Monday, February 24, 2014

NO, WATER, WATER, WATER.

Final-CA-Cities_1
This graph comes from Mother Jones Magazine. California is in deep trouble as is Southern Oregon. I opened my accumulated mail and my water usage, while I was gone, with only one person living in my house was over the base amount by a small amount. Our base amount was recently reduced by 20%. No sprinkling system was used during that time. Karen hand watered plants that appeared to be dry. We are both water misers and what bothers me about percentage cuts is that water misers are unfairly penalized. The next cut will be 30% we are warned. We know it has to be done and our water usage must be altered.
Final-Crop-Map_1
I stopped for fresh produce yesterday and paid $38 for a small bag of all organic produce and counted my blessings that I can afford to buy locally grown food that doesn’t have to be hauled across the state in a big gas guzzling truck, and sit for a week in a box in cold storage at the grocers.
Final-gallons-per-food_2
It was also interesting to see what fruits and vegetables use the most water. I was surprised that California citrus and avocados and cherries were not on the list. I always consider them major parts of the California economy. It seems useful to me to know what foods are water lovers and which are not. I haven’t planted a garden since my neighbor shares his with me. I have an unused well and I’m looking into activating it but it only gives 9 gallons per minute.  Now I hear, the county has decided to tax people’s wells. I have to wonder whether I will be taxed at the same rate as another neighbor who gets 64 gallons a minute?  I have no ready answers. Karen and I are going to work on a crude water catchment system before our predicted rain on Wednesday. I’ll keep you posted.

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