Texas Heat!

[jinman]

. . . Then this morning it went off about 6:40 a.m. and didn't come back on for about 45 minutes. As long as it isn't off any longer than that, no problem but I'm not too confident.

Bird, you wouldn't think at 6:40 AM on Sunday there would be an abnormally high load on the grid, so that power loss this morning has to be something unusual, don't you think?

 

[Bird]

Bird, you wouldn't think at 6:40 AM on Sunday there would be an abnormally high load on the grid, so that power loss this morning has to be something unusual, don't you think?

Yep, Jim, it did surprise me. I waited about 5 minutes, then called Oncor's automated outage reporting system and the recording said the estimated time was 9 a.m. for it to come back on, so at least they beat that by a long shot.

 

[Western]

Glad I'm on a Co-op, but even then we sometimes loose power, like last winter for several hrs. Usually it's tree limbs that get ours.

My A/C condenser fan bearings are going out, only 2 years old Got it running again this morning, just don't want to burn up the pump. Sunday is not a good day to try finding a fan motor, my Cousin does HVAC and will help me Monday, so fingers crossed. It was a balmy 80 degrees in the house when I woke up.

 

[pacerron]

Jim,
Not quite sure how to reply to a post that has a string of replies already, so I'm trying "quick reply" I'm interested in some details of the "deer fence" in your cucumber patch picture. The deer wiped out ours last night, along with some corn. The egg-milk stink water we have used for 2 years is now failing. I brought the charger up from the horse barn last night and put a temporary electric fence around the garden with a wire about 4" and another about 3 feet with white bags tied on the top wire. We did a wire around the orchard a few years ago but they just got tangled in it so I don't expect much. The wife says- we will win this battle ( at least for a little while again)!
1. Is your fence the vinyl mesh type?
2. Does it hold up in the sun well against UV?
3.How do you have it supported?
4. How far apart can the supports be?
We plow and disk our little garden so it is important to have both ends pretty clear of posts, about 50 feet wide.
We would appreciate your experience on this product and am sure others would too.
Ron

 

[Bird]

Glad I'm on a Co-op, but even then we sometimes loose power, like last winter for several hrs. Usually it's tree limbs that get ours.

My A/C condenser fan bearings are going out, only 2 years old Got it running again this morning, just don't want to burn up the pump. Sunday is not a good day to try finding a fan motor, my Cousin does HVAC and will help me Monday, so fingers crossed. It was a balmy 80 degrees in the house when I woke up.

Dennis, before we moved back to town, we were on a Co-op. Our longest power outage was 8 hours the morning of my Dad's funeral, but neighbors talked about the 4 day outage a few years earlier. And we had a number of shorter outages. I thought getting back in town would mean fewer and shorter outages. Wrong again. From 1977 to 1989 we lived in an area of Dallas with all the utilities below ground and sure had a lot fewer power outages.

 

[jinman]

1. Is your fence the vinyl mesh type?
2. Does it hold up in the sun well against UV?
3.How do you have it supported?
4. How far apart can the supports be?
We plow and disk our little garden so it is important to have both ends pretty clear of posts, about 50 feet wide.
We would appreciate your experience on this product and am sure others would too.
Ron

Ron, I believe this is the type of mesh fencing we bought. There are more expensive/heavier types, but this has been fine and never challenged by our deer. It didn't stop possums or raccoons, but they weren't a big problem anyhow. I can trap them pretty easily. It has been 100% effective against deer. I just use 8' t-posts spaced 25' to 30' apart. I use cable ties and twist ties to hold the fence in place. I made a gate between tow posts by strapping a piece of 8' long 3/4" dia pvc at the end of a loose section and use bungees to hold it overlapped about 2 feet. It's simple and works great. We take down the fence every spring for plowing. It is so lightweight that it's a snap. We've had it for two years and the Texas sun doesn't seem to bother it at all. It can be cut with scissors and will break if put under too much tension, but you can tension it easily between t-posts. I use my tractor to pull t-posts and just push them back in with the FEL. I can't think of a simpler or easier fence to build. It won't win any awards for appearance, but it's terrific for a garden fence that goes up and down each year.

 

[foreman Etexas]

It is very bad here north of Houston. Our back neighbor has horses, he had 4 at a friends because his pasture won't support them and he called yesterday and told him to come and get them, he can't feed them any longer. Last week his hay source said he has none to sell. I'm not sure but I think he has about 12 horses. The other guy got 50 large bales of hay off 25 acres and he told him he couldn't sell anything till he had 450 for his own use, sounds really short there.

So he is down to a roll or two and getting frantic. He came over to borrow hubbies trailer, going down to the coast somewhere to get some cattle hay, I don't think they normally like it but he said if they get hungry enough they will eat it. The other guy delivered the hay to him.

He said he may try east Texas to get some hay, hubby told him he better take some of the horses with him and see if he can sell them. He said a guy called and wanted to know if he could take back a buggy horse he had bought from him, he would give it to him that he couldn't feed it. He and a friend went up and the guy gave his friend 4 horses.

It's getting really desperate here. The guy is ok, but he isn't rich by a long shot so I look for him to have to get rid of some and those horses are like his babies. Going to be hard on him. But he said there is just no hay to be had. Again hubby said maybe up north, but man that will be expensive.

Also if it doesn't rain this fall and maybe none till the spring, he is fighting a losing battle.

We have a couple years of this and it will be like Arizona. Man am I glad I had another well drilled, its over 300 ft, so far both are still doing ok. We have lived here 20 years and I've never seen anything like this. We have lots of beautiful trees but hubby said we are going to lose some of them this year he would bet.

I have been spraying water in the chicken park, made a puddle or two, the chicks are enjoying that. I have 2 waterers and a flat pan with water in it. Some of them stand on the side with the front half of their feet in the water, must cool them off. It says it only 99 out today so a cooler day, couldn't prove it by me.

Hubby has been out working in the heat today, he is stiffening up our motorhome roof. The cover is 13 ft plus tall and he said if we get some hurricane winds it might come down so he is fixing it so it won't wrack. He sure got hot and to much sun. He is trying to get used to the heat since he is going to be working at the equator. He had been working on the rent house in the AC so he needs to do this. I'm out in it a lot so I'm used to it but it still feels mighty good in here.

I just got some coastal/bahia square bales from my hay guy,if he wonts to make the trip probaly get him some for 5.00 a bale.Theres not much grass here either,so I imagine the price will go up soon. Hay is around dew,tx

 

[foreman Etexas]

Mike, we must have a cold front today. Yesterday it was 110 and today it is only 105. Where's my sweater?:laughing:

I really feel sorry for you folks in Central TX. Heck, everywhere but the DFW area is dry in the whole state. Even so, they've had storms around Palestine a couple of days this month, so it can't be too dry there.:confused3: I hope your well holds out. What is the aquifer you draw from?

Im in Oakwood,around 15miles from palestine and its dry,dry.I always here about palestine getting rain,but as of for here,nothing.Usually make around 80 bales on are 30ac.hay patch,this year made 31 and dont know if were gonna make another.

 

[pacerron]

Jim,
Thanks for your reply about your fencing method. We will do similar. I know 5 foot high, high tensile 5 wire electrified doesn't stop them. We see them jumping it all the time in the horse pasture. They must have gotten their noses shocked a few times trying to squeeze through so they just jump over. Since they are airborn they don't get a shock from the top wire when they misscalculate and rub their belly on the wire going over.
Ron

 

[Gale Hawkins]

Often early Sunday morning outages are planned service/upgrade of system. Being a business we have got calls to that effect on Fridays so we know we will need to get our servers back on line if longer than the run time of the UPS.