clarifying the water/grass issue

apparently there is some confusion regarding the water rationing and the lower pasture grass watering that uses up water. sooo...i thought i better clarify.

running out of water sucks. and every time we run out of water, we get behind on the laundry, have to haul 10 five gallon bottles of water out to the barn, from town, every single day, and i can't have a bath...all of which sucks but within a day or two we can get water delivered at a cost of about $160 which will last about a week.

sooo...why waste water on watering the lower pasture? because we can buy water if we have to, but we cannot buy grass or time. if that grass does not grow this time around, we are in trouble. the soil will dry out and pack down like clay. in order to replant next spring, we will have to dig up the entire field again, loosen it up and start over...we will lose another whole year's use from that field. the upper field that we re-planted this spring is starting to break down from too much use. by this fall, if we can't rotate the animals off of there, we will lose that field too. and then we have no fields or grass for the animals to graze on. this means bringing in even more feed and hay to make up for the shortage and leading to even more cost, plus the risks involved to the animals feet and overall health if they continually live in mud. not to mention the enhanced quality of life they will have from being able to graze as their species demand. losing that bottom pasture was a disaster, to most people it appears not to be a big deal, but to us and more importantly, to the animals, it is.

when decisions are made here, they are made because of need and priority of that need. since water can be bought but grass cannot, since we cannot afford to lose the upper pasture from overuse nor to wait another whole year to be able to use the lower pasture, we will use our precious water to help that grass grow...it makes sense if you understand the reasons behind it.

we are rationing the wastage of water, water that is carelessly used and thrown away into the dirt or the septic without thought to where it comes from, that it is a limited supply and that soon it will cost us money to replace. so we now recycle the water buckets to fill ellies swimming pool, or water the flowers, we use the dirty bleach water from the floors to clean off the cement, we don't indiscriminating run the hoses and let the water overflow, we fill cleaning buckets to wash out dishes and litter boxes and cages instead of hosing them off outside. none of it all that hard, it just takes a bit of thought and carefulness. and we can carefully water the bottom pasture by a careful hand late in the evening, to give the grass a minimal amount of moisture to survive the heat of the day. that is how we balance what we have, what we need and how we get there.

it is ok to ask me these things, it is a good way to find out the reasoning behind the decisions and to understand why we do the things that we do. we pretty much always have a good reason.