Okay, I'm tired of watering. I want to see some of that precious wet stuff come down...more than the pathetic little spritzes that don't even get the surface of the soil wet and is evaporated that same day. Time for that Naked Turtle dance (or whatever it was called) again. My area is in an extreme drought. Looking at the map published in the S. A. paper Friday, Austin and New Braunfels are in that dreaded circle of exceptional drought. My sympathy to them....what WE have is BAD ENOUGH! The experts expect that that circle will spread out and swallow up more of us soon. Help!
http://drought.unl.edu/dm/DM_south.htm
Drought in Texas
It has been dry here too but nothing like what they show on that map, wow!!! that is scary!.
Well, the San Antonio rainfall total for the year is 13.51" so far, said to be 17.87" below their normal rainfall. They think 2008 will probably end up being the second driest year in recorded history here.
This message was edited Dec 7, 2008 5:25 PM
Hi Linda,
I knew we were sure having to water quite a bit here in NB. Wanna get together for that turtle dance. I'm not too sure about the naked part though.
BTW still enjoying all of the plants I got at the swap. Looking forward to the spring swap! I hope to have a wider variety to share this year from 100+ seeds I'm receiving from the piggy swap!
Tonya
Yeah....it's my opinion that using some creative visualization, positive thought and prayer might work better than flashing my birthday suit anyway. But we can do it....we can make it rain! I'm trying to remember what lightning and thunder was like, BTW! Seeds, great! I'm getting some seeds also. We just need rain in time to plant them!
This message was edited Dec 7, 2008 7:48 PM
I was in out local USDA office to sign up for compensatory pasture insurance for next year. Their maps show Fayette County as being in the Exceptional drought area. Our normal rain average is between 37 - 40" a year. We have received 17.48 inches to date — 20 to 23' short of average. Our cattle wouldn't recognize green grass if they saw it.
They said on the news that the updated drought monitor map has San Antonio included in the dark exceptional drought circle. I could tell my area was also in the exceptional drought area now. Okay, we did get some sleet and snow. Probably didn't add much, but the ground definitely looks moist in a lot of places...hope it at least got down a quarter inch or so.
This message was edited Dec 11, 2008 10:39 PM
My subdivision in northwest San Antonio received .5 inches of precipitation (rain and sleet). This is the first wet stuff we have had in my neighborhood since ... gee, I can't remember. My area has had even less rain than as listed for San Antonio. When parts of San Antonio did receive rain, it would skirt around us (within a mile sometimes). Sometimes I could see the rain coming from the clouds and smell it. I would beg it to come visit me. Without plants in the fields, the field rats have resorted to eating lots of my plants to the ground. They especially like coleus, dwarf Mexican petunia, impatiens and begonia. After speaking with relatives that live in different areas of San Antonio, I found out last night that this is occurring all over San Antonio I have had field rats eating from my flat bird feeders for months. They are now feeding even in the daytime.
I know. At times I've heard the weatherpeople talking about it raining in S.A. and I look outside and there's not even a cloud here. Then other times, it rained here and not in S.A. and I felt guilty somehow for being so happy about the rain. But yeah, the sleet and snow is all we've had in ages other than little spritzes that don't amount to anything! I can remember back to other winters where we'd have fairly frequent drizzle and this is so different. But we always have wildlife here that come around and eat what they can find, often we get the digging or rooting by animals....I get tired of that! I relocated 3 coons this fall and the two remaining ones left on their own. Now another coon comes around on occasion. And other animals.
We over seeded our pastures with oat seed in October. Most ranchers rely on rain to press the seed down against the ground for good soil contact and germination. We haven't had the rain and the seed is exposed. Essentially, what we have out there is a $1,900.00 birdfeeder. We've had flocks of Mourning Doves, Killdeer and a large number of unidentified birds out in the pastures eating the seed since we sowed it. We did receive 0.23" this week. That's enough rain to dissolve the fertilizer we had mixed with the winter oats and make the seed more accessible to the birds.
Geez! But quick! Put out an ad advertising a bird-watcher's special event for the weekend and charge admission to bird-watchers!
That's an idea!