Well, the NWS now shows 20% chance for us tonight. There was lightning shows in town tonight and out here also. Lee, I did a bit more checking also and statistically October is the very earliest month its effect is felt. Not that the drought can't somewhat be over before that....I'm trying to hope. I agree about the U.S. oil companies, Lee! Like they don't collect enough windfall profits as it is...before the other government incentives and such were added in!
Texas Drought
Don't forget the oil companies are owned by the shareholders. If you have some sort of pension fund, chances are you have a vested interest in them.
RAIN! Whee! A predicted 10% chance actually happened during the night here in northwest San Antonio. Lots of thunder and lightning - don't know how much came down but the grass still had droplets this morning. So refreshing.
We got some rain as well. I was outside watering my plants when the storm first formed south of me. I didn't become aware of its movement until big thick rays of lightening appeared on the east side. I thought it best to come inside. For the first half hour or so, there was nothing but lightening and thunder and I worried that lightening would start a fire or two. Few of the stock ponds around here have water or if they do, it's not much. It would be difficult to put the fires out.
I was so glad it finally started to rain. I couldn't tell how much rain we got either because the wind blew the rain gauge over, but according to noaa's website, we got about an inch. It seems like a lot , but already the ground is beginning to dry out. It soaked into the ground so quickly. I went out after the storm to feed the dog and the air felt so clean and moist. I think all the creatures around here were out last night enjoying the rain. As I straightened up after pouring the dog's food into her bowl, I found myself in a face to face encounter with a black rat snake. In fact, it hit me or I hit it with the top of my head. It was scary enough that an hour later I could have shown you exactly where on my head that contact point was.
It just barely missed us again but someone is getting rain in my area and that is a good sign.
Yeah...doesn't it seem like somebody is getting OUR rain? Like when the postman delivers your mail to someone else! I guess there's no department or agency to call up! Guess I'll call the higher power up and say "Did you send the rain elsewhere by mistake? You know I asked you for it!"
If we really got an inch of rain, that is the most we have gotten at one time since mid-April. We didn't get any rain at all in May or June.
Don't mind me, betty, I just get cranky sometimes when I'm not feeling well.
I found 3 or 4 Twistleaf Yuccas dug up this morning along the back driveway. Some deer must have gotten here after the corn was all eaten last night...hungry things. The leaves just lying all over the driveway. The Missouri Primrose have survived being munched on and all four are growing now. Tough plants!
Rain just missed me again today.
Sometimes I think about driving to the rain and then driving back home so it would follow me. Kinda like a lost puppy.
Maybe. I'm still not sure, but DH may have caused the floods of 2002 by coming home from Florida. He had mentioned the constant rain in Florida where he was working, so I told him to bring some rain home with him. And the deluge started soon after he got home. If you ever tell someone to bring rain with them, always say you don't want flooding!
Hi, everyone! We FINALLY got rain last night - real, soaking, lasting rain!!! I feel like a weight has lifted off my shoulders! 'Course one of my keets (baby guinea) got out, flew away and I figured was a goner. He's only 4 weeks old and it was a mighty good storm. This morning, I looked out and there he was, walking back and forth on the roof of the coop! Hardy little buggers! Linda, I'm sorry you're still "high and dry" You too, Jujube! And Betty - I wouldn't be able to write if I'd come that close to any kind of snake!!! We got a "trace" Friday night that was very disappointing, but last nights made up for it!
Deb
I'm glad for you, Deb! I just feel so lost during the hot hours when I can't stand it much outside. Evening comes and it finally cools off just a bit, then after a little time outside...watering, of course, it's dark! And I'm thinking, where did the day go? The next morning, a little work outside, then it's hot again. I wish I could master the "afternoon nap" thing, siesta time would be a good idea...maybe then I could get up earlier, before it even gets light outside. Unfortunately I rarely can nap.
I understand what you mean when you say "feeling lost". I'm the same way - I'm out early and then in until evening comes. I guess I could clean house, but I HATE cleaning house!
It's funny, when the kids were small, I always had a clean house and now that it's just my DH and myself, we keep it picked up, but the heavy duty cleaning only happens once a month! HAH! I do like the afternoon nap thing! I have MS and it really helps that I can take a short nap in the afternoon. Around 3:00 finds me on the couch snoozing until about 4:00. I can't stay awake, so it's no problem for me! It was terrible when I was working. Not alot of people understand that afternoon naptime! HAHA! Of course, I'm having to keep looking for a job, so my nap days may be numbered!
I guess many of us have the same problem, if we can't be out there working we don't know what to do, I hate cleaning house too.
Josephine.
okay, Josephine - you're messin' with my nap time now! LOL!
I finally got some rain today. It was .20" which really wont even hit the roots but the rain did something that it has not all summer. It survived the drop from the hill country down to the prairie East of IH35. Normally it just disolves once it hits IH35. I consider it a good sign of things to come.
We got about a quarter inch today. Most of the rain just seems to go around us.
We had a very short rain shower last night in west Austin.....2"....!!!!! I went out and measured it, and sure enough, there was 2" between each rain drop..... But...fall is in the air. It was actually cool at 7 this morning when I went out to pick up the newspaper. Time to start figuring out what plants live..... and what gets to fend for itself this winter.
We just got a nice little rain. Not sure how much (my guineas keep knocking over my rain gauge thing!) but it rained hard for about 45 minutes. I'll take it!
Hello All,
I just read thru this thread. Wow! To think just a few years ago I saw water a foot deep going over the spillway of our dam and now so many days in triple digits. The Lord giveth and He taketh., right?
Since June 1st I am at 67 days in triple digits according to NOAA's Point Forecast: 2 Miles S Fischer TX 29.94°N 98.28°W (Elev. 1099 ft).
Luckily I have two good wells that have new pumps on my place so water is not a problem for me. I have never been one to water lawn and landscape. I watered the garden with drip and soaker hoses, so weeds were not a problem for me this year. That is a good thing. I controlled the grasshoppers with Semaspore and all the other bugs have disappeared. That's a good thing, too. Actually under the circumstances, it's been a great gardening year. Gardening in wet years can be a real challenge for backyard gardens, at least for me anyway. I never like to work in the garden when its wet.
About three years ago we had a wet year where the pasture grass reached about 4 1/2 feet tall. I have been here 30 years and have never seen anything like it. That entire year everything was green except for about ten days in June. It's unbelievable that the entire months of July and August stayed green. It was like we got about 1/2 - 1" rain every week to ten days. A perfect year.
Last night it rained here .5", the night before .3" and last Saturday .6". I'm good to go. Now if they would only lift the burn ban for a couple days so I can do a little brush burning.
It's time for a break in this weather. It has to be devastating for folks who are trying to raise livestock or dry land farm. I check out Craig's List daily for San Antonio Farm & Ranch for sale stuff. It amazes me that so many animals are for sale or some for free especially horses and donkeys. If you want to buy tractors and land clearing equipment, now is the time because the prices for used is really down. I guess people are just trying to convert to cash. Probably a good thing to do in this economy.
Hopefully all of you will soon get the rain you need.
Jerry
O.K., it started raining about 6 this evening. By 6:30 it had rained about 5/8", Now the guage reads about 3/4", and I have been without power since about 6:20. So much for all the repairs to our system, after Ike. Not staying long, I'm on battery power.
But I would take a good rain over power any day!
No complaints about the rain. However, Entergy was supposed to upgrade our lines during the repairs after Ike. Seems like every time we get a puff of wind, we are without power. No power = no water! We have a well. It won't run without power, so no washing hands, flushing, or showers until it is restored. We finally got it back about 11:30. No fun cleaning the kitchen at that time.
Besides the poor wildlife (some of it has disappeared here) that we've had all along in severely devasted drought areas, migration is starting. I've put a hummingbird feeder up, since there few blooms on my hummingibrd plants...one exception is a large Turk's Cap, which I keep blooming for them. Soon hummers and other birds will need more nutrition than usual for migration. Here I'm also putting out birdseed, corn...and fruits when I can. My Texas Persimmon fruit is ripening and I throw some outside the fence for them. Not that something wasn't already pecking at it even before I picked 'em off the tree.
http://www.state.nj.us/drbc/drought/kids_plants&animals.htm
http://stanford.wellsphere.com/green-living-article/5-ways-to-help-birds-and-wildlife-survive-drought-and-dry-weather/698515
This message was edited Aug 29, 2009 4:04 PM
The squirrels haven't been seen for days. I put out water pans and sunflower seeds for them; hope the little rascals aren 't gone forever. Winter has always been my least favorite season,. but this year I might just welcome it.
Sometime this week I believe there was something on the news about the trees dying. Said you can put buckets out with a hairline crack and fill it. Question is, how many buckets would it take to water a good size tree? Or how many areas to move one bucket to? Also mentioned leaving a hose going with just a drip for a while. Both allowed under the S.A. watering rules. But how many areas would you have to move that "drip" to in order to water a good size tree and how long to leave it dripping in each place? Of course, I can't do that anyway...my memory is so bad I'd forget about it until the next time I need to use the hose! Watering a tree isn't the same as watering smaller plants...you have to cover areas all around under the canopy and watering should be deep. Even my Bigtooth Maple is looking bad on some sides, not enough water. The Texas Ash looks better, even though it's not watered often. The live oak motte is where I put most of the potted plants...so it gets watered with the pots, so the motte is fine. Sigh...no rain yet!
Why don't you put some of the potted plants under the other trees, then they will be watered, also. Or trade them out from tree to tree. I wish I could water all 10 acres, but our well isn't that "up to it"! My DH isn't about to let me try, either. He complains about the flower beds being watered, but turns around and gripes about the brown grass! Then ends up watering that.
Just got the monthly water bill from SAWS - $664.15! There is NO way I could have used that much......have seriously conserved along with everyone else. Any leak of that magnitude would have manifested itself somewere. The Customer Service rep said an inspector will look at the meter in "7 to 10 days" to see if there's a malfunction. Hope this doesn't turn into a nasty battle -tough to deal with bureaucracy.
Holy Cow!!! I sure hope the Rep finds the malfunction. We're on a well, but are still careful since the drought is affecting the aquifers as well.
Oh Lord! Guess I am lucky I don't have SAWS. Bad enough to have to deal with CPS, which usually puts us on the back-burner when wide-spread power outages happen. I think they restore power to the city first, then move outward into the county, then we're last on the list, being outside the county.
Sounds like a meter malfunction. Make sure you document when you told them etc., because the bill for the next month may also be high. If it turns out to be their fault you will have your ducks in a row to contest.
We are on a well, also, but conserve. We had to have it lengthened down a couple of years ago, already, and don't want to do that again!. As far as electric, ours leave us for last, too. Our branch of the line only serves about 82 homes. Bless their little hearts!
The news said 5 gallons for every inch in diameter of the tree every week. On my pecans, that would be 180 gallons per week. I have about 6 of them that big. That would be 1080 gallons per week. Lordy.
Missed out of the rain yesterday. Hoping for today. Good luck everyone!
lee
Wow, that's really big! Can you get your arms around the trunk? I'm surprised they'd use diameter because you can't accurately measure it on a tree trunk. Taking the circumference, you can calculate....but not everyone people wants to do math. Oh well, with the internet, just plug one in and get the other... just about anything like that is easy if you're on the net and know how to find the site! It really doesn't look like rain, but at least it's cooler.
Yuksa, When we lived in Austin we had a problem just like yours,water bill going up and up. no way we were using that much but no standing water or puddles anywhere to indicate a leak. Had plumbers in to look,couldn't find anything, said it must be under the foundation!!!!!!
A very experienced plumber came out, listened to our story, went out about 5-10 feet from the street where our pipes met the city pipes. He dug and only when he got the where the pipes met did you see any water.There was a crack on the underside of that pipe that he said he has seen before because of the heat,land etc..Anyway the reason we weren't seeing anything was the water was leaking straight down to the limestone and going into the aquifer.20 minutes later,problem fixed...water bill down...big relief we didn't have to dig around the foundation.
My subdivision is between 410 and 1604. SAWS puts greater pressure on those closer
to the central pumping stations in order to send supplies on to the farthest suburbs, many outside city lim its. Two years ago I paid $650 to have a pressure reduction device installed at the meter to take the psi down to an acceptable level. The heavy pressure kept blowing out my outdoor spigots. I hope the problem is not with that device - SAWS will not help with the cost. Seems unfair that some of us are financing the delivery to folks farther away.
We had a nice rain just now - don't know how much but the street gutters are running full.
I definitely can not reach around my pecans. They are really big. My house in 105 years old and the neighborhood used to be a pecan orchard. I have two of my gutters running to two of the pecans.
A good way to check your water is to turn everything off and then go to the city meter. The little triangle will be spinning even if a little water is being used. If you are losing water at a very slow rate, sit there for 5 minutes and it should move a few rotations during that time period.
No rain today. I am getting a little cranky. HA!
30 percent chance for me tomorrow. We'll see.
San Marcos is looking good for rain. We got .24 combined the last three times it rained but boy are chances looking better. However, not as goot as SA. These are from NOAA.
Forecast for San Antonio:
Wed: 80 percent rain
Thurs: 70 percent rain
Friday: 50 percent rain
Saturday: 50 percent rain
Sunday: 40 percent
NWS says 70% on WED and THURS for my area! Whee! I just hope EVERYBODY gets a good soaking this time!
Wishing for wet days for the whole area south and west of us.