Weekend Update

We were able to get away from office work enough to finish clearing an area around a big Spanish Oak on the road up to the house. It sure opens up the view when you come from the county road. We don't want any visitors to accidentally take the trail up the mountain and not the road. Another nice tree saved from the intrusive cedar. We had to knock down a large mound from when they scraped some of this area in the 1970's. Good top soil in it. Hard to work down since cedar had grown up in the mound, but we did spread most of the top soil and seeded it with some bermuda grass seed. Thank goodness the tractor is back. Also cleared some shumate (a local type of sumac tree) from around the cabin. It really looks much better. We did get about .25 of rain this week, but everything is starting to dry out. Supposed to rain next week so that will be needed.

I did prepare a small garden behind the pavilion. I set some tomato plants and some watermelon. I think the tomatoes will be fine, but not sure the watermelon will survive the wildlife. Last year we had tomatoes until mid-November. Hoping for same success this year.

Felt very sorry for a wild turkey hen. She must have just lost her nest or babies to something. She was going around madly looking for her brood. Ignored us and went from place to place searching and calling. She carried on for several days.

I was also able to start taking photographs of various wildflowers this week. Some only bloom a few hours a day and it has been interesting reading about them in the Texas wildflowers books. I'll start posting them soon.

Weekend Update

With the Texas Scottish Festival approaching it's still office work as a priority. The Tractor and Gator were delivered Wednesday afternoon. Both are in great shape now. I did have time to push up the brush I had hauled with the pickup the week before into a burn pile. Also burn a few small fires. We did get .30 of rain this week.

The wildflowers look great. I have always wanted to inventory the variety of wildflowers and this looks like a good year for it. This blog will be perfect for posting and categorizing them. I'll start this weekend so look for photos soon. I'd like to post the flowers within a week of when they appear so I'm behind with many already.

Weekend Update

Several beautiful days and some cool/windy days this week. A lot of office work for me this week anyway so not a lot of Ranch work. The Tractor and Gator are still at the JD Dealer. I did use the truck to haul cedar I had cleared along the road to the house. Shouldn't do that, ruined a tire, but two needed replacing anyway. Some days are too nice not to get some work done, but I will wait for the equipment to get back before doing any more. Here's a photo of the new Billy Goat. He's settled in very well.

We did get another 1/2 inch of rain. The wildflowers are looking very good both here on the place and in Bosque county. Drove by the Bosque County courthouse and saw the new restored clock tower. It looks great. There are some great bluebonnets along Hwy-6 between Clifton and Meridian.

Snow in April

Who would have ever believed it? We saw the light snow on Saturday morning and thought, "oh, some flurries" how nice. When the snow continued all day it was very unusual and amazing. We rarely get snow even in the winter, but with the temperature staying right around 32º all day it did snow most of the day. It came down in large wet flakes and soon covered everything. It was very beautiful and not an everyday sight here on the ranch at any time of year.

We brought in some plants from outside, lit the fireplace, and had a nice cozy day indoors. We added HBO to the DirecTV package and watched the winter scenery outside and movies inside. I did lose the internet connection in the early afternoon. Snow accumulation on the satellite dish, but the TV satellite was fine.

We did see five deer down by the cabin not long after I took this photo. It would have made a great Christmas card scene. The hummingbirds seemed to enjoy the snow as did the squirrels. Alas the snow had all melted by noon Sunday. We drove to Gatesville on Sunday afternoon and the Bluebonnets really look good this year. There were a lot on the roadway and pastures along FM-182 south of Norse all the way to SH-36 in Gatesville.

Wildflower time

I have a lot of office work this week so not a lot of time for the Ranch. I did finish clearing the cedar around the pasture gate. You now have a good view approaching from either the cabin trail or house trail towards the mountain pasture.

I had both the JD Tractor and JD Gator picked up this week for repairs and maintenance. Also sent the smaller JD chain saw. Good time to get it done. It will be a little harder to get around without the Gator, but walking will be good. The weather is great.

Wildflowers really starting to bloom. The Prairie Verbena has looked good for a few weeks. The Texas Bluebonnets are also starting to come out following this big rain. The Jasmine, Asian ground cover, and Honeysuckle we planted in previous years also looks like they will finally take off this year. Terry also set some Begonias, Ferns, and Mexican Heather last week that seems to have enjoyed the rain as well. Time to think about setting out some tomatoes.

Weekend Guests

We had friends, Mo & Jerry, from SAT visit over the weekend. They got to drive in the heavy rain from Hamilton on Friday night. Between the Gap & the Ranch was an experience, but they made it. We visited and I made mojitos using the fresh mint from the herb garden. Saturday was a beautiful day so we did the Norse & Clifton tours stopping at the 'Bunkhouse' for bbq. Unfortunately the Bosque Museum was closed due to flooding. This caused concern with Terry who had just finished the new Horn Shelter improvements on Thursday just an hour before the big rain. The Bosque river was really flowing and bank full. Jerry brought steaks so we cooked and ate outside Saturday evening. We also had our biscuits and eggs outside Sunday morning before our friends left for home. Great weather and a fun weekend.