Some Rain

We finally got some rain early in the week. First night was a very nice slow rain of about 1.5 inches. It soaked very well. Due to the drought we had lost the topsoil and had about 1/4" - 1/2" of dust on the top of the ground. The rain soaked it and filled low places very well. Just what we needed. The next rain came as a squall line and dropped an inch very fast. This rain was welcome, but did gully the road and ran off for the most part. It did put about 9" in the stock tank. All the neighbors tanks look very low if not dry. We will need a lot more rain soon.

We may be too late for a lot of trees. A lot of cedars above the 1000' elevation have changed from green to orange. I suspect they are lost as cedars are very hardy but once they turn they are soon dead. All the cedar below the mountain all look very good. I think there was just no water in the soil higher up the mountain.

I did see some late hummingbirds so I filled the feeders for the last time this season.

The deer enjoyed the rain too. I have seen that 'monster' buck several times.

Drought Continues - Fire Danger

The Drought Continues and it is the worst in Texas since the 1950's. Now the threat is fire. There have been major fires 100 miles north and 100 miles south of us. We have received smoke depending on the wind direction. Tropical Depression Lee hit Louisiana and we hoped for some rain, but it didn't happen. We did get a wind shift to the north and it did break our record string of 100° days. I believe we had 90 days of super hot 100° weather. We had two days of high 80's, but it's back to the 90's now.

I have watered around some key Texas Live Oak trees around the house. Most of the Spanish Oaks have already gone dormant. I hope they are not too damaged. Even the cedar trees look parched. It is bad.

We had a friend visit who loves to take photographs so I will have some new ranch photos to post. See his sunset above. (click it to enlarge it)

The Hummingbirds and Painted Buntings are now gone, but the Cardinals are very active.

A few days ago I saw one of the biggest bucks I have seen in many years. Last night there were 6-7 deer around the water hole: another big buck, a fawn, and several does. They know I have a water source for them so they are are taking advantage in this drought.