Yeah, I know we live in the Southwest and dry weather is part of the deal. But, really, virtually no rain in January and February? C’mon, God, cut us a break!
If it hadn’t been for the unseasonable rain that we received in December, this part of Nevada would have been without measurable rain since last March, as I recall. (It could have been February 2021.) That’s pretty dry, Folks. Even the Mexican Fencepost cacti are crying out, “No Mas! Necesita agua, Senor!”
Our landscaping maintenance man “Kenedy” has a routine that he’s used for decades in this area: he turns off the drip irrigation on December 1 and turns it back on around March 1. That’s four months of no water for our many plants; however, desert vegetation is dormant in the Winter. Besides, it gets cold out here (as low as 28 degrees in the mornings) and we don’t want water freezing in the drip lines: could rupture them. So, it’s a four-month water diet for our plants, cacti, and tumbleweeds. They’re tough, they can take it.
Normally.
This year was different. Even the friggin’ Joshua Trees in the Virgin River Valley were looking like Auschwitz survivors and Barrel cacti were screaming for “Agua!” If you know where both of those species live (in the hottest and driest parts of the desert), then you know that they don’t complain a lot. Scorching 118 degree heat and an occasionally thundershower is all they need to thrive.
We didn’t even get that in the past year. I’ve had to do some emergency hand-watering.
The Desert Tortoise, the official reptile of the State of Nevada, is hiding deep in its burrow, hallucinating about moisture-rich edibiles…
The local Virgin River, which drains the southwestern corner of Utah, crosses the Arizona Strip for a few miles, and enters Nevada near Mesquite, has been a mere ribbon of water in the past couple of years. I’m guessing that this wannabe river helps to replenish groundwater stores in this region… which is experiencing a growth spurt.
There is a lot of concern by many in Mesquite about the future of domestic water availability here in town. The local Virgin Valley Water District doesn’t seem to be too concerned, as it continues to supply “can serve, will serve” letters to Pulte and other large residential developers working the area. Pulte, alone, plans 500 new homes this year and we can probably expect another 500 from the other builders in Mesquite.
Where is all of that additional domestic water going to come from??? It doesn’t rain much in our watershed and a water district can only mine the underground aquifer for so long. Water shortages have become a common feature in Southern California (where we immigrated from) and rationing is becoming common there. I hope that isn’t our future here, as I would hate to lose all of my drip-irrigated landscaping.
This conversation is making me thirsty: I need a Coke.
