Archives for August 2012

Capturing rainwater is one way people can learn to live through drought conditions and meet the need for water, according to speakers at a conference here Saturday.

About 35 people from Donley County, as well as Amarillo and Canyon, attended the seminar that started at the historic Lowe House owned by Sara SoRelle, where volunteers helped install a 1,000-gallon rain collection system.

Billy Kniffen, a water resources specialist from Texas A&M University, led the session and also oversaw the installation of the system that will collect water from 500-square-feet of roof on a garage apartment and divert it for landscape uses.

“We’ve got to learn to get more water or use less water,” Kniffen told those in attendance. “If you want to make a difference, you can. But you have to decide for yourself to do this.”

Kniffen said rainwater collection is catching on in the United States, and some municipalities – San Antonio and Santa Fe – are collection systems be included in certain new constructions. In Texas, all new state buildings are supposed to have rainwater collection systems, he said.

The cost of a system can range from 50 cents per gallon capacity up to $2.25 per gallon depending on the size and intended use of the system.

“We need to start small and grow,” Kniffen said, noting that it’s easy to start with 20-gallon barrel to collect water for pets and plants. “We need to ask what communities can do to encourage rainwater harvesting.”

Kniffen said a simple formula can determine how much rainwater a roof is capable of collecting. About 0.6 gallons of water falls on each square foot of roof area in a one-inch rain. A 1,000-square-foot roof could yield 600 gallons of water for each inch of rainfall.

Kniffen’s home in Menard, Texas, operates totally on rainwater for all uses. He has 25,000 gallons of storage capacity. During last year, from October to October, they received only five inches of rain, but at the end of that period he still had two months of water available.

“We operate on 20 gallons of water per person per day,” he said of his home, which includes several water conservation features, including low-flow toilets, faucet aerators, and landscaping that requires very little water.

Kniffen said metal roofs are the best for collecting rainwater but tile and composition roofs work also. Shake shingles are more problematic. Screens and diversions can keep water collected in roof gutters from washing debris into the storage tanks, and Kniffen recommends black or other tanks that cannot be penetrated by light to prevent algae growth. Tanks can also be painted, decorated, or otherwise modified to blend in better with the landscape of a home or business.

“I want it to look neat,” he said.

Rainwater can be filtered and treated to be consumable by humans, but many people use collected rainwater for non-potable uses in the home, such as for commodes and washing machines, Kniffen said.

“Ten percent of Australians live solely on rainwater, and New Zealand requires all new homes use rainwater for commodes, washers, and landscape irrigation,” Kniffen said.

Local municipalities can set the allowable uses of rainwater in homes.

Alanreed rancher Delbert Trew also spoke at the session and said he has been practicing rainwater harvesting on his land for 18 years. He has not done any rooftop collection, but he has built about 300 catchments – small dams that divert water into the ground – around the tops of gullies and canyons on his property.

Trew said he started his harvesting after he had two wells go dry in his pasture. His efforts paid off over time with about 11 springs now flowing on his ranch where there was only a handful before, and, until last summer, he was able to shut off his windmill wells completely.

Trew also demonstrated how to build and install “tree pipes” to deep water trees and hopefully save them from the effects of the drought. He showed how a four-foot length of four-inch pipe could be cut or drilled and wrapped with landscape fabric and then buried vertically near a tree’s drip line. Tree pipes could be any size and made of almost any material – even cardboard tubes. He said one town had gathered up all the scrap PVC pipe they could find, had the high school ag department cut it into lengths and drill holes in it, and then the city gave the tree pipes away.

Deep tree irrigation gets the water down to the tree’s roots and doesn’t promote the growth of weeds and grass like surface watering does, and the water doesn’t evaporate, Trew said. A slow running hose can then be inserted in the pipe or it can be fed by a rainwater collection system.

SoRelle also demonstrated a young tree that she was using “rock mulching” on – a technique of having a shallow reservoir around a tree filled with large stones to hold water around the tree.

Speakers Saturday all admitted that it has to rain for rainwater collection systems to work, but they pointed out the vast amounts of water that is usually allowed to just runoff of properties and down city streets as wasteful in a time when water has become so precious.

For more information, visit http;//rainwaterharvesting.tamu.edu.

The City of Clarendon agreed to throw a financial lifeline to the Chamber of Commerce last Tuesday to keep the organization afloat as it continues to restructure.

City Administrator Lambert Little told the Board of Aldermen that the Chamber is incurring expenses of about $300 a month to maintain its office. He said the city and the Clarendon Economic Development Corporation anticipates having a new director of tourism and economic development on board by August 15 and that office along with Chamber functions will be housed in the Mulkey Theatre barber shop. But he said that move will likely be about three months away and the Chamber needs help now.

“It’s going to be easier to keep the Chamber hanging on than it would be to start it again,” Little told the board.

Alderman Tommy Hill agreed and spoke on the Chamber’s behalf.

“I believe in the Chamber; it can do a lot of good,” Hill said. “We’ve got to give them a chance.”

The aldermen unanimously agreed to give the Chamber $1,000 to help it through the next three months.

Last year, Clarendon aldermen withdrew $20,000 in annual payments from the city’s hotel occupancy tax to the Chamber of Commerce over disagreements about how the organization kept records of city money.

Clarendon and Howardwick subscribers of the Amarillo Globe-News may have experienced delayed or no delivery of newspapers in recent weeks, and according to District Circulation Manager Heather Reed a turnover in carriers in addition to a loss of up to date subscriber data during carrier transition has led to these problems.

The Globe-News subscriber list currently being used by carriers in Donley County is out of date and unless subscribers call in, the carrier has no way to know who is not receiving a paper. Many subscribers’ papers are being delivered to old addresses or just aren’t being delivered as a result of the out of date information.

“We are trying to piece things together,” Reed said.

Reed asks that subscribers experiencing circulation problems call Customer Service Representatives Kim or Donna at 806-345-3407 between 5 am and 11 am daily rather than call the automated system. According to Reed, these representatives are located in the Amarillo office and can verify subscriber accounts and correct any issues with addresses.

Another problem facing Globe-News readers in Donley County is the issue of there being no permanent carrier here currently.

“Right now I am sending a manager down to deliver,” Reed said, “but it’s just costing too much.”

If a local carrier isn’t found soon, Reed said home delivery here will be stopped altogether.

Local carriers receive papers around 2 a.m. and have until 6 a.m. to deliver to the roughly 200 daily and 240 Sunday subscribers in Clarendon and Howardwick.

Anyone interested in the position can call Reed at 806-345-3253.

Staff members from Odyssey Hospice will be blanketing Clarendon and the surrounding areas throughout August, distributing food collection bags and gathering donations for Snack Pack for Kids as part of the company’s 8th Annual Food Drive.

As part of the Gentiva Health Services family of home health and hospice providers, employees at Odyssey Hospice and their fellow employees around the country are placing the food collection bags at various healthcare facilities, local businesses and churches in their respective communities and will collect their “harvest” during the entire month of August. They are focused on beating last year’s national record, when the company’s 7th Annual Food Drive yielded more than 382,702 pounds of goods for donation to charitable organizations across the country.

“As active members of the community, we know that food banks, pantries and other charitable organizations continue to face increasing demands due to our troubling economy,” said Brande Bigham, Community Liaison, Odyssey Hospice. “We look forward to working with many area health organizations, and we encourage local healthcare providers to contact us for more information on how they and their employees can participate in this community effort.” Odyssey Hospice provides a full range of hospice services to patients in the Texas Panhandle.

Area residents, physicians and referral sources who want to learn more about Odyssey’s superior hospice services should contact Brande Bigham at 806-626-8353. The Odyssey office is located at 6900 I-40 West #150.

PAMPA – A Wheat Planning Conference will be offered from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. August 8 at the Gray County Annex, 12125 E. Frederic Ave. in Pampa.

The event is being planned by the Texas AgriLife Extension Service offices in Gray, Carson, Roberts and Armstrong counties, said Brandon McGinty, AgriLife Extension agriculture and natural resources agent in Gray County.

“Producers face new challenges this year with little soil moisture,” McGinty said. “This is an opportunity for producers to look at new wheat varieties and management decisions to help make better decisions for this upcoming wheat crop.”

Private pesticide applicators will be offered three Texas Department of Agriculture continuing education units – one integrated pest management and two general, he said.

Topics and presenters will be: Wheat Composting, Doak Elledge, Gray County producer; Wheat Disease Updates, Dr. Ron French, AgriLife Extension plant pathologist, Amarillo; Wheat Fertility Issues-Irrigated, Rick Kochenower, Oklahoma State University Extension agronomist, Goodwell, Okla.; Market Updates and Insurance Issues, DeDe Jones, AgriLife Extension, Amarillo; Wheat Variety Trials Results, McGinty; and Wheat Insect Issues, Dr. Ed Bynum, AgriLife Extension entomologist, Amarillo.

There will be a $10 fee for this conference, to be paid at the door, and a noon meal will be provided, McGinty said. Individuals should RSVP by August 6 to their local AgriLife Extension office in Carson, Gray, Roberts or Armstrong counties, or call 806-669-8033.

PAMPA – Ranchers and other landowners can attend a “Brush and Weed Management” program August 17 at the Gray County Annex, 12125 E. Frederic Ave. in Pampa.

The event is planned by the Texas AgriLife Extension Service office in Gray County, said Brandon McGinty, AgriLife Extension agriculture and natural resources agent in Gray County.

“With the continuing drought, weed and brush control are a must, but rainfall is needed to maintain decent controls,” McGinty said. “This program will assist producers with their brush and weed management decisions.”

The program is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. and end at 2 p.m. Those attending will be offered two Texas Department of Agriculture private pesticide applicator continuing education units – one general and one drift, he said.

On the program will be Jodie Stockett, Dow AgroSciences, Claude, discussing herbicides, and Will Hatler, AgriLife Extension ecosystem science and management program specialist in Stephenville, talking about setting up and use of equipment; treatment: hot, dry, moisture and timing; and determining needs – evaluation of a range site.

A $10 fee will be charged at the door for this program. Those planning to attend should RSVP by Aug. 14 to the AgriLife Extension office in Gray County at 806-669-8033.