Friday, January 13, 2012

Rainfall Totals: Front Page News

You can tell I live on a small island.  Today's top local story was rainfall totals.  The subtitle referred to my community as the wettest spot on the island.  Yup.  I knew that.

The article also said that we only got 64% of what we usually get (which is about 233 inches a year, apparently), but I have seen rainfall totals from the 1980s which were more in the 180-200 inches a year range, so that might be an exaggeration. 

What they didn't mention was that most of that rain fell in the last two months.  Nearly 150 inches of rain over basically 60 days.  In the words of my students, it was rather epic. 

It's dry now; not as dry as I feared it would be (I loathe having to spend Saturdays in a laundromat with all the other people who are on catchment), at least not yet.  We've had a few inches of rain, here and there and both our 5,000 gallon tanks are mostly full, fortunately.

With the increased sun (with 150 inches of rain falling steadily for two-three months, there wasn't much sun) I am hoping my chickens will bump up egg production.  Actually, I am also hoping I can figure out where their new hiding place is.  They seem to be moving the stash.  I have 14 chickens, and I am only finding about 4-6 eggs, so somewhere there is a jackpot.  I hope I can find it before it is too late. 

As we head into spring, I am hoping to find a new ram and buy a new rooster.  I also need to start planning for new seeds.  There are some new vegetables I would like to try and some new varieties of the usual vegetables. 

The new lambs are doing fine, if still nameless.  I had a few days of worry over the ram lamb,but a nail file taken to the teeth seemed to make the difference (thanks for the suggestion, Deb) and he is getting quite as big as his sister now.  I am not expecting any new lambs for a few months, so we'll have a little bit of a break in that area.  My husband is making some progress in cutting down the thick waiawi in our pasture - he is trying to make a straighter path for the fence- so that project is coming along.  I am looking forward to the animals being where they are supposed to be. 

4 comments:

stace41971 said...

I can't even fathom that much rain...wow...yeah..I'd say that WAS rather epic :P
My chickens are slackers too...I'm getting one egg a day..and I have a LOT of chickens. They're holding our on me...the brats :P

NancyDe said...

....Just in case any one thought I was exaggerating when I posted over and over and over again about how rainy it was....

Deb said...

Great to hear Minnie and her lambs are doing well. I'd bet the bonding process with the little guy had been interrupted, but good to hear things are on the right track now :)
How old are your hens ?
Too much rain for me, it would be a challenge having critters and that kind of mud ! Winter has finally arrived here in WI, bitter cold and our first real snowfall...I'm ready for spring, lol !!

NancyDe said...

Hi Deb, Then hens are about a year old - well, huh, some of them are a year and a half. According to a local sustainability internet group I belong to, many chickens in the area got thrown off by the two months of rain and very dark days.

If they don't pick up soon, they may be stew.....

I know I am pretty happy with Minnie this time around. That little ram lamb still nurses from behind - guess he got used to the sneak style.