Texas Heat!

[Patriotic Stabilist]

We have had a few sprinkles. I watch those big rains coming this way, get all excited and they dump all the water before they get here.

I have a bird bath and the squirrels hit it plus all kinds of birds. We even have a big pileated woodpecker that is coming there to drink, he hangs off it he is so big.

My garden is 99% gone. I think I'm going to throw a bunch of flower seeds out there and set up 2 sprinklers on my timer and see if I can grow a bunch of pretty flowers for a couple months. We can till them in later.

I bet if we get a hurricane its going to be a humdinger. With this heat and the water heat how could it be otherwise.

 

[NativeSon]

Dennis-- Great pictures!! The owl is neat. We have one that starts hooting a couple of times a week. I love hearing that lonesome call.

Charlie

 

[Uncle Doug]

Here on the east side of Houston we have gotten a fair amout of rain over the last several days. Yesterday we got about 2 inches and was raining when I left for work today.

 

[Bartcephus]

Well, I have been in Houston since Sunday. Amazingly it is greener and cooler than home, 5 1/2 hours NE of here. Drive in was beautiful. More green than I've seen in SE Oklahoma too. Other amazing things were noticing that the ponds did not seem as low as I expected. Sure, there were some brown spots and a few low ponds, but overall, it was a beautiful drive to Houston. The heat has terminated my garden prematurely. I know that our wildlife needs some supplemental feeding as well but with deer feed corn at $10 for 40# bag it is twice the price that I am used to spending.

Hay prices have gone up dramatically. Wow. Glad I don't have cattle. I'll be in Houston till Thursday.

 

[Western]

Dennis-- Great pictures!! The owl is neat. We have one that starts hooting a couple of times a week. I love hearing that lonesome call.

Charlie

Thanks , Having the "wildlife" around for me one of the reasons I'm a "country boy".:thumbsup:

You guys in Houston have been finally getting some decent rain too! Gets to much drier and it will be worth more than the oil traded there:laughing:

Several of our area lakes are to the point of closing the boat ramps, I have noticed fewer and fewer cattle as Jim pointed out in his post above. If I had the grass and $$, I wouldn't mind buying a couple of long bred cows, don't know why? I guess I miss messing with my cows.

I'm think it will take a week or two of nasty drizzle to even come close to breaking this, but at least we arent getting the heat index from the humidity they are getting in the North central plains. 131 with heat index in Iowa?? are you serious!!!

 

[jinman]

Hay prices have gone up dramatically. Wow. Glad I don't have cattle. I'll be in Houston till Thursday.

Good round bales are $110 or more here. I'm sure glad I don't have any cattle to feed. I did almost spit out my dentures when I bought four bags of deer corn and it was $42.:shocked::confused2:

Dennis: About 5 years ago, I had this barred owl show up along our lake's shoreline and then it starting coming and sitting on the deck railing around my house where it could easily spot rodents on the ground. It was here for a long time and then just disappeared. No other owl has ever let me get that close to them, but I see them flying low under my trees in the woods quite often.

 

[Car Doc]

We are somewhere between 25 and 30 days in a row over 100 in central Kansas I am sure its a record and my area has only had 1.750 moisture since last year its dry.

Even our bermuda grass has gone dormant we haven't mowed but 2-3 times all summer.

My temp gage at the house regularly shows 114-117 in the shade at 5 PM when I get home and then I water the garden for 4 hours every nite its doing great only because of that.

Dryland crops are a total disaster even irrigated crops are doing poorly by the time the sprinkler gets around its all dry and stressed still.

This is the worst drought/heat wave I ever saw in 28 years of living here or anywhere for that matter.

 

[Bartcephus]

Ouch! Poor Kansas! and I thought we were hit bad. This drought is so widespread. When I was in SE Oklahoma the un-irrigated corn and cotten crops were all brown as my st. augustine grass in the back yard that doesn't get watered.

Jim... yes the corn prices are killer. I am going to try some partially irrigated food plots and supplement with feed and corn as I might be able to afford. Pecan trees are loosing thier mast unless they had supplemental water. I can only think the the oak trees are the same.

Activity at food plots should be good this year for hunting.... assuming they lived throught the summer.....


Regards,

Bart

 

[Western]

Nice photos Jim!! They sure are nea5t to have around, we get 2-3 every night Hooting in the yard, they nested in the creek about 50 yards from the house, but I think they have finished. I'd rather have 10 Owls catching mice than 1 cat.:thumbsup:

I wish I could afford to hunt Kansas! I bet this drought will also effect the antler growth there as they are projecting here.

I see on some hunting forums , some guy's still paying under 10 bucks for corn, but if you look at some of the bags, some are as small as 30#

 

[foreman Etexas]

Nice photos Jim!! They sure are nea5t to have around, we get 2-3 every night Hooting in the yard, they nested in the creek about 50 yards from the house, but I think they have finished. I'd rather have 10 Owls catching mice than 1 cat.:thumbsup:

I wish I could afford to hunt Kansas! I bet this drought will also effect the antler growth there as they are projecting here.

I see on some hunting forums , some guy's still paying under 10 bucks for corn, but if you look at some of the bags, some are as small as 30#

Not filling feeders up this year(corn prices to high)going to put in bigger food plots and keep feeding them little alfalfa every now and then(alfalfa #60lbs bales $8.00).

 

[Western]

Not filling feeders up this year(corn prices to high)going to put in bigger food plots and keep feeding them little alfalfa every now and then(alfalfa #60lbs bales $8.00).

I just started with baled Alfalfa, only been out about 2 weeks. No interest so far, but they will eat the pellets mixed with corn off of the hay. I got the 16% protein pellets because I was worried if their water intake would handle a higher %.

I have had excellent results while living in Erath county, growing the Dryland (Ladak) Alfalfa, deer took to it quick and kept it mowed down.

Don't know if this photo will show, girls came in about 8:30. Did notice one doe had a good "used" udder, so hopefully there is some youngsters running around. Don't know why the photo came out so dark, may have to get a lesson from my daughter.

 

[NativeSon]

Yeah, Deer season this year doesn't look good. Dogs drug up what was left of a carcass yesterday. Looked like it was road kill. The one's I've seen don't look too good.
Dennis-- The creeks are drying up so like you, I think I'll put a water tank down in the woods for them. I don't hunt them any but the wife & I love to watch them. But for hunters a water trough maybe better than a feeder.

Charlie

 

[jinman]

I have a deal with the deer. I water my yard and keep it green and they handle the fertilizer for me.:laughing: There are deer pill piles all over my lawn. They are especially fond of nice green St. Augustine, but the Bermuda gets its share of fertilizer too.:thumbsup:

 

[foreman Etexas]

I just started with baled Alfalfa, only been out about 2 weeks. No interest so far, but they will eat the pellets mixed with corn off of the hay. I got the 16% protein pellets because I was worried if their water intake would handle a higher %.

I have had excellent results while living in Erath county, growing the Dryland (Ladak) Alfalfa, deer took to it quick and kept it mowed down.

Don't know if this photo will show, girls came in about 8:30. Did notice one doe had a good "used" udder, so hopefully there is some youngsters running around. Don't know why the photo came out so dark, may have to get a lesson from my daughter.

Hey I got my game camera out finally and got some pictures,feeding alfalfa I will get them on here soon

 

[Bird]

Me and 3 of my neighbors on same well

Hmm, I've got a cousin in Freestone County with that same kind of deal. Maybe you're neighbors. Personally, I don't think I'd like that any better than Homeowners Associations.

Well, I just got an e-mail from my cousin and there were 10 families on the one well, and the pump died. In trying to get the pump out, the repairmen broke the casing and ruined the well. So my cousin had his own well drilled on his own property, says it's much better water, too.

 

[Western]

Yeah, Deer season this year doesn't look good. Dogs drug up what was left of a carcass yesterday. Looked like it was road kill. The one's I've seen don't look too good.
Dennis-- The creeks are drying up so like you, I think I'll put a water tank down in the woods for them. I don't hunt them any but the wife & I love to watch them. But for hunters a water trough maybe better than a feeder.Charlie

We like watching them too, haven't shot one in a couple of years on my place.

I have a deal with the deer. I water my yard and keep it green and they handle the fertilizer for me.:laughing: There are deer pill piles all over my lawn. They are especially fond of nice green St. Augustine, but the Bermuda gets its share of fertilizer too.:thumbsup:

That say's allot , Deer usually don't prefer "grass", but when they are hungry, even the leather in a Studebaker looks good!

Well, I just got an e-mail from my cousin and there were 10 families on the one well, and the pump died. In trying to get the pump out, the repairmen broke the casing and ruined the well. So my cousin had his own well drilled on his own property, says it's much better water, too.

I wonder why that is Bird? Is it a deeper well?. The old one must have been shallow.

 

[Western]

Only supposed to be 99! YEAH!!! cold weather..

Got these photos of a couple that came to get water

without the "chaperon"

 

[pacerron]

Thought I'd butt into your rural living discussion today with a few pictures taken this morning. Your heat is moving across the food belt and we are suppossed to be 97 degrees today with 90% humidity feels like 107. The wife is making yellow summer squash sweet relish so that gives me an excuse to play on the pc.
01 is a mother and twins that roam all over the place. There is an orphan that is usually near them.
02 shows that the twins have no fear of the horses nor do the horses fear them... unless you happen to be on the saddle in the woods and a deer lets out a snort. That's a different story.
03 shows a couple of our 20-30 hummers next to me on the porch where I was taking the deer picture. We have so many it is impossible to count them.
They have no fear either.
04 shows their competition for the sugar water in the oriole feeder. The bees get kind of nasty and overly greedy as summer progresses so a pair of tweezers is kept handy on the porch to pull them out of the feeder holes.
05 is taken at a 50mm lens zoom setting to show the normal distance from the deck to the orchard and garden beyond that I spoke of the other day as being quite a menu for the deer.
06 shows how much pond evaporation we have had so far. I put a red square over where our overflow pipe level is located.
07 I thought this was the blue heron that eats our frogs and fish but the wife reported it was a young hawk when she came back from the barn.

I thought Jinman had the no trespassing signs up to keep the deer out but I see the deer can't read any better down there than up here! We have deer pellets everywhere too and circles pressed down in the grass where they lay at night. I think they watch TV through the windows...
Stay cool.. Best thing for that is a long afternoon nap!
Ron

 

[Car Doc]

Beautiful hide out Ron looks like a very nice well kept place! :thumbsup: btw are those bat boxes hanging on the pole?

 

[Western]

Nice place you have, Allot more manicured than mine! Nothing like living in the country:thumbsup: where ever you live.

If your up North, or in the N. East, you have a much higher heat index than us. Last night on the news, they said it was because of the heavy rains dumping so much moisture up there.