... The grass has become too wet to effectively run the lawnmower to collect grass clippings. Thus no more mulching and no clippings to feed to the sheep and chickens. Oh, they won't go hungry, but they do prefer the fresh mown grass. The rain has caused the grass in the pastures to grow, and there's always the fallback to haycubes if necessary for the sheep. The chickens have plenty of other things to eat.
... The pig pasture is getting sloppy muddy where their feeding station is, making it treacherously slippy for me to go feed them. Not much I can do about it besides shoveling cinder into the area. My plan is to move the feeding trough to a grassy area and sow oats into the muddy parts. And hope for less rain.
... Mold is showing up inside the garden sheds. I plan to spray a bleach or maybe Lysol solution on the walls to kill the mold.
... Mold wants to grow on my dormant seed potatoes. I've rinsed the tubers in a 10% bleach solution and laid them out to dry in the house. That should hold them for a couple of weeks.
... Powdery mildew is starting up on the pumpkin vines. It's a lost cause.
... Mushrooms are starting to pop up here and there. That's good. I welcome the mushrooms,
... All my water catchment areas are full. That's good, but it's also frustrating to see the excess water overflowing and running into the ground. During the next drought I'm going to be wishing I had that water.
... The sheep have had to have chemical fly repellant applied to their fleece so that they don't come down with flystrike.
... My concrete walkways around the house are growing moss. Looks pretty, but it's slippery to walk on. Tomorrow I plan to use a stiff broom to remove the worst of the moss.
... Everything metal is rusting. This acidic rain does nasty things to metal, especially tools and fencing. So we go through a lot of sandpaper and os-pho.
I choose this piece of property to purchase because it stayed green even during droughts. And I've never minded the wet-dry cycle of previous years. But for the past several years we seem to be stuck in a wet period. I wonder if we'll ever see drought again.
Last year I considered using tunnels in the main garden area, specifically to keep excess rain off the veggies. I though "naw, they're not needed because it will be drying on soon". So here I sit one year later with soggy gardens, not able to grow many of the veggies I want. So I figure the best way to cause a drought will be to build those tunnels. I think that will be my next major outdoor project.
I can emphasize with you. Back here on the mainland, it has been the wettest summer on record; We just completed a stretch of 21 straight days with significant rain, Every Day. My garden “Drowned” this summer. I tried to save what I could, but mold, moss, powder mildew, blight overtook everything. With all the additional work, in the garden, then the critters moved in and took what little was available. I typically strip the garden in November, This year I Stripped it in August.
ReplyDeleteEvery house has massive clumps of moss growing on their roof, asphalt shingles. We also have mold and moss growing on the interior of the houses. Houses with vinyl siding, have mildew growing on the siding.
There has been a summer long run on pressure washers….
Hope this helps, misery likes company…we all are suffering.