This is what a drought looks like!

 

This picture was taken from ground level, looking at the "grass" that WAS my front yard. 

 

 

The few leaves of green are some weeds that just won't die.   You may say that the grass looks like it was long and never cut, and so fell over.  Well, that's only part of the story.  It was at the length that we may have cut it, but we didn't, and it started dying before we could, and it's better to leave it a bit long in case of drought, etc.

 

Then the trees started taking a hit.  This is a picture of our cypress tree, which is a water hog, and it's even sitting on or close to a septic (we don't actually know where the septic is for that part of the property; we have 2.) 

 

Obviously turning more than a bit brown.  And this is at the end of JULY!!!  This is a close-up of one of the branches. 

 

It would appear that the tree is trying to hold on, and therefore losing all the leaves down to the tips of the branches, trying to hold on for dear life.  Since this picture, the brown leaves have all fallen off, but the green remains.  Since that time, we've also had about 2 inches of rain, although not all at the same time.  We're expecting more tomorrow, and perhaps next week. 

 

You may ask why we don't water things that are stressed, or perhaps even dying.  The truth of the matter is that we live in the country and are on a well.  If the well were to run dry, we'd have to dig a new one, and that costs thousands of dollars.  If we baby the well, we can get by, and save some money.   Save a LOT of money actually.   The grass will grow again.  The trees seem to be hanging on...we'll know more in a few months, IF we get the rain we still need.  (We're about 16 inches below normal for the year.)

 

If you live on city water, you can water your lawn, flowers, etc, but there is that cost to you.  Well water costs us electricity; city water costs you like a utillity.  And if the grass doesn't need trimming, then you can save money either on your lawn service, or your back, mower and the cost of gas.  To us, it was a no-brainer.

 

This has happened to us before, about 30 years ago.  It was not as bad.  We got through it.  We'll get through this, or adapt to a "new lifestyle."  Time will tell.