Farm Fresh Blog

While I don't spend a lot of time wishing for rain at our south Texas place, I really want rain at the north Texas ranch. That area has received very little rainfall and the stock tanks (ponds) are low. The cattle and wildlife still have water to drink, but I won't rest easy until the tanks are full again, and the creek is flowing.

Except for the occasional spot where the underground springs pop to the surface, the creek has been dry.

This was last June.

 North side of the creek

I was driving through here this weekend. There was nothing but dry sand.

After this weekend:

Same rocks, but on the south side of the creek. I had no intentions of trying to wade through that fast-moving water for a northside picture.

Here is the bluff from inside the creek bed. It was dry on Monday.

Here is the same bluff from on top looking down yesterday:

Monday night we got an inch of rain. I would swear the grass I had mowed that afternoon grew a 1/2 inch over night. Tuesday morning about 2:30 am another round of thunderstorms rolled through. This dumped just shy of 1 1/2 inches of rain.

I was driving through this shallow creek crossing the day before.

Yesterday the current was running so swiftly that I wouldn't let the Labrador Retriever play in the water.

This country is very different from south Texas. The rain comes down and rather than absorbing into the ground, it runs down hills to create rivers of muddy water on the landscape. The stock tanks got a lot more water, and the creek is flowing again. Hopefully once things slow down a bit, the sediment will settle and clear the water up again. Hopefully the water will still be flowing the rest of the summer, but without more rain, I doubt it. The plants are already bounding back, eager to take advantage of the rain while it lasts.