Around The Homestead ~ Hot And Dry!!
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Oh goodness, it is terribly hot outside today! The radio is saying our heat index is 41C and it might climb higher yet. Good news is there is a cold front coming through today and we might get some rain. Hopefully not the bad storms they are talking about though. The down side, although it’s a cold front, the weather forecast for the next two weeks does not look any cooler or less humid! Other then a slight chance of rain today, there is no rain in sight.
It’s been over a month since we have had any rain. Last time it was a 20 minute downpour and most of it rolled right off the lawns and into the road.
Most of our yard is looking like the photo above. That was taken in a shady area! It is impossible to water the gardens with the garden hose for very long without running the well dry. So I’ve been bailing water by hand, with the help of many little ones to! It’s a job they enjoy, don’t all kids love playing with water?!
I’ve also set up our washing machine to drain into a large storage bin. Then we carry that water out to the garden. Every little bit helps! I will be setting up another large bit with the garden hose running on just a trickle. As it slowly fills up I can water with that. Our well is shallow, but spring fed so it refills at a good pace. The problem comes when the water coming out of the hose is at a faster rate than the spring can fill back up. Other people in the area with wells 150+ feet deep are also running dry.
But we are starting to have some small harvests! A few days ago we picked a handful of tomatoes from the Stupice plants. I picked out that variety this year because they were a short season Russian plant. And the Farmers Almanac did say we would be having a COLD summer! Oh boy were they wrong! Yet these plants are producing the earliest for us. The beans are starting to!
How is your garden doing?
Kim Mills is a homeschooling mom of 6 and lives on an urban homestead in Ontario, Canada. Blogging at Homestead Acres she enjoys sharing tips to help you save money, grow and preserve your own food.
