Texas Heat!

jinman · Jul 7, 2011

Well, it is VERY hot as I am typing this post. My thermometer says 107.1 F. That's either very hot or I have it tuned to an FM radio station.:confused2: WHEW!

Even so, our ponds and lakes are maintaining very well. Please don't send me hate mail, but here are a couple of pictures. The first is a pond that is 12 feet deep. I cleaned the silt out of this pond about 5 years ago. The 2nd photo is a nearby pond about 5' deep and our 12 acre soil conservation lake in the background. The lake is full to its overflow. Our recent 3 inch rainstorm put us in good shape for July. By August we could be down a bunch though.

Bird · Jul 7, 2011

Officially, I see the NWS shows Denton to only be 101, but my infrared thermometer gets 104 to 106 in different parts of my patio (all in the shade all the time). It's just miserable if you have to get out in it. And we're supposed to have a roofing crew here Tuesday. I've shingled a few roofs, but the last one was 22 years ago, and I'd sure hate to be up there on one now.

blueriver · Jul 7, 2011

Jim ... funny you should mention that FM station, I listen to 106.3 and I have on my digital 106.3 degrees ... my tanks/ponds are down a little ... we are holding on and hoping for one of those straggler hit and miss afternoon storms to roll thru.

HOT ... how about that dust storm in Arizona ???

Western · Jul 8, 2011

Jim, sure looks nice!! I see in the first photo, looks like a "receding" water-line going on, must be "age"

BTW got my water line about 5 miles short of your lake and ran out of $$, so waiting on a guvment bailout! :laughing::thumbsup:

106.7 here today. Allot of deer and varmints on the road as I drove back tonight from finishing my job in Granbury.

Starting to loose a couple of large Oaks which is really a bummer.

NativeSon · Jul 8, 2011

Western- We've got some trees dying off out here too. Most of the ones I've noticed are some pretty big Red Oaks.

Charlie

jinman · Jul 8, 2011

Well, this is my little garden. Our cukes are doing spectacularly because we are watering them every other day with soaker hoses. The plants are huge. If they don't get watered that often, they just wilt and look like they are dying. I think it's because the plant can't get water out the long vines to the leaves. I've never seen a plant wilt down so quickly during the heat of the day as they do when not watered on time. Because we water them and have kept them free of bugs, we get 15 to 20 pounds of cukes off of them every 2 or 3 days. If we don't pick often the cukes look more like zucchinis. I picked one last tuesday that we didn't see. It was a foot long and 3" diameter.:laughing:

Now, my tomato plants really difficult to water the correct amount because they wilt down some, but if overwatered just a bit, the tomatoes will split from too much water and the plants get yellow leaves at the bottom. I'm trying to just overwater a bit to be on the safe side. In the excess heat, the tomatoes are not setting many fruit, but they are producing nicely. The early girls have nice baseball sized fruit that is perfectly formed. Some of the other varieties get a bit cat-faced with the overwatering. My sweet peppers, banana peppers, and pimentos are doing just fine in the heat and seem to do well. I'm sure I'm overwatering them, but the plants are just covered with peppers.

Western · Jul 8, 2011

Sad to loose a red oak.. I have a couple of Live oaks that are browning, just hoping it's the lack of water and heat, not white root rot. (forgot the proper term)

The couple melon plants I have will fruit and then after a week the little melons turn "black", never had this before so I cut them off and put in the burn barrel.

I am babying a couple of the trees close to the house, but can't do much for the hundreds in the woods. I know Ft. Worth and a few other of the Mid-cities are talking water restrictions already.
I am surprised there has been no mention on the news on the condition of our various aquifers??

Bird · Jul 8, 2011

Jim, your garden looks great for this weather.

jinman · Jul 8, 2011

110.4 today.:thumbdown: I keep hoping for a break, but it ain't happening. Dennis, I hate losing trees to drought, but I lost about 100 trees back in 1997/1998 and again in 2005/2006 when we had droughts. Those were native trees. Are your red oaks and live oaks native?

NativeSon · Jul 9, 2011

104 Yesterday. Out here in Lake Country the big lakes (Fork, Cypress Springs, etc.) are running 5-7 ft. low so I'd think DFW needs to look at water rationing.

My garden is really taking a beating this year and I'm watering the heck out of it, just to keep it from burning up. About a day and a half between waterings and everything is wilting. The Cukes , Eggplant, and the Basil are doing pretty good but the tomatoes and everything else aren't doing to well. I think it got too hot too early so the tomatoes just quit setting.

The trees that we are losing are Native.

Charlie