FRT_Fun

iTrader: (19)

I seriously felt like I opened an oven and stuck my head in there. Up in the mountains of Afghanistan it is a sweet 75-85 every day.

ZX-Tex

iTrader: (15)

OK it is still damn hot. But the bigger issue is turning out to be the drought. As mentioned above it is an all-time record dry period for the last 22 months. I am out of the city and have a private well on my property. The last couple of months the well output has been getting worse and worse. In fact today I put in a much larger pressure tank (it acts as an accumulator) to try and help out with demand peaks, like the washing machine. $400 worth of tank and supplies, but my labor was free.

I call up the company that installed the well about 5 years ago and explain what was going on. Before I even asked the question, he said the same thing is going on all over the county. People's wells are getting low, and the only good solution is to lower the pump deeper into the well. Now you might be thinking no big deal, right? Wrong... The well is drilled 900 feet deep below grade (no ****), and the pump is suspended 600+ feet deep below grade. Consider how much 600+ feet of 1" steel pipe and couplings weigh, and that there is a 3 HP high-pressure submersible pump hanging from the bottom of that. Plus, there is 600+ feet of ought gauge copper wire (about 1/4" diameter, you could use it for jumper cables), three strands (220V), or in other words 1800+ feet of really freaking heavy copper wire.

In other words it is not a DIY job (If you **** up and drop the pump down the well, you will really be hating life). It takes a couple of guys and a truck with a small crane loaded with 20' sections of pipe to do the operation. $80 an hour, for several hours of labor, plus all of the materials. Price any copper wire lately? So, add it all up, and bottom line is, to get the pump lowered say another 100-200 feet could cost $2000-$3000 depending on how it goes. If it does not start raining again soon, I'll be forced to do this.

We need an early-season tropical storm or hurricane to hit the South Texas coast and park itself in the middle of the State for a few days.

neogenesis2004

iTrader: (12)

I love paying my ~$40 water bill every month and taking as many showers and washing as many clothes as I want.

Milton Tucker

iTrader: (2)

We have it a lot easer in the east, My house on the coast has a well washed down 100 foot. This is considered deep for my region as most are 35 foot deep. My house in the mountains is on city water, but we have a spring on each side of the house, and a stream running threw my front yard that flows year round.

y8s

iTrader: (8)

here's a tip for everyone:

dont have a grass lawn in a desert.

they're water hogs and deserts tend not to have those. it's a huge problem in california but holmes have to have grasszz

ZX-Tex

iTrader: (15)

^^ Word. One of the reasons I moved out here was to get rid of the damn lawn. I have some grass around the house, mostly bermuda, drought tolerant stuff. Anyway, it does what it does. I do not water it. If it dies, it dies. Most of my property is covered with the natural trees and shrubs found in this area, left untouched. Except for clearing a small walking trail or two, I'm going to leave it alone.

Our household water consumption is actually pretty low. Low flush toilets, no lawn watering, showers for bathing.

y8s

iTrader: (8)

in VA we get plenty of rain. we dont ever water the lawn. **** grows knee high in two weeks. i hate it.

conserving is good.... if you have water in the first place!

ray_sir_6

iTrader: (1)

I remember when I walked past the aid station at Cp. Doha at 9am coming back from the motor pool. They had the wet-bulb out back, and I glanced at it as I was walking by...109F!!!! I liked to describe Kuwait as sticking your head into the output for your dryer while you are drying your clothes. That was my first deployment to the Mideast, and I was in garrison, so I had AC. My 2d deployment, for Iraqi Freedom, I was out at Cp. Freedom, Kuwait in the tent city. You would go outside during the day cause the tents were not AC'd, so they would cook you if you stayed in them.

Here's 1000mg of SUCK IT UP AND DRIVE THE **** ON SOLDIER!

When we first got into Baghdad (15 May, 14 days after the ceasefire) we didn't have any drinking water supply, so we had to ration the water. ******* sucked, sweating your *** off on patrols, and then only having 2 canteens of water per day. When we took of the body armor, our desert BDUs looked liek we had a black tank top over them. We couldn't wash them either, so they turned almost white from all of our salt deposits. I used to sleep on the roof of our building, cause it had a nice breeze, unlike inside the building. Did I mention I slept from 9am (I had the night radio watch) till whenever the heat was too much and I woke up. That was normally 10 or 11am, sometimes noon, but only after they installed showers (non-potable) so I showered in my PTs before I went to bed.

<rant>
Did I mention how much I hated the Army? I was given the night time radio watch cause I was the only one they trusted to monitor the net, and STAY AWAKE. I was also the best driver in the unit, so most of the time, I went from the radio watch to driving the XO, 1SG, or for a PLT LDR. They did 4-6 hr patrols, and then I would get tasked with going to BIAP or the Green Zone whenever I got back. That is when I slept most of the time, in the back of the HMMWV while I was waiting on the XO or 1SG to get done with their shopping. So I would get back around 6-7pm, and be told to take my vehicle to maintenance to get it looked over (was required after every patrol/mission). That normally took 1-2 hours, unless something was wrong. So I got back around 9pm, and would be told to catch a nap in the radio room cause they didn't want to have to go up on the roof to wake me.

OH ****, I almost forgot, Every 3d day I had ****-burning detail. So I got off radio watch to go and burn 10 barrels of ****/**** for hours. Only upside was how it didn't feel quite that hot anymore when you got done, but you still smelled like ****.

</rant>

popopopop

I'm so weird. My skin body is acclimated to hot weather after 2 years of working in the back of a dry cleaner. I was in the garage all day and barely sweat/notice the heat (Texas).

NA6C-Guy

iTrader: (1)

Just got back from a weekend in Charlotte NC. Holy **** was the weather there NICE! upper 80's and low humidity. There compared to here is night and day. Amazing what 400 miles does to climate.

Stein

iTrader: (46)

LOL, we live in the country and have a well as well. Last year some idiot was putting mulch on the front landscape berm and drive the truck forward and hit the wellhead.

Snapped it off. On a Sunday. Before I had to leave town for a week and my wife was going to be home alone. With no water.

Call the well guys that put in our well. It just so happened that they had the backhoe in the shop parking lot. They came out and saw the wellhead canted at a 10* angle.

Remarked that it would cost $400 if the pump was still hanging from the power wires, or they could fish it out of the bottom of the well if it broke free and fell to the bottom, trailing the aforementioned 600' of lift pipe. Fishing is accurate, as they have a drill-like thing that they lower into the well and hope to stab into a 1" hole inside of a 6" casing a couple hundred feet down. He said they could get lucky and it takes a couple of hours, or could be up to 8 just to "connect" with the pipe.

I was lucky. When they pulled the cap off of the wellhead, there was a tightly stretched submersible cable holding up a couple hundred feet of pipe and well pump. They set up a tower (like a drilling rig) and tied off to the well pipe. After they got this clamp thingy onto the pipe, they dug down 8' to get to the bottom of the wellhead where I had snapped the well of of the casing, recut the casing, reset the wellhead, pulled up the pump and had to replace a 20' section of pipe. Afte that they lowered it all back and backfilled the hole. It was a couple of hours and I was happy to get off for $400 on a Sunday. I now make it a point to avoid the wellhead.

As far as heat goes, we really lucked out this weekend. Friday I finished baling our hay and it was supposed to rain Sautrday. I had a couple of neighbor boys come over Friday and we picked up and put into my new barn 1,100 bales of hay. At 50 lbs per bale, that was 25 tons of hay put up by hand. It's always around 100 when we do hay. It was only 72* for a high. That never happens. Saturday for the 4th, people were wearing jackets. Usually, we are sweating our collective ******** off.

Back to the mid-90's this week, though.

ZX-Tex

iTrader: (15)

Update:
41 100+ degree days this summer and counting.
More importantly still no significant rain, and no relief in site. My well is still working though.

Stein

iTrader: (46)

We have had literally 5 days above 90 this year. Really wierd year being this cool. We normally have 20 days a month above 90 in July, August. Going to touch 100 this weekend. It will be a shock for people, as we have seen highs of 80-82 for a couple of weeks.

We haven't had any rain though. .65" in the end of June, none to speak of in July or August at my place. 15 miles away they have had 5-6" in the same period.

wayne_curr

iTrader: (8)

59* outside right now lol. Man its nice to be cool again =P

We hit 100* here for the first time in recorded history.

NA6C-Guy

iTrader: (1)

Its hot here too, but I wouldn't know, I haven't left the house in 2 days. Not even out the door

y8s

iTrader: (8)

DC has been downright pleasant all but a few days so far this summer. It is some sort of Karmic favor for me moving from California.

NA6C-Guy

iTrader: (1)

Just made a run to Walmart 5 miles down the street and just that short drive with a/c blasting, I can't get cooled off. I'm standing in front of my a/c wall unit blowing wide open on coldest temp and I'm still sweating. It's only ~94 here today too. Luckily its not 100-105 and 100% humidity like earlier in the summer. Hope it doesn't get like that again.

l_bader

Temps:
NOAA: July Temperature Below-Average for the U.S.
(Not friggin' here in South Texas!)

Drought:
US Drought Monitor

Detailed: (San Antonio is in Bexar County. Figure about the center of the dark red "horseshoe"...)
Texas Drought Monitor

This, in layman's terms, sucks!

- L

ZX-Tex

iTrader: (15)

Yep, sucks! I am in Medina county, NW of Bexar county (San Antonio), right in the heart of the 'exceptional' drought area. It is frustrating. Last month these huge thunderstorms would come rolling down from the NW, say San Angelo, then just evaporate right before they got here

Pitlab77

iTrader: (3)

texas has been under a heat warning advisory for the past week. heat index above 105!!!

I fing sucks when I go run in the afternoon. My GF's car said the outside temperature was 101 yesterday, while we were parked in the shade lol.

Several of the HOA have passed notices that they will not send out warnings for lawn care if people choose not to water their lawns.

My parents are just doing what the always have. The mow the law on the highest setting the lawn mower will allow (it helps keep the ground from drying up and the grass from drying out) and water for bit every other day. Their water bills are no higher than normal and thier lawn is fing green.

+1 for an apt with no lawn.