September 29, 2015

• An Endless Summer -- Part 4

  The net effect of the drought is that the countryside is drying up.  Trees are dying or, at the very least, stressed.  Lawns are being replaced unless there is reclaimed water available.  When we do the day trip to see the Lake, we often eat lunch at the River Golf Course, just outside Solvang.  The golf course itself is looking pretty brown, although they do have senior water rights and have been receiving some of the water currently being released from the lake.  Not only are the edges of the course beginning to brown, but the hillsides are terribly dry, and some of those trees are pretty stressed.

   

  The fairways are browning, and the river is by the side of the brown fairway -- in winter, after it rains, you can sometimes see river water in that stream-bed.

  

  Last time I was here, that brown patch was still quite green!

  

  Not only is the lake looking rather sad, but all the land surrounding it is pretty dry.  There are actually some beautiful roads in this area that I won't travel now -- the brush and trees are so dry that it might be very difficult to escape wildfire, should it begin.

  • 10:17 pm
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