Community Chat

[Spurt]

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@ChynnaBlue wrote:

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@Spurt wrote:

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@ChynnaBlue wrote:

Austin gets a lot of flooding. It pays to know where the low water crossings are and how to avoid them all at any given time. If your only way home involves a low water crossing, you'll be in trouble at some point and either have so stay with a friend or at a hotel or just move to avoid all that.

Austin doesn't get many tornadoes, but we get a lot of watches and warnings. I've lived here 20 years and have never seen an actual tornado, but friends not far from me had to go hide in the bathtub one night after warnings and horrible winds. Even though I've never had a tornado come near me, I've seen many downed trees and powerlines after storms and tornado warnings.

We do get hail storms that can do a lot of damage, especially to cars.

This part of Texas doesn't get a lot of snow, but we get ice and occasional snow. We get sleet more often than snow. Because it doesn't happen on a regular basis, the city doesn't invest in snow plows (that would be foolish) and people don't have snow chains or snow tires. That means if we DO get inclement weather with ice, the city basically shuts down, sometimes for several days. The city officials ask all non-essential personnel to work from home, if possible, and stay off the roads, which are hazardous because no one has chains or knows how to drive on ice.

It's hot here most of the time. It's going to be 99 here today. Yesterday was in the low 90s, but felt like 104 out because of the heat index. We've had a lot of rain this summer, so it's been very humid. It does not get cool in the overnight hours, especially with the humidity. We have lows of 7 right now, but it's only that low between maybe 3 and 7am. My apartment feels stuffy because my windows have only been open once between March and now.

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@ChynnaBlue @Puzzle Piece

But these temperatures were having right now are above normal.....our weather forecaster here said the normal is 89!!!

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That's right, but 89 in September is still very hot. Last year I was at the Texas Book Festival in late October and it was 90 degrees outside. It's been 80 degrees on Christmas more than a few times since I've moved here and I've eaten on the patio more often in January than I have in July. 

Yes, it's above normal right now and that's going to happen more often than not in the future, as well.

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@ChynnaBlue @Puzzle Piece

Yes with above normal temperatures sometimes summers linger into October....It's usually in mid to low 70's and a bit muggy in November, I remember some 80 degrees and wearing shorts at Thanksgiving but then again I've worn long sleeve shirts and seen cooler weather.  .....Now when we were kids I remember Christmases in the 80's when we played with our toys outside......but in recent years it's been in the 50's/60's.  I remember one year, my brother lives up north near Canada and it was a strange winter for them, no snow and their temperatures were 58, and in San Antonio we were 48!!! ...... and some of our coldest weather is right after Christmas....I remember freezing New Year's Eves at Alamo Plaza ......  and rainy ones too.....I remember cool springs, hot springs....this year Easter was beautiful in the 70's....I remember one year my brother's birthday, first week of April it was 94....but these are the extremes and not the norms...  This winter its supposed to be a neutral weather pattern ..... in contrast to La Nina is cold phase , El Nino is warm.....

Do you remember the 1983 snow storm 13 inches of snow in a weekend, people with 4 wheel drive were asked to help nurses and doctors get to hospitals and everything came to a standstill we had fun with snow ball fights, making sleds out of cardboard boxes, and making snowmen.....by Monday afternoon it all  melted away....

[jaxs mom]

The green lizards are anoles. Interesting that no one has mentioned the wild boar. Lots of wild pigs and it's open season year round they do so much damage. 

[Kachina624]

I've seen tons of armadillos in Texas.  Maybe they're more in the Houston area.  You see a lot of dead ones along the highways.  In the winter of '73, it snowed 3 times.  On those rare occasions when they have a hard freeze in SE Texas, it's a disaster because homes are built with plumbing in the attics.  They freeze, burst and when the thaw, ceiling fall out, water gushes and homeowners have a huge mess.

We had horses and rented pasture space and a barn near Lake Houston.  There were plenty of wild boar out in those piney woods.  There was a large male that kept coming up to feed on spilled grain.  They can be very dangerous.  One night my DH and the land owner shot it.  We took it to a butcher to have it cut and wrapped.  Nastiest meat I ever tried to eat.  We ended up throwing it all away.  It was inetible.

[Spurt]

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@jaxs mom wrote:

The green lizards are anoles. Interesting that no one has mentioned the wild boar. Lots of wild pigs and it's open season year round they do so much damage. 

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@jaxs mom @Kachina624

I do like the lizards....they eat bugs.....although I have to make sure my kitties don't eat them...

I had one of these on my front porch.... A wolf spider!!!

Well lets really scare people and talk about the bats under the Congress Ave bridge in Austin....

  

 I've seen are Javelinas in West Texas near the motel where we stayed....they were quite tame and there were signs posted warning people not to feed them, but I think some people still did.....

I have heard of the wild boars, my cousin used to hunt them but he lived north of Dallas.......

wild hogs

Javelinas....

 

Many hunters think that the Javelina and Wild Boar are the same thing. While they look similar in appearance, and have many similar traits, they are not the same. One sure sign is that they are smaller than a wild boar, and have a short-cropped beard (called a collar) around their face which gives them a very distinctive look.

Javelina, Peccary, Skunk Pig, and Musk Hog are the same animal. The scientific name is Tayassu tajacu. Javelina are in the Peccary family, with wild boar as a very distant cousin in the Suidea family.

Wild boar have tails, and Javelina do not.

Javelinas have scent glands near their eyes and on their back, wild hogs do not. This gives them their name of a musk hog, or skunk pig. They use their scent glands to mark territory and each other.

Wild boar outweigh a Javelina by about 100 pounds generally. Javelinas weight range is between  45-80 pounds, while wild hogs range between 80-350 pounds typically.

Javelinas travel in herds, which can get quite large, upwards of 60 Peccary. Wild boar travel in Sounders, with typically a pair of Sows, and their offspring.

Javelina have poor eyesight, yet have excellent noses, much like that of wild boar. They use their nose the same as a wild boar to root for their food, as they are opportunistic omnivores. Their favorite diet would be the prickly pear cactus and agave.

http://www.huntwildpig.com/javelina-verses-wild-boar/

[jaxs mom]

The bats are awesome and not at all scary. 

[Spurt]

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@jaxs mom wrote:

The bats are awesome and not at all scary. 

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@jaxs mom

I don't think bats are scary either, but sadly some people do.  Bats eat mosquitoes and with the Zyka virus the bats should be cheered!

[Puzzle Piece]

@Spurt Spurt, which of the Hill Country towns/cities is the nicest or the most trendy in your opinion?

[Kachina624]

@Spurt  The hogs we encountered were more like feral pigs, not javelina.  I wonder if the hogs breed with javelina?  I never heard of javelina in the Houston area. They're usually found in more arid regions.  Heaven knows it's about the only nasty thing they don't have.  We did encounter tarantulas.

The Q is gearing up for another star spangled no-watch week-end.  I hope you're prepared.

[Puzzle Piece]

@Kachina624 The Javalenas are in Southern Arizona.  Tarantulas!!!! I can't imagine that nor any scorpions. 

[Kachina624]

@Puzzle Piece  When we lived in West Texas, my son and his buddy would go out in the desert looking for spiders, scorpions and rattle snakes.  I've got a huge mounted rattle snakeskin somewhere in my garage.  They were adults so I had to assume they knew what they were doing.  I never heard of there being javelina.  It probably was too cold in winter.