Well water, yikes. I thought that I had read somewhere (not that long ago), about a certain community (or maybe there was more than one?) whose wells went dry. I thought it was in CA somewhere, but I could be wrong.
I'm from Illinois, originally. It took me a long time to adjust to the seasonal differences here, from when the hillsides were green (winter into early/mid spring) to when they were brown (which seemed to be most of the year). It took me a long time to realize that there could be beauty in brown hillsides... (though I still greatly prefer green, if the truth be told).