Howdy, Well every morning at about 7 ockock, I am in garden, trying to mulch, and water from the well. We have about one acre of garden, We have rows of black berries, strawberries, asparagus, 8 long rows of corn, squash, peas, etc. I am distressed at the hay fields. Its been one month since the last rain. We are going to go ahead and bale what we have, as it is turning brown. I was talking to a nieghbor, and we both have noticed the sky looks differant. There is lots of dust up there, kinda yellow. and the wind is so hot, and really blowing strong. which dries everything out fast. We do live close to a lg. river, so I don't think the well will run dry, but the Electric Bill sure goes up, pumping water. I know some of you are getting lots of rain. But Colo. and New mexico, and lots of other states are in a bad way also. I think we are in for a bad fire season. Well got to get busy and shell peas. I will be freezing them for winter,

-- Irene texas (tkorsborn@cs.com), May 02, 2002

Answers

I will be glad to pass on some of this rain up here. Too Much.

-- Melinda (speciallady104@hotmail.com), May 02, 2002.

Irene, when we lived in PA, the Old Order Amish folks used some kind of weighted pulley system near creeks and rivers instead of electricity to bring water up to the well...I'm sure that there are books, etc. or internet info on how to do this without electricity..have you looked into this so you can have river water without the cost of increased electric bills??????

-- lesley (martchas@bellsouth.net), May 02, 2002.

"Community Water Development", Edited by Charles Kerr..a book about many homesteading ideas, but includes several chapters (so they say) about various non-electric methods of delivering water from point A to point B including the pulley method..perhaps your local library can get it for you..apparently it also talks about water wheels for wells, etc...I found it on the internet selling for $17.00..now I am fascinated myself and am going to call my own library and get a copy! Thanks Irene for bringing up the subject! Anything that I can do NOT to use electricity is of interest to me....LOL

-- lesley (martchas@bellsouth.net), May 02, 2002.

Irene:

Are you saving your dishwater and bathwater? You probably are since you seem very frugal minded. It can be heavy, so I just fill up a milk jug at a time. It takes time, but if you do a little at a time it can work. Honey, I feel for you--I don't think i'd make it in TX. We have your rain, BTW....

-- Ann Markson in Mid south TN (tngreenacres@hotmail.com), May 02, 2002.