It was 70 something degrees out today and we have had hardly any rain or snow and I am scared of what the summer is gonna be like. The weather is nice we were outside doing things we normally don't do in the winter.

Anyone else scared???

-- sonneyacres (jtgt12@ntelos.net), February 09, 2002

Answers

You didn't say where you lived but here in West Virginia we haven't had much snow or rain which means little water this summer

-- Ron Bennett (mr_swift_26547@yahoo.com), February 09, 2002.

I am in Northern California in the Sierra Foothills, and it is just gorgeous!! In the high 60's. We have had a lot of Rain, I am sooo glad it has had a chance to dry out. The snow pack in the Sierra's is about 130% of normal, it is the snowpack that the valley depends upon in the summer. Most of the media had started talking "drought" but not any longer. The grass will probably grow well this spring, most of the country where I live, they use for cattle. Our great nation is so large that I guess one part of the country can be in drought and the other side just fine.

-- Esther (realestatez@hotmail.com), February 09, 2002.

I am in Northern California in the Sierra Foothills, and it is just gorgeous!! In the high 60's. We have had a lot of Rain, I am sooo glad it has had a chance to dry out. The snow pack in the Sierra's is about 130% of normal, it is the snowpack that the valley depends upon in the summer. Most of the media had started talking "drought" but not any longer. The grass will probably grow well this spring, most of the country where I live, they use for cattle. Our great nation is so large that I guess one part of the country can be in drought and the other side fine.

-- Esther (realestatez@hotmail.com), February 09, 2002.

I am sorry I am in North Central West Virginia!!!

-- sonneyacres (jtgt12@ntelos.net), February 09, 2002.

We have just finished up an entire winter's worth of weather in a little over a week. Sure glad to see the sun shine here in northern Oklahoma. There are still several thousand without electricity. I feel sorry for them. When you aren't prepared for it it is rough.

-- charlie (charliesap@pldi.net), February 09, 2002.

Not me....although we had a warm day and it got all the way up to 23 degrees :)

last week we were at -30, this has been the hardest winter here in about 10 years. About 4' of snow right now, and they are still predicting a drought year.

Tracy in Idaho

-- Tracy (zebella@mindspring.com), February 09, 2002.

The weather sure has been strange for about 2 yrs now, especially in the east. No major hurricanes since 99 with Floyd and they are in a drought. I don't know much about the west, but here in Arkansas its weird. In all my born days, and I'll never admit how many, have I seen a tornado in December.Yep, we sure did, in dec when the weather changed. We have been too warm here in AR this winter, well, maybe its normal, but the folks here say it isn't. We have had temps between 60-70 degrees and then cold weather, then warm and so on.

On many of the goat lists I am on at yahoogroups have mentioned problems with kiddings. At first I thought it was me, but then shortly after more similiar stories appeared. We had a doe, my top doe, and one of the top Alpines in the country kid 3 weeks too soon, she gave birth to triplets, 2 does and abuck, all beautiful and dead. I'm just lucky she is OK. but it devestated me and I lost a lot of money too. I planned on keeping a buck from her. Then yesterday AM we had another doe kid about a week early. Twins, a buck and a doe. The buck had been dead for a few days and the doe was not breathing when it was born, also a dry birth. Thank GOD our son and daughter in-law made it here Wednesday. Our daughter in-law took to kidding like a duck to water last yr. She quickly pulled the kids when she saw her having trouble. I wasn't home and hubby wa sat drs office. So she really got a boost of self confidence. She had seen the pics on a website for swing baby and tried it, no response. So her mother tries mouth to mouth and it worked. She now is in the house, getting very much spoiled, and doing well. Shaggy, who is usually a great mom didn't want anything much to do with her afterwards. Despite I brought the baby to her. She seems to know her baby is in the house and sneaks out of the fence and wants to come in. But I think she knew something was wrong too. Mayb eshe will warm up to her.

Some breeders are thinking it is the weather. Makes ya wonder! I even spoke to a breeder in Maine who is a good acquiantce, he said he never seen in his 30 yrs almost of breeding goats does that grew bellieslooking like they were pregant. He mentioned that when the vet came to do the ultra sound that the goats were not pregnant.

-- Bernice (geminigoats@yahoo.com), February 10, 2002.

Today, here on the Central Oregon Coast, we had 60 deg. and the first hummingbird. A week ago we we had snow on the beach. Two days ago a storm went through here and downed trees, blocked roads and caused power outages in the Willamette Valley. Last Summer, for the first time in the ten years we have used it, our spring went dry. Now , the creek that it feeds is almost out of its banks. I hear from relatives in England that for some years, the same thing has been happening there, cycles of drought, floods and the occasional hurricane. Nothing like it in a thousand years of recorded history.

Looking back from a distance of 70+ years, it seems to me that the abnormal has become the norm in both the north and south temporal regions. Could it possibly be something my generation ate? Like ... rainforests?

But, Hey - no worries! Let's look on the bright side; while we wait 40 years for those millions of Doug fir seedlings to grow back, we can have a helluva party on the money that those logs made.

P.S. sonneyacres - many thanks for the good example in posting your location. It's a great help to those of us learning to live with the land.

-- Griff in OR (griff@hangnail.com), February 10, 2002.

FWIW, we still have 2/3 of the forested area today that we had when we first stepped foot on NA

-- Laura (lauramleek@yahoo.com), February 10, 2002.

South/central Kentucky ... weather has been strange (I think, since I've only been here 3 years ... but "natives" say it is) ...

A week or so of abnormally warm weather ... temperatures in the high 50s and 60s sometimes with some rain ... then drops and we get highs in the high 30s for a week and freezing rain/snow ...

Really hard on the livestock ... and I'm about due for another pair of rubber boots!

-- SFM (timberln@hyperaction.net), February 10, 2002.

SW Mo. reporting in. Have just found your WEB, find it extremely intresting. The weather here has been very unusually warm, it has the old timer here(of which I am one-70+) can't remember when we have have had a warmer or windier time. Rae of Mo.

-- RAE HILBURN (hilburn@olemac.net), February 10, 2002.

Here in the mountains of Northern New Mexico, we're getting worried. Not as much snow so far this year as we'd like for that fire suppression come Spring time! We get about 6" snow every about every 2-3 weeks. Surely not enough. The temps are warm during the day, approaching 50's at times, and then dive to 0 for the night. I'm getting a little tired of the thaws and just wish it would stay winter a while longer, then head into Spring just once, not every week. ;)

-- Michelle in NM (naychurs_way@hotmail.com), February 10, 2002.

Here in northern lower Mich. the local snow depth record is just short of 22 feet. With this topsy-turvy weather, I wonder if we'll set a record mimium snow fall!!!!!!!!! No Ice -to speak of- on the Great lakes!... For the first time ever, the ferry boat to Machinaw Island continues to run--not being stopped by ice!!!

Hello Mama Nature!

Stay tuned.....

-- Jim-mi (hartalteng@voyager.net), February 10, 2002.

No, I am not scared of the weather. When I read the Laura Wilder books, I read how they went through that hard winter, and then the next year, they had almost no snow at all. Weather always goes in cycles, and this earth has maintained even enough temperatures to maintain a semblence of normality long enough for us to have come along! Man is not doing anything to ruin the weather. That "hole in the ozone" gets bigger and shrinks totally independantly of man's practices. Guess what? ONE volcano (totally beyond the reach of man's dominion) spews thousands of times more polution into the atmosphere than mankind ever does in one year.

Why do we go around squawking "The sky is falling!" when the weather isnt exactly what we think it ought to be? Because of those fool weather forecasters that HAVE to make the weather sound scary, to sell us on watching their channel! It all comes down to the money, folks. Got to up the value of advertising, so we gotta up the ratings.. crime sells. Whichever weather forecasters can make the weather as scarey as headline murders, gets a raise!

God will take care of the weather, just as he always has. He promised that as long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, summer and winter, will not fail.

-- daffodyllady (daffodyllady@yahoo.com), February 10, 2002.

Well this is not a typical winter in upper mich ,were getting good winds to run the wind generator and some snow today. Normaly we have about 4 feet in the woods buy this time and now we have about 1 foot. It has saved us some money on plowing our qauter mile driveway, also not to mention firewood I"m not going to complain about this weather. I understand though about the hard times this might cause everywone with water but were homesteaders we will all manage exspecialy with the support from this forum

-- bob vadnais (robertvadnais@aol.com), February 10, 2002.

Hey Sonneyacres, I've been thinking (uh oh) about your quandry about the weather. I am trying not to worry. The thing that bothers me is the level of water in the Great Lakes. Hummmm, what to do if Michigan runs low on water? panic. Or maybe not. Afterall, stuff evens out in the end. Just wonder who's end it will be. :) Guess I'll let the Great Spirit worry about that and go along and do the best I can with what is available. I wonder if the weather has anything to do with how many wool sweaters and socks I have stocked up on in anticipation of my future hermit status in the northwoods. Be my luck not to need that stuff after I bought it. LOL.

-- Susan in Northern Michigan (cobwoman@yahoo.com), February 10, 2002.