There is a good book about this called "The Time it Never Rained". This reminds me that I need to finish it... I am about halfway through it.

Side note - our landowner lived through that time in the South Hill Country and said one of the droughts in the last 3-4 years was worse than anything in the 50s. Now, that was based on the water levels from our springs and creeks which I think have gotten worse from all of the wells in the area - particularly the folks all filling up their pools in Concan...

No problem today. We got HEB.

We have a crap ton of city folks moving out to rural areas so if this drought caused them to move back to the city and stop developing ranches into postage stamps with **** boxes on them, it would be tough for me not to cheer. All of my pastures are brown. *****ly pear is wilting. Mesquite hasn't grown but a couple of inches all year. And 20 miles up the road jagoffs have 7" of green thick St Augustine with water running down the street. Then they come to public forums for developments and complain about the water crisis.

Elmer Kelton - great book! Finish it.

I have some conglomeration of native or former hay field grass in my rural yard. It goes yellow and brown every summer when the rain stops, but as soon as there is a half inch of rain, it turns green and starts growing rapidly in like 48 hours. It's not always lush and green and beautiful but it never needs watering at all. The roots survive the worst droughts. Maybe we should use stuff like that in much more of our landscaping

HelotesAg said:

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Elmer Kelton - great book! Finish it.

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Cannot second this enough. Just a fabulous read.

ttha_aggie_09 said:

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There is a good book about this called "The Time it Never Rained". This reminds me that I need to finish it... I am about halfway through it.

Side note - our landowner lived through that time in the South Hill Country and said one of the droughts in the last 3-4 years was worse than anything in the 50s. Now, that was based on the water levels from our springs and creeks which I think have gotten worse from all of the wells in the area - particularly the folks all filling up their pools in Concan...

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Excellent book. It makes you appreciate the people that lived through multiple droughts and held onto their properties.

He also captures the West Texas attitude about government handouts and how the government often screws up more than it fixes.

BrazosDog02 said:

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No problem today. We got HEB.

We have a crap ton of city folks moving out to rural areas so if this drought caused them to move back to the city and stop developing ranches into postage stamps with **** boxes on them, it would be tough for me not to cheer. All of my pastures are brown. *****ly pear is wilting. Mesquite hasn't grown but a couple of inches all year. And 20 miles up the road jagoffs have 7" of green thick St Augustine with water running down the street. Then they come to public forums for developments and complain about the water crisis.

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I'm on your side, but do you also call out all of those large property owners who are selling water rights and also putting in more and more irrigation wells that are in areas where annual rainfall has never been sufficient for annual crops?

I have childhood memories of burning *****ly pear on my grandfather's place in Dewitt County during the 50's drought.

The Time it Never Rained ought to be required reading for all Texas High School students. Absolutely fantastic book.

I have loaned " The Time It Never Rained" to many of the old timers who lived through that drouth west and south of San Antonio. Every one of them said that is exactly what it was like.

I keep two or three extra copies around just to loan out and educate those who don't understand how bad the climate in that area can be. I look for them at Half Price books and they are usually under ten dollars.

Also I will second the notion above about how government interference is almost always worse than just letting nature (and capitalism) run its' course.

If you like that book, try reading " The Man Who Rode Midnight" and "The Good Old Boys". Both are outstanding and won multiple awards.

If you ever go through Blanco, TX go to the Redbud Cafe for lunch. They have the rainfall totals every month for the last 100+ years and it also breaks it down into the 20 year average if I remember correctly. Anyways the pattern over the last 100+ years has honestly not really changed much in relation to drought frequency. What I was surprised by is that the actual rainfall average per year has actually increased by a few inches over the last 100 years.

HelotesAg said:

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Elmer Kelton - great book! Finish it.

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One of his best

ttha_aggie_09 said:

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There is a good book about this called "The Time it Never Rained". This reminds me that I need to finish it... I am about halfway through it.

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Boy are you in for a rollercoaster.

Dang, Bdog, tell us how you really feel! But I agree with you 100%. Was a water operator for a small town, it's impossible to make those folks understand

docb said:

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If you ever go through Blanco, TX go to the Redbud Cafe for lunch. They have the rainfall totals every month for the last 100+ years and it also breaks it down into the 20 year average if I remember correctly. Anyways the pattern over the last 100+ years has honestly not really changed much in relation to drought frequency. What I was surprised by is that the actual rainfall average per year has actually increased by a few inches over the last 100 years.

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Wow! As I was reading the thread I was waiting to reach the end and was going to post the exact same thing about the Redbud (couldn't remember the name actually). Pretty funny!

I will always remember the sound of the pear burners roaring and the smell of the burnt *****ly pear pads. Our well at the house failed. Until the new one was finished and the reservoir was full, we bathed in a stock tank about a mile or so back in the pasture from the house. As a child, I thought it great fun. I am certain it was a bad time for the adults.

Bucketrunner said:

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I will always remember the sound of the pear burners roaring and the smell of the burnt *****ly pear pads. Our well at the house failed. Until the new one was finished and the reservoir was full, we bathed in a stock tank about a mile or so back in the pasture from the house. As a child, I thought it great fun. I am certain it was a bad time for the adults.

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username checks out.

Marlin39m said:

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BrazosDog02 said:

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No problem today. We got HEB.

We have a crap ton of city folks moving out to rural areas so if this drought caused them to move back to the city and stop developing ranches into postage stamps with **** boxes on them, it would be tough for me not to cheer. All of my pastures are brown. *****ly pear is wilting. Mesquite hasn't grown but a couple of inches all year. And 20 miles up the road jagoffs have 7" of green thick St Augustine with water running down the street. Then they come to public forums for developments and complain about the water crisis.

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I'm on your side, but do you also call out all of those large property owners who are selling water rights and also putting in more and more irrigation wells that are in areas where annual rainfall has never been sufficient for annual crops?

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Also those large property owners that willingly sign the dotted line and sell their land to the developers.

hillcountryag86 said:

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Bucketrunner said:

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I will always remember the sound of the pear burners roaring and the smell of the burnt *****ly pear pads. Our well at the house failed. Until the new one was finished and the reservoir was full, we bathed in a stock tank about a mile or so back in the pasture from the house. As a child, I thought it great fun. I am certain it was a bad time for the adults.

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So, p r I c k l y is banned?

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The word before ly is banned

I am fascinated by that board in the Red Bud Cafe. It gives you a great weather history perspective of the Hill Country. It does give a 20 year average.

I first read "The Time if Never Rained" when I was at A&M and it made me appreciate even more my grandparents and their fellow generation of farmers and ranchers in West Texas. They were raised during the depression and the dust bowl, went off to war, then came home to a historic multi-year drought.

They didn't know any real level of comfort or affluence until they were well into middle age.

That's probably why they were so resilient, humble, resourceful, etc...

It kind of dispels a lot of weather myths to me. Like "It just doesn't rain like it used to". Makes you really wonder.

docb said:

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If you ever go through Blanco, TX go to the Redbud Cafe for lunch. They have the rainfall totals every month for the last 100+ years and it also breaks it down into the 20 year average if I remember correctly. Anyways the pattern over the last 100+ years has honestly not really changed much in relation to drought frequency. What I was surprised by is that the actual rainfall average per year has actually increased by a few inches over the last 100 years.

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Most of the change is what we have done on the ground that is dependent on rainfall.

oklaunion said:

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Add " The Worst Hard Time" by Timothy Egan about the Dust Bowl era. Eating pickled tumbleweeds to survive, losing kids to dust pneumonia and having to drag chains behind their cars to keep the points/condenser from shorting out. Fascinating book also.

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My grandfather grew up on a farm in the bulls eye of the dust bowl in the Oklahoma Panhandle. The farm is still in the family, but that experience really shaped how Grandpa approached life. He saved EVERYTHING, learned how to do more with less, and treated every penny like it was his last. He went on to buy more and more land without borrowing and did very well farming and ranching, but if you met him you would think he was a flat broke dirt farmer.

Bucketrunner said:

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I will always remember the sound of the pear burners roaring and the smell of the burnt *****ly pear pads. Our well at the house failed. Until the new one was finished and the reservoir was full, we bathed in a stock tank about a mile or so back in the pasture from the house. As a child, I thought it great fun. I am certain it was a bad time for the adults.

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Pop burned pear back then for the dairy cattle to eat. The only problem was what eating asparagus does to human urine *****lypear does to cows milk .........gives it a distinct odor. We had to pour one vat out because the milk hauler said he couldn't pick it up due to the smell. He also advised pouring a large box of baking soda into the next batch and mixing it up as it would remove the smell and prefaced that advise with "you didn't hear that from me." He was right, it did.