Coffee anyone ?

[Latestarter]

Much of the most densely packed area of CA is a desert for all intents and purposes. There isn't any water there to support those who already live there. They get their water by diverting almost 100% of the Colorado river to retention lakes and reservoirs for future use. But the climate being what it is in socal, people keep moving there, or did, now many who moved there a generation or more ago are moving out of socal to areas that are similar, like the front range in Colorado, which is ALSO a virtual desert, and doesn't have the water to support the population. Part of the reason I left Colorado. A side benefit of all these transplants is that they are trying to turn their new environment into the same thing they left. It was/is becoming a second edition of socal.

 

[greybeard]

There is an active thread I'm reading on a cattle board right now, explaining why so many native Floridians that farm/ranch are leaving that state. Too many snowbirds moved there in the last 40-50-60 years and changed what was once paradise for farming and ranching. They don't often choose Texas as a new destination as they all fully know the same thing is happening in Tx as has already happened in Fla, so Kentucky, rural Virginia, and Tenn are the choice places for farmers/ranchers to move to.
A telling sign, when farm families many generations deep leave their home states and take their chances in dirt poor Appalachia just to get away from all the new age mumbojumbo/PC crap that is coming and has been brought into their old states.

 

[Bruce]

Just ask Clayton Williams Sr.

Draining the aquifer you sit on isn't the most intelligent thing to do. I guess they could have a different sort of range war. Everyone drills a bunch of wells and pumps the water out. Then there is none even for the Clayton Williams Sr.s of the world. It is unlikely that the aquifers the Williams ranch sits on don't extend beyond their property. If they don't, well then that water wouldn't be available to anyone else anyway so it doesn't matter how much they use or how they use it.

What freaks me are the states that say they can control you from catching rainwater

Colorado. Water rights purchased decades ago. Same is true of CA, @Latestarter's statement about the source of water for So. Cal isn't totally correct. MANY decades ago people in So. Cal bought the water rights up north where there was water. So, Cal was an arid near desert way before the first European ever set eyes on it. The water from up north is piped down through the central valley, often in open man made aqueducts so some is lost to evaporation. The rivers in the L.A. area are huge concrete ditches. They rarely carry any water and were built for flood control to take the rare dump of rain out to the ocean.

What is CA doing to "correct" their water shortage? Desalination would be a huge consideration, IMO.

Yes and a huge expense. Desalination takes a lot of power. And just how much sea salt can you sell There are 24 million people in So. Cal., the entire population of the state is 39 million. That is a LOT of water to desalinate. So where do you now put all that salt? Can't just dump it back right offshore where it will increase the salinity of the water that is brought in to be desalinated. Nothing is ever easy.

 

[Mini Horses]

Gosh, glad I am sitting with my nice coffee in a place that is sitting (so my well digger told me 20 years ago) on top of a main aquafer in the county. Not something I researched before buying, just sheer luck. Of course, it's 500+ foot down but, sure here!

When Va Beach was in a house building frenzy some 30 years ago, many of the then local farmers and dairies (Mennonites) were moving to GA. Apparently good land and prices ? All in all, I'm constantly happier with my little farm location. There are things i'd change but, not much when I hear other area situations.

This morning I slept in late and while most of day rain had been predicted earlier in week, that changed when the front did. Today sunny and nice. Breezy but not bad. May get to play on the farm? Guess I'll watch for goats wagging tails this morning. Then decide if Romeo will get another date, or two. Need to get the kids on the way!

Beyond that, just a "day on the farm", feeding chores, occasional repair, winter prep, etc. Sounds NICE.

Hope everyone else has a good day planned

 

[greybeard]

Draining the aquifer you sit on isn't the most intelligent thing to do. I guess they could have a different sort of range war. Everyone drills a bunch of wells and pumps the water out. Then there is none even for the Clayton Williams Sr.s of the world

Clayton Williams Sr. was just the straw that broke the camel's back. There were wells drilled drawing water from that aquifer long before he did, ever increasing as demand for produce and pasture increased. Started 10 years after the Civil War.

 

[greybeard]

Yes and a huge expense. Desalination takes a lot of power.

I lived for 2 years at a place (a useful little corner of the world) whose sole source of fresh water was desalination. The technology was not what it is today and reliability was 'iffy' at best, but it was better than the barged in water from Jamaica. Guantanamo Bay Naval Base.


Israel is desalinating a lot of water at a cost of USD $.40 (40 cents) per cu meter ( 1M³ =264 gallons)
Their Hadera plant alone is making about 92 million gal per day.

Average water consumption and cost of supply by sea water desalination at US$1 per cubic metre(±50%)
Area....... ....Consumption Litre/person/day........Water Cost US$/person/day
USA.........................378.........................................0.38
Europe.....................189......................................... 0.19
Africa........................57.........................................0.06
UN recommends min of..49..........................................0.05

Yes, you can return the salt to the sea. It's never dry solid salt anyway..it's brine water. You dilute/mix it with other salt water, and release it either close to shore or thru long pipes extending far off shore, thru holes all along and in the horizontal pipes. It's done this way in desal plants all over the world every day, including here in the USA.

 

[Latestarter]

Actually, with the polar ice caps melting and glacial decay/melt, the salinity of the seas is diminishing so it behooves us to spend the money to desalinate water to add that rich brine back to keep the salinity levels stationary. We don't want those ocean currents coming to a stop and starting a new ice age.

 

[greybeard]

Wife talked me into stopping with her at McDonalds earlier tonight. (It had been years since I last darkened their door) I KNEW, not to order any of their burgers or the pressed pork parts they call a McRib, but I figured, "How bad can a Sausage, Cheese McMuffin be? Surely they can't screw that up...can they?"
It was on their $1 menu, and cheap enough I suppose for the sandwich, but all the carbon offset credits I also had to buy is going to set me back thousands.......
Lesson...relearned.
Picture taken at 7:25pm Nov 3 2018, Cleveland Tx, at the 5 star McDonalds with the fancy recycled (sustainable) napkins and the biodegradable [plastic] silverware .

Tasted just as good as it looks.

 

[Baymule]

 

[Latestarter]

looks fine to me... aside from the processed, pasteurized, cheese food product, they call cheese... it's an english muffin, a sausage patty, and the fake cheese. I actually like the flavor of their sausage. Real cheese would taste better but...