Praying for the hurricane...

Yup. Sad but true, we are praying for the hurricane to "stick together" enough to produce a LOT of rain here in WNC.

Things are progressively getting worse in the water/drought department in our area. We are over 2 inches behind on rainfall this month alone. If I am not mistaken, that is 18 inches behind in rainfall for the year. It is so dry that the ground is literally cracking and breaking apart. Gardens are dying, lakes are drying up, river releases are halted b/c of the lack of water to let out of the damns... All of this effects the economy of WNC as well as the quality of life for those of us living here.

It is scary to think that the real ramifications are. Soon we will be into dealing with the wild fires like we did last year, but it will be worse, we are even dryer than were were at that time... the apple crops will be smaller and less quality... WNC produce is not as big or even as appealing as it has been in years past... the farmers are raising prices b/c of smaller crops... The rafting industry, which is a HUGE part of the tourist economy here, is suffering b/c there is no longer water to release from the damns, less people rafting/visiting means less money stimulating the local economy which means higher prices for those of us living here.

The leaves have already started to fall. They aren't turning colors, just drying up and falling off the trees... this too means less visitors for the fall colors in the mountains b/c we aren't going to have the beautiful reds and yellows and oranges of years past. There isn't enough water for the trees to keep the leaves... heck, even the trees are dying.

All of this coupled with the higher gas prices, and people not being able to afford to travel/spend means that our little mountain towns will be suffering for years to come. Playing catch-up is hard enough... but when there is no end in sight, it is near impossible (and I am talking about the rain and the economy).


Our personal garden hasn't made it. We have gotten almost no produce. Even the sun flowers didn't survive. Our beans, tomatoes, broccoli, radishes, cucumbers, carrots, onions, and garlic all just didn't fare well with the extreme heat and lack of water. We had about 3 radishes, 10-20 beans total, and no cucumbers that actually made it. (The cucumbers turned orange before they were even 2 inches long.)

We did however get our first zucchini and squash yesterday. Not too shabby, I just wish we had been able to get enough produce to make it through the summer without buying. I can't believe how long it took these to produce, we planted in April.

We actually had 2 zucchini but we ate one for dinner before I got to take a photo of it. The squash is fairly small, but the zucchini is HUGE! I hope that the plants continue to survive and give us more to eat...

Please join us in praying for rain, and lots of it.