Drought and Survival

[KSQ2]

I was visiting with one of the farmers at church yesterday. He said the reason cold fronts have done nothing lately when it comes to rain is the lack of moisture in the ground. It’s not that systems are splitting and going around us, it’s the ground literally sucking the moisture right out of the air and killing the chances for rain. I don’t know if he’s right, a meteorologist prolly said this. Regardless, the forecast continues to look beyond bleak. People are desperate.

 

[OkieKubota]

I was visiting with one of the farmers at church yesterday. He said the reason cold fronts have done nothing lately when it comes to rain is the lack of moisture in the ground. It’s not that systems are splitting and going around us, it’s the ground literally sucking the moisture right out of the air and killing the chances for rain. I don’t know if he’s right, a meteorologist prolly said this. Regardless, the forecast continues to look beyond bleak. People are desperate.

This is true…hard to break a drought because no ground moisture means low evaporation and low humidity and if there is low humidity there is no moisture in the air to form rain. Very bleak outlooks for sure…

 

[OkieKubota]

For reference of the drought we are speaking of…look at Oklahoma and southern Kansas…Oklahoma working on being solid red…

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[Drycreek]

Limed a couple food plots Saturday and disced it in today. The ground is DRY !

 

[KSQ2]

We have yet another line of storms west of us headed this direction. It will fall apart before it gets here. Our ground is so dry at this point that it will literally suck the water right out of a storm before a single drop falls. We are operating like a desert basically, and there is absolutely no end in sight. At this point, only God can stop this drought. I’ve never seen anything like it in my lifetime. I’m not planning to hunt until it rains; might not even buy a tag. I have no desire whatsoever to hunt right now.

 

[OkieKubota]

We have yet another line of storms west of us headed this direction. It will fall apart before it gets here. Our ground is so dry at this point that it will literally suck the water right out of a storm before a single drop falls. We are operating like a desert basically, and there is absolutely no end in sight. At this point, only God can stop this drought. I’ve never seen anything like it in my lifetime. I’m not planning to hunt until it rains; might not even buy a tag. I have no desire whatsoever to hunt right now.

Same thoughts here...this is the first year I haven’t hunted the bow opener or any at all 4 days in...our pond completely dried up the first time since it was created in 2014 so I took the dozer over and cleaned it out...still has some mud that runs from the tracks so I am gonna let it dry a couple more days for the final grade/pack...made it quite a bit deeper than it ever was and more diameter...put another bale out for the cattle. Also put a plastic barrel bottom over there full of water for the deer because it’s over a mile to the closest neighbor pond.

 

[dogghr]

Heads up guys you better hunt this year as the next few years could be poor from death from disease to poor rack development of mature bucks.
Less deer means less stress on the already dwindled food supply. One year can have amazing consequences for several years. Just speaking from experience.


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[OkieKubota]

Heads up guys you better hunt this year as the next few years could be poor from death from disease to poor rack development of mature bucks.
Less deer means less stress on the already dwindled food supply. One year can have amazing consequences for several years. Just speaking from experience.


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Being in Oklahoma we know drought intimately...1980 and 1998 were especially hard as was 2011 and now 2022 but most years we have at least a month without rain usually July, August, or September but I have also seen it happen in March and April as well. 2011 was the worst I can remember on the pasture/grass deal because that drought began early and lasted until October so the pastures and grass all burned up and there was no hay. At least this year 2 cuttings of hay happened...

 

[Drycreek]

Being in Oklahoma we know drought intimately...1980 and 1998 were especially hard as was 2011 and now 2022 but most years we have at least a month without rain usually July, August, or September but I have also seen it happen in March and April as well. 2011 was the worst I can remember on the pasture/grass deal because that drought began early and lasted until October so the pastures and grass all burned up and there was no hay. At least this year 2 cuttings of hay happened...

About the same here in 2011, I lost half of my white oaks at least, some big, fine acorn producers. My pond dried up and the only way I saved my yard was by the irrigation system. The cattlemen had it tough, hauled hay from hundreds of miles away. We had numerous fires, you never knew where they would pop up next. This year hasn’t been as bad, but it’s been bad enough. I’m past ready for rain. We have some in the forecast, but like KSQ2’s weatherliar, they’ll probably change it before then. Good luck to us all !

 

[KSQ2]

About the same here in 2011, I lost half of my white oaks at least, some big, fine acorn producers. My pond dried up and the only way I saved my yard was by the irrigation system. The cattlemen had it tough, hauled hay from hundreds of miles away. We had numerous fires, you never knew where they would pop up next. This year hasn’t been as bad, but it’s been bad enough. I’m past ready for rain. We have some in the forecast, but like KSQ2’s weatherliar, they’ll probably change it before then. Good luck to us all !

As bad as 2011 was, this is worse locally. It’s just a smaller area, so it’s not getting the publicity of 2011 and 12. As far as hunting, the deer are there; and so far there seems to be little evidence of EHD thankfully. If it does start to creep up, we should just be weeks away from a good freeze, and that will take care of it. I’m quite sure when it does get cold, the hunting bug will hit me some. It’s just depressing to be outside right now, there’s a reason I don’t live in a semi-arid climate. I lived in western Kansas for a year and didn’t like it at all. It’s difficult to go outside and see literally nothing green. If it weren’t for the pale leaves on the trees, you’d swear it was January.

 

[Drycreek]

As bad as 2011 was, this is worse locally. It’s just a smaller area, so it’s not getting the publicity of 2011 and 12. As far as hunting, the deer are there; and so far there seems to be little evidence of EHD thankfully. If it does start to creep up, we should just be weeks away from a good freeze, and that will take care of it. I’m quite sure when it does get cold, the hunting bug will hit me some. It’s just depressing to be outside right now, there’s a reason I don’t live in a semi-arid climate. I lived in western Kansas for a year and didn’t like it at all. It’s difficult to go outside and see literally nothing green. If it weren’t for the pale leaves on the trees, you’d swear it was January.

I understand completely the arid climate thing. I had a deer lease for years in Central Texas and we had about a 24”/25” annual rainfall total as compared to twice that at home. Then, about every third year it would be 6”/10” less than normal. It was positively depressing to go out there when it was really dry. I never understood how the deer survived but they did. Lots of them. We never had any real trophy type deer and I always thought it was because it was so dry that they could never put on the antler growth that matched their ages. Quail and turkey hatches were always commensurate with rainfall, quail more so than turkeys, so boom and bust years were an expected condition.

I also lived in Williston, ND for a year and I can’t remember it raining very many times at all, and never a “pour down” like we get here. We did get plenty of snow but by early summer that was gone. Other than the lack of moisture it was beautiful country and I enjoyed it except for the dust wherever you were moving dirt. Since I was inspecting on a gas pipeline gathering system, (right of way and cleanup), we were always moving dirt. At the end of the day those dozer operators were whatever color the ground was. Some sidehill cuts were 8’/10’ deep and no moisture at all. The only time we hit moisture in a 7’ deep ditch was in the creek and river bottoms. Nice place to visit as they say.

 

[OkieKubota]

While I was cleaning the pond out I wish I could have made it a lot deeper but the level I was at was what I call the gravel level...flint ridges and ponds don’t mix well

 

[T-Max]

While I was cleaning the pond out I wish I could have made it a lot deeper but the level I was at was what I call the gravel level...flint ridges and ponds don’t mix well

Yeah and you gotta be careful. Once you bust through it can be a bear to seal it.

 

[KSQ2]

Whelp, right on time, they’re killing our so-called chances for rain next week. Losers….

 

[OkieKubota]

Whelp, right on time, they’re killing our so-called chances for rain next week. Losers….

I noticed that as well...they had forecast us to get like a total of 1.1” spread out over 5days but now they have backed it off to 1 day with a 40% chance...it has to rain sometime...right?

 

[deer patch]

Whelp, right on time, they’re killing our so-called chances for rain next week. Losers….

I noticed that as well...they had forecast us to get like a total of 1.1” spread out over 5days but now they have backed it off to 1 day with a 40% chance...it has to rain sometime...right?

You 2 shot my hope of planting a little one acre clover plot before the rain that was supposed to hit here as well. I put the seed back up and will just wait for the rains to come before I plant. I’m actually glad you posted this because I had the seed by the door ready to go for tomorrow. We were in an extreme drought before August but got some good rains that month but we are back to severe drought today. I planted my plots at the end of August but some of that is dead now.

 

[OkieKubota]

You 2 shot my hope of planting a little one acre clover plot before the rain that was supposed to hit here as well. I put the seed back up and will just wait for the rains to come before I plant. I’m actually glad you posted this because I had the seed by the door ready to go for tomorrow. We were in an extreme drought before August but got some good rains that month but we are back to severe drought today. I planted my plots at the end of August but some of that is dead now.

Just weary of this drought...trying to Brushhog dead grass since too much dust to run the dozer and now have to be super careful to not start a fire with flint and steel...and the dust...

 

[Drycreek]

Ours tanked too, but I’m planting anyway. When it does rain the wheat will germinate and I’ll at least have some green. If it doesn’t rain at all, I have bigger things to worry about. We all do.
I’ll wait until a better forecast to plant my small clover plot.

 

[T-Max]

Whelp, right on time, they’re killing our so-called chances for rain next week. Losers….

I'm not a big fan of weathermen either, but something to keep in mind is they aren't the ones making it not rain. Their predictions may be wrong, but the drought isn't their fault.

 

[KSQ2]

I'm not a big fan of weathermen either, but something to keep in mind is they aren't the ones making it not rain. Their predictions may be wrong, but the drought isn't their fault.

I know, but what do they get paid for? I've wondered this for years... What other profession, besides baseball just expects you to fail miserably most of the time?