Presidents Day
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I will be marking this one on the calendar. Woke up and it was ten degrees with a thick layer of powdery snow here in South Texas. I didn't quite have enough water running and my pressure pump froze last night at least we still have power. I need a shed to house my well equipment this is unnecessary and might be costly. Looking at my phone weather ap it's pretty doggone cold everywhere I'm thankful it didn't get much colder or wetter. Still not as bad as a hurricane. The sun is out and hopefully in a few hours the white stuff is gone.
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The white stuff.
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I've been wondering how people are doing down there. The few times I've been in that area the first thing I would notice was the exposed water lines all over the place and where they are underground they are just under the sod. We typically are 6ft minimum underground and if I were to do my pump house again I would put it in a pit.
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@brittel I just moved from the Coast of Texas to our property between San Antonio and Laredo. We hardly ever had hard freezes on the coast but when we did it was pure havoc. Wrecks, busted pipes and houses burning down from space heaters running on extension cords you name it. Out here kind of the same thing but the old timers took care of everything and when a freeze was coming they just turned the water off and drained the lines. Only lasted a couple of days didn't need a thousand gallons of water a day out here only for the cows if you had some. Most of the older ranch houses didn't have pressurized water it was gravity fed from a cistern this place went to a pressurized system in the late 60's. They basically set a tank on the ground and put a pump on it for pressure and called it good. More serious folks built a pump house for the equipment and I am headed that direction. Once the pump thawed out today and I got water to my building I went back over to the storage tank to discover a two inch valve going to the cattle troughs had frozen and burst. I managed to round up some fittings and got the leak stopped but I will have to drain the tank and replace the valve eventually. It's hard to do with a couple thousand gallons of water in the tank. It won't be long and it will be 105 degrees in the shade here.
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I bet those pictures feel other-worldly to you southern folk. :)
Up here it's not entirely uncommon for it to look like that from the middle of october to the middle of april. This year I pushed snow once in october and haven't touched it since. Feels super weird... as I can't remember that happening in my lifetime. Everything is reversed!
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@orkan Seeing 9 degrees on a thermometer is unusual this far south. Today it’s about 20 right now but the east wind cuts like a knife. I stayed out yesterday fixing two water leaks and it didn’t bother me too much but we had no wind. I felt it last night I couldn’t get warm even eating a bushel of chicken and dumplings. I drove to my neighbors place to get a empty molasses tub to make a cover for a water valve and they had snow over my boots. He’s kind of on a rise from me heck I had snow inside the shop. Roll up doors are open at the top it’s still in there. What a mess. I just got off the phone with one of the guys from back home that does electrical and mechanical work on boats and he has a shipment of new generators coming I might put s deposit on a 20 kw. I almost put one up here after hurricane Harvey we’re lucky we still have power I have money in the budget for one. Pretty good chunk of change.
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@bigfoot Standard operating procedure up here. I have a 20kw propane generator here with 2,000 gallons of LP to run it. :) We can lose power for weeks and it will be no big deal.
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@orkan That’s a big tank. Terry, the guy that installs them told me they use around 2 gallons per hour depending on the load that might be heavy I don’t know. These are new air cooled units so not much maintenance just change the oil. It comes with the automatic switch I know they’re kind of pricey really don’t need it just a double throw but they are kind of high too. I might go ahead and wire the money I can always sell it if I don’t have him install it if we had kept our other house I was getting one for it for hurricane use. He sold four yesterday it will be a couple of months before his crew can come here anyway.
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San Marcos is about 45 miles north of San Antonio, so a little north of Bigfoot. Sunday night there was a light snow starting about 10 pm. The north wind really started howling about midnight. Monday morning it was 9 degrees and there was a foot of powdery snow. What woke me up at 5:00 am was the smoke alarm signaling that the power was off. Power was out until about 3:00 pm and house got down to 50 degrees. Nothing here works without electricity. Power came back on and went back off just as it got dark. Monday night it was 6 degrees from sunset until about 10:00 Tuesday. It’s been low teens all day today and power is on 1 hour/ off 3 hours. Our houses are not built for this kind of weather. It snows about half an inch every decade. I have enough AC to maintain a 30 degree drop from summer heat but barely enough electric resistance heat to get through a night in the 40s. Tonight and Wednesday are forecast to be snowing and low teens. Not believing in Global Warming so much right now.
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We're experiencing light snow and sleet this morning but still have power. The big ranch on my south side is without power the foreman stopped by yesterday and told me he lost a cow and a calf from the cold. Out of 200 head I guess it could be worse. No range cubes or protein to be had and they have fed out what they had stored supplies should start moving the roads have thawed a bit however we have two more sub freezing nights ahead of us. No use going into town most everything is closed and no power to operate.
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It has been snowing five hours now but melting on the surface. I remember one year m grandfather had snow on his wheat here. One of his best wheat crops.
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And just like that it is eighty degrees again here. A weak front is coming and might bring some rain and cooler temps for a few days.
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@bigfoot I love Texas and have fond memories of your area as a child going to see the mermaids and diving pig at Aquarena in San Marcos. Spent time during the summer during the early 60's in Kerrville at the Prade Ranch .... 7 square miles of Heaven. Glad to hear things are improving for you folks.
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@buddhaman Kerrville is a big tourist destination in the hill country. My son went to college there and lived there for a couple of years after he got out of school. I don't know how many permanent residents live there but it can get crowded with all the visitors. When I was a senior in high school (1976) the graduates went to a Dude Ranch in Bandera close to Kerrville. We spent most of our time chasing the wild peacocks that were on the property and chasing girls from a Houston High School drill team that was there. Lucky we had a small class the counselors from both sides were stressed out after a couple of days. There was quite a few of those places I guess some of them still exist I heard the one we stayed at was destroyed by a flood. There are some impressive properties in those hills and land sells for a premium. If you haven't been in that area since the sixties you will be in shock to see the explosion that has happened there and the surrounding area especially along Interstate 10.
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@bigfoot I shutter to imagine. Our little town had a 3.2% spurt of growth between 1960-1970 with about total population of about 22,500. In 2021, the growth is down to 0.29% with a total population of about 34,500. Everything is near shutting down with the drastic decline of the oil industry in the Gulf off the Louisiana coast, so I think we'll be easing below 30,000 soon. But if you love some first class saltwater fishing and delicious seafood, Terrebonne Parish can satisfy you!
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@buddhaman Interesting write up about the Prade Ranch my son attended Schreiner in Kerrville mentioned in the article. There is a museum in Kerrville maybe more than one but I never have been to them. I've never been to Leakey either I hear it's beautiful country unlike the area I live in now in Frio County mostly brush and farmland. We made it to Uvalde a couple of times this past month and the scenery changes in that short distance from here. I was a commercial fisherman for many years and have some friends from Louisiana that migrated to Texas and made their homes in the Palacios area where I used to live one was from Grand Isle unfortunately he passed last year yet he still spoke with an accent even living in Texas for many years. Lots of friends from Bayou La Batre Alabama too. Those guys are something else to hang around with you never know if they are serious or joking.
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@bigfoot Yep, most everywhere you look along the coastal Gulf States, you'll find a character! One of my most peaceful spots in Texas is in the pecan orchard of Seven Bluffs .... when there are no tubers floating the river. Did you see the young fisherman "Thresher" post on YouTube all the specks that died due to the freeze from around Port Aransas to Corpus? The first half of his post is him just yakking his jaws, then he shoots the fish kill along the coastline from a drone flying overhead. We had a fish kill like that many many years ago down here in Terrebonne Parish. Even cold to the bone, wildlife and fisheries wouldn't let you take 'em home to eat????? Got friends coming in from TN today. Gonna fry fish tonight with a cornbread casserole, grill steaks Monday with fresh potato salad, and have a shrimp okra gumbo for Tuesday. I go by buddahman for a reason!! ..... while eating, we're already talking about what we're gonna eat in another 6 hours. Take care and thanks for revitalizing some good old memories. Here's a photo from over 20 years ago with a nice, little red while kayaking the marsh between Bayou Dularge and Dulac.
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@bigfoot I can't find any images of the wagon wheel tracks imbedded in the Frio River at the Prade Ranch ..... either a Pearl or Lonestar Beer commercial was made back in the 60's showing the wagon wheel track ..... but I did find this mention of the tracks in Texas National Parks Service website of the Frio River.
"Springs which form the Frio River issue from a 3,000 acre ranch north of Leakey. Black phoebes nest in canyons- deer and other mammals present. Old wagon tracks are visible in the rock of river bed."
Here's a photo taken at the Prade around 1964 ... I'm the blondie with knees high. The young girl to the right of me, Elizabeth Powers, is the owner of the ranch's daughter, and the man second from the rear right is her Dad, Mr. Jim Powers. He was a Naval pilot stationed in Houma, LA in the 50's and a friend of my parents.
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They don't call Louisiana sportsman's paradise for nothing lots of fishing going on there. My mothers mother was raised on a rice farm in Houma I believe her father operated a gin there. This was pre depression times. We passed over the Frio River a few weeks ago and it is bone dry down this far only the springs are feeding it I have only tried tubing it one time and it wasn't running then. When it's running it's crowded for sure. Garner State Park still gets lots of visitors.
