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Austin weather

Today was warm and nice. By that I mean 79 degrees today. And just as strange is that tomorrow we should hit all of 59. We'll see what the weather has to offer.

Last night was cold

How cold was it? We hit a low of 20.5 last night. We were lucky this morning to find we only had one pipe that broke. It was a pipe for the rain water. But of course its still broken, and its spraying water. We turned off the pump attached to it but its still slightly spraying. We had an insulated grocery bag that was falling apart. So we cut the lid off, then cut the bag open so that we could cover the break. I'd rather have it covered since tonight we are supposed to get back down into cold again. The last thing I really need is for this pipe to continue to break - that would be a really bad idea. I'm hoping that with DH helping me, and hopefully remembering more information we can get this break fixed.  I hope this will work. Really hope. Tonight, Monday night we are due for a low of 28, then we will warm up above freezing for the nights.

Sorry its been so long

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I  did a dance competition at the end of September, then a couple of weeks later we left for a cruise. We got back from the cruise the end of October, and a couple of days later my other half took ill. He's been ill since then and unfortunately the garden has been on the back burner. Its now mid December. We had a cool night, almost freezing the other week. But last night we had our first official freeze. Yesterday, Saturday Dec. 17 we had a high of 75 degrees. Though the low didn't hit until this morning, we bottomed out at 23.5 degrees - a 50 degree drop. And this lovely cold is due to stick around a couple of days. Today, Dec 18 we hope to hit the mid 30's, but then drop slightly lower for the night. Yes, we are bundled up and prepared to stay home the next couple of days. Welcome to Texas weather.

We got rain

Yes, we got rain. We got about an inch of rain in about 15 minutes. No joke. It just poured. And the forecast says more is on the way for tomorrow. Its a cold front coming in. We should also see our temperatures drop. Today we had a high of almost 84. The high tomorrow should only be about 73. Our nights will be cooler too, high 50's for the night temperature. So I'm guessing fall has come. But at least with this weather the plants should be happy.

We've hit autumn - I think

Well the weather has been warm, but cooling. How's that you ask. Well we've had some days lately that have been in the low 90's, but more like the mid to high 80's. We did have one day that got warm, mid 90's. But later this week we're supposed to be down into cool. We haven't had rain in a while, and that is due back in a few days too. Mainly thunderstorms, not slow and steady. But if we get rain, we'll just take what we get. We did have some nice weather and all the areas have gotten green. Lawns have looked nice. But then when hot weather hit they got a bit dry. But to give you an idea tomorrow Friday Sept. 23 should be 90, but by Monday it should be a high of 68. And the rain should start either tomorrow night or Saturday. But again, its supposed to be showers so more sporadic rain not really wide spread. But then again, who knows. We'll see what the weather and rain gods have in store for us.

Yes, second planting season begins

According to the farmers almanac emails I am getting it is time to start planting again. Time for bush beans, beets, broccoli, cucumber, kale, squash, and tomato seeds to be planted. Since the weather has been nice I will plant on clearing some areas and getting some seeds in. Last week we had help from Pat and Pat did put some seeds in the ground. We were lucky enough to get some rain this week so the ground is well watered. Its also been warm, mid 80's, and some sun. I'd say this is good weather for planting. It also helps that we may be in for some (40-50%) chance of rain next week. So I'm thinking this is a good weekend to put some seed in the ground.

Crazy weather

We've had lovely weather lately. A few clouds drifting by, high humidity, but overall okay weather. Today we have Pat up helping out. Its been the same - warm, clouds, high humidity. Then all of the sudden the sky just poured. The fun part, it looked like it was raining out the front door, but the back yard had a bare sprinkle. That's our weather. We did get rain in the back yard. The front yard went from some sun with light rain to pouring, can't see the neighbor across the way rain. Their house was just an outline it was raining so hard. Finally the back yard got wind and rain. It even blew a couple of buckets over. The wind gauge topped at about 25mph wind. So its rather strange weather. But it dumped rain, and is moving on, I think. From what I can tell, in its short brief rain fall, this cloud dropped about a third of an inch. But who knows if this is all or if we'll get some more. At least the plants are happy.

Last week rain

We came to a grand total of 9.7 inches of rain last week. The good and bad - the temperatures have cooled down and stayed cool, and we are due for more rain. First the temperatures. Before the rain, we had hit our highest yearly temp here at the house - 102. Now our high temps are in the 80's, and at least one day we barely hit 80. The nights have been nice hovering around 70 or just below. So the weather has been wet rainy, but easier to deal with. Granted the humidity is pretty bad - when its almost 80 and raining, the word humid just doesn't seem to do it justice. They say for the next 10 days we still have some chance of rain. The forecast is all over the place - some sites say low chance of rain, maybe 25%, other say days of rain, days of no rain. Looking out the window right now it is dark dreary and looks like rain is possible. Maybe we'll just get light rain, not heavy showers. We'll find out. With all this rain gardens are getting lovely and green. Oddly

Second growing season begins

As I mentioned previously I get emails from Old Farmer's Almanac. They send me planting reminders. Well, I'm beginning to get those reminder to start planting. So we now begin our second growing season here in Austin. The current one I just received says to sow under cover or indoors: broccoli brussels sprouts kale leek and I can plant garlic outdoors. I guess I better go find kale seeds and get them in the ground.

Our day of calm

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Wow! This week so far we've had over 8 inches of rain here at the house. Today should be a day of reprieve, no rain scheduled for today. But that's good, we need a day to dry out. And the weather services says today is our day for drying out as tomorrow we're back to large rain chances. So how much rain did we have? That pail was empty before we started with the rain. And this picture was taken just the other day. So we've had enough rain to fill the entire bucket.  Like I said, the plants are well watered now.

Let the floods begin

Since about 4 this morning (4AM) we've gotten rain. Just after 4 it began raining, and by 9AM we have about 2-1/4 inches of rain. Now, at 4pm, we are at 3.6 inches of rain. We get a little, then we get drenching down pours. That's the story of our rain. This rain is due to continue, so I guess we'll continue getting flooding. The news has mentioned that Louisiana has been getting rain, they have flooding. Well, we may not have their level of flooding, but we are already getting notices of flooded streets here in the area. And of course they say another week of rain is due for us. We'll see how bad it gets. But the plants are watered. That's the good news.

More ...rain

Well, its been a slow light rain. Not the usual for Austin, but its good I'm sure for the plants. Last night we have about 1-1/2 inches of rain. Today, since midnight, we've had another 1.7 inches of rain. And the strange thing, we're due for more rain for the next week. Currently the forecast is 80% chance of rain, and cooler weather along with it. We've hit all of 73 degrees today as our high. Nice weather. Who knows how long it will last? But meanwhile we have happy plants.

Weather change

We've had days of hot weather. Even here at the house its been triple digit weather. Plants are dying here, getting brittle and brown. I've actually lost a couple of plants. We were gone as mentioned in my last month post, and many plants took a beating with the heat. And it hadn't gotten any better. Grass has been crunchy and dry in our yard - we don't water any lawn area. Well, we suddenly got a weather change. In two days the temperatures have dropped from high 90's and triple digits to the mid 80's. Today we hit a high of about 85, and have fallen to 72 (as of my writing this). And it is raining. Actually it began a short rain at around 6 in the morning. Its now the afternoon and its raining again. Our short rain this morning bare made it to 1/10th of an inch. Now we've got an inch, and its a light rain but still raining. I'm sure the plants are happy. With luck some of the plants will get what they need and come back. At this point some of the

Yea for rain

A storm just came up. We've had fairly clear skies with just a few puffy clouds today. Around 3pm there were some clouds in the sky that looked like they could grow.  Well, it appears they grew.  Around 7pm those dark clouds became wind. Throw things around wind. We went outside moved a few pots around. Just a few minutes after coming back in it began to rain. In this short half hour we've still got wind, but now it's got rain with it. The temp has gone from 97 to 74 degrees. We've had wind gusts to 32mph. And this rain. We've had well over 3/4 inches of rain, almost .9 inches. This is good news since we haven't had rain in a while. In our case we were also gone for a couple of days and as luck had it our watering system decided to stop when we left.  With all the heat we've had, the plants were not glad to go without water for a few days.  This water may not help those things that died, but hopefully some of the plants will revive after getting this rai

Crazy Texas weather

Today was a normal Tuesday. We did Pilates and massage this morning, then came home. That got us home a bit before 3pm. Well, it was sunny, bright, needed sun glasses and sunscreen. In an hour and a half it is now thunder, lightning, and rain clouds. It turned dark outside, an I can see rain in the not to distant horizon. We've gone from a temperature of 95, dropping to 79. We'll see if we get rain, but conditions definitely changed quickly. Even if we don't get rain here, its definitely around us. Welcome to Texas weather.

Heat index warnings in effect

" ... ELEVATED HEAT INDEX VALUES EXPECTED THIS WEEK... HEAT INDEX VALUES WILL BE BETWEEN 102 TO 107 DEGREES THIS AFTERNOON. THE ELEVATED HEAT INDEX VALUES WILL CONTINUE THROUGH AT LEAST THURSDAY AS TEMPERATURES IN THE LOWER TO MIDDLE 90S COMBINE WITH DEW POINT VALUES IN THE MIDDLE TO UPPER 70S." This is the warning from weather.com for our area. They aren't kidding either. I had to walk out to the mail box and even at 9AM it was mid 70's with high humidity. Right now, 11:30 AM its 81 degrees with 79% humidity. And we will hit our high of warmer temperature later today. The air is still, not much breeze, and it is overcast. Those clouds seems to be holding in the warmth and the humidity. And later it will just get more oppressive than it is now. Not my favorite weather. Not one of those things I love about Texas. But it is early summer in Austin. It won't get cooler for months. And no rain in the forecast. But we might hit a high of 98 by Saturday.  We&#

Summer is starting

This week we are due for highs in the 90's. I guess summer is upon us. Though we haven't had rain the past few days, they keep saying "spots" of thunderstorms. It was clear earlier, but now we have clouds, so who knows. I think we've picked the last of the blueberries, but the blackberries are still producing as are the strawberries. Today there was a cantaloupe with a small hole from maybe a squirrel. We took it inside, cut it open, and had some. It was actually fairly good. And we've been picking apples here and there. Those are definitely good. Today for dinner we are having that cut cantaloupe, the last of the blueberries, some strawberries, some blackberries, and apple from the yard in a fruit salad. It looks good, I'm happy to say. I'm cooking a squash from the yard for a veggies, and I have some of those potatoes from the yard cooking with the chicken. Sounds good to me. This is why we have a garden. Fresh fruit and veggies, no pesticides, w

First potato harvest

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  Yes we have potatoes. We had planted potatoes in bags. They are a thick felt feeling material, so they could easily dry out. With all the rain we have had, they didn't dry out. We did 3 bags. This is the first bag where the tops have dried up so I took a chance and dug in.  It may not look like a lot of potatoes, but since this is the first time I've been able to harvest any, I consider it a success. The last time I planted potatoes, the squirrels got them. This time we made a cage to put around the bags to keep the squirrels out. It worked. I expect we'll harvest more potatoes in the coming weeks.  I only recently realized that we could have grown them in the pots differently. I recently saw a method where you start the potatoes in a half filled pot and as the potato grows you add additional dirt. From what I gather, this will give you more potatoes as they fill the pot with more potatoes. I just put the starts on top and let them grow. When I harvested the potato

Rain again

It had been a fairly clear day, with light puffy clouds. Until about 20 minutes ago. In fifteen minutes it dumped half an inch of rain. It came with lightning and thunder, some seemed rather close.  And now it seems to be gone. That's not to say it may not come back,

Current rain update

Last night we topped out at .89 by midnight. Today had been light clouds, fair weather. But that was not to last. Just before 7pm we had rain. Not too much thank heavens, but another .29 inches. The current rain fall for the week is just over 5 inches. That's a lot of rain for this time of year in this location. I think even some of the plants are getting a bit water logged. Not much we can do about it. And summer is still coming.

Another evening, another storm

Yes, we are back in flood warnings. In less than an hour we already have crossed 3/4 inches of rain. How much more rain we will get between now and morning we will find out. There's been lightning, even though I haven't heard much thunder. But I'm sure we'll get more rain than just this. I'll let you know tomorrow.

Another day...

another inch and a quarter of rain. Yes, early this morning we got 1.25 inches of rain. Where we are not flooding due to we are on high ground, roads around us are closed due to flooding. And the bad news - possible rain this evening and more rain Friday and Saturday. Rain dancers, either slow down or take a break.

Sorry for the bad color

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Apples are ready for picking. At least some of them are. They are so ripe you barely handle them and they come right off the tree. The Gorilla tape plum didn't produce many fruits, but one had ripen and fallen. We picked it up and sampled it. It was good! I am definitely hopeful for next year's harvest. It may be that the trees just needed a couple of years to grow.

Another night, another rain fall

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Yes its Memorial Day and we had rain this morning. Around 7AM we got just over an inch of rain - 1.18 inches. Then the day become blue skies, humid but nice skies. Though to be fair we're down to about 50% humidity, so its not as hot and sticky as it can get. But they are saying more rain this week. We'll see. And yes, the plants are happy.   This is what the boys had fun doing when it wasn't raining. Chipping and shredding the limbs from the cleaned out trees. The trees are happy too.

Memorial weekend

Late last night, around 11:30pm we got another storm. It rained until a bit after 3am. We got about 1-1/4 inches of rain. The plants are happy. And as weather will have it, we may be in for more over the weekend. We'll see. At least the plants are happy, the garden is growing, and the fruit is getting ripe. Remember I purchased some more fruit trees that came in the other week? Well those poor trees looked like sticks at the time. The first one started leafing out in less than a week. Its now been about two weeks and they look good. The only one that hasn't gotten any leaves yet is the pomegranate. Considering how well the others are doing already, I'm not worried. Even the banana is putting out new leaves. Most of the new fruit trees are in pots, but the pomegranate is in a planter, in the ground. But they all have water to them so I'm not concerned. We will have more fruit trees giving fruit next year.

We planted the fruit trees

Dear hubby and I planted the new fruit trees. Most of them were pretty small, more like whips than trees. And that's okay. It meant we were able to put them in large pots (5-10 gallon) rather than worry about putting them in the ground.  Then it rained. First we had light rain, then we had more rain. So at least they've all gotten good rain water. We should have a couple days of no rain, then rain again this weekend. At least the plants are happy. I took one of the breaks in weather to pull out the bak choy. I had Pat pull out the peas. They were all looking pretty ratty. We have a number of caterpillars - from what I can tell swallowtail not monarch. Currently they're munching on fennel. But we've been eating yellow squash, which is growing well. The tomatoes look good, lots of green ones on the plants. The corn is growing but we have a problem with something boring into the stalks. Since I know its not squirrels or birds, we have some sort of infestation, maybe gr

New fruit trees due Monday

Texas Star Banana, Tropic Gold Apricot, Blue Damson Plum, Fuyugaki Persimmon, Russian Pomegranate.

Welcome to spring in Austin

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This has been a strange spring, but we have definitely hit spring weather here in Austin. It has been warm, by Texas standards, and nice. The current weather has been low 80's, sunny, with some light clouds. Knowing we can get much warmer, this is nice weather. Don't know what summer will bring, but we'll take the beautiful weather we have. So how does our garden grow in this weather? This is how it grows. We have a new bed being made for trees coming in. Apples are growing. Fresh from the plant blueberries. Friendly bunnies. Too friendly. Container tomatoes. Patio I think. Awaiting corn. Its growing. Gardenias. Last year's pepper plants. The hot ones. And more lettuce. Pears are doing nice. Rhubarb, at least I hope. Sorrel. Its been moved around and still survives. Tomatoes in a large planter. They are growing.

Another night, another storm

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  Another night, another storm. Yes we got our high wind speed of 55 mph last night, and almost an inch of rain in less than half an hour. But this morning is clear skies. We just might have this wonderful weather again come Sunday evening. Last night it was so much lightning and thunder it woke me.  It look like Austin fared okay, but Wimberley got hail. Some of Austin is without power, but after last night I'm not surprised. Strange weather here in Texas.

We survived last night's storm

This has been somewhat wicked weather here in Texas. I just spoke with a friend in San Antonio. The storm two weeks ago left them with hail damage - totaled two cars, windows on their house broken, etc. We here in Austin at this house we got no hail. Last night we had another storm. And again we were lucky, no hail here. Wind, rain, temperature dropped from mid 70's to 60 and with it came rain. We topped out at a wind speed of 43, and luckily only about half an inch of rain here at the house. And in case you wonder how I come up with this information we have an actual weather station here at the house. It records our temperature, humidity, rain fall, wind speed, etc. Weather even five miles away may be different from what we get. Other parts of Austin are without power and have downed trees and roads closed. They're hoping to restore power to them by later today. To give you an idea of the fickleness of the weather here, weather.com says we are clear weather until Saturda

We got rain

Its Thursday and we've already have just over 3 inches of rain this week. The good news is we're also not likely to get any more rain until Sunday. Much as we need the rain, getting a respite from the rain will be nice. There's been a lot of flooding, creeks are flowing a bit much, earlier this week there were even school closings due to the rain. But the lakes are pretty much full or full. Lake Travis was 102% full on Wednesday, and Lake Buchanan 93%. And Lake Buchanan is still rising. So its been good to have the rain and fill the lakes. And of course the garden is growing gangbusters. Everything is growing. Its green and lush. And the other nice thing about the weather is it hasn't been real hot. Normally we would be warmer, but with this rain we have slightly cooler weather. Its still high 70's, with nights in the mid to high 50's. But the next couple of days should warm into the low 80's. But at least its not any warmer than that. 

Fresh from the garden salad

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  It gets no fresher than this. Its swiss chard, three or four kinds of lettuce, green beans, peas, snow peas, dill, spinach, and fresh green onion tops. And there's more growing outside. Could be a few things I missed in the list. But its all fresh from the garden. Good salad.

We did get rain.

Okay, the rain came in at 1.45 inches last night, and .14 today. So just over 1-1/2 inches of rain. We have happy plants. Though we do have corn that is blown over. So we did get wind with the rain last night. But we should be clear skies the next couple of nights. Then we just might get rain again this weekend. We'll see.

Its a drencher

Weather had said we would get rain. We've been waiting all day for it. at about 10:30 pm it finally arrived. In the 15 minutes or so its been raining, less than half an hour, we've had over 1.25 inches of rain and it is still coming down outside. We'll see what it shows in the morning. But we finally got  rain.

First crop of artichokes

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We have artichokes! The other plant is smaller but it has two artichokes on it. I guess it was worth it to plant them and wait.

Strange weather

Yesterday we hit 82 degrees outside. Today it has dropped to 50, we're hoping to make 60. We started with rain around 5:20 AM. I know because it woke me - a bit of lightning and thunder. And so far we've had about 1/3 inch of rain (about noon here). The weather forecast says tomorrow should be sunny and around 70. We'll see. At least the plants are happy. I'd go take some pictures, but its wet and drizzly outside.

Happy Easter

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Happy Easter (yes a day early). Here's a shot of my irises and some bluebonnets.

We got rain

Not quite sure where it came from but last night we got wind, and at around 3 AM we got 3/4 inches of rain. The wind blew over pots, plants, and trash cans. Today - clear and sunny. Not as warm, but that's okay. Today only make 66 degrees, but at least no wind. Though we did have a good 40 mph gust around 1:45 AM. But other than being blown around, the plants seemed to take it okay. No damage I can tell so far.

Welcome to crazy Texas weather

Earlier this week we hit 90 degrees. For 2 days! Last night we had lightning, thunder, and some rain. Today, Saturday we barely make 60. Tomorrow, Sunday night we have frost and freeze warnings. Welcome to crazy Texas weather.

New Fruit Trees!!

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Okay, today we had to go pick up some items at Lowes and Home Depot. So while we were there I picked up a couple of fruit trees. Since we already have a hole where a wax myrtle was, we needed a tree to put there. So I got two, one for the hole, one for somewhere else. The hole will get: SunRacer Nectarine. It says its hardy to 20F, self-fruitful, and low chill. Its semi-cling, great flavor, and high resistance to disease. Let's hope so.    The other tree is a Avocado, Lila. She is hardy to 20 F, and self fertile, though someday we may want to plant a mate to her. This plant says you may get better yield with additional avocado varieties around it. Let's hope she likes where ever her new home becomes. So how did we get a hole from a wax myrtle? Well there was a wax myrtle near the fruit trees. We're testing a "cage" to keep squirrels out and it made no sense to keep the wax myrtle in the cage. So out came the wax myrtle. We planted it elsewhere. So th

Still wet, but sun is on its way

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I made it out to the yard today. Its been gloomy, wet, with patches of blue sky, and no rain. So here is how the garden is doing. We have little apples.       We have artichokes growing, but no nothing to harvest yet   Meet the swiss chard. The peach tree has blossoms. The meyer lemon has flowers. The potato plants are in cages. Thought that might be safest. A little green friend with the grape plant. The blueberries are growing. I hope they ripen. And some of the cutting from the trees are taking root. Don't ask me how, but its happening. We may end up with more trees. And yes, I put tags on them so I know what is what. Hopefully those tags stay put.

Two days of slow rain

The good news - we've had a slow light rain for almost two days. We have had times of no rain, but its been wet and gloomy out there. We have barely made it to 60 degrees. Hopefully if it lets up I will go out and take some pictures of the trees and plants. But they are saying more rain for the next day or so. We'll see. But we can use the moisture. No argument there.

Some changes and notes

I've decided to begin making some changes to the site. Nothing to major, but you will notice some links on the right hand side. I don't make money off this site and I don't intend to. So if you click a link, I don't make anything off it. Those links are to sites I use (the gardening links) and sites I visit (fashion sites). More sites will be added eventually.

We got rain!

The garden is starting to come together nicely. I recently signed up for The Old Farmer's Almanac Garden Planner. They send out emails with Your Personalized Planting Reminders telling you when to plant seed or sow indoors. I figured I would give it a try and see if I have better luck with my garden. Its nice because they seem to send out emails only weekly or every two weeks. So you don't get a lot of emails, but they are very time sensitive. So when you get them, they are do now kind of information. So we'll see how it goes. Following TOFAGP Pat and I have put in a lot of seed. We've already got tomatoes in the ground, peas, beans, more asparagus, more strawberries, collard greens, swiss chard, and we even got corn in already.  We'll see how they do. Another thing that has happened is the apple trees have fruit. We have lots of little apples on the trees. We transplanted the stupid plum (it needs a new name - maybe survivor?) to the area with the other fruit t

Sorry, its been a while but a lot has happened

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A lot has happened. Jan 12th my dear significant other had a quadruple bypass. This was totally unexpected. Nobody may expect the Spanish inquisition (thank you Monty Python), and we didn't expect this. So far he is doing well. Surgery went well, he's been home healing, we were able to get a friend to come help (well worth the money) and he's even in cardiac rehab. Such a relief. But he's still healing, still can't lift over 5 lbs, and sometimes get exhausted easily. But he's doing better and that's what matters. Consequently, the yard has taken a bit of a back seat. But fear not we have not forsaken the garden. We did get a new walk path put in. To give you an idea how unexpected SO surgery was we had planned for the walk path to be started the day he landed in surgery. But we had a landscaper do the work and it came out great. I have high praise for Abey and his group (Austin Creative Landscaping). They've been working in this yard since we bou