and the lack of rainfall.

Our county's official rainfall for this November is 0.42" which is about 3 or 3.5" below average. Our three driest months, statistically speaking, are December, January and February, so little drought relief is expected here over the next three months. It is all bad news here right now.

On Monday, when the city of Marietta is hosting its annual Christmas parade, our forecast high temp is 78. In fact, for the next three days our forecast low is slightly higher than our usual high. Our weather has gone berserk.

I think that the FarmTek polygrid might be just what you need. I love FarmTek. I always see something in their catalog that I want or think I need.

Dawn

Yes, I'm putting the Polygrid product on my Christmas list!

Today, I read an article, "Heightened Alarm Over Low River." The Mississippi River is so low, that shipping companies have asked the White House for an emergency declaration so the Corps of Engineers can blast rock from the bottom of the river to increase water flow. Last time the Corps dynamited Miss River was 1988-89.

Companies also want the Corps to allow more water from the Missouri River to flow into the Mississippi. Congress ordered the Corps to maintain the Missouri so they can't increase the flow. In general, FEMA needs to designate an area as a disaster before these things can happen. Governors haven't requested this from FEMA.

Every action seems to have unintended consequences that we don't foresee.

Here is a link that might be useful: Mississippi River Drought

Thanks for the linked article. I've been watching the Mississippi River drama for months now. I think it is so sad. In the past, the mighty Mississippi used to flood horrendously and, while I don't wish that upon the folks there, it sure would be nice to see some good rainfall fill up that river again. Unfortunately, it seems like all the rain is falling right now in sunny California while the rest of us dry up and blow away.

Did you see the article about why Cali is getting the rain? I've linked it.

Here is a link that might be useful: Atmospheric River Over California