esrosedotblog

No blogging does not mean "no life".

I have had a lot of correspondence to do and I haven't had anything to report.

In fact there is nothing to report now except that it is raining in Palm Springs, a rare enough occasion. We do need it.

I have watched some films but they have been Teen Wolf episodes. Not bad but nothing anyone else wants to hear. Believe me I have heard that enough to know.

It is their 6th season as far as I am concerned and like Big Bang Theory (the most popular series running) I am way behind the current run.

I suppose that I will catch up some day but in the meantime I wait for the DVD. We do not have a television. So I have to wait.

I also think it takes us longer to recover from a visit. Not the visitor, please note.

But the geriatric life is a routine one. And once the routine is disrupted there is a ripple effect that lasts for awhile.

And, nothing is back to normal. I have not resumed the daily gym visits and in fact will not.

I will be going Monday, Wednesday, Friday. A change not a wipe out.

As for today, I poked myself in the eye last night somehow and have a mildly scratched cornea which is already better than it was.

See? You did not want to know all this.

Labels: drought, life, weather

Maybe we will have to move back east again.

Well, not again but "back east" as a noun. A place.

Look at this. The drought here is very serious.

Infographic 209 drought maps show just how thirsty California has become

Take a look. Scroll down and watch it happen.

Soon there will be locusts.

But I will stay. I hate moving.

Labels: drought

I am happy to report that my State now leads the nation in water conservation.

And this is not because we did anything since the drought started. We started 20 years and more ago.

How California is Winning the Drought

It is interesting that we started lowering our water use in the condo association well before the recent mandated cuts. We are ahead of the targets.

And we have grass. Not so much. Not so green. Not so good looking.

The trees are OK though. We have lots of trees.

I believe that the grass is never going to come back. Some think that the roots will revive but I think not. The bermuda grass is seasonal and when the season is over it will go dormant. More bare spots.

They had been using annual rye. The worst. More water for the seeding over and over again.

We will slowly replace the grass with desert. So called desert appropriate. Well, I will go further. I would like to see desert desert.

It surrounds us. Our oasis is entirely man made although we do sit on a large aquifer we are loathe to use it.

For us it is the golf courses that must change. Some of them are. Less and less grass. More and more rough.

Golf is an industry here but we will have to give it up or find a way to keep the balls from bouncing on hard pan.

Not my problem.

The other thing is that up to now there has been extreme over watering. The grass we still have is doing rather well with every other day once a night watering.

Some people are nuts about this though. They are watering their own lawns which are not theirs but belong to the condo association. It will go through their meter and on their bill.

Soon, we will have extremely tiered billing. They are working on it now. The more you use the more you will pay per gallon. Putting a stopper to a lot of it.

When we got to Palm Springs, the streets would run with water. Now, if you have water in the street it is a disgrace. Not to say it does not happen. Sprinklers break. But it is a sure sign of a need to fix the errant plumbing. A sign of trouble, not a sign of plenty.

Our latest step is fake grass out front on the patio. A small patch when properly littered with leaves and shit doesn't look fake. And it is fading. Also no plants along the wall just little round balls. Different sizes and colors.

I have one hibiscus, a big one, and a bunch of cacti. Carefully hand watered. A lantana. Dry plants all.

It is not that we need to go to none. Just less.

This is not ours. But it is an idea of the possibilities.

Labels: drought, landscaping

We are still having cool weather and it is May.

This is not a bad thing. And it is probably not out of the norm. Just that for this year, there has been no onset of heavy heat for us.

It continues dry and there is no prospect of rain.

The condo grass is looking a lot browner and people are fussing but we won't turn on the spigots any time soon. A spot of night watering and that is it. 30% less. We hope. The results will be in when we get the bill.

In the house, we are saving on flushes and not doing much watering of the live plants out front.

We already put in fake bushes in the front section. And the evergreen grass.

It doesn't look bad and, as it becomes dryer, we look like heroes for not having any real grass at all.

Honestly not our intent but we will take a bow anyway.

And we are not planning on packing up and moving back east anytime soon either. We will stay with the plan.

Labels: drought

California's water woes are fodder for a new discussion of priorities

The End of California?

Nope. He says. Not the end.

We came here 16 years ago to have the last chapter of our lives in a nice place. Like a lot of other people. Millions.

So, with the drought in place now 6-ish years, the wisdom of those moves is in question.

Egan supplies a lot of statistics and points his finger at agriculture. The wasteful expenditure of precious water for, say, almonds.

I know, in our small way, our condo association has already taken a grip on the problem. The crunching sound of my feet in the dry grass this morning is a good testament to this.

We will spend some money to turn some big grassy places into big small gravel places. A place for dogs to pee pee and people to walk that is permeable. I am not sure about the stench five years hence, but the sun is sanitizing to an amazing degree. A walk on hot gravel with one's bare feet will testify to that. Marcus will walk the edges.

And so on.

The drought and measures to take are already a part of every association meeting. The few people on the other side who were watering their little plot of grass with a hose have been chastened by neighborly disapproval. It is not even "their" grass. No one has any except inside the patio walls. Ours is fake. A little too green at first but now it is fading.

I still do a little watering every day. Not much. All desert plants. Soon, they may have to go too but not yet. We have already put some fake bushes, balls, inside the patio wall. Not bad. A little too green but wait.

We have a fountain that birds come to drink at. Gotta think of them.

So I am edging into drought thinking and acting. Small steps at a time. The bird drinks will be the very last to go and perhaps the little bit to stay. They don't drink much and the fountain which is recycled water babbles nicely.

Labels: drought

No movie today

I went to a condo board budget meeting instead.

We needed to review the cash situation for the remaining 6 months in our fiscal year. Some funds got slotted for other categories.

Our income is fixed with the owners fees paid per month.

In our case we are not spending as much as planned so we took a bunch of money and put it into drought amelioration measures. Take out some flowers here, replace some turf with gravel there.

We will get an OK for our recommendations at the next board meeting.

We are an "old" condo development which had/has a lot of landscaping in and around it.

All of this takes water which used to be abundant.

We must quickly change over what we can to be more drought resistant. In some instances, plants are OK if they are wisely pruned and limited in their water use.

The State has mandated a 35% cut in consumption. We have reached about 25% and need to go even further.

We have no control over residential usage. They all have their own water meters.

I saw a guy out with a hose watering his brown lawn which is not his. It is ours. People are a little nuts out here.

Labels: condo, drought

We have a small patch of new artificial grass inside our patio wall.

Some Bright Green Lawns in California Require No Water

It looks pretty good. If anything, a little too good.

I don't know if it is toxic or not. Fuck. Everything is toxic even me.

Today is the monthly condo board meeting and right there is the agenda item. Water conservation.

So far, that has meant watering from 7PM to 7AM and not a lot of that. Hoping that the grass will not die.

It looks pretty brown.

We are trying.

The developer put a lot of grass in here. It is nice. But it may be unsustainable under current conditions.

What to do?

Some people advocate installing sand and gravel, stone decorative places. But that does not solve the problem of pet peeing. Of course sand is OK for that but not with polyethylene under it. Stinksville.

That is one of the ironies, incidentally. When they put in a rock or sand/gravel piece they put black polyethylene sheeting under it to stop weeds.

We have backed ourselves into a corner but we will be able to back out. A little time, a lot of money. So far watering grass is cheaper but that will change very soon.

Let's do a rain dance.

I have written about the fact that this spring there is no snow on any of the mountains around here. None. So it is not going to come from there.

Palm Springs sits on huge aquifers which are depleting. The desert will come back sometime. Maybe sooner than we thought.

Labels: drought

The California drought is quite real.

We can feel or see the effects daily.

The first and most shocking sight are the bare mountains to the north. No snow cover. None. A wisp near the top might be snow but I am not going up there to check it out.

The other water we cannot see or detect is underground. Huge natural aquifers and settling basins for our share of Colorado River water. About 150 miles away. Huge canals built as work projects during the depression. You know, the big depression.

We are dealing with it in our condo association. But not very well.

Curtailing the watering of grass is not just a matter of cosmetics. The grass holds down the sand and the watering keeps the grass there.

Our solution is to irrigate lightly. A lot of the grass is already brown.

Speaking of which, Governor Brown wants a reduction of 25-35%. Good luck at measuring that. For those of us who started reductions long ago, this figure is basically a wipe out of water use.

I am not whining. A conversion to desert landscaping is not that hard to do. It is a little pricey, but not many people have the money to spend on it.

We offer an incentive to people who want to do the part in front of their house. Some have done this but it is a mess in my opinion. First of all, they all look like something out of a kids book. Lined up cacti and pretty gravel. River stone. The nearest river? The same fifty miles I mention above. Desert stone, shale, is not as pretty for some.

I am surprised to be a bit of a holdout. We have gone to no cactus inside our small patio. Also one whole section is going to be 12 inch and 18 inch balls made of different materials. I hope it looks good. We will be trying them out today.

I do have a cactus garden as well. It needs water. Some. In the back of the unit, another patio with very green "tropical" plants. I have done nothing with these either. Just water them more sparely.

This problem will be the subject of many condo board meetings. One citizen has already squealed to the mayor that we are watering at night. This is just wrong. So we are getting a visit from some bureaucrat at the next Board meeting.

I hate to sound bratty about this but I hate intervention by small clerks and "regulators". It is just fucking annoying. But I will be nice. And quiet. And listen. And be judicious and, well, if possible a good citizen in a bad drought.

Did I mention that as we cut the watering of grass some owners now go out and use their hose for their own piece of grass? Which is not theirs. It belongs to the HOA.

Labels: condo, drought

The drought in California is a serious problem.

We can see it just around the corner.

Fortunately the condo complex has a minimum of grassy area but it is still enough to use up more than our share of water.

I suspect that the monthly meeting will have more suggestions for action including turning some areas over to sand and gravel. Desert.

It is surprising how much this costs initially.

One would think that a dump truck and a visit to the outer desert for some rocks would do the trick. But the labor to do this is intensive. Of course, the upkeep is pretty simple once the installation is complete.

That is, if you are thorough about layering black poly under the rocks. Surprises lie for those who do not. The heat and the protection provide a great place for weeds to prosper.

This is, of course, no real hardship and must be done.

The real problem here is the over 100 golf courses. They are on their way out with the grass. Some have already converted extensively to desert.

I only mention this because golf is an industry here. A huge one. A year round haven for the compulsive weekly and daily golfer. And then the ancillary businesses. Food, lodging, retail.

Life in the oasis. But it is drying up and that will have to be dealt with first.

Here is an old photo. There was no snow on the mountains this year. None.

Labels: California, drought, Palm Springs