Out There: Stories from the Woods

By Christopher Miller

In recent weeks I sat waiting to hear the word that we all fear throughout a long, hot, and dry summer season…”drought.” True though, technically we are only more than a month into the summer season which started on June 21.

Though I think we are technically in a drought now, no official word has been made known as far as I can tell.

“Drought” has different meanings for different people. The federal government defines it as a deficiency of precipitation over an extended period of time, usually a season or more.

If you ask a farmer, their definition might be a period of moisture deficiency that affects crops under cultivation – even a couple of weeks without rainfall can bring stress to many crops.

Because of the lack of rain I am afraid to water my garden. We still do it – every other day we will turn on the sprinkler for 20-30 minutes and let it saturate the tomatoes and peppers.

Even though we are in a Thunderstorm Watch as I write this column (Sunday afternoon), the length of these short storms isn’t much to be impressed by for watering the gardens. Heck – I haven’t had to cut the grass in three weeks (and I am not complaining).

Earlier this week I wrote a short news release about bear issues that have been taking place around the county. Bears were feasting on food outside of Bucktail Medical Center, my neighbors and I had bears enjoying our garbage. I like to think of this problem as “what happens when we have a lot of heat and little rain.”

One time I was leaving a friend’s house near Nittany Minit Mart in Dunnstown. It was one of those very hot summers with little rain. As I turned the corner (walking) to my car, a small-ish yearling or so was sniffing around the passenger-side door. Not having this experience before, I booked it back into the house and watched as a PPL lineman and a township cop shined lights into backyards looking for the bear that they also witnessed nearby.

Rain affects a lot more than just my garden and Lou Bernard’s love of cutting his grass.

Pictures posted recently from the Slate Run area show Pine Creek at near-historic lows, making the average person able to cross the creek while barely getting wet at some spots. Yes – walking across Pine Creek!

The river height at the Jay Street Bridge in town is hovering between 6 and 7 feet (Sunday afternoon) and people are still enjoying their boats.

What I want you to get out of this piece is that though most of the area is bone dry and we aren’t spending much money on gas for the mowers now, unless we get the needed rain, we might be faced with the harsh reality of being in a drought.

Please conserve water where you can and consider alternative methods to watering gardens, like collecting rainwater when it finally decides to downpour.

Would anybody like to join me in a rain dance?