I’ve been sending photos of our flowers to the garden-deprived people in the West and Southwest who have no water. Today, I took a photo of the beautiful black-eyed Susans who have sprouted on our front lawn.
The drought and extreme heat is killing people and animals, ruining crops, destroying trees and plant life, and making many others sick and suffering.
On this Fourth Of July, here at the farm, we are thinking of all those people who are suffering, and we are, as always, grateful for what we have and where we live.
We are thinking of you all and sending love and light.
Joleen Knott, one of the blog readers from Salt Lake City, sent me this message this morning, and I wanted to share it with all of you; my heart goes out to the people suffering through this drought and awful heat.
“Jon, You mentioned the drought people today. Here’s the drought report from Salt Lake City, if you have a minute to read how our lives are changed this year.
We’re in an extreme drought here. Temperatures this week will be as high as 105 degrees in Northern Utah (Salt Lake City) and up to 111 degrees in Southern Utah. Most people are doing their part, as asked, and restricting lawn watering to twice a week for 20 minutes each time. They advise us to use our water on trees and bushes if possible because the grass will come back if it dies, but trees and bushes will not.
Salt Lake City is a beautiful green city most of the year. It’s very sad now to see home lawns turning brown and our beautiful city parks turning brown. Personally, I’m putting a bucket in the shower to catch extra water (in my very short showers) to water the pots of flowers on my deck, turning off all running water as I brush my teeth and cook in the kitchen.
I’m driving a dirty car because I feel car washing is a waste of water right now. We’re all trying to stay safe by staying hydrated, limiting electricity use to preserve energy, opening the windows all night and in the mornings to let in any cool breeze (if you can call 85 degrees in the morning cool).
The City has opened cooling centers at public buildings like libraries and senior centers to help those with no air conditioning, and lots of volunteers are checking on homeless people and their dogs by passing out cold water, food and encouraging and welcoming those who need cool shelter to go to shelters and cooling centers.
Our lakes and reservoirs are at historically low levels. People cannot launch their boats in most places this summer because the water is too low. It goes without saying that multiple wildfires are burning all over our state, and most started historically early this year. Fireworks of all kinds are banned in Salt Lake City and other counties in the state because of extreme fire danger, so it’s a quiet 4th of July. It’s certainly a changing and different world.
Joleen Knott
Thanks for writing me, Joleen, and good luck to you. My flower project seems small and trivial in the scheme of things, but I hope it helps a bit. And it seems to be important to people. Here’s to next year, may it be better.