This small tank is usually full this time of year. The next picture is of a BEAVER Den, built this spring now dry and empty. Drought means little until you experience it at the Super Market, or Ranch.
Wow. Looks exactly like the area that I moved from ten years ago, between San Angelo and Sweetwater. And water is why I moved. I kept watching the water dry up in all of the communities around us, and buying bottled water for my horses just didn't seem like a good option. Water is one of those absolute necessities of life. I packed up and headed for the hills. I just built a house on a piece of land over here in Western North Carolina with two creeks, and a well that produces 100 gallons a minute. I may starve at some future time, but the danger of dying of thirst has been greatly diminished. I feel for you out there. I hope you get some rain soon.
The only thing I hate as much as being thirsty, is being cold. No thank you sir. I may pop up for a visit sometime in the middle of summer, when the thermometer is tipping a toasty sixty degrees, but you can have the winters.
I also chose a rain forest...but mine is very rarely below 30 degrees in the middle of winter and we get an average of maybe 1.5 inches of snow a year...my river has a variance of about 8 ft from high water to low...but it NEVER goes dry.
All the above "Rain Forest", "Creeks", "Wells", "Snow", Etc are excellent in a normal enviroment. Problem Is, NORMAL has now changed. In my case a very wet spring produced overly high levels in the largest lake, so we still have water. then too, hay was cut at twice the normal amount. We baled 20 round bales in what had been a 10 bale pasture. You would think with the excess we'd have sold some. Being cautious we stored the extra expecting a early winter. Instead we had a fairly mild summer with little rain and yet we have not had to feed hay and do not expect to till Dec.1 2012. Normal has now changed to a new normal. We have shifted to a new type of grass, Bahai is now sown and growing in our grazing pastures along with native grasses and a variety of others such as clover for early and late feeding with rye grasses In an ever changing world, adapt or die.
This is one of the driving reasons behind my wanting to move out of Texas. The water is gone and the blistering sun and driving wind in the summers sucks the life out of my garden no matter how much I water it. When the cracks in the ground in our back yard are deep enough to lose a hot dog in it's time to go.
I wonder where you feel safe? My reason being this Drought: A Paleo Perspective -- Data: The Last 500 Years as well as another time span along the east coast/tidewater area where the drought lasted centuries. Upper level sediment suggest windblown soil from Africa and NO human traces for many decades if not longer. As this list. Even Longer Records Paleoclimatic data in this section document drought conditions back to the beginning of the Holocene (10,000 years before present). These records demonstrate that North America experienced periods of extremely dry conditions that were severe and sustained enough to result in the eastward expansion of prairie into forested areas, fluctuations in lake levels, and mobilization of sand dunes over large areas of the Great Plains which are now covered with vegetation. These changes are also reflected in salinity and chemistry records from sediments of lakes in the northern Great Plains.
Down here in SENM, we have a large lake, Brantley Lake. Sweetie and I rode by it today on our way up north a little bit and it now should be renamed Brantley POND! It's way WAY down. Not good. Kajun
I think you hit the nail on the head in your earlier post when you said, "In an ever changing world, adapt or die." The climate and ecosystems of the world are forever changing. The more we learn of our past, the more we become aware of the never-ending cycle of change. No "place" should make you feel safe, because the circumstances of that place can, and will, change over time. I was happy out in West Texas years ago - I loved the people and culture, but living through one drought was enough to make me start scanning the horizon for a safer place for me and mine. A mind willing to adapt lifestyles and accept change is where safety lies; at least as close to safety as we can get.
Agreed. In my case, and taking into account total climate changes/reversals have happened in as little as a decade and lasted far longer than a life span, I built to a 30 year span of expected changes. Any more than that then I'll be dust myself. FWIW I built expecting a colder time, that might still be a good bet and either way hot/cold the first concern should be a home base structure system where you spend less time keeping warm or cool than what you can afford in calories/work. What I have done and not done would fill a small book and too lengthy to list here, but so far the plan is working and I continue to change as needed. I will, if nature demands, move on down the road if all I can figure out turns out to point in that direction. Till that happens I will enjoy the fruits of my labor and adapt "in place".
The Nenet, the Evenki, and other peoples who survive in the arctic regions by herding reindeer are a testament to the fact that with great perseverance and fortitude, and the willingness to adapt, mankind can in fact deal with some of the most severe climate change that mother nature can throw at them. The willingness to adapt, and move if necessary, is the key to survival. Circumscribing ones wants and desires is a major part of the equation. Want little - Need little. Some people would rather be dead than to give up all modern conveniences and comforts, and live like the Nenet or Evenki; and therefore, they will die when they are severely challenged.
