Wednesday, August 17th 2022

I am designating this a non-day. I’m doing this for leg hospitalization and I’m also doing it for water preservation. Yesterday, I had a long conversation with all of my local associates and they told me the absolute joys of digging a pipe well. The price that they mentioned was reasonable almost every time they brought it out and according to them, they had almost unlimited water. Other than calling around for some materials and doing desk organization, I’m not thinking of doing very much work at all.

I have some thoughts about everything.

Firstly, I didn’t sleep very well last night and when I checked my leg the first time, it seemed as though I had somehow made a mistake. I wasn’t looking at it, I was feeling it and something was definitely wrong. Let’s remember that I’m dealing with diabetes and you never can tell with this sort of thing. I understand that I am not a qualified doctor but I also understand that I’m a very experienced and trusted doctor for my personal problems. I also know like knowledge that I care more about me than any other medical professional I know.

I had to look inside and actually, it looks great. Not perfect but definitely on the road to where I want to go. This is unfortunately a long road but we are on the road.

When I did the thinking about why I was okay, the answer came back that I actually quit my day and got off my feet really early yesterday. I did the watering in the morning and then spent quite a bit of time outside both walking around and talking to everybody who is here and then processing Ria’s apples. They are still sitting outside on a blanket in the first days of drying. My snack in the middle of the night by the way was apples and sunflower seeds.

The second thing is that I now have seven or eight weather apps. I know it’s ridiculous but I am Democratic in my soul so at least I can take a consensus now. I threw away the one that was the most optimistic and colorful because it had the most ads and begged money the most. All of the ones that just give information have dryer and more somber thoughts. This is probably the way to go because it doesn’t rain here anymore anyway. I took a picture of one of the radar reports and I swear to god, there was rain everywhere but exactly where I sit. Either this is a game they play to torture people waiting for rain or, well, global warming is real.

Because there is no rain, my buckets are not going to get filled and this means that I am back on water rationing like I was last week. We did have a little bit of rain and it put some water back in my tanks. The weather reports say that we’re not getting any rain anywhere and that means I have to take advantage of the cloudy overcast day and just let my plants live with what they have.

On a positive note, almost nothing that is still alive and thriving is that water dependent. The beans can handle a few days of dry. I’m not really sure we’re going to get that much if anything from the sweet potatoes but they are also a warm weather crop. The zucchinis and the pumpkins need a lot of water but they are at the time of life that they are at and they can handle a day without as well. Last year, we had a giant pair of volunteer zucchini plants that I never watered and they put so much vegetation in my house, I’ve been addicted to zucchini ever since.

The point is that I need to make some serious decisions. I don’t really think abandoning saving rainwater is the answer. However, depending on how much money they want to dig a second well, this might be the thing that allows me to have a successful garden next year.

There was a moment yesterday I was near my barn and Ria was telling me about how her pipe well worked. I asked her how much water was available to her and she told me that she could water about 3 hours a day. She doesn’t stand there with a hose but she has several sprinkler stands and simply turns them on.

3 hours of water?!? Ghenna went on to say that though she has access to a slope from the local road that provides quite a bit of water for her apple trees, the land where she lives is even more Sandy than mine. We augmented our soil with a lot of forest humus, leaves, twigs and even black dirt that hasn’t been used for anything in more than a decade. This gave everything we planted in the boxes a beautiful jump at the beginning part of the year. The problem came from the blazing sunlight and the fact that the boxes drain so well that you definitely need more water in there than we gave them.

At the beginning of the year, I did some studying and I found that I probably should be putting 350 l of water on my plants as a rule of thumb. In practice however and with zero rain helping us out, the best I could offer was 200 l or so. I’m not sure that this was a starvation diet as much as it was in practicality, all I could spare. We could not draw water from the well which also needed to be cleaned and maintained in order to do something. Basically, with no trusty water source, it has been an uphill and kind of hysterical fight all year.

So there is an answer. I just don’t have it yet.

I will be an office worker today which means I can make the phone calls to the folks that dig these Wells and I can get some estimates as to what to look forward to. That’s one thing. It will also be possible to extend my water saving capacity one way or another. Removing those boards yesterday freed up space and removing the fence next to where they were lying will allow me to double my storage capacity from the barn. The walkway will move but I will have the opportunity to put more barrels there.

But now the question comes to mind about digging a pipe well. If what my friends are telling me is true and they have almost unlimited capacity, maybe saving roof water becomes secondary. 

It’s not really so important right now. I’m not obligated to make these decisions without knowing everything I need to know. But if the cost of digging a new well is reasonable enough, I would be foolish not to take advantage of this. I like the idea of not stressing the groundwater too much. We have a hard time keeping enough water to feed the forest and certainly, there are no tasty fruit trees in the region simply from standing in the ground. Those days are long gone unfortunately and I don’t see it returning in my lifetime. On the other hand, you can’t argue with a tool that works.

Other than this, all of these young potatoes that I have now have changed my cooking style. For most of the summer, I was using my Giant skillet, my favorite cooking instrument in the world, but now I am using my homemade steamer. It is simply an aluminum colander that fits the outside of a very inexpensive aluminum pot. It’s all you need and it works phenomenally well and quickly.

One thing I have been doing is putting beans or lentils in the lower cooking water. I don’t know if you knew this or not but you can drink the water at the bottom of the steamer when you’re done with it. It is basically soup and whatever you steam in the upper basket, drips quite a bit of flavor down below.

The last few days, I have been having delicious combinations of potatoes, chili peppers, onions and garden greens. Honestly, if you are a vegan or a vegetarian, you do have to understand that steaming is the way to go. The vegetables are at their most flavorful, the amount of energy is also extremely minimized and if you’re into no fat cooking, it seems to be A number one. 

What is also possible is to make bread in there. You end up with buns more than bread but the recipe is about the same. It’s not unreasonable, you just have to think Chinese cuisine. 

I seem to have made myself hungry so without the necessity of watering the field and minimum moving around being my plan, I say I start this day off with a delicious breakfast. I will let the world take care of itself for a while.

***

This article goes on to discuss the legal repercussions, court cases and ownership rights as to who has to accept less water and who gets to continue on. They make some statements as to what will happen when some allotment goes one way or another. Basically it’s everything but why there’s no water.

How bad is the global drought in 2022?

Worst-ever drought devastates Europe amid capitalism’s climate crisis

From Britain to the Balkans, a record-breaking drought is devastating Europe. Over 60 percent of the European Union and Great Britain face drought conditions, according to the European Drought Observatory, in what one EU Commission scientist called Europe’s worst drought in 500 years. Major rivers and lakes are drying up, farmers are facing unprecedented crop failures, and energy supplies are collapsing amid unprecedented heat and lack of rainfall.

The summer of 2022, which broke records for heat, wildfires and now drought in Europe, has made clear the urgent necessity of dealing with global climate change. It has now reached such a vast extent that, without prompt and large-scale action, it will threaten basic functions of society critical to human life—such as the ability to provide water, food, electricity, and safe housing.

This summer’s extreme drought was caused by record-low precipitation in Europe this year and successive heatwaves, including the July heatwave that shattered temperature records. Extreme heat and drought also led to record wildfires, with 615,341 hectares burned this year across Europe—the highest-ever figure for mid-August. The drought is disrupting key food and energy supplies, already undermined by the NATO-Russia war in Ukraine, driving prices for essential goods even higher amid the ongoing inflation crisis.

Gosh that sounds remarkably familiar. Have I been talking about this already? Are you saying that the water problems facing my little patch of land here in southern Belarus are the same as through all of Europe as well as the United States? Golly gee, this would seem to be a global crisis, wouldn’t it?

Western drought fueled by climate change is the worst in 1,200 years, scientists say

KEY POINTS

• The megadrought gripping the American West is so severe that it’s become the driest two decades in the region in at least 1,200 years — and drought conditions will likely persist for years, scientists said in a new report.
• The news comes as water levels at the two largest reservoirs in the country, Lake Mead and Lake Powell, are at their lowest levels ever recorded. And in 2020, the worst wildfire season on record burned more than 10 million acres.
• Researchers estimated that 42% of the drought’s severity can be attributed to human-caused climate change.

What was that last bit about human-caused climate change? Come on, climate change is a witch Hunt and fake news, isn’t it? Isn’t that just something that Jews and vegetarians and other people who should be in jail for their tendencies towards violence say? Can’t we blame the Americans for this? Can’t we blame the Russians? Come on, isn’t this someone else’s problem?

The Horn of Africa is facing an unprecedented drought. What is the world doing to help solve it?

• The Horn of Africa is facing severe drought following four years of below-average rainfall.
• More than 18 million people are experiencing extreme hunger in Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya.
• The United Nations is appealing for $42 million to provide urgent assistance, and other organizations are sending funds.

So in the southernmost part of our planet, the place closest to the equator, we are not just talking about drought and political and economic problems, we are talking about famine and hunger. But then again, I understand this is only black people. I think there are white people in South Africa but it’s only black people so they can take care of themselves.a

Europe’s extreme drought is exacerbating food and energy crises

Rain forecast this week will not be enough to end Europe’s drought, which could be the worst the continent has had in 500 years.

Europe is experiencing what may be its worst drought in 500 years, with river flows down by around a third on average. The drought, which is likely to have been intensified by global warming, is having a serious effect on food production and river transport at a time when there is already a food crisis and soaring energy costs due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

I’m of course being sarcastic in everything I’m saying right now. I’m being sarcastic because of my feelings of redundancy. I keep trying to find new ways to say the same thing over and over. I am aware that I am nobody to listen to and that anything that I might have to say is simply something personal for myself. It’s much better to think of my sexual orientation or my age or absolutely, my passport when considering anything to do with me. Oh yeah, I’m jewish. That’s a perfect reason to dismiss me. I am being sarcastic because it seems that everything I have been looking at and noticing here in my little parcel of land is simply a microcosm of the world as a whole.

Last year, I got myself an interview which was never published by the Tampa Bay times. The journalist, who was a Pulitzer prize winner by the way, eventually dismissed my story as being just about me. Nothing I had to say was universal, it was just selfish attention-grabbing.

And then she held up her cat so I could see it and asked me if I thought it was cute.

What are we going to do about this? Me, you know what I’m doing about it because I write about it everyday. I’m trying to live as inexpensively as possible, I’m trying to eat vegan and only local food. I don’t own a car and absolutely minimize my use of petroleum products. I don’t know what else a human being can do to minimize his footprint but I imagine by most Europeans standards, I’m living in the dirt.

What I’m saying is, the word is crisis. It’s not a problem to be looked into, it is a crisis. I’ve also heard it said as an existential threat.

Yeah, I don’t have enough water to grow fruit trees. Boo hoo hoo for me. Dumbass American Jewish boy thinks he’s smart. Who gives a damn if none of the trees in his little piece of dirt can grow sweet fruit anymore? Who gives a damn if the national forest he lives up against doesn’t have enough water to feed the trees? Who cares if the land is dying under our feet?

Let me put it this way. If you are not consciously doing everything you can to conserve energy, resources, water and your absolute use of non-sustainable energy sources, consider yourself a murderer. Actually, if you won’t stop eating meat no matter how many arguments are presented to you about your own health and the necessity to change our relationship to our environment, you are a murderer. You are a murderer and you are as responsible as the corporations for our situation.

Would you like to claim that you were too stupid to understand? Would you like to claim that you were too drunk? Would you like to claim that your brain was damaged by too much entertainment and self-pleasuring? Would you like to blame other people for giving the order that made you do the things you did? Would you like to claim that you were only doing what you thought you were supposed to do?

If you’re not trying to help, you are the problem. Welcome to reality. We’ve destroyed the world.

How bad is the global drought in 2022? (YouTubes if you can’t read)

***

Yes, Wednesday has come and gone almost completely uneventfully. I genuinely did almost nothing today. I laid around most of the day. I don’t even think I did much thinking once I finished checking the internet for the truth about our current global drought. After that, I just let it go. Today was a hospital day. Today I was in the hospital.

Tomorrow will be a little different. Lena is supposed to come by in the morning to mop up the floors. This means I have to get things ready. She doesn’t really take care of the house. Perhaps given the opportunity she would but she’s generally too blind to keep things in order. Besides, she’s not really interested in this place or in me. She just needs the money and wants to be useful.

I definitely should water tomorrow morning. I will make that a priority to get up and get out very early. My current thinking is that morning waterings do the best. Also my body is a bit more resilient and energetic in the morning.

I feel a bit helpless about this water business. Today got sunny and very warm and everything that is growing on my property looks like it was beaten by an angry mother. It doesn’t take too much to grind the light out of the plants here. When we have days like today, there is something wrong with the direct sunlight. It’s too hot, too intense. I don’t know whether this is an ozone situation or if it isn’t some kind of reflection from air pollution. I don’t know what it is. Perhaps it’s just how dry everything is and how little groundwater remains. In any case, days like today just cause harm. I guess it’s going to be like this until the trees grow and give everything some shade.

We are halfway through the month of August. Only two weeks remain until September. September means school is starting. It means life starts again here in the region. I have noticed since I first came here that The rhythms of town resonate with the influx and outgo of students. This is true both of families who send their children off and all of the young people that come to study at the local University. Summers are empty times. There are no young people and so there is no Young person’s energy. Well, this is how it was a few years ago. I suppose everything is parasitic now.

I remember living here in the cold. I don’t feel my memories and in a way, it’s hard to imagine what it will be like when the cold starts.

If you live in town in an apartment, there is a time when the radiators begin and end. Usually the coldest month of the year are the last two weeks of April and the first two weeks of October. October is when the cold will come. That’s only 6 weeks from now. Technically, first Frost is planned for this agricultural zone on November 1st. With global warming, there have been a few years where we never saw snow until January. Last year was colder and it snowed here several times before New Year’s.

I sincerely hope I have myself in working form before the winter hits. When it is cold, you have three choices. You can move around and do some work, you can eat some hot food or you can build a fire. Sometimes you need to do all three and it’s rare where you get to sit for very long with insufficient heat for comfort. I’m not too worried about it but I will be quite glad if I feel I can move around a lot like I did at the beginning of this year. At that time, I didn’t know that I would be in danger from my activity. At that time, I believe that the medical community had me covered.

There is a lot to do before winter. I have less to do than some people. There are those who grow a larger percentage of their own food than I do. There are some things I will need to get from town so it will be important to do some personal transportation one way or the other. None of this is really interesting. I’m just saying that work will need to get done if I wish to stay here all winter.

My ex partner was quite worried about me coming to stay here. She wanted me to stay in her apartment a little longer than I did. I came up here at my first possibility and I’m not sorry in the least. Sure, it was cold here. But it’s a funny thing about the human body and how it adapts to its environment. Of course I am talking about a usual normal environment and not one that has been augmented by too much pollution. You never know what you’re going to get these days or how awful it’s going to be. And this is not even considering the war.

It’s autumn. Winter is coming. That’s game of thrones. Global warming and game of thrones.