Here comes the RAIN !!!

[texbaylea]

7.3 inches so far...year half gone....behind a lot....annual average rainfall should be about 33 inches....grass green but short...tanks are puddles sure to dry up this summer....will sell more cows....can't fight a drought.

We lived in Austin from '54 to '64 and most of that time there were drought conditions which did not break until about '63. My wife and I have been on this planet for almost 8 decades and have seen the same variations in the weather as we are seeing now during that time.

I hope that you can weather the drought without too many losses. We remember about '63 the local joke was that the farmers and ranchers could not get to the bank to cash their drought relief checks for the floods.

Hang in there.

Vernon

 

[Bird]

We were fishing down at Lake Marabou yesterday, and had to quite because it was too cold out. This morning, we're in jackets waiting for the school bus!!!!!!!!

Eddie

I've always like the cool weather more than the hot weather. My wife's oldest brother died last week in West Virginia, so we left Monday morning to go up there for the funeral and got back today just before noon. Another of my wife's brothers lives here and went with us. Both he and my wife were wearing jackets a good part of the time, but I sure never needed one; just enjoyed the cool weather up there.

I had to mow the yard when I got home today and it was sure warmer than I would have preferred this afternoon.

 

[two_bit_score]

We lived in Austin from '54 to '64 and most of that time there were drought conditions which did not break until about '63. My wife and I have been on this planet for almost 8 decades and have seen the same variations in the weather as we are seeing now during that time.

I hope that you can weather the drought without too many losses. We remember about '63 the local joke was that the farmers and ranchers could not get to the bank to cash their drought relief checks for the floods.

Hang in there.

Vernon

Historical perspective like that is always worth listening to. Thanks for putting things into perspective.

 

[Uncle Doug]

We got about 3/4" of rain yesterday from the passing storms. Watched the radar as most went to the south of us. We did get one good rain for about an hour. The garden and the grass needed the rain. Looks like maybe a little more rain over night but did not check the rain gauge before heading out to work.

Been a cool spring for us also. Usally by now (late May) the heat and humidy would have us in a full sweat by 8am. Only had to run the a/c a couple of times this month. When we had this new house built we put in a attic fan that we run for a few hours a day if it get hot inside. I remember as a kid here on the gulf coast that the attic fan was all most had back in the 60's. It helps keep the electric bill small, that and the new home is only 800 sqft.

Happy Memorial day to all. All service men and women, present, past and those who gave all are in my thoughts today. My Marine is back from CA to his PDS in NOLA but soon back to CA for desert training again for a new deployment.

 

[EddieWalker]

the new home is only 800 sqft.

And I thought I had the one of the smallest homes around at 1,000 sq ft.

We received rain on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Each day, it was a slow downpour that only gave us a tenth to a third of an inch. My rain gauge has less then 3/4 of an inch in it for all three days. What's kind of funny is that I was outside each time and was totally soaked in each rain. I can't think of a time when that's happened three days in a row.

Eddie

 

[Bird]

You got lots of rain, Eddie. I got back from West Virginia about 11 a.m. Friday and mowed the yard, then we got about .03" of rain. On Saturday, we had pretty good downpour but for such a short length of time that I only got about .08". And nothing on Sunday.

 

[Uncle Doug]

And I thought I had the one of the smallest homes around at 1,000 sq ft.

Eddie

We wanted to downsize and use this as a home base during retirement. We built this home last spring on the 12 acres we have. I used a shell home builder. 800 sqft is including the 6x36 porch across the front. My grandson helped me finish out the inside with some custom lumber. I will need to post photos here sometime. We took a home equity loan against the older home on the 1 acre lot next door to pay cash for the building of this home. So no morage on this home. All total after paying the builder we have less than $35K in the home. The 12 acre land loan was paid off a few years ago. Last payment on the tractor was about 6 months ago. Looking for a ZTR mower now.

Now if I could get my grown children out of the older home I can finish up a few repairs and sell it. That is my current goal, either that or get them paying enough to cover the morage, insurance and taxes. (That ain't happened yet)

We enjoy traveling so we knew we would not be here full time. I even put in a RV hookup beside the drive way for the travel trailer. We may upgrade to a motorhome we I retire. Depends on how the money works out in the next few years.

 

[EddieWalker]

Sounds like a pretty good price for your home. I did all the worm myself for our 1,000 sq ft home, plus attached 24x30 shop and some other storage for $30,000 cash. We're going to do some upgrades later on this year, but the house is livable and we're proud of it. Somewhere in the Projects Forum is a thread on my building it and why we did what we did.

I had another rain today. It was a quickly that dumped .20 of an inch in about half an hour. Lots of thunder too.

We've had 4 days of rain in the last five days. Tomorrows forecast has jumped up to 70% for rain in the morning. I was going to set block tomorrow, but don't want to have a bunch of mortar in my trailer if it's going to rain. Maybe I'll do a lighting job for a church while it's raining? I guess I'll decide in them morning.

Eddie

 

[EddieWalker]

Sounds like a pretty good price for your home. I did all the worm myself for our 1,000 sq ft home, plus attached 24x30 shop and some other storage for $30,000 cash. We're going to do some upgrades later on this year, but the house is livable and we're proud of it. Somewhere in the Projects Forum is a thread on my building it and why we did what we did.

I had another rain today. It was a quickly that dumped .20 of an inch in about half an hour. Lots of thunder too.

We've had 4 days of rain in the last five days. Tomorrows forecast has jumped up to 70% for rain in the morning. I was going to set block tomorrow, but don't want to have a bunch of mortar in my trailer if it's going to rain. Maybe I'll do a lighting job for a church while it's raining? I guess I'll decide in them morning.

Eddie

 

[weldingisfun]

Sat here this morning watching the weather radar and saw a storm front approaching from the west. Sure looked like we were going to get something out of it. Then when it hit Lampasas, about 25 miles to the west, it split in half. The two halves went north and south of us. Not a drop. That proves my theory, there is an invisible glass dome over my place.

 

[Bird]

Yesterday evening, before dark, there were some severe thunderstorms that appeared to be heading our way, but then they split and missed us. However, I awoke at 1:50 a.m. this morning to a great deal of thunder and lightning, went back to sleep and woke up just after 3 and we still (or again) had some thunder and lightning. I got up at 5:30 a.m. and noticed, from some of the clocks, that apparently we had a power outage during the night that lasted about 4 or 5 minutes. And I found .4" of rain in my gauge.

 

[EddieWalker]

Bird,

That must have been the same storm that woke me up at 6am this morning. It was loud and sounded like it was really dumping allot of water, but my gauge only had a tenth of an inch in it.

Eddie

 

[texasjohn]

8.8 inches so far this year... ponds have gotten zero runoff. Grass burning now.

 

[Bird]

8.8 inches so far this year... ponds have gotten zero runoff. Grass burning now.

That's certainly not good. For the calendar year so far, I've gotten 19.56" but a little over 6" of that was on one day, the 5th of last month. So I'd like to see a little more rain myself, but certainly don't need it as badly as you do.

 

[Bird]

Eddie (and anyone else east of here), the rain came this evening. We had strong winds, a frog stranglin' gully washer, thunder and lightning, tornado and severe thunderstorm warnings, warning sirens blaring, our power went off at 6:58 p.m. and back on at 7:47 p.m. It's still raining a little bit, but so far I've only gotten about an inch and a quarter. And I hope the only damage I have is what's shown in the pictures. The first one is the Bradford Pear damage last year, 4/10/08, and the second is today, exactly 14 months later.

The good news is that I spread fertilizer on the yard this morning. And the other good news is that's not my car; that's a neighbor's car parked in one of my driveways.

 

[texasjohn]

Bird, hope you had no extreme damage.

am right now watching radar (and lightening) show a spot of red/green sweep across northern Bell County, just north of me in north Williamson county. Looks like I miss the moisture again... still at 8.6 inches for the year.

When you get what you need, send some our way!!

 

[EddieWalker]

It's about over, but for awhile there, WOW!!! We had quite the lightning show for an hour or so, and then the thunder started. It was loud and then it got VERY LOUD!!! My rain gauge has just over an inch in it, but I expect that to rise with the lingering sprinkles.

Two local towns, Hawkins and Winona were both under tornado warnings with rotations observed in the clouds. So far, the news channels say that they don't know of any tornadoes touching down, but both of those towns are less then ten miles from me. East Texas Frank is right in the middle of it. There was also other areas that were under tornado warnings, but it's too early to know for sure.

My County, Smith, is roporting numerous trees that are down and some roads are closed. I won't know what's happened here, if anything, for a few days.Too much going on right now to take the time to look around.

Winds were from 50 to 70mph. I don't know what had, but they were not that bad. The thunder is what really impressed me. We lost power twice and our satallite TV was out for most of it. Good thing that I have cellular internet and an AM radio.

Eddie

 

[The Dougster]

Went out on the front porch early this morning.... very early, and could see lightening in the clouds NWest of me (I'm in Williamson Co. North of Austin) ... went back in to check the radar and the nearest storm was North of Mexia, which must be 100-miles from me.... Sure could use a good hard rain... <sigh>

 

[weldingisfun]

Not a drop here. Felt the cool wind and saw the lightning, but too far away to even hear the thunder. Tanks are way low. Sure could use some of that wet stuff.

 

[jinman]

Well, Bird, I see you are getting more storm this morning. It looks like just rain, but very heavy rain. You are just on the northern edge of the storms according to the way I read the radar. Good luck with that.

I had almost no wind last night, but a heavy downpour produced 1.3" of rain. The only way it could have been better would be if it came down slower and soaked the ground more. My garden appears to have drained very well. Of course I had watered the garden on Wednesday, so it really didn't need the rain. I picked squash on Sunday with my daughter and got 5 lb. Yesterday morning I picked over 10 lb more. My squash is going bonkers. It's making more than I can possibly eat. Kathy made a casserole dish last night with noodles, chicken, and squash. She also made a baked zucchini recipe that was one of the best I've ever tasted.