Just Horsin' Around - Thoughts on Central Texas Real Estate and More

With one of the most serious droughts in decades here in Central Texas, pushing two years, grass not only crunching but powdering when you walk on it, giant cracks in the Houston black soil  here on the place, grass growing in the bottom of the year-round creek that's been dry that long, a lot of people, myself included, have been praying for rain.  I was on the verge of organizing an official Rain Dance. 

Then, on Friday, it started.  11 inches later, this was the view off of our front porch. 

Understand, the creek that rose this high?  Isn't visible during normal (not drought) times, because it's down in a draw. The hundred year flood plain is at the fenceline - you can see a fence post in the middle between the pecan tree and the peach tree in the central right part of the photo above.  (The photo below is my husband canoeing in our front yard before the creek REALLY rose - the fenceline is the one above, from a different angle.  Joey, the dog in the photo, thinks he's lost his mind.)

I35, a couple of miles down the road, had all six lanes closed.  We couldn't leave the place, anyway, because our 1/4 mile long drive was under water, as well.  When we DID get out, we couldn't leave one way on the county road because the water was over the road at one place and had torn away some of the road.  Fortunately, there are two other ways out.

We're discovering the joys that occur when the leach field is 18 inches under water for any period of time.

And the rains kept coming.  They're still coming, in fact, a little, though there is hope of drying up in the next few days.   I'm SO glad the drought has broken, and we'll get through this, but remember,

BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU ASK FOR!

Yesterday, two Sprouts stores opened in the Austin area - one in Sunset Valley and one (the one we visited) in Round Rock.

Being the foodies we are, my husband and I made a date to go check it out the very first day they were open. 

We arrived separately (I was coming from showing properties in several parts of the area) and found parking spaces relatively easily, surprising since the parking lot was full, full, FULL!  This should have been a hint.

We didn't take a basket, as this was planned to be an exploratory expedition.  Good thing, too - the store was not only packed, but the checkout lines reached halfway to the back of the store.  We maneuvered our way through the various departments, checking out the produce and the items available and doing some comparison shopping.  A good selection of items that I've had to drive further into town, to Whole Foods or Central Market or Sun Harvest, to find (though I'm still going to have to drive all the way in to get my favored brand of peanut butter, Arrowhead Mills crunchy), and some new items I wasn't familiar with by old, trusted vendors.  The produce looked good, though I didn't see any local produce (we are, after all, in the middle of a drought, and that might have something to do with it), and local produce is one of the reasons I was glad to see them open.  We'll be checking out the bakery items in our never-ending quest for great bread. 

All in all, this looks quite promising.  I'll be making a serious shopping trip sometime in the next couple of weeks, after the "new story frenzy!" slows down a bit.