Texas Heat!

[jinman]

It's about 10-15 miles away, and it is not in our response area.
I can see it from the back porch now, I don't have to go to the hill. Picture 1630 hrs.

As you can tell the fire is moving North, we are to the east. (Mike is to the SE)

Well, I'd be a little nervous if I lived in Elgin, but is the wind blowing that much down there right now? The fire sure seems to be growing fast unless it is wind driven.

 

[pacerron]

It's about 10-15 miles away, and it is not in our response area.
I can see it from the back porch now, I don't have to go to the hill. Picture 1630 hrs.

As you can tell the fire is moving North, we are to the east. (Mike is to the SE)

I was just subtracting the southern jog down the ranch road and the northern jog back up to the town itself on the map. It's almost straight across that way.

 

[Western]

Hopefully they can get a handle on that fire before it gets anywhere near like the last you guy's had!

Jim, sounds like a fun trip. Nice to know someone has some green.

 

[txdon]

They got a handle on the fire! I went to Bastrop and could see air support and the intensity seemed to be diminishing. The wind calmed, and there are fewer pine trees and more open fields to the North. About 1000 acres burned.

edit: 10 O'clock news reports firefighters protected structures - no homes lost! Yea!

 

[Western]

Good deal that one ended OK! few more of those and y'all wont have anything left to burn!!

Long term forecast looking grime, as far as projected winter precipitation is concerned. We have a small chance (30%) for me Sat and Sun, "fingers crossed"

 

[RobertN]

We just got a heavy, early storm last night. Got about an inch. CAL-Fire said on the local news though, that it would take 3" of soaking rain before the fall fire danger was minimized. They also pointed out that, at least in Calif, the worst fires have historically happened in October, at the end of the dry season.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

They got a handle on the fire! I went to Bastrop and could see air support and the intensity seemed to be diminishing. The wind calmed, and there are fewer pine trees and more open fields to the North. About 1000 acres burned.

edit: 10 O'clock news reports firefighters protected structures - no homes lost! Yea!

Good deal. they are keeping the DC plane and some C140's here for these fires that pop up.

This fire started about 2-3 miles from where the big one started, only the wind was going the opposite direction and much lower wind speed.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Don, I had read or heard where they arrested someone for throwing a lit phone book out of a car. But for some reason, it has been either covered up, or failed to make the news again. I still think there is an arsonist at work.

 

[txdon]

Kyle, Which fire were they talking about. Last month Austin news was switching from fire to fire and one was arson, they had a description of 4 teenagers.

Who would cover something like that up??? I think it was a unsustantiated rumor. Do you remember exactly where/who you heard it from, and can it be traced back to the original source? Otherwise it is hearsay.

I saw it a lot in Arson investigations, some bystander would comment on how he thought the fire started and several people later that is how it started.

Oh, one more thing, The news media does not always get correct information when they reported it as fact.

 

[Western]

I saw it a lot
Oh, one more thing, The news media does not always get correct information when they reported it as fact.

You got that right!! They love to sensationalize everything it seems.

BTW Been killing copperheads since the slight cool down, heads up!!

 

[Bird]

Oh, one more thing, The news media does not always get correct information when they reported it as fact.

Dealing with the news media can be lots of fun, can't it? As with other professsions, there are good and bad people in the business, and some of the bad ones last for many, many years.:laughing:

When I was commander of the helicopter section, I had a local TV reporter just show up with his camera man one day and told me where I needed to take them in a helicopter. When I told him I couldn't do that, he said the assistant chief who was my boss said I'd do it. I called that assistant chief and he hadn't even talked to them, much less told them we'd take them up in a helicopter. Needless to say, they didn't get their helicopter ride.

Some five and a half years later, we had a power outage in downtown Dallas that affected Police Communications shortly after I was promoted to captain and took over that operation. All our emergency equipment worked except the lights and ring tones in the buttons on the telephones.:laughing: Whoever wired the emergency generator missed something. Well, that same reporter and his camera man showed up, and I patiently answered all his questions, until his camera man told him they were out of film, so they left.

The next morning, he called the chief's office instead of calling me to ask that I meet him in the City Hall media room to talk about the power outage. Of course I didn't mind and we sat down behind the table with his camera running and he must have asked questions for 30 minutes.

And the only thing that showed up on TV that evening was a one or two second blip of me saying, "I don't know." If all he wanted was for me to say "I don't know" he could have told me and he and I and his camera man all could have saved 3 or 4 hours and lots of film.:laughing:

 

[two_bit_score]

Best story of the day, Bird!

 

[Gordo 56]

We just got home from a 4-day trip to see my grandson in the USAF at Offutt AFB just south of Omaha, NE. It was a terrific driving trip and provided a few days relief from heat and dry weather. We sure enjoyed seeing green grass and driving though miles and miles of corn and soybean harvest. I had never been to Topeka, KS before, and the drive up Hwy 75 between Topeka and Omaha was candy for the eyes after a sun-baked summer in Texas. I noticed that there was a band of dry between Wichita, KS and Edmond, OK, but Okla City and Norman were pretty green all the way south to Pauls Valley. Just north of Edmond a wildfire had crossed over IH-35 and reminded me that Texas is not the only place with drought. However, I don't think anywhere the drought is any worse than central TX.

Again I don't know how you all take the heat in Texas. I had just put in 4 new 6+8 wooden fence post for a gate On my farm in Iowa and there wasn't a cloud in the sky and the sun was beating down on us. It was only about 83 dregrees but it seemed hot as ****. I know it would be cool to you all in Texas. My heat tolerance has diminished since getting older and we worked pulling weeds out of my tree tubes during the hottest part of the summer, heat index 110 with the high humidity. The skin around my eyes swealled up for about 3 days.

Fall in Iowa is always my favorite time of the year, the drive there is so gorgous with the trees almost at their peek of color and the amber waves of corn and soy bean fields. I don't think I could live some where that isn't green most of the year.

Got some seat time in my tractor mowing with my restored Mott flail mower and thought I would show you the lift I built to lift the 500 lb flail mower in the back of my truck. I had broken a rafter in my garage when I first brought it back from the farm. I also thought I would throw in some pics of the greenary on the farm for you all who haven't seen much of it this year.

Enjoy,
Gordo

 

[Western]

Looks like those of us West of I35 are possibly get some decent rain through the weekend:thumbsup:

They are now saying some of the rains in West Texas could be 5-10" events, that should put a dent in our deficit.


Dang, lost power for 3 hrs while posting this reply. Heard fire trucks and ambulances down the road, but no fire. The was the power surged was like a huge short, hopefully nobody was hurt.

 

[txdon]

Gordo 56, If the cows could see your grass pictures there would be a stampede.
With no grass they are eating the trees. I bet they wish they had longer necks. here's a picture from the back porch.

 

[Gordo 56]

Gordo 56, If the cows could see your grass pictures there would be a stampede.
With no grass they are eating the trees. I bet they wish they had longer necks. here's a picture from the back porch.

Txdon, I am glad you told me that was a cow, it is acting like a deer.:laughing: I wished I had some cows to keep the grass down and maybe I wouldn't have to mow so much. I hope to have some someday

I also enjoyed your thread about putting in your spring. I also have a spring and will do what you did with yours. Thanks for the ideas.

Gordo

 

[txdon]

Gordo, the spring pond continues to rise very slowly, while my other ponds continue to dry up. The spring pond still has not overflowed, I think that heard of 50 feral pigs and the cows are drinking quite a bit. :thumbsup:

 

[Gale Hawkins]

We are in Midland, TX and hope to get a new set of front coil springs on the MH in the morning and keep heading east. We are 6600 miles (have about 1000 left to go) into our month long MH trip and everything from the Pacific to near the MS river is boned dry.

The wind here tonight is really shaking the MH.

 

[jinman]

The wind here tonight is really shaking the MH.

The old timers used to say that if the wind blows three days from the east, we will get rain. My count is two days so far. It's kinda from the southeast, but enough east for me to get my hopes up. Maybe I should wash all our cars and leave all the windows down just to help ensure a big storm.:thumbsup::laughing:

 

[Bird]

We went to the State Fair yesterday morning and it got warm enough that the breeze was really appreciated.