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["Sage Austin | Eureka! Design" <eureka AT hctc.net>]

Thanks for asking Rob.

It's terrible here. We've had nearly 3 months of temps between 103-110. 
Most days it's been around 106, with high humidity (39-70% and we're 
used to 11-22%) yet it won't rain. We've lost a lot of fruit trees and 
shrubs and half our lawn, plus a chicken to heat exhaustion. This is the 
hottest, driest 24 months on record since 1885 when record keeping began 
for our area and much of the Hill Country, including Austin and San Antonio.

Our well is entirely dry. I am able to straddle the Frio River. Here's 
some pics of both and stories on my blog:

http://flowerweaver.blogspot.com/2009/08/standing-on-both-banks-and-when-well.html
http://flowerweaver.blogspot.com/2009/08/send-rain.html
http://flowerweaver.blogspot.com/2009/08/water-canto.html

Old timers say our well has never gone dry, even in the 1953 drought 
which Elmer Kelton wrote about in his novel "The Year It Never Rained" 
set in a fictitious town near here. They all agree this is the worst 
they recall. Most of our neighbor's wells went dry a month before ours. 
Our closest neighbor just spent $15,000 to drill a 790 foot well. We 
don't have the money to drill another right now, and there's a 3 week 
wait if we did. The neighbors have kindly passed a hose through the 
fence and we are trying to make do with that. I water the gardens in the 
morning, and haul 5 gallon buckets to the house for flushing toilets, 
cleaning, hand washing our clothes, watering the animals all afternoon. 
My husband just finished building an outdoor shower. Watering has become 
my new full time job.

Today was the first day we did not break 100, it was only 97 and that, 
sadly, felt good. Fall usually doesn't get here until October. Unless a 
hurricane gets into the gulf, I don't know if we'll get rain. 
Considering I've been through the 2002 and 2004 "500 year" floods where 
I saw 29 inches of rain in a day, this is so weird. It's either feast or 
famine.

--Sage



Robert Walton wrote:
> > --Sage
> > Way Out in Texas with a Bone Dry Well
> >
> >     
>
> I'd been wondering after I was reading about the drought in Texas. How are
> you faring?
>
> Rob - Va
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