Month: September 2019

The fun thing about central Texas and its weather is how much it stays the same (hot) yet how much it can change. Today we’ve gone from pretty warm, to rain, humid and muggy, sun, to rain, back to now overcast and its still in the 80’s. So it may change (sun, overcast, rain), but still stay the same (hot). But that’s the weather in this part of Texas.

On the good note, that means though its hot, its not blazing hot, plants are doing better, and with the rain I won’t have to water the next day or so.

We are due for more rain over today, tonight, tomorrow on through possibly Monday. Being central Texas we may get more of what we have today – changing from sun to rain then back again. But it also means if you begin planting seed or plants, they will get a wonderful combination of sun and rain all in the same day. So expect that we will begin seeing plants outside showing new growth.

I know seed I have put in is actually coming up. Since I’m doing it in commercial raised beds I can only hope for the best and see what happens. This past week I put in new seed. Some of my previous seed didn’t sprout. Considering that some of the seed is 3-5 years old, I can’t complain. I’ve been overseeding in the hope some will sprout. And some has, but not all of it.

And I need to get seed in as mid November is often when the weather cools and we can get our first frost. Scary thought, as that is not that far away. But we’ll see when the weather cools enough to concern ourselves with a frost.

On a different note, as we have been settling into the new house I have found a weather station. Its boxed, has all the parts, and looks fairly new. So given some help I hope to actually get it set up, and somehow figure out how to put the information online. Don’t expect this done quickly, I’m still doing most things myself while being a caregiver to my spouse. So bear with me as things take me some time. But with luck, I can get a weather station up and running, and with more luck get it online.

Wish me luck.

How do you really know when the weather is cooling down? Well over here I can tell by the hot water. When we are hot and just stay hot, hot water comes out of the tap quickly, quickly enough for you to burn yourself if you’re not careful. We’ve gotten blasting hot water out of the tap first thing in the morning in well under 3 seconds. But as the weather cools down we actually have to wait a couple of seconds, not much more than 10-15 seconds if that, to get hot water. But that’s nice because it means the cold water can actually be at least cool instead of lukewarm. Fun notes about weather and how it affects various things in our lives.

This is all a nice way of saying we’re starting to slowly cool down. Our highs are down in the low 90’s instead of triple digits. And our evenings have even hit a low of 70, instead of upper 70’s. This is Austin’s way of saying we are working our way into Autumn.

Hopefully we’ll get a weather station set up here at the house and I’ll be able to get more accurate readings and data. Hopefully that can happen soon.

What is up with this crazy weather! we are still in the 90’s. Today will be a cool down to all of 91, that’s a cool down. But we won’t stay there long. Tomorrow, Labor Day we will be back up to 97, with 99 by the end of the week.

This is not helping my garden. Plants are drying up. Even those in the shade part of the day are not faring well. Though the peas are still coming up. The tomato plant is alive but not producing anything but one small cherry tomato.

And don’t forget about Hurricane Dorian hitting the Bahamas, and expected to just touch the outer edge of Florida. But the Bahamas, the northern parts are expected to take the brunt of the storm. As of this post, I’ve heard Dorian is a category 5 hurricane, with sustained winds of 180 mph. They are calling it the strongest hurricane in modern records.

And yet here in Texas its hot and dry. We’ve had occasional rain but not that much. More would be nice. Lots of areas are on burn bans, no burning of trash or things. Some cooler weather and rain would be nice right about now. How it shows up soon.