caldrail's Blog

I'd love to sit here and say I'm surprised about the Texan Christmas tree farmer...but I did live there for 6 years

 

Now, I will say, you can grow the trees quite well in that state. Eastern Texas, particularly around Tyler, is known for its pine groves.

 

As for the drought, um, well, the state has been in some form of drought for decades, and many think that it's the 'normal' for most of the state. But such climates don't usually mix well with rising populations. I wonder what Slick Rick (the guv) plans on doing to save the state?

You have a slight advantage over me there it must be said. The trouble is my impressions of Texas and Arizona come from watching cowoboys ride across the area and it's invariably arid. The thought of apache indians shouting 'mush' and whipping their reindeers to make their sleighs go faster is very hard for me to imagine. With the BBC showing their latest Frozen Planet documentaries right now, you would think someone would tell David Attenborough about it.

Arizona is quite arid, yes...it is, after all, a desert.

 

Texas, well, only the western third of the state is arid. The rest is incredibly humid as a result of the Gulf of Mexico. In fact, it's the start of Tornado Alley, as the cold fronts come in from the northwest. For 6 months of the year, most of that state is sticky, like humidity levels of 70%+, and when coupled with 90'-110'F temps for those 6 months, it's hellish. When I first moved down there, I came from a very hot place (Central Valley of California, although it's a dry heat), but it still took my body 3 days to figure out how in the the name of all that's holy to cool down.

What? You mean... Hollywood has lied to us? Texas is habitable? I jest of course. Actually when you think about it the histories I've read about the american west do often mention cattle farming and such, so obviously there must have been something there for them to eat. Like juicy fresh christmas trees maybe