Texas Spring/Summer Thread

[farmgirl19]

Brandi,
I'm a survivor of it
My real experience in aviation was in the USAF as a civil engineering officer.
We had everything to do with facilitating aircraft from building and extending runways in the US
to building temporary landing facilities and operations in bare places and building "wonder arches"
at remote bases in other countries to protect the aircraft while on the ground. That required an in depth knowledge of aircraft.
I have always been fascinated with aircraft and the pace of their development in my lifetime. Watching a roll in tandem pairs with the afterburners kicking in from up close is a heart throbbing experience.
I have a friend who has a Piper PA-32-260 6 seater which is a plane with a beautiful profile that we fly in, but he also has a Cessna 170 that I prefer
for the high wings so I can hang out the window and take pictures. Haven't dropped anything yet
Ron

Ron; Where and when did you meet Homer? Have y'all crossed paths in the last couple of years? We used to have the Proud Birdman Bar-b-q each year. Got to where there were too few of us still able to attend, so this was the first year it wasn't held, in over 20 years.

 

[farmgirl19]

In an earlier post, I mentioned that my yard was really green this year. Because I've been lucky with rain showers, the yard really looks better than ever. Anyhow, I promised to take some pictures, so I got a few this morning with my cell phone while moving sprinklers. You can't really tell we are in drought by these photos thanks to a great well.

Your place looks lovely, jinman!

We have 90% humidity at 0330, and a 30% chance of storms today and tonight.

 

[NativeSon]

Charlie, do you usually plant Bermuda this time of year? We are preparing to plant rye in a couple of months.

Ron, I cut down a bunch of pine trees around the house and I figured I better get started with some grass before the weeds took over. Before felling the trees the canopy and pine needles kept anything from growing there.

Charlie

 

[jinman]

Jim, my father is on a well and has found that osculating sprinklers do not work. I guess because the pressure varies. ?? What is the best sprinkler that I can recommend for him for his well pump.

Don, I use impulse sprinklers exclusively. The best one's I've found are the Rainbird P5-R+ plastic impulse sprinkler heads at Lowes. They come with 5 sizes of sprinkler nozzles (the picture shows 4, but one is installed). They don't keep them with the hoses and other sprinklers. They are kept near the pop-up sprinkler system heads in the Decatur, TX Lowes. Lowes sells them for $6.17. They have the best prices anywhere. They easily beat Amazon on price by over $3 each. I have some old plastic Gilmour bases that I put the Rainbird sprinklers into, but they eventually wear out and crack. I bought 4 metal Orbit 58030 sprinkler bases and have used a couple of them. I really like these from Amazon because they seem to be heavy duty and durable; very simple design. Amazon's price is the best I've found on these. Sometimes you get lucky and sometimes not on Amazon.

MY well pump is set to drop out at 55 psi + or - 2 psi. If I run two sprinklers wide open, the pump catches up and shuts off. To make it run continually so it doesn't start/stop a bunch, I run three sprinklers at once. I have a spigot on my wellhouse coming off a 1" pipe and two others on my house fed by 3/4" pipe. I normally run two sprinklers off of one spigot and have measured the flow at 17 gpm. With three sprinklers going, the pressure drops to 45 psi and holds steady, so I'm probably using about 21-25 gpm total. If I run 4 sprinkler heads the pressure drops down to about 35 psi and really limits the total coverage of each sprinkler head.

I should mention that I've tried almost every type of metal sprinkler around. None of them perform well with my well water. This soft water has enough salts that they all corrode. Plastic is easily the best choice. I've also used Gilmour heads and they are okay, but seem to gum up and quit pulsing faster than the Rainbird professional sprinklers. I've never seen a Gilmour that had multiple nozzle sizes either. I could probably write a book on sprinkler dos and don'ts. I'd have 1 page of dos, and 50 pages of don'ts.

 

[txdon]

Thanks for the info Jim!

 

[bindian]

In an earlier post, I mentioned that my yard was really green this year. Because I've been lucky with rain showers, the yard really looks better than ever. Anyhow, I promised to take some pictures, so I got a few this morning with my cell phone while moving sprinklers. You can't really tell we are in drought by these photos thanks to a great well.

Nice greenery.
hugs, Brandi

 

[bindian]

Brandi,
I'm a survivor of it
My real experience in aviation was in the USAF as a civil engineering officer.
We had everything to do with facilitating aircraft from building and extending runways in the US
to building temporary landing facilities and operations in bare places and building "wonder arches"
at remote bases in other countries to protect the aircraft while on the ground. That required an in depth knowledge of aircraft.
I have always been fascinated with aircraft and the pace of their development in my lifetime. Watching a roll in tandem pairs with the afterburners kicking in from up close is a heart throbbing experience.
I have a friend who has a Piper PA-32-260 6 seater which is a plane with a beautiful profile that we fly in, but he also has a Cessna 170 that I prefer
for the high wings so I can hang out the window and take pictures. Haven't dropped anything yet
Ron

Ron,
Do you have a t shirt that says............"I survived the USAF? Your right. Nothing beats watching a pair of F-106s take off..........banging all the stages of AB that sound like a large can getting banged. It really is a unique sound. New Jersey's Air National Guard still flew F-106s when I was there in 1986. They landed with chutes to help slow down. That was cool to watch also. A co workers Dad up there was retired with the F-106s. His job was to replace runway centerline light lens that the chutes knocked off.

So it is a Cherokee Six he has. Neat plane, but needs the 300 hp instead of the 260 hp.
hugs, Brandi

 

[bindian]

I could probably write a book on sprinkler dos and don'ts. I'd have 1 page of dos, and 50 pages of don'ts.

Along with 50 miles of water hose.
hugs, Brandi

 

[bindian]

I arrived in Austin last night between 8 and 9, to spoil my Grand Daughter. My daughter went to bed and Chloe hug out with me until 12:30. Then she slept for 5 hours while I tried to go to sleep. More laster, she is up now.
hugs, brandi

 

[farmgirl19]

Enjoy, bindian! She will grow quickly. I'm sure mom can use the rest too for when you are not there to help.