Texas Fall/Winter thread!

[Bird]

An article in the Denton Record-Chronicle this morning says the rain was great but expect drought conditions to continue. It said we're still about 10" behind for the year.

 

[NativeSon]

So far it's only 34* but we do have lite snow that is on the windshields but not freezing to it. Not sticking on the roads either. Got the wife off to work just wiping off the glass. No explanation for Texas weather.

Ya'll stay warm

Charlie

 

[jinman]

An article in the Denton Record-Chronicle this morning says the rain was great but expect drought conditions to continue. It said we're still about 10" behind for the year.

Hmm. . . I guess that would mean there's good news and bad news. The good news is that I won't have too much rain to finish my pond building. The bad news is that once they are built, they'll just be two big holes in the ground. :laughing:

 

[bigbull338]

its down right cold here this morning an no snow so far.they say we could be in a drought off an on for the next 8yrs if the weather pattern dont change.

 

[Western]

Good to hear about the rain around SA, My BIL/SIL live outside of Fredricksburg and the say they are "bone dry"

Jim, at least you'll have to NICE big holes in your pasture.

8 years of this kind of drought? Texas wont look the same...The way they still waste water in the big "city", you'd think we have an overabundance of water. I was working at a Shopping mall Thanksgiving eve, the water came on and flooded the parking lot, an hour later, they came on again.
I see this all over Dallas, even in the winter. Total waste IMO

 

[NativeSon]

There was and article in the Dallas Morning News a while back about the biggest water users. The really rich(Jerry Jones was one) with humango homes on acers of land with expensive landscaping were using up tens of thousands of dollars
a month.

We're a little sensitive out here in East Texas now that Dallas is starting to take water out of Lake Fork.

Charlie

 

[txdon]

This morning was the first freeze of the fall at 28 degrees. I started the first fire of the year last night. The coals were still very hot when I woke up and I just added a few pieces of drought (Post Oak) wood to make a warm fire this morning. Ahhhh Life is good.

 

[Bird]

Don, it's 19 here this morning; kinda chilly.

Dennis and Charlie, I was just watching the TV news and they mentioned some accidents and some people reporting "black ice" on the streets that isn't really black ice; it's just the result of sprinklers left on last night, and we do have plenty of them that water the streets as well as the yards.

 

[jinman]

Don: That's a beauty!:thumbsup: I had hoped to have a wood burning stove installed this year, but I blew all my project money on a new bathroom. Next year maybe...

Bird: I just checked the NWS and saw that it was 19 in Denton. The NWS for Bowie says 21, but my thermometer says 16.2. I'd say that Winter has arrived.

 

[Bird]

Yeah, Jim, I think the NWS is probably right. My infrared thermometer shows table, grill, etc. on the patio to be 14 to 17 degrees but what I think is my most accurate thermometer shows air temperture out there to be 20.

 

[bigbull338]

well its a cold 28 an a wc 22 here this morning.ill be staying in as much as possable today.

 

[Western]

Don Nice stove!!:thumbsup: We have had a couple similar to that one over the years, but now have a wall one or standard I should say. I think those are 100% more efficient heat wise.

Bird Your right about that ice, I have seen "Black ice" many times from frozen fog, re-melted ice/snow, but due to sprinklers I think should be a liability for the property owner. Most of the businesses I work around use lawn care maintenance company's and why they don't deal with this, I have no idea. I see copious amounts of water wasted working at night. Even the little McDonalds in Springtown, their water runs down HWY 199 all the way through Brookshires parking lot, total wast off water.

 

[Bird]

From my post #196 in this thread a week ago:

But my luck may be better than the old gentleman's next door. I noticed a trickle of water across my driveway this afternoon and tracked the source to his water meter box. Of course, I told him and then dipped enough water out to see that the meter was running; bad news. He called the city and the city guy came and confirmed that it's on the customer's side of the meter. I don't know what a plumber is going to cost him.

My neighbor decided to leave the water turned on at the meter so he'd have water in the house. So yesterday was 6 days there's been a steady stream across my driveway day and night and big puddles in my yard and each of the next 3 houses south of us. So I went over to check on him and he said when he first tried to call a plumber, he called 4 of them. Two had answering machines he didn't like, one phone had been disconnected, and the 4th guy said he didn't know when he could get to it, and never called back. He said he also had a nephew that was a plumber and he called the nephew and the boy told him he'd come as soon as he could get caught up. He said he guessed he should at least shut the water off at night, and that he'd call the nephew again. So he shut the water off sometime last night. His water bill isn't gong to be pretty.

The nephew came this afternoon, and sure enough the water line is PVC. It had not only pulled part way apart, but also had a crack in it. So it finally got fixed. The nephew told me code requires no more than 80 psi water pressure, and as I said in post #211 of the Texas Heat thread, the gauge I used showed 82 to 88 psi, after the city's guy back then said his gauge showed 100 psi.

Perhaps the drought had something to do with causing the leak, but I think our excessive water pressure might have something to do with it, too.

And yesterday morning, I started to go out and the garage door opener only moved the door about 6"; broken torsion spring. There was a time I'd have fixed it myself, but not anymore. The good news is that I had a good repairman here within an hour (company that I'd never used before or even heard of). The bad news was that it was expensive, but not unreasonable in my opinion.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Thanks Jim, we need more rain and they are saying this weekend maybe.

Don, nice stove. I'll bet it can heat you out of the house! Can you regulate it?

 

[Western]

Bird, I think the reason that one plumber out of four is busy, is because of the other 3!!!

Good thing no one slipped on that water if it froze the last couple of day's too!!

 

[jinman]

Bird, it's too bad the leak didn't happen during the summer when everyone needed water on their lawns. Glad your neighbor got his pipe repaired. You are probably exactly right about the water pressures, but you have to wonder why only certain houses would have that kind of problem rather than it being a widespread problem.

I had a great shopping experience at WalMart yesterday. Normally during the holidays, I stay away from the Decatur, TX store. Yesterday I was buying a bike for my grandson and went there because they are much bigger than our Bowie store. I WAS NOT looking forward to going inside the store to the toy department. As I walked throught the garden center I noticed they had a bunch of bikes there. I walked over and found two of the exact bike I was looking for. I rolled it over to the garden center checkout and was out of there in less than 10 minutes. Woohoo!:thumbsup:

 

[Bird]

Jim, the Walmarts are sure different in a lot of ways. We have 6 within a reasonable distance. I alsmost never go in the 2 in Lewisville any more, but visit the other 4 quite regularly; Hickory Creek, Highland Village, and 2 in Denton. It's surprising to me that the worst store for traffic, parking, and congestion is the old Denton store, but it's the only one that has Pedro's Fiesta tamales.:laughing:

In a few minutes, we'll be headed for Muenster this morning to Fischer's Meat Market. Gotta get some of their Taco Flavored Hot Links for myself, and both of our sons-in-law, and a few more brats for us, too.

 

[pacerron]

Jim, the Walmarts are sure different in a lot of ways. We have 6 within a reasonable distance. I alsmost never go in the 2 in Lewisville any more, but visit the other 4 quite regularly; Hickory Creek, Highland Village, and 2 in Denton. It's surprising to me that the worst store for traffic, parking, and congestion is the old Denton store, but it's the only one that has Pedro's Fiesta tamales.:laughing:

In a few minutes, we'll be headed for Muenster this morning to Fischer's Meat Market. Gotta get some of their Taco Flavored Hot Links for myself, and both of our sons-in-law, and a few more brats for us, too.

Your sure right about the differences, even the prices are higher in the north end of town versus the south end for the same product at the ones we use.
The thing that is the same is 30 check-out lanes but neverr more than 2 open.
One of them is usually the 20 items or less. It's amazing salesmanship how stores make people with $200 of groceries and other stuff wait in long lines but give somebody buying just a chew and a pop instant service.

 

[jinman]

In a few minutes, we'll be headed for Muenster this morning to Fischer's Meat Market. Gotta get some of their Taco Flavored Hot Links for myself, and both of our sons-in-law, and a few more brats for us, too.

I keep thinking I'll stop in there when we go through Muenster, but it seems I'm always rushing to get somewhere. One of these days, I'll go there and probably be hooked after that. Look out for the I-35 construction in Gainesville. It's probably going to be pretty nice when they finish, but all the ramps and service roads are pretty messed up during construction.

 

[blueriver]

In a few minutes, we'll be headed for Muenster this morning to Fischer's Meat Market. Gotta get some of their Taco Flavored Hot Links for myself, and both of our sons-in-law, and a few more brats for us, too.

Great place ... Thats where we take our hogs to get done ... a longer drive BUT its worth the Flavor!!