It's 100° today even up here in the hills. It's really getting to me! We didn't get any rain, while San Antonio and Helotes got some rain two days in a row! Charlene, Kathleen and bettydee...I'm praying we all get relief. At least for me it's just my plants and the discomfort of the heat I'm having trouble dealing with. I realize for some it's a more serious hardship. There's livestock, wildlife, crops affected.
Triple Digits!! Drought! Grasshoppers!! Is there any Hope?
I have quite a few cat food buckets. I drilled holes in them and set them around my brugs. So I fill them each evening and water the ground around them well. It looks trashy but it works. I wish I had more. I put a bladder around my confederate rose hib and it seems to be happier. My sister's in Louisiana is already blooming but mine doesn't usually bloom until fall. I'm thinking of bringing my smaller tropical hibs inside. I have a couple of dozen new ones. The older more established ones are doing fine on the porch but the little ones are struggling. I water at night around 8 or so and feed well so that they are strong enough to withstand any grasshopper sieges. I really haven't had that much of a prob. with the hoppers yet (knock on wood) as much as I have from horn worms. Isn't there some kind of silica thing that kills the hoppers? I thought I remembered a thread on it. And fellow Texans it's been bad before, I remember a few years ago when the hoppers were stripping the bark off of my hibbies. Hopefully it won't get that bad. One of the payments we have to make for living here. Hang in.
Anne
Just think about those that first came west to TX and depended on the land for their existance. We are blessed to have the a/c to escape from the heat. Of course it is a different world but we do have it much better no matter how bad it is.
My dad was born in 1915. He and his 7 brothers and sisters used to help "chop" cotton here in the central Texas area. Then as an adult he worked on air conditioners. I tagged along with him on top of apartment bldgs in Houston through melting tar because it was so hot. Far tougher people than I'll ever be. All of that and he lived to be 93. His older brother is still alive. Dad always had something planted. He planted a cotton seed one year in our suburban Houston backyard just so that I could see what it looked like. Once he had a watermelon plant and Mom decided to tease him by buying a watermelon to put under his watermelon seedling. She sent me out the backdoor to set up the joke. The whole family came trooping out to "check" on Dad's plants. Dad asked why there was dirt all over "his" watermelon. He almost fell over laughing when I explained that I hadn't had time to get it buried properly. I mean that's where the potatoes came from!!
Anne, that is so funny about the melon! Yep everyone now adays has it a lot more comfortable than our elders did.
We will get through this and be better for it I am certain. I think how a person handles strife tells a lot about that person.
Well I went to buy some old iron wheels from a lady today. Her door was open and she had a fan blowing. I asked if her AC was out. She said no, that she just can't afford to run it unless it gets too hot. Well, I thought today would have qualified as "too hot".
We have an old (like new) window unit that we bought just before we sold our shop and we have been trying to find it a home. We want to give it to someone who needs it but has limited income. I hadn't thought about the fact that if they don't have AC, they may not be able to afford having it. Now if that doesn't make us all feel like we aren't tough at all?
I hope the money from the wheels lets the lady run the air for a bit now and then.
If anyone nearby knows of someone who may need a 220 window unit, I do have one to donate. If someone has one that goes out, then their budget is used to the expense of running it, but they may not be able to replace it. The only problem is it hasn't been turned on in six years. It has been in storage though and was working great when it was removed. I'll deliver it anywhere nearby as long as someone can unload it.
I have a couple of 110's that I am holding as an ace in the hole in case my central unit goes out. I could loan those out if needed. I wouldn't want to give them away, but if I felt the need was there, I could be persuaded to give them instead of loan them.
Now back to the yard. It is time to go out again and see what I can do to "save the plants".
Charlene
Charlene...I worked the leon county area for about 10 years as a home health nurse. contace the dept. of human services office in centerville...they may know of someone who can really use the unit...one of the caseworkers would probably be your best bet.
A little over a week ago here two 82 yr. old identical twin sisters were found dead in their home apparently from heat stroke. The house was all closed up and when found they had been dead several days. They had a usable window unit but didn't run it because their budget wouldn't
cover the electric bill. They had accepted a gift of a box fan from a neighbor but didn't plug it in. Sadly, there was an air-conditioned senior center less than a mile away where they could have stayed in the heat of the days and had a free lunch.
Now our electric company (City Public Service) is asking everyone to conserve because one of the power plants is out of commision and power may have to be purchased elsewhere - much more costly, and with the possibility of brownouts. I've read that there is a little power drainage in appliances that are plugged in but not turned on (but that doesn't seem possible). But I can unplug stuff if it will help even a little.
Ways to conserve electricity. Now, I'm not so good at this myself. I just turned off my printer...I THINK it's been on since this morning. I have to find the other CFL bulbs I bought. I'm not going to turn down the A/C because I'm not feeling so well...kind of sweaty.
http://greenterrafirma.com/electricity.html
I have solar panels, CF lightbulbs, 2000 gallon rainwater collection and I just installed a solar water heater. I am set if the brownouts come but I guess you half to have rain to get rainwater. By the way, State of Texas broke the all time record today for energy use.
The solar water heater was so easy. I just took an old water heater from the dump, removed the tank, put it in the sun, ran flexpipes to my inside water heater which is now turned off. The only problem was that the outside water gets too hot. That is why I turned off my inside water heater so the outside water has a chance to cool down when it mixes with the inside water heater. Otherwise, it would scald you during the peak of the day. Free hot water for life. You are supposed to put it in an insulated box with a glass door in for winter. I will get to that project come October or November.
I thought this was state of the art until I found out that half the houses in California and Florida in 1941 were done this way. Imagine that! Our Grandparents were cutting edge Green.
By the way, total cost was 108 dollars. I will make my money back in 6 months.
Hey all, joining late on the conversation. My veg garden's pretty much fried or devoured by insects. A couple of things are hanging in there, but it's pretty disheartening. Is it evil of me to be somewhat placated to know that other folks are having problems too, so that I don't have to take my failing garden personally? I guess misery just loves company! But I'm sorry for all the garden woes of other folks too.
On the heat, one GREAT trick we learned this year was to go to Walmart's camping section and for $3.84 you can buy a rolled up mat of little fake ice cubes. They come 4 across and 11 down, so that's 44 little cubes. Cut the mat into four long strips and freeze them. When it's time to go outside, wrap one of the strips in a bandana and wear it on your neck and you will be cool! This has been a lifesaver. We use them for any outdoor work and my son uses them under his furry Bugs Bunny costume at Six Flags - yeah, imagine 105F in a fur suit! But they only have him work 15-20 minutes out of each hour in this weather, so he's okay.
As for central a/c and elec usage, we got sick of high bills last year and put in 5 window units (had 2, bought 3 more). CPU will mail you a $50 rebate off of each small unit and $100 off of each large (greater than 8000btu, I believe) which takes care of about 1/3 of the cost right up front. (Note - units must be "Energy Star" for the rebate, and some area covenants are picky about window units -- we had to move one of ours because it was visible from the street). But now we don't use central a/c at all, just cool the room we are in at the time, and our bill is almost exactly half of what it was last year. I also don't worry about the central air breaking down.
Lise
Interesting stuff! Our water company is having trouble with the RO system out, so issued a boil water bulletin (we don't drink their water anyway since we have reason not to trust them...long story) and is asking people not to water the landscape...until when? I'm not letting plants die if I can help it. We're trying to get info on what's going on. They're bringing water in from elsewhere for now and most of the time the water pressure is pretty low. I was checking the drought map...and the Exceptional Drought (brown) is spreading all over the place. Wasn't too long ago where the area I live in was near the edge of it. Now it's moved up one county over. Between exceptional, extreme and severe, it's about half the state in area!
http://drought.unl.edu/DM/DM_state.htm?TX,S
This message was edited Jul 9, 2009 2:09 PM
Today is going to be really bad. They say that 107 is possible. There are no days below 103 on the eight day forecast.
Please fasten your seatbelts and bring your chairs to their upright position. Feel free to vent at any time.
Yesterday, we got shade cloth put over 8 raised beds. I am jumping for joy! While we were working, you could tell the difference immediately. The cost was almost $500., but the savings will come in the plants that will live to be propagated into more plants.
Now, I just need about a million more dollars worth of shade cloth to cover the rest. (That won't happen!).
The available time to work outside is getting so short that you really have to hustle to get anything done before having a heat stroke.
At least I can work on the shaded beds now when the rest of the area is too hot. That is a real blessing.
How awful about the twin ladies that suffered from the heat. It makes you wonder if they had any family to check on them. My mom is 82 and she uses a fan and keeps her air turned up to a higher temp, but not so much that it gets warm. She always thinks she needs to make it cooler when my sis or I go to check on her. She thinks it should be cooler for us? We think it should be cooler for her! Well she is in the hospital right now and my sis is staying with her until my turn. She has a problem with too much fluid build up sometimes. They are also checking her lungs to see if there was any damage from the smoke that she inhaled earlier this year when her apartments caught fire. (A separate forum was posted about that, so I won't go into it again.)
Everyone keep as cool as you can.
Charlene
I am so glad you got the shadecloths! We use shadecloths on the afternoon sun side of our covered deck. Still gets hot these days out there but less than it would. And I have a large piece of shadecloth partly shading tomatos and beans. It really does help! According to news stories, the two sisters had no family left. Neighbors tried to do little things for them and urged them to use fans and A/C (they said they couldn't afford the electric bills), but too bad nobody called the local agencies that could have helped them more. Sometimes it's good to be a busybody, I think. I think it's odd that San Antonio hasn't opened the "cooling centers" in spite of 100+ temps. There's only private agencies that help that way so far, apparently. I haven't heard whether we're supposed to water outside again, but no way I'm letting the plants die.
I have a shade cloth on my little greenhouse. The sides are open right now and the temps are still over 100F. Needless to say I haven't been out there much. The only things in it right now are my hoyas and cacti and succulents, so they can handle it somewhat. The flower beds are fried again, the little rain we got has worn off already. But I do have monarch cats so that's a plus!
On a side note...I'm heading down to San Antonio Monday for my first postdoc interview. Everyone wish me luck, I'm really nervous about it!
:) Kim
Good Luck Kim, I know you will do fine.
Josephine.
I trucked in a water tank to my orchard and the rain gauge shows that a freak storm dropped 3/4 inch while I wasnt looking. I watch the radar like a hawk. I dont know how this one got by me. Dont get me wrong. I am not complaining.
excellent, jujubetexas, I always think that plants are a little refreshed by rain on the leaves.
I read in the paper that the San Antonio zoo is giving some of their animals blocks of ice. What's next, maybe they could order some ice tea? margaritas? mojitos? with little umbrellas in the drinks, of course!
I used to know some people that had a pet rabbit that they kept in a cage outside. At the beginning of summer it began to droop and when the weather got really hot the rabbit got so sick one day that they thought that it would die. So to keep it cool they put water in a gallon milk jug and froze it. In the morning they put it in the rabbits cage. The rabbit would spend the day sprawled over the milk jug. At night they would take the milk jug and re freeze it. The rabbit survived the summer safely. Creative thinking I thought.
AA
I dipped up some pond water last night and put it in the freezer then placed it in back in the pond this afternoon just to keep the water a little cooler. The fish have waterlilies to get under and a couple of rock shelters down in the bottom but you can see them moving with the shade as it moves. The water feels like bath water it is so warm. The waterfall rocks are in the sun a lot of the afternoon and heat the water up. I know it didn't take long for my giant ice cube to melt.
I might freeze one and take it to bed tonight. I wonder what my wife will think when she catches me spooning a milk jug.
jujube I'm sure that there's a really good comeback to that, but I'm going to behave myself today, lol.
I AM HOT!!!
I might put one on my head like those women in Africa with big pots.
Jujube, what does the San Marcos R. look like these days? The Guadalupe has become a stream.
The flow is much lower but there are still tubers. I dont know if being spring fed helps. They have been uprooting some of the endangered wild rice and transplanting it to deeper areas.
They just featured our water system woes on San Antonio TV! Guess somebody is complaining. Of course, Aquasource (the company that maintains the small water system) blamed the whole thing on low levels of water in the well, which supposedly put too much stress on the RO equipment. Hmmm...sounds better than if they said they don't maintain their equipment right and don't replace parts when they should, doesn't it? It did inspire us to invest in more large plastic bottles to be able to bring more safe, drinkable water home. Maybe it'll be fixed by the end of the week, they said. But I'm not even letting my cats drink that milky-looking stuff!
OmG Charlene, bless your heart! ... and to think I have always wanted a place in he rural areas, but I dont think I would last a week in the summer. But I do remember those big grasshoppers right here in the inner city too. Right now, what I have is a big Hornets nest on the front porch. To get the mail I have to sneak out there in between thos Hornets buzzing. I do have that can of stuff to knock it down, but I am afraid they might fly into the house. Its bad enough that I have birds flying through the house.
Charlene this thread sound like Pearl s. Bucks, The Good Earth ... so it could be worse, we got a lot to be thankful for.
That is so awful about those twin sisters, dont we have services to take care of people like that? I always said I wanted to adopt a grandmother... I think this is a good time to do it, while its on my mind.
Jujubetexas: you are a riot! lol
Sylvia, I used to have a private school and daycare back in the seventies and eighties.
The children of one of the older classes adopted a grandmother. She had no family left and she said all of her friends had passed before her or were in worse shape than she was.
We took her lots of presents. She loved all the kids and called them her grandchildren. She was so proud when they would give her a photo or color her a picture, she would put it right on the wall.
We got lots of noisy toys and moving things. Her favorite was a bird in a cage that would swing back and forth and whistle. She loved it so much, but when one of the other ladies in the home admired it, she gave it to them. She was so sweet. We got very attached to each other.
Great experience.
Charlene
SHADE CLOTH at a reasonable priced: I found 80% knitted shade cloth from the following company for nearly half the price of the others and that INCLUDES delivery.
http://factorydirectlandscape.com/storage-products.html
I haven't received it as I just now ordered it, but I really like the person that I spoke with on the phone.
Charlene
Charlene, let us know how it turns out, whether it's as good a bargain as it sounds. Even if things get better with the rain later, that doesn't mean global warming won't cause hotter temps as time goes on. I might want to set up a framework over a part of the yard with a shadecloth over it so plants won't fry so much during the hotter part of the year! Not to mention I could get some relief from the sun myself. In the meantime, I really love my trees, but love my A/C inside even more!
I've bought shade cloth from A M Leonard and Farm Tek. The prices were a bit higher, but I like the % shade choices. I want to provide a bit of shade as a break against this hot Texas sun, but I also want them to bloom. I think 60% shade might be a bit too much. Let us know how you plants fare. I may be underestimating the sun's potential to damage plants.
Bless all of your hearts out there is west central TX. We have the heat here in NE Texas but we had enough rain this spring to provide enough grazing--at least in our pasture and the pastures around us. We lease the grazing and haying rights to a nice young man down the road. He told us this weekend that the cows and calves look good and they seem to have enough grass to last them for a while. I like to have livestock around, even though it is not mine. I wory a lot about what would happen to those cows if the tanks ran dry. And those cows aren't even mine. I can't image what you all are going through with your own. I hope better times are coming for you soon?
There is quite a bit of haying going on around here so maybe the supply of hay will pick up out west. I sure hope the rains come soon for all of us. The weather reports this morning indicate that there might be some rain coming next week. . . .
LiseP, back when I was at Girl Scout camps in the late sixties and early seventies we used that same trick for keeping cool--but with real ice cubes of course! The years I went to Girl Scout camp in central Illinois had some of the hottest summers on record with temp's going into the 100's regularly. We hiked with ice cubes rolled up in our kerchiefs and we also used to form a head shaped ice pack for the inside of our hats. We used jiffy bags half filled with water and placed overnight in our up turned hats and into the walk in freezer in the kitchen. We made forms of the tops of our heads with tin foil and weighted this with anything not too heavy we could find like dried beans to weight the form down so that the resulting ice pack would fit on top of our heads and under our hats. We girls spent quite a bit of time working this out. Of course the bags would end up leaking and dripping down our faces and back, but the girls in my tent and I were the type who didn't really care because we wanted to hike and work on our badges and such. The girls who cared just stayed in their tents during the hottest part of the days. I use the same kerchief trick now and even make up cube kerchiefs for my dogs when we go out on our hikes. They seem to appreciate it. I'll have to look for the fake Walmart cubes for me. I don't do the melting ice on the head any more as it would look odd on an adult, but it still sounds like fun to me! Thanks for the tip on the fake cubes and strips. I didn't know they existed.
Jujubetexas, love the tip on the hot water heater. Sounds fairly easy. I may have DH look into that one.
Charlene, have you checked out TekSupply.com? They often sell shade cloth remnants in the sale section. I got a pretty good deal on some--but it was earlier this year. The offerings change frequently so I just keep checking until I see something I can use.
I've been looking for hay since we feed out cattle the last of our winter hay almost 2 weeks ago. I came across a few small square bales, but I have to find the large rectangular or the round bales so I can use the hay fork. I can't pick up the small bales. There is no local hay. Some small square bale are being trucked in by the local feed stores, but I haven't seen any large bales. I did locate one hay seller up in north Texas, but he wants $3.00 a mile to delivery it. That's $900.00 just for transportation alone and he would be using a gooseneck trailer which could, if I'm lucky, carry about 2 dozen bales. I'd be paying more for the transportation than for the hay and the hay is expensive enough. As much as I hate to do it, I'm having to make some hard choices about the size of the herd and who I keep or send to market. I've worked hard to improve the genetics in my herd. Right now, despite the drought, they are in excellent shape, are having a calf a year or in some cases in less than a year. My oldest cows (2) are 8-3/4 years old. The majority are 5 years old or less. I have a few replacement heifers ready to mate and a bunch of 4 month olds. I hate this drought!!! It has been going on since early 2005 with a 7 month respite in early 2007. What I hate is that I'll be the one to make the decisions since my DH is working out of state.
terri_emory, what funny memories about making head-shaped ice thingies. I was a scout too but never did that -- we just made sit-upons and s'mores, I think!
BettyD, what about renting a truck and picking up the hay yourself? Just a thought.
LOL! To make it worth traveling into another state or into north Texas, I would need a semi and large flatbed trailer. A special driver's license is needed for that which I don't have. I have no idea whether anyone is willing to risk his expensive rig to an amateur.
As I recall, LiseP, we didn't really have a lot of suppervision at that camp. It was very fun and we managed to get a lot of the badges we wanted, but the councelors came out in late afternoon/evening. It was so hot--who could blame them!
bettydee, I thought of you as I passed Neil Brothers here in Canton (I work just outside of Canton). They had two semi/flat beds loaded with hay this morning. One of the guys here at work told me that even though haying is good right now in the area, he can't locate any hay for his horses. All of it is being loaded in the fields as it comes out of the bailers. Everyone is shipping their horse hay south for some reason. Very aggrivating to see it across the street and still not be able to buy it! I don't know what they are doing with the cattle hay, but I see flat beds loaded down everywhere!
And now for my personal rant: Why doesn't WalMart schedule the reblack-topping of their parking lots for late at night when it is cooler? It is not that I mind walking across a parking lot. It just seems to me that on a 104 degree day the extra heat from this operation is adding to the surrounding temps.
There's a lot of road/highway construction around here and they do theirs early morning and late night with lots of lights.
*edited for spelling
This message was edited Jul 16, 2009 4:03 PM