Week 19 Still dry...

Week 19

and so another (dry) week goes by...

...and another early Sunday morning...

Jobs

Ben

Greenhouse

Picnic tables

Mowing

Dry weather

The Dutch "Golden Age" (Comparing what is now happening in America)

The Boat

Around the farm

We put a floor in the Garden Shed...

We bought and assembled two new picnic tables...

They were on "Special" but we missed the date...and ended up getting them even cheaper because they wanted to get rid of them...

Enjoying being outdoors...

Cleaning up the "Old Iron"

One of the clients gets the money for it - when we finally get around to taking it away - we're having a hard job convincing him that his old (much-loved) car will have to go - he has the knowledge to fully restore it - but no longer has the physical capabilty.

There are three old Mercedes motors in the trailer on the left...

Our wayward client came back - Janny and I were both a bit emotional to have him back after a month - seemingly back to good (mental) health and now getting a monthly injection instead of 3 monthly. And he is reunited with his dog...

I had to do a running repair on his broken door :-)

The greenhouse is coming along nicely...

Janny saw a nice collection of kitchen herbs and asked for "something like that"...

...best I could come up with was "repurposing" one of the old picnic tables... and a couple of old gas cylinders...

...first some pot plant sized holes...

Yesterday, I had some good help from a couple of the boys...to at least get the grass by the house a little bit in order...

Ben in Mexico

Nice apartment - looks to be a leafy inner suburb...

...and he went to a "Cooking Class" - the only male - could be worse things...

... he's learnig Spanish, so he was able to keep up.

The dry weather continues...

(but the grass keeps growing!)

This from KNMI (Weather Bureau)

Where the rain was still pouring down at the beginning of last year, this year it has been drier than usual since February. The precipitation deficit, the difference between precipitation and evaporation, has increased to an average of 91 millimeters across the country since April 1. This makes it just as dry as around the same time in the record-dry year of 1976. Little precipitation is also expected in the coming two weeks, which will cause the precipitation deficit to increase even further.

Meanwhile, the drought monitor of Rijkswaterstaat indicates that groundwater levels have already dropped below the normal level for the time of year in many places. Smaller streams are starting to dry up and various water boards are reporting observations of blue-green algae. River discharges are also lower than average. This is already causing minor problems for shipping on the Rhine.

Waterlevels.nl (waterpeilen.nl) by Alphons van Winden

https://www.waterpeilen.nl/

Only from 20 May the high pressure area could shift somewhat in a westerly direction and then a low pressure area could develop to our north. In the forecasts we see some precipitation signals in the last 10 days of May. But these are not very convincing yet and because the high pressure area is still blocking precipitation areas from the ocean, this does not mean a transition to a much wetter period.

However, there will be a time when wetter weather will return, which has always happened in the past. Sometimes it lasted for a few months, like in 2011, when it became wetter quite abruptly from June after a very dry spring, but there are also years like 1921 and 1976, when the drought lasted the entire summer. Many of these years with a low discharge have in common that a La niña occurred in the winter before. This is a weather phenomenon in the Pacific Ocean, but its influence extends over a large part of the world.

Last year we had an El Niño and the spring was very wet. The La Niña is now over but its influence can continue for months afterwards. In 2011 it became wetter at the beginning of June, in 1976 the drought lasted the whole summer. So for the time being we will have to wait and see which scenario will follow in 2025.

Because of the falling water levels he (Alphonse) produced a midweek report which went on to say about the Rhine...

(In his modelling)

The level decreases by about 10 cm daily until 22/5 when 7.3 m NAP is reached with a discharge slightly above 1,000 m 3 /s. In the meantime, some rain has fallen in southern Germany and Switzerland, but it takes 5 days for that water to reach the Netherlands. The decrease will therefore continue a bit further from 22/5 and on the 23rd I expect that 7.3 m will be undershot.


The discharge then falls below 1,000 m3 / s, a value below which it becomes increasingly difficult for water managers in the Netherlands to get enough water to users and nature reserves. Many side channels along the rivers then dry up, which, if it happens at all, usually only happens in the autumn. For inland shipping, the navigable depth has then decreased to such an extent that even smaller ships can no longer sail fully laden.

Bluey 

We had a birthday party during the week and I found myself explaining about redheads being called "Blue" :-)

My quote of the week

Not, rich, not famous, not even particularly healthy but I do live in a pretty good place

The Globalist May 15 2025

https://www.theglobalist.com/united-states-donald-trump-dutch-disease-economy-trade-commerce-globalization/

Not the first time in history

This would not be the first time in history that a world-leading nation suffers from a cultural and social backlash that has swept through their country.

Just consider what happened to the Netherlands, the country which gave birth to the first liberal revolution around the year 1600.

That exit may have occurred over 400 years ago, but the parallels are uncanny.

The Netherlands created modern globalization

The Netherlands arguably created modern globalization by inventing tall ships and navigation, joint stock companies and stock markets, as well as land and water management.

This country society of swamps and dykes had a decentralized society, in contrast to France whose society and politics were centralized in Paris and Versailles. The Dutch celebrated individual rights, embraced markets and trade and tolerated religious minorities.

In sum, the Netherlands saw the earliest flourishing of classical liberalism anywhere in the West, even before the term was invented. This plucky country became the richest in the world in terms of income per person!

It is quite often referred to as de Gouden Eeuw (the Golden Age)

The Republic of the Seven United Netherlands was one of the most powerful and richest countries in the world in the 17th century. We called this period the 'golden age' because things were going very well for the Netherlands. These were prosperous times and that was mainly due to shipping.

The Boat

Ron and Annette are coming this week - they'll sleep on board Jacoba while they work on their boat...