Farmerjan's journal - Weather

[Sheepshape]

You should try our weather.......constant rain for the last week, not so cold, misty, murky......yuk! Fields turned to mud..... Condensation everywhere. After a summer drought, too.

 

[farmerjan]

@Sheepshape I can not remember where you are but am thinking Ireland, Wales, Scotland, or northern England? But I have read about the constant wet and rain that you have over in your part of the world and honestly cannot imagine having the constant dreary days. I give you alot of credit for having the fortitude to live in it /with it.

We never have these constant continual rains that I can ever remember in my lifetime. Sure stretches of 3-4-5 days, but then a week or two of normal. We have been so very fortunate to have more than 4 days in a row of sun. Making hay has been a nightmare. Talking to the farmer that I tested tonight... they have about 60 acres hay that should be made and he said it "aint' gonna happen" this year. They are about 55-60 miles further south than me and are looking at a potential 12-16 inches SNOW this coming weekend. We are looking at 3-8 all according to how the storm tracks. Southwest Va and the better part of NC will be getting hit pretty hard it looks like.
We got a dusting this morning that is pretty well gone now.... but it is cold and going into the 20's tonight.
Looks like the snow and ice and rain will affect everyone in the Texas areas, and all the NC members.

 

[Baymule]

We are expecting 4- 6 inches of rain this weekend, starring flash flooding. We are high and dry, but to get to town, there are several places where water goes over the roads. Some places get several feet deep, sometimes culverts wash out. But I don't thing the flooding will be that bad. We have had sunshine lately and the soil is not soggy, so it should soak up a lot of water.

 

[greybeard]

We are expecting 4- 6 inches of rain this weekend, starring flash flooding. We are high and dry, but to get to town, there are several places where water goes over the roads. Some places get several feet deep, sometimes culverts wash out. But I don't thing the flooding will be that bad. We have had sunshine lately and the soil is not soggy, so it should soak up a lot of water.

The most important aspect of heavy rainfall in a short period of time is whether the drainage ditches, gullys, streams and other local tributaries are empty or down at normal levels when the deluge begins.

 

[Sheepshape]

@Sheepshape I can not remember where you are but am thinking Ireland, Wales, Scotland, or northern England?

Got it in one, farmerjan.....Wales. Western England can be wet, but parts of Ireland, Scotland and Wales damp/dank much more so. having been born over here, this weather is 'normal', and the reason that we have a national preoccupation with talking about it! Snow is forecast here next week, too.

We don't have massive temperature fluctuations throughout the year....winter tens to be cool/col, summer definitely far from hot.....most seasons wet. So as a nation we aren't prepared for extremes of heat/cold/drought,not even for too many leaves on the rail tracks! (Here I refer to trains being cancelled a few years back due to 'leaves on the lines'.......as though we never had had them before in autumn!) The up side?....well we are a very green place as a rule....grass loves temperate climates with lots of rain.

I'm grateful for the education I get from this site about world weather. I thought Texas was pretty much hot and dry all year round...well now I know better!

The tiny lane which I live off had a ford there in OS maps from the 30's and 40's. In the 60's a mini-lake was dug on what is now our land to drain the area....and the water coming off exits the lake to form a river tributary. The lane still floods every time we have heavy rain for any period of time, and currently is about 12" deep......just about OK with a 4X4 with high ground clearance.

The most important aspect of heavy rainfall in a short period of time is whether the drainage ditches, gullys, streams and other local tributaries are empty or down at normal levels when the deluge begins.

We have to do a daily check that the culverts haven't blocked with sticks/logs and leaves from the many deciduous trees in heavy periods of rain like we have at present. Also the sticks and leaves form into spontaneous dams which cause field and road flooding if we don't attend to the water courses. Still, this happens several times a year, so is mentally programmed into my work.

 

[Baymule]

Here is a good example of flash floods, this was a few miles from us in 2016.

 

[greybeard]

The up side?....well we are a very green place as a rule....

"How Green was my Valley..."

 

[farmerjan]

@Baymule , quite the picture of the culverts being washed out from under the pavement.

Well, we are sitting here "waiting" for whatever weather we are going to get.
Y'all will think we are crazy, especially @greybeard because he is very familiar with hay making.
We cut 8 acres on last Sunday afternoon. It was orchard grass that has pretty much cured on the stem so to speak. With all the cold, and a couple of frosts, it had stopped growing. We were waiting, and hoping for a sunny spell. Took a chance, cut a little better than half the field. Tedded it out on Wednesday to shake the dusting of snow and droplets as it melted. Very breezy which was good. Tedded it on Thursday afternoon but it was a mix of sun and clouds. Sun came out Friday morning, tedded it out as soon as the sun dried the chill off. My son then raked a few rounds that late afternoon because it was dry. I noticed by noon it felt dry, almost crunchy. We worked 18 baby calves this morning, shots, banding and eartags, then I went and finished raking. He started square baling at about 1 and made well over 350 square bales. 225 loaded on the flat bed trailer for delivery in the morning before we get weather ( they say it won't start til after 9 or 10 a.m..) and another wagon stacked and loaded to the top. I picked up about 8 or 10 bales...2 were a little heavy, and the rest had just fallen off the wagons and a couple had some johnson grass in them. He had a friend that had been wanting some hay come get about 15 or 20 that didn't fit on the wagon. The cows were pulling it off my truck as I was trying to get it into the barn.... and they have 2 big rolls out and a partial bale I had put out from a broken square bale earlier that day. They were in no way hungry, but they sure were liking this "freeze dry cured hay".
In the meantime, he finished cutting the other 6 acres and about 5 acres across the creek on Friday, and it is about half "freeze dried" so if we get the sun and 40-50's next Mon Tues and Wed...I will tedd twice, and then rake and it ought to be ready to bale on Thursday.
No we do not normally make hay this late. But these fields were quite tall and we just did not have the time to get them made when we were pushing to get all that other hay made the week before Thanksgiving. We need the square bales for customers, and it really did make up pretty nice. It's not as "green" as it would have been before frost, but it is not as hard to dry once it stops growing and all like now. And the color doesn't tell the whole story as it is sweeter when it stem cures like this as the moisture goes down but the sugars don't. Since first cutting was a late first cutting, it is a decent 2nd cutting, with good growth.
So I would really like if we don't get much out of this storm tomorrow, and then it can rain/snow next weekend. Would actually rather see snow so that the ground can soak it in a little slower than rain this time of year.
One good thing, those couple of heavy bales won't get much molding with the cold temps. We have been down in the 20's the last couple of nights and days barely hit 40 for a few hours. I will get them fed out to the calves in a couple of days, so am not worrying about them heating or getting moldy.

 

[babsbag]

You make me love CA more and more. But only the weather...not much else here to love anymore.

 

[greybeard]

Lubbock Tx got 8-11" of snow from Fri evening thru Sat morning.

We just got rain as did most of Texas. Current road conditions as of 1:45am 12/9/2018 and yes, the road leading to my place is under water..........again. It's now an hour's drive to a town that is normally 15 minutes away.: