Twisted Oak Ranch

Good Bye 2011

2011-12-30T20:50:00.002-06:00

I've been away from the ranch for three weeks, but DW and Pepino had everything in ship shape.

We did get normal rain fall for the final two months of the year, but nothing extra to fill the dry stock tanks. according to the National Weather Service 2011 was the driest year in Texas history (2nd worse was 1917) and the second hottest year. I believe it, it was the same at the ranch. What rain we received came at the right time for wild flowers. I look for a good crop in the spring, we had very few this year. The weather has had some cool nights but generally it has been a nice fall and winter.

We have a LOT of dead cedar trees due to the drought. I will cut them as time allows. Looks like I'll have some new parking areas close to the house once they are cut.

2011 overall was a very good year at the ranch - looking forward to a better 2012.

Beautiful October

2011-10-16T15:21:00.002-05:00

October has always been my favorite month on the ranch. Usually good weather and lots of activities. This year it has been so. We have had a bit of rain, one of 1.5 inches and one of 3+ inches. That has really helped the trees. It seems we are in a false spring. All the pasture grass has suddenly taken off and we have grass for the goats. It's great to see the green again. We are still in drought conditions, but the rain is a great help. I was able to burn the huge brush pile I had accumulated over 9 months. It was a misty day and the fire burned perfectly once I got it started. Wild flowers are also starting to bloom.

We had a big event at the ranch, DD's wedding reception, that I had been preparing for as well as I could in the drought. I had been moving gravel to the ranch road going up the mountain and we had some light rain that was perfect to settle the dust. All the cars helped pack the road and now it's actually in very good condition. We cleaned the property, stacked cedar, painted, and updated as best we could. BTW--the event went very well and it was the largest number of people ever here at one time, almost a hundred.

I don't get to add to the critter list very often, but when I was working in the flowers in wedding preparation I noticed a very very small hummingbird. So small I thought it to be a dragonfly. I saw it again while watering the next day and for several days following. It's actually a hermaris thysbe, or a Hummingbird Moth. I'd never seen one before this year.

Goats are happy with new grass. The deer are active and also love the new grass.

Some Rain

2011-09-22T12:46:00.003-05:00

We finally got some rain early in the week. First night was a very nice slow rain of about 1.5 inches. It soaked very well. Due to the drought we had lost the topsoil and had about 1/4" - 1/2" of dust on the top of the ground. The rain soaked it and filled low places very well. Just what we needed. The next rain came as a squall line and dropped an inch very fast. This rain was welcome, but did gully the road and ran off for the most part. It did put about 9" in the stock tank. All the neighbors tanks look very low if not dry. We will need a lot more rain soon.

We may be too late for a lot of trees. A lot of cedars above the 1000' elevation have changed from green to orange. I suspect they are lost as cedars are very hardy but once they turn they are soon dead. All the cedar below the mountain all look very good. I think there was just no water in the soil higher up the mountain.

I did see some late hummingbirds so I filled the feeders for the last time this season.

The deer enjoyed the rain too. I have seen that 'monster' buck several times.

Drought Continues - Fire Danger

2011-09-08T09:27:00.002-05:00

The Drought Continues and it is the worst in Texas since the 1950's. Now the threat is fire. There have been major fires 100 miles north and 100 miles south of us. We have received smoke depending on the wind direction. Tropical Depression Lee hit Louisiana and we hoped for some rain, but it didn't happen. We did get a wind shift to the north and it did break our record string of 100° days. I believe we had 90 days of super hot 100° weather. We had two days of high 80's, but it's back to the 90's now.

I have watered around some key Texas Live Oak trees around the house. Most of the Spanish Oaks have already gone dormant. I hope they are not too damaged. Even the cedar trees look parched. It is bad.

We had a friend visit who loves to take photographs so I will have some new ranch photos to post. See his sunset above. (click it to enlarge it)

The Hummingbirds and Painted Buntings are now gone, but the Cardinals are very active.

A few days ago I saw one of the biggest bucks I have seen in many years. Last night there were 6-7 deer around the water hole: another big buck, a fawn, and several does. They know I have a water source for them so they are are taking advantage in this drought.

Heat and Drought

2011-08-10T16:21:00.003-05:00

Well we are in the middle of a severe heat wave and drought. DFW airport is saying 40 consecutive days of 100° heat. Here we are about 60 days other than one day that it only got to 98°. It's not just getting to 100° it's exceeding it with several days at 110°. There was NO rain in Bosque county in the month of July. Zero--Nada. The forecast is for more of the same. In three more days it will be an all time record for heat.

Of course the grass had dried up and I'm very worried about the trees. I have watered some, but you can not keep up with the needs. We have allowed the grass around the house to go dormant.

We have some major holes in the fence and the goats have been getting on the west side of the place, but as long as they stay out of the road and away from the house I'm going to let them get to the grass growing in the woods. I will be starting some repairs soon though.

The puppies are doing well, they can both jump onto the beach area of the swimming pool. They love to run about and chase squirrels, deer, and once the goats. Then hop in the pool to cool off.

Meteor

2011-07-14T08:45:00.002-05:00

We saw a spectacular meteor last night. It was just before midnight and we had a spectacular view. It was south of us and traveled from west to east below the full moon. It was a full fire ball as it passed here and a long trail of fire. Not a white streak, but red flames. We were lucky to be setting out on the patio and facing south. Very unique experience.

Summer

2011-06-25T14:28:00.002-05:00

Summer came well before June 21st in Bosque County. It has already been over 100° ten days. Very hot and dry. We did get one thunderstorm that gave us ⅞ inches of rain one night. That has been enough to keep the grass green for the goats--so far. I've had to water around the house as we have several outdoor functions this summer and I don't want the grass to go dormant this early in the year.

The Mountain Pinks bloomed right on schedule, but I don't think they will last long. Too dry even for them.

I have not seen any fawns as yet, but the does are taking advantage of the water tank. The deer appreciate the cool water.

The big news around here is that we got another puppy. A West Highland White Terrier of course. They really do better as a pair. Maisie is now 6 months and Ivie is 8 weeks. Maisie goes on walks with me and does very well, she hasn't run off into the woods yet. She is fascinated by the goats and donkey.

Nice Spring

2011-05-26T07:01:00.004-05:00

The weather has continued to be nice in Bosque county. There have been serious storms north of us, but we have been on the edge of most. We did get .20 of rain twice in the last week.

I saw two Painted Buntings at the same time on the same feeder this week. That's rare, they don't like to share. They will chase others away much like hummingbirds do. One is still enjoying the fountain too. The turkey has come by a few times in the mornings.

Maisie is getting bigger and now enjoys her daily walk around the ranch. She actually does very well and she's not on a leash.

I've been very busy in the office so not many chores getting done, but I did get two very large post oak trees that had come down in the storm moved away from the fence row up in the mountain pasture over the weekend.

Great Weather

2011-05-15T23:39:00.003-05:00

We have had great weather, nice and cool for this time of year. We also had 1.4 inches of rain this week. The grass has greened up very well now, too late for some nice trees that have been stressed though. We may lose a nice stand of Live Oaks in the lower park area. I've trimmed the old limbs and limbs damaged by the recent storm, then added tree fertilizer stakes. The leaves are turning brown so I'm afraid we may lose them. It happened very fast and I wonder if the storm damage can be a part of the cause. I need to check with a tree person.

The Painted Bunting is really using the fountain. Very interesting to watch. I've mentioned before how they like the rain, but I haven't seen them in fountain as much as this year. We had a single Tom Turkey roam around behind the house one morning this week. They haven't found the corn yet, if they ever do I'm guessing we'll see more turkey around the house.

My neighbor sent an interesting photo taken in his back yard of a nice sized Bobcat. I've seen larger and smaller, but this a good sized Bobcat.

Maisie is now 5 months old. She loves to go out side and run. We watch her closely, she doesn't know we have big cats around. I've taken her on a walk the past two days and she has done quite well. I'm staying on the established trails and she follows the trail like a veteran. The goats even followed us down the fence row today, but Maise did very well and followed the trail on her side.

The swimming pool looks great, but it's been too cool to swim. The weather has been very nice.

Spring Time

2011-05-08T08:33:00.003-05:00

It has warmed back up and the weather is very nice. It's warming up during the day, but it still cools in the evening. It will be swimming pool time again very soon. No more rain so it's getting dry again. I didn't have a chance to burn any brush piles. I need some burning weather soon. I did cut a few more damaged trees, but need a place to burn them.

The cactus is blooming, it's very pretty yellow blooms, but they only last a few weeks. The wildflowers didn't do well this year as it was too dry. We have already cut the Prairie Verbina.

Maisie did get a good chase of two big does this week. I don't think the deer like the new puppy. I saw some individual turkey on Ray's ridge. I think there are quite a few in there.

The Painted Bunting are around, I even saw one on the fountain.

Finally Rain

2011-05-03T09:09:00.002-05:00

We've just been on the edge of so many storms this year, but never got any rain until yesterday. We got about 2 inches through the night and half the day. What was also unusual was that it was cold. Temperatures dropped into the 40's overnight and only got into 50's as a high yesterday.

Maisie chased another rabbit and also chased several deer this week. She really loves the outdoors.

The Painted Bunting is coming to the bird feeder and the Hummingbirds are active.

Painted Punting

2011-04-26T08:47:00.004-05:00

This morning I saw the first Painted Bunting of the year! A very bright and colorful one indeed. I try to update this Journal/Blog when I see my first of the season. Of course they may be here a day or two before I see one, but at least I get a good idea of when to start looking. The puppy barking didn't seem to bother the bird at all. The puppy is starting to discover birds and squirrels.

There have been very big thunderstorms in the area but most are missing us to the north. Still no rain, but it has been cloudy and cooler.

April 2011

2011-04-18T20:41:00.004-05:00

Windy, windy, windy! It has been windy for a month. We are used to high winds for a few days at a time, but it has been very windy for a good while. The temperatures have been getting much warmer and we actually hit the swimming pool on a few days. Once the water gets close to 80° it is time to get in the water on a warm day. We had a big storm blow through last Sunday/Monday. Talk about wind. We had several trees blow over and lots of big cedar branches break from old established cedar trees. DW had just finished painting all the wooden chairs a new spring green color and they were all blown off the patio into the road or pool. Tables, umbrellas, and big planters blown away. We were without power for nine hours, but we were lucky as some neighbors were without power for 26 hours. We did lose all water too for about a day. The only good thing from the storm was that we got 2" of rain. I've been very busy in the office and didn't get to clear and clean storm debris until this weekend. I first graded the road and had plenty of big cedar to use as a rake to work the road. The goats had a lot of extra to eat in their pasture as there were a lot of trees down there too. The live oaks were not finished with their new growth especially at the tops of the big trees, but this was all blown out so will see how they will look in a few weeks. I hope they are not bare on the tops.

Maisie is growing having gained two pounds. She's a bit of a monster right now, but that is typical for this breed. She is now 3 months old and loves to sneak outside. We have to watch her as it could be dangerous out there.

The Prairie Verbena is up and looks good, Not many bluebonnets so far. I was a little late getting the Hummingbird feeders out, but two flew in the house to remind me to get them up.

March 2011

2011-03-17T04:16:00.005-05:00

We've been away for several weeks. Pepino did a great job feeding and watching the place. The freeze damage was very noticeable when we returned. We may lose all the Jasmine. We have trimmed it back and we will hope for the best. The plumber made it out and repaired the busted copper pies at the cabin. There were some other problems inside the cabin as well. All fixed now.

The weather of late has been good. We have been able to clean all the flower beds and start spring chores. We did set a new water line to the Pavilion. That will be great for a small garden and washing autos under the cover of the pavilion. (Remember it's called a pavilion when it cost too much to be called a car port). We also cleaned out the wildlife water tank - amazingly the fish survived the cold weather. They are happy now.

Pepino thinks we have a mountain lion, very few squirrels, rabbits, etc. of late. Since we haven't had a lot of activity here for a few weeks they probably have hunted around the house. Since I always feed the birds the feeders attract squirrels that are easy prey for the big cats. We have seen them catch them in the trees.

Spring is almost here. The grass is now turning green. The Spanish Oaks have begun to bud. The Live Oaks that dropped leaves early are also beginning to bud - that's great as many were stressed first by drought and then cold weather. The old established Live Oaks seem to be on schedule to drop leaf a little later.

We have also came home with a new puppy, Maisie Lee. She is about 8 weeks old. Another West Highland White Terrier of course. She has kept us busy the past week and I think she will make a great house dog--she seems very smart. We will not let her out of our sight since we suspect big cats. Also watching for owls at night who would scoop her up in a minute.

Better Weather

2011-02-13T18:00:00.001-06:00

The cold continued and in fact another front came through with perhaps the coldest single day yet. Thank goodness it didn't last long. It began warming and by Saturday it was nice. It was 65° yesterday and made 74° today. Very nice weather. It will soon dry out the mud and melt the ice still remaining in the shade and tanks. I turned on the water on the line going to the livestock tank. After busting the remaining ice it filled very well. No leaks.

I filled the battery on the Gator and got it running again. It was too cold to drive it anyway. Using the farm truck to drive down to feed the goats most days. I did trim more cedar trees on the road so the truck could get through without hitting too many cedars yesterday. Fed the tops to the goats. I never had to use the truck so much in previous winters.

This has been an interesting week for wildlife. We have the usual deer if not more, but a few days ago an opossum was hanging out next to my feed barrel. Yesterday an armadillo was hanging by the barn. Today was turkey day. A flock of at least 12 walked across the back yard from east to west this morning, then this afternoon, after feeding, I was cutting across the trail on Ray's Ridge and almost drove the Gator into a flock of about 20+ turkey in cedars. I turned around and left the trail to them. I wouldn't mind if they hang around the ranch, maybe we'll have one next Thanksgiving.

The weather is supposed to good all week. Hope so.

Ice Storm of 2011

2011-02-05T10:55:00.000-06:00

We had an ice storm on Monday night and it coated everything with a nice glaze of white ice. It's not thick but layered over everything and not melting as it's very cold. In fact we had 102 hours below freezing. Early Friday morning we had a nice little snow. Amazing. It dropped to 14-15° degrees two nights. We have been holed up in the house for the week.

I have had to both feed and haul water to the goats as the water trough is frozen solid. The birds have really appreciated the seed I have put out for them. The Cardinals come close as the feeders are by the house and they have few options with the ground covered. A lot of deer have come up too.

When I went to feed several goats were out. I was frustrated with the water situation and really didn't need another problem. I scared one so much she ran strait to her hole so I knew where to patch. It's amazing how small a space they can get through. Finally I rounded up the rest and repaired the fence.

Today was the big thaw and as I feared we have a water line break at the cabin. No water at the house as it ran down hill to the break. I was worried that it was worse than it was but I was able to isolate the water line to the cabin and restore water to the house. Thank goodness, that's nasty muddy work and I needed a shower. Today was actually nice and I wanted to get to town to stock up on feed and groceries, but too busy with all the repairs. Life on the ranch!

Cold January

2011-01-28T00:16:00.001-06:00

It's been a colder than normal January. A lot more nights dropping to freezing than normal with a few very cold nights. Really too cold to get any chores or projects done around the ranch this month.

Lost the remaining goat kids. One every few days. That sounds like a mountain lion to me. So far none of the big does have gone missing. Very disappointing though. Feeding every day as no good grass.

It's also been very dry. We did get about an inch mid-month and some of the rye grass I put out has come out. I doubt we have much rye grass this year.

I did put a plastic can out by the goat fence filled with feed. That way on very cold days I can just make one stop to feed and drive the truck down. I've had to do that a lot this month. I don't care for the cold weather.

Good Bye 2010

2010-12-30T13:48:00.001-06:00

The weather has been more typical. Some nice warm days and some cooler days. We finally got some rain, about .80 and then a few days of light drizzle, probably an inch overall. That will help the grass and trees. Since we finally got some moisture I did put out 50 lbs of rye grass seed on the bluff area where we are still trying to establish some soil over the rock. We have about half covered and well established with grass. The deer and goats love it.

There was no run off of the rain so my berms didn't really get tested. I'm not finished with the big one yet but will be soon. I have decide to move it forward towards the road.

The neighbors deer hunter did shoot a wild pig this week so it is official about them being on top of the mountain. I will keep an eye out for sure. My big buck seems to have made it through hunting season, I saw him yesterday. It will be interesting to see if he rejoins the little group of does that come up to the house most evenings.

The goats are doing fine in the mountain pasture and the kids now follow the herd. The kids are also eating or at least trying the goat feed in addition to the pasture. There is a lot of dry grass and still a bit of good grass so all is well. I expect new grass in 6-8 weeks.

First Day of Winter

2010-12-22T15:10:00.001-06:00

It's hard to believe that it is the first day of winter and the weather has been brilliant the past two days. It reached 84° both days. Great weather but the days are so very short. We need rain, it is very dry.

For about two weeks we've been letting the goats out on the 'house' side since we wanted to do in order to watch the kids closer. This requires me to manually open the gates each day and also keep the gate from the ranch road to the county road closed. We don't really want to do this any longer than we need to, but the goats have been pretty good about staying away from the house. I did have to repair a few holes in the fence along the road. The kids have stayed with the herd the past few days so I have reopened the mountain pasture gates so they are now on their own again.

I took advantage of the weather to build and finish a small berm next to a culvert crossing under the ranch road. We have a draw between Ray's Ridge and the mountain that drains all the water during a rain. This draw comes down the mountain and opens into the lower park area. I've previously diverted the water to go behind the cabin. When we have a big rain with a lot of run off the water needs to slow down so it will drain through one of the two culverts that drain water from the upper to the lower part of the park area. If it doesn't it will flow over the road. Thus the need for a berm so water will slow. I'm very pleased with the way it looks. I had a temporary berm there so I know it will work well. I've started a new long berm below the road where it goes up the mountain. This berm will hopefully divert water and keep road material and gravel from washing into the park area. This one will require a lot of rocks to finish, At least we have plenty of rock.

Wild Hogs

2010-12-15T15:54:00.001-06:00

I've had some discussions with the neighbors and it looks like the wild hogs may now be coming up on the mountain. A deer hunter got a photo of some in his wildlife camera on my neighbors place and I now believe that is what got some of my kids. The hogs had been staying in the river and creek beds, but I guess they are now going up hill looking for food. We did have a lot of acorns this year, they may be foraging for them and new territory. I will keep an eye out.

This photo wasn't taken on the ranch, but just north of here near Meridian this past weekend. (I just got this photo and my information is second hand but I believe this is on the Domel place.)

December update

2010-12-13T23:14:00.001-06:00

The month started with nice weather, warmer than normal. We didn't get our first 'hard' freeze until this past weekend. The Spanish Oaks have lost most of their leaves by now (probably 60%), but they had very pretty color for a long time. A lot of Texas Live Oaks have also dropped their leaves due to how dry it has been. They do that when necessary, but most are all green.

We don't have a billy with the goats, but we have had a few kids from some late does. Lost a few, but we have three nice ones. We will have a few more in a few weeks. I have the goats in the lower goat lot and have cut a few cedars to clear and then feed to the goats, but still lost 3-4 kids. Not sure what got 2, but 2 were natural.

There were a lot of wild turkeys around at Thanksgiving. Most of the folks that came saw them on the road. Very fitting for Turkey Day.

St. Olaf Kirk- The Rock Church

2010-11-27T15:27:00.001-06:00

November 2010

2010-11-15T21:42:00.001-06:00

I can't believe it's mid-November. We were away from the ranch from 1 November for 11 days. Thanks to the neighbor kids who fed the animals. By being away we were able to notice things we may not have noticed had we been here every day. First, the deer are much darker in color than when we left. I don't think I have noticed that before. Then again we have the one group that stays so close, I'm getting a very good look at them and recognize them as individual deer. In the past I may have just thought it was different deer. It is amazing that they are so much darker. I wonder if it has to do with the loss of daylight? Second, the Spanish Oaks are turning a nice fall color. Very pretty actually. We drove to Stephenville to shop and the countryside looked good with the fall colors.

It is cooler. About 72°- 48° temperature range.

We still have grass. We did have at least an inch of rain while we were gone as there was almost that in the gauge and the pool was full. We needed the rain.

Animals are all well.

Beautiful October Weather

2010-10-25T14:02:00.001-05:00

October is my favorite month and this has been a very beautiful month for weather. Really making up for last years October weather. The weather actually got very warm with highs around 88° and only cooling down to 70's. Today it is 87° at lunch time and supposed to reach 91°, that will be a new record high for this date. We did have a cold front come through on Saturday and it was only 68° with cloudy skies. They had rain, thunderstorms, and a few tornados in the surrounding counties, but only had a few sprinkles. So it is very dry. We really could use some rain, but the grass still looks pretty good.

We really did a lot of clearing and cleaning of cedars the past ten days. This time we are working behind the house expanding towards the bluff and north fence line. I had already cleared the bluff itself over the past few years as it has a nice view to the west and at this time of year the sun sets directly on the fence row and property line (due east/west) so at sunset you can see rays of sun go through the woods and up the mountain. What we are trying to do is clear the area between the bluff and the cleared area behind the house. We can now walk from the house to the bluff without having to take a trail. We had two good burn fires going and I did scorch a few more cedars than I originally intended, but they will probably go out in the next stage of clearing anyway. The area does look good and you can now see the house from the bluff. It still has a lot of cedar, but we have burned all the 1930's CCC debris on the ground and cut as many dead branches as I can reach. We leave the larger cedar and take out the crooked and damaged trees. We have a lot more to do, but it will look good and it is much safer in case of a fire. It will also be a lot harder for a mountain lion to sneak up on us as well. The area that we just cleared is where I lost a big bob cat about five years ago. I know I shot him as went three feet into the air when I hit him, but he got into the brush and escaped.

I mentioned that we need a new name for what we called the lower pasture, it's really not big enough anyway. It's also been improved so much it's really not a pasture even though it is basically native pasture grass. We have removed the stumps, the cactus, and now cut the grass so it's really a landscaped area now. Last night a herd of deer were enjoying it. Some possible names: lower yard, lower lawn, or lower park. I like lower park, but I have to think on that for a while.

The goats are well. The kids are getting big and they are at the stage that they are getting hung up the the field fencing. When their horns get bigger they just can't get into the places they used to be able to so they get hung up. I took two out last night. If I don't find them, the coyotes will get them for sure.

Hummingbirds are gone. Not a lot of birds on the feeders right now. There are a lot more doves than I usually see though.

Love the weather so the usual Ranch chores are getting done: equipment repairs, trimming and maintaining trails and the road, fence repairs, etc. Pepino has returned from Mexico so he was able to work a couple of days too.

Don't usually mention personal stuff, but I will say that have really enjoyed following the Texas Rangers this year. I have watched every game on TV from opening day (except when away) and the two playoff series were very good. I will enjoy the World Series. Good Luck Rangers.

Clearing Again!

2010-10-10T17:31:00.000-05:00

It has been beautiful weather all week. Warm in the day, but cool at night. I guess it's considered warm for this time of year, but we'll take it as long as it cools of at night. It has gone from 88° to 55° during the day.

We did some work in the lower pasture this week. (we really need to get better name for this area). We have been working on it off and on for over a year. We cut cedar, burned stumps, cleared briars, and general clearing. We had two fires going to burn debris so we were making good progress. This area is viewed from the big house directly below where the ranch road goes up the mountain. It does look good from the house. The deer have already been there and seem to approve.

The water temperature in the pool is 74-75° very tempting after working outside and used it to cool off, but didn't really swim.

Goats are happy, still lots of grass and I took them some good tree tops including some shumate and live oak tops. Those are their favorites.

Great Fall Weather

2010-10-05T00:46:00.001-05:00

The weather is wonderful. Cooling off at night into the 60's and the highs are now in the 80's. The A/C will be off soon.

DW hopefully cut the grass today for the last time this season, but we thought that the last two times. The rains have been very good for the grass. The new area planted has covered so we only have one more area to establish next spring and we will have grass planted all around the house. This year we had a lot of pasture grass that invaded the planted bermuda areas. I'm not sure of the variety, but it is really growing well and fast. Good for the pasture but not so much in the lawn areas we are trying to establish. The goats are very happy.

I worked on removing stumps down in the lower pasture. So we had our first small fire of the season. When we were clearing we had 3-4 big fires a day going, but now that's probably only going to be a weekly thing this fall.

Did the pool thing for probably the last time this past weekend. Water temp was 77-78° I've been leaving the pool sweep in the pool so it's getting the frog eggs. Looks like that has now slowed down, haven't seen any for a few days. Hope so.

Deer should be happy. Cooler weather, lots of acorns, lots of grass, and corn in the feeder. The group of four rarely leave the area around the house. I've seen a lot of fawns in the mountain pasture.

All is well on Rattlesnake Mountain.

First Day of Fall

2010-09-22T13:27:00.002-05:00

We have been away from the ranch for a while on a couple of Cruises and a California holiday (read my cruise blog if interested). My aunt and cousin again minded the ranch while we were gone. They enjoy the wildlife and like to come down so we are very lucky that they volunteer.

We had a nice rain the first week we were gone, but the second week brought Tropical Storm Hermine and we had ten inches of rain over two days. I was told it came down well and not all at once. The ranch roads were not near as bad as I thought they would be when we returned. The rain did bring out the grass. More than enough for the goats since we culled the herd before we left. There is a lot of grass. After a few days of rest we got to work repairing the roads and culverts. I hauled a lot of material from the gravel pit and filled in the road as needed. Pepino is in Mexico and he would have mowed but a safety switch on the JD tractor mower malfunctioned. After repairing the mower, actually by passing the switch ;-), it took several days to get all the grass cut. The trees are having a banner year.

Weather has been very nice. Still about 92-95° as a high, but cooling off at night.

There are a lot of acorns on the ground right now. Good for the deer. Also a lot of fall blooming plants. I still see a few Hummingbirds so they are here a little late. Cardinals and the usual are still around.

We do have something new we have have never had to deal with before: frog eggs. I thought this was a spring thing, but the frogs are depositing their eggs in the swimming pool. I've been scooping them out and putting them in the wildlife tank for the fish to eat. They look like caviar. I sat out on the patio last night during sunset and seven frogs gathered around the pool as it got dark, no telling how many frogs we have. Amazing. The frogs do like to make noise although I do find the croaking to be a nice country sound.

Lazy Days of Summer

2010-08-25T10:29:00.001-05:00

We finally got some relief from the August heat. We had had 25 consecutive days of over 100° weather, but yesterday we got a cold front that broke that string. We had very high winds in advance and it blew down some bird feeders, native vines growing on the back of the pavilion, and my rain gauge so I'm not sure exactly how much rain we had. We later had .5 inch so I'm guessing we had about an inch overall. Not enough rain to gully the road, but a welcome amount for sure. Pepino had cut a lot of dead tree branches with the pole saw just recently, but the winds helped bring down some more. Even with the heat we have received enough rain that the trees continue to look very good.

Thanks to the neighbors I had a mini round up and took some goats to market. All the males and an older nanny. The closest commission sale is now in Hamilton and the sale is on Mondays so Sunday is a good day to haul. It's 33 miles so that's not too bad. It seems two of the new little bucks may have gone missing. The count didn't seem right.

My newly planted grass is looking good. So are the front yards. I also had one of my highest water bills since we have been here at 50,000 gallons. (20,000 is average)

Each year seems to be different as far as the number of critters we see. This year is the year of the Lizard. They are everywhere and the Roadrunners love it. We have only seen one fox this summer and I thought we would see more considering that we watched that one den grow up this spring. I have found it very unusual that I have not seen many raccoons. Usually they are a nuisance, but very few this year. The big buck deer is still making himself at home. The fawns are big now and they too are coming up to feed.

There seems to be a few fewer frogs. We put out some rubber snakes, but I'm not sure that was the cause, more likely a real snake got a few.

There are lots of butterflies and hummingbirds feeding on the blooming Lantana.

Hopefully fall is around the corner.

Screech Owl

2010-08-16T00:09:00.002-05:00

Tonight we were entertained by a Screech Owl that landed in the courtyard fountain. It stayed on the edge of the top bowl then dropped down into the bowl itself. Most of the water drains down from the small top bowl so there was some to drink, but I think the owl enjoyed the cool spot. Since the back yard lights were turned on I was surprised it stayed as long as it did. I was able to get very close and watch. I bet he returns.

Buck on a Hot Day

2010-08-12T15:10:00.001-05:00

Just shot this picture out the back window. This particular buck is around ALL the time. We don't seem to spook him either. He doesn't run even if we are on the patio or walking close to the house. He's very comfortable here and why shouldn't he? This is getting closer than usual as he stays back at the tree line most of the time.

Notice that the grass is still green. It is going dormant now though. We are watering the front, but not the back. Also I see a hummingbird on the feeder. It's the 13th consecutive day over 100°.

Hot, but Good Week

2010-08-08T21:50:00.001-05:00

It has been hot, reaching 100° nine consecutive days now. Clouded up a few times and even very slight shower (.10) but generally just hot summer weather. Typical for this time of year though. Good news is that the grass has survived so far. I did start watering the front yard today. I'll let the rest go dormant and it usually already has by this time of year. I again over seeded the area along the bluff where I'm trying to establish new grass and did water it over the week. I also added some fescue seed to the bermuda just to get a mixture and something established. It is coming up. The small area between the pool and the established lawn that we started in the spring has completely filled with bermuda grass. It looks good.

Very productive week on the ranch. Pepino worked four days so we got a lot done. He applied a new coat of stain on the cabin, porch and railings. It looks great. I ordered new parts for the JD lawn tractor including a new front bumper. It's looking good as new and has new filters, etc.

The Lantana that we planted early in the year is now starting to look very good. The flowers really attract the hummingbirds too. Not pleased with the Begonias we planted. The asian jasmine we planted for ground cover is taking off in the two circle. We have kept the motion water alarms active in the two circle so that the deer would not eat the plants. It has worked well, seems to keep the rabbits away as well. As mentioned several times the trees look great. New growth on all the Texas Live Oaks. I measured one that we cleared cedar away from when we built the house and it has grown at least seven feet in about six years.

We are very pleased with the pool and new deck. We have had two frogs all year, but more have arrived and tonight we had nine around the pool. I don't mind a few, but that's too many so I'll have to deal with that.

Swimmin' Hole

2010-08-01T21:44:00.001-05:00

Starting to get more typical late July-August weather--HOT. The new Swimmin' Hole is getting very good use. We did have a rain shower early this week though. Another half inch. That's very good for this time of year. The grass is still green and it has usually gone dormant by now. The trees all look great. I've decide to try and establish some bermuda grass on the new bluff area. This is the new area built out with the dirt, rock and debris from the pool construction. I've run a water hose to the area and have seeded it three times so hopefully we will have that area in grass soon. I have finished the cedar screen in front of the pool equipment and it really blends well with the view. All is well on the ranch.

Some Rain

2010-07-27T08:06:00.001-05:00

We had a nice shower late yesterday. 1.8 inches in about an hour. Looks like I will be repairing the road later today when it dries out some. We need the rain, but it seems to come in deluges when it comes. The grass looks great this morning.

I have been building a new cedar screen around the pool equipment. While gathering previously cut cedar from the mountain pasture yesterday I flushed three fawns, a pair and a single. This was just from the upper portion where I had left a lot of cut cedar on the ground. They use it as cover so I'm glad I left some on the ground.

BTW-The Painted Buntings really like the rainy weather.

July

2010-07-23T10:21:00.001-05:00

It has now become more typical July weather. Up to the high 90's during the day. Still not as hot as the 1st week of June though. We did get more rain last week. A 1.2" rain followed by a .75" rain. I did have to grade the road three times in a week, but it has been very dry this past week. The grass is very green for this time of year. The pastures all look great. The goats love it.

We have really started to enjoy the swimming pool. It is very nice indeed. We have two frogs that are also using the pool. There is a perfect little frog cave in the natural stone area and the other one stays in the waterfall. Since we are using the new UV system we don't have to use high levels of pool chemicals and the water is very nice for both humans and critters.

I have moved some bird feeders so that they can be seen from the new pool and patio area. The birds like them. I still see a Painted Bunting every day and on every feeder. I'm not sure how many we have in total, but at least two pair.

Add: We had a summer shower just after posting this message. A nice .45 almost a 1/2 inch of needed rain.

June or July?

2010-07-04T06:28:00.001-05:00

We seem to be getting June's weather in July and July's weather in June so far. June started very hot with 100° heat early and very hot all through the month. July has started rainy and cooler. We have had 5+ inches of rain so far with isolated/scattered rain forecast for another week. The grass has really greened back up and looks good.

The Mountain Pinks have bloomed as usual. A unique summer flower only found in this area. They usually start blooming around June 21st.

We've been getting a lot of chores done and cleaned up around the house as we have had a lot of visitors the past two weekends. I had a metal grill made that fits onto a tractor rim that makes a very good BBQ pit. Also the plumber came out and we had a list of repairs for him. I could not locate one water line (in time) so I still need a stand pipe set near the Pavilion.

The fawns have been getting brave enough to come up by the house. We've seen a set of twins and two other ones. The baby goats are getting their horns now and are eating grass and testing the feed as well. The birds are active and I still see the Painted Buntings almost daily.

Summer Time

2010-06-18T15:18:00.001-05:00

It's almost been two weeks since our busy time with the annual Texas Scottish Festival and we are just getting back into life on the ranch. The weather has continued to be hot so we are on summer hours. Up early for chores, afternoon inside, and feed in the evening. The great change this year is the swimming pool. We can actually get some more work done knowing we will get that refreshing dip in the pool to cool off after some chores.

The goats have just been put back in to the pasture. I had been closing them off at night so that the babies would not be left alone while the rest were away feeding. There are nine babies and they follow the group up to the mountain then back down in the evening. The last baby was born while we were at the Festival, but he is doing well. We were very lucky that Pepino (BTW-not his real name) was able to work here while we were away so he was able to watch & feed the goats. He had just returned from Mexico so the timing was very good. He has been working extra days this week as well.

The foxes left some time while we were gone. We did get a heavy rain the night before I left and that probably washed them out of their den in the drainage pipe. I haven't seen them for two weeks.

The deer are used to our routine and the pool. They come up to the feeder as long as we stay on the new patio or in the pool. It's great to watch them and the other wildlife from the pool.

Other than the one heavy rain it has been very dry. We are missing the rain showers that have fallen in the area. I did some work on the ranch road and it's looking very good, but could use some rain on the new gravel. I may need to find a new gravel pit as I'm getting onto some solid rock where I'm at now. I'm digging just below the location of the old Norwegian quarry that was here 100+ years ago. I'm sure I just have to move a bit. Oddly the official USGS survey done here last in the 1970's shows that location as a gravel pit on the USGS map. It's small but that is what it is.

We are starting to catch up on the usual chores: cutting cedars, burning stumps, watering new grass, trimming trees, etc. I'd like to finish some work in the mountain pasture and cut cedar for a screen in front of the pool equipment.

Painted Bunting

2010-06-11T12:28:00.000-05:00

We are lucky to have Painted Buntings on the ranch. I think they are one of the the prettiest birds in Texas. For about five weeks we have had a Painted Bunting tapping on our bedroom window early in the mornings. Not every morning, but 5 days a week on average. There is a bird feeder right outside the window and I thought he was seeing the reflection, but a few times it has been on a different window. Not sure what's up, but a least he is making it very easy to watch him. I do keep the better seed in that feeder just to attract the Buntings and it is their favorite bird feeder. I wasn't counting on the early wake up calls though.

Much Warmer Weather

2010-05-28T15:54:00.001-05:00

It's been very interesting watching the baby foxes. They are very active and getting very brave venturing away from their den. They are even coming up on the patio and looking in the screen door. I don't see the mother much at all, but suspect she is watching from further away. We've noticed squirrels dropped off for the babies. I tossed over three cowbirds I had culled and they were gone in an hour. They are fun to watch especially while playing and hunting bugs, but they will need to be moving on soon, as we don't want them next to the house.

The weather is warming up and reached 90° twice this week. The pool is up to 82° and now feels great especially on these hot days. We will take advantage of the pool this year.

The baby goats are coming. We have seven so far. I've closed off the mountain pasture as that has not been good for babies of late. There are lots of wild critters up there. The neighbors got rid of their dogs so that has not been a problem this time. Perhaps we'll have some good babies this year. For the past 10 days I have allowed the goats to pasture during the day around the house and new pastures. I can leave the new mothers with the babies this way and monitor the others expecting. They have been very good and not really gone for the landscaping. They really enjoyed the rye grass, but the rye grass is about gone because of the recent heat. It's time to plant bermuda grass in the new areas around the house. The goats really cleaned out the thistles and finished off most of the wildflowers.

Baby Foxes

2010-05-19T15:06:00.001-05:00

We have been watching a family of foxes who seem to have taken residence in our drainage pipe in front of the Pavilion. The mother is a small red fox and she has four pups. The babies climb and jump on her just like other mothers & babies of various types. I'm sure she wants to get them out and about as that is a small pipe and they are getting active. Very cute babies.

Kenzie

2010-05-02T12:44:00.000-05:00

Kenzie
RIP
8 July 1999 - 26 April 2010

Nice Week

2010-04-25T20:15:00.000-05:00

It was a nice week on the Ranch. The weather was generally nice with high's about 78° and cooling at night. We did get an inch of rain on Friday night. We planted some more larger Asian Jasmine as a ground cover, but our order of two flats of small AJ didn't come in this week.

I did get the huge pile of brush burned this week before the rain. We had accumulated a lot from trimming and cleaning on the county road fence row and other places. I also did some stump burning as weather allowed.

The water temp of the pool reached 75° on Saturday so I had the first official dip in the pool. It was very nice. We will enjoy it this year.

Pepino painted the new pipe rail gate and entry. It looks very good. He will be in Mexico for three weeks so we'll miss his fine touches around the place. The wildflowers are looking good. They are everywhere for better or worse. We cleaned the wildlife tank and added two Water Lilies that we got from our neighbor. The deer are trimming the pads closest to the edge of the tank for us.

BTW--I also saw the first Painted Bunting of the year on the bedroom bird feeder.

Some Rain

2010-04-18T21:32:00.001-05:00

We got a lot of flower bed work done around the house this week. DW set more flowers and Pepino really prepared a wonderful bed in the large circle in between the Pavilion and new Patio. He dug out all the grass etc., dug out the rocks, and spread three loads of new top soil I had brought in with the tractor. It really looks good and is ready for new planting. We are planning on planting Asian Jasmine as a ground cover. It's a large area so we have ordered 40 small plants and 6 larger ones in order to cover it. Hopefully it will within two years. We also spread natural fertilizer on the front yard just in time for the weekend rains.

I did do some trimming and set fire to a brush pile in the mountain pasture. The weather seemed right for burning as it was looking to rain. The drizzle did start Friday evening and we had good rains on Saturday. Drizzle and light rain on Sunday. Probably 3 inches overall. A good result of the rain is that it seems to have knocked down the 'fuzzy' bits of the blooming Texas Live Oaks. We had just reached the stage that they turn everything green. The patio, tables, the tractor, the cars, everything. Hopefully most have been washed out of the trees, the ground and road is covered with the 'fuzzy' bits, but at least they won't be covering everything nearly as bad. Good.

I haven't seen a Hummingbird on the feeder, but one buzzed me on Saturday so they are arriving. The wildflowers are looking great.

April is nice! Patio is Ready!

2010-04-10T15:22:00.001-05:00

The weather has been much better although we had two weeks of high winds. In one stretch of 36 hours the wind never dropped below 20 mph day or night, with gust up to 40 mph. It has helped getting the leaves off the trees though. Of late the weather is nice with day highs in the 70's and dropping to 50's at night. Good working weather although this is my busy time in the office.

We have cleaned all the flower beds set out all new flowers, mostly begonias. The deer did get the Mexican Heather in the pots out front, but everything in the beds are fine so far. This is the first time we have planted since the new rock borders were completed. The beds around the house look very good. We set three tomato plants and the Mint is coming along very well. I don't think we are going to get the big garden in this year.

The trees continue to look good. They are still in process of change. The Live Oaks are dropping old leaves as the new ones come out. Most of the Spanish Oak have budded and should be in leaves very soon. The lone Hackberry tree, usually the last to bud, has now done so. I have to double my inventory of Pecan trees. We have really cleaned the area where I knew I had the big pecan and now I know that there are two very large native pecan trees. When I looked before I just assumed there was one, but now that the brush and briars are cleaned I can see both at the same time. The wildflowers are coming now out. We have a lot of Prairie Verbena around the house as usual. Between the goats and the deer they have eaten most of the wildflowers on the ranch. There are a lot of Bluebonnets along the roads and highways.

The wild birds are not as active as last year yet. I think we are behind schedule this year. We had beautiful indigo buntings by mid-April last year. I did put out the first hummingbird feeder today. I haven't seen any hummers, but they are due anytime.

The deer have not been as active now that we have grass and they have lots of things to eat on the mountain and pastures. We still get the regulars that live here on the ranch, but I haven't seen the large groups of deer for a week or so. I did have a deer stand in the ranch road yesterday when I was going to feed the goats. He didn't move until I had to come to a stop in the Gator.

We have added pots to the new patio and the furniture has been painted so the patio is looking very good as well. I believe it is now officially open!! Still too cool to swim, but the water has been getting up to 70°. It's still cooling off at night so the water also stays cool. Won't be long though.

Spring is here!

2010-03-22T23:03:00.001-05:00

tuekeyWe have have had some very nice days, but on the first day of spring the weather again turned cold and cloudy like the weather we had had all winter. It only lasted about 36 hours, but it did freeze the water in the fountain so it was cold. They had snow again in the DFW area and set an all time record for snow. It cleared and was nice today so hopefully the cold weather is now over.

The Texas Live Oaks are losing their leaves and budding. The Spanish Oaks are also budding. There seems to be a lot of buds and I'm looking forward to the new leaves. The native grasses are coming up and turning green and I saw the first wildflowers this week. Looks like a good spring and I bet we have a lot of wildflowers this year too. DW set flowers in the new flower bed next to the pool today and has painted the patio furniture in anticipation of a lot of use of the new patio and pool this year.

The birds have been very active. Lot's of birds at the feeders. We can also see the geese flying north. They are impressive to watch flying overhead. I saw this flock of turkey on the county road this week. A new FB friend drove down our road and was able to get this photo. Although I see quite a few turkey around here I've never been able to get a photo this good. The deer are also somewhat active, but with the new grass coming in not as many deer are coming by to feed on our winter rye grass.

I did cut two very large cedar trees in the back of the house this week. The Live Oaks are looking very good and as they get bigger we have to cull more cedar. Again, once they are gone you really don't miss them. I'm having to burn the stump on the larger one as it was huge. I'm using the fire ring and had it about burned out before that cold snap and rain put it out. Used to be common to have fires that close to the house, but not in several years.

Much Better Weather in March

2010-03-14T00:17:00.001-06:00

We have had much better weather. We had a deluge type rain early in the month with several inches of rain in a short period of time. This type of rain really gullies the road and as wet as it has been most of the gravel and caliche was too wet to make immediate repair, but when it starts to dry you can get some material that sets up almost like concrete. You have to catch it just right though. We decided to make a major change in the view from the front of the house by cutting down the large cedar tree in the center of the circle in front of the house. It really opened up a wonderful view. You can now clearly see four different mountains from the front of the house. After cutting down a big tree we always wonder why we didn't do it sooner. The tree is being recycled as we are using the cedar logs to make a screen in front of the pool equipment and I was able to use the cedar top as a drag to sweep and repair the road. I bet we end up cutting down the other cedar tree in front as then we would have the two huge Texas Live Oaks as the only trees in front. It would also really open up the view of Gary Mountain directly across from us.

The new ranch entry is already finished. The fence crew came and began clearing the fence line and setting the posts. The welders showed the next day and we had a nice four rail pipe entry and gate in 2 ½ days. I really like it. The gate is also made from the same pipe so it looks great and custom made. The weather was very nice so of course we spent several days clearing and cleaning around the new entry. The entire entry area looks much better. It's simple and clean just as we wanted. I think we may extend the pipe fence down the fence line two more sections. If we do we'll have an old pile of debris from the 1970's to clean as it would be seen, but we'll save that project for the summer.

During the process of building the new gate I discovered a new talent or skill. The art of dowsing. The main water line for the area water co-op follows the county road just inside my fence row. It goes somewhere under the area we are placing the new posts for the new entry. We requested that the line be marked, but that was never really done until the end of the first day so we had to determine the location of the water pipe so that we wouldn't hit it and knock out the water for everyone in the area. One of the crew started using a diving rod to find the water line. That really fascinated me as I've always been interested in that since I saw it done as a little kid on the farm in Oklahoma. They were confident and continued the work. I was at the gate working late moving the cedar they had cut when the water man came by to flag the line. He also used a diving rod. I had him instruct me on how to do it and did some sample finds myself. That night I really researched the art of dowsing and tested it for a few days. It would have come in handy when we couldn't find the water line when we ran water to the new wildlife tank this fall. I'm pretty confident in my new ability and it's fun.

March 2010

2010-03-03T11:06:00.000-06:00

The 1st day of March was again the same weather as we have had all winter: cloudy, wet & cold. The 2nd day was better with sunshine and warmer, but still below average. Hopefully we will have more typical weather for the rest of the winter. I will say that the wet weather has helped the trees and the rye grass looks great. The deer have enjoyed the rye grass and done a good job of keeping it trimmed. The hired hand has missed the past several weekends, but it was really a good time to go to Mexico as the weather here hasn't really been the best for outdoor work.

We have decided to improve the entry to Twisted Oak Ranch so we have been looking at various styles of gates and entries along our county road and other roads in the area. We don't want a fancy entry, no arches nor rock columns, just something clean and simple. I think we will go with a pipe entry and leave it natural. When we built the house we just pushed through the cedars creating a new entry from the ranch road to the county road. We just set a temporary cedar post entry with cattle panels and nice simple pasture gate. It has been fine and we rarely close it, but do have to wire it to a tree to keep it open. We are not going to install an automatic gate opener although that seems to be the hot thing out in the country. The cost is higher than the entry cost itself and since we only occasionally have animals in this section we will probably leave it open most of the time. In the process of looking at gates, we discovered that we have the smallest gate on Gary Creek Road at only 12 feet wide, but we have the original ranch entry that is wide enough for equipment to enter. The new gate will be 14 feet and the entry will consist of four rail pipes with three sections on each side of the gate. We will have to cut some cedar trees to get the additional room needed, but I think we will have a nice clean entry when it is finished. Hopefully we'll have this project finished by the end of the month.

Finally, the sun.

2010-02-28T20:57:00.001-06:00

We finally had a nice day on Saturday. The sun was out all day for the first time in February. We did get some work done over the weekend. I found some dry caliche to spread and cover the pad area of the new pool construction where it meets the gravel road. When we get the new gravel it will just show stone on the back wall. While on the tractor doing that I did some work on the road and trails. We also set some large rocks as a transition between the gravel and new grass at the pool, cleaned flower beds, worked on the pool, moved a rock pile, and some other chores. It was just nice to get outside. The forecast is for more cold and wet weather so the nice weather will unfortunately not continue, but nice for a while.

Birds are very active as are the deer.

Heavy Snow

2010-02-24T22:20:00.003-06:00

This continues to be the wettest and coldest winter in Texas in many years. We again had one nice day with 60°+ weather, but most days continue to be cloudy and cool. We actually had a very heavy snow in central Texas on Tuesday. We had 4-5 inches on the ground here at the ranch. It only lasted 36 hours, but that was a unique snow. Again it was nice watching the birds and deer in the snow. The birds are very active as I'm filling the feeders every other day. Of course I'm not getting any work done outside due to the weather. We really need to get a few pretty days so I can get some cedars removed for the new garden location.

Snow

2010-02-12T11:07:00.004-06:00

The cold rainy weather continues. We had one good work day and took advantage cleaning the culverts at two of the gates on the county road from the debris accumulated from rain run off. I also built a water divertor where a trail meets the ranch road in front of the house. Water would run down the trail then wash out the road. Barely had it finished when the rains began again. The DFW area had really big record snow, over a foot. We are just far enough south that we only got 1-2 inches or so. The snow is pretty, but the ground is already so wet that it's messy. Pretty wildlife scenes watching the deer and birds in the snow though. The photo is looking down the mountain at the cabin, ranch road, and Gary Creek valley in distance. Notice how the snow weighs down the cedar trees. I haven't been out to see if we have lost any trees, but we did lose power overnight so trees have come down somewhere in our rural system.

Today is a unique day in U.S. history, the first day that there is snow on the ground in all 50 states.

Groundhog Day

2010-02-02T18:26:00.004-06:00

I can't believe that it's already February. The weather still remains colder than usual. We have had a few nice days, but it's really been cool, cloudy, and rainy. We've had 5-7 inches of rain in the past few weeks. The trees look good and when we get sun again I bet we get grass right away. More rye grass has come up with this recent batch of rain. I will plant bermuda grass over it later.

We are getting big groups of deer. A group of 8-9 does and a group of young bucks come almost every night. Also a few single bucks and does at various times. The grass over the septic remains green and the corn I put out attracts them to the back of the house. They also seem to like the new rye grass too.

We lost a goat who had climbed a cedar tree and got hung up. Unfortunately it was the very cold nights we had and although we freed her she really couldn't survive. I had Pepino trim all the remaining brushy multi-trunk cedars in the goat pasture. If it's not predators or dogs, it's the weather or something unusual that gets your goats.

We have used a lot of propane due to the cold weather. I bought two electric heaters to supplement heating the house and liked the one that looked like a small fireplace so much that I ordered an electric insert for the fireplace. It looks like a real fire and I can use it to heat or just turn on the flames. I like it.

The pool is basically finished and we had the pool school so it is now our responsibility to maintain it. They still need to change the gauge on the filter, but that's about it. The pool equipment has run a lot this month as it has a freeze guard that runs the waterfall automatically when it gets close to 32 degrees. We had the wooden pavilion built over the patio portion of the deck. It looks very good. We will add some small utility tables and planters to the patio this spring. We are now ready for new gravel on the road as soon as the weather cooperates.

The ranch looks good even though it is winter. We have trimmed more cedar trees in front of the house and at the entry. We really need to consider a new entry and gate. We just have a simple cedar post entry and stock gate. An automatic gate will help keep people out and a pipe fence entry will look much better,

Winter of 2010

2010-01-06T13:34:00.003-06:00

This has already been the coldest weather we have had since we have lived on the ranch. We had one cold spell while we were gone, one following, and now a third. We are actually preparing for the coldest weather in over 20 years this week. I'll let you know.

The Cardinals are becoming more active. The deer appreciate the corn we put out for them. I saw the large fawn I mentioned in previous posts. He actually grew a set of horns and is very big. He will be a big trophy buck in just a few years. We get a group of about eight does, groups of individual young bucks, and a few big bucks almost daily at the feeders. They are fun to watch.

Only a little cosmetic work left on the pool. I will order new gravel for the road and some pea gravel for around the house as soon as the weather improves and that will finish the project.

End of the Year

2009-12-31T13:18:00.002-06:00

It's been a good year on the ranch. It really looks better than ever with the new landscaping in front of the house and the new rock work round the house. The landscaped pastures are larger and look great. I hope we get as much rain in 2010 and the new areas cover in grass as well as the new areas did this year. We were blessed in 2009.

We're Back

2009-12-20T13:32:00.003-06:00

We have returned from a wonderful 24 day holiday vacation. This is the longest we have ever been away from the ranch. My aunt and cousin stayed at the ranch and fed the animals and wildlife while we were gone. They did a very good job.

We had a lot of kids born while we were gone, but dogs got most of them. A pair of dogs with a black one as the lead dog. I haven't had time to investigate as yet. Shame. We only have two survivors.

We had some very cold weather while we were gone including a freeze and snow so we have lost the pasture grass. Most of the rye grass I planted before leaving was up and looks great. Some areas did not and I believe that to be from an using an older bag of seed. We will probably sow rye grass each year around the house.

The swimming pool was almost finished, but they didn't really do a good job of maintaining it as they said they would do. After balancing the water it looked very good.

New Swimming Hole

2009-11-18T11:00:00.004-06:00

Well this was a big day in the pool construction process, the day we begin filling the swimming pool. It's not not quite finished as the start process up has yet to be done. You can see from the photo that the scuppers and some items still need to be finished, but we are ready for water.

Many have asked for a photo and I have waited until you could get a good idea of what it looked like and where we built it. Yes it's on the side of the house. How about that view? Can't wait to see the waterfall and the pool filled with water!

Game Poachers

2009-11-17T18:45:00.005-06:00

The weather has continued to be very nice. Only one windy cool day. We finished clearing cedar at the cutoff trail to the barn. It makes the lower pasture larger and improves the view of a nice stand of Live Oaks. Will still have several stumps to burn-out there over the winter. I did get winter rye grass planted over the new areas covered with top soil. It didn't rain, but perhaps we'll get some soon. We did water the area close to the house and pool. We got a lot of outside work done and the ranch really hasn't looked better. We are very lucky to live in such a beautiful place. Of course there has been a lot of hard work done carving out our little place on the mountain.

The pool company finally has an acceptable surface and color installed on the pool deck. We will probably add a second color ourselves in order to get the look we really wanted. Today with the deck finally finished they did install the pebbletek surface in the pool itself. It looks great even before the acid wash scheduled for tomorrow. It looks like they will begin filling it with water tomorrow afternoon. Wow, it's about time.

This is the second week of deer season and there were a lot of hunters in the area again over the weekend. In fact we had a poacher on Friday night. They shot a deer right on my road, probably from the county road. The blood impact and splatter was very obvious on the white gravel road. By luck I found the bleed out spot about 100+ feet into the brush under a cedar tree up on lower part of Ray's Ridge. There was no animal so I don't know if the poachers got it or the suspected cat or some other varmit. It really makes one wonder and I'm not that keen on confronting a probably drunk poacher with a gun. We did set the alarms at the entry and that does help. I suspect they shot the deer but didn't come into the property when the deer didn't fall on the spot. I did check the goats at night while scouting for poachers and noticed they now stay together in a nice grouping. Haven't lost any more since the little runt.

The deer have been fairly active. I do see the lone bucks roaming around. They come by even in the middle of the day. They are right in the middle of rut right now and really move around. The photo above was taken this morning and the haze is from the sun reflecting on the window of the front door. There were two does out there and they looked very natural around the house.

We have several relatives coming to mind the ranch while we take a little holiday. Another reason to get it in good shape. I know they will enjoy it.

Beautiful Weather

2009-11-12T15:14:00.004-06:00

The weather has continued to be beautiful. Some of the best of the year.

We have been catching up on chores and projects. The masonry projects around the pool and around the house are completely finished so we used some extra rock for landscaping and I have picked up all the rest and stored them below the mountain. There was rock, stone and native rock. I spread two big loads of top soil over the fill area and area below the road and the bluff. We've never had grass there before as it has been too rocky, but we should be able to grow some there now. I also covered the construction area around the pool and existing grass of the front yard. I did plant winter rye grass next to the pool and will get the large area this week before a forecast rain we are supposed to get on Sunday. DW mowed all the grass around the house and lower pasture that was so high due to the rains. Pepino was able to work one day and he did some edging along the road so the road and lower pastures look very good. The grass is very green and the entry has never looked better.

The pool company made another attempt at repairing the pool deck and the color really didn't change. Now they are stripping the previous work and will just attempt a concrete paint and get a color that is at least close to what we want. It has been a long process for us and the company. The effort and labor is fine, I believe they have bad product. Hopefully we will have it all completed within a week though.

I discovered some of the mystery of the missing goats. Evidently they were killed next to the stock tank and when the big rains came and filled the stock tank the water covered the goats. This week the water has dropped low enough to expose the carcasses. I saw them and the blood so I do believe we have a big predator of some kind. After spotting the carcasses I went down there the next day to clean them up and they were gone. All of them gone and nothing left behind. So it's a predator large enough to carry them off. A neighbor did see a very large bobcat so that could be the predator. Amazing. Now another goat, a small one, has disappeared. That's five in total. I need to get Jerry back as none of this happened when he was here.

Deer season has opened and I heard a lot of shooting opening weekend. Maybe everyone already has the limit. Several bucks have walked up during the day looking for does so they are in rut. Not as many deer coming to the feeders so I think they have been culled or in hiding.

The big goldfish have adjusted to the new wildlife tank. I though they might eat the smaller goldfish, but so far so good on that. I believe there are 8 small goldies in there with them. It's fun to watch them when I feed them they really put on a show.

Beautiful November Weather

2009-11-05T17:36:00.006-06:00

We are getting our October weather in November. It has been beautiful so far. High temperatures only in high 70's and cooling off at night. I heard from the TV weatherman that October had the fewest days of sunshine ever for central Texas. I believe it. It's still wet in some places and I'm high on the mountain.

The weather has been great for chores and there are a lot to do. The circle drive on the west side of the house has been reduced in size so I had to add road material there. My little gravel pit is standing in water so I scraped some material just below the bluff towards the county road. I did have to cut one good live oak tree, but it didn't fit in the new plan. I really cleaned that area up since that is now the pool side of the house. It looks good. The stone mason did a good job with the rock that was left over from building the swimming pool waterfall. It's nice clean central Texas white limestone rock. We used that for the beds although that was cut rock. The circle is irregular but looks great and very natural. I been try to level out all the rock and materials left over from the pool excavation. We just pushed it into a gully, but now I need to clean up the bluff in that area. I'll get some top soil when I get it spread and leveled better. I also set some very large 200-400 lb rocks around the pool equipment just to protect it some what from a runaway tractor or gator (really from me if I'm not paying attention while cleaning/working on the tractor). Thank goodness for the JD tractor. I've really been putting it to use this week.

No real work has been done on the new pool for a month. I believe they will be here soon to fix the deck. Then they can finish the pool. Hope so.

I have a new hired hand and he is very good. I hope we will be able to get him one day a week. His first project was to trench and run a water line to the new water tank in the back of the house. He did a great job including the plumbing. I moved the big gold fish from the stock tank at the goat pens to the new tank and the fish seem to really like it. It should be warmer as this new 'wildlife' tank (now we have a name for it) is completely in the ground and it will get more sun. By the way, don't clean out a dirty stock tank on the day you put on a newish pair of clean overalls. What a waste. LOL.

October is Gone

2009-10-31T22:00:00.003-05:00

October is one of my favorite months with usually cooler weather and beautiful days. This year it was a very rainy month. We were both gone for a week and we got a lot of rain and even more when we got home. Since I wasn't here to empty my rain gauge, I'm not sure how much rain in total, but the gauge was full at six inches so I'd guess at least 6-8 inches of rain in the last two weeks of the month.

Before we left we took Jerry the Twisted Oak Ranch's #1 billy goat over to the neighbors as they need a billy to breed their herd of goats. Jerry is a very large and a very good billy. I may have also underestimated his value as a guard as we had several goats missing when we got back. I originally assumed they just found a way to get into the neighbors since Jerry was over there, but that wasn't the case. These weren't baby goats either which makes me believe it could be a BIG predator. I sure hope not. It's a mystery as of now. Looks like my primary nannies are well along with kids. I did sell one little nanny for someones Thanksgiving and I still have a few I would like to cull.

Not any work done on the pool due to the rain. We did get the local masonry man to do some work. We installed a nice rock border all around the house, the courtyard, and around two circles of trees. We had loose rock previously and the raccoons were always moving them around looking for bugs. It will be very nice to have them set in concrete and it really makes the house look finished and much nicer.

Not as many deer coming up the past few days as we have missed a few weeks of setting out corn and there is so much grass, water, and acorns around. I'm sure hunters are now setting up their feeders too. We are getting the usual deer, but not the dozens we were seeing together. Of course it's getting in to season soon so the bucks will be out doing their thing soon.

The weather is supposed to be clear for most of November so hopefully we can get back to the ranch chores and projects. In fact the sky was clear tonight and I saw a big meteor traveling from north to south just after sunset. It was very large and a blueish color. It wasn't as big as the one we saw about five years ago, but that one was so big it was given a name. It went from south to north and came down somewhere along the Oklahoma / Texas border. This one was a very distinctive blue color. Meteor showers are nice, but these are more unique. The country night sky on a clear night is very amazing for sure.

Happy Halloween.

Still Wet

2009-10-17T20:55:00.005-05:00

It was another wet week. Lot's of clouds until end of week. About four inches of rain total off and on during the week. It dried out enough to work on the road today, but most of the material is still too wet to install. I use material from my own little gravel pit.

They are still working on the new pool deck. They aren't going to be able to fix it so it's now how do we make it look good at this point. The concrete batch should not have been accepted in the beginning as the truck was very late-he probably got lost out here and wouldn't admit it. We would not have had this long delay and so much extra work for the last month.

It is very green and we have a lot of grass. I put goldfish in the new stock tank a few weeks ago and they are doing well. The water looks clear too. I've never had to fill it since I put it in because of all the rain we have had. I did buy the line and float to install so it will fill with water on it's own, but it's been too wet to get it installed. Good time to dig the ditch though.

I looked out the bathroom window early this morning and saw some BIG tom turkeys walk through the woods just east of the house. They were a lot bigger than the turkey hens that used to hang around here a few yeas ago (prior to the mountain lion). These were very dark in color and the hens were more brown. That's the first turkey I've seen here in years although I see them over by Gary Creek more often.

Fall is here

2009-10-11T15:00:00.003-05:00

October is usually my favorite month on the ranch as we get cooler weather. That has been true this year too, but it has been very wet as well. Lingering weather with light rains almost for two full weeks. A few nice days, but most have been wet. This will be good for the trees, but it's hard to get any work done. Not a lot of rain, but consistently wet. About 1.5 to 2 inches in total but very beneficial for grass and trees as it's so slow to fall.

The weather has also held up work on the new pool. They have a new deck installed, but it isn't the correct color so it is not finished. They won't finish the pool until the deck is finished as not to damage the pool. Oh well, it's too late for swimming this year anyway.

Not as many deer coming up for corn in the last three weeks as there are so many acorns on the ground. I've never seen so many acorns. In some places the ground is completely covered. Also because of the rains there is a lot of fall grass coming out. Also some nice fall wild flowers. Very green. The deer come up to eat all the grass growing around the house as much as for the corn.

On one of the dry days I did trim the trees in front of the house cutting the low hanging limbs. This will allow a good view from the pool area down Gary Creek Vally.

September is already gone!

2009-09-30T10:37:00.003-05:00

This was a fast month.

The pool construction has hit a snag. There was a bad batch of concrete used for the deck. Since the deck was to be the finished surface with color and texture added at the time of the pour, all the work was lost. We'll see what can be done to repair. The pool company is 1st class and I'm very glad we are using them. The pool project has taken up most of the ranch time. The are looks like a construction site for sure.

The county has finished the rest of our County Road project. It looks very good.

Weather is usual, still hot, but cooling off at night. We had hoped to be able to swim this year, but that does not seem possible for this year.

Relief from the Heat!

2009-09-13T15:02:00.003-05:00

It's been an interesting week at the ranch. The pool construction is on going and they have finished the weeping wall and coping and are now in the patio deck stage. It is progressing well.

The good news is that we have a low pressure weather system that has settled over the area and we have been getting clouds, showers, & rain for three full days now. It has been a very good steady slow rain so it is soaking well. There are gullies to be repaired, but not bad considering the amount of rain. So far we have had nine inches accumulation. That's great. The tank is full. The pastures are turning green and all is well. We are expecting several more days of perhaps the same.

Cumulative rain total now at 10.4" as on Monday morning.

September is already here!

2009-09-02T12:29:00.005-05:00

I've had a bit of a holiday away from the ranch (if you read my Cruise Blog you know this) and it has been very busy since my return. We began a BIG project here as we are installing a custom swimming pool. The day I left is the day the big equipment arrived for the big dig. I just got off the mountain when they brought it up. Of course they hit rock so it was good they had a big excavator. DW supervised the project while I was away and when I returned two weeks later the project was well underway with the pool basically being formed. It's been very interesting watching the workers install tile, build walls, set forms, build patios, and the like.

Of course all the chores are related somewhat to the pool project. We have cleared cedar along the bluff in order to get a better view from the pool location. We have also gone on a fossil hunts so that they can install the fossils into the pool's weeping wall. One thing I arranged before I left was for the excavator to dig a hole for me in the back of the house. They did. I bought a 3x8x24" metal stock tank that I then set in the hole and back filled to create a 'water hole' for the wildlife. Hopefully this will keep the deer and varmints out of the pool and add to the wildlife viewing from the house. I was very pleased with how it turned out. (photo above ) I think we will place natural rocks around the perimeter of the new 'water hole'.

DW did a great job with the goats & wildlife while I was away. Thanks. The deer are still very active and the big bucks are huge. The birds have slowed down, just the usual natives.

It still remains hot and dry.

Summer routine

2009-08-10T23:07:00.003-05:00

We seen to have settled into a weather routine. Hot and hotter. It's still getting to 100° most days and continued dry. We really kick up a lot of dust on the trails, it's good that the County Road is now paved as it saves the clouds of dust that happen when cars pass.

The deer are still very active. We have one very nice trophy deer. He is certainly the leader as well as he eats where and when he wants when they come out for the deer corn. The fawns are also fun to watch.

We had some visitors on the ranch road last night. Probably joy riders who thought our gate was a pasture gate (not fancy at all) and when they saw the house turned around. Unfortunately for them they hit a culvert. Probably damaged their vehicle and it did bend my culvert. I had just swept the road with some cedars I had cut so their trail was easy to spot.

There is still grass in the goat pasture, but I did let them over on the 'house' side over the weekend. There are a lot of nice spots with good grass for them. I had to put down Zulu this morning. She was not improving and could not stand. I nursed her in a pen for a week, but really no improvement. Not sure who will be the new leader of the herd, but it looks like the big billy for now.

Zulu

2009-07-28T08:00:00.005-05:00

We have eleven deer in the big group for sure. Got another count yesterday. In addition to the 11 feeding close to the house there were several does 150 yards away on the bluff waiting their turn. I saw four different fawns for sure. One fawn is very big and will probably be a big buck. (Fawns in photo)

It has been raining around us for a few days but we have not received anything as yet. It is our turn. We had .10 overnight which does help the trees, but isn't enough for the grass.

I was watching a Painted Bunting this morning on the feeder next to the window and sure enough a sparrow came and chased it away. I may have to get that trap out or invest in a good BB gun.

Poor Zulu. She was our first Boer Goat and she isn't doing well. She really has never recovered from the dog attacks that got her last kids. Both nannies who lost their goats were very stressed at the time and in fact I was afraid I would lose one. She recovered with some meds and TLC. I though Zulu would 'shake it off' too but she is older and although it's been several months she just acts like an old granny goat now. I gave her penicillan yesterday, but she is thin and looking frail. I will watch her closely. I can't sell her and she deserves respect as the 'mother doe' of all the goats we have ever had on the ranch.

July Heat Continues

2009-07-26T14:36:00.003-05:00

The heat has continued. Most days over 100° for a high although there were two days of clouds and almost rain. Only .20 over the two days, but at least it was something. I was able to get some outside work done in addition to usual chores.

I checked the water meter yesterday (we read our own meters in the country) and we used 22,000 gallons of water this month. Normal is 4,000 gallons. Really the grass is not as bad as it could be for this heat. We are fortunate for that. We are allowing the grass around the house to go dormant now.

Set two records for number of deer behind the house at one time. It was ten for several days, but its actually eleven. They have come pretty consistently. Two big bucks, two average bucks, two yearlings, a doe with twin fawns, and a doe with one fawn. This seem to be the regulars. We get an occasional stray doe or big buck as well especially during the day now that I'm putting out corn in the mornings.

Continued Heat!

2009-07-17T18:19:00.003-05:00

Well another week of 100+ degree heat. It's starting to take a toll. Fortunately the rain last week has kept everything from burning up, but if we don't get some relief soon though we'll lose the grass. It was cloudy this morning for the first time in a while, but that was all. We have a 20% chance of rain in the next few days so we'll hope for something.

I've given up on the sparrow trap. I had it out and there was no action at all until all the feeders where empty. The squirrels and raccoons empty the seed from the trap and I'm afraid the raccoons will damage it. No luck in getting a sparrow. They will eat from the ledge, but won't commit to enter the trap. I'm not sure I will get any. There are enough feeders that the Painted Buntings will find a place even with the sparrows and there are not really that many sparrows. I did catch one female Cardinal and two male Cardinals in the trap so the trap does work. Just too hard to get the 'bad' birds interested. Today I refilled all the bird feeders and I'm putting up the bird trap for a while.

The deer are getting active and the bucks are really getting their antlers now although still in felt. They go through 2 buckets (#10) of corn a day and empty the water trough in only a few days in this heat. I have got into the habit of putting the corn out in the mornings and not in the evenings. They have learned this and we get several deer in the middle of the day. Usually the does with fawns.

The goats are doing fine. Just feeding every few days as they still have grass. I did get a new salt block for them. The billy has been chasing the does for a week or so, so it's time for that routine again. Hopefully the kids won't come until mid to late December.

One day of Rain

2009-07-06T15:32:00.004-05:00

We got some more relief from the heat. We had 2.3 inches of rain overnight and it is cloudy today. That's wonderful. This should keep grass in the goat pasture through the rest of July.

I took the photo of these two fawns in the back this afternoon. They are no longer hiding and they are obviously being weaned since they are interested in the grass. Note how fast the grass 'greened' up from the rain.

I saw a sparrow chasing a Painted Bunting off the feeder on the 4th so I have ordered a 'Sparrow Trap'. I got notice that it shipped today so I'll see if I can trap the sparrows. Hopefully it will work on cowbirds too.

We did have a great neighborhood gathering on July 4th. Wonderful friends and food.

July heat!

2009-07-03T08:01:00.004-05:00

The heat has returned. It was over 100 degrees yesterday and that's the forecast for the next week as well. The county commissioners put into effect the 'burn ban' on Monday, but that's to be expected this time of year in the heat.

I got up VERY early this morning in order to work on the tractor. Where it's parked it will be in the sun by 7:30 am. so I wanted an early start to replace the battery. I normally don't adjust my outdoor work for the deer, but this morning I did delay as there were nine deer in the back of the house. Two big bucks, two average bucks, a doe with two fawns, and two other does. It was interesting watching them. The fawns are so curious and the big bucks walked right up to the window. They soon started to scatter so I got to work. It's amazing what can get done when you know it will soon be hot. I replaced the tractor battery, aired the tractor tires, pushed some cedar into piles that I hadn't been able to do, spread a bucket load of gravel on the road, scraped and leveled the road going up the mountain, and filled the deer feeders, all before 8:00 a.m. I have some other tractor chores to do now that it's running again. I was lucky that the local feed store had the correct battery for my John Deere tractor yesterday.

Relief

2009-06-30T21:32:00.002-05:00

We got some relief from the heat with a late afternoon shower and overnight rain. I'm not sure how much as I had taken up the rain gauge, but it was a nice rain of about two inches cumulative. A nice break from almost two weeks of 100 degree heat. It was overcast all day on the last day of June and that was wonderful for a change. I had just completed my watering around the house when the rain came so the grass has 'greened' up well. Some had already gone dormant though. Still lots of grass in the goat pasture and in the cedar.

The birds were not as active in the heat, but some out some today. I did see a painted bunting on the fountain in the courtyard. It was hard to find water before this rain.

There have been a lot of deer at the feeders. The fawns are getting active as well. They are discovering their legs and like to run.

It's the Heat!

2009-06-28T17:20:00.002-05:00

If you read my cruise blog you know that I was away on a cruise in the middle of the month and I was not prepared for the extreme heat when I returned. It was over 100° everyday this week . With dental work scheduled and the heat there was to be little work to be done on the ranch. With no sprinkler system around the house it took all week to get the grass watered all around. Looks like that will be the project for this next week as well. Also keeping the wildlife tank full of water.

The Mountain Pinks are now in bloom. They look good.

We had a big group from the TSF&HG on the ranch this weekend for a dinner. They seemed to have a good time. I cooked 20 big rib-eye steaks on the grill in spite of the heat. We did eat inside though. Good fun.

June is here.

2009-06-12T18:35:00.004-05:00

I'd been in the 'big city' for a week working on the Texas Scottish Festival so the critters have been in charge of the ranch. All the feeders, both deer and bird, are empty and the deer helped themselves to some holly growing around the house. Not too bad though as it's still very green and there is a lot to eat. The deer have been dropping fawns so they are not going far.

PHOTO: My neighbor went out to pick tomatoes this week and this is what he found in the tomato plants.

We've had big thunderstorms all around us for several days, but none have actually passed over us. The lightning and thunders has been very loud at times.

It's starting to warm up, but still cooling off at night so that makes it fine. Working inside in office this week anyway.

Good Week

2009-05-31T16:44:00.005-05:00

Very busy in the office again this week. The weather is warming up somewhat, but it's still cooling off at night. It has warmed up enough that most of the spring wildflowers are gone. We did get 1.2 inches of rain this week and looks like we are going to have a lot of Mountain Pinks. They will bloom in mid June. The trees are really looking good we are getting plenty of rain for them this year. DW cut most of the grass this week so everywhere has been cut at least once now. It's very nice and green everywhere. Hopefully it will be that way through June.

We haven't seen Petey all week so I guess he/she has moved on. Still seeing a LOT of Painted Buntings though. I've seen a lot of lizards this week too.

I'll be glad to get back to a routine on the ranch. I have a lot of maintenance work to do on the chain saws and tractor before getting back to work.

Good Weekend

2009-05-24T21:42:00.004-05:00

We were able to take a break from the office because of Memorial Day weekend so we were able to get in some ranch work. We finished cleaning the lower part of the 'goat lot' as it was threatening rain and good burning weather. We cleaned and cleared a lot of new and old cedar. There's still almost a full canopy of trees over the area. It looks very clean down there, at least the area next to the county road. Hope the goats appreciate it.

Usually don't mention things of a personal nature, but we did eat at a fantastic 'country' eatin' place on Saturday night. We had a 1.5 hour wait to be seated but the food was fantastic. The Loco Coyote Grill about 40 miles from the ranch located west of Glen Rose.

We also did some work on the cabin. On our fortnightly trip to Gatesville on Friday I purchased a new air conditioner and a small HDTV. With the help of a neighbor we installed and trimmed the new AC unit. It looks great and will really cool the cabin. I was also very impressed with the new TV. The digital signal works very well for out in the country much better than the old analog signal. The cabin is ready for summer visitors.

We had a nice rain this morning and then a heavy rain this afternoon. 2 1/2" of rain total. Also a lot of run off with this rain. We were in the cabin for the heavy rain that sounded good on thet metal roof. I could also see the culvert I installed take the run off around the cabin. It worked great.

Update

2009-05-21T15:53:00.002-05:00

I've very busy in the office so no ranch updates. We did get 2" of rain during the week and we had family come visit for three days so that has also kept us busy. We like to get visitors as it breaks the routine in the country. They wanted to see a Painted Bunting and with the light rain on Saturday that was perfect Painted Bunting weather. Almost every time I looked outside I would see one. Of course I was looking for them. There was a Painted bunting on 6-7 different feeders during the weekend.

Petey is now competing with the squirrels, cardinals, and doves for seed. Interesting to watch them all on the ground under the feeders. In the evening add in rabbits and deer and it gets busy.

Weather has been great. Warming up in the day, but cooling off at night. A few nights was chilly.

Chores

2009-05-11T22:34:00.004-05:00

We ended up doing more work in the goat pen or the 'feed lot' as the neighbors call it. It really cleans up very well. There is a very large and old stand of Texas Live Oaks that really stand out now that we have cleaned a lot of the old cedar from around them. They may be the tallest on the ranch as a group. Since we used all the goat panels along the county road fence we no longer have any fenced nursing pens. I'll probably just use the entire area as a big nursing pen when that time comes again. Now that its cleaned out it will be harder for a critter to sneak up on the goats without Annie seeing them.

I saw a fox today, first one in a while. Also the swallow who has nested on the back porch is pleased her eggs have hatched. She's flying all around the courtyard, but still watching the nest. Petey is still hanging around too. I'm not sure how big the territory is for a Painted Bunting, but I think I saw two different ones today. I thought I saw two a few days ago as well. I'll watch close for a while.

Goat Panels

2009-05-09T22:25:00.004-05:00

The weather was partly cloudy most of the week, but we didn't get more than a trace of rain a few times. The birds have again been very active. Petey is still around. The Painted Buntings are spotted almost every day.

This is my very busy time with the Festival so I don't get to a lot of chores on the ranch. However we did get goat panels installed all across the fence row at the county road and goat pasture this week. This should keep any goats from getting out into the road. So far so good. It took several days to get them installed and cut limbs and cedar trees as needed along the fence row in order to get the panels in a straight line along the fence row. It took more time to then clean up and burn the debris, but it was finished today. The panels look good and we will now just leave them up as the primary fence.

I purchased new tires for the old farm truck. They cost a lot more than I spent on my first car many moons ago, $600, but now that the county road is paved I will invest in better tires. Supposedly they will last 45K miles. We'll see. Odometer reading at installation is 79,600 so these should be the last tires I buy for this truck. Also installed new battery on the lawn tractor this week and got it ready for the season.

Still very green, more wildflowers, and the trees look great. A good spring so far, no real heat as yet and cools off in the evenings.

May weather

2009-05-03T11:08:00.002-05:00

We had a big thunderstorm come through during the early morning hours overnight. Not a lot of rain, .45 inches, but a lot of lightning and some light hail. That always gets your attention. The dogs were up in the bed looking for cover. The power was on and off a few times, but never lost. Still cloudy but looks like the rains are over for a while.

Yesterday DW trimmed a few shrubs in the front of the house. Thank you, one was obstructing my view. I have a sweet spot on the couch with a perfect view through the window of Gary Creek valley and Sugarloaf Mountain. I cleaned out the culverts on our road. The 1400 gate on the county road was really blocked from the previous rains. Same goat in the county road yesterday. I brought down some goat panels and put one up in the spot I suspect she's going through. I'll have to wait until it's dry and I can cut some cedars before I can put up the rest of the panels. I already have panels up over half that stretch so I might as well do the whole fence line that borders the county road from that pasture. It's only about 250 feet.

It is very green. Lots of wildflowers. The morning glories are really coming out now. The Prairie Vebena is everywhere and high. I even saw a few more Bluebonnets.

The birds are still very active. I did see a Painted Bunting on the ground with an Indigo Bunting yesterday. I soon as I say I've never seen something it seems to happen. Petey loves the pavillion. Tessie chased it and it flew to the top at one time, but usually just hangs around under the open area, sometimes between the cars or on the patio. I've seen several female Goldfinches, I think we may have some that have decided to just stay this year.

Birds, Birds, Birds

2009-05-01T21:20:00.003-05:00

It's still overcast and humid, but no rain. We cut the grass for the first time today. The wildflowers and weeds, especially the thistles, were very high. This is the latest we have ever done the first cutting.

The birds are very active. Usually there are no American Goldfinches here this time of year, but there was a beautiful (all yellow) one on the feeder today. I also saw the Painted Bunting a lot, as well as the usual Cardinals, Blue Jays, and others, so there was a lot of color today. The Rock Pigeon is hanging around so we decided to name him Petey. One is fine not sure I'd want too many though. We also have the usual swallow nest on one of the porch outdoor speakers. She is setting on eggs. Lot's of birds, hopefully that means no mosquitoes this year

Rock Pigeon

2009-04-29T17:37:00.001-05:00

It's still overcast and we had a bit of rain, but most of it is north of us today. I went to town, as usual on a Wednesday, and noticed all the tanks are now full. It's also very green and wildflowers are really trying to come along. When the sun comes again, I bet we see a lot of new wildflowers.

I'm adding a Rock Pigeon to the bird list. There has been a very big one hanging around for a few days. They are much larger than I thought or at least this one is much larger. Obviously this is a feral Rock Pigeon. I've only seen the one so far.

Addendum-Well the Rock Pigeon has been roosting on the Gator under the shelter of the gator port. Easy to observe and we notice that it has two bands on it's legs. A blue band on the left leg and a yellow band on the right. Interesting. May not be as feral as I originally thought.

Rain

2009-04-28T09:49:00.003-05:00

We had a very nice rain very early on Monday morning. For once we were on the right side of the line for rain as not far away they had little. We received 2.2 inches, then another .6 over the course of the day. This morning just a bit more for almost a full 3 inches total. It's the first time in a long time I've seen run off come down my diverted dry creek. Not much, but enough to show we are getting a good soaking this time. We had another half inch of rain this afternoon. Total now up to 3.55 inches.

The trees are looking very good. The Jasmine is now blooming and smells so good especially after these rains. We are leaving to doors open in order to enjoy it.

Painted Bunting

2009-04-25T12:51:00.004-05:00

Saw the first Painted Bunting of the year today. They are by far the prettiest birds found at the ranch. Very good to see them back. I also saw an Indigo Bunting this morning. I don't recall ever seeing a Painted Bunting on the ground, but the Indigo Bunting seems to prefer feeding from the ground. Interesting. I don't mention the Blue Jays as now I see them everyday and there are several pairs now living here.

We are supposed to get rain this next week so all the neighbors are trying get their hay in the barn. We really need the rain. Still water in the tank, but low.

Another Sighting

2009-04-24T12:20:00.005-05:00

I had almost given up on the hopes that the Indigo Buntings would stay. There were 8-10 last Saturday so it looked like they were migrating. The good news is that I saw one this morning so hopefully one pair have taken residence. The birds have been very active and it seems we have been discovered as a 'bird friendly' place. I also saw a female Summer Tanager on the bird feeder this week. I'd love to see the male. I won't add them to the list until I see a second sighting to confirm.

I did some fence repairs as we have a goat who likes to roam. In spring when the briers and brambles come out along the fence row she likes to get into the road. I think I found the holes. This particular goat will be on the sale barn list next time around. The former bottle babies have adjusted well. We have all 25 goats so far but the little runt does wander off on her own so I wouldn't be surprised to see her missing one day.

Something interesting happened this evening. I took the dogs out for a short walk and went back from the house towards the north fence row and a small bluff. I had cleared a small place there years ago so I could watch the sun set to the west looking down the fence row. (This was before we had cleared the mountain west of the house which is now a better view) I found my small stump I had cut years ago to sit on and was just sitting and enjoying a diet coke. Looking down the fence row I see two deer running up the mountain heading straight towards me. I was higher and they did not see me. They ran all the way up and the first one stopped just twenty feet below me and turned to look at the trailing deer. When he turned he saw me and we looked eye to eye. She was very surprised. A big snort and she dashed off into the brush. Until the snort the dogs had no clue to what was happening but that got their attention. It was a little exciting. It might be a good place to observe as the trails along the fence rows have tracks of all kinds of critters.

Indigo Bunting

2009-04-19T09:16:00.008-05:00

We had a very nice rain early Friday morning and showers throughout the day. About 1.65 inches of rain. It did gully our road especially the fresh material I had place just last week. An hour or two on the tractor today will clean it up.

I did get a new multi-station hummingbird feeder and placed it in the back of the house. We have a very good view of it from the bedroom windows. I've seen two at a time on it, but no more so far.

It is very green following the rains. A lot more wildflower too. We have yet to cut the grass so we have quite a collection of grass, weeds, wildflowers, etc.

Another first for the ranch listings (on the left side of this blog) in the bird section. On Saturday morning there were three male Indigo Buntings feeding on the ground below one of the bird feeders. There were also females, but couldn't tell how many. When I first saw them I thought they were Bluebirds as they have bluebird boxes up in several places along the County Road, but these are a solid blue. I'd never seen any Indigo Buntings here on the ranch before Saturday, but the Painted Bunting I see every year about this time. I spotted them again in the evening about 6:30 in the same place. Hopefully they will become regulars like the Painted Buntings.

Wednesday Hummingbirds

2009-04-15T15:26:00.002-05:00

The hummingbirds are very active and today I saw a new first for the feeders here on the ranch, four hummingbirds feeding at once. When I first walked by the feeder there were 3 with a 4th buzzing. A few minutes later there were four on the feeder with a 5th buzzing. This is the only multi-station feeder I have up and is located off the screened porch. The feeders I have in the back are single feeders. I may upgrade those as it's interesting watching the little hummingbirds jockey for position.

There were a lot more bluebonnets on the road today when I went to town. They look pretty good, perhaps even average which is more than I expected with the drought. It should be a pretty May.

Yes, today is Wednesday or 'Go to Town' day out on the ranch. The Feed Store, Bank, BBQ (rib day), Post Office, Grocery, and Sonic are the usual stops each Wednesday with others (i.e. Dry Cleaners, Gas Station, etc.) as needed.

April Showers

2009-04-12T13:47:00.003-05:00

I've been very busy in the office this past week so I haven't been able to get much work done on the ranch. With the Easter holiday weekend I've made some time for chores and work. Friday I did some Tractor work and swept the ranch roads. Also cut some cedar. Yesterday was humid and overcast so a good day to burn what brush I did have in the 'gravel pit' brush pile. We did get a nice rain in the early morning hours today. About .62 an inch of rain in the gauge. We can still use more rain.

I saw a few Bluebonnets on the ranch, but very few. The Prairie Verbena looks very good. Most are 6" high on average now and in full bloom. Several other wildflowers starting so May may be good for flowers.

I have not had any problems with raccoons in the Gator or around the house. Eliminating the problem ONE seems to be the correct solution. The birds have been very active. I got another 175 pounds of bird seed (had a coupon) so hopefully that will get me through to summer. I've seen several sets of BlueJays so they are here for sure. One morning there was both a BlueJay and a Cardinal drinking water on the fountain at one time. Nice to see. The hummingbirds are also active. There have been a lot of rabbits at night.

Bad Raccoon

2009-04-03T13:27:00.007-05:00

I made a deal with the raccoons long ago when we came here. If they leave me alone then I will leave them alone. I actually enjoy watching them and they were very curious about me when I was in the cabin early on at the ranch. I haven't had too many problems with raccoons, perhaps every few years. I don't mind when they eat the deer corn or even attempt to get the bird feeders, but when they start getting too close to the house or into the Gator that's when they are going too far. For about a week something has been getting into the bed of the Gator and dumping the feed buckets and bird seed buckets. There is usually very little feed, if any, in them as they are empty other than when taking feed down to the goats. There will be bird seed or oats on occasion. I saw a cat there last week but I really suspected raccoons. I didn't really want an 'all out' war or culling of raccoons, I just wanted the guilty ones, so I thought I would set an old fashioned steel trap. The DW asked me to wait until she left town so last night was my first opportunity. After feeding the goats and parking the Gator in its usually spot I set the steel trap in the back of the Gator. I covered it and most of the bed with a sheet of newspaper and placed empty buckets around to hold down the paper. I knew the buckets would also serve as my alarm. I also knew it would take a lucky step to catch the varmint. I had my doubts. I then went inside the house and went about my business.

I was on the computer about 10:15 when I heard the noise of empty buckets moving about. I hadn't even thought about the trap since setting it, but I knew immediately what had happened. Sure enough I've trapped a raccoon. At least I know this one is guilty. There was plenty of corn on the ground so he wasn't hungry he was up to no good. Scratch one raccoon. This was actually the first one I have trapped. I've had to shoot them with either the rifle, pistol, or shotgun and that's different. I've caught coyotes in snares and then dispatched them, but this was somewhat a first. I learned some lessons and will do it a bit different next time. I haven't decided if I'll put the trap out tonight or just assume this one was the only varmint getting into trouble.

The weather has been pleasant. Cool nights and then a high about 72°. Very nice. We did get .4 inches of rain overnight one night this week. Everything is now budding so it's a full spring. Also getting a nice crop of weeds. The Prairie Verbena is looking nice.

The bottle babies have adjusted to one bottle a day. They are eating the dry feed at will now as well. They are not following the herd up the mountain though. It will be time to start cutting back the amount of the daily bottle soon.

Texas Weather

2009-03-27T18:33:00.003-05:00

It was cloudy and overcast all morning, but we only had a trace of rain. In the afternoon it got windy and another cold front came through. It cleared all the clouds and became sunny, but the temperature dropped from 75° to 48°. Chilly.

I saw hummingbirds on the feeders this morning so they have found them.

Cooler & Rain

2009-03-26T11:31:00.006-05:00

We had a trace of rain on Tuesday, but on Wednesday we had a cold front come through and a nice rain. We had about half an inch of rain and the temperature dropped to 48°. It was back in the mid 70° today. The rain will help the wild flowers. Everything now seems to be budding except the honeysuckle.

I saw the first Hummingbird of the season this morning. It was actually drinking at the fountain in the courtyard. I knew it was about time for the hummers and I did put up two feeders on Friday since we were having guests. One at the cabin and my large one next to the screened porch. Didn't see any activity on the feeders though. I added another out back and will add some in the courtyard as well. It has been very windy and I have given up using squirrel baffles on the three bird feeders on the bluff. The wind catches them like a sail and they blow down the feeder or actually break the metal support rods. There is just too much wind. It's the chinook effect being located right at the bluff. (I learned weather and wind effects at the University of Oklahoma in Professor Harry E. Hoy's Physical Geography class) The baffled feeders below the mountain or in the back of the house are fine. We are really going through bird seed, but I do have eleven bird feeders. I did add a new one out front so that I can see it from my office window. I need to get a larger feeder for that location though.

Today is the day we begin feeding the bottle babies only one bottle per day. We will feed them a bottle only at evening feeding time now and hopefully soon they will accompany the rest of the goats to pasture during the day.

Rock Church, Bosque County, Texas

2009-03-24T00:03:00.007-05:00

Photos by: Isgren Photography

First Day of Spring

2009-03-22T13:10:00.010-05:00

The four bottle babies, with Zulu and Annie watching.

The weather has continued to be very nice. We prepared for guests so we did some cleaning and little chores around the house and ranch in order to get ready for them this past week. Our guests came in Thursday evening and we cooked out that evening and the following evening as well. It is nice to have a fire and to cook out on the coals. The teens helped feed the bottle babies and with the extra help I really tried to introduce the babies to the mountain pasture and to feed. They have to learn to be goats sometime. The ten pasture babies and their nannies are all doing well, they are a little larger than the bottle babies and already eating grass and goat feed.

We took a mini tour of the Norse area and enjoyed just 'hanging' at the ranch. It was a fun weekend and our guests seemed to enjoy the ranch.

More Live Oaks are losing their leaves. More Spanish Oaks are budding and growing leaves. Interesting transition and it makes for many different colors of green in the trees. Check the photos in the link below. The shrubs are starting to bud. Just beginning to see growth on the jasmine. The 'Prairie Verbena' is starting to bloom on the ranch and I did see some bluebonnets on the highway between Cranfills Gap and Meridian. The next two weeks will bring a lot of change. I hope we get some more rain to help the growth along.

It's nice to have a photographer as a guest. I can use the photos as future reference. Here is a link to some fantastic photos taken this weekend: http://www.isgrenphoto.com/g/twisted_oak

Pasture Goats?

2009-03-17T12:31:00.003-05:00

Well the bottle babies have survived the first few nights. They aren't going up to pasture with the other goats yet, just setting around waiting for us to show up with the bottle as far as I can tell. In fact the other goats seem to hanging around more waiting for an handout as well. They will get with the system soon I hope.

Beautiful days. Highs of 80° yesterday and today. Grass is greening up well. There have been a lot of brush fires around as I expected. I have a couple I need to burn. It's really good to see all the neighbors tanks full. One of the big ranches has been doing dirt work for almost two years on Gary Creek and their little lake filled up very well.

Map to Norse Historic District

2009-03-16T13:40:00.003-05:00

Great Day at the Ranch

2009-03-15T18:10:00.003-05:00

It started off cloudy and there was rain just south of us, but it held off here. I wanted to get an early start in burning a brush pile I had that was in a wooded area and not in the open. It has to be burned when it is somewhat wet as not to damage surrounding trees. It was also near to an area that I really have been wanted to work as it would create a walking trail from the back of the house to the bluff on our north fence line. It wasn't easy getting the fire started and it burned slow, but that was exactly what I wanted at first anyway until I could clear some more brush and cedar that would be close to the fire. I haven't really worked the chain saw for several months so it was good to get back on it. I cleared a nice little trail and burned the brush as I went in the burn pile. There were old stumps as well so we soon had a 'hot' fire and burned as fast as I could clear. That's much easier than having to haul your debris and cuttings. The sun came out in the afternoon and that was welcome. Actually got a lot done. I had started a pot of beans in the morning so I was able to eat out on the nice cleaned bluff by evening and watch the fire and the sun set. We have a nice view to the west from this spot and now a better trail to reach it.

We also moved the bottle babies down to the pasture and introduced them to their cousins, aunties, daddy, and Annie. They will be pasture goats from now on although they will be getting their bottle for a while longer. Sometime in the next week I'll drop them down to just one bottle. Since they are now away from the house I dismantled their pen and Terry cleaned up the gator port and back porch. We'll have to re-stack rock and do some painting to get everything back in order. It's amazing what four baby goats can get into around the house. Hopefully the shrubs will survive. I don't know how long until the four bottle babies are accepted into the herd. It was interesting watching them interact today. I hope Annie protects them, there's always a danger that predators will get the bottle babies since they don't have a nanny to watch them.

It was amazing to watch the grass green-up today. As the sun came out it seemed to do it in a matter of hours. More trees budding and more live oaks losing leaves. The birds weren't that active today, don't know why. I did fill all their feeders yesterday and did get another 100 lbs of seed.

Rain

2009-03-14T22:06:00.003-05:00

We are at the end of the forecast of 'several days of rain' and the weatherman was correct. We've had another 1.25 inches so I'll estimate our total for the period to be more than 6 inches of rain. Very good for four days. I'd like to see some sunshine now as it's been a while. The tank has water in it for the first time in months. Almost 3/4 full which was more than I expected. The grass looks like it's about to green up everywhere too.

They took off the county burn ban for eleven days so I expect a lot of brush burning in the area as soon as it drys a bit. I have several piles myself.

The goats have really eaten down most of the shrubs around the house. They are about ready for the pasture. This evening there were six deer out back and it was very interesting watching the deer watch the goats watch the deer. Finally the goats started walking towards the deer and the deer decided to retreat, at least until dark.

Coyotes

2009-03-12T19:24:00.004-05:00

Here's a photo sent to me by a reader of the blog. It's a photo of T.P. 'Trapper' Barnhill who was the county trapper for many years in the 1970's in Bosque County. I know they had problems then as a neighbor told me they used to pay a 'bounty' for coyotes when he was a kid in the 1960's.

Looks like he had a good day from the photo.

I had the county trapper out to Twisted Oak Ranch a few times years ago when we had the mountain lion problem. Haven't seen him around for a while although he has signs posted on the property across the road. (If they have traps or snares on a property they have to post warnings at the entry gates to the property)

I've had interesting results from the primary snare I have set in the past. One dog, one goat, one coyote.

Rain

2009-03-12T18:32:00.003-05:00

The rain started late on Tuesday night. The goats had knocked over the rain gauge so I didn't get it up until Wednesday morning but it showed 4.5 inches this morning. I'd have to estimate our rain at better than 5.5 inches. It came down over time so it soaked very well. There was run off but not a lot. The roads didn't gully very much at all. A good rain. There is more rain in the forecast so hopefully we will get more. Enough run off to fill the stock tank would be nice.

This was the week I was going to introduce the bottle babies to the herd. I'll wait until after the rains now. I know the herd goats would exclude the babies from the shelters. The ten pasture babies are eating feed now. The bottle babies are eating the shrubs around the house (another reason to move them), but so far no interest in feed.

The birds really seemed to like the rain. They were very active in the rain on Wednesday. I've seen another pair of Blue Jays around the house and one by the barn. I guess they are here to stay for sure.

Trees

2009-03-09T22:19:00.004-05:00

The Spanish Oaks are budding, with the big one by the cabin going from buds to leaves in just days. Very good to see. Most of the Texas Live Oaks are now losing their leaves. This seems to be more of a tree by tree situation with some well along and others not even begun.

The baby goats are browsing on the weeds that are coming out. Good two ways. Still two bottles a day.

Still very dry. They do have rain in the forecast for the middle of this week. Lets hope so.

March 3rd, 2009

2009-03-03T19:55:00.005-06:00

Well it did cool off. It was below freezing two mornings as there was ice in the fountain. Getting warm again though. It was 72° today. I'm seeing a little green in the grasses. Spring will be here soon. Still very dry.

I'm feeding the babies twice a day now, they are getting the same amount of formula. They were getting 8 oz three times a day and now it's 12 oz twice a day. I'm also feeding them two at a time. Four at once is too hard as whoever finishes first knocks about the other goats trying to steal a nipple. Much easier.

I saw at least 25-30 turkey on the road this week. Big turkeys. Amazing. I'll get my wildlife camera back up this week and see what we have around here.

February Update

2009-02-26T17:30:00.002-06:00

The ten pasture babies began to ALL show up at feeding time so no changes were made. I still have no idea as to the sex of them as there is no way to catch them all. There are six white ones and four red ones and they are cute. Three were trying out the goat feed today. That's good. I need to drop back the bottle babies to two feedings soon so they will start to experiment with other food possibilities.

The Goldfinches I mentioned in previous post are all gone. I guess they were active preparing for their trip back north. They were turning yellow. The other birds won't go through the seed as fast now.

It was very warm today. The computer said 93° and it's 90° now at 6:00 pm. It's supposed to cool off though. Hope so. Still a county wide burn ban and still very dry. We need rain. I noticed that all the holly bushes around the house were eaten by deer while we were both recently gone. They will come back though although probably no blooms.