Texas Spring/Summer Thread

[jinman]

One of the reasons I am interested in black eyed peas is because I thought the pea pods were higher up on the plant making them easier to and pick. Am I wrong?:confused3:
Ron

Ron, I certainly think blackeyes are easier to pick than beans. For one, the vines are not as delicate as bean vines. When picking beans, I often use scissors to cut the pods because the the stems break easily if the vines are tender. Pea vines put up a bloom stem and two or three peas normally grow on a stem at the same time. Be careful not to break that stem when you pick the peas because it will continue to produce blooms and peas for the whole season. Peas put out runners up to 4' long that also grow peas. That's why the area between my rows gets filled up. You can move the runners , but they are trying to get out from the plant to get light so they can also put up stems and produce peas. It's not uncommon to pick 4-6 big peas out on the end of a runner. My Bush Blue Lake beans seem to make all the beans down under the canopy of leaves and many down near to the ground all entwined in the stems. Blackeyes make peas below the canopy, but they are easier to see and easier to get to. The problem? They makes so many peas that it takes longer to pick them and your back gets fatigued anyhow just from the time length of the job.

We were right next to each other.. Within six inches of being face to face.. I can still remember the same words he kept hollowing over and over again.. while I just stood there and watched.. He kept hollowing and screaming the same words.. “Please, please open the screen door”.. Lou

Lou, it's nice to know that somebody else had the same relationship with their brother that I did. Only problem is that I was the brother outside.

 

[pacerron]

Burn bans list is growing. We have more counties issuing Bans. We're going to be real hot and with the wind that's blowing all of East Texas is looking like a tender-box. Be very careful out there.

Charlie

Charlie,
In a situation like that, which is safer; for folks to brushog fields of high grass that will lay there drying out even more, or to not cut it and hope ground moisture
will help from the lower stems?
Does it ever get so dry that agricultural operations are restricted?
I would think cutting it would lower the oxygen availability for fire versus standing dry stems but leaving it lay there to dry more would not be good.
Of course baler fires are not uncommon even when making useable hay.

 

[Bird]

I went to the Hickory Creek Walmart just after 9 a.m. and while I was there, we had a very brief downpour. I got home to find about .03" of rain in my gauge.:thumbsup: Not much, but I reckon it's better than nothing.

How many of you pilots have seen this youtube simulation of the Asiana 214 flight? I don't know about its accuracy, but the blue ghost plane is supposedly a the height the plane should have been.

Asiana Flt 214 Reconstruction - YouTube

 

[jinman]

It rained enough here mid-morning to settle the dust on my road, wet the deck, and make it muggy out. The outflow cooled things down and it's only 90 F here right now. I'd say it's better than nothin', but not by much.

 

[Lou66]

Well my neighbor cut his field Tuesday and raked it this morning and started to bale it right after he got thru with the raking.. He lost half of it,, I guess it ignited from the muffler, he has an old Ford gas tractor.. not sure what make it is,, set low to the ground,, Wasn't much wind today,, they got it out in quick order about 10 acres burned out of 20,, fire dept. was about 6 blocks away.. one of my fields is south of his field,, what wind there was, was blowing out of the south so the fire was working again the wind.. On the north side of him is a paved road and houses..
He had some bales on the east end of the field that got on fire,, The fire dept. had to hose them down,, what didn't burn is wet now.. I'll say it just wasn't his day.:confused3:. The fire chief gave him a citation because of the burn ban.. Chief told him to take it to the judge and he would dismiss it,, I took my baler and tractor over and baled what was left for him.. took about 30 minutes,, he got seven bales,, just what he lost in the great fire on the east end.. more up dates as the summer moves along.. Lou

 

[txdon]

Lou, why a citation on an accidental fire? Something is out of wack, either the law or the fire chief. A waste of your neighbor's and the judge's time.

 

[Lou66]

There is a little more to the story Don than I told.. That I don't feel it's any of my business to write about.. Lou

 

[farmgirl19]

I had to go to the warehouse in Grand Prairie this morning. On the way back west, it was so hot and humid, even the sky was sweating. I know it wasn't rain, because I never had to turn on my wipers. It sweat so much in some places in Tarrant County, that even the raods were wet!

 

[farmgirl19]

OK, here is something I received today. Pacerron, Homer sent it to me! It comes back to the BASICS of flying the airplane, no matter how "sophisticated" the darn things get. Of course, Homer also suggested something that would grab the pilots by the ears and jerk, thereby pulling their head out of their, um, nevermind.

New Safety Equipment

BOEING PROPOSES NEW FLIGHT DECK EQUIPMENT


EVERETT, WA (AP) Boeing Commercial Airplane Company Vice President of Engineering, Bill Alum, today announced the company's development of a new, high technology transport jet flight deck warning system designed to help pilots avoid the sort of incident that Asiana Airlines flight 214 experienced recently while attempting to land in San Francisco. The new device utilizes measurements of air pressure taken at different points on the aircraft's airframe to calculate how fast the airplane is traveling through the air. The actual technology involved in the inputs and how they are processed is still considered proprietary technological information by Boeing, as well as by the U.S. Department of Defense.


Mr. Alum said that this device, if installed in all new aircraft, as well as being retrofitted into the existing commercial aircraft fleet, “has the potential to save hundreds of lives each year”. It is engineered to provide the pilots of these mammoth, high performance aircraft with continuous, real-time updates of how fast the airplane is moving. This will allow them to always make sure that the aircraft's speed remains within a safe operating envelope. “Information is power”, said Mr. Alum. The full name of the device is yet to be determined, but the current working name is “airspeed indicator”.


Reaction within the aviation industry has ranged from skepticism to enthusiasm. Dr. Phillip Head, chairman of the Department of Aeronautical Engineering at M.I.T. stated that his department has been recommending something such as an airspeed indicator for many years, but that their advocacy for it has “fallen on deaf ears”.


In Toulouse, France, AirBus Chief Engineer Pierre Le Fou said that, due to AirBus' advanced flight guidance systems, such a device would be an unnecessary addition to their flight decks. “The technical advancement of our flight decks is such that pilots have no need for this type of information. Our guidance systems are constantly aware of all pertinent parameters while in flight, and will automatically keep them within the normal range. The pilots of our aircraft have no use for such a device as an airspeed indicator”.


In Seoul, Korean Pilots Association (KPA) spokesman Lee Bang-wan stated that a device such as this proposed airspeed indicator would only serve to be a distraction in the flight deck, and that KPA pilots would probably just ignore it. Additionally, he stated that such a complex system was unneeded considering that the KPA pilots have a safety record that is “equal to that of any air carrier that is currently based in Korea”.


In Washington, D.C., R. N. Mowth, a spokesman for the U.S. Air Transport Association, stated that “oppressive federal regulation, such as any requirement to have so-called airspeed indicators installed in transport aircraft, is just one more sign of a government run amok with too much power, and its stifling of the free enterprise system”.


Skepticism not withstanding, Boeing seems to be determined to proceed with the development of this new flight deck technology. Mr. Alum stated that “we feel that, once pilots reach the point that they understand the value of the heretofore unavailable information that our proposed airspeed indicator can give them, they will embrace this new device and will learn to keep a close eye on it”.

 

[jinman]

:laughing::laughing::laughing: Ya reckon those new-fangled measuring deee-vices will be called pitot-static tubes?