Water Wars

I’m sorry I haven’t had much (anything) going on the water lately. There isn’t any water around to speak of, and we continue to sit at ground zero directly under the heat dome. We’re breaking heat records every day.

I’ve poked fun at the Cimarron being called a river, because it is usually nothing more than a creek. It’s now just a trickle, but the bed does serve to bring a small amount of water down from Kansas and Colorado. There are deer tracks all around the banks, as it’s the only water to be found. We’ve been religious about putting water out twice a day in the birdbath and putting a misting hose on Jean’s pet birds outside each day as soon as the temperature tops 100. In the evening, when the temperature drops to 104, she turns the mist off and puts their food back in their cages so they have a chance to eat before it gets totally dark. Until now, the stream behind our house has never dried up, and it’s the only water around here for birds or wildlife. However, it went dry several weeks ago. We’ve had birds at the bath drinking, bathing, and just congregating and standing in the water. Even bees come to drink. Many of the things we usually see in the summer, like butterflies and hummingbirds, have just disappeared. The squirrels went to the birdbath a couple times, but then took a liking to the watering hose and irrigation system. So far they’ve chewed seven holes in the hoses, which I have to keep splicing. We even put a watering bowl and bath behind the air conditioner for them, but they continue chewing holes in the hoses a foot away. I spent one morning burying the hose, which they dug up the next morning and chomped another hole in. Here in a few minutes I’m going out to take the hose apart and run it through PVC pipe. We’ll see if that slows them down any.