What makes for such a satisfying day? Try to imagine your area, where you live everyday, as managing to persist day after day, no, month after month, experiencing searing heat with little or no relief. Our Desert Area is prone to experiencing the "Monsoon" weather along with most of the rest of Arizona, but yet the rains spared us over last summer and winter, while areas nearby were flooded and inundated with rainfall! Such is the whim of the Desert. I have seen heavy rain falling across the street, while the sun was shining where I stood! Mid-afternoon as I relaxed in our living room, my wife suddenly exclaimed, "It's raining!" Finally, after months of being spared while nearby areas got more than their share, we got a nice downpour! Here's a view out back: And, the look out front, as the puddling water sought exit downhill off our lot. To the left is the wash, about 5 feet deep, which can be seen carrying runoff. The mountains visible in the background are in California; the state lines lie along the Colorado River. The cooling effect of the falling rain was amazing. I shan't hesitate to reveal we cavorted about on our patio with little left on......The temperature earlier was well over 100`, during the rain it dropped quickly perhaps 20 degrees or more. Seems silly to welcome rain, doesn't it? Frank
I know where your coming from @Frank Sanoica we live in the driest state in Australia and it’s the usual to got 6 months or more without a single drop of rain . The farmers ( cereal farmers ) like to get rain about Easter after a long hot summer to sow their crops and to grow fresh food for the lambs that are usually born early winter , but we hadn’t had a single drop until about June 14-15 Th. When it teamed down some places in the city and surrounding hills received 80 mls or about 3 inches in the afternoon early this week ,which resulted in lots of tress being blown down completely destroying a few homes in South Australia’s hills https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-06-24/82-year-old-woman-escapes-tree-falling-on-house/100242360 This happened yesterday ( Remember us Aussie’s are just into the winter season right now )
Not silly at all, Frank. In fact, you sound like me when Houston gets a random snowfall in winter. It usually melts before hitting the ground, but I get as excited as a 6-year old on Christmas morning.
We've also had a dry spell in the middle of Virginia. People are planting gardens in dry dirt. When the rain comes through, it's a high volume over a short period of time, so you get more flooding than your do re-hydration. While out getting lunch one afternoon I was talking to a couple of guy who had their lawn car truck and zero turns on the back. They were wondering how they're gonna pay their bills, since the grass ain't growin'. Funny how it affects stuff you wouldn't even think of.
@John Brunner Lately there has been much hoopla presented about the "water crisis" here in the Desert Southwest. Here's what we've seen with our own eyes. Yes, Lake Mead's level is WAY down, but few reading the headlines understand that the level is CONTRIVED, controlled hour by hour. Here is a view of the Colorado River today, carrying the entire discharge emanating from Hoover Dam and Davis Dam. Clearly, enormous amounts of water are flowing downstream. We see this nearly every day, as we cross Don Laughlin's bridge across it. Why so much water, when it is becoming in shorter and shorter supply? Once the depth of water behind Hoover Dam drops to about 200 feet deep, the dam can no longer allow release of ANY WATER at all. Designed that way, Hoover's bigger purpose was the generation of electric power; thus, the inlets to the power generating turbines are located 200 feet above the base of the dam, since water must FALL to acquire the energy needed to spin turbines. Meanwhile, the City of Las Vegas, ever water-hungry, has spent about 600 million dollars to bore a gigantic tunnel DOWN into the bottom of Lake Mead, then horizontally across through the mountain range in order to draw water from the lake after it is all but depleted! What does the city do with all that water? They irrigate GOLF COURSES, fill artificial lakes, and run water parks. Fortunately, this flagrant waste is gradually being addressed, but years too late. While we still lived in the Phoenix area, another immense water project called the Central Arizona Project (CAP) was built to carry Colorado River water from the extreme western edge of the state to it's center, primarily for benefit of the city of Tucson. Here's an aerial of part of the CAP canal (it is 336 miles long, traversing THROUGH several mountain ranges): Numerous serious occurrences both during construction, and following it for years afterward were experienced; many were "hush-hushed" publicity-wise: Rupture in CAP puts water in desert: Tucson.com "The CAP partly funded the Brock Reservoir project with US$28.6 million. In return for its contribution, Arizona has been awarded 100,000 acre-feet (120,000,000 m3) of water per year since 2016.[citation needed] The CAP project brought river water to Tucson successfully, but the initial implementation was called a "debacle" by the Tucson Weekly.[10] The river water had a different mineral mixture and flow pattern from the aquifer water, stirring up and dislodging rust in municipal water mains and house pipes." As residents of the Desert Southwest, living in close proximity to the Colorado, do we perceive any affects related to water? Not yet. However, our domestic water is sourced from groundwater aquifers and pumped to users in the usual way, underground, and NONE originates in the Colorado. However, the aquifers may eventually show signs of reduction as river deliveries are reduced. Was the "writing on the wall"? As far back as 30 years ago, my niece and her husband planned to move to Tucson. Upon learning of the cost to "hook-up" to the municipal water supply, they balked: it was THEN some thousands of dollars! Frank EDIT: The CAP LOSES through evaporation and leakage approximately 322 MILLION gallons of precious water annually! Bureau of Reclamation considered early on proposals to COVER the canal to limit losses: cost estimates QUADRUPLED the entire project cost! Another consideration: terrorist acts, including poisoning, bombing, etc. 300+ miles of vulnerability.
@Frank Sanoica I've read much over the years of the water wars out that way. I fly over Vegas and wonder how it's survived for so long. The Colorado River is gonna be a real battleground. Survival ain't pretty, and there are no rules. On a way lesser level out my way, we are mostly on private wells. There are a couple of "weekend retreat" communities that have been here since the 60s and 70s, and now they are populated with full-time residents, many with families. One in particular is having water issues and charges residents several hundred dollars PER MONTH for water. Imagine being one of those folks who retired there on a fixed income. Aged septic systems are another issue in these communities. Personally, I'm thinking of setting up a separate system for my grey water in order lengthen the life of my septic field. I know it's done in West Virginia. It wouldn't be that hard. Mother Earth is quite capable of filtering my bath water without killing whales or snail darters.
In our rustic barnhouse, we have a waterless toilet. Peat moss in the bottom sucks up moisture, solids are stirred in with compost bacteria starter. A fan pumps air flow outside to the back of the building to prevent the smell. (this is an electric model as opposed to a bucket with sawdust in it) Eventually we have to empty the compost and renew. The grey water could be used for the pumpkin patch out back a little bit. My beef is mounds vs septic fields. When the fields seal up from oils, anti bacterial stuff and soaps, they make us put in a mound system. Eventually they seal up even though sand is the main filtration, the water still makes it down into the ground. Why the big mound mess. And the septic tanks are pumped out to spread the sludge on fields around here. ????? PS waterless toilets are often illigal. Why?
I have some board of supervisor members who think that anything for a buck is a good thing. They allow "treated human sewage" from out of state to be trucked in and spread on agricultural fields. Now, I'm one of those guys who will roll down his windows when going through freshly-fertilized farm country, but this stuff is rank. I can tell when the stuff is trucked in because the guy next door gets paid to spread it on his field. When the wind blows juuuust right.... Regarding your issue: why bother with a septic tank if the stuff is gonna get pumped out anyway? Just cut out the middle man and got from toilet-to-field. There are lots of stupid ideas for septic systems that have caused people lots of problems and lots of money. That's what happens when politicians make decisions that require brains. I worked with a woman who got caught in a window where some new technology system was required in her county. It was done to eliminate the need for a drain field so they could increase housing density in the sprawling exurbs of DC. The government screwed up, the reg was eventually rescinded, they went back to the old way, and she (and many others) paid the bill. I've thought of building a composting outhouse at the end of my property. No one will see it in the woods. Were your county "no waterless toilets" regs passed to get rid of outhouses? The other thing I would like to build is [I forget what they're called] a pit to process my grey water. I've seen pictures. It's a big hole in the ground with a layer of crock in the bottom, and all the grey water flows into it and perks through the earth. I have no idea if it meets code here. But it sure would relieve unneeded stress off of my septic system. These things were not designed to handle the flow from dishwashers and washing machines.