Water

Kit and Lambs Cross the Piscataway Creek

I wouldn’t exactly call it a drought that the DC area is experiencing, but one thing is for sure, it has been a while since we last had rain.   Water is funny.  You never have the right amount, or at least, that is how it feels.  But we always seem to complain about either too much, or too little.  When we get too much rain, the creek floods and a host of motions are set off to spare animals, buildings, equipment, and gardens.  But if we don’t have enough, there are just as many chores and a great many more concerns.

With the grass drying up and hay harder to find, most with animals start to worry about the water situation.  Will it rain, will we get enough, what if we don’t?  Thankfully I have the Piscataway Creek where I can pump up large amounts of fresh water to spray onto my gardens and water the grasses the animals love to eat.  But all the watering in the world doesn’t beat a good, hard rain. 

Water is also essential to the animals, not just in the production of food, but also for the obvious, they drink it.  Constant vigilence must be kept to ensure they all have enough in this 100+ degree weather.  Early in the morning, all water buckets are filled to the top.  When I return home from work in the late afternoon, most water buckets are low, but not empty.  They are filled again.  Then, before I go to bed, they are filled a third time.  They all drink a lot of water.

The two hottest days just past thus far.  I think they all did very well with the high temperature.  Hopefully the weather will change and instead of a long, hot summer ahead of us, we have a mild one.  So far, it doesn’t look like that hope will come to fruition…