rain water heaven, however dont drown turn around

RAIN WATER HEAVEN
i am in heaven
thats rain water heaven
if you are  are a rain water connoisseur then you
know exactly what i mean

we got over 5 inches of rain here last night
i knew when i got up this morning that we
had got enough rain to fill up my tanks
i knew because i could hear the roar of the
river a quarter of a mile from our house

(little did i know that that river almost made a
devastating capture of several lives-see below)

when i went out to look at my tanks i was so
excited
for there was water oozing from the overflow pipes
on every one of my water tanks
that means they are full and cant hold no more

since we have put in all of my tanks and have had
them properly hooked up they have not all been
full before
at least not since we entered the drought

my calculations are that we have about 15 months of
water left without any rain
surely there could not be a drought that bad

heck even the lakes are expected to rise a few feet
with this rain as this time it fell in the right places

then it dawned on me that if it rained again that
i would not capture any of the rain and it would
just run off into the landscape and into that
cave under our property i always dream about

if you are a rain water connoisseur then you know
what this picture is all about

HOWEVER DONT DROWN TURN AROUND
we see this all the time and hear it on tv all the time
dont drown turn around
but people dont listen

my wife she and i understand that urge to not turn around
but we have decided that we will always stand up to
that urge

here is  a low water area on the highway near our house
(those of you who know where we live its the area between
the white country church and the entry to the cemetery)

its the one that has prevented my wife she and i from
going to work sometimes
yesterday it prevented my wife she from going to work

here is picture of the water level sign
see that piece of debris at 4 feet
thats where the water level went to last night

sometime at about 100 am a mother and her three kids
were driving down the road and hit this water
(dont know if they had the barrier up yet)

guess i cant be critical of her for going through there
it was stormy lightning and raining hard
she probably couldnt see where she was going
(early on they dont put up the barriers)
those of us who live out here know not to drive there
when it rains hard
she didnt know as she was from a city 3 hours away

once it rained hard one night for a few hours
i for some reason did not realize it had rained that much
and took off to work in my small car
as i drove through this area i did not see the water on the
road as it was dark
when i hit the water i felt my car momentarily
start to float then
my front wheels hit the pavement and gripped and
pulled me forward
i had a moment of terror hit me
you know you sweat and your heart rate goes up

i can not imagine the horror that that mom and her 3 kids
felt as the water swept them off the road and down the
creek now a raging river spinning around for 3 quarters of
a mile to get lodged against two trees
the car a small suv took in water up above the side mirrors

the mom managed to crawl up on the roof of the car with her
three kids and then called 911
she had no idea where she was
then she lost phone contact (she must have had att)
one of our neighbors could hear them yelling but couldnt
locate where they were because of the rain and storm and
darkness
here is where they were

(the pink and white item on the roof is one of the girls
small tennis shoe)
eventually the rescuers found then after an hour
but could not reach them as the water was 4 feet higher
than in this picture

her and the kids had to sit on that roof in the cold rain with
lightning and high winds for a total of 3 hours
they were all huddle together on top of that roof with the
rushing dirty cold water at their feet

they had to call in a high water rescue team who arrived and after
two hours were able to rescue all 4 of them

when you read this and if you are like me when i wrote this and
saw the car i got chills all over

PLEASE DONT DROWN TURN AROUND

the organicgreen doctor

rain, bucket list

RAIN
this rain we are having right now could be the one that tops off
my rain water tanks
thats where they get full and run over which
for those who are rain water savers
will drive you crazy
as you cant stand to lose any water at all

ive got 30000 gallons of water tank storage and
i still have 6  5 gallon buckets put out to catch rain
and would have more if i had more buckets

after this rain we are having
seems like a lot of rain maybe 4-5 inches
my tanks should be full and ill have enough rain for
two years without any rain

i now have $3000 dollars worth of water if i had
to have it trucked it
wont happen this year or the next
maybe this is the drought buster we need

the rain is actually falling on the headwaters of the multiple
lakes around here that supply the drinking water for many
cities and
provide recreational areas and jobs associated with the
lake activities

wonder if all those boats sitting on the dry beds will
start floating now

BUCKET LIST
when i retired i developed a bucket list of things i wanted
to do before i couldnt
some of these are local things that weve always wanted to do
but just havent got around to doing yet

this summer we will knock off three of the large ones but on
spring break we knocked off several of the smaller ones

we spent 2 days in fredricksburg texas
weve been there several times but there were things we or i
havent seen before



weve never gone through the admiral nimitz museum there
its an awesome museum of the pacific war from ww11
admiral nimitz was from fredricksburg
it was well worth the trip
still though couldnt see it all so guess ill have to make
another trip



we also found a place called the herb farm which is
a restaurant with a large garden area and with several of
the sunday houses that can be rented to stay in

it reminded us so much of our country n that we enjoyed
our 3 hour stay there
we sat out on the back porch area eating our lunch and
having a nice glass of wine
i got to spend an hour talking with the on site gardener
and swapped gardening and chicken stories with her



the other place we went to there was the wildseed farms just
east of town
they had rows and rows of wild flowers planted
sure was pretty
cant wait to see the area later in the year

our or my bucket list is still full so i
hope to work harder at emptying it this year

the organicgreen doctor

no water

NO WATER
well they ran out of water
that community of 1100 people that live near here
they had been on stage 4 water restrictions for awhile
which dont allow for any outside use of water
and limited inside use
guess they didnt restrict enough
as they ran completely out of water

this should be a wake up call for people to restrict water use
in general as its a precious commodity
we cant live without it

since we use rainwater as our only source of water here at the
country n we stay in a perpetual state of water restrictions
we still take good showers, flush our toilets, wash our dishes
and water what needs watering outside

our solutions were to get rid of our st augustine yard completely and
replace it with xeriscaping and all native plants that get no supplemental
watering once they are established
we collect water for the landscaping-a simple solution with all kind
of different sizes of tanks available now
we use drip irrigation in the garden
we reuse some grey water for some irrigation
by using a 5 gallon bucket to catch shower water and dish water
we have low flow shower heads that can be turned off with the flip
of a lever during showers to eliminate wasted water
we have low water use washing machine
we dont run the water while shaving or brushing teeth or scrubbing
our hands
we let yellow mellow sometimes and use the outside facilities when
possible-little boys who visit get some pleasure in this
as they arent allowed to do it in town
i just tell them to find a weed and kill it for me

so if we all did some of these water restrictions we would all be in
better shape with our water supply
its not going to get better as this area continues to grow
many of my neighbors including myself have had their wells go dry as
the water levels drop around here

apparently the subdivisions water was from wells that were
dug into the aquifer that went dry and the water levels continue
to drop in the lake system that provides a large amount of water
for the central texas area

the water for the subdivision is being shipped in via tanks at an
expensive rate several times a day
we did this 3 times this spring and summer and its expensive
and is scary to have to depend on it as your water source
hopefully that wont happen here again

heck we got 5-6 inches of rain just east of austin but none of that
rain fell on the tributaries that feed the lakes
the lakes continue to drop
what will be bad here if we get into the summer here with no rising
lake levels
then a large area will be in stage 4 water restrictions

maybe i can start a water conservation class for homeowners
as we have become experts at it

germs/iphone4, rain water, banks

GERMS/IPHONE4
there is a blog i follow called lks grab bag
this weeks posting is interesting and funny

did you know that there may be more germs on an atm
machine than on a toilet seat
read more below on her blog unless you are a germophob
then dont read any more

if you are an iphone4 owner or if you want to know more about
the iphone4 then view her video on the iphone4

WARNING!!!!!! if you dont like to hear 4 letter words than
dont watch the video

i laughed so hard

go to lksgrabbag.com to enjoy this posting

RAIN WATER
this is a rain water update from our last rain
we got 2.5 inches of a nice slow rain over several days
we dont get many like this here in cental texas
usually our rain comes down in buckets so fast that sometimes
it overflows the gutters and drainage system
not this time slow and easy
think we got every drop of rain

we now have over 10000 gallons of rain water collected for
our system for our house
thats half way of our total capacity
thats better than the 50 gallons we had left one day this summer
in the drought
this water would cost us $1000 if we had to have it delivered to
our tanks

it looks like the update on my guttering and drains are working well
and no apparent leaks are noted
now we just need more rain

this capacity will last my wife she and i about 6 months
hopefully well have more rain before then

we also have about 2000 gallons of rain water for our irrigation system
with over twice that capacity available
the garden watering uses that up fast when it s dry
almost all of the plants that we have left on our landscape gets no
supplemental watering
decided to let nature take its course and it did
now we have only the survivors left

BANKS
some of the megabanks got their credit ratings downgraded
well many of us had already downgraded them anyway
sure am enjoying my credit union

the organicgreen doctor

rain water brother, cholesterol

RAIN WATER BROTHER
when i can influence someone to collect rain water
each gallon they collect is one gallon that is not pulled
from the aquifer or the lakes or the city water system
any gallon of water that i can influence someone to conserve
is one gallon of water not pulled from the aquifer or the lakes
or the city water system

we especially need this now in this drought we are having
some cities may have to get even stricter on water conservation
if the drought continues on through next summer
real strict restrictions

this weekend the boy that was shown walking with me at
the walk to end alzheimers in austin put out several containers
to collect rain water off his roof during the recent rains
good job bg

yesterday i spent the day with my older brother who is putting
in a rain water system under the rules of his hoa and his whoa
(wifes hoa)
his tanks have to be pleasant in their appearance and can not
be taller than his six foot fence with none visible from the
street
that means none in the front yard at all
well none that anyone will see

i have helped several people put in these before and i put in
my rain water system that provides water for the house and
the garden (we have no well or city water)

figuring out how to hook everything up and understanding how
water flows with gravity can be tricky
since ive made most of the mistakes that can be made im a good
person to help someone else
so they wont suffer through the mistakes ive made
(its cost me lots of water loss in the past-hundreds of gallons)

when he is finished you will be able to walk into his back yard
and not notice he is collecting rain water
(but his wife hoa will)

he also has constructed a rain water sink by mulching his beds well
with compost and mulch so that when his tanks fill up and a
new rain is coming he dumps his water into this compost mulch
rain water sink which soaks up hundreds of gallons of water in
the mulch
his plants love this method

my front yard is heavily mulched especially around my oak trees
so that when it rains the mulch soaks up gallons of water and
retains it on the yard rather than have it run off the yard into
the pastures

think about this in your landscape
even a small berm will hold back water on your property

he is almost ready for the next big rain
little does he know that when you collect rain water its like
gambling you have to have more tanks so you wont loose
any water
be careful
am sure there is a rain water anonymous

CHOLESTEROL
in our family the males tend to die young from heart attacks or
strokes and if they get through all those they get alzheimers
so many of us have been aggressive about controlling our
blood pressure, our weight, and our cholesterol

our cholesterol we have is the bad stuff
we have what i call the trifecta
low hdl (good one), real high ldl (the bad one) and real
hight triglycerides (the ugly one)

yes we have the good bad and the ugly cholesterol problem

many of us take high dose statins-lipitor or crestor or simvastatin
or lovastatin (i take 40 mg lovastastin)
some of us also take niacin to increase our good cholesterol
(i take 1500 mgm of slo niacin)
some of us take omega 3 fish oil
most of us take aspirin 81 mg a day

interesting it appears now that controlling that trifecta cholesterol
may slow down and possibly prevent alzheimers
time and more studies will show if this is true

we also have high blood pressure and many of us are on
blood pressure medication

so my rain water brother was on a drug for his cholesterol, niacin
for his hdl cholesterol and a high dose blood pressure medication
these controlled everything well for him

however he like many of us was tired of taking all those meds
so
he went on a vegetarian diet with eggs and with fish
he has gotten his bmi to 21 (normal is less than 25)
he has gone off all his medications
his blood pressure runs 100/60 normal is less than 120/80)
his ldl cholesterol is in the 90s (normal is less than 100-130)
his triglycerides are 100 (normal is less than 150)
his hdl is in the 50s (nornal is greater than 40)
all with out any meds
his numbers are actually better than when he was on medications

so diet and exercise can make a huge difference in your cholesterol
levels and your blood pressure readings

you should try it
no copays
no brand drugs
feel better
live longer

the organicgreen doctor