Texas Fall/Winter thread!

[jinman]

No rain here. . . my wife was disappointed, but I am thrilled since it gives me several days in a row to work on my ponds. I'm trying to make significant progress before posting anymore photos to my thread about the ponds. I will post a couple here just to show the fall color I get to enjoy on the surrounding hillsides. As you can see in the photos, I've filled in the core trench to about 12" above the level of the pond so it will quit sanding in everytime it rains. I can't get it too high just yet because I still have dirt to remove from the sides of the pond (grassy spot in foreground) and can't afford to let it flood just yet. The dam will extend from the flat area all the way to the right where you can see the trench being filled. Conditions are perfect for compacting the clay. As soon as I get the sides finished I'll build up the dam the rest of the way.

 

[Western]

Jim, your getting a lot done in that tank, how long do you think you'll get out of it? It it pretty sandy with deeper clay down here in the southern part of the county. I am surprised how much "silt" I get, even with the runoff going through the grass and trees.

I thought after digging mine out a little and then 3 months of dry heat, the cattails would be baked, wrong! 1st good rain and some are coming up, so the battle will continue.

 

[jinman]

Dennis, I think I can be done with excavation within a couple of days on the upper basin. I have many weeks of work left on the lower (larger) basin. I have lots more diesel to buy and burn before I'm done.

 

[Bird]

Bird, you may have got "twice" as much rain as you "saw" since your running at 50% till the eye clears up

Dennis, the whole world is a bit blurry right now, but that was expected. In my case, I was told before hand that I'd still need glasses, and new ones, of course. And my vision is certainly changing. Anyway, I saw the doctor for the first follow-up this morning and will see him again in a week. Apparently all is going well, and I have 4 different kinds of eye drops to use every day in the meantime.

Actually, if I move up closer to the computer screen, it's clearer than before. And now, while the TV isn't as clear as it will be later, I can actully read the closed captioning better without my glasses than with them.

Jim, speaking of the Fall foliage colors, my wife and I really noticed that along I-35W Saturday when we were on our way to Fort Worth. But the thing that surprised me the most was the huge numbers of black cattle on both sides of I-35W. I thought most of the ranchers sold off a lot of their herds, but I've never seen so many cows in this area before.

 

[cjfling]

1/4 of an inch a few miles north of Victoria, TX. Disappointed.

 

[Western]

Dennis, I think I can be done with excavation within a couple of days on the upper basin. I have many weeks of work left on the lower (larger) basin. I have lots more diesel to buy and burn before I'm done.

Jim, looks like you will have a good winter for it, may be somewhat mild and I would think easier on equipment rather than extreme summer heat.

Dennis, the whole world is a bit blurry right now, but that was expected.

Could read a lot into that Bird ( I think the ole boy is in the moon shine fellers):laughing:

1/4 of an inch a few miles north of Victoria, TX. Disappointed.

I will trade you the wind we got! I think that is "fair":thumbsup:

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

About 1/2 to 3/4" here.

 

[WM75Guy]

Dennis, the whole world is a bit blurry right now, but that was expected. In my case, I was told before hand that I'd still need glasses, and new ones, of course. And my vision is certainly changing. Anyway, I saw the doctor for the first follow-up this morning and will see him again in a week. Apparently all is going well, and I have 4 different kinds of eye drops to use every day in the meantime.

Actually, if I move up closer to the computer screen, it's clearer than before. And now, while the TV isn't as clear as it will be later, I can actully read the closed captioning better without my glasses than with them.

Bird, glad everything went OK. It gets better pretty quick. My left cleared up after 1 week to 20/25. The right was done 2 weeks later and after 1 week was 20/20. My surgeon does the non-dominant first so he knows how much to tweak the lens implant power on the dominant eye. The trick is having one good eye and one bad eye and getting things done in between. I wore contacts so it wasn't bad, just used the one for the bad eye for 2 weeks. I now wear cheap reading glasses for close up work.

 

[two_bit_score]

No rain here. . . my wife was disappointed, but I am thrilled since it gives me several days in a row to work on my ponds. I'm trying to make significant progress before posting anymore photos to my thread about the ponds. I will post a couple here just to show the fall color I get to enjoy on the surrounding hillsides. As you can see in the photos, I've filled in the core trench to about 12" above the level of the pond so it will quit sanding in everytime it rains. I can't get it too high just yet because I still have dirt to remove from the sides of the pond (grassy spot in foreground) and can't afford to let it flood just yet. The dam will extend from the flat area all the way to the right where you can see the trench being filled. Conditions are perfect for compacting the clay. As soon as I get the sides finished I'll build up the dam the rest of the way.

Really looking good there. Should be great when you get water in it. This one looks bad but has never gone dry.





This structure is always covered except this year.

 

[CowboyRon]

Really looking good there. Should be great when you get water in it. This one looks bad but has never gone dry.

<img src="http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=237937"/>

This structure is always covered except this year.

It's a good looking pond, the best part is it still has water. Our pond made it through the drought, I think its because of all the trees surrounding it and providing shade.

 

[jinman]

Really looking good there. Should be great when you get water in it. This one looks bad but has never gone dry.

This structure is always covered except this year.

ANY POND with water is a beautiful pond. That stock pond sure looks nice and clear. Mine got muddy after the rain and hasn't cleared up yet.

Bird: You mentioned all the cattle along I35W between Denton and Ft. Worth. Maybe they are all coming up next to the fence to watch the loads of hay coming by on the highway headed south.:confused2: Actually, I think most of the locals just dodged the bullet and got enough rain to sustain them into the fall. From the looks of the local Bowie feedlot (and smell as you drive by) there are lots of cattle moving through there. Every pen has a huge manure mound in the middle. I told my grandson to do his breathing exercises when we passed the lot last weekend. He WASN"T amused.

 

[Bird]

Bird, glad everything went OK. It gets better pretty quick. My left cleared up after 1 week to 20/25. The right was done 2 weeks later and after 1 week was 20/20. My surgeon does the non-dominant first so he knows how much to tweak the lens implant power on the dominant eye. The trick is having one good eye and one bad eye and getting things done in between. I wore contacts so it wasn't bad, just used the one for the bad eye for 2 weeks. I now wear cheap reading glasses for close up work.

Randy, I can see the advantage in wearing contacts, but I've never tried them and don't think I want to. I have a younger brother who had one eye done in January and the other eye Oct. 31. He says he already has 20/20 vision in each eye, but does use some $7 "over the counter" reading glasses for close up or fine print. And being a golf fanatic, his doctor told him he could play golf the day after the surgery.:laughing:

 

[Western]

I can believe how warm it is in November, 81 degrees yesterday, 65 degrees last night, BUT rains coming boyz!!:thumbsup:

 

[NativeSon]

Bring on the rain then maybe they can cancel the Burn Ban. The counties to the west of us have all cancelled the ban. I've stopped adding to the several burn piles I've got as they are starting to get so big they're scaring me a little. The County Commissioners meet on Wed. so I hope we can work on some of these piles then.

Ya'll have a Great Thanksgiving.(And may all the realative play nice.)

Charlie

 

[txdon]

Native son, do you need a permit to burn? I starting to think we might need burn permits here.

Our commissioners always lift the burn ban too soon and then we have a bunch of wildland fires. A week later they reinstate it but nobody knows about it. We are then called out to extinguish brush piles. With the amount of dead cedars around here and the dried grasses I hope they at least wait till spring when the dry dead grass has decomposed.

 

[Western]

Don, are those cedars a result of the drought, or the earlier fires you folks had? Just wondering, I wouldn't want to be around a field full of dry dead Cedar if it lite up! That's if it still had it's leaf mass still attached, burn like gasoline.

 

[EddieWalker]

That last rain only gave me a third of an inch of rain, but more importantly, they lifted the burn ban. I had five burn piles that are pretty large. I lit one and waited for it to die down, then lit the other. I will only burn the day after it rains, so I don't have to worry about it spreading. What amazes me is that after burning for two days, the clay under it is still wet!!!!

Eddie

 

[Western]

Nice fire Eddie! though I don't see any marshmallows:laughing:

Must be nice to get that done, I have a couple of piles i need to burn, but just a tad paranoid with the wind we've been having over here and still a little dry, though the ground seems to have some moisture now.

 

[EddieWalker]

I have three more burn piles to go, so I'm waiting to see if the storms that are predicted for Monday night happen or not. If so, I'll lite the next one on Tuesday!!!

Eddie

 

[two_bit_score]

Burned a small pile today. I like to burn in a pit rather than on the surface when possible.