OT, Climate in Texas and SW.

After we spend last year in severe fire danger down here in Texas and I spent $$$ watering the yard I am starting to look for a service to come out and take a look at my unused well. It used to work but has not in over 15 years. Thinking I might just have the pump pulled, deepen the well if needed and put in a new pump and pressure tank and use it for watering the yard and garden and trees just to keep them alive and help protect my place in case of wild fires. Our volunteer fire department is, well, it could be better to say the least, but, they have never lost a house foundation.

What got me started thinking this was I went to the Climate Prediction Center and did some research after listening to the talking heads on the evening news. NOAA has some good links, if you have never explored them. I will paste the link and the short text here for your reading and possible research for your area.

Latest Seasonal Assessment - Scattered heavy showers eased the fire danger over Florida in mid-May, and the Drought Outlook calls for more improvement as the thunderstorm season gets underway during late May and June. Drought areas in the Carolinas and along the Gulf Coast are also likely to see improvement. In contrast, hot, dry weather is expected to contribute to persisting or worsening drought over the High Plains from Texas to Wyoming near the beginning of the outlook period. Although the forecast for June-August does not show a strong indication for below-normal rainfall in the Plains, it appears that the drought will largely persist well into summer. The odds for improvement increase farther east, and some additional relief is anticipated from eastern Oklahoma into Missouri. In the Southwest, where the near-failure of the winter rain and snow season resulted in severe to extreme drought over much of Arizona and New Mexico, the summer monsoon rains in July and August will reduce the fire danger, although reservoir levels may continue to drop. The best odds for short-term drought relief extend from southern Arizona into New Mexico.
Link is Link

Meanwhile, I ordered some St Augustine sod from Florida a month ago. Every week they call to tell me it's rained so much they can't cut it that week. And in Orlando my mother complains because there's no rain.

I grew up in Montgomery, and cut what seemed like a million acres of Common and Tifton Bermuda. Back then Zoysia was really only good for full sun. Now there's enough hybrids to handle any situation. Before you take the plunge on that St. Auggie, check out the Zoysia hybrids at a good turfgrass place.

If you have FULL sun and don't want to water, look into the Buffalo Grass hybrids. They thrive in FULL SUN and ALMOST NO WATER. Great for semi-arid places like Central Texas; Georgia may be a bit damp for Buff unless you've got good drainage and full sun. Seed is cheap BUT you'll get male and female plants; the males grow taller and flower. Sod is all-female but obviously $$$.

c.

Make sure you get the DWARF variety; the regular stuff can grow pretty tall.

Good Luck!

c.

I put a vertical exhaust on the NAA for the very reason you mentioned; a hot exhaust down low could touch off a grass fire in a hurry. I like the look too.

Even when cedar (actually ashe juniper) is green, it burns like gasoline. Once it's dry, it goes off like rocket fuel. Somebody oughta figure a way to use cedar brush as fuel for power plants or cement kilns; we've got PLENTY, and the trees are water hogs besides. Plains grasses are the natural flora for central Texas, those dang cedars (and mesquite, another pest) are water-sucking interlopers...

c.

Thanks for the climate link, Old Country Boy. People here have said it's a lot drier than it used to be 25 or 30 years ago, and I only recently understood what they meant -- when I worked my way down and across a little valley where now there is a tiny (I mean TINY) creek, and where there are unbelievable numbers of huge cottonwood trunks that were clearly carried and deposited by floodwaters from previous winter snows. That spoke volumes. A friend of mine does climate research out of the Flagstaff USGS office, and I had the reverse sort of experience with her -- she was telling me about collecting snowpack data and how the year before last (I think it was), there was NO snow at all. When I told her the year I had lived there we had 220" she was shocked! Of course, that was in 1972-73, but basically she experienced the same thing about that area that I am just now experiencing about this one -- realizing how MUCH change there has really been in the last 30 years.

Dawn

Happy Tractoring!

c.

Does it bolt onto the manifold in the same place the "regular" exhaust line attaches? (Like, could I do this as I'm putting the manifold back on after fixing everything?)

I have to say, that must be fun to see the can fly through the air! LOL

Dawn