Rain.

[Cleita]

Time to call on our Mother Earth and the Universe to deliver a little rain. I'm a little drunk posting this because the drought is actually getting to me so out of despair and nowhere scientific to go I decided to try some woo and tonight I drank a little booze as well. I am part of the woo community here on DU and we have our own places to go to meet with each other. We seldom wander out of our zone because to be woo today is like what it was like to be otherwise ten years ago and I think you all know what I mean.

But back to the rain. Thursday, as I tried to dribble what water I could pump out of the well to water my dying rose bushes, I thought now it's time to do some manifestation. I wished, prayed and begged for rain against bright, very cloudless skies. Those skies have been relentlessly blue and cloudless for a couple a months during what is our rainy season. I started to meditate on rain falling, on me, on my neighborhood, on my town, my county, my state, every time I had a chance to focus my mind on it. To help me with the meditation, when I could do it, I accessed rain videos on YouTube. I put them on any electronic device I have if I can do it. I go to sleep to the rain videos.

Today, clouds started moving in. Yes, they are wispy clouds, but they are clouds. I can't do this by myself though. To make those wispy clouds into even foggy clouds will be more effort than I can do. To get storm clouds and rain is going to take a lot of Californians focused on pulling this energy over us.

Here is one rain video I like:

There are many, some with music. Honestly, can it hurt when there is no where else to go?

[JDPriestly]

1. Hey! Don't anybody knock Cleita's woo tonight

With this drought, it's all that we in Southern California can find comfort in.

My roses are looking mighty sad. Succulents are OK, but this drought could turn our beautiful state into a sandstorm if it doesn't break soon.

Thanks for posting, Cleita.

[Cleita]

2. Thank you for the support.

[southerncrone]

3. Not just Californians who will be effected by your lack of rain.

You are the nation's food basket. We all rely on you for fresh food. That said, I promise to lend my vibes to the effort. What's good for California, is good for us all!

[Cleita]

5. Back atcha!

[Control-Z]

7. This!!

Absolutely, this!

[longship]

4. Hopes for SoCal.

Won't go for the woo, but you are still in my thoughts.

Regardless, an easy R&K from me.

[Cleita]

6. Your good thoughts are what is needed.

[longship]

9. Now if you could only send some warmth and sunny skies to Michigan...

I, and many here, would be much appreciative.

Glad to work together with my DU SoCal friends. I lived in Ontario for ten years.

[Cleita]

13. This could work. I wish I knew more about weather patterns but it seems that

your blizzards cause our droughts or what I have noticed in the past. You warm up when we get cooler and wetter.

[N_E_1 for Tennis]

37. Pretty good place to start...

little lessons on weather patterns.
Not woo.. Maybe a little... Whew!


http://theweathercentre.blogspot.com

[legcramp]

8. In the 1930's a large number of people left the middle of the country

due to persistent drought and dust bowl conditions and moved to California.

Wouldn't it be ironic if some 80 years later the reverse were to happen?

[villager]

10. Ironically, it's because there are too many people here that California's water woes are exacerbated

Well, that, and the wastage by Big Ag.

But if this climate changed drought keeps up for an longer time... it will be all too "interesting" indeed, to see what happens...

[MADem]

14. Naaah. They'll build more desalinization plants before they leave CA.

They do this in the arid Middle East--and CA is getting into the game.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/01/business/energy-environment/a-costly-california-desalination-plant-bets-on-future-affordability.html

At the moment, the seawater is being diverted from the ocean to cool an aging natural-gas power plant. But in three years, if all goes as planned, the saltwater pulled in at that entryway will emerge as part of the regional water supply after treatment in what the project’s developers call the newest and largest seawater desalination plant in the Western Hemisphere.

Large-scale ocean desalination, a technology that was part of President John F. Kennedy’s vision of the future half a century ago, has stubbornly remained futuristic in North America, even as sizable plants have been installed in water-poor regions like the Middle East and Singapore.

The industry’s hope is that the $1 billion Carlsbad plant, whose builders broke ground at the end of the year, will show that desalination is not an energy-sucking, environmentally damaging, expensive white elephant, as its critics contend, but a reliable, affordable technology, a basic item on the menu of water sources the country will need.

Proposals for more than a dozen other seawater desalination plants, including at least two as big as Carlsbad — one at Huntington Beach, 60 miles north of here, and one at Camp Pendleton, the Marine Corps base — are pending along shorelines from the San Francisco Bay Area southward. Several of these are clustered on the midcoast around Monterey and Carmel.

[hunter]

44. The only thing dumber than mining fossil water for cities or agriculture...

... is mining fossil fuels to desalinate seawater.

Solar and wind desalinated water is ferociously expensive and then you have to use even more energy to pump it uphill from the ocean. The only reason big water projects in California work is that the fresh water is essentially free and stored as snow and groundwater at higher altitudes.

So much water in California is used in environmentally destructive ways, beyond growing food and interior household use, that it's just sad. Golf courses are almost trivial compared to damage done by suburban development and the irrigation of poisonous soils for crops that would best be grown elsewhere.

Desalinization might be feasible for long term use with nuclear or fusion power, but that leads to another unpleasant future too, where all the coastal areas of the world are urbanized. Runoff from urban areas, not to mention the damage done by the desalinization plants themselves, are very harmful to coastal wildlife and wetlands.

If we were to look at our future realistically, we would be retreating from the coasts and restoring wetlands, especially as the oceans rise and storms get worse.

Ha, ha, like that's going to happen... Nobody is going to move until their stuff is smashed up and polluting the ocean and they don't have the money to replace it. Moving a house, apartment building, hotel, power plant, boardwalk, or highway before the ocean eats it would be unthinkable, especially if it's the playground of wealthy people!

Many alternative energy and desalinization schemes, and much anti-nuclear activity, makes the natural gas industry very happy. I refuse to participate in that. Natural gas is a devil nearly as bad as coal.

Meanwhile I'm hoping for rain here in California. The hills shouldn't be brown like this in January. There shouldn't be wildfires this time of year. It's just plain scary.

[antiquie]

47. Sad, true, and well stated.

(~~~Raindancing~~~)

[Cleita]

66. We used to have a building limit of less than thirteen stories for commercial

buildings in California because of earthquakes. Then the ban on high rises got lifted. Along with it came the demand for more water for all those bathrooms and kitchens stacked one on top of the other. I remember a time in LA when there was a building boom for those high rises and the public services like water and sewage were overwhelmed by the increased demand. Although the facilities got expanded to accommodate the growth, the increased demand never went down. I was never a fan of high rises. I hated Century City when it went up. There was no consideration ever given to the fact that all that concrete and steel actually created its own climate and did nothing for the environment and demand on water.

[Control-Z]

11. K&R

If woo might bring us rain, I will add my own mental vibes to the cause. I hope it helps.

[Cleita]

16. Like I said, it can't hurt and science has no answers or help right now. n/t

[Warpy]

22. I have never seen an El Nino this strong or warm

and I'm terribly afraid that's what is keeping the west dry while the east suffers through a real winter this year. Fishermen along the northwest coast of South America aren't catching much of anything and we're dry, dry, dry.

Instead of showing signs of breaking down, it just keeps getting warmer.

[Cleita]

23. We all know that it was laid out to us years ago, what was happening.

We had no say in what the leaders of our planet were doing anyway. It's coming home and we mentally have to reverse it. We have no power otherwise if we can't group think our way out of this. I know I sound like a goof. But I think I am speaking the truth.

[subterranean]

81. At the risk of nitpicking, it's not an El Nino winter.

It's currently "La Nada," neither El Nino nor La Nina.

An El Nino would actually be welcome news for California right now, as it's usually associated with above normal rainfall there.

[stopbush]

55. Science has answers, like cloud seeding (see my post below).

And all of us in CA can help by cutting back our water usage 20%, as suggested by Gov Brown. Simple things like:

• taking shorter showers
• not running the dishwasher until it's full
• using the dishwasher, rather than washing by hand (which uses much more water than a dishwasher)
• cutting back on sprinkler use
• replacing washers in leaking faucets and toilet tanks
• running washing machines on the short cycle and waiting until you have a full load before washing
• placing a pitcher of cold water in the fridge rather than running the tap until the water is cold to get a single cup of water
• not walking away from a running tap to do another chore (why do so many native Californians do this? It must come from their childhoods when water out here was free and plentiful)
• not flushing the toilet after only peeing once - wait two or three times before flushing
• not washing the car so often
• wash the car at a car wash (which recycles water), rather than in your driveway

There are tons of things people can do to conserve water that will help to alleviate the drought's effects, something your woo can't and won't do.

[RobertEarl]

12. Rain Turtle

You need clouds, of course. And it looks like more are coming your way, up from the south.

The Rain Turtle: Draw in the sand a rough shaped turtle about 3 feet long. 4 Legs, head and tail.

Begin your dance around said turtle twisting your body as you step close to but not on the turtle, and end up facing in the four directions as you do.

All the while chanting your best imitation of a deeply spiritual Indian chant.

If this works, you owe me.

[Cleita]

15. Sounds like I need a shaman who knows the spiritual chant to do that and thanks. However,

I imagined clouds coming from the ocean not the arctic. The ocean clouds could come from the south. Right now I think most of us would be grateful for a pacific storm.

[RobertEarl]

20. You are buzzed, eh?

Arctic? In the south? Whoa...........

You can make up your own chant, or order one from me for just $9.99.

If you make up your own, just use the old Hollywood Indian idea, oh-ha-ew-wa-hoo-ha-ew-wa.

Oh, make sure you scrape away the top layer of sand to get to virgin earth.

[Cleita]

21. I really have to wonder why your image is a turtle to begin with.

It seems to me that if you are going to use animism, that being a water bird that flies, like maybe a goose, would be a better totem for bringing down clouds from the sky. Just my thought about it. I don't need turtles or sand. I notice that you like the science forum so give us Californians a scientific remedy other than waiting it out or making the industries that are causing global warming to stop it.

[RobertEarl]

29. Why a turtle?

Because turtles can do either water or land. Because we live on what's known as Turtle island.

Are all Californians so obstinate? You begged for woo, I give you woo that works and you blow it off?

Maybe it's lack of turtles that has Cali in such bad shape?

As for the science, its states you are just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Only chance you have is woo. Draw the turtle and do your dance and chant. And quit arguing.... geeez.

[Cleita]

32. Of course. You are wonderful.

select:delete

[RobertEarl]

34. Good luck.

Cali needs it. Here, we are as wet as we've ever been. Lots of turtles, too.

And yeah, I am quite wonderful. Full of wonder of the woo of the planet that science can barely describe.

[SunSeeker]

17. It hit 82 today in L.A. In January. This is insane.

It feels like summmer, with everything tinder dry. Thank goodness the winds were calm today and we didn't have another fire like we had a few days ago in Angeles National Forest.

I tried to induce rain. I got my car washed yesterday. That has always worked in the past. But for once, it looks like my car is staying clean.

We're so dry our water reservoirs are running low on water...even up north. Scary stuff.

[Cleita]

18. Exactly and they showed Folsom Lake in the news today. I once camped there with

my husband and it was a beautiful lake. What they showed was a pond surrounded by acres of sand.



One of our DUers posted about the ski workers up in Tahoe who have to leave because there is no work because there is no snow.

[SunSeeker]

19. Yup, we had to fly to Utah to go skiing this year.

There's no snow on the local mountains.

[msongs]

24. dont give up, this sort of thing has happened many times before and ended up ok many times. nt

[3Stones]

25. Oregon needs rain too

and a snowpack! This is going to be a scary summer. I'll go to the beach everyday and draw a turtle in the sand and pray for rain for all you folks in California and Oregon. Blessed Be all that is good in this world. Blessed be the earth, the sky, the clouds, the waters, the mother, the father...I'll chant, I'll sing....

[Cleita]

28. Welcome to DU.

[silverweb]

26. K&R

[font color="navy" face="Verdana"]Certainly can't hurt, just might help. I choose to believe that our collective thoughts and intentions can make a difference.

[Cleita]

33. Luv U

[Hekate]

27. I'm with you in this, Cleita

We've never met IRL, but I know you share the Central Coast with me. My yard is dead and dying; the dirt is dust. The front yard should be carpeted in yellow-flowering sour grass, but what's there is is barely poking above the carpet of crispy leaves from the liquidambar trees....

"Woo" has more than one meaning. It also means to court like a lover, to persuade. So let us woo our Mother Earth and Father Sky to bring us the life giving rain.

Hekate

[Cleita]

31. Just imagine the rain falling over you, please, no matter where you go

at the least. I think you know better ways.

[vanlassie]

30. The last time thus happened in the eighties,

I used a bucket to recycle our bath water into the washing machine. Praying for a wet spring. I don't want my gardens to die.

[pnwmom]

35. We're with you, up here in Washington.

The whole west coast is dry.

[Squinch]

36. Count me in Cleita. Vibes from the East.

[Bluenorthwest]

38. California

California is not alone in this, the whole West is without rain.

[Cleita]

42. Yes, and I hope everyone affected joins in.

The more who do, the more powerful it becomes.

[OnionPatch]

39. I'm with you.

If ever there was a time or place for woo, it's here and now. (We're in SoCal) My husband did his own, little personal rain dance out in the yard last night! The Gods laughed at him. But maybe they'll take pity on us anyway.

[LiberalEsto]

40. Good idea, but I would work for balance rather than rain in one area

Mother Earth's balance has been disturbed by the results of human activity.

There are things going wrong in many places around the globe: droughts in Australia and the western US, ice cap and glaciers melting, shifts in the jet stream, unprecedented floods, violent storms and much more.

As Ursula LeGuin wrote in "A Wizard of Earthsea,"

"...the true wizard uses such spells only at need, since to summon up earthly forces is to change the earth of which they are a part. 'Rain on Roke may be drouth on Osskill,' he said, 'and a calm in the East Reach may be storm and ruin in the West, unless you know what you are about."

[Cleita]

41. I agree.

I actually have been thinking about the arctic blast and trying to keep that in balance.

[LiberalEsto]

43. Spring Equinox is two months away

It's a good time to work for global balancing, for weather balance, for income equality, for justice...

[kentauros]

45. One possibly powerful option

is to call on the Thunder Beings of Native American lore. I have called on them for protection with great success, or so it seems to me. (I called on their protection from hurricanes twice, and had no damage on the one that actually hit, while apartments and houses all around had plenty of wind damage.)

They do more than protect, so if you aren't familiar with them, have a look online and research. Or find some Native Americans around here that may know more about them from personal experience

Oh, and here's a site for making recordings of your own nature sounds, including rain and thunder

http://naturesoundsfor.me/

[Cleita]

46. Thanks. It will look into that. n/t

[Sienna86]

48. Here's to some rain

And as another wrote, perhaps we can hope for more balance, whether it be weather or economics, this year.

[Cleita]

49. Very much so, but right now the drought is critical so I am putting more focus on it

until it starts raining.

[Tumbulu]

50. Thanks Cleita!

Last edited Tue Jan 21, 2014, 03:22 PM - Edit history (1)

Oh my, on my farm the hills are dry and there is nothing on them for the 140 sheep (that I care for) to eat. I am irrigating one pasture (but it is only a few acres) and have to irrigate to get the wheat to come up. But in the '76/'77 drought the wells went dry in July......Since a drought was declared, most likely the alfalfa farmers will not get to irrigate and thus there will be no hay. There will be none of the normal seasonal wild oat hay either for the horses, sheep or cattle. I have 6 tons of milo.....(but it is dangerous to feed grain to ruminants- hence the antibiotic use in feedlots) but my hay will be running out (despite buying twice what I normally buy last summer). Will I have to kill all my sheep, or half of them, as everyone else around is getting ready to do, let alone the cattle?..... Meat prices will drop as no one wants their animals to starve. And all agriculture will go into "save trees and other valuable crops" mode.

I was making my farm plans for this coming summer, but now do not want to plant anything as if the well goes dry, anything I have planted will die.

So, I gladly join you in thinking of rain and it's sweet and othertimes riotous kisses upon this dry soil of our west.

[Cleita]

53. I'm so sorry your animals and crops are suffering.

I hope we can influence the elements.

[Tumbulu]

58. Thanks Cleita!

But so far no one is suffering (except me with worry) and I would rather send them to slaughter than not feed them enough. And I will not plant in the spring if we do not get significant rain between now and then.

[stopbush]

51. I look forward to your post next week after your woo hasn't delivered any significant rain to CA.

But will you have the courage to post that your belief in woo was childish and unproductive?

[Cleita]

52. So what do you suggest?

We badly need rain and the experts have no solutions. So when you have a solution, please put it up for all of us to use.

[stopbush]

54. The state is working on solutions. They're looking at seeding clouds, for one thing.

California Tries Cloud Seeding to Make Up for Unusually Dry Winter

by Julie M. Rodriguez, 01/10/14

For the second straight year, California has experienced unusually dry winter weather, leading desperate water agencies to try to make up for the shortfall using cloud seeding. By spraying fine particles of silver iodide into a cloud system, officials hope to cause water droplets in the clouds to form ice crystals and turn into snowflakes, increasing the annual amount of precipitation. While the practice has existed for decades, it has remained controversial due to doubts about its effectiveness and fears that it may cause extreme weather — both worries that experts say are unfounded based on the latest research.

http://inhabitat.com/california-tries-cloud-seeding-to-make-up-unusually-low-snowpack/

I'll put my money on a scientific solution over your woo any day of the week.

BTW - If you REALLY want to help with the drought, you can follow Gov Brown's call to cut back on your personal water use by 20%...but that might mean letting your flowers die.

[Cleita]

56. So I heard, but first you need to find some clouds to seed and

from my vantage point, I haven't seen a cloud for a month until yesterday and those are too thin to seed. My flowers have pretty much died. I'm just trying to keep my trees and foundation plants alive until it rains.

[PasadenaTrudy]

57. I'm going to go the xeriscape route

I have a strip of grass along the sidewalk next to my apt bldg. South Pasadena has a program to give property owners rebates of $2.50 for every sq ft of turf you remove. They have a water conservation person on staff that will come out to your property to give you recommendations. Fuck having grass I have to water, I'd like some decomposed granite and a few drought tolerant plants. I'm excited!

[pinto]

60. Xeriscaping is a growing trend and a good one, imo.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xeriscaping

[Cleita]

62. I did that ten years ago except for a small rose garden I keep.

I even took a class in it at our local community college. It's not good enough in this weather. Shrubs and vines that I planted ten years ago are dying including natives because they need the seasonal rain.

[PasadenaTrudy]

64. Maybe

I'll just go with decomposed granite, lol

[Tumbulu]

59. Sorry that you feel the need to be so negative

I sure hope that clouds come by to be seeded. Glad to know that a drought has been declared so we are all on notice to conserve water.

But a 20% reduction in water is a joke. It will be 100% reduction around my parts. No one is watering any flowers around here either.

Why the hostility?

Don't we all want rain?

[stopbush]

61. I thought we were adults here. Invoking woo won't produce any rain.

All it does is allow people to feel that they're "doing" something about the drought when they're doing nothing. I will bet you that most of the Californians posting in this thread have done little if anything to conserve water themselves. Much easier to invoke useless woo as a "solution," then go about your daily routine without making any attempt to cut back on your own water usage.

A 20% reduction wouldn't be a joke if the majority of Californians took it seriously. But they won't.

I'm hardly being hostile. I'm posting actual solutions that might actually help. You know, scientific solutions.

I don't see what standing on one leg in your backyard and singing Kumbaya is going to do to end the drought.

Yes, we all want rain. Some solutions have a chance. Others - woo - are make believe.

You may as well head off to your local church and pray for rain. That will work as well in CA as it did for Rick Perry in TX.

[Tumbulu]

67. Yes we are and being an adult includes

being respectful to others. Your points are all rather rude, and insulting at best.

I live in California and we are all conserving water and a lot more than 20%, which will not be enough by a long shot.

It is already causing huge hardships in farming communities and the people who normally work in the snow industries.... and I welcome all prayers, energies, positive thoughts , rain dances, imagery, and in short all forces directed towards asking for rain.

How you could interpret that praying for rain would somehow allow people to waste water is beyond me.

[stopbush]

68. There's a difference between respecting a person's right to believe what they may

and respecting the beliefs themselves.

For example, respecting a person's right to believe in Republican policies doesn't mean I have to respect those policies as being legitimate or positive.

Perhaps that's beyond your understanding.

[villager]

77. Why are you so incredibly condescending, using phrases like "Beyond your understanding?"

Empathy, good humor, and kindness appear to be beyond your "understanding."

[stopbush]

78. It was a response aimed at another poster who wrote

"How you could interpret that praying for rain would somehow allow people to waste water is beyond me."

[villager]

79. ...which was a response to something you wrote, insisting that "most Californians" in the thread

(based on nothing but your own feelings, btw) were doing nothing to conserve water. This fit your prejudicial notions about the OP, and the other responses.

And you were being called out on that first round of condescension, before -- sadly and predictably -- responding with more of it.

Just converse with people. Disagree with them if you wanna. But quit putting everyone else down so you can feel somehow superior.

[Hekate]

63. A single drop condensed and fell on my lip like a fleeting kiss an hour ago...

... as I was leaving the credit union. It left me bemused, as fleeting kisses do.

Don't have anything else to add, except that I hope you are feeling better today, Cleita.

[Cleita]

65. Let's think about more drops.

[RainbowSuperfund]

69. Thank you Cleita !

Thank you Cleita ! I'll be playing this rain downpour while I pray the rain in here in Northern CA. It's been a long time since we've heard a downpour like that here. Wooing it up for the rain!

[Cleita]

70. Update.

Clouds started coming in yesterday and then disappeared. But temperature dropped overnight and darker and denser clouds coming in both from northeast and west enough to block sun.

Keep your fingers crossed!

[mackerel]

71. The Farmers Almanac says mid-February rains for Norcal.

[Cleita]

72. Yeah, that seems to be the target, however, our local

weather said there is a chance it will be sooner. We need more than dribbles. We need it now and a lot of it.

[petronius]

73. Looks like the forecast for tomorrow now calls for "isolated sprinkles"

Not sure I recall ever seeing that phrase in a NWS forecast before, but I'll take it...

[PumpkinAle]

74. N. NV

may get snow, rain (higher elevations) but temps are still going to be in the 60s - they say after that another long dry spell - will believe the precip when I see it. While this weather has and is very nice it is also crazy and very, very worrisome.

[mackerel]

75. Farmers Almanac said small bits of rain early February but

real rain to be in mid-Feb for only about a week.

[subterranean]

82. The Farmers' Almanac also predicted a cool, rainy January.

It could not have been more wrong.

http://www.almanac.com/weather/longrange/region/us/16

[mackerel]

76. Found it for zone 16 - San Francisco

Jan 28-31: Rainy, cool.

FEBRUARY 2014: temperature 52.5° (2.5° below avg.); precipitation 5" (2" above avg.); Feb 1-3: Sunny, mild; Feb 4-8: Heavy rain north, showers south; cool; Feb 9-15: Rainy periods, cool; Feb 16-21: Rain, some heavy, cool; Feb 22-28: Showers, then sunny, cool.

[DreamGypsy]

80. Let it Rain

Kick back, Cleita. Pour a glass of a California Cab or Zin and...

Live at Montreux 1986

[Cleita]

83. Looks like it's going to rain this afternoon and tomorrow.

We has a drizzle overnight and I woke up to wet pavement. Let's hope it sticks around and increases in strength. We need way more than promised so keep up the rain vibes.

[mackerel]

84. Here it wasn't enough for anything :(

Feb 8th our next chance.

[Benton D Struckcheon]

85. We're soaking here in Joisey,

so I'll definitely send some your way. Just have to figure out how...

[Cleita]

86. Looks like it worked. It's raining today while I type this.

[Benton D Struckcheon]

87. Good thing.

Rest of the country is fed all kinds of fruits & veggies - not to mention wine - by you guys.

[Piedras]

88. Rainy day in SLO

We got a rainy day in SLO on Sunday. The rain was hard enough to sometimes hear it on the roof. Hope the hills get a bit of green. Now the season's rainfall is just shy of 2 inches.

[mackerel]

89. Looks like rain on Thursday and Saturday for

Bay Area, Stockton & Lodi - The question is will it be enough?