Winter Wonderland

 Earlier in the month, we had another blast of arctic weather blow through for a few days that dumped a bit of snow and mostly ice/freezing rain on the area. That led to some "challenging" excursions as the weather hit us right before we were due for our normal grocery run. Overall, the truck handled the icy road conditions without much fuss. Then again, I'm not your garden variety idiot driver either.

Those icicles are leaning forward towards the front of the truck. I would have expected the wind to blow them backwards.

That whole thing came off in one piece once temps got above freezing. I was tempted to keep it in the freezer, but we don't have enough room to preserve it.

The one casualty from the weather.  Need a better insulation solution for the water filter. 

What A Difference a Day Makes

 As some of you are probably aware unless you live in the artic circle or on a deserted tropical island after a 3 hour tour, Texas weather has been after it this summer with a vengeance. We had over a month of 100+ degree heat. There hasn't been a drop of rain since May, and about the only green in site is a dollar bill being blown by on the wind. 

For example, I offer pictures of the two stock tanks (ponds) on my mother's property taken on August 3RD as the "before" exhibit.

The little pond - bone dry. Not a drop of water or even a mud pie to be seen. 

The big pond. Not quite dry, but well below normal and about 6 feet lower than it's highest level. The green is duck weed which is an invasive algae. 

So, that was just over two weeks ago. Then, the heavens opened up and poured forth a deluge that set records for rainfall. Since midnight, we've gotten 8.4 inches of rain 6.1 of which fell between midnight and 8:00AM. 

The big pond this evening after the rains stopped. I was very surprised by how much duck weed survived.

The small pond around lunch time before the rains stopped. 

An unfortunate casualty of all that rain was a 45 foot tall post oak near mom's house. 

The trunk has a circumference of 6 feet 8 inches. If my math is correct, the diameter is a little over 2 feet (maybe 25 or 26 inches). The canopy was about 40 feet wide. Just the main part of the trunk is roughly 3000 pounds. 

I will be spending quite a bit of time with a chainsaw and safety gear over the next couple of  weeks. Anyone need some firewood?