Ever since old Noah checked the weather report on his cellphone and saw there was a 100% chance of rain for the next 40 days and nights, mankind has had this love/hate relationship with water.
Here in North Carolina this year, it’s been mostly hate, We have had devastating floods that have brought tragedy to some of the most beautiful parts of our state and country. Some 102 fatalities have been reported, and damage estimates exceed $50 billion. Other states have suffered, too, especially Florida, which managed to get hit by two severe hurricanes in less than two weeks. It’s been awful, and I’m sure your heart goes out, as mine does, to those who are suffering.
Water is essential to life, but like fire, only in moderation.
Farmers are notorious for complaining that the current season has seen either too much or too little rain. Life is good when something resembling a golden mean is reached. Or as my mother used to say, “Moderation in all things.” Usually, however, when she promulgated this maxim, the liquid she was referring to was not water, but booze. Dad agreed, although his definition of moderate was somewhat skewed to the high side as far as she was concerned.
Grape growers are no different from other farmers in regard to their views on rain. Too much and you can’t get the machinery into the fields for the mud; too little and the vines wither. Here at Union Grove Farm, we have an extensive irrigation system that assures the crops get enough water, but there is really nothing we can do when they get too much. In California, on the other hand, vineyard managers can pretty much control the water they get. Soggy, overwatered fields are unknown, unless some careless worker leaves the spigot on. To supply the water for irrigation, we have constructed at least nine ponds on the property, which is good in and of itself, attracting birds and water-friendly plants.
Our regenerative practices here at Union Grove are very water friendly. Good soil, the kind we built with the help of our red wiggler worms, retains water way, way better than the clayey stuff we are amending. And the grapes like it, too.
This month at the Little House by the Vineyard, where I live, we had a serious water shortage for a few days after a pipe burst in the crawl space, meaning that I had nothing coming out of my faucets except some extra Halloween moans. Fortunately, the crack U.G. team was able to restore things to normal with only a minimal number of false steps. They did call in a two-man team of professionals at one point, and it was the pros who actually repaired the pipe in the crawl space.
It was a two-man crew, and that was the key to their success. In order to fix any problem involving entering my crawl space, you must have a two-man crew consisting of 1) a boss, and 2) a peon. The boss, like the resident (me) wouldn’t be caught dead in that horrid place, but the peon must do it when the boss orders. So the job gets done.
This may indeed be a case of class exploitation, but in these benighted times, when even the peons are voting Republican, such intellectual conjectures are scarcely worth remarking.
Water shortages are always local problems, involving the transportation of water from where it is to where it is wanted. There is no global water shortage, and never has been. Indeed, there has been approximately the same amount of water on the planet, since, well, forever. You see, living things don’t actually consume water, in the same way we do other liquids such as petroleum. The water we use simply flows through us and back to earth, and the earth is a gigantic water purifying system. You learned this in the sixth grade: evaporation, condensation, precipitation.
Sure, some of it is polluted, even the oceans which cover five sixths of the planet’s surface, what with all that sea salt, which you pay extra for at the store, although I have never understood why. NACL is NACL isn’t it? Desalination, is a very simple technology, so it has always been a surprise to me that mankind hasn’t gone to it in a really big way and pumped it into, say, the Sahara, causing it to bloom and become fruitful. It can’t be that expensive. But maybe it’s just me. I once proposed giant fans in the San Gabriel Mountains to suck the pollution out of Los Angeles, filter it and spew it out in the direction of Fresno, which could use a breath of fresh air.
I also favor prefabricated highways. Mull that one over and tell me why it wouldn’t save time and money on road construction.
But I stray from my subject, which is water, which I now buy in flimsy plastic bottles and big jugs. I’m old enough to remember when it was free…if your pump worked.
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Hope to see you Sunday, Nov. 17 at my book signing and poetry reading event at the Center for Regenerative Agriculture, 3501 Dairyland Road Hillsborough, NC 27278.
2-4 pm. We can talk about all my crazy ideas. Or yours. Admission and snacks are free. There’s also a free tour of the farm if you get there early, Oh, do come. It’ll be fun.
