Water, your food and the Central Valley

This is a complicated issue. It involves the food you buy and eat, a tiny fish, the Federal government control of water hastened by a bunch of nutjob environmentalists who depend on junk science, and a lack of fortitude by the state government of California, namely that idiot Arnold Schwarzenegger, to put a stop to this nonsense. Its my firm belief that anyone from Hollyweird should STAY THE HELL OUT OF POLITICS!!!!!! Just stay in Hollywood and make your fantasy world garbage. I haven't had a TV antenna or cable for 5 years now and I'm glad.

Now, to continue. It also involves water, of which there is a finite supply. Its a delicate and precarious balance here in central California. Here's how it go's. In the winter the snow storms pass over the coast range, through the valley and stop at the Sierra Nevada's. On the average of 10,000 feet plus, these mountains stop the storms and everything dumps there. It snows up there for days at a time. The people who measure the snow sometimes find it 25-30 feet deep in the high country. Amazing. The picture at the top of the page, taken on December 14th, is the view from my town in winter. When the snow melts it comes down the mountains and is gathered into dam's to be stored for use throughout the summer. We depend on those dam's and I personally believe there need to be a lot more built. There is often very little rain here in the valley and when it does rain it doesn't last long. By the way, the Central valley is way over a hundred miles long and starts near Redding and ends at Bakersfield. Look at a map of California and you'll see. 90% of the food sold in the USA and Canada is grown here. Think about it. 90%.

The idiots have turned off the water and they want the water from OUR dam's diverted to the rivers near Sacramento (which then flows into the Pacific ocean) to save a stupid little minnow called the delta smelt. Its not even a native. The wackoenviro nazis insist we curtail food production to save a fish the size of an aquarium goldfish. Madness. And they are getting away with it. For now, anyway. Let me explain what I mean when I say they turned off the water. The water is from the rivers in the northern part of the valley and they go to the Sacramento River Delta. This water is pumped out and fed to the canals that deliver it to the west side of the valley. We here on the east side don't have it so bad (yet) because we have our dam's. We still have plenty of ag business going on. The west side is a different story. Its a desert. Literally. Farms and orchards are dried up and gone as well as jobs. Have you noticed how much more expensive your produce is this year?

Which brings me to this point: gardening. Grow your own food. If you have a nice big lawn, sell the lawn mower or better yet convert it into an emergency generator. And dig up that lawn! Put in a garden and save money and your self. Learn to put food by. Canning, freezing, drying, whatever. If you have an over abundance, good! You have barter and help for those in need. I would rather help someone out who is in need than force them away in a crisis. After all is normal again you would want to have people who remembered your kindness rather than your mean actions. The biggest benefit is having fresh, non polluted food (ag chemicals like fertilizers and insecticides) that cost far less than if you bought it in a store. Here where I live its zone 9 which means I can raise food year round out in the open and only worry about frost for a week at the most. Beautiful. It makes it hard to leave here but the other problems far out way this benefit.