Bon, I keep trying to convince myself that our drought situation is not as dire as it seems, but...c'mon....who am I kidding? I know how bad it is. I still haven't planted a single thing in the back garden. I want to. Truly I do. We didn't spend all that time breaking the ground and removing the existing vegetation and then fencing it all only to turn around and not use it. The plants we grew back there did great last year (except for the ones the voles ate), but that was largely because we had some good rainfall in the weeks after planting. I still had to water a lot in July and August. So, every day I think about planting something back there and then I waffle on whether to do it or not. So far I haven't planted anything. I feel like if I do plant back there, then I'll have to water. I don't want to water it. There's cracks in the ground about an inch wide in the non-gardening area surrounding it, so my head tells me not to plant the back garden unless we suddenly get a flood of rain. I wouldn't mind heavy flooding as long as it didn't damage anyone's homes and didn't hurt anyone. I wouldn't even mind if my garden flooded because the plants that died would be sacrificed for the greater good. I don't even want to think about dead trees either. We've removed a few and have more to remove, mostly native trees that were here when we bought the place. All the years of recurring drought got to them and killed them. We only try to take out the ones near the house. The dead trees out in the woodland are allowed to stand until they fall. Dead, standing trees can provide homes/shelter for wildlife, so we let them stay in there because we don't walk through there in snake season, making it less likely a tree will fall on our heads. Ironically, since they are the last thing we need, new cedar trees keep springing up everywhere. They aren't allowed to stay. The raised beds in the front garden are in great shape and, like your raised beds, that's my primary focus. I added tons of compost to all but a couple of those beds this year, so they retain moisture well and the plants are growing well in them. There's not enough room in them to grow everything I planned to grow in the back garden this year, but I'll just succession crop as much as possible and try to get the maximum production from them. When Scott first mentioned this week's rain a few days before it arrived, I tried not to get my hopes up. Eventually, after watching the QPF predicted rainfall numbers go up, up and up, I started believing. That was stupid of me. We never get what the QPF says we will. I can remember two times that we've gotten more than it says for a specific time period, but generally we get a whole lot less, or even nothing at all. One of these days I'll learn to stop getting my hopes up. I know how little rain we've received here this year, and I know how low it is in comparison to what we'd have in year-to-date rainfall in an average year. I just try not to dwell on those numbers because they are too depressing. Seeing them in black-and-white in our local, weekly newspaper just reminds me how bad it is, and when I saw the numbers today, I just cringed. These are the numbers from our local cooperative weather observer, whose place is just a couple of miles from ours....less as the crow flies. Our rainfall is often very close to his numbers. Year-to-date rainfall through May 6: 4.91". Average year-to-date rainfall through the end of May: 15.45". There is no way that we will get enough rain through the rest of May to get us anywhere near that 15.45". Even if he recorded a half-inch this week like we did, it doesn't help nearly enough, and our numbers in next week's paper will look almost as bad as this week's numbers. Our chances of rain for the next few days are very similar to yours, but it wouldn't surprise me if all the rain misses us as it so often does. We used to have such lovely springs with lots of rainfall and often had good rain even throughout June. Even though drought was a regular feature most years in July and August, it was bearable. The last few years, though, the spring rainfall keeps falling short....really short. Normally, in the summer months, by the time we reach Severe on the Drought Monitor, I've stopped watering and called it a year. Here we are in May, normally one of our wettest months, and most of our county is in Severe Drought and has been for a while, and the western end is in Extreme Drought. You just kinda start wondering what the point of planting is if it is all going to die. I'd say that at least half the people I know here who usually have gardens have planted very little, or nothing at all, this year. I can't say that I blame them, but it makes me sad when we drive by an empty garden plot that usually is green and thriving. My garden actually looks great, all things considered, but the amount of work, worry, irrigation, covering and uncovering of plants, etc. that it has taken to get there is ridiculous. Just keeping the garden alive to this point has been a full-time job. I'm stubborn, though, and don't give up easily, so I'll keep plugging along for a while. Dawn

After another couple months of use, I too am finding that the Scooba does best with a smaller defined area. I'm not very good at dimensions, but I'd say you could let it loose in a 12 x 12 room and it would give it a pretty good cleaning before running out of juice. So I would recommend running it a room at a time, or a smaller defined space at a time. The Roomba runs much longer than the Scooba before its power runs out, and it moves a lot faster, so it can cover a lot more space than the Scooba can. Scooba is great on hardwood and tile floors, but NOT on laminate floors like Pergo. (I'm thinking about running it on my saltillo tile in the back yard! I'll probably have to stay with it to make sure it doesn't fall off into the lawn.) There is no bleach in the solution. Here are the ingredients listed on the label: nonionic surfactant, chelating agent, fragrance. The solution label also has a note that says: Not recommended for use on visibly worn, unsealed, unfinished, waxed, or oiled wood floors. One more note after some hard use: I dropped the Scooba unit about two feet into my sink a few weeks ago. It fell pretty hard, as the unit is heavy. It wouldn't run after that, and I was devastated. Then I realized that the front wheel had fallen off into the sink when I dropped it. I just popped the wheel back on, and it has run pefectly ever since. Both my Roomba and Scooba units have had heavy use for several months now (Roomba going on six months), and though my Roomba is looking a little worse for the wear, they are both running just fine.

Bacteria are ubiquitous, and most of them are simply harmless cohabitants, or even beneficial partners, in our existence. Even many e-coli bacteria are merely troublesome. A few, however, are truly nasty. But even though e-coli can be deadly there are other coliform bacteria that are "just there". Finding bacteria in a well is often insignificant, as any amount of ground level dirt that sneaks into a well will almost certainly carry coliform with it. Health departments routinely differentiate between e-coli and other coliform bacteria in their testing because the difference matters. It's almost impossible to drill a well without carrying a little bit of topsoil into the well itself. After drilling the well is sealed with bentonite (that is, bags of dry clay are poured around the well casing below the topsoil level, below the level of bacterial activity, which prevents seepage from ground level.) Shocking the well will kill any bacteria that found their way into it. Rechecking will determine whether it's a recurrent problem. Personally, I'd be more concerned with waste from industrial pollution- we had a dry cleaner here who was dumping carcinogens into a floor drain, and that made quite a plume in the acquifer for a time. It pays to have an agressive municipal attitude towards water quality when people are willing to cheat ... and there's unknown, but very significant, amounts, of heavy metal contamination in different parts of the state due to years of mining. Seems like half of Montana is an EPA superfund site anymore. Good luck, Mark

I'll try to keep it brief. The history: 40 years ago I drilled a well and put a pit around it and installed a large Welltrol tank. It is located between my and my neighbor's house (my brother's house) and we live about 100 feet apart. For the past 40 years we have used the centrally located Welltrol tank to supply both houses with water. Never a problem. About 10 years ago I noticed the tank in the pit was rusting and we bought separate smaller Welltrol tanks but only I installed mine. My brother continued to mooch off of me with only a pipe going into his house, using the pressure from the two Welltrol tanks Never a problem. Recently I went into the pit and heard hissing. The pressure in the empty tank was now 18# instead of the required 38#. My tank was at 38#. I told my brother that he better get his tank installed because the old tank was failing. He reluctantly installed it. Until now, the pressure switch and electricity was operating off the tank inside my house. The old tank in the pit was just a buffer. After he installed his tank and pressure switch, it was his turn to pay for the water. But since then, my high pressure reading on my house gauge has dropped by 10# to 50# on the high side and about 15# on the low side. We checked the tank in his house and the empty tank has 38# of pressure above the bladder and the pump shuts off at 60# and restarts at 40#. So, what's the deal? There are no obstructions between the house piping. How can a straight pipe from his house to mine cause my pressure to drop so low (15#) before his tank switch kicks in at 40#? Some thoughts: Is my Welltrol tank, charged to 38# causing the issue? Is the old tank in the pit hissing air causing the issue? Should I chnge my tank bladder pressure? He has lots of pressure in his house and I barely get any water at 15#. When the well pump recharges the tanks, the pressure (50#) is fine, but when it drops to 15#, I can barely take a shower. The check valve, and only one check valve, at the top of the well pipe, seems to be holding. We aren't having phantom pressure loss. It's probably a simple physics issue. Looking for any suggestions as to what I should do. Thanks.