Ah, Pat, we know how you feel. "Over a month" actually means "I can't remember the last time it rained."
(
Edit: it was New Year's Day when it rained last.) Moldy soil isn't a problem in that case, is it? Quite the opposite.
Living in the desert is an experience that some people love, and others never really enjoy. Driving along the flat, wide, dry expanses between California and Arizona, or Nevada, and seeing tiny deserted one-room shacks with the cruel wind scouring their bleached walls, is a reminder of just how difficult desert living can be. In the desert, nature is not gentle. Rain, when it comes, pours down hard and makes the sand slick and treacherous. Wind picks up the dry sand and uses it to round out every sharp corner, pit the glass and metal of homes and cars, even temporarily blind people and animals in the worst gusts. In summer, the sun is relentless and powerful, you can feel it beating on you until you can't think and begin to hallucinate.
Modern life has overcome the problems of desert living, for the most part, but it is a razors edge and Nature is always there, in the background, waiting.
Joanie