Texas Hill Country/Kerr County
Hi everyone --
First, Stanley, GOOD LUCK! Please keep us posted. I used to live in Austin and I love Bastrop State Park and feel sick about this.
We're OK so far in Kerr County, but worried as we have so much dry stuff around our house. We've done what we can for a fire perimeter but our house is built into the side of a rocky hill and there is no way all the grasses and brush can be mowed or cut. I broke my ankle on this hill, to show you how rugged it is. We're headed to the Davis Mtns. in far West Texas tomorrow for a few days, but I hate to leave with so much fire danger both here and there. We do have housesitters, and I'm taking family photos and my external drive full of images with me, and hoping for the best. My main worry is no one but us could catch all our pets and get them out of here in a hurry. We were supposed to go out to Ft. Davis in April and the whole area was on fire so we cancelled. That was one of the biggest fires ever in Texas, but Bastrop trumps it. Right how there are no fires nearby or in the Davis Mtns, but if that changes we won't go, of course.
We have stayed really close to home all summer to deal with the drought. We put on a metal roof specifically due to fire danger, because we have a lot of fire "fuel" on the hill above us. Also there are Ashe junipers on the hill and they can throw sparks a long way. We have 600 feet of soaker hoses around the trees and shrubs right next to the house, and we're also watering the foundation. I can see some cracks in the front porch that have me worried. We have a deep well and so far it's OK but plenty of wells around here (60 miles northwest of San Antonio) are going dry. Foundations are cracking all over the state. I, too, have seen dried up creeks, Guadalupe River very low, stock tanks dry, dead and dying trees everywhere, etc. It is so sad to watch trees die. Now that Ricky has filled in the details on what the dry tanks really mean, I am even more troubled. And really sad about the animals. I despise those shooting ranches and always have, and I can't believe that about the poor donkeys! Our neighbor has some oryxes, a huge and beautiful antelope that is popular for shooting on those ranches. They're as gentle and tame as cows. The ranchers feed them, so they have no fear of humans. Some sport.
It's interesting what Ricky said about donkeys protecting livestock. I've heard you have to raise the donkey from a young age with the goats or cattle. Austin has a lot of coyote problems in the suburbs, but out here the ranchers must shoot them all, whether they're supposed to or not, because we never hear them or see them here.
The deer are getting desperate. Last night for the first time they went behind a trellis I use to block access to the the front porch and ate the plants on the porch. They're also cropping the grass in the backyard and we haven't had to mow it once this year. We have six birdbaths and we keep a hose dripping in the deepest one because they can wipe it out really fast. As I was telling BB, we see a roadrunner almost every day in the birdbath. I can only imagine all the animals we're providing water to at night. I would guess foxes, raccoons, skunks, possums, and rabbits, in addition to deer. I need to set up a little camera out there! We haven't seen any snakes, but we've been warned to be careful at night because rattlesnakes will come up onto porches during a drought.
It's beyond my imagination that this drought could last till at least next year. When we moved here we were one hour from where the semi-desert starts (I'm thinking of the town of Junction). If this kind of heat and drought are repeated in the next few years then I fear the desert will be here very soon, and we will have to watch a ton of trees and other vegetation die during the transition. I don't want to be here in that case!
Hoping for rain, and really sad for everyone who's being wiped out by this and by the flooding in the northeast. Everyone take care, and thanks, BB, for starting this thread!