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Old May 21, 2019   #10
AlittleSalt
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I can't sleep after mowing for 2 hours today. I watched the first 15 minutes of the video Worth shared - my internet is just too slow lately. I did get to the part where they were talking about keeping cattle in an area for too long. That was very easy to see when I was much younger. The county I live in used to be known as the state's #1 dairy county. Those cows would eat every blade of grass, and it didn't have a chance to grow back. I've seen chickens do the same thing in a pen. Things change, and I can point out many places that used to be dairies, but I'm not sure if the county I live in still has an operating dairy today.

As I wrote, I only saw 15 minutes of the video, but earlier in the video they talked about desertification. From my house, you can drive to the east 100 miles and it is lush vegetation. Drive 100 miles to the west and it's the complete opposite.

I also wrote about mowing today. I mowed an area that I usually leave alone. I mowed because it is yellowing like you would expect in drought conditions, but it has rained too much - not too little. The weeds looked bad, and I wanted to mow it because it was an eyesore. While/After mowing, those plants are basically dead and have already gone to seed. That's why it looks so bad. I have no idea if it has anything to do with that video, but herbicides or anything like Roundup overspray is not even a possibility.

I personally think the abundance of flooding rain caused those weeds to shift their focus from growing to seed production. I saw this in 2015 with tomato plants - 2015 rainfall more than doubled the yearly average here. 73+ inches of rain, and I added the + because often times the rain gauge overfilled. This has been like it was in 2015 but it started last September through now in May.

There was one other thing that really surprised me. A few days after the last flash flood, we have a drainage ditch in red clay. I expected it to be wet and muddy, but instead it has dried hard - like we are in a drought, but we're not, and the temperatures have been in the low 80s with mostly cloudy skies with exception of 2 days of mostly sunny conditions.. It's just my observations. I will take pictures tomorrow if it's not raining - it's supposed to rain though.

Last edited by AlittleSalt; May 21, 2019 at 02:49 AM. Reason: Missing word "Rain"
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