Texas Spring/Summer Thread

[jinman]

Dang! Bird, I heard of the storms in Denton on the weather last night and hoped you'd had a gusher. The radar looked like the rain had come your way also. I got a lucky 1/4" in my gage this morning, and it's cool enough that I don't miss the AC with the ceiling fans going. I guess I could call this retro-life since this is the way I used to live all the time when I was a kid. Too bad my hair isn't gettin' less grey too.

 

[pacerron]

Dang! Bird, I heard of the storms in Denton on the weather last night and hoped you'd had a gusher. The radar looked like the rain had come your way also. I got a lucky 1/4" in my gage this morning, and it's cool enough that I don't miss the AC with the ceiling fans going. I guess I could call this retro-life since this is the way I used to live all the time when I was a kid. Too bad my hair isn't gettin' less grey too.

Maybe that is another factor in why many of the kids of today don't know about the great outdoors.
Many just go from air conditioned place to air conditioned place or heated to heated in the 70+ deg no humidity inside environments, playing on their cell phones and other electronic equipment, getting fat and developing no muscle. :2cents:

 

[jinman]

. . .playing on their cell phones and other electronic equipment, getting fat and developing no muscle. :2cents:

And never developing problem solving and mechanical skills that farm kids learned to do by 2nd nature. When you make your own toys and many of your own tools, you are just better prepared for what the world throws at you. It's uncanny how so many older kids have no clue how stuff works. . . except for their cell phones and video games. When my grandson tells me how much money he makes playing a game, I always ask him if that means he'll be paying for his own burger at the Sonic.

 

[Western]

So far .39 in the gauge and raining again right now. Doesn't look like a "big" storm, but very much needed moisture.

We have been having deer, a family of racoons, squirrels and rabbits every evening at the water trough in the back yard. They drink then eat corn and protein pellets, told the wife if it gets dryer and more animals come, we may have to check into an "guvment" subsidy program!:laughing:

 

[Western]

So far .39 in the gauge and raining again right now. Doesn't look like a "big" storm, but very much needed moisture.

We have been having deer, a family of racoons, squirrels and rabbits every evening at the water trough in the back yard. They drink then eat corn and protein pellets, told the wife if it gets dryer and more animals come, we may have to check into an "guvment" subsidy program!:laughing:

 

[Bird]

NWS is showing that the Denton airport was up to .85" by 9 a.m. My gauge is now up to .15", but we are getting a very light sprinkle so we'll hope it keeps up. My yard was looking so bad that I did a lot of watering the last 2 days; probably amounted to about as much water as a half inch of rain, so maybe the yard'll recover a bit.

 

[Bird]

Maybe that is another factor in why many of the kids of today don't know about the great outdoors.
Many just go from air conditioned place to air conditioned place or heated to heated in the 70+ deg no humidity inside environments, playing on their cell phones and other electronic equipment, getting fat and developing no muscle. :2cents:

Yep, some of us are old enough to remember when nearly all houses had a good sized front porch with chairs/gliders/swings and in hot weather people sat out there in the evening and visited with neighbors. After TV and air-conditioning they started building houses with no front porch.

We also used to go down on Main St. in Ardmore, OK, where there was angled head-in parking; park, get out and sit on the front fenders and visit with friends and acquaintances that happened to walk by, or be one of those walking up and down the street visiting with ones sitting on their car fenders.

 

[jinman]

Bird, do you ever get chinch bugs in your Saint Augustine? It seems that every year about this time we start seeing patches where the Saint Augustine will brown out a bit. It's a sure sign that the chinch bugs have arrived and we need to spray vigorously. Bayer makes a hose end spray bottle that works well if you broadcast over the area plus about 5'-10' extra.

 

[Bird]

Jim, this is the first year that I've not applied any insecticide to the yard . . . yet, and you can see the spots where I should have already done that. So sometime this week . . . ..

And NOW THE GOOD NEWS! We're now getting a frog stranglin' gully washer. Don't know how long it'll last, but it's wonderful!

 

[jinman]

The AC guy just called to say he was inbound. Yay!!! If this gets fixed, we are gonna have rib-eye steaks to celebrate tonight.

 

[farmgirl19]

So far, I have 0.6" in the rain gauge, with a light rain still falling! Maybe it will settle the dust, so the horses don't kick it up as badly, when I go out to feed them. It is cool outside for this time of year too!

jinman; Glad your repair guy is on the way! Maybe all will be working by noon!

 

[jinman]

jinman; Glad your repair guy is on the way! Maybe all will be working by noon!

Fixed!:thumbsup: Two new capacitors and a check of the refrigerant was all that it took (only the condenser fan cap was out, but I wanted the compressor replaced too). Total bill even on a holiday was $165 and he had to drive 30 miles round-trip. Can you see why this guy gets all my business?

 

[pacerron]

Yep, some of us are old enough to remember when nearly all houses had a good sized front porch with chairs/gliders/swings and in hot weather people sat out there in the evening and visited with neighbors. After TV and air-conditioning they started building houses with no front porch.

That's for sure. We got all that TV and AC stuff but also have a 50 ft long roof covered front porch facing North.
Wife, I, cat, and dog spend a lot of time out there enjoying the quiet, wild animals, and the sunsets. We have no neighbors far as you can see and then some so we have to talk to each other Maybe that's why next spring we will have been married 50 years. We even sit out there often when it is cold dressed in sweats and jackets.
The deck out back is ok for cooking and after the sun goes below the trees in the west but it is too darn hot in the daytime to get much use out of.
Ron

 

[Bird]

It appears that the rain is over now, so I just went out and emptied my rain gauge; about .93" total; biggest rain we've seen since June 18.

And Jim, I know you like that A/C man.

 

[farmgirl19]

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/02/u....html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20130902

I hope this link works. It was awfully long to try to fit.

 

[Bird]

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/02/u...lnl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20130902&_r=0

I hope this link works. It was awfully long to try to fit.

Nope, didn't work for me.

But then on the second try, it did work. Pretty interesting fellow.

 

[farmgirl19]

Nope, didn't work for me.

Try it again. I went in and tried to fix it. I think it works now. I guess I had a little "operator error". :confused3:

 

[Bird]

So that's the reason it worked on the second try; you fixed it.:laughing:

 

[farmgirl19]

So that's the reason it worked on the second try; you fixed it.:laughing:

You got there and tried it, before I was able to "test" it and make adjustments. Slow down, next time! :laughing: :laughing:

 

[jinman]

Farmgirl, we all wish we could live as long as Paul did and be remembered as fondly by so many.

Check this out!!! We went to garden and picked veggies after the AC guy left. Guess what I'm gonna be doing for the next couple of days?