Texas Spring/Summer Thread

[txdon]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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.

 

[NativeSon]

4:30am just started light rain. Looking at the radar it looks like more is on the way.........yeeeeeha!!!

Charlie

 

[Western]

Wasn't expecting this, even with a 50% chance, but rained all night and right now sitting at 4-3/10", what a blessing!. Saw a few guys out putting up windrows yesterday going to the doctor, maybe this will give them another cutting if the heat holds out for 3 weeks.

 

[Bird]

I awoke briefly to quite a lightning show about 12:30 a.m. and then was surprised a few minutes ago to find nearly 2" of rain in my gauge; about 1.95" anyway. The Dallas Morning News has stories about flash floods, vehicular crashes, streets closed, etc. and says the DFW airport got 2" while some areas got up to 5". In spite of my having watered my yard the last 2 days, I don't even see a puddle outside. But I sure am glad about the rain we got.

 

[jinman]

Well, to show the patchy nature of this storm, it was almost 10 pm last night before we got much more than a trace. I kept watching clouds evaporate on the radar just as they approached my place. At 10 pm, it started raining steadily with a few hard downpours. My gage this morning shows 1.5". That's really welcome rain for me. I wasn't nearly as lucky as Dennis, but this is certainly welcomed rain.

I've been watering to keep my yard alive and mowing about once every two weeks. I just had to do a gas tank replacement on my JD mower because the old one split open. My grandson and I tore the mower apart to get at the tank and replaced it a little over a week ago. Yesterday was the first mowing with the new tank, and it worked just fine. This morning my yard looks wonderful.:thumbsup:

 

[Western]

Since I have been almost "incapacitated" I haven't been able to water like normal, the plus side is I haven't had to mow Look like I will be "forced" into it now! Still a medium drizzle here, the best kind.

 

[Bird]

I mowed a week ago today, so my yard does need mowing. And I was kind of dreading the job I intended to do this morning of pretty drastically pruning a live oak tree, but the wet weather gave me a good excuse to postpone that job. We're just barely getting a sprinkle of rain and it's gone on all morning.

 

[bindian]

Even with all the rain we had the first of July, we are still mowing about every 3 weeks. My second pond is finished. It has about a foot of water in it. Please send any leftovers down here.
hugs, Brandi

 

[blueriver]

So glad to hear about your rain in different area's ... Dennis gets over 4" ... Bird nearly 2" ... Jim 1.5"... Brandi needs more ... and I will take anything you don't need!!!

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

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

Fair warning: If you go out on your own and find a good cash price, your insurance company won't count it towards your deductible. Don't ask me how I know.

 

[pacerron]

Fair warning: If you go out on your own and find a good cash price, your insurance company won't count it towards your deductible. Don't ask me how I know.

Whether it is counted or not toward his deductible most likely is dependent on whether it was ordered by a doctor and if the insurance company gave pre-approval of the testing facility and the test, if his policy has that requirement.
I would be more concerned about whether the MRI was done properly by a trained/licensed technician, what kind of maintenance and calibration is being done on a machine that costs a million dollars when new, and who and at what additional cost interprets the data.
Cash avoids the cost of a lot of paperwork but $325 sounds too cheap for all the equipment, facilities, and technical people involved.

 

[Western]

The MRI was ordered by my primary, seems that Ramic has a great reputation. I was told by my Primary doctor and the radiologist, that things are changing due to the new and up coming health care laws. Ramic will file through my insurance, but my portion goes up to $450(still a good deal), When the Health care law was enacted, our premiums immediately went up, before we had 80/20 with no deductible and a great co-pay plan. Now we pay about a quarter more a month ($800 range) for 60/40 with $3500 yearly deductible per person on the policy. The new "year" starts in October, so my deductible amount will reset to $3500. If that makes sense.

One place I called (referred from my spinal surgeon) was $800 cash, or $1200 through insurance, for a CT scan. Does "kickbacks" sound possible??

I think I will be OK with theses folks, I mean it wasn't like they where "dancing around a camp fire chanting":laughing: seemed very professional. I like the "open MRI" too:thumbsup: