backyard drought

long-term the palmer drought indices have us mired in a moderate drought and i have the back yard to prove it...fifteen days after a house fire caused the city to shut off the water in my charred home ( and so cut off the garden form all but rainfall and the water i haul in ) the plants in my backyard are in serious need of human intervention...( well, some anyway )...true, the jerusalem artichokes everywhere are beginning to die back and some in my back yard have followed the lead of those on campus..but not all...there are quite a few that are still green and seriously wilted...and so they will stay if it doesn't rain...what water i can haul will be used on the long-term ramps and ginseng roots...not everything is suffering though...the scarlet runner beans, after idling throughout the warmth of summer have finally begun to produce pods...there are sweet potatoes in the ground to harvest as well...the house may have its problems but the garden chugs along...the drought isn't normal...not yet anyway...whether it becomes a norm remains to be seen, climate change deniers non-withstanding...how the natives handle it is what interests me...they may also serve as an indicator of climate change...something i have been thinking about since last march