Rain Rain...

I'm sooooo fed up with this rain   :twisted:

have pickled beetroot, made pickles and chutneys
frozen beans, made tomato soup till I can't face another
tomato, even made courgette and choc muffins

If I don't get up the lottie soon I shall go mad, mad :cherry:
or failing that do the b$o%#y ironing!!!

  jen  :flower:

It's affecting farmers locally as they can't get the combines on the remaining fields, bale the remaining straw or get the ploughs on. We're in hilly country but all the fields are sodden whether uphill or in the valleys. Not good for their incomes - especially after last year.

There was standing water on the allotment yesterday - heaven help the plot holders at the bottom of the slope.

I suspect that many people here have more pressing concerns than not being able to get onto the allotment as there are certainly floods in the county and flood warnings abound.

We've got a suspended train service and whether or not there is a bus service is another matter as there are at least two flood problems on the major route through town (one on the edge of town and one further up the route).

See, now I feel really bad, I tried to turn a bad situation (rain) into a good one (water saving) and now you all say how badly the rain is affecting everyone!

*walks away quietly* :cry:

Well our allotments are on a slope, mine is about halfway up, and we do have a problem with surface water running off.

Last year the previous administration decided to flatten 20 unused allotments and were provided with a grant to do so (I know; if only we had a crystal ball to see into the future  :roll: ).  Anyway, part of this transformation was that they used a roller to flatten the soil ready for seeding with grass.  A lot of the old boys are whining that as a result of this our allotments are being flooded out...  I disagree and I think it's purely because of the amount of rain that we've had but that's a minor point.  The run off does run into the allotment at the bottom corner because of the natural layout of the land.

I rang the council and water board to see if they / we could work together to provide some sort of draining, but the council said that they wouldn't pay for it and the waterboard said they wouldn't discharge the run off anywhere.

Anyhooo,  I was thinking the other day;  when life gives you lemons; make lemonade!   We do have piped water on site but water costs are ever higher and some folks use it far too freely so I thought about digging a well and installing a hand pump!  It would provide free water for plants in dry seasons and as we wouldn't be using the metered supply it would bring down our costs whilst the well was full.  

I haven't put it to the comittee yet, but I know that they'll reject it and then the old boys will sneer about it because they're just happier to pooh-pooh other peoples ideas rather than take action.   :roll: