Weekly Weather

I've spent the major majority of my life living here in west of the Cascades between Blaine and Centralia.

It's not yet mid march at the moment and it has been unusually hot and dry. Today I staged 200 gallons of water catchment. I think they're in an alright spot. A few more minutes of shuffling and some rain would see them full.

The ides of this idles march approaches and I am already worrying over water. I have buckets and stuff set up all over the place... like, not purposefully but there. There is not much water in them.

So that's how it's looking out here at the moment to my eyes and feet.

It's felt like a very dry and warm winter to me on Vancouver Island, too. Rain, yes, but not that many of the long, drippy, grey, fog-laden weeks which we normally have. Many amazing sunny winter days to hike or work outside. Lots of stuff blooming/budding early; a cold snap could easily be a major problem.


Despite all the sun, the pond on my parents acreage has long since recovered to 100% from ~5% in early fall. No shortage of water for now... but we nearly drained the pond in last summers drought, and there will be more to water this year. We've resurrected a long-ignored concrete reservoir, assumed to be 50+ years old, that adds ~5000 gallons capacity. Hopefully it remains intact, it would wash away half the garden if it failed!

It seems to me if we don't get some more wet weather before summer really hits that it is going to be a very burny summer.

Yeah the last one sure was. I mean.... I don't know. wet and windy sucks really bad too. That one gets us bad around here.

I think we have the water required in non-snow zones (water shed zones) but the rest are screwed this year, I'm thinking of the major population areas that depend on the snow pack, I expect early and strict water rationing. Smaller areas with less infrastructure should be ok. I see apples, pears and peaches ok, most berries too. Grapes will pay for their crop. Cherries should be early enough if they can get a pollinator they will do well.