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| Dry Lake, Central Florida, April 20, 2012 |
This is the view of what remains of our once-700-acre lake. It is barely a pond today. While we had a hint of rain today, it was but a tease. Nothing materialized. There is some talk of rain this coming weekend but it will not be of the drought-busting variety. Whatever rain we receive is to be followed by more weeks of extremely dry conditions. Typically, rainy season begins in Central Florida around late May. The past two years have -- obviously -- produced very little rain.
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| The large Queen Palms (Syagrus romanzoffiana) even look parched despite irrigation of some 20,000 gallons a month (or more). |
I had to get up on the roof today to blow off all of the Live Oak (Quercus virginiana) blooms. I stuck a little camera in my pocket and snapped a few shots from high above the parched ground. From this vantage point it appears that the lake is completely gone. You can also see two of the three large ponds (that I've labeled in the image). I've let Pond #1 become covered with water plants to paradoxically reduce some of the need for adding water to the pond. The plants shade the water and prevent some evaporation. The square pond is mostly plant free as the many crustaceans living therein eat every plant I throw in.
In this image the square pond is in the center of the image. The Big Pond is not visible toward the left of the image. It is completely covered by large live oak trees.
Above: My swing looking out on a giant field. Notice the many hoses criss-crossing the yard for irrigation.
Another view looking out toward where the lake should be.
Above: These are the blooms of the Live Oak. They appear innocuous enough, but when they die and fall they make their way into everything (car, home, clothes, hair). If they get wet they will permanently stain whatever surface they are on (car, driveway, house).
The Live Oak is monoecious. That is to say it has male and female flowers on the same plant. In monoecious species, each individual has reproductive units that are merely female and reproductive units that are merely male. Because they bear separate flowers of both sexes at the same time they are referred to as simultaneously or synchronously monoecious.
Above: The dry ground covered with Live Oak blooms. I keep the driveway and the walkways cleaned off, but still the blooms find their way into the house.
Native Americans used all parts of the Live Oak for medicinal purposes and specific parts such as leaves for making rugs, bark for dyes, and acorns for food. They also extracted oil from the acorns for various uses. The wood of Quercus virginiana is very dense and makes good firewood. The species is native to the United States and is in the Fagaceae (Beech) family.
Above: Some of the leaf litter and dead blooms on the deck. I go on the roof in my socks for better traction.
While the Live Oaks can be quite a mess for a month or so in the spring, I credit these trees with saving this house from a hurricane in 2004 that removed the roofs from many neighboring houses that were not shielded from the wind. The hurricane virtually stripped the Live Oaks of their leaves but they still offered enough wind resistance that I did not lose a single shingle in the storm that so devastated the area around the house.
Above: Some of my many hungry koi. They have become too large for this pond but I cannot move them to other ponds until the rains return. This is the only pond where they are both safe from predators and shaded from the mid-day sun which is already very intense at this latitude. To compensate for the over-abundance of fish I have several pumps running constantly to keep the water aerated.
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