Texas-Oklahoma-Kansas drought

[Augustus McCrae]

This is some sad situation. I used to live for 30 plus years in Texas and have never seen a cactus plant die or a mesquite tree die..but I have been sending hay to a friend of mine in Texas that is telling me he is seeing it first hand. GOD bless Texas....AMEN.

[C. F. 'Charley' Eckhardt]

I lived thru the drought of the '50s, part of it on a hardscrabble ranch in west-central Williamson County.  These past 2 years have been as bad or worse than even '54, which was the worst year of that drought.  In '54 Landa Park didn't have a sprig of grass anywhere & Comal Spring was flowing 64 gal per hr.  The Comal River was narrower than the palm of my hand.  Lake Austin was so far down it was a half-mile from the 'normal pool level' to the water.  You could stand where the shoreline of Medina Lake was 3 years ago & you couldn't hit the water with a .22 rifle.  The only difference between this drought & the one of the '50s is, this one hasn't lasted as long--yet.

[Augustus McCrae]

You know when cactus dies and mesquite trees die there is a problem. I understand if San Angelo does not get regular rain for the next two years they will be totally without any water...and I mean NO WATER.

[C. F. 'Charley' Eckhardt]

Here in Seguin we had a short rain shower yesterday--25 Aug--but it didn't even make mud, tho there were puddles in the streets.  Yesterday was a break from the heat, too--never broke 100.  Today is predicted to hit 104 & the skies are clear so it probably will.  If we don't get a hurricane in the Gulf in September our next chance of rain will be in March of '12.  Cottonwood trees are dying all over town, tho the older live oaks & pecans don't seem to be suffering--yet.  I've lost 2 big hackberry elms, an Arizona ash, & the tops out of my 2 cottonwoods already to this drought, & there's no end in sight.  Also, my waxleaf ligustrum hedge plants are suffering. My mesquite tree seems healthy, but--fortunately--the Johnson grass is dying.

[Augustus McCrae]

You say fortunatley the johnson grass is dying. Johnson grass is higher protein than common bermuda if cut at the right stage. My horses will eat it before they eat bermuda on my place. I have not one blade of johnson grass here on my place or thru the fence where they can stick their heads through. And we have been blessed with lots of rain this year and getting a third cutting on hay. I am spending seven days a week  7am - 7 pm buying and trucking hay to Texas. I am selling it to some good honest folks for a honest price. I have been seeing some of the outrageous prices some folks are asking for horse and cow hay. Even south and western arkansas is in a drought. This is something that will hurt Texas for a couple more or maybe evern more years...but then again...Texans are tough and will work thru this.

[Buck Grizzly]

Get too much rain Charley and you won't be able to sleep with all the sucking noice going on.

 

Pretty bad. Lot's of people selling cattle to keep them alive. One of my buddies who drives a truck said they were having to stop and hit em at the car washes every so many miles. Some of the first loads there were drivers getting to Kansas with half the load dead. The ones making it to Nebraska and farther north are not what they paid for in Texas.

 

 

Supposed to start raining next month, according to some of the old timers around her, hopefully it will happen.

[Augustus McCrae]

I was sitting in the local cafe just yesterday at the "round table" with some local cattle farmers and they were talking about the older generation living by the almanac. I am 53 and they were saying that if know how to read it...IT WORKS.

[C. F. 'Charley' Eckhardt]

Gus, you're still a youngster.  I hit 71 last spring.  I got the full impact of the '50s drought & this one's just as bad if not worse.  It just hasn't lasted as long--yet.  My barometer is stuck at 30" it looks like.  At any rate, it hasn't moved in several days.  As long as this high sits over us we're just out of luck.  That last tropical storm in the Gulf nearly drowned Del Rio but I didn't even get a cloudy day out of it.  All we can hope for is a Gulf hurricane.  I know that sounds silly, but that's the only way we're gonna get any rain.  I did rain--a little--this past Thursday, but in was very little!   (The bold won't turn off.)  The weather people say we got anywhere from .005 to .0015 of an inch, depending on what part of town you were in.  Today the predicted high is 105, with 108 for tomorrow.

[Augustus McCrae]

Thanks for your "WISDOM"..Charlie. I do know that. My dad and grandpa was in that drought that you talk about. But .. then again... this one is going to be worse than that I think...???..What grasss is going to come back?? I think we to

[C. F. 'Charley' Eckhardt]

Whether or not it'll be worse depends on how long it lasts.  If this high moves out, either this fall or in the spring, this drought will have been as bad as the one in the '50s, just not as long.  This one's lasted 2 years so far.  That one lasted 7--but when it broke, it broke with a vengeance.  The rains put 5.5 feet of water in downtown Lampasas.  We had a '57 Chevy wagon already delivered to the Lampasas dealer, all we had to do was pick it up, but the Lampasas flood washed it--& most of downtown Lampasas--away.  The Middle San Gabriel River, which you could normally step across, became a raging torrent nearly a half-mile wide & 20+ feet deep, cutting all access from our place to the road.  We were stuck in a little camp house--1 room, no running water--for 3 days until the water went down.  I missed 3 days of school, Mom & Dad missed 3 days of work in Austin, & we had no phone to tell anyone what was wrong.

[C. F. 'Charley' Eckhardt]

Sunday, August 28, 2011, Seguin Texas--high temp, 111 degrees.  Records kept since 1883, highest temp on record.  New Braunfels had 110, which I think is also a record.  San Antonio had 108, which tied its record high.  Current barometer reading 29.9, down from 30 yesterday, but not enough to make any real difference.  Possible rain predicted for Thursday--40%.  I wish that meant what it used to mean.  Before computers, if the forecast was 40% chance of rain, it meant 40% of the area under the forecast would get rain.  Now it means 'The computer says when the conditions we fed into it existed in the past, 40% of the time it rained.'

[Augustus McCrae]

For what it is worth..A cow will eat what a horse wont.  Then again..a horse will eat the bark off of a tree. If uhave cows..feed them  any grass hay and they will survive.  If you have high end working or show-cutting-whatever horses that some folks think that they have to feed them tifton44 or super hay have got it all wrong. This winter hay is so dang high in Texas if I still lived there I would feed my horses cow hay and if I was working them throw them some sweet feed and be done with it. Bottom line...What a animal eats does not change DNA.

[C. F. 'Charley' Eckhardt]

That's because too many city folks think horses are toys.  You don't junk a horse like an old car, you take care of it.  If you can't take care of it, you either sell it to someone who can or you have it put down.