The East Texas Drought

I thought today I would take you for a photo tour through my neighborhood and local area and show you how the drought is affecting my part of East Texas.  We are currently experiencing "Exceptional Drought" as specified by the the NOAA.  We haven't seen this sort of drought in over 100 years here in most parts of Texas. 

 

This is what I see driving down my road every day....lots of dead and dying trees and brush

This is a peach orchard near my home.  Because we had no rain this summer, there were no local peaches.  It seems like a lot of the trees around here have this TERRIBLE shade of yellow green to them. 

This was taken by one of our boat ramps at Lake Jacksonville.  Most all of the docks are out of the water now....the lake is about seven or eight feet low at least.  I've been around this lake since I was a tiny child...I have NEVER seen it like this. 

This is near the dam of Lake Jacksonville

Normally there is water up to the edge of the dam. 

The Boat Ramp near the dam of Lake Jacksonville

This is the dock I grew up playing on.  The current homeowners have let the whole place go into disrepair.  It made me sick to come out here and look around.  Where the two posts are to the left used to be an extension of the dock. The water would come up to within about ten inches below the dock level.  You can see that it's about eight feet low here.   I spent EVERY summer swimming here as a child. 

Most pastures here look like this now and have all summer.  They NORMALLY don't look this way until late fall.  All the cattle ranchers are having to feed expensive HAY shipped in from other places.  Most of the hay crops didn't make. 

This is our family farm.  The only grass we have is about an inch tall TOPS!!  We've had to sell off most of the cattle herd because there is not enough grass and hay is just too expensive right now.

 

 

This is what our creek bed looks like running through our property.  As you can see THERE IS NO WATER.  Another problem cattle ranchers are facing is just that...NO WATER to water their cattle with. 

Our cows have just a tiny little spot of water left in the creek. 

What A LOT of folks ponds and small lakes look like...EMPTY

Many many people are feeding their cattle hay now....IN SEPTEMBER!! 

Thanks for taking my tour with me!!  :)