Snow

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.

We're Back

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.