waiting for hummingbirds: late february.

I think I'm finally realizing that any environment can support whatever we want from it, if we are willing to take on the challenge of its shortcomings and take advantage of its assets. Central Oregon is dry, dry, dry - and little rainfall means that most farmers suck water out of the aquifers, rivers, and reservoirs here. If just the farmers were doing it we might be okay, but since Bend is still wrapped up in that whole "the lawn should be green" idea (Central Oregon doesn't really support grass, much less the green kind), we use obscene amounts of water within city limits.

However, it's startling to me that so few people utilize water collection tanks. Even though on average we only get 12 inches of precip a year, that's still a shit load to collect if you are up to collecting it. It's not enough to grow tomatoes AND a green lawn, perhaps, but if we're talking sustainability then that green lawn isn't even on your mind. We have two rain barrels which, right now, are both completely full. When it snows instead of raining, I shovel the snow into them as well. Yes, it's labor intensive, but right now I have well over 100 gallons of water that I'll use throughout the summer to supplement our veggie gardens. If I had the drive I'd figure out how to set up a little wetland for cleaning our grey water and making that useable in the garden too.

Central Oregon also has shitty soil but that can easily be amended with, well, shit. Plenty of cows and horses here - even a bison farm just down the road. Let alone how nutritious chicken poop is! (And they eat a lot less than your average horse.)

Next is our pathetically short growing season. It's really only good conditions for growing veggies for about 90 days here, assuming you don't get a killing frost in there somewhere (which is typical). This can be handled with greenhouses, artificial lights, coldframes, and the right choice in veggie varieties.

Now, let's talk about amenities - how about sunny skies for a big part of the year? How about me drying my laundry on February 22nd on the backyard line? And happy little lettuces, spinaches, and baby radishes growing in our coldframes?

I honestly can't understand why solar panels aren't incorporated into every building in this town. I realize the cost would be high, but higher demand makes for competition and lower prices right? Or maybe I have that backwards. Anyway, we could probably run this whole town on solar power. Besides solar panels, there's just the big yummy sun. We lucked out and have killer southern sun for most of the day. This makes for easy sun tea, clothes-drying, and happy plants (given they get enough water). There's no humidity to speak of, less mosquitoes than closer-to-water areas, and little chance of fungus or molds growing in your garden.