TexasMaam
Posts: 1467
Joined: 6/22/2005 Status: offline
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Hello, Ron! Haven't tt you in a very long time. I am just south of the extreme drought, which is both good and bad. My home is surrounded by a hayfield over 5 ft tall, lush and green, due to the offshore showers we've enjoyed off and on all summer. I was shocked last week when I drove a line a mere 20 miles north of here, between Bryan and Huntsville, where the land is so parched the goatweeds won't even grow. Drove past one of our old properties this weekend and the entire area looked like nuclear fallout, desert, where we had once made hundreds of bales of hay on one 80 acre hayfield. The stock tanks were dry, trees are dead and/or dying. While it's wonderful to have the lush green here at the house, north of us is where our aquifer gets recharged, so things are getting very serious. My well has been low several times this summer. Wish the next door neighbors would stop filling their splash pool every day, and I wish they'd stop inviting their 25 relatives with children who all play in the sprinkler and empty and refill the large above ground pool daily so they can have 'cool water' to waste.....called them about it several times to no avail. Guess when they have to haul water in to water the dog and wash dishes, they'll learn. I will be making a few round bales here at the house, probably about 20% less than normal. But we are the exception. Hay is selling for between $65 and $80 a roll because it's so scarce. For square bales, we had to drive to another area about 150 miles away since no one in this area was able to bale any good quality square bales all summer. I drove a 5 hour round trip day before yesterday, making a large circle north of our home. I did not see one single cow in all of that area, they've all been sold off. I did see a horse or two penned up on drylot, and by drylot, I do mean barren dirt. It's simply horriffic to see. I am told that these desert conditions run from Bryan/Huntsville north to Temple, west to Austin, and east as far as Apple Springs around Lufkin before you see some green fields. In addition they run southwest of here down to McAllen. That's probably an area comparable to the size of France. Scary stuff. All the best, TM quote:
ORIGINAL: mnottertail Hey, TexasMaaM... How is the hay and water situation out there, this year? See you pulled thru the drought. Ron
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