Texas Spring/Summer Thread

txdon · Aug 12, 2012

Friday we had some good dark rain clouds to the east and then a fire call came in. A farmer saw a bolt of lighting hit a hay field and set it on fire. I drove through heavy rain to get to the fire station and was thinking the rain will put the fire out. However it was not raining at the field so we had to do a little work, and when I returned home there was no rain here either. ?:confused3:?

Western · Aug 13, 2012

txdon said:
Friday we had some good dark rain clouds to the east and then a fire call came in. A farmer saw a bolt of lighting hit a hay field and set it on fire. I drove through heavy rain to get to the fire station and was thinking the rain will put the fire out. However it was not raining at the field so we had to do a little work, and when I returned home there was no rain here either. ?:confused3:?

Don, outside of a couple of fires East of Possum Kingdom Lake last week, it sure has seemed "quite" as far as fires have been (compared to last summer especially)

It was 107* here yesterday afternoon, then the clouds rolled in around 4:30-5pm and the temp dropped to 86*. Finally after a nice electrical storm and maybe 30mph winds we received jut over 1/4". Only run-off we had was from the roof! Not much, but well received.

jinman · Aug 13, 2012

I heard thunder and a few drops on my roof yesterday afternoon, so I checked the radar. It showed storms forming up about a mile or two south of me. Finally, one of them mushroomed large enough to backfill over my house and we got a heavy downpour for a couple of minutes that shows .2" in my gage. It was actually coming down so hard that it did a good rinse-off of the trees beside our crushed rock road. I would love to have had more rain, but this is much better than nothing. It won't keep the deer and armadillos out of my yard, but it's a start. The weatherman says we might have a couple more chances this week.

pacerron · Aug 13, 2012

jinman said:
I heard thunder and a few drops on my roof yesterday afternoon, so I checked the radar. It showed storms forming up about a mile or two south of me. Finally, one of them mushroomed large enough to backfill over my house and we got a heavy downpour for a couple of minutes that shows .2" in my gage. It was actually coming down so hard that it did a good rinse-off of the trees beside our crushed rock road. I would love to have had more rain, but this is much better than nothing. It won't keep the deer and armadillos out of my yard, but it's a start. The weatherman says we might have a couple more chances this week.

We finally got 1.5" of rain last week, which was the first major rain since May 13th.
Meanwhile the sunflower seeds I planted from the birdseed bag have turned yellow on the back. Something is enjoying eating them while still in the garden.
I am wondering if I should be cutting them now or continue to let them dry on the stalks?

The garden netting fence has really been great. Next year we will have to put it around the grapes too. The deer waited until the grapes turned color and then ate them all off in one night.
Ron

jinman · Aug 13, 2012

pacerron said:
I am wondering if I should be cutting them now or continue to let them dry on the stalks?

Man! Don't get me to fibbin'. I don't know when sunflowers are ripe and okay to pick, but my gut says if you don't pick them, you'll have no chance of harvesting any of them. There'll be a few raccoons and deer around with a smile on their faces though.

Western · Aug 14, 2012

pacerron said:
The deer waited until the grapes turned color and then ate them all off in one night.
Ron

That must be where the adage "runs like q Deere" came from, you should be able to locate the culprit by their "runny" stool

I never have harvested my sunflowers, left them for the wildlife, But I'm with Jim, when the seeds get full of the oil, the birds will likely clean you out too.

Western · Aug 14, 2012

pacerron said:
The deer waited until the grapes turned color and then ate them all off in one night.
Ron

That must be where the adage "runs like a Deere" came from, you should be able to locate the culprit by their "runny" stool

I never have harvested my sunflowers, left them for the wildlife, But I'm with Jim, when the seeds get full of the oil, the birds will likely clean you out too.

Western · Aug 14, 2012

Started out hot, but just received another 3/10ths and possibly more on the way:thumbsup: Looks like Jim and Bird will get some of this too!!

FWIW, got an MRI today in Ft Worth, found a place that will do one for a cash price of $325!!! The place is "Ramic Medical Imaging" Thats a pretty good deal since my insurance deductible has gone up to $3500

Bird · Aug 14, 2012

Dennis, I sure hope to get some rain, but I ran sprinklers on the yard yesterday evening and this morning since I've not had very high expectations of rain.

I hadn't heard of Ramic Medical Imaging. My orthopedic doctors have their own MRI machine, and that's the only place I ever had an MRI. And $3,500 deductible is pretty tough. The highest we had before we went on Medicare was $1,000 for each of us.

I got a reminder today in the mail from Walgreen's to get flu shots; to just come in anytime Walgreen's is open. I thought it was a bit early, but we stopped by anyway and they said they have the vaccine, but that Medicare won't pay for flu shots until the first of September. I didn't know there was a start date for Medicare, but we did get our flu shots last year on Sept. 3.