Too Hot for April !

Birthday? Who's got a birthday? Mike, are you holding out on us?

Birthday? What? And we had no party?! I hope you're having cake and ice cream, Mike...who could ask for more? Is it your birthday? If not, have cake and ice cream anyway......

I really think we shoulda had a party...do you know how many years it's been since I've had cake and ice cream? Do you know that I think I could eat the whole cake? This is a dangerous subject...we have a new bakery that opened in town this last Saturday...the Sweet Sicilian...and I've driven past it twice and eyed it quickly. I think I need to go get a better look at it. I know they have cannolis, cookies, gelato, pastries and I'm hoping maybe they do an Italian Cream Cake......uh huh, I do need to get a better look at it...check out the decor.....

We set a 99-year record in Fresno today. 1910 was the last time the temperature was as high as today, minus 1 degree. It was ummm 98 degrees today (hmm or was it 96").

10 degree drop tomorrow, another 10 degrees Friday.

HALLELUJAH ! ! !

I understand that the temps on the Pacific Coast dropped by 20+ degrees today . . . you lucky ducks!

Linda

Where is it, Sherry???? I'll meet you there!

Edited to add: OK, Google shows TWO of them in Fallbrook. I can't believe that. Is it on College or Susannah Ct.?

This message was edited Apr 22, 2009 8:24 PM

Sis....is a bakery the solution too hot weather? We've been hot up here too, not as much as you poor folk. But tonight they're saying it's going to drop 20 deg and we're going back to 35 for the next several nights. Not good at all for my tender plants.

K....huh? It's on the corner of Main and Elder....the Martial Arts building, the deep burgundy colored building with Brett Stokes' brilliantly painted mural on the side, north of the Wayside, other side of the street......they opened the day before the Avocado Festival. I drove by on Saturday and then again on Monday. I have to go check it out, I mean I really do want to support a new business in town. Forget that we've lived here 26 years and about 97% of the businesses here I've never been in...but a bakery! Now that's something we really do need.

I'm a firm believer in supporting small businesses...especially bakeries!

ROFLOL!!!

We were down a few degrees yesterday, and have a nice marine layer this morning---it's only 55 right now. Not great for solar production, but excellent for me & my plants!

How weird...wonder if they've just moved locations? Main would be better, I'm sure. And close to the Wayside, too. DH is taking Monday off, so I know we will end up there for breakfast.

Sorry, OOTs (out-of-towners), didn't mean to hijack the thread. But a bakery - and Italian to boot - that's important news!

It's very selfless of you to publicize and support local business in this economy---especially an Italian bakery. Let me just dab the drool off my keyboard before it shorts out....

LOL! After we go to DH's fav breakfast spot, we head for Joe's Hardware - our other favorite place in town. We will be happy to add another local business to our list! Sorry if I caused you any distress, Ima. :-)

Joe's doesn't exactly need your business...only game in town and the lot's always full. Perhaps we should open another hardware store and give them competition. I went to the new bakery. Sadly, I don't know if they'll make it...very little in their cases and nothing I want....if you're going to open, you've got to be really good in the first month or two. Oh well, I didn't need the carbs anyway.....

:-(

I'm late jumping in here, but thought I would comment on the hot weather - that is fortunately gone. I cannot believe we had the AC on in April! I bustle about the house during the day opening and closing windows and blinds to get light and fresh air or to close out sun, but still, about 4 PM there was no air left to breathe. Luckily as soon as the sun tips down past the Ortega mtns. we can open shades and windows on the west side. Last night there was such a lovely breeze from the other windows much earlier than sunset that we did not need AC. To think that it was 100 degrees on Sunday and 5 days earlier, Tues AM, there was frost on neighbors roof and thermometer read 34!

I like to dream about the days I lived in San Pedro and came home from work at 6 in July and was able to put sweats on to sit outside on deck looking at Catalina! There were only a few Santa Ana condition days/nights per year that AC would have been nice to have. But, then I just slept out on the deck. Here, I worry about becoming mtn lion dinner if I slept outside. But it sounds like this time you guys on the coast were suffering too. Go figure.

Most plants did fine, one group of alyssum looks a little dowdy and some dianthus in a window box started to get crunchy, but OK now. I have not planted anything new into ground as the gophers are thriving enough to make the dirt look like swiss cheese. You jeopardize your life walking around in fear of ground giving way. Oh yea, we are in foreclosure too, so don't know how long we can stay here or where we will go, so veggies and flowers are in pots now. Just simple, cheap plastic pots are easier to move if that is an option.

Lynda

Oh, Lynda, I'm so sorry to hear that. Everyone is having such a hard time now, the world is in turmoil. With all of that going on, it's hard to really care about gardening or the everyday stuff. It's very hard to keep in mind that this too shall pass when we don't know what's waiting at the end of the tunnel, but I will be hoping daily that you find a way through this with your spirit intact.........
Sherry

Never got out of the fifties today.
What wcgypsy said. We all feel the pinch in one way or another.
Take heart!
WIB,
SW

This message was edited Apr 23, 2009 7:19 PM

ditto to what wcgypsy said.

Yes, hang in there Lynda!.
It's just having a garden, even if it's just in pots, that gives me a distraction even in the most stressful of times. It's like my own mini oasis when times are turbulent. I think it's the simple act of tending a garden that brings about an inner peace and calm. When my best friend died of cancer 4 months ago, I would just go out and numbly go about puttering away. She loved her roses and now seeing my own come into bloom, I sometimes just go out and sit out there and cry, I can't share these beauties with her anymore. Sorry, got carried away... please find joy where you can, as Sherry said, this too shall pass.

DH has a saying, "it will all work out for the best." So far, he's always been right. It might not seem so at the time, but after a while, there is usually a silver lining. Hoping your silver lining shows up sooner rather than later, Lynda. :-)

my thoughts too Lynda, the amount of foreclosures is staggering and sad. - and Sue, sorry about your loss, I didn't know you had lost a dear friend.

Thanks for all the sympathy, even though I was not seeking that! Hopefully what DH is working on turns profitable soon and we will find a nice place with room to garden when the time comes. I would like to be able to move by plants and trees......

Watching TV & hearing about rationing water for lawns in LA (useless use of land anyway) and Singing WOlf was talking about possible rationing in our area, I was wondering if anyone was considering vegetables and fruit over flowers, etc as agriculture/food is not likely to be subject to rationing? Check out this site and how much they do on their small piece of property, growing 6000 lbs. of food!

http://urbanhomestead.org/journal/2008/01/01/whats-new-for-the-new-year-project-1/

I heard today that the rationing would come at least as far south as Fallbrook. They want us to cut 45% outdoors and (I think) 5% indoors. Not sure about that second number. Unfortunately or fortunately, depending on one's viewpoint, we have always tried to conserve water, so our allotment will be lower to start with. grrr... Sometimes it doesn't pay to be good!!

I think you have to have a minimum % of land to be eligible for an ag rate on water. No?

45%? Really? I'm in big trouble.....What water district do you have,K?

We're on Rainbow (RMWD). I heard this on the local radio news - it was the mention of Fallbrook that made my ears perk up. Rainbow has been warning us this was coming but, of course, without knowing it we had already set our allotment (they're going by a time period two years ago I think). They even warned us to plant in the Fall, before the increase might take effect.

Found this at NCT: http://www.northcountytimes.com/articles/2009/04/23/news/sandiego/z8ace15c98b2d8138882575a10080e047.txt

Added: this one is better http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/apr/24/1m24water235154-water-rationing-made-mandatory/

This message was edited Apr 24, 2009 8:39 PM

They do take into account things like your landscaping, and vegetable gardens, and in my case, my pool. They are allotting water usage, and they will charge you more at 3X the normal rate if you use more than allotted. This according to DH who just spoke to EMWD this week. They are also guided by past useage.
Don't know if that helps anyone else in my area. Just wanted you to know what DH told me.
WIB,
SW

It might help that I now have a nursery, they might take that into account...if we hadn't sued the water company several years ago....LOL...we have no friends on their board.

Up here in the areas that are getting cuts, it seems like they do it as a percent reduction off your past usage, so if you had higher water needs due to pools, running a nursery, etc that would already accounted for because your past usage would have been higher.

That's my understanding, ecrane, as well. That's how they want to account for the reduction in Fresno. So, the guy across the street from me who waters daily (and illegally, absent having been caught/ticketed as yet), running a river down to my gutter daily, will be permitted more water than I would use in two weeks. I, on the other hand, have traditionally only watered twice weekly, with the exception for those times at which I've just planted new babies needing more water, will be required to reduce mine by the same percentage, grrrrrr. And, I stopped watering my front yard 2 years ago as I planned my re-landscaping. Thus, the grass disappeared quite naturally and the lot didn't require water at the time. So, my water use is already unreasonably low, by history.

The saving grace, BTW, is that we are as yet not metered, and so they've developed a schedule to force reduction. So there, now we're even, right? Well not really . . . we will be given a schedule to water, which should force reduction by virtue of water running during low temperature periods. Schedule? 3 days weekly (per address: even/odd) between 7 pm and 5 am. That's easy, right? Well, unless you water by hose like I do, rather than by sprinkler//dripper system on a timer.

I mean, I have lots of plants requiring water and must water after dinner until bedtime 3 days a week. Hmmm, I'm likely to lose some plants, perhaps. Although, a back yard behind the fence will get a better share.

{edited to read above: oops, this should read "high temperature periods," which means that there is less moisture lost to evap and suggests that those of us who must awaken at ungodly hours to water will also reduce needed watering as a result}

This message was edited Apr 25, 2009 5:15 PM

Depends on when the cutoff date was, though. We THINK in our case it was before we put our pond in. :-( Apparently, here at least, it's all up to your local supplier how they manage the lower supply.

And yes, I water by hand also, since some of the natives don't want summer water unless it's really scorching. And our place is not one where you want to be tripping around in the dark!

And don't get me started on the increased hardness of our water which is tied into all of this. Sorry, I'm moaning and groaning. We will just have to adjust somehow.

It is ridiculous to go on usage, I agree - my neighbor let her sprinklers go off EVERY morning every month of the year drives me crazy. We didn't water our (small) patch of front lawn from October - February and there is no difference between their lawn and ours. ridiculous waste!

Recycle your water if you can. That is why I've been bottom watering my plants for years, and recycle the gray water from the washing machine. I try not to water except when needed, and then early in the morning and late in the afternoon. As much as possible, DH has sprinklers on timers. He needs to fix the one by the old cabin. His lawn is watered in the middle of the night. I hear the timer click on.
We water our Christmas trees with the well water, but it is the dryest water I ever drank, so we do use the city water at the houses here at the farm.
Mom won't be out watering for a while, and EB#1 has removed most of his plants from her place so that will help us too. We won't have to pay for his water.
I don't blame any of you for wasting water. It's getting to the point, that while I'm waiting for the hot water to show up at the kitchen sink, I'm going to start filling containers to use for my potted plants. Another way to economize.
I prefer using drip irrigation, but some things do have to be watered by hand.
What we should do is start reporting the water hogs! Or better yet figuring out ways to recycle the water they waste for our own gardens. LOL!
WIB,
SW

This is one of the reasons we have native plants. They don't like drip, though.

What frosts me is the new developments they keep putting in that don't have gray water systems built in. Also solar. Sure, it costs more, but if they start making it the norm, it will get cheaper, don't you think?

We use RO water for drinking and for the birds. I recycle any waste to my orchids, that way they get good water. The birds don't dirty their water much at all - except for the rare occasions when they soak something in there - parrots love to make soup! :-) When we can, we'll replace the RO system with one that recycles the waste - just can't afford it now and they didn't have them when we got ours.

Good idea about the shower water, SW. We have a pump that gets the hot water to our bathroom from the other end of the house, so that cuts the waste, too, since it doesn't take so long to get there.

I have water-wasting neighbors too--they water their front lawn every single day, 365 days a year (even when it's raining!) And they just put sod in the backyard (to replace grass they killed by alternately drowning it and then forgetting to water it for months). Apparently they don't have their timer programmed back there so they run it manually, one day they left the sprinklers running for 6 hours!!!! And would have left them on all night if I hadn't gone over there at 10 PM and told them their sprinklers had been running for hours. The level of water wasting is offensive, but what makes it even worse is a couple of their sprinklers spray water into my yard, so I have a section of garden bed that is going to drown if they don't start being more responsible with the watering.

And the city of Dublin was in on the water-wasting game last summer too--I called them several times during the summer to let them know that the landscape irrigation along my street was running every single night, but they never did anything about it. At least I think they use reclaimed water for that so it's not as bad.

Haven't heard yet whether we have water restrictions or not yet--as of now we're just being asked to voluntarily reduce 10% but I don't know if they'll announce mandatory cuts later on.

QUESTION: I have irrigation canals running between my rose bushes in my back yard beds. I've always believed that such watering was more water-saving than sprinklering, which I actually have in place. I stopped such sprinklering due to poor method for rose bushes and waste of water, both.

Am I correct in that assumption?

And, I have the hose I use for that work set up on a timer. So I am able to turn the hose on and walk away from it without worrying about falling asleep or forgetting my hose is running.

Linda

Linda, you've got it all together! That is much more efficiente than sprinkling! I use the soaker hoses in my flower beds, but it doesn't work for those plants that don't want a lot of summer water, and I have been known to fall asleep without turning it off. That isn't usually a problem with the low flow, but it is still a waste.
Carol

The easy timers available now are so good - and not expensive. We put one on our veggie beds with soaker hose. Now if the darn pests would stop eating them, we might actually have something to show for our trouble. :-)

Linda, do you have a picture of your canals? Would love to see how they are set up.

Kathleen

Is everyone here on city water? Anyone on wells? Have you heard how wells are doing? I'm going to try to call our well & pump guy tomorrow to see what he has been seeing/finding. Our well is 360 ft deep, so it's not like lifting the lid and saying "oh yea, it's still there" LOL! We don't have a fee that will go up for water, what we are billed for is the electricity to pull it up, so in addition to the AC in the summer, more power is used for water.

Lynda

We have wells, but use them only to irrigate the Christmas Trees. Seriously, the driest water I ever drank due to mineralization.
WIB,
SW