Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Texas blizzard

DD1 and you guys in north central TX - were you effected by the blizzard that hit Wichita Falls ?

I just got home and the roofs are just starting to turn white. I drove 2 hours home from my property and only went over 1 bridge that was icy.

Chris: Glad you made it home OK. Enjoy the Christmas break from school with your family.

Bing

We have 4" of snow on the ground, snowing like crazy. Roads are hazardous here, family Christmas, getting ready to sit down, give thanks and eat. Fireplace is rolling, temperature is 24. Looks like snow for at least two more hours.

Ewest, you had tornadic clouds today, didn't you?

Bing, lots of rain headed toward you...batten down the hatches.

I live about 20 miles N of Wichita Falls, its the worst its been in twenty years. I cant get out of my drive, have to use a tractor to feed cattle and get around. People are stuck on highways for hours in every direction. Any major road is closed, the rest are travel at your own risk.

However for my family we are all together with pleanty of food and have not lost electricity yet and we are enjoying a white Christmas except the hours we have to go feed the stock!

Hope others enjoy their Christmas and are safe.

Yep Bob we did. I was cleaning out a beaver jammed ditch when all of the sudden I thought I was going to be a kite.

We've had a ton of rain today. Likely about two inches with more to come. It arrived on top of frozen ground and the most rain this year in history, so nearly total runoff. In early November we were 12 inches over the average and much rain since then.

I started syphons around the first of November and, although it took about twice as long as normal, lowered the level by about seven feet. With all of the rain in November and December it slowly started filling up. When I got up this morning it was going over the spillway. Second year in a row that I've dropped the level and had it fill again before I had much of a chance to improve habitat, etc.

Oh yes, it is raining now and will do so all night.

Bing

Pretty ugly 5 hours north of Bing. Same thing, maybe a little more ice due to a few degrees colder. The birch trees are bent over pretty far. Winds are kicking up 20 mph sustained with 30+ gusts. The sheets of ice are building up on the doghouse dormer roofs, the the wind and freezing rain loosens them up until the whole mass crashes down onto the main roof below. BA-BOOM....about once an hour.

Does that mean that you won't be working on the new roof this weekend?

You can ice skate down every road 'cept the main roads. 5/16" of ice built up plus the snow that was packed down and partially melted. They're calling for a "lot" of rain tonight, which I can use - the pond is down almost 4', and overnight temps in the low 40's. The temps were jut right for any falling rain to freeze on the ground and the house, but not the trees.

TBD....but doubt it.
Probably take a solo jaunt on Saturday, but have plenty of other mini-projects available to keep me off the roof.

We got about 4 inches of snow garnished by some 40+ mph winds in the D/FW metroplex. The previous day was 76. So the snow didn't stick well for awhile. However, when the temps dropped, the thawed snow froze on the roads and created a pretty good parking lot. Lots of stranded motorists, wrecks, closed overpasses and one dang good snowball fight today. Two Grandsons ganged up on me and learned the error of their ways.

It took my Daughter and family 6.5 hours to get here from 100 miles away.

Here in Norman, OK we got 14", a new all time record for a 24 hr snowfall. At our acreage we have a newly installed aerobic septic system which sprays out over the lawn rather that using lateral lines- a blessing for us in this red Permian clay with no perk. However, after the record snow fall, the sprayers discharged and we have a huge sheet of glare ice over the snow.
This spray was spread over a larger than usual area by the high winds so the downhill slope from our house to the lake is a solid ice sheet. We let the dogs out and they could not get back uphill to the house. It was pretty funny really. The went the long way around the sheet ice to come in the utility room door.

Layton -- I saw the Oklahoma City snowfall on Weather Channel. Pretty darn impressive for you OK folks!!

Hopefully we wont get too many blizzards around here in MI.

Predictions are higher than avg. temps, and lower than avg. precipitation.

That is cool with me as we have been hammered really bad for the past several years with snow.

Last year about this time, I have plowed quite a bit and moved a bit of snow with the equipment. I only did a slush type plow job this year once, and that was for my family, just to keep the frozen waters, etc... out of the driveway.

Thats cool, at least they wont slide into the house or garage.

Last year the ground did not freeze in snow covered areas all winter, but the -14f temps thru a week or so in early Feb. made things interesting where the snow was cleared off.

With global warming and environmental conditions, cant wait to catch a gator on braided line in my dogs pool

This picture was taken 4 days after the snow in northern Montague Co. and the day after I and my family planted 240 Pecan trees. You can see them as 5-6' tall sticks out in the pasture. The snow and freezing weather made the job very difficult, but it had to be done then because now it's snowing again in the DFW area...du

I went to my place S. of Bowie a couple of days ago. Some of the drifts were 16 inches deep. I hunted for a couple of hours and saw nothing.

Dave, I experienced the same thing a few weeks ago at our place. Got there early and the snow was pouring down pretty heavily. I spent a few hours waiting with no luck. Walked pretty much all of our 30 acres and didn't see a single track. I think the snow makes them hunker down sometimes and just wait it out. Given that you guys probably don't get it as often, I bet the fact that it was still there was enough to keep them in hiding even though it wasn't snowing at the time you hunted.

David U, I'm interested in planting twenty or thirty more pecan trees but only the varieties CANDY and OCONEE. I am having a problem finding a supplier and thought you might be able to offer a source. It seems that many suppliers sell only to the industry.
Your trees seem to be planted on rows. Did you build those intending to plant pecans? You'll have a fine grove in years to come.

Dudley, here is the web site of Womack Nursery http://www.womacknursery.com/pecans.html I also bought some black walnuts from Willis Nursery
http://www.willisorchards.com/

I planted them in rows on 40' centers. If you haven't already, I would highly recommend doing all the research you can to make sure that you have the right soils and the right varieties for your area. I utilize the Noble Foundation out of Ardmore, OK for all my Ag advice, but they only service OK & North TX.. Hopefully these will do well ..BTW, I noticed Womack carries the Oconee variety..good luck..du

Thanks, David.