# drought has hit hard



## currycomb (Jun 22, 2012)

was watering the pasture horses, 3 big troughs. lasts them about 3 days. who would thing 5 horses and a donkey would drink so much! well, thought i would put a drizzle on the indian corn and pumpkins (i have every 3rd day, hate to watch it die) THE WELL WENT DRY!  yep, no water coming out of the hose. the light on the pump house stayed on, so had to run and shut the power off to the pump so i didn't burn it up too. then had to shut the water heater off in case the water backs out of it. hubby came home and we went down to the well. he said we were out of water. hopefully it can refill overnight. if not, we are in trouble. everything depends on that well. guess we will be hauling water for the stock. maybe buying a big tank for the back of the truck (should not have sold the one we had). fortunately our town still has a place to fill up on water (for a price i am sure)


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## ksalvagno (Jun 22, 2012)

Wow, that doesn't sound good. Hopefully your well will fill up again.


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## terri9630 (Jun 22, 2012)

Wow.  I hate to hear that.


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## Cornish Heritage (Jul 13, 2012)

SO sorry to hear this. The drought has hit hard here too - grass is gone & we are feeding hay! AAGH! Thankfully there is still water in the ponds. 

Liz


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## Roll farms (Jul 13, 2012)

I'm living in fear of a dry well right now.

We were supposed to get rain Fri, Sat, and Sun this weekend.  50% chance ea. day.

Now it's down to 20%....none came today.

Come Monday, the flowers are on their own....if they die, they die.  I'm only watering critters and food plants from now on.


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## Cornish Heritage (Jul 14, 2012)

> Come Monday, the flowers are on their own....


LOL! What are flowers  What with livestock & young children, flowers do not have a chance here of survival. Even had to put electric fence around the vegetable garden!

Hope you get some rain. It is cloudy here but no rain falling yet. We SO need it.

Liz


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## CochinBrahmaLover=) (Jul 14, 2012)

WOW! Reading this I feel so fourtanate! In the 9 years Ive lived in AK, we've NEVER had a drought, (at least I haven't noticed!), and this past winter is probably the only the third time its dropped to -60! (-50 or -40 is more common) And, EVERY night here we get rain !! Gah !! I want you guys to have rain Cause i feel so bad for ya'll !!!  and hope you get lots of rain !!!


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## bjjohns (Jul 14, 2012)

You know its dry when you have to set up a bucket to leak on your grounds so the fence will work


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## Cricket (Jul 15, 2012)

THAT'S clever!  We're dry here in Vermont, too.  We have 2 springs, 1 just about keeping up with the critters consumption and the house spring is limping along.  I told my husband this morning it's pretty much like camping, minus the swimming and kayaking and other fun stuff!  Our cattle spring has never been this low in the 30 years we've lived here.  We're making well-drilling noises, but our springs gravity feed and I hate the thought of losing that benefit, not to mention the taste of spring water.  (I had to 'fish' a snake out of 1 spring this a.m.--big eeew!  It might not be quite so sweet today!)


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## bjjohns (Jul 15, 2012)

Cricket said:
			
		

> THAT'S clever!


My wife came up with that one, we had that container, and it has a pinhole leak in the corner. Rather than throwing it out, she put it to use on  the portable pen. It really improves the fence performance in dry weather.


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## Cornish Heritage (Jul 16, 2012)

> You know its dry when you have to set up a bucket to leak on your grounds so the fence will work


Your pasture looks just like ours! It's BAD! Today we were figuring out how much hay we are going to have to purchase to get us through to spring in case it doesn't rain & that was SCARY!

Our fences are still working but I'm sure they are not giving out the "kick" that they should.

Liz


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## sdsmowen (Jul 17, 2012)

Wow ok i have a newbie question - how is the fence performance impacted by the dryness?  We are on a well and have started only watering the garden and animals a dry well is something everyone in our area has started to fear.


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## bjjohns (Jul 17, 2012)

sdsmowen said:
			
		

> Wow ok i have a newbie question - how is the fence performance impacted by the dryness?  We are on a well and have started only watering the garden and animals a dry well is something everyone in our area has started to fear.


The dryer it is, the harder your fencer has to work. It can be partially offset by running ground & hotwires (the netting in my post is that way), but the ground rods still need excellent contact for the best performance. You can see a chart of this here: http://www.premier1supplies.com/pages/energizers/comparison_chart.html?segment_id=1 Look at column3 three for wet grass, and 4 for dry grass.


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## greybeard (Jul 18, 2012)

May I steer this in a slightly different direction for a moment, since the subject of drought and grounding has come up?  
It's not just your fences. The  ground rods protecting the electrical  circuits (and thus--you) in  your homes, buildings, and outbuildings also need to be in moisture bearing soil--dry soil provides virtually no grounding potential.  Having been thru extreme long term  drought before, I can attest to the fact that these vital parts of your home electrical supply can be problematic in dry times. lt is absolutely essential that the grounding rod works at all times, and here's why:

(in very  very basic layman type terms--I'm sure a professional electrician will find fault with this, but it's a basic and not technical  explanation.)
The power company (USA anyway) sends 3 wires into your home. 2 are hot--each carrying approx 110 volts but zero current to your main distribution panel. The other wire is neutral. It carries zero voltage (or very close to it)  It's purpose is to return ALL the current (amps) created by any appliance or lighting back out of your home or building. All well and good--right? But IF, that neutral line is broken somewhere--anywhere, since almost all codes provide that  the neutral and ground bars in your panel are tied together, any current HAS to go out thru your ground rod in the event you lose neutral. That of course, can be as much as 200 amps since most service panels are rated for that.  Even if you do still have neutral, that ground rod provides for  a lot shorter run than the big neutral, so it is your best chance of remaining safe from shock or electrocution. Now, your home's ground rod is most likely quite a bit longer (8 ft in the ground here)  than the one for your elec fence, but, if you live in any area with a sandy porous soil and are having fence grounding problems, you may also be prone to having the same grounding problems with your buildings if the drought continues long term. btw, any time you suddenly start finding GFI outlets tripping for no apparent reason,  one of the reasons for it tripping  is a problem with your ground circuit including but not limited to your rod and clamp. That GFI isn't just a normal breaker-it tripping doesn't necessarily mean there is a short to ground--it can mean there is no ground available. Ground Fault Interrupt, means exactly that--there's a fault in the ground circuit. That little device is sending a "signal" to ground, and it expects to find it rather quickly--if it does not get a return within 1/60th of a second, it trips. That isn't the only thing that will cause it to trip of course, but it is one thing that will always cause it to trip. 
In most localities, the homeowner is responsible for the ground rod, tho most times, if you call, the power company will come out and check your ground rod and clamp. (they really really hate to lose a paying customer)
Otherwise, IF, you think you have a ground problem CALL A QUALIFIED ELECTRICIAN!! Never ever ever assume it is safe to remove the ground rod clamp and wire. If you are experiencing a neutral problem and your ground rod is actively doubling for return, and you take the bare wire off the ground rod, you have just presented yourself as the path of return for any and all current passing thru that wire. It's a rare occurance and takes a specific set of circumstances for this to happen, but it has and people have been killed because of it. 

Ok--back to the drought--sorry for the diversion.

If you want to see what drought conditions may lead to, and especially if this is your first drought, you might want to go back a few months and read:

http://www.backyardherds.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=5033&p=1

It's an odd reversal of misfortune I suppose--I have seen already this year, a flood that put 3 ft of water on over 50% of my property, the rainiest July I can remember, and people cutting, then losing hay because they couldn't get back in the field to bale it because of the rain and/or mud. For me, it has rained at least a little each of the last 9 days. Last July it was over 100 deg almost every day it seems. Most days this July, it's topped out in the 80s. I do hope things change and all you good folks get some rain soon. Last July Texas was on fire--and in a state wide burn ban--not this july. Hay is now abundant locally and much much more reasonable in cost than last summer/ fall/winter.  Elsewhere in the State of Texas--not quite as rosy, but still at least  a little better than this time last year. It was so dry here last summer, even the catfish had ticks.


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## boykin2010 (Jul 18, 2012)

I feel so bad for you. I wish I could send you some rain. It has been raining about every other day here. Yesterday it STORMED for a few hours. 

Have you considered getting a hand pump for your well?


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## Cornish Heritage (Jul 18, 2012)

> Wow ok i have a newbie question - how is the fence performance impacted by the dryness?


Greybeard made some good points. The experts are telling us that we are dry 5 ft down right now which is unheard of here in the Ozarks SO if Greybeard is correct & our house ground rod is 8ft down then that is still OK. (I honestly have no idea how far down ours is.) Some folks put their fencing ground rods down 8ft too which is the recommended depth BUT here in the Ozarks we have rocks! We even hired a hammer drill "thingy" (forgot the proper name) to try & get our grounding rods down 8 feet but no go - that rock is too tough. We have our electric fences hooked to the mains - have a 12 joule & a 6 joule so they do kick out quite a shock & even when it is so dry they are still working. Our experience with solar charges is that they really lack the Oomph & when it is dry they are pretty much ineffective. We do have a couple here but rarely use them anymore. 

Liz


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