Texas Heat!

[pacerron]

Jim,
Walmart has free shipping too, even if you only buy 1 and it is the $19 each price plus local sales tax. I susect most products ordered on the internet, that are only available there, and not in the brick and mortar name front, are
ordered by the name front from another supplier/importer after you order from them to be drop shipped to them with this "Order to pick up at a store of your choice scheme. They probably make more profit that way than actually stocking the items in their own wharehouse in quantity. The world
of retailing is getting more and more that way which is not helping the folks in this country, that want to work, find jobs. I researched a bit before placing the order and found that many people have found that when a product is available this "order and pick up at store way" and also as regular stocked inventory at a Walmart store, the price of the same item stocked in the store is somewhat higher than if ordered on the net and picked up at a store.
I know Amazon runs a big warehouse operation themselves as well as direct sales, so I might speculate that Walmart gets this product from them. Just a guess. Many big competitors on the surface really work together in the background.

I think fire fighting equipment is designed for 4-6" hoses and 1k gpm throughput so a home well would be worthless. The power would probably be shut off at the transformer pole anyway. Seeing the smoke above the treeline
last night really got my interest since there are hundreds of acres of dry woods between where the fire was and my property, probably connected.

Since you are still digging your pond near the house you might want to consider a dry hydrant. Fire Protection in Rural Areas: Dry Hydrants for Ponds, AEX-422-98
after checking with the local fire protection and government to see what you are getting into.
Ron

 

[pacerron]

Are the deer cameras triggered by sound and/or motion?
Do they do IR at night?
Might be another handy thing around the garden at night if they have a wide angle lens.
Ron

 

[Car Doc]

My new one is an IR flash invisible to everything and its triggered by motion, you cant see it or hear it and digital and no red light on the front either it uses an SD card and gets 8k pics on a $15 8gb SD card crazy technology.

Is silent and you cant tell when it flash's and it takes amazing good color pic's during day time gets awful boring sorting thru thousands of pics seeing the shadows going across the screen night after nite!

 

[foreman Etexas]

[/ATTACH][/ATTACH][/ATTACH] Is a really good game camera takes good picture day and nite. Goes with motion,makers name at bottum left in picture.

 

[crash325]

Hate to break it to you folks. But there is no more Texas or anything west of there. :laughing:

The national weather news is all over the "Heat Index" east of Texas. Some of them up to 110, maybe 111.

Now west of there (They hide anything west by standing in front of the map.) many places have real temp's 110, 111, even 114. No one is talking about the heat index in any of those places. Don't get out the Dry Heat argument, humidity around here has been up to about 60%. That is not like 90 / 95%, but will still run the heat index up.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

The deer are getting braver around my place. We do not feed them.

Our pond is still pretty full and I believe they are coming around due to our water. I see many ponds that are totally empty or almost empty.

 

[jinman]

I have a granddaughter coming to visit tomorrow. She'll be here for most of next week. Normally, in May/June when school is out, we have grandkids come and we enjoy being outside working in the garden, fishing, or boating on our lake. Well, we won't be doing any of that for this visit. Monday, we are going to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing in Ft. Worth to watch them make money. Being close to the "cool cash" should be a nice pleasant day.

On Tuesday, we will get up early and head north into Oklahoma to visit the Arbuckle Wilderness Wildlife Park north of Ardmore, Oklahoma in the Arbuckle Mountains. We'll leave between 7 AM to 8 AM because it's a 2-hr drive to get there and we want to be there soon after it opens at 9 AM. The animals are smart and tend to go hide in the woods in the shade when it gets too hot. There is a bigger wildlife drivethrough called Fossil Rim in Texas down near Glenrose, but they have dense cedar breaks there and the animals completely hide after about 10:30 AM. If you are there early, there are animals everywhere, but later in the day the place looks like an animal ghost town.

On Wednesday, we are going to try to take in the small Frank Buck Zoo in Gainesville. It's not a big zoo at all and has lots of shade trees for people as well as animals. Either Wednesday afternoon on the way home or on Thursday, we are going to Pond King in Gainesville to buy a few fish to stock in my pond and see what they suggest for aerators. If they aren't too expensive, I may just buy one of theirs instead of building something myself.

Other than that, we will probably stay inside and watch movies or shoot pool. It's a shame that the weather is so hot, but we'll just have to adjust and find things to do out of the heat.

 

[Bird]

Jim, that sounds ike quite an entertaining week. Of course, since I was born at Ardmore, I've spent a bit of time in the Arbuckles. Of course I was sorry to see in the newspaper this morning that an 8 year old boy from Sanger drowned at Turner Falls this week swimming where I used to love to swim. I've never been to the Bureau of Engraving & Printing, but I've been to all those other places. Kinda wish I could afford one of those Pond King pontoon boats.

Of course if I were going up to the Arbuckles, I'd have to stop for some Arbuckle Mountain Fried Pies. Your taste may differ, but to me they're the best I've found. And I thought that before I learned a cousin of mine manages that place, the cabins, and RV park.:laughing:

 

[Western]

Bird, I will have to look at the melons next time I'm in Wal-Mart,. The last one we got there was real good, on occasion I get very sweet cantaloupe too, but I have to pick through them sometimes.

I have seen rural Fire Dept's. pumping water from ponds, had strainer's on the hose. I doubt if they prefer doing that, but so much of Texas is rural, it only seems natural in a pinch. I know if you have a hydrant available for your house or a pond here in Texas and there is a fire, the local FD boy's give no quarter to property lines, fences or to who's water they are getting, they are going to get it out if they have to go through a mine field and often on a limited resource for water. Our firemen are a great bunch of guy's.

 

[Bird]

Dennis, when I lived in the west end of Navarro County, I was right across the road from Navarro Mills Lake. I was on the board of directors for our water co-op and I was on the volunteer fire department. There were a number of places the water lines could be flushed and a key for the locks was in the fire trucks, so they could refill there anytime. And then we bought a gasoline powered floating pump so we could go to any of the boat launching ramps and pump pretty clean water from the lake into the fire trucks.

 

[jinman]

Of course if I were going up to the Arbuckles, I'd have to stop for some Arbuckle Mountain Fried Pies. Your taste may differ, but to me they're the best I've found. And I thought that before I learned a cousin of mine manages that place, the cabins, and RV park.:laughing:

Bird, we'll have to stop in on the way back home. Maybe we can buy some frozen ones and cook them at home. A hot fried peach pie covered with fresh sliced peaches might make me hurt myself. I'm sure a scoop of vanilla ice cream would enhance the flavor too.:laughing:

 

[Western]

floating pump so we could go to any of the boat launching ramps and pump pretty clean water from the lake into the fire trucks.

I've never seen the floating one used, but I have heard about them. The last few places I worked as LEO, they where lucky enough to afford a pumper!!

I have watched the Helicopters and that is neat!


Jim, that sounds like a nice drive, been up there a couple of times (Arbuckle) years ago. Dinosaur valley is a neat place for kids and they can swim there too!

 

[brin]

Bird, we'll have to stop in on the way back home. Maybe we can buy some frozen ones and cook them at home. A hot fried peach pie covered with fresh sliced peaches might make me hurt myself. I'm sure a scoop of vanilla ice cream would enhance the flavor too.:laughing:

Jim - How many pounds would you gain from such a desert ? Just sayin' :laughing:

 

[Bird]

Bird, we'll have to stop in on the way back home. Maybe we can buy some frozen ones and cook them at home. A hot fried peach pie covered with fresh sliced peaches might make me hurt myself. I'm sure a scoop of vanilla ice cream would enhance the flavor too.:laughing:

Jim, I know they had frozen ones, but I just assumed they were cooked, then frozen, so I didn't even think about them being frozen for you to cook at home, so I didn't ask any questions about the frozen ones. When I bought fresh fried ones by the dozen, we put them in the refrigerator at home and re-heated them later in the microwave, but they didn't last long enough for us to freeze any.:laughing:

 

[foreman Etexas]

Well it seems like the hogs are back game camera.Time to get the hog dogs out!!!

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Somehow the subject matter waivers from desert to dessert.

The grass around here is dying. It is looking like the sahara. Many ponds are down to empty or nearly empty. Cattle are being sold but the price is still high. A 750lb calf still brings $600 around here. The cows that are still around just sit in the shade all day. We had no corn crop unless irrigated. No relief in sight. Outlook is not good through out the rest of the year. Weathermen and others are saying the best thing for us is if a tropical storm could come in below Corpus Christi, move north and stall on top of us.

Lake Travis and Buchannan(sp?) are down to 50% full or empty take your pick.

 

[jinman]

Jim, I know they had frozen ones, but I just assumed they were cooked, then frozen, so I didn't even think about them being frozen for you to cook at home, so I didn't ask any questions about the frozen ones. When I bought fresh fried ones by the dozen, we put them in the refrigerator at home and re-heated them later in the microwave, but they didn't last long enough for us to freeze any.:laughing:

Bird, I think I remember you mentioning frozen, so I thought that was how they were sold. It makes sense that they are pre-fried because not everyone at home would have a fryer to cook them. If they have non-frozen pies, those are probably the one's we'll get.

Brin: I believe in the rule that if you can get somebody else to eat twice as many as you, then your calories don't count.:licking:

 

[pacerron]

Jim,
Since peaches are in season down there, here is an opportunity for your wife to make more of you to love...
The secret is in keeping the dough cold while mixing and cutting in the
butter instead of mixing. A skillet is all that is needed to fry them. Up here we'd probably cut the dough circles 5-6" that way we could say, "well we only ate 2," which sounds better than 4.
Relive summer with flaky fried peach pies - food - TODAY.com

A stop in OK to get some for comparison would be part of the plan.
Ron

 

[dmccarty]

Dennis, when I lived in the west end of Navarro County, I was right across the road from Navarro Mills Lake. I was on the board of directors for our water co-op and I was on the volunteer fire department. There were a number of places the water lines could be flushed and a key for the locks was in the fire trucks, so they could refill there anytime. And then we bought a gasoline powered floating pump so we could go to any of the boat launching ramps and pump pretty clean water from the lake into the fire trucks.

A few years ago our county Fire Marshal did some outstanding work. He pulled together a map of all of the ponds in the county. He then asked the landowners if the VFDs and FDs could use those ponds as a water supply if they needed to put out a fire. If the landowner agreed, the put up a little sign near the access point for the pond and added it to the map.

You can see those little signs all over the place. :thumbsup:

Fire insurance rates decreased, or should have, because of the improved access for water. Very little of the county has water lines and hydrants.

The fire marshal did a great job.

Later,
Dan

 

[Bird]

The secret is in keeping the dough cold

Ron, that looks like a pretty good recipe. You know nearly all pie crust recipes call for cold water and I think the mistake many make is to just draw water from the cold water faucet. I see the recipe in your link specifies "ice" water and that's what you need. But many many years ago I just happened to see a chef (don't remember who it was) on TV who said if you want a better pie crust, use lemon juice instead of water, and if you want the best pie crust, use 7-Up instead of water or lemon juice. In any case, you do want it ice cold.

Also many many years ago, my wife made a pie without noticing that she was using self-rising flour.:laughing: As you would expect, it did rise and pushed the filling right out to make a big mess in the oven, and ever since then she buys the ready made frozen pie crusts.:laughing: