barkingcatfarm

We're now officially in a "Severe Drought". Can't prep land when it is this dry, so planting is halted until we have rain. Meanwhile, the undergrowth in the forest has all died out to nearly Winter levels. And the animals, including a really persistent armadillo, are desperate for water. The armadillo is coming right through the electric fence and ripping our drip tape to shreds, causing the plants we do have in to wilt and in some cases die. If we keep water dishes outside the fence full and sardines baited on the lower strand, it seems to keep it out. 

Can you tell which beds are irrigated? Two, 300' long beds are all that can be planted. They are filled with sweet pepper & some cherry tomato plants.

Watering the wildlife

There are many water dishes, all the way around the fence. Otherwise the armadillo just chooses a new place to enter.

We've also roughed up the ground around each dish so we can spot tracks to confirm the culprit.

This area is supposed to be in deer fencing, tilled and irrigated right now. We literally had to use an auger to remove some of the old deer fence posts last month. It's that dry.

The roads are turning into sand. If we were foolish enough to try to till, that's what would happen to the soil in the fields too. If the implement would even break the ground.

Yummy. Sardines to bait the lower fence strands.

One way to look at the lowering irrigation tank is that now we can put depth marks on the intake pipe.