We Had a Little Winter Weather

We had a little winter weather overnight. Yesterday, it snowed! The roads were a sheet of ice. By late afternoon, the roads had mostly cleared, but not all of the ice had melted nor the water had dried. Overnight, it froze again.

When I left the house this morning, the yard was a sheet of ice. It was so thing as to be invisible in most places, but it sure was slippery! Along the north side of the house, I found some remnants of the sleet from Thursday:

Finally, Some Real Rain!!!!!

Miracle of miracles! Today, it rained!

TSN says 44 Days

The Texs State Network (TSN) says we have had forty-four days where the high temperature for the day is above 100 degrees. We are starting to set records here!

The Weather, Again

This chart speaks for itself. Lot's of heat and little rain. We are talking about a real drought here. When will some rain arrive?

Rain, Again!

We got another inch of rain. Nature put on quite a show during the delivery.

Finally, Rain

It finally rained. One and one quarteh inches fell on the ranch.

32 Days

Now, it is thirty two days of over 100 degrees here in central Texas. That also means thirty two days without rain. The heat is drying out the ground and turning our crops into acres and acres of fire hazard.  Look at this chart of  the rainfall over the last two years.  In the past twelve months, we have not had more than about three inches of rain in any month.  Normally, two months are over four inches and two to three additional months with over three inches.

This map shows the spread of the drought here in Texas during the last month. The whole south-east corner of Texas has reached a critical drought level.  We think we have it bad, but when you look at the map, San Antonio and Victoria really have it bad.  San Antonio gets its water from the Edwards Aquifer which is located west of the city.  Victoria gets its water from the several man-made lakes which depend upon a constant flow of water from the same aquifer.  How much longer before that aquifer starts to run dry?

But the drought is spreading up into the Hill Country. The lakes that supply water to Austin, Lake Travis and Lake Buchanan, are reaching record low water levels. The boat ramps are now all high and dry. Lake Travis is only 47% full, while Lake Buchanan is 53% full. If the drought continues, the exceptional drought category will have spread to cover this ranch. Fortunately, our east pasture got a good start early this spring, so the herd still has plenty to eat. But without rain, they will eat it down very quickly. We need rain, but it is just not in the forecast. There is a high pressure system that has been hanging over central Texas for the last six weeks. This is forcing all the rain to pass north of Texas, up in Oklahoma. Unfortunately, it does nto look like that high is going to move any time soon. Lord help us!!

27 Days

I just heard - today is the twenty-seventh consecutive day with a high temperature over 100 degrees! The crops are so dry that it is hazardous to cut them down. One small spark and the whole field will explode into flames. One child playing at noon triggered a 500-acre wild fire. Now, at 10:45 PM, it is only 70% contained.

Repairs and the Weather

We started on the repairs on the rental unit. Murphy's Law: a heat wave hits, with temperatures soaring into the triple digits. Of course, the electricity has been disconnected in the rental unit and there is no air-conditioning.

The first order of business is planning.

We decided to start with the kitchen and the utility room. We measured everything and the I drew a scale drawing of the utility room and of the kitchen cabinets. We wend down to Lowe's to look for ideas and prices.

For the kitchen, we found that they had a series of off-the-shelf cabinets which we priced. The estimated cost of replacing the kitchen cabinets using this series totals $1,310 for the wall units and $620 for the island units. We plan to salvage the counter tops. We also looked at flooring, planning to replace the linoleum with new linoleum, but there is some low-cost manufactured "hardwood" flooring that seems to be both thin enough and cost-competitive.

For the utility room, we started with the idea of using marine plywood. However, we discovered cement board. Our new plan is to replace the particle board with one half inch plywood as a subfloor, with 0.42 inch cement board on top of that and ceramic tile for the flooring. We now plan to add a lip around the edge of the floor and a floor drain in the center. This will extend into the half bathroom, as well.

We will do some more planning, then check the prices at Lowe's and at Home Depot.

A Little Dry Weather

We actually had a few days of dry weather. Today, for the first time in months, I could walk to the East Pasture and not walk through standing water. The ground was actually firm underfoot. The herd has kept the main pasture grazed down, but the East Pasture is grasses and weeds two to two-and-a-half feet high!

I let the herd graze in the East Pasture. They stayed about an hour, then headed back to the main pasture. You could not see where they grazed. I plan to take them out there again tomarrow for a while. I ought to take some pictures...

The Weather Becomes Normal, At Least for Now.

Normal weather for this time of year in central Texas is, in a word, warm. Usually, beautiful blue skys and lots of sun. Well, that is what is here. Up until now, it has been cool and rainy. Flooding has been a major problem. Even today, there are a few places where a stream was still up over the road.

With the warm weather, my wife turned on the air conditioner. Guess what? It did not work. A quick scan of the wiring revealed the reason. One of our gol-darned puppies chewed the control cable between the house and the compressor. A segment of wire, about a foot long, was totally missing.

Sounds simple, right? Not so! The dang-nab wire runs under the house to the heater/air conditioner! There was no way I could accomplish that. So, I bought thirty feet of two-wire 18-guage wire and ran it up into the attic from the heater/air conditioner, then along the attic, out through the south wall and finally, down to the compressor. The rest of the electrical connection was simple.

Did I say simple? Yes, the wiring was. My wife and I found another problem! Over the years, the fan has pulled dust, dirt, leaves and other debris into the cooling coil. We tried to vacuum it out, but the cooling coil runs all around the unit and to get at most of it, we would have to totally disassemble the compressor housing. This is a job for a professional. If we get a good crop of kids this year, we will be able to afford it next spring when the kids are ready to sell.

The air conditioning is running and cooling the house. That is enough for now.

Where Did Winter Go?

Here we are, it is still the middle of winter. This weekend was beautiful. The low was in the fifties and the high in the seventies. According the Laura Skirde, the KXAN weather forecaster in Austin, it is going to be like this all week. The new weather forecaster on KWTX in Waco agrees with her. Where did the winter go?

This weekend, we pulled down about one hundred feet of three-foot fence in the southwest corner of the main pasture and replaced it with four-foot fence. The eleven-week old puppies were jumping over the three-foot fence. They saw the hill on the other side and got both bold and stupid. To get over the four-foot fence, they will need to learn to climb. Unfortunately, their mother is uniquely skilled to teach them. She climbs up and over ranch gates.

We also replaced some broken horse fence up by the rental unit. We put up one hundred feed of three-foot high fence. It is a start toward allowing our tenant to let their dog off of the chain and allowing him to run in a fenced in enclosure.

While we were out, we looked at the trees and shrubs. The trees are starting to put out buds already. The bushes are being a little more conservative - no buds yet, but the swellings are there.

And Then the Rains Came...

Today, we had some wild weather. This is normally a rainy season, but thunderstorms are not common. There is a low preasure system coming in very slowly from the west and it has caused significant instability in the atmosphere. This low preasure system has dropped two feet of snow on Colorado. As a result of this system, warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico has been pulled in over central Texas where it is colliding with the cold air rotating around the low. This caused severe thunderstorms with very strong winds and numerous small tornados.

I just went out and read the rain gauge. It looks like we got about three-quarters of an inch of rain. Some areas to the north of us got up to two inches, according to the weather report.

The forecasters say that this system should move out before morning. But yesterday, they said that it would be gone by this evening. Guess what? It is still here! I do not hold out a lot of hope for this system to be gone by morning.

I know, we need the rain. But we need them a little at a time, over a period of weeks. Not all at once, in just a few hours. The gentle rain will soak into the ground, where it will nurish the roots of plants. The heavy downpours will saturate the top one half inch to one inch and the rest will run off, taking valuable topsoil with it and will cause flash flooding. If the rain runs off, it does little to aleviate the drought.

More Rain, Both Literal and Figurative

Today, we got another 1.7 inches of rain. The forecast for tomorrow includes more rain. Daily rain is good, but it would be better if it stayed at 1 inch or less.

Really had news --- the stupid dog, Max, killed one of our goats. We have been trying to give him away for a while, because we were afraid of the possibility of this happening. It finally did. I, personally, would like to strangle that dog to death, but the rest of the family wants to seriously work at finding a home for him. If you want him, post a reply to me.

Some Really Wild Weather Arrives

Some really wild weather has hit central Texas. Down in eastern Austin, rain was falling at a rate of 4 inches per hour! Here at the ranch, we got 1¾ inches, all between 7PM and 8PM. While the rain is welcome, this was too fast. Too much of it is running off, taking the top soil with it.

Yesterday evening, we went to a meet the candidates night at the Republican party county headquarters. We got to meet all the local and county candidates. The state-wide candidates, of course, were not present. The state-wide candidates, from either the Republican or the Democratic parties, never stop at the small towns any more: not enough votes and little fund raising potential.

This is shaping up to be an interesting political season. The House of Representatives and one-third of the Senate are up for election. This means that all of the Representatives and one Texas Senator are up for re-election. These races tend to be a referendum on the job the President of the US is doing. In addition, there have been a number of scandals recently, including sweet-heart, no-bid contracts for the rebuilding of Iraq and New Orleans, the corruption scandals related to lobbying, and, most recently, the sexual scandal involving a Republican member of the House of Representatives.

For the Governor's Office, there are five major candidates: Rick Perry, the Republican; Tom Bell, the Democrat, Kinky Friedman and Carol Keaton Strayhorn, the independents; and libertarian whose name I have forgotten. Conventional wisdom says the Rick Perry will win. However, the independants have a strong following. Currently, the opinion polls show:

Rick Perry	33%
Carol Keaton Strayhorn	19%
Kinky Friedmand	16%
Tom Bell	13%

Early voting will start soon. If the turnout is heavy, I believe it will favor the Republicans. If the early voting turnout is light, I think the independents will have an advantage in the Governor's race and the Democrats in the other state-wide races. The weather will have its part to play, since rainy weather will tend to keep people away from the polls. The real results will be announced in about three weeks.

Weather - There will always be some...

I found this on the MSNBC web site yesterday:

I wish they would make sense. On the one hand, the Government climatoloogists are calling for a milder than normal winter. On the other hand, severe winter weather is already hiting Alaska, South Dekota and western New York. Go figure...

It Finally Rained!!!

Good news! We received 0.8 inches of rain since last night! This is the first rain we have received in MONTHS!

I know, that small amount of rain is just a drop in the bucket. It is, however, enough to dampen the dust and get it to begin to adhere together again to form soil. The entire top layer of the ground turned into a sticky mess. Much more rain, and that stick mess would start to flow downhill and erode away. Tonight, the water should seep deeper into the ground. If the next few days are not too warm, the next rains, which are currently predicted for the weekend, will soak into the ground instead of running off.

We are trying to sell the remaining six puppies from Spirit's litter. Until recently, there were too many competitors listing Anatolian/Great Pyrenees puppies. We did not think it was worth the cost of an ad, if there were too many other sellers. Wish us luck!!

Parise the Lord! It's RAINING!!

This morning, I awoke to a glorious sound - rain! This is the first significant rainfall we have received in the last two months!

More good news: on Thursday, a new kid hit the ground. This one is black and the doe is gray. This leaves us wondering who the buck was. We do not have a black buck. The kid is healthy and doing fine. She was strong enough to head to the East Pasture yesterday with the rest of the herd.