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Just before Christmas last year, a winter storm swept through our small town. In our front yard stands a towering juniper tree. It's enormous, stretching well above our second-story roof. We have an underground irrigation system, but the water had been turned off for months. You see, here in Central Oregon, it's pretty normal to shut off irrigation by October to prevent pipes from freezing. But that year was different. There had been no snow. No rain. Just unusually warm, dry