Life in North Texas...

[Vic303]

At the request of Preparing, I have started a thread about life in North Texas, aka NTX. I myself am a Kansan by birth, Texan by the grace of God! Only one of my monkeys can call herself a Texan born, but the rest of us are Texans in spirit if not by birth.

 

I gather that this spring is somewhat unusual, due to the wonderful cool weather, and quite a bit of rain. Both are most welcome though, as it has broken the drought we have had over the last 2 yrs or so. The local lakes are back at normal pool, rather than down 15'...:yikes:

 

Growth here has been outrageous--new construction pops up faster than dandelions! It's suburbia at its best, or worst. Still, I find the traffic not bad in comparison to say, KC or Lawrence(which for a small town has some of the most god-awful city planning in existence!)

 

The planned greenspaces are nice. There are a lot of parks. I do regret the fact that 2 major shooting ranges here recently closed. Still, ya gotta love Texas--there's a guy north of here who built a public accessible range in his own back yard!

 

Weather is typically midwest--hot & humid summers. Strong storms can pop up at a moment's notice too. But at least it's far enough south to not have much one could call 'winter'. Though I DO miss winter!

 

--Vic

[lunamother]

*Howdy, Vic* (waves from East Texas)

 

We're in Brownsboro- between Athens and Tyler, only 90 minutes from the DFW airport.

 

Although the growth is bad around Tyler and the little towns right up next to it, out here it's still very 'small town', and I hope it stays that way.

 

Lovin' the rain- hopefully we won't be scratching hand to mouth for hay this year- this past winter was ROUGH- the last hay I bought I paid $9.95 for a SQUARE bale, and it was weedy and grey.

 

I moved down here from Wisconsin 14 years ago and felt more at home the minute I got here than in my first 33 years up yonder.

 

(shameless plug) our current place IS for sale- 3 acres and a 100+ year old house- we found 12 acres that we're building on just up the road apiece. (anyone interested please pm me)

(sorry, Vic....back to your thread- good to see a 'neighbor' on here)

 

 

[preparing]

Well that kind of describes what I have seen when going down there. The family is about an hour from Tyler over towards Palestine and Fairfield. We went down in December and just missed the big storm that came through and the lake was way up. The only thing is the summer. I have a cousin in Houston that was born in Okla and lived in Houston for over 30 years and he told me he is worried about having to leave Texas because of the heat. He said it was really hard on him. I know my inlaws always get in a camper and leave for June, July, and Aug. I see such a great life down there with the big beautiful homes and lots of land and can grow so much food. I guess I am just such a wimp and afraid of what it would be like with no AC. I think they all feel sorry for us and think we are sickly from being so pale from living in the Pacific NW. We went down in Sept. the year before and went to a grade school football game and only lasted 30 minutes. We had hats and umbrellas and bottled water. The Texas kids were in uniform and the little girls were cheerleading and did not seem to even think it was hot, but I was pouring water on our heads and finally gave up and left. WTSHTF, we would not make it without AC.

[lunamother]

yes.

you would.

you would NOT be attending a sporting event in the sunshine- you'd be having a nice siesta in a hammock over by the creek in the shade, glass of tea in hand.

 

even the locals cannot believe that we do NOT have central a/c. but you know what? this house was built in 1890 before anyone had central air- it's built so every room opens on every other room, big (we're talkin' EIGHT FOOT HIGH) windows in all rooms and 12 foot ceilings. there's an attic fan we turn on at night to suck the hot air out and the cooler night air in and we only have a 1500watt window unit in our bedroom for when it' REALLY hot and only when we sleep.

 

dealing with the heat is the same as dealing with the cold (I'm from Wisconsin , remember?)

-dress for it

-plan your work around it

-build your homestead to deal with it as passively as possible

-when all that fails and it's STILL uncomfortable, take a nap

[preparing]

I will tell my husband. He wants to stay here and all his family is down there. All the land is down there and you would think you could get land here, but it really costs.

[Vic303]

Good to see some more Texans chiming in! I know Biscuitmaker will pop in eventually. Lunamom, if you make it into DFW look us up--we're in the Mckinney/Allen area.

 

LM you are lucky your home is old and built 4-square to if can have decent cross ventilation! I plan on adding a couple more box fans to the house so I don't have to run the ac all summer. At least I've made it to May this year without running it more than 2-3 times so far, mostly to dehumidify things.

[MommyofSeven]

I grew up near Amarillo...and can attest to the need for an AC, but can also attest to having a house with good ventilation so you don't need it.

 

At gramma's house in the summer everyone laid down between 1 and 3 or so, whether you needed it or not. Being a kid, but old enough not to "need" a nap, I didn't understand it, but now I do.

 

WE hit the low 100's here in southern Colorado for about 3 weeks in July/August. We definitely take a siesta on those days!

 

We don't have AC either.

 

Mo7

[SueC]

The heat in Queensland is my reason for looking for work further south. It just sucks the energy out of me in summer. But no AC - just lots of fans! When it is really hot, the sun lounger gets a lot of use - in the shade! It is lovely to relax on in the shade with a cool breeze, then the housework gets done either early morning or late at night!

 

So Texas would never be a comfortable place for me.

 

Thanks for the descriptions though! Now I have a little more understanding of where my BB is (out of Austin?)

[etdeb]

Hello, I am in East Texas between Longview and Shreveport, La. We have a number of storms the past few days, but we really needed the rain. Today is just windy, wish I had my windmill up and running

[BiscuitMaker]

Hey fellow Texans, I live in N TX and yes it is exciting to live here, you never know what the weather is going to do. It is Windy today and we have a lot of wind. Boy does it dry out the land. But I love this part of the country.

Now in August I do have doubts about my sanity it is so hot. But like in the north they stay in the winter we stay in, in the summer.

There is nothing more beautiful than the Texas sky. I guess that is why everyone is moving here by the car loads. Boy we need to stop spreading the word----

[Vic303]

Wondering if today is the day that NTX will get the bad weather like KS/NE have had this past weekend...I hope not!

[Jewlzm]

I hope not Vic. Ive been watching the KS twister on the news all morning. It doesnt look good at all.

[lunamother]

reason #1 that our new house is gonna be earthbag.

[Vic303]

Earthbag? Do you mean 'earth contact" or berm home?

[lunamother]

http://www.okokok.org/cs-alison.php

 

kinda like that- the walls will be 2' thick- filled with tamped earth and plastered inside and out. then a double roof on the top- log beams/crosspieces then insulation and decking/metal over that tied into the earthbag walls.

 

*solid*

[BiscuitMaker]

That sounds interesting, I want to build a house, but husband is not too wild about the idea.

[lunamother]

I'll let you know when we start building (we'll be doing a smaller building first) and ya'll can come visit and check it out...