Calif. - You know, it's that place that's in a drought?

Yvonne G

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I'm lucky that my house sits up on a bit of a hill, so I don't have to worry about flooding, and all these puddles will be gone a couple hours after the rain lets up.
What I call my (in my snootiest voice) courtyard:

drought a.jpg

Sorry for the blurriness. I was holding the umbrella in my left hand and aiming and shooting one handed, and it was hard to hold the camera still.

My driveway:

drought b.jpg

I had to fill the Aldabran tortoises' mud hole with scrap wood, chairs and big feeding bowls in order to keep them out of it. They sit there and don't go into the shed to warm up, and it's awfully hard to get a 200 + COLD tortoise to move.

drought c.jpg

The pond is all the way up to the top of it's boundary:

drought d.jpg

And take a look at the bottom of my driveway. There's a culvert under the side street to carry the water over into that field across the street, but that guy has disced so much in a circle that he has pushed dirt in front of the exit end of the culvert:

drought e.jpg

So, Come On all you drought ridden Californians. Post your drought pictures here. Let's all commiserate!
 

Tom

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I would love to participate, but I can't take my camera out in the rain...
 

Tom

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Here is why you don't let your sulcatas stay in their burrow over winter:
21kh3zo.jpg


I built a brick wall around the burrow entrance to keep them out starting in the fall, but I like them to still have access to this part of the enclosure in winter for egg laying and weed eating. This is what happened in the rain the day before yesterday. This burrow is about 22' long and I estimate the depth at about 12-15'. Wait… It was 22' long… Its significantly shorter now...

I'm really not sure how I'm going to fix this… I think I will need to tractor in some dirt and fill the whole thing in. I think I will have to make them dig a new burrow in a new area this summer because I'm not sure this freshly replaced earth will hold up to a newly dug burrow without a couple of year of settling and compacting.
 

Yvonne G

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Here is why you don't let your sulcatas stay in their burrow over winter:
21kh3zo.jpg


I built a brick wall around the burrow entrance to keep them out starting in the fall, but I like them to still have access to this part of the enclosure in winter for egg laying and weed eating. This is what happened in the rain the day before yesterday. This burrow is about 22' long and I estimate the depth at about 12-15'. Wait… It was 22' long… Its significantly shorter now...

I'm really not sure how I'm going to fix this… I think I will need to tractor in some dirt and fill the whole thing in. I think I will have to make them dig a new burrow in a new area this summer because I'm not sure this freshly replaced earth will hold up to a newly dug burrow without a couple of year of settling and compacting.

Wow! SoCal's mud slides with houses sliding down the hill only in a much smaller scale.
 

Tom

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Here's another one:
k3lrt1.jpg


The walls are 3 bricks high. If you look in the corner behind that mustard weed, you can get an idea about the water depth. Sulcatas love the rain, even when its cold.

Hey! Good news! I won't have to soak this guy for the next couple of days. THIS is why some of the people who live in Florida say you don't need to soak tortoises...
 
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dmmj

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they say we are at 160% capacity for snowfall right now or snowpack
 

wellington

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Here's another one:
k3lrt1.jpg


The walls are 3 bricks high. If you look in the corner behind that mustard weed, you can get an idea about the water depth. Sulcatas love the rain, even when its cold.

Hey! Good news! I won't have to soak this guy for the next couple of days. THIS is why some of the people who live in Florida say you don't need to soak tortoises...
Is that snow? If so, you got more then I do. LOL. Guess I'm not the snow belt area, at least for now LOL
 

Big Charlie

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We are in the center of the drought. I only have baby puddles, nothing major. Even the nearby park that fills up when it rains only has a smallish pond. I saw a double rainbow today.
 

Tom

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Is that snow? If so, you got more then I do. LOL. Guess I'm not the snow belt area, at least for now LOL

I had to look at the picture to see what in the world you were talking about. It doesn't snow here.

The ground in the background is all wet and apparently the picture captured the reflection of the gray sky in the shiny wet surface. It was raining really hard during the pic.
 

wellington

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I had to look at the picture to see what in the world you were talking about. It doesn't snow here.

The ground in the background is all wet and apparently the picture captured the reflection of the gray sky in the shiny wet surface. It was raining really hard during the pic.
LOL, yeah it looks just like snow. Too funny
 

Momof4

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I just saw this thread!! My yard was full of water!
I'll take pics during our next storm!
We have been trying to asphalt our driveway for a month but it doesn't get a chance to dry out.

Monday is our next scheduled date so I shop vac'd about 70 gallons of water to help dry up some dirt today.
I'm loving this rain!! I wish I had my rain barrels hooked up to the gutters!
 

Momof4

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Are you getting a ton of rain in a few days? We're supposed to get 4-5 days and about 5 inches!
We'll see!
 

Yvonne G

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Supposed to start Thurs and continue on until Saturday. Will is coming up this week-end to help me extend the leopard yard. He says he has a rain poncho.
 

keepergale

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The good news is I haven't bought any tortoise food for weeks. The "weeds" are thriving! I don't know if I'll still be this happy if we really get 5 inches of rain in a week.
 

Tom

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The good news is I haven't bought any tortoise food for weeks. The "weeds" are thriving! I don't know if I'll still be this happy if we really get 5 inches of rain in a week.

In Louisiana, I've been in storms that brought 6 inches of rain in 5 minutes. No joke.

I think we will all be ok.

P.S. My weeds are sprouting too, but off to a slow growing start. I'm guessing its due to the colder weather and over all lack of sun this year???
 

Yvonne G

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My tortoise yards have been inhabited for so long and the tortoises have eaten the weeds before they've gone to seed, so there are no weeds sprouting in my habitats. But I planted two packets of that Mediterranean seed mix I bought that came from the UK out in the new leopard yard and you should see how nicely they're growing. And it looks like a bunch of weeds like prickly lettuce, etc.
 

Momof4

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Here in San Diego in my inland area we are supposed to get 5-7" in 5 days which is barely our yearly!

I'm nervous because we just poured 40 tons of new asphalt in our driveway so I don't know how it's going to do in the rain with all the new drainage or lack of. We do have a free sandbag station about 2 miles away so we could always fill bags if we need to in a hurry.
 

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