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Post by desertwoman on May 6, 2015 22:34:00 GMT -5
I am amazed, canadi, that you have tomatoes and peppers in already. I think of you as being in a much colder climate than me. Lucky you!
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Post by brownrexx on May 7, 2015 7:54:21 GMT -5
She's ahead of me too. I have not harvested any lettuce yet and my peas are not even close to flowering!
I plan to get my pepper seedlings into the ground today.
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Post by OregonRed on May 7, 2015 10:11:14 GMT -5
winter squash, beets, napa cabbage, lettuce, everything else is over wintered. also, this year, I direct plant just about everything - even tomatos and peppers
I DO have several starts of things to go in, that I started out back here : 5 lettuces and greens, broccoli x2, cauliflower, onions, leeks,
I like to keep as much as I can out back of culinary items and greens - not enough sun for much, herbs and lettuces mostly; and they never get big like in the garden.
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canadiyank
Blooming
Central WA, Zone 6B
Posts: 125
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Post by canadiyank on May 7, 2015 11:43:00 GMT -5
I am amazed, canadi, that you have tomatoes and peppers in already. I think of you as being in a much colder climate than me. Yeah! I am pretty far north in the country, but I live in the desert part of the state. I'm actually about 2 wks behind where my MIL lives (an hour south), so I feel sort of "behind." We have massive amounts of agriculture here...cherries, apples, pears, hops, wine and table grapes, corn, etc. etc. It is an early spring, though, and irrigation water rationing is already making headlines so not sure how it's going to turn out. :( Scary.
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Post by claude on May 7, 2015 14:24:39 GMT -5
Breezy once said that you sometimes cannot use rain buckets because legally you are preventing water from returning to a specific lake, watershed owned by someone else. I thought it was rather crazy but could under stand the basic legal ground/premise..if water shortages continue like this Someone will test it for sure.
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Post by brownrexx on May 7, 2015 15:31:34 GMT -5
That is very common in the West where there are "water rights". They probably have them right on people's deeds like we have right of way or easements on our deeds here in the East.
The land that we own in the mountains has "coal rights" specified on our deed but luckily there is no valuable coal under our land but technically a company could dig it out from right under our property. In other words. we own the land but not any coal that might be underneath it.
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Post by desertwoman on May 7, 2015 17:45:59 GMT -5
Actually, these tales are partly true. Yes, water is a huge and complex issue here in the west and there is such a thing as "water rights" that have been negotiated through the courts. At this time there are no States with state government laws that make harvesting rain water illegal except for Colorado that makes it unlawful for some to collect. But this is not a universal law there. In some states water is regulated. And Colorado, Utah and Washington have more recently relaxed their regulations. Here in rural NM we all have "water rights" stated in our deeds, as BR mentioned. There are "well rights" and there are "surface rights". Our well rights give us 3 acre feet (AF) per year of water rights- more than we could ever use. This is rare. Most wells have 1/2 to 1 AF of water rights. Surface rights for rural communities are about the water that is diverted from the Rio Grande and other smaller rivers, through acequias (ditches)- a system that is over 400 years old. The amount of a surface right is determined by how much land you own. We also have surface rights. The cities also have water rights- well and surface. The pueblos have water rights, and actually have first rights. In Colorado, all it's water flows out of the state. Downstream states (i.e New Mexico, Texas, Arizona) depend on the water flowing from CO. So in a sense, some of the water in Colorado is "owned" elsewhere because of court settlements. The argument is that collecting in rain barrels and other catchment systems diverts this promised water. It is also argued that collected water, when used to water plants, is returned to the ground water table and also that less demand is made on tap water supplies. Regardless, water is precious and a "commodity" whether we like it or not. The courts at State and Federal levels are already involved. We jokingly bantered a bit, on a thread months ago, that we could be fighting wars over water, rather than oil, in the future. This is not far fetched at all. here is an old pic of part of our acequia (I had just planted the buffalo grass plugs, so a few years ago) organicgroup.freeforums.net/post/9245
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Post by lilolpeapicker on May 8, 2015 10:36:12 GMT -5
I wouldn't think anyone would have to have water "rights" It is a need after all.
LOL...I am the buffalo!...hahahahha cool!
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canadiyank
Blooming
Central WA, Zone 6B
Posts: 125
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Post by canadiyank on May 8, 2015 11:43:48 GMT -5
Here in WA some of the orchards/farms have huge "lakes" to store water. The one in particular I'm thinking of is also using drip irrigation for the first time this year.
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Post by brownrexx on May 8, 2015 14:33:48 GMT -5
Here in the East we have regulations covering containing rainwater run off. Big factories and warehouses have to have big basins called drainage basins to collect the water and let it slowly run out. A drainage basin is basically a depression made in the ground and planted with grass that gets mowed so it doesn't look too bad but they are huge, maybe 1/4 acre in some cases and they have a drain pipe at the end so let the water come out slowly.
You are not supposed to allow rainwater to run off of your property and some new homes have big concrete tanks in the ground that catch the rainwater and let it slowly seep out through holes. These tanks may be 500 - 1000 gallons and the rainspouts drain into them.
New parking lots are made of a type of asphalt that is supposed to let water go thought it. I don't know how well they work. They look like regular parking lots to me.
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Post by mrsk on May 8, 2015 19:08:23 GMT -5
well in this country, whiskey is for drinking, water is for fighting over!
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Post by OregonRed on May 8, 2015 23:16:01 GMT -5
fascinating
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Post by lilolpeapicker on May 10, 2015 5:59:43 GMT -5
Finally the peas are growing!! I have been soaking for days since the heat has been bad here. I just been doing it for 2 hours in the morning and it seems to have been enough to get them going. Normally in the 60s here this time of year but its been 80's and dry.
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Post by claude on May 10, 2015 6:36:32 GMT -5
Pea, I planted peas the last first week of April but nothing came up so this week I over planted with beans because with the hot weather we've been getting the peas won't flower or they'll just drop blossoms anyway. So if they come up, they come up. The peas hate the hot dry temperatures..at least here.
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Post by claude on May 10, 2015 6:37:46 GMT -5
Has anyone heard from Breezy lately?
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