My first whining thread - Drought Hatred

[RidgeHunter]

I'm so sick of this weather I could punch a baby. Not only do we deal with the hottest summer ever, we have no freaking water. I got to go on a grand total of one decent float trip this summer. Had a multi-day planned for, oh, right about now, but the conditions are passable yet sucky. May "postpone" it. Record low conditions in many undammed Ozark streams not seen since nineteen-freaking-eighty. And it's worse than it was then.

Trees are already brown. That is the ones that aren't dead, like the 2 pine trees in my yard I lost.

There is not a fawking drop of water in any creek on our deer lease. Even in the driest years you can find a puddle. The pond on the back of the place in bone dry; the other two are scum puddles. The below picture is the main creek on our deer lease during "normal" October weather. You can't find a single solitary puddle in it this year. I've been on it since the late 90's and have never seen it bone dry. And this is far, far eastern Oklahoma.

And I don't even really have a right to complain because I'm not taking a financial hit from it like so many of you are. The guy who owns the above land makes his living on cattle and hay. Yeah, he's loving this weather. Working 12 hour days for 0 profit just hoping you *might* break even must be a blast.

Texas has officially turned into a flaming scale model of Hades.

I started off kidding, but if we get one more year like this I think I might head for greener (literally) pastures. Pacific Northwest maybe? I can't ride out Dust Bowl II Electric Bugaloo without sinking into depression. What a freaking bummer.

/offrant

 

[JD8]

Washed and waxed both our cars yesterday..... gonna do the truck today... so I'm trying to do my part. Rain is in the forecast??

 

[Larry Morgan]

It blows here in Texas, no doubt. Yay for being about 20" behind on rainfall and having our lakes down about 40 feet. Last time this year, they were about about 80% capacity. Now they are about 45%. Thank gosh someone had the smarts to build such a huge water reserve. We also have stage 2 mandatory watering restrictions here. If you violate them 3 times, you risk having your water meter turned off/removed. I can't say I blame them on that, though. It's nice to know that in one of the worst droughts, somedipweed will go out of their way to dump water that has been processed to be drinkable (using a lot of resources) right back onto the sidewalk, with only 10% of it hitting the plants they were trying to water. *cough cough*Neighbors, I'm looking at you *cough cough*

I'm just glad I wasn't one of the people who had their boat dock turned into a dry dock. (I don't even have a boat, but if I did, I'd be maaaaaad).

I'm with ya ridgehunter, it downright sucks.

 

[reddog1]

Nice pic RH

 

[RidgeHunter]

It blows here in Texas, no doubt.

Dude, I feel so bad for you guys. I saw pics of the fires last week that looked like they were taken in the mountain states. Just surreal stuff. I'm sure you got a lovely view of it all. How many houses lost now? Over 1,500 last I heard. Below is the Austin skyline.

[Broken External Image]

Yeah, there are rain chances in the forecast for us up here, but it's going to take inches upon inches to do any good.

I don't think many people realize that, especially for you guys down in Tejas...it will take decades to recover from this. I stand by my statement that drought and heat are the two worst weather conditions you can have. No storm, no ice, no snow, no tornado, no hurricane comes close. Nothing has a lasting impact like a drought.

 

[dennishoddy]

I'm hoping the drought goes away with this new chance of rain. They are calling for 1-2" possible.
Fortunatly, in the small area where I farm, we have had 6 1/2" of rain in the last month. There is a band about 5 miles wide and 15 miles north of Billings that keeps getting these nice showers. I was drilling wheat all day yesterday, with moisture showing up in the ground. Trees are all green, etc.
It borders the Salt Fork river, which has barely enough water for a tiny flow. I can't imagine how many fish have died.

The latest long range weather report says to expect a dry fall like last year.

 

[farmerbyron]

Yet all we hear about on the news is flooding in the east. The poor dears, we should all be that lucky. If you live in a flood plain, you should expect to get flooded out every so often. That is what insurance is for. I will take a flood any day over a drought.

 

[HMFIC]

Reminds me of 'Bosque County Romance'...

Now the drought of '57
Was a curse upon the land
No one in Bosque County
Could give ol' Bill a helping hand
The ground was cracked and broken
And the truck was out of gas
And cows can't feed on prickly pear
Instead of growing grass
Well the weather got the water
And a snake bite took a child
And a fire in the old barn
Took the hay that Bill had piled
The mortgage got the money
And the screw worm got the cows
The years have come for Mary
She's waiting for them now​

 

[Larry Morgan]

Dude, I feel so bad for you guys. I saw pics of the fires last week that looked like they were taken in the mountain states. Just surreal stuff. I'm sure you got a lovely view of it all. How many houses lost now? Over 1,500 last I heard. Below is the Austin skyline.

Yeah, there are rain chances in the forecast for us up here, but it's going to take inches upon inches to do any good.

I don't think many people realize that, especially for you guys down in Tejas...it will take decades to recover from this. I stand by my statement that drought and heat are the two worst weather conditions you can have. No storm, no ice, no snow, no tornado, no hurricane comes close. Nothing has a lasting impact like a drought.

The count you have is pretty accurate. There were about 2 different fires less than a mile from my house in Leander, too. The winds from that hurricane are what spurred it all on. There are a few people here at work that had their houses burned down. One of them is on my floor and I have worked with before. It's very sad, and I felt terrible for him. At one point, the fire you took a picture of was 6 miles deep and 16 miles wide with flames hundreds (yes hundreds) of feet high. There was one video a co-worker and I were watching, and it was downright freaky. You could see flames coming out of that big cloud you posted a picture of, so big it just made the sky look like it was on fire.

I let my lawn die at my house, but many of my neighbors still have theirs going strong (No way I'm paying upwards of $200 a month to have my lawn green). I took to watering my foundation, though, since I started to notice the ground shrinking back and making a gap.

Suckage, my friend..

 

[soonersfan]

I'm with you. I have never complained about heat in the summer before. I don't think you should complain about the heat and the cold so I just complain about the cold. I have broken my rule this year though. It is absolutely ridiculous.

I go to Lake Arbuckle quite a bit and there are rock formations and sandbars I never knew existed sticking 8 ft out of the water. All the springs and creeks in the Chickasaw National Park are completely dried up. I heard that out of state farmers were bringing in hay free of charge for local farmers. It probably isn't enough to make a dent in the shortage but I thought that was a very cool gesture. I guess the folks in SW Oklahoma have had it way worse.