Beauty Farming Life

For the first time in months, we aren't going to the farm at least one day this weekend.  It's cold, rainy and wet. There is certainly nothing I could do outside and inside it would be cold as well.  You see, we don't have heat in the farmhouse.  We have had a couple of small heaters we've used a few times, but it really wasn't until this year that the house was fully livable inside (just got hot water last Spring).  So we had air conditioning via window units and that got us through the heat. Now the cold has arrived and t herein lies the quandary. What type of space heater to get? I know there are all types, propane, wood, gas, and of course electric.  In reality, at this point in the farm progress, we can't do anything permanent like central heat or a piped gas system.  Can't really do anything that requires any sort of venting out the wall or roof (need a new roof first).  So that really limits us to electric heat ...

As if we needed to break MORE records, see my earlier post HERE , we have now broken more: Earliest 100 degree temperature - June 2nd Earliest 102 degree temperature - June 5th Latest 102 degree temperature - Sept 13th  It's so dry down here with the drought, we are having a serious problem with wildfires all over the area. Last week, 2nd Family said that ash was falling in the yard at the farm from fires about 30 miles to the North.  Then yesterday there was a major fire at a park  here in Houston and ash was falling all over the West side of town.  This morning my wise friend Diana said: "It's sad that the only thing that's fallen from the sky since May is ash..." Truer words were never spoken...

Woke up this morning to cooler weather!  It was so nice to step outside into upper 60's temperatures...I'm hoping it's a trend.  Still a high in the low 90's, but they are saying no more 100's, AND a chance of rain!

We had rain! While we were out at the farm, it rained, pretty heavily, in the city. Here at the city house, we had almost an inch of rain!  It's a start, and we'll GLADLY take it, but it is still barely a dent in our almost 30" deficit.

More rain today!  Not a huge amount, but it's been on and off all day.  I can't tell you how much we've needed it down here.  It can rain everyday for the next week if it has to!

Ah, finally a break the heat of Summer, is still here. It sure was is long and hot, not to mention one for the record books. But now we have are hoping for cooler temps on the way, and of course the beauty that comes with the changing colors of the leaves. Enjoy your Fall wherever you are!

We have had rain! In fact, it rained, on and off, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and the morning of Thursday.  We're back to Sunny today but that's OK, we've had somewhere between 3 and 4 inches of water pour down and that's wonderful.   This radar image was from Monday or was it Tuesday? No matter, it was pretty much the same at some point each day of the week.  The red pin is the farm location.  It was a pretty slow and steady rain at times, then stopped and was sunny and clear and then another round of "orange and red" would move in and the cycle repeated several more times. Sadly, it's not enough to get us out of our drought designation but it might green up the grass and it's definitely a good, deep soaking for the fruit trees, which, honestly, at this point are the most important things to keep alive at the farm.  Also hoping that the basil and two stubborn tomatoes have perked up. I think we're back into a dry cycl...

Well look what we have here today...more rain! Went to the farm this morning, and it was sunny but starting to get cloudy.  By midday it was dark and raining. A bit of thunder and lightning and about 1/2" of rain!  Of course, the forecast didn't include this, but then again, are  they  ever really right? We'll take it!  No mowing, but more water and things will soon come back to life.  Also did some more inside projects.  Overall it was a good day!

Houston area radar We finally got some much needed rainfall in our area.  It's a dent in what we need, but we'll take it.  At the house in the city, so far today, we have received almost  over 2 inches.  I'm not sure what it's done out at Seda Bolsa, but we're hoping for 2 or 3 inches as well.  The radar over that area seems to show a lot of rain and the forecast shows rain for the rest of the night...and possibly Monday.  W e say "bring it on!"

Don't forget, this weekend is Daylight Savings Time.  We have Benjamin Franklin to thank, in a way for this.  He wrote in the 18th century that changing the time in the Spring would save on candles (!).  It was never widely adopted back during his day.  There were efforts made to institute a policy like this, hit and miss for many years.  It wasn't until the early 20th century and the first and second World Wars that people seemed to finally approve and it gradually began to gain widespread acceptance. Not sure it still saves electricity, but it does make for more daylight to work in the garden and that's ALWAYS a good thing. Remember it with the old adage, "Spring Forward (lose an hour) Fall Back (gain an hour). It all happens Sunday morning at 2:00AM.  Just be sure to set your clock back one hour when you go to bed to night. So we GAIN an hour!  Nothing wrong with that. How will you use your extra hour?

Let it frost, let it frost, let it frost.... Frost on the driveway at the farm OK OK, so it's not exactly snow , but there was some white color on the ground at the farm this Christmas.  Since we stayed in town for Christmas this year, 2 nd Family took these pictures at the farm to share with us. It was a light freeze but there was moisture on the ground and so it created some beautiful frost.  I'm guessing this means that everything is certainly dormant and/or dead for the season. Closeup of frost on the ground I guess it's time to start dreaming of Spring, right? Feline Friday will return next week, just need some time before going through photos of the kitties.  This weekend we'll be heading to the farm to do some cleaning while the weather is cooperating. Stay warm wherever you are!

Awesome belated thing to be thankful for, RAIN! It has been raining here all day long.  It's finally lightened up this evening, in anticipation of much colder air pushing through later tonight.  We have had almost an inch in the city and, according to the weather station nearest the farm, we had slightly over 2 inches out there. We'll take all we can get! At this point in our drought, nothing is TOO much.

Texas Drought Continues Just saw on the news, CLICK HERE TO READ , that experts say the drought we have been experiencing is going to last into next year as well.  We are already behind almost 30" in rainfall for the year.  Many small ponds and lakes have dried up, and other, larger ones are now extremely low. There is a natural pond site on our property...about 2 years ago, I walked over to it and it was full of water...now it's dry and empty and just looks like a low spot in the ground. I'm not sure how this will impact our gardening, not to mention the fruit trees that I bought that are still waiting to be planted.  Sometimes I wonder if we bought at the right time?  We want to make a beautiful yard with productive gardens and flowers and peaceful places to relax...but that's going to be hard with limited water resources. Now granted, we are on well water at the farm but there isn't really any way to know how in danger that is of running low/out.  It ...

Another rainy day, and we are loving every drop of it.  It put a damper on our original farm plans for this weekend, but we were able to get a bit done. More on that this week... Rainy Day  "Let the rain kiss you. Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops.   Let the rain sing you a lullaby."                                           ...Langston Hughes

We had our first Winter Weather Advisory of the season yesterday and it continues today and tonight.  We got down into the upper 20's last night, and it didn't get above freezing until mid morning. I'm sure many of you in snow covered parts of the country laugh, as you've had snow for a few weeks already (or even longer for others).  But for us, it is our first fairly hard freeze and to me, it signals the end of plant growing season and that always makes me sad.  I don't mind the lack of grass to mow, and weeds to pull, and stuff to edge, it's a nice break from all that.  This time next year, we should will have our garden beds done and there are some crops that do just fine in Winter weather, as I'm sure many of you know.  At least that will extend my gardening time by just a bit..  Fortunately, we are blessed with a winter that very rarely has snow. We do get it on occasion, but when we do, it's an inch maybe, and of cour...

Hard to tell in this picture but these were dark storm clouds that were moving in today when I was at the farm.  We ended up getting some more rain, almost an inch, so we'll take it.  I still can't wait for us to be able to sit on the porch and watch a storm come through.

BRRRR!  Bring on the cold.  It's time for  fireplaces and heaters and quilts and hot cocoa! For some of you, it's already BEEN that, ha. Enjoy, let's all stay warm and before we know it, Spring will be just around the corner with it's sprouts and blooms and new plants popping up everywhere.

In Houston anyway! An example of what our flooding does to our freeways This morning we awoke to major storms moving in from overnight and we've had it all today...hail, lightning, high winds, funnel clouds, possible tornadoes, and of course, MAJOR flooding of roadways.  Of course, as usually happens, it hits, it's horrible and then it goes away and the water slowly recedes.  We've gotten in excess of 5 inches of rain, some places much more than that, so that's good.  We'll take the rain, but don't really want or need all of that other nonsense. If anyone is curious about crazy weather in another part of the world, ha, you can read an article at the Houston Chronicle website HERE . EVENING UPDATE:   Just heard on the news that today's rainfall was our heaviest rainfall in EIGHTEEN MONTHS.  That's right, we haven't had this much rain in one day in a year and a half.  We used to get these types of heavy rains several times per year. ...

I know I've blogged about rain before, but you have to understand that until recently, it's been months, in some places, over a year, since there was significant rainfall in these parts.  So any time it comes, we're happy. Enough rain? And boy, today, did it ever!  Once again, we had possible tornadoes, strong winds, lightning, and most of all, a LOT of rain.  I was at work and unable to photograph the farm, but 2nd Family was kind enough to take this picture and send it to me.  No, this isn't lakefront property, this is their front yard as seen from their porch.  I don't think the birds will need that birdbath right now. Our house is at the other end of the property and is at the high end of the land.  Water naturally flows down toward their house.  Good for us, bad for them.  Of course it flows on from their yard to the road and on down from there, so I guess it's all good eventually. She said the rain gauge holds 5 inches and it...

We're getting ready for our first BIG freeze since we've owned the farm. We thought those of you in in other countries might like to see this image.  It shows the forecast low temperatures for the United States*. *Hard to believe some of those temps are THIRTY AND FORTY BELOW ZERO. Brrrrrrr! And it's amazing to see how that dip of frigid air just pushes down into almost all parts of the country.  We live in Texas, down in the part that is maroonish to white.  They are calling for temperatures in the mid to low 20's for us. Very cold Sunday to Monday, warming up during the day Tuesday but then even colder on Tuesday night.  It's been several years since we've dipped in into the low 20's so of course, in Houston, if you watch the local news, you'd think it's the "Freezepocalypse" coming! I'm almost embarrassed to post that it's "cold" when there are those up North that are suffering through someth...