Last night we finally got a decent rain here, for the first time in I would say two years. Maybe more.
The ’hood is in the rain shadow of the North Mountains, and so even when other parts of the city do see rainfall, we do not. A day or so ago, Scottsdale had a major downpour; we got nothing.
But last night a sharp little squall blew in with enough power to drive it past the hills. We got actual rain — some parts of the Valley got a lot more than that — and hallelujah, brothers and sisters! It dropped the temperatures so low that right now, at almost 10 o’clock in the morning, all the doors & windows in the house are hanging open, and I’m sitting on the deck to write this.
Mirabilis!
Must be all those rosaries made in Her name, eh? 😉 Buy one now, and you single-handedly will rescue the sixth-largest city in the nation from a decade-long drought!
😀
The cool, cool morning provided a nice opportunity and enough time for some much-needed garden cleanup. The unholy heat we’ve been having has about killed everything in sight. So I ran around cutting back and pulling out fried plants and wiry, overgrown Mexican primrose and setting the hose in front on areas that apparently haven’t had enough water since last winter. There’s still much to do, but at least the place looks a little less feral.
Drip watering as a water-conserving measure, I think, is one of the biggest frauds that ever came along. Right up there with the toilet that uses a third less water but that you have to flush three times every time you go and the accursed high-efficiency, power-saving, water-saving clothes washer that takes an hour and a quarter to run a 20-minute load, braids your clothing together into a Gordian knot, and presents you with a “washed” load that has great patches of stone-dry fabric.
In the summer, my system comes on every single day and runs for 20 minutes, about as long as I can afford. This keeps the potted plants and a few of the xeric plants alive. The two climbing roses that keep the west side of the house livable and help hold power use down and the four citrus trees require a hose drag. Daily. Summer water bills are often as high as power bills, and in a 115-degree summer, believe me, it costs more to air-condition this place as it would cost to heat it in a U.P. winter. Really, I would save money on water if I shut down the drip irrigation system and did a daily hose drag.
Of course, I have nothing else to do for two or three hours a day but drag hoses around the yard, right?
It’s been so hot and dry that one of the cacti in the front yard is dying from drought. I recognize the symptoms: it turns yellow all over. Give it some water, and it greens right back up. The cute little pocket garden I put in front is pretty much all dead — that was a FAIL of the first water. Or the first waterless…
At any rate, it’s good to see some rain, at last. Supposedly an El Niño is expected this winter. If so, that will bring a lot of water into the Southwest. Good for us, not so great for Central America.
That link about heating in a U.P. winter is from 2009. Natural gas prices really shot up last winter due to higher demand to heat through a really brutal winter. I’m on a “budget plan” for my natural gas that allows me to spread the higher winter cost out over the course of the year. Just before winter hit last year I was paying $153 a month. That jumped to $193 a month over the winter, and two months ago it leaped to $250 a month. Yes, it’s the height of summer and I am paying $250 a month for natural gas because I am paying off a “deficit” from high usage last winter. My actual therms used over the summer are really low, but therm usage during January was outrageous. (I had a to get a new boiler installed, and the poorly functioning one probably burned through much more gas than normal.)
The electric bill is “only” $150 this month since our coolish summer has not required the A/C to run non stop for many days. I can’t wait to get out of here; I am so DONE with bitter cold winters and sticky humid summers!
Wow!
One nice thing about heat: You can’t shovel it.
My power bill is about $235 at the height of the summer, but drops to around $60 in the winter because I don’t use the heat at all. And the house has a heat pump, which is very economical. Some people around here have $300 to $400 summer bills — in fact, my son, whose house is smaller but in a different power company’s district, gets $ 300+ bills in the summer.
The house here does have natural gas; it goes only to the stovetop and the water heater. Bill is around $30/month, all year. A little lower in the summer because the water doesn’t have to be heated much and because one tends to wash in the hose after climbing out of the pool.
In the summer, water bills can easily go over $200. Especially if you have a lawn, hevvin help you!
Hope your new equipment proves to be more thrifty!!!
Oh, yes, water. I forget what a STEAL water is here, sitting right next to one of the Great Lakes. Since my house was built around 1950 it has no water meter. The city requires them in new construction and is urging people to install them for free, but it is not yet required. I have held out on installing one mainly because I am lazy, but if I was staying here for a few more years I’d definitely install one since I don’t use a lot of water (I have almost no lawn, and very mature perennials, so I rarely water outside) and they keep raising the prices for those of us on flat, un-metered rates. My last bill was a whopping $300…for six months of un-metered water, sewer, and trash. 🙂