Central Texas Whipsnake

I got to add this to the list of critters seen on the ranch.  It's a Central Texas Whipsnake (Masticophis [Coluber] taeniatus girardi).  It's the longest snake I have ever seen.  I had a great view from the tractor as he quickly crossed my path on the bluff facing west from the house.

Centipede

I saw this Centipede crossing in front of me this evening when I went out on the front walk.  Everything is bigger in Texas.  Probably 9-10 inches in length and moved pretty quick across the front lawn and into the flower bed.  Probably the right time to be out as I see a lot of Roadrunners this year, but they are usually out in the mornings.

Spring Wildflowers

We have cleared cedar trees immediately east of the house over the course of the past 18 months.  This spring the entire area was covered with beautiful Bluebonnets...the most I have seen on the ranch.  As the bluebonnets faded the area was then covered with some yellow flowers.  Now the area is covered with blooming purple thistles.  Very interesting and a colorful spring just outside the front door.

I have also extended the clearing into a trail from the house to the mountain pasture gate.  I can actually Annie the donkey and the goats if they are by the gate.  Also how I'm able to hear and hopefully see critters going down the mountain on the wild animal trail.

Coyote Concert

I went outside about 11:00 pm to help DW unload some items (she had gone to the Cliftex and a movie with friends) from the car and we were able to catch an evening serenade by a pack of coyotes.  Sounds like the were in the goat pasture and with the trees we've recently cut between the house and that gate it was very loud and sounded like they were right on us.  That fence row basically completely crosses Rattlesnake Mt. and has always been a trail for critters going from Meridian Creek valley to Gary Creek valley.  Always find interesting tracks and a reason I could never have baby goats survive in that pasture.  It was a clear still night and a new moon as well, not sure if that played into the coyote concert.  Very interesting and somewhat scary if I had not been standing just feet from the front door.

This link will give you an idea:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtsZoIe3Czk 

January 2016

I don't keep this blog updated as I should.  I logged in tonight to add Eastern Meadowlark to the Birds Observed.  One crashed into the patio window and was stunned.  I put him outside the dog area...he should be fine.  Bigger bird than I thought.

I've been clearing due east of the house.  There was almost a straight line of dead cedar.  It's taken a year working on and off and I actually now have a new trail that goes directly from the circle in front of the house to the pasture gate between the homestead and the goat pasture.  There has been a lot of burning and rock hauling involved in that project.

Gosh...haven't posted here in a year.  Facebook has pretty much replaced blogging although I haven't posted on the TOR FB page much either.

Traveled a lot in 2014, but spending the entire summer on the ranch.  Got a lot of to-do lists finished.  Cleaned cedars from fence rows, pushed and burned a lot of dead cedar trees, and burned some 1970's burn piles.  We were able to do more burning than normal as we had the wettest May in many years.  We had a good six weeks of perfect burn weather and took advantage of it.

Cleaned cedar from around the old Twisted Oak and it looks great, you can now see it from the ranch road.

Given up on goats...too many predators.  Sold all but two young Billies who will keep Annie company.  I can loan them out for breeding to neighbors.

Year of the rabbit...they are everywhere.  Lot's of Armadillo as well.

We have Grass

We have not had enough rain to break the drought, but we have received timely rains this year.  We have had nice grass since spring.  The goats and Annie all look healthy with mice slick coats.

Due to neighbors dogs and coyotes we have not had any new baby goat kids for several years.  This year we did borrow a billy and we have ten surviving kids this season.  I'm still not sure of the sex of them but they are all now weened and looking forward to feeding time just like the adult goats.

It has been a very cold winter this year...no grass all season.  I have had two large bales of hay delivered and feeding goat feed as supplement.  Much different and more expensive than last year when we had grass all winter.

It’s been forever since I have made an update.  It’s been a busy fall and winter, I/we have done several Caribbean cruises, traveled Italy, and done a TransAtlantic cruise.
We are very fortunate to have a good friend that likes to stay at the house/ranch while we are away.

As a result of a lot of travel I decided to try the MVP protein goat food that is manufactured in Clifton.  I can purchase a 100lb. tub and it will supplement the goats while we are away.  That way they can forage and just get fed occasionally.  It really seems to work well.

It’s been an overall dry fall and winter.  We have had some rain, but most tanks in the area are very low or dry.   I think we have had enough for spring flowers.  We’ll see.

I have had cedar choppers who are cutting the cedar that died during the drought.  One began harvesting good cedar even cutting some oak to get to them, but I discovered it right away and made a call to the sheriff for theft. 

The goats did get into the new plants we planted last spring around the house.  I sure hope they come back this year or I’m in trouble.  I also need grass to cover the area just east of the house and drive where we cut a lot of cedar.  At least we will have a new good parking area.

July 2012

It's Hot!  What else could we expect but hot in July?  At least it's not as quite as bad as last year although it has been 106° a few days.  Only 17 days over 100° so far and we had over 80 last year.

We have had cedar choppers harvesting some cedar trees that died from last years drought.  These are just east of the house so we will eventually have some extra parking for when we have big events here at the ranch.  I was able to burn the cedar tops before the burn ban went into effect.  I've been burning stumps within the fire ring since.  It's been too hot to completely finish the area, but it will get done by fall.

It's been nice watching the young fawns come up to the house this summer.  There are three fawns with the does that come on a regular basis. 

We seems like we have even more Painted Buntings this year.  Fewer hummingbirds though.

June

We had a nice rain this week, 2.8 inches, that has really helped.  It was starting to get dry although I believe we are having cooler weather so far this year.

The cactus has bloomed and now gone, the thistles have bloomed, and the Mountain Pinks are just coming out.  All right on schedule.  

A beautiful Painted Bunting has been taking a daily bath in the fountain.  Really seems to enjoy it.

The ranch looks good, we hosted a big cook out, and the weather and steaks were great.

All is well at Twisted Oak Ranch.

Centipede

This monster (about 6") was near the front door last night.  

I was bit by a larger purple one through my glove a few years ago....it hurts.

It's odd, our scorpions are small, but the centipedes are huge.

Life on the Ranch

This season has to be the best wildflower season in many years in this part of Texas.  Last year we were already into the drought, but this year the fall rain at germination time and the spring rains it really has produced a bumper crop.  Wildflowers everywhere.  Of course pollen is also high so those with allergies are effected. 

I did something I really don't like to do because of most times the end is not good, but I did bottle feed a little kid goat.  She was really sweet and thought she was one of the dogs.  Always stayed around the house and entertained us.  She progressed from bottle to grass and after two months it was time to introduce her to life as a goat in the goat pastures.  Unfortunately she has disappeared probably to a predator.  Without a mother the young ones tend to wander off and that is dangerous.

Speaking of predators I did see a rare 'black' coyote.  This was just before the kid disappeared too so I will be looking to eliminate this coyote if I can.  It will be luck to see it again and have a gun at the same time.  I will try some snares.

We have had some light rains this spring so the trees and grasses are looking very good.  We had perfect burning weather this week so I was able to burn a large brush pile in the goat pasture that had been needing it since the drought.  Also burned three very large old oak trees that had fallen.  Still a lot of clearing and cleaning to do.  Lot's of dead trees in the mountain pasture and lots of dead cedar due to the drought.  I'll try to harvest posts from the cedar, they are paying pretty good for good posts.  Maybe I'll get enough to pay for the new Stihl chain saw I recently purchased.  I haven't used it yet, but it will get a lot of use soon.

The Painted Buntings have arrived as have the Hummingbirds.  The goldfish in the wildlife tank survived another winter and are huge. 

The weather has been excellent.  Not really hot as of mid-May.  We really aren't using the pool yet other than a few days after working the burn piles.

First Day of Spring--Heavy Rains

We have had some good rains in March. Earlier in the month we got 2" and last night we received a good 4 ½ inches of rain. It was much needed and has filled all the stock tanks in the area. Hopefully this will break the drought we have had for over a year. Looks good so far. It's the first time that we have had run off for over two years. I had to go and inspect my dry creek that I built behind the cabin. (photo above) It worked great. I haven't seen water in it for a long time. Gary creek is running very strong.

The Jasmine is beginning to bud. Most of the Spanish Oaks are now fully budded. The Texas Live Oaks are in transition. The Prairie Verbina is blooming and more to bloom. It will be very thick this year. The other wildflowers are getting close to bloom. Grass is beginning to look good.

It looks we will have a nice spring this year!

Mild Winter

It has been a mild beginning to 2012. The weather has been good. We have had a few days below freezing, but many more days of 70°+ temperature. We have also been blessed with over 5 inches of rain in January and February. It has been very good for the trees.

I've let the goats graze on the 'house side' as usual in the winter months. There is plenty of cedar and cedar grass over here and the mountain pasture is very dormant. They probably have culled a lot of the potential wildflowers, but that's OK they need the roughage.

The trees have just begun their transition. The largest Spanish Oak on the place is fully budded and a lot of the others are about to do it. The largest live oak is starting to loose its leaves now as well.

The deer are not as active. The fawns are now big enough to jump the fences so they are probably all up on the mountain.

Good Bye 2011

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

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

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

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

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.