Texas Drought

Woodwalker · September 10, 2011, 08:31:11 PM

TR, There ain't no rhyme or reason to dumb a$$.

bugdust · September 10, 2011, 10:06:29 PM

My ole submarine buddy from Texas sent me a photo of his new rain gauge. A bottle cap!

Texas Ranger · September 10, 2011, 11:17:40 PM

The bottle cap is out of date, we are using blotter paper, now.

sandhills · September 11, 2011, 02:42:20 PM

Hang in there guys, went through it in 02, what the drought didn't kill the hoppers ate up. We didn't have the fires though, sure hope you can catch a few good rains, SOON!

Magicman · September 11, 2011, 06:05:55 PM

Where is a good hurricane when you need one? :-\

Woodwalker · September 11, 2011, 09:57:44 PM

Quote from: Magicman on September 11, 2011, 06:05:55 PM
Where is a good hurricane when you need one? :-\

Would take a bad one just to get some rain.
I'm loosing 2-3 Oaks a day it seams like. Every time I stop and look around more and more of my big oaks are dying. Depressing.

Magicman · September 11, 2011, 10:56:16 PM

We are also loosing Oaks, and we are not nearly as dry as you are. :-\

tcsmpsi · September 12, 2011, 06:41:06 AM

A hurricane, if it strangely brought 110 mph winds to us as did Rita and Ike, with the ground and trees in the shape they're in....lawd, lawd.

Roxie · September 12, 2011, 09:21:12 AM

This is breaking my heart. We put a man on the moon, and we can't find a way to get all this flood water from the Northeast to the Southwest? We don't need a tunnel, we have a railroad. A railroad tanker can hold up to 33,000 gallons and we have tens of thousands of them. Why isn't something being done?

Radar67 · September 12, 2011, 10:29:50 AM

Plenty of abandoned pipelines that could carry the water, just no common sense in the higher ups anymore.

beenthere · September 12, 2011, 11:42:35 AM

Anyone have an idea how many gallons of water it would take to help?

A good 2" rain would amount to how many gallons per acre? Maybe 50,000 gallons?

And would there be an irrigation system already set up to distribute that water?

Just curious.

Woodwalker · September 12, 2011, 08:15:52 PM

One acre inch is something over 27,000 gallons of water. The Riley Rd. fire just west of here has burned 22,000 acres, so one inch of rain on the burned area is 594,000,000 gallons at 8.3 pounds per gallon :P :P(calculator down shifted) is, ??? ??? well, a bunch.
Ya'll be willing to pay freight? :D :D :D

I haven't come up with anything other than having a couple of wells dug this fall. One to irrigate the garden and yard (we are on a rural water system). Another on a small hay field.

Texas Ranger · September 13, 2011, 12:21:12 AM

Tri County fire now at 85% contained, according to news 2. Bastrop at 65% contained. Tri County has now been burning six (6) days, for 28,000 acres. That has got to be wrong, but what was reported. A little less than 200 acres an hour.

tcsmpsi · September 13, 2011, 06:27:42 AM

One report I saw referred to the TriCounty fire at 35,000 acres on Saturday. How much water/rain do you believe it would take to be of any notable benefit? How much before it would be enough to be able to burn a fire in a woodstove? 10-20 inches, with regular rainfall thereafter?

Roxie · September 13, 2011, 08:53:05 AM

I really wasn't thinking about irrigating the entire state. My thoughts were more along the lines of filling those cattle ponds.

Texas Ranger · September 13, 2011, 09:24:09 AM

Michael, I think that would be a start, but, ground waters are so low it will take decades to rebuild the aquifers. Long slow rains to reduce run off is the only salvation, tropical rains would be run off rains and flooding.

Meanwhile a 4.4 earth quake hit west Texas, seems to be a year for such.

tcsmpsi · September 13, 2011, 10:41:55 AM

That was rather my, 10-20" of rain thinking, as to how it rained....when/if it does. I am certain there will be extensive foundation problems with buildings, as all the shifting commences when/if water is supplied. I am concerned about having to add that "if", but, for crying out loud, it begins to make one wonder.

Certainly, it has been the times for 'waiting for the next shoe to drop'.

Going to be a cold winter if I can't build a fire.

Autocar · September 13, 2011, 01:58:41 PM

After not hearing anything out of your Lt Govenor, I e-mailed the agriculture deptarment over the weekend so far I haven't heard anything out of any deptarment in Texas. To bad I still think it's a great idea that would make Texas flourish.. Bill

tcsmpsi · September 13, 2011, 06:46:32 PM

Just heard another wildfire sprouted in the county heading toward Onalaska. Hoping it can be contained.

Heard anything, Don?

Texas Ranger · September 13, 2011, 09:37:29 PM

Sposed to be up around Chita, but, there is one over by Huntsville, as well. The one by Chita supposedly started by a log truck wreck.

WDH · September 13, 2011, 09:58:13 PM

Uh oh, we have a 25,000 acre tract in that area just north of Skeeter's bar, but I am sure that y'all don't know where Skeeter's is

.

Woodwalker · September 13, 2011, 10:14:03 PM

Folks in my line of work always use bars, beer joints, fishing holes and hunting leases as points of reference.

Woodwalker · September 13, 2011, 10:35:32 PM

Ever wonder what a white bucket truck would look like if it got strafed by a DC10?

He a house fire call, got there, lots of activity, fire about to get into a heavily populated area and the DC10 came in and dropped a load of retardant.

Brucer · September 14, 2011, 12:15:39 AM

And then there was the novice Forest Service employee that called in a drop and forget that he was in the middle of a drop site :D :D. That was back when retardant was dyed purple.

To quote the old-timer I was working with, "You shoulda seen it. His face was red, his head and shirt was purple, and his pants was brown."