Shari’s Gone Country

Just after lambing, we began to hear that we’d want to kick up a project I’ve been working on for the past year or so. You see, shortly after Bev, Cindy and Mom arrived here in Utah back in 2005, they got wind of a really sweet “local government contract” that could become available at any time.

That’s actually one reason I joined them here. It’s a contract to provide food service for the Senior Citizen Center and Meals on Wheels in the neighboring county. The folks who have the contract now may be retiring by December. At least that’s been the consensus amongst the seniors.

We’d like to have that contract. So I’ve been preparing the full business plan, finding recipes, building menus and costing them out for the past couple of months. It’s quite a task.

Additionally, Bev and I are the relief cooks for the folks who hold the contract and we’ve been asked to fill in for them a couple times this spring, including the past week.

How’s the farm?

The lambs are growing up fast. Tuesday we’ll be loading up the ewe’s and lambs for a short trip to the neighbor’s farm. There, we’ll have the ewe’s sheared and then return home. Then it will be back to the neighbor’s to pick up our ram, who’s been enjoying “ram camp”.

We’ve begun work on the basement. By the time we’re done, we’ll have a full walk-in pantry, enclosed storage for all our extra “stuff”, an office, a family room, and I’ll finally get my own bedroom… No more sleeping on the hide-a-bed in the living room.

We’re also replacing the fascia and soffits starting with the back of the house. The front will wait until next year.

The greenhouse is up and loaded with plants. We built raised boxes for Mom. Now, that was a chore, indeed. As of now, we have tomatoes, egg plant, broccoli, spinach and some herbs planted. Mom also has some flowers waiting for it to stay warm enough at night so they can go to the front yard.

All the tulips have been removed (they’re being relocated), and that area is ready for other plants.

We’ve expanded our outdoor garden patch to include the area in front of the chicken coop. Last fall, we threw some pasture seed out there, but between the birds and the wind, the seeds never had a chance.

This year we’ve planted potatoes, onions and garlic. At least those are fairly “critter-proof”.

Next up will be the “tender” stuff, like carrots, beans, cucumbers, melons and squash. Between the weather and the critters, those crops have been a challenge for us.

Bev and I are going to a “food show” later this week, but hopefully I’ll find time to get new pictures of our little piece of paradise in the desert.

Yeah, I know… I’ve neglected this diary.

All things considered with the experience at the Senior Center, we had a “family meeting” and have now officially set our sights on obtaining the food service contract whenever it becomes available.

So, this past few weeks, my task has been to flesh out the bare bones business plan we put into place last year. In addition to my “animal husbandry” experience, I also have a 30-year career in the food industry.

I’ve put together a plan that will work for us, and provide enough income to keep us interested, while providing very high-quality meals for the seniors in our area. Additionally, I purchased a program for “kitchen management” that takes care of everything from scaling recipes, to grocery lists, yields, preferences, etc. What a find!

We have no idea when Bill and Sue will choose to retire, but we intend to be ready for the process, no matter our competition.

I’ve still got more work to do, so will be a bit spotty in my updates.

Our weather here has been more like Oregon than Utah. The snow pack in the high mountains is nearly 150% of normal, awesome news for the water situation. Our concerns are that we’ll get a really fast thaw, and find ourselves under water… yes, even here on the desert.

It flooded in the spring of 2005, just a few months before Cindy and Bev moved here. Fortunately, there was no damage to the house, but I hear the roads were impassible and St. George suffered serious flooding.

I’ll tell you how bad it’s been this winter… We all bought (and use daily), muck boots! The mud between the chicken coop and the sheep water station is about 4 inches deep. The horses area is bad, too. We get snow, then thawing, then rain, then sun and it starts to dry… then it snows again, and we start all over.

Time to put on the boots and feed the animals now… I’ll be back later (with pictures, even).

January went out with a big snow storm… and February came in with even more snow. Of course, for us, that meant wind, which blew most of our snow to the next county.

Since the first of February, I’ve been kind of “missing in action” as far as blogging goes.

Way early on Friday, February 1, we got one of “those” phone calls. It was still dark, and I was really getting my best sleep when all of a sudden I heard Cindy calling to me… “Shari, Bev’s on the phone with someone and I just heard your name taken in vain!”

What the hell…?

I tumbled out of bed (and that’s not a pretty sight) only to discover there was no time for shower… Not even time to make my bed. Get dressed immediately! We’ve got to fill in at the Senior Center for Bill and Sue (the food service contractors). Thankfully, someone had started the coffee…

It seems Bill’s father had suffered a massive stroke, and Bill was a basket case. The father is quite old, and living with them. He was put on “hospice” earlier this year, so the end really is near.

By the time Bev and I got to the Senior Center, Bill had started on the meatloaf. Chris, the Center manager was helping out. She sent Bill home to be with his Dad. She’s added some ingredients to the meatloaf.

I got there and finished what I called “Meat Loaf by Committee”. The rest of lunch was Oven Roasted Potatoes and a green vegetable. Bev took care of the salads and dessert ( a cake).

We ended up cooking all last week. That’s something that absolutely fatigues me. It’s been 12 long years since I last cooked professionally, and my body just screams at me.

Going into this kitchen is quite similar to that program called “Dinner Impossible” on the Food Network.

We changed the menu around, since some of the things scheduled were  “pet recipes” and there were no written instructions. I didn’t really want to mess with those.

Monday morning we battled the elements getting to work as we’d had a snow storm on Sunday. Additionally, Cindy had left the windows in the Avalanche open a couple of inches. (She smokes and was airing out the truck). Well, it was 4 degrees inside and outside the truck. with 1/4 inch of ice on all the windows.

That was the COLDEST 15 mile ride… might as well have been on the horse!

I scrambled all morning to get lunch done on time. The menu… Beef Stroganoff over Noodles with Green Vegetables. The first of the Meals on Wheels go out at 11 AM and we didn’t get to the Center until almost 8 after stopping to pick up the groceries at the local store.

Wednesday wasn’t much better. Again I was scrambling around. We had Country Fried Steak (really breaded chicken patties), made from scratch Roasted Garlic Smashed Potatoes, and made from scratch Glazed Carrots. You know how long it takes to peel 20# of potatoes and 8# of carrots?

Thursday we had to go to St George and shop for the Friday lunch. Since we took the Senior bus and had other seniors with us… it was an all-day trip by the time we shuttled around St George for doctors’ appointments, shopping at three different stores, and lunch, plus the 2-hour round trip drive.

Friday was the “easy” day. Pop the frozen lasagna into the oven. Open cans of green beans. Open cans of applsauce. Open bags of salad. We were really thankful for the “slack day”.

Sadly, Bills father passed away on Wednesday and as I’m writing this, they are having the Memorial Service for him.

This next week will be back to “normal” as they’ll return to work for a while. In time, we’ll fill in when they want some time off for themselves. Hopefully, we’ll have more than a quick phone call.

It’s been a while since I posted pictures of life here in our little corner of the world.

One of our most prized possessions is our digital camera. It’s not real fancy, and we’ve had it for more than a couple of years… but we use it to record the good times and the bad. Even as relaxed as life is here… we use the camera a lot. It’s a huge memory helper!

The last photo journal was of all the “get ready for winter” projects; the wood is cut and stacked, the ewe’s are bred, the horses have new and expanded shelter, the hay is in and covered… and the chickens… well, they’re happy in their home, giving us nearly a dozen and a half eggs every day.

So, here goes… when it’s winter in Beryl, life slows down a lot…

The first week in December, just after getting the decorations up, we had snow in the late
evening. I was the only one still in my boots… so, here are two very quick pictures taken during the snow and wind. Later in the month, we had “thunder snow”, and twice we had to bundle up and hustle out to shore up the nativity scene and get the trees upright.

What an amazing site, to have the wind blowing better than 40 mph, snow coming down sideways, hearing thunder and seeing lightening within just a second as the storm passed directly over our house.

Sunrises are beautiful every morning… but some mornings they’re better than others. And yes… it’s really as cold as it looks.

We have time for more leisurely breakfasts, and with plenty of farm-fresh eggs, French Toast is a family favorite. Throughout the year, we most always have one meal together each day. On the weekends, it’s breakfast, generally on Saturday.

“Mom” always makes sure there’s enough for all five dogs, once we’ve had our fill. Now, the dogs… well, anytime we’re (make that “Mom”) are (is) at the table, once the serious cutting of food begins, it’s time to line up for “bites from the fork”.

This is December in Beryl. The first snow has come, and the very bright sunlight returned… time for some awesome picture-taking. About the only trees that grow well are the Chinese Elms. We have a row to the north of our driveway, and next year will plant a row on the south and then to the north west of the house to provide wind protection for the horses, and sheep.

The other day, Cindy heard a little noise outside her open bedroom window. Lo and behold here’s a little Screetch Owl, who’s obviously looking for a warm spot. He let me get as close as I wanted to get his picture. We’re not sure, but we think he’s probably the same little owl we found a week later in our driveway, cold and dead after yet another snow storm. Close inspection revealed a broken wing… was it a critter, or did he fly into the truck? We’ll probably never know.

Christmas in Beryl is fun… Bev plays Santa Claus (ok, so she’s not exactly “santa”) for the Senior Center. I thought this was a cute picture of “Mom” with Santa. Funny how their tops nearly match.

This year we got really lucky and “Santa” came to visit the dogs… boy, were they impressed. As long as Santa had treats, they thought that was pretty awesome, but pictures? Come on… as Coco put it… “You’ve got to be kidding!”

Kiki, Koda and Sarah figured Santa smelled familiar enough to hang around, especially since there were treats involved… the lunch mouths!

For the past two months, we’ve been getting ready for winter. The wood is chopped and stacked… in fact, some of it has been moved to our little front “patio area” under the carport overhang.

Today, we even bucked a bale of hay into the stable for use over the weekend. We’ve been working from under the blue tarp… You know… open the closest bale and pull books from it as necessary until it’s gone. We use about 9 books a day, and there are about 27 books in our bales… so we’ll have Friday, Saturday, and into Sunday covered.

The sheep are just fine… got three bales of hay within a short distance. The only problem is, it’s uncovered. So, the snow will be an issue… that’s life.

The chickens now have a heat lamp 24/7. We’re bringing in one of their 1-gallon waterer’s and rotating them morning and evening.

Bev works tomorrow and Mom is supposed to go with her to the Senior Center. I would be surprised if that plan changes, even though we’re expecting snow.

Last Saturday, we got three inches of snow in about an hour, just as Cindy and I were heading out to feed.

Bev and I had been watching the sky on our way home from Enterprise… it really looked mean. The closer we got to home, the meaner the sky got. I barely had time to tell Cindy “lets go feed now”.

I got to the chicken coop with their feed, when all of a sudden… the wind came up. I mean it shook the coop to the point the birds were startled. I had my winter coat on, but my cap and gloves were in my pockets.

So there I stood amongst all the birds clamoring for to get to their feeders, fumbling around trying to get my hat and gloves on… when Cindy trudged by, leaning into the wind to stay on her feet.

It was already sleeting… stinging our faces as we worked our way to the stable and the sheep pen. Within a minute or two, we were in a white out. The stable is about 400 feet from the house, and Cindy reported she couldn’t see the house from the stable.

I battled the wind to load hay into the sheep feeder(and get it to stay there), and to fill the water trough. Within just a couple minutes, our normally black sheep were light gray.

I retreated to the protection of the chicken coop and watched for Cindy… some 250 feet north of me, when all of a sudden… here came Bev. She and Mom were concerned that we wouldn’t find our way back to the house… the weather was that bad!

So, we’re ready for a repeat as once again the jet stream (and very cold air) is dipping down across SW Utah, and there’s a huge wet storm riding on the “Pineapple Express”. When these two collide over us… we get “heavy weather”, and that could result in snow.

The ski area a hundred or so miles east of us is expecting up to three feet of snow. They’ll be skiing in waist-deep powder!

It’s now Friday morning and I’m about to do something I’m not too sure about. What’s worse… I’m not the only one.

You see, Cindy is my chauffeur and she absolutely, positively hates driving in any kind of city traffic. Bev has to work, and there’s no way we’ll let her take time off and not get paid.

So, bright and early… as in blinding sun in our eyes, we begin the long drive from our little desert hideaway to St George, actually clear to the other end of it. Make that a distance of some 75 miles.

Until we get to the St George cut-off, the sun’s not too bad. Now, combine the rising sun (in the southeast sky) with a two-lane highway going through a mountain pass, and you’ve got a recipe for adventure. You can encounter deer, slow moving trucks, school buses stopped along side the road… even falling rocks.

Thankfully, all we encountered was a slow driver “Blondi in a Caddie” who was being overly cautious as she braved the pass.

Our directions were simple enough, just stay on the same road until after we cross over I-15 and pass the cow pasture. When we see llamas on the left, the driveway to the dental office is on the right.

After a quick stop at Starbucks… my first in nearly 10 months, we proceed to the dental office.

Now, this isn’t your normal well-stocked very modern office, where you know your bill will be three figures just for being there, let alone having anything done. No, this is a free clinic ($5.00 donation greatly appreciated). Since I don’t have any income, I qualify (not sure that’s a claim to fame, either).

It’s 10am and time to hop into the chair. No arm rests, the head rest doesn’t adjust… oh well, just open wide for a quick x-ray. Yes, the dental tech did have a lead-filled protective vest for my other vitals.

Problem confirmed, here comes the dentist. He’s a big ol’ boy… real cowboy looking. And, he starts jabbering from the time he enters the room.

After a bit of probing (kind of lancing the abscess) he says to the tech… No sense probing any more and creating more pain. Give me two full vials of Novacaine. He then explains to her (she’s really new) that when you’re working on the mandibula (guess that’s the lower jaw) you’re better off just to numb it to the max than do one now and one again later… Thanks Doc… I think.

She’s not getting the syringe loaded correctly and he’s afraid she’ll bend the needle so he reaches across my face and loads the damn thing right over me… Good thing I’m not squeamish.

Within 5 minutes, the whole right side of my face is totally numb, including my ear, and half-way down my neck. Doc returns again… this time he’s at least added a surgical mask. He’s still jabbering, though. I don’t even try to answer. After all, my mouth is wide open, there’s the little vacuum thingy, and his fingers all in my mouth.

One probe, a request for something called a “cow horn” that has been stored in a sterile plastic baggy, a quick twist, and suddenly, the tech is stuffing a big piece of gauze in my mouth and telling me to bite down.

“All done”, she says.

Total time in the chair, less than 20 minutes… no fuss, no muss, not even any pain.

So, what was Doc jabbering about? He wants to hunt some “legal” prairie dogs. Most are protected in Utah.

Even though I couldn’t open my mouth, Cindy joins in the chat and we kill another 15 minutes talking about where he’s from… Wyoming, has two other brothers who are also dentists. He even had a dental office in one of the towns I spent my toddler years in… Wheatland.

Two days later, most of the swelling (abscess) has gone away. The antibiotic is killing whatever infection is there. My system is surviving nicely, thanks to an understanding “family”.

Mom even made meatloaf yesterday, with mashed potatoes, gravy, and well-cooked cauliflower. She’s made jello for me, as well as shared some of her tea.

Unless plans have changed… I think I have to “grow up” to real food tonight. I heard hamburgers are on the menu, and I don’t want to get left out.

Ya’ know… it could have been worse.

Oh, you didn’t know there was more than one crash? Yes, “Shari’s Gone Country” has been missing in action for a few days. That is the result of a hardware failure at the datacenter.

At the same time, I’ve gone missing in action thanks to a tooth that “went sour” and abcessed… not a fun thing. You see, I look more than “chipmunky”… I look like a pocket gopher with a full pouch.

That’s really bad news, too… Cindy dispatches those critters with her handy .410 shotgun!

Now, let me tell you… when you live in the desert, have no income ’cause you don’t have a job, you’re at the mercy of “the system”. Thankfully, we have a clinic in Enterprise (17 miles away) that at least provides an evaluation. The Physician’s Assistant is very nice and knowledgeable… except about teeth and abscesses that occur.

I got lucky, if you could call it that.

The clinic knew of a free dental clinic in St. George (67 miles one way). The catch… I had to get there within the next 4 hours for an “intake evaluation”. That means they’d discover I have no income, I have a very swollen jaw, and say… yep, you’re qualified. See you at 10 on Friday… two days later.

The PA had also prescribed a “kick butt” antibiotic that they assured me was on the Wal-Mart $4.00 generic Rx list. She had wanted to shoot me, but didn’t have the med on hand, so would have to pick up a ’script while I was in St. George. Enterprise is too small to support it’s own pharmacy.

Wouldn’t you know it. The folks at the Wal-Mart in Bloomington were being their usual selves. We arrived there at 4:25 pm to pick up a ’script that had been called in at 1 pm. No, they didn’t know anything about it… oh wait… “have you been here before? We found it… and need more information from you.”

At that time, we again confirmed the kick-butt stuff was on their $4.00 list, and they agreed.

Forty minutes later (after standing in line three times) the cashier said “that will be $49.52 please”. Say what?????

Now it was after clinic hours, no one answered the phone… Good Grief, and I was supposed to take this stuff IMMEDIATELY… as in as soon as possible after we could hustle our butts from Enterprise to St. George.

So, ask the nice pharmacist… how much could I get for $4.00? I could see at least 14 maybe 20 tabs in the bottle. By my math, that would let me get started on this stuff while we got a different ’script. Even if there were only 10 in the bottle… at $49.52 that would be $5.00 per pill… but no, there were at least 14 or more.

His reply… each pill is $12.00!

I’ll do your eyes a favor and not repeat what I wanted to say besides “see ya!”

So, it’s back to Beryl with no meds. But there’s good news… Jackie the PA had prescribed a combo of Ibuprofen and Tylenol. I could run the dose up to 800 mg of Ibuprofen (had to figure if it was in the Tylenol product). Now, that stuff kicked the pain… and even helped reduce the swelling.

Let’s see… It’s now Wednesday night. This tooth went bad over the weekend, and the swelling started Monday night. So there was little sleep Monday, less sleep Tuesday… I mean even the dog slept on the couch since I was flopping around like a fish out of water.

I did get a good night’s sleep Wednesday night.

Thursday… it’s back to St George to a different pharmacy for the ’script. Only this time, I take the “Enterprise Senior Bus” as Bev is the driver. We leave our house shortly after 8 am.

Now, the road to St. George isn’t exactly a super highway, except for that nice smooth 4-lane section at “The Ledges”. The bus isn’t one of those smooth-riding coaches. It’s a rattle-trap with few amenities other than heat and air conditioning.

The good news… about 11am I finally take the first dose!

The rest of the day is spent ferrying folks from place to place. We go to Costco, Deseret Books, Wal-Mart, IFA and finally to lunch at “The Golden Corral”, an awesome buffet. Not having eating more than a couple of small containers of yogurt over the past 60 hours… I’m famished. Thankfully I can handle the meat loaf, mashed potatoes/gravy, mac and cheese, steamed zucchini, and even bread pudding.

That took the edge off!

And with that, one more store stop and then back to Enterprise to off load the groceries and supplies into the truck and on to Beryl. Boy did the hot pack feel good when I got home!

This post is a personal opinion by a resident of Escalante Valley. It is also posted in conjuction with Bloggers’ Unite, and effort to bring world-wide attention to abuse of all kinds.

I’ve done a little research on this issue of suddenly needing to restrict the use of water in Escalante Valley, Utah.

In the state of Utah, water is public property, and to use it personally, you must purchase “water rights”. Typically, they are sold by the acre-foot (325.8 thousand gallons). You purchase that right for a lifetime, to use annually.

Over the years, the State Water Engineer has established water usage “duties” as well as the formulas determining how much water it takes to do certain activities, like irrigation. The duty for irrigation water in this valley is four acre-feet of water per acre of crop, no matter the crop, or the irrigation method.

In our valley, the most prevalent crop is alfalfa. Corn and potatoes comprise less than 20% of total crop production. Also, of all the water used, less than 10% of the water rights are dedicated to domestic or culinary use.

The State Water Engineer has been tasked with the requirement to establish Ground Water Management Plans for various regions in Utah. The Beryl-Escalante Aquifer has been singled out as an example of “water mining”. That is the unique situation where far more water appears to be removed annually that is re-charged by natural runoff.

Here’s what I find interesting.

Water users, including the large irrigation users do not meter their water. Home users don’t meter their water. So just exactly how do you really know how much is being used?

The State Water Engineer bases his figures on how many “water rights” have been sold and recorded with the state. It shows there are approximately 83,000 acre-feet of water rights issued in the Beryl-Escalante Valley Basin.

Best “guesstimates” are an annual re-charge rate of some 33,000 acre feet.

Unfortunately, there is no credit for conservation of water. The State Water Engineer’s office makes no distinction for the difference of using a “corn gun” vs using drip irrigation, or even calculation the savings generated by simply lowering the sprinkler heads on the large pivot wheels.

Their water usage tables are way out of whack when it comes to how much water is used for watering farm animals. We water three horses, nine sheep, and just under two dozen chickens. We control the water we use by always putting the water into measured containers.

Our horses rarely drink more than 15 gallons per horse per day, and yet the calculations say we are using 75 gallons per day.

Our entire herd of sheep rarely drink more than 20 gallons per day and yet, the State Water Engineer declares the sheep drink 45 gallons per day.

Our chickens rarely collectively consume more than 4 gallons of water per day, and yet the forumlas say our chickens consume nearly 18 gallons per day.

So, if we use about half or so of what we’re allowed, what happens when that figure is multiplied across the valley population?

The large water users have formed a group called the Escalante Valley Water Users Association. They have come up with a plan that is unprecedented in Utah history. In addition to actively working to conserve water usage, they are willing to participate 50/50 with the state to repurchase and retire up to 20% of the existing water rights.

That is a much more palatable solution than the one proposed by the State Water Engineer. His solution is to cut off water rights for anyone who’s rights are dated more recently than 1941. That solution would take away virtually all the domestic water rights. With no domestic rights, homes become unfit for occupancy and millions of dollars worth of property become worthless overnight.

The State Water Engineer has been routinely rejecting any plan offered by the Escalante Valley Water Users Association. I personally believe that after the meeting this last Monday night, at which almost all the local legislators pledged their whole-hearted support… things may change.

If in fact, the State Water Engineer is being short-sighted and heavy-handed to the point of abusing the valley… things could get very exciting.

We (along with about 300 other local residents) attended a meeting presented by the Escalante Water Users Board. This is a group of large agricultural users who have been diligently working on a plan to stimulate water conservation and also to assist the state by developing a plan to re-purchase and retire “water rights”

Seems that the largest issue surrounding the plan offered by the Water Users is that the Utah State Engineer, who is personally and solely in charge of administering Ground Water Management Plans, feels the plan is “woefully short” of goals set forth by the State Legislature.

Basically, the state passed a Ground Water Management Law that says “The State Engineer may establish Ground Water Management Plans where necessary for conservation to reach a “safe usage level”… and that he shall consider any and all economic impact to the local water users.

The Escalante Desert Valley sits atop an aquifer who’s size has yet to be fully determined. We know that in the 1950’s average well water levels were around 46 feet. Today, the average well level (as determined by 11 monitored wells out of thousands) the water level is closer to 90 feet.

Since most wells are drilled to about 200 feet, no one really knows for sure how deep the aquifer really runs. No one knows for sure how long it takes for the mountain snow to re-charge this underground lake either.

Now the State Engineer would love to exercise the “easy solution” quite soon. That would be to come to “safe usage” within a matter of a few years. After all, he could say this is what he was directed to do, and he did it.

Utah law provides that water rights and the restrictions of their usage is based on “first priority” by date. For all practical purposes, to return to “safe usage” in the near future, anyone who owned water rights dated any more recently than the end of 1941 would lose the right to use water… even if it meant they’d have no domestic (culinary) water right.

That means a person’s home would become immediately unfit for occupancy, and financially worthless. That would affect hundreds of homeowners throughout the valley.

For further information on this “abuse” of power by the State Engineer, check the latest article, written by Mitch Cole a resident of Beryl Junction and member of The Spectrum and Daily News Writers Group.

Living here in the Escalante Desert Valley, we’re always concerned about water, and “water rights”. For the record, we officially have 1 acre-foot of water for our use. That means we can use up to 325851.428571 gallons of water per year.

When I do the math, it figures out this way. Each day we can use up to 892.745 gallons of water. For the four of us and all our animals… that seems like a lot of water.

Don’t get me wrong, we’re not the least bit interested in giving up any of our water rights. In fact, we’d like to purchase one additional acre-foot, but at a minimum asking price of over $5,000, it’s not likely to happen in the near future.

Now, I’ve done a little investigating (anyone can do this with access to the right links), and personally believe someone needs to really think through the formulas.

For example here are the basic allowances for different kinds of livestock.

cow or horse 0.028 acre-foot
sheep, goat, swine, moose, or elk 0.0056 acre-foot
ostrich or emu 0.0036 acre-foot
llama 0.0022 acre-foot
deer, antelope, bighorn sheep, or mt. goat 0.0014 acre-foot
chicken, turkey, chukar, sagehen, or pheasant 0.00084 acre-foot
mink or fox (caged) 0.00005 acre-foot

When I calculate this on a daily basis, it tells me that our horses are expected to consume an average of 25 gallons per day, per horse. Our sheep are expected to consume just shy of 5 gallons per day per sheep. Our chickens are exptected to consume 3 quarts per chicken per day.

Folks, that’s a lot of water per animal, and since we control our water through the use of measured containers, these figures are excessive.

For domestic use, we’re allowed a full 100 gallons per person as there are four of us in the family and we get 401 gallons per day. Again, the allowance is very generous.

Now, here’s the problem.

The State of Utah believes the water table in this valley is being depleted by overuse, and they are setting about changing how things are done… and that includes the distinct possibility that “water rights” which have been purchased could be disallowed. And that would be done without compensation.

We’re going to a valley-wide meeting tonight where we will learn a whole lot more about what’s happening. There are some huge farmers in this valley who have the rights to 1000’s of acre-feet of water who are most unhappy. They’ve formed a “Conservation District” and are laying plans to fight any action by the state.

This could get interesting. I’ll be blogging more about this over the next two days leading up to a world wide “blog-a-thon” sponsored by Bloggers Unitie, entitled “Stop the Abuse”.