You've probably been seeing the news reports of the Texas fires. The worst one was at Crossplains, west of Fort Worth, where 90 homes burned and two people died. No homes burned in the several fires in our area, but everything around us is tinder dry, and the slightest spark can set it off--like the stupid people who started a fire near Round Rock a couple of days ago with their fireworks.
Usually, we get our best rains between October and March. But the last rain here was September, and we're down about 12" for the year, from a usual total of around 32". Yesterday, the temperature hit 74--it'll be warmer today, with humidity down around 40 percent and the wind gusting to 25 or so. It's a bad situation and won't get better without rain. Which isn't coming any time soon, according to the forecasts. Dry for at least the next ten days, with warmer and drier than usual predicted for the next three months.
Bill chainsawed a couple of dead trees this morning--the photo shows how dry the grass is around him, at the edge of what used to be a cattail marsh. 
The cattails won't come up in the spring unless the lake fills, because their marsh depends on seepage from the lake. The willows, too, will die, unless they were able to push their roots down through the limestone strata that lies about four feet beneath the soil here.
The dead willow Bill is working on in this photo was leaning across a barbwire fence and had to be taken out or we'd lose the fence. While he was doing that, I cut back the pyracanthus that was going crazy, and trimmed some of the salvia. The Madonna lilies are already up, poor things. They'll get zapped in the next hard freeze.
Reading Note:
Everything has its place. Everything has its season. As events turn, balance is to know what is here, what is coming, and how to be in perfect harmony with it.--Deng Ming-Dao