Drought Updates from Lake Purdy.

On November 4th, right before it was announced that we were in a Stage Four Drought Emergency, I took a trip to our water supply, Lake Purdy, to see what it was looking like.

November 4:

A few days later, I went back to take sunset pictures.

November 11:

For more of the sunset pictures, click here.

For reference, this is what Lake Purdy looked like in June:

June 10:

It finally started raining a little over a week ago, and has rained what has felt like quite a bit since. The rain let up yesterday, so the kids and I fled the house for an Alabama History field trip today. While we were out, I decided to take them to Lake Purdy to see how things were looking.

It was fairly disheartening at first – it didn’t look that different.

December 7:

November 4:

The “stream” seemed slightly wider, but not by much.

December 7:

November 4:

But the kids found the whole scene amazing. We pretended to find giant dinosaur bones,

December 7:

And they seriously enjoyed the challenge of “walking on the cracks:”

December 7:

We came upon a couple of delightful gentlemen who showed the kids arrowheads and 1800s pottery they’d found, and tried to give them pointers on what to look for.

December 7:

As we got further down the stream toward what is left of the lake, things definitely started to widen out. This looked much better than last time.

December 7:

November 4:

There were birds chirping and flying overhead,

December 7:

December 7:

and despite the giant expanses of dryness, life seemed to be coming back to the lake.

December 7:

November 4:

But the most exciting moment when we started back toward our car and noticed tiny, vibrant streams seeping up through the cracks.

December 7:

November 4:

The dry earth is slowly giving away, from the inside out.