Drought 2020-21

We had a drought in 2012 and now again this 2020 into 2021. My father used to call it the 'Seven-Year Drought' because inevitably it occurred every seven years or so.

As of January 2021, Snowfall is behind 42" for the Syracuse area, meaning the water level will not be increased from winter's snowfall. This past summer, the creek got the lowest ever in the past 70 years.

Last summer, we installed a creek pump for getting water for the garden and for the animals--chickens and sheep. For animals, we prefer the fresh spring creek water rather than the chlorinated city water that comes into the house. We filled tank after tank of water to take to chickens and sheep (and Chris' pigs). We hooked up a hose to water our garden. By the end of summer, the creek was just about dry.

The drought impacted the pasture grasses. Turkeys didn't have as much forage. Cattle ran out of good pasture, necessitating more hay. After the pasture got low for the sheep, we were thankful that we had the sheep at our neighbor's place, eating their field grasses.

News' weather is always thrilled for a non-rainy day, but after months of little rain, even the weather announcers were wishing for more rain. That proves there was a drought. We were calling it a drought long before they did.

We don't know what the Summer of 2021 will bring. We hope the drought will be over! The creek level is up for now and the pigs will be gone and we will have less sheep. Bring on the rains! Oh, we had a foot of snow following the time I wrote this blog. Bring on more snow!