The Hackberry Tree

I took this photo Tuesday of the hackberry tree and thought I should tell its story. This entire area was covered in cedar when we bought the place, but located in a draw between two ridges so it had potential. This area was in front of the cabin we were working on and after cleaning up in the immediate area of the cabin was the first place we wanted to clear cedar. A friend, F.M. Daniels, from Fort Worth came down and we had two chain saws working for two days cutting cedar. Most were the bushy type, 10-15' tall (some taller) and big around with numerous limbs, that had grown in the past 30-35 years. In the photo you will now see a beautiful stand of live oaks. These were completely covered by the cedars and could not be seen at all at the time. We had two big fires burning the cedar tops as we cut and a for few days following. After the cedar was cut there was an old dead oak tree about 25-30' tall and a scraggily hackberry beside it about 12' tall. You can see the stump of the oak that I now use as a base for feeding deer. Although the hackberry was scrawny having grown among the cedar I wanted to keep it as it was the ONLY hackberry tree on the ranch. The next week I engineered how I was going to cut the big oak down, but despite my best efforts it came down and broke the hackberry tree in half. Oh well, I tried. I decided to pick a good spot on the trunk of the hackberry about 5' from the ground and made a diagonal cut across and hope for the best. Well you can see the excellent results. Without the cedars the tree grew in a perfect balance and now looks fantastic. Although many hackberry trees are considered a nuisance tree this one looks very good, has good fall color, and provides food for the birds. And as mentioned it's the ONLY hackberry tree on the ranch.

Note how good the stand of Texas Live Oak trees look. They have doubled in size since all the cedar were cleared away from them. That's Gary Mountain in the background. BTW-the area cleared is larger than in the photo and the photo taken with the zoom lens also makes it look smaller than normal. I only put corn in that feeder when we have guests in the cabin, but this is now a favorite 'hang out' for deer.

Halloween

Weather continues to be very nice at the end of October. Highs from 78-83° and lows in 40's. The tank is getting low again from what little rain we have had overall. We are getting rain, but just not enough for run off.

I finished clearing along the new trail and did have two brush fires burning, one on top of the mountain and one below. The trail looks good. I would clear more, but there are areas closer to the house that needs work and has a higher priority.

While clearing I kept playing tag with a deer. I'd be on one end and she would move to the other. Then I would work the other end and she went opposite. I thought it was a goat at first as she wouldn't move too far. I saw a flock of huge turkey just down the county road. They have been taking advantage of the good grasses, grain, and feed. These were all very big birds.

I did drive up to Meridian to renew an auto tag and saw our Congressman at the courthouse. Good to see he is paying some attention to Bosque County during the campaign.

Great Weather

October has always been my favorite month. College Football, the World Series, and best of all cooler weather. The evenings are getting cool and the days are pleasant. We actually had a freeze warning for this morning although I don't think it got that cold. We were away from the ranch in mid-month but we got a good two+ inches of rain and everything looked very good when we got home. The grass looks wonderful and has greened-up in areas that had already gone dormant. Many of the Spanish Oaks have started to turn color this week. Gary Mountain looks very nice looking out the office window. I've seen the fall wildflowers come out as well.

Yesterday the mail man dropped off a book I had ordered, Texas Gardening the Natural Way by Howard Garrett. I listen to him on the radio when I get a chance and of course have ONLY used natural products on Twisted Oak Ranch. I was actually living the 'natural way' before the 'Dirt Doctor' even thought about it and fed my plants with brewed tea long before 'Garrett Juice' or compost tea became popular. I mention this as yesterday I set out some garlic that some neighbors have given me. The neighbors place is well known locally for their garlic and I dug some up for transfer over the weekend. I plan on using the garlic in my cooking and to make garlic sprays for the garden as recommended by the new book.

The deer have not been as active around my feeders as usual although I did see a nice buck this morning about 9:30 am which I thought was late. Although now that I think of it that's about the time I do see the really big bucks. I guess it's the TOR deer that come at dusk and dawn. One reason I'm not seeing as many deer at the corn feeder is the number of acorns. I've never seen so many acorns on the ground. In some places the ground is solid with them.

Tessie is very much at home now. She loves to run and go for her walks. I guess I would too if I lived in a cage for a long time. I'm glad we rescued her. She did fall out of the gator for the second time recently. She just doesn't have a sense of balance. She won't get into the gator on her own, but you can't keep Kenzie out of it. Kenzie helps a lot as Tessie watches what she does. Kenzie rooted out an Armadillo and unseen by Kenzie it made a break for it, but Tessie chased it down a trail almost to the mountain pasture. She didn't know what to do with it, but she enjoyed running after it. Sense then she has actually tried to pick up scents when Kenzie makes her rounds. She's a house dog, but is gradually learning the ways on the ranch.

I did get back into the land clearing routine last week. The burn ban is off so I burned most of the brush I piled up when I opened the new little cross trail in August. I also did some dirt work so that there's not a big drop off the ledge. (Locals know what I mean by the ledge: These mountains are actually geologically mesas and have a limestone cap from 8-24" thick on top at about the 1000' elevation. So there is usually always a ledge between the limestone and the caliche below. It makes for nice bluffs and the cliffs you see in the area. BTW-below the caliche you hit limestone rock again.) So now the new trail is very nice for both walking and driving the gator. I still have to trim and cut cedar away from around the higher quality trees to make it look even better. And there is always cedar debris from the 1930's to clear. From just what I have already cleared there is a view to the south you can now see from the trail.

I'm still getting used to the new county road. The pea gravel on top hasn't been sweep as they want it packed as well as possible. We just don't get enough traffic to pack it much more than it probably is now though.

October Rain

We finally got some rain last night, about 1.375 inches. That's a nice rain and will probably assure grass until we get a freeze. Good for the goats and wildlife.

I have not noticed near as many small critters such as rabbits, squirrels, & raccoons around lately. I wonder if we have another big cat around? Could be the lack of water on top of the mountain though. I will watch for signs.

Update: We received another .8 of rain this evening. That's a good 2" of rain total.

Turkey Buzzards

All is still well on the Ranch. Very dry, but we still have grass.

I haven't really been doing any extra work on the ranch, just the usual goat feeding, watering, maintaining wildlife feeders, etc., but now that I have my dental work complete I hope to get back in the groove. I do feel better already. I have the chain saws back from the small engine tune up mechanic so it's time to start cutting and trimming again. I need to finish the new short cross trail and we are going to clear cedar from behind the cabin. Perhaps some cleaning along the county road. From there we will see what needs to be done.

This morning when I awoke I noticed a lot of Turkey Buzzards circling just to the west of us near my 1468 gate. We know what that means so I went down to check it out. When there are that many vultures it's usually something big like a deer and there's always a bit worry that it could be worse. Well I did find the source of their interest. There were three feral hogs along the fence row. Not sure who shot them. Could have been poachers or they could have been dumped there. We do get poachers along the road at night. One interesting thing with the new paved road is that you can actually hear cars better than before. Would not have thought that. We rarely have a car on the road as far out as I live on the county road so it will make catching poachers easier.

Fall arrives

All is well on the ranch.

The weather is beginning to cool. Still dry, but lots of grass. Not seeing as many deer, but there are acorns everywhere no so they have plenty to eat. It will be time to do more clearing soon.

We have a Road!

The county has finished our county road. We now have a 'paved' road all the way from our gate to town. Hopefully this will help on the wear and tear of our automobiles. Of course it may bring more flatlanders (tourists) as well, but the road doesn't really go anywhere and the paving stops not far beyond my last gate so perhaps not. The road is 100% better than what we had before. Good.

Now speaking of wear & tear on autos, a deer ran into the Trailblazer on Thursday night. Yes it ran into a stopped car at the Crossroads. $2100 damage. Not Good.

We had some showers this week with some rain and today some wind and rain from hurricane Ike. Probably 1.5" for the week. Everything is green again. There is plenty of grass for the goats.

A little Rain

We've been gone for a week. We thought we would get some rain from hurricane Gustav, but nada, everything was dried out. We watered everything on Sunday. Then today we get rain, almost .65 inches. Very welcome and needed.

I'm sure the deer and birds are glad we are back as all the feeders are empty. We'll have everything back to normal soon.

What a great surprise to see the road paved when we turned onto CR 4195. They are about half way so it is coming!!

Big Bucks!

It's been a fast week. We did get 1/4+ inch of rain on Thursday evening. There were some other sprinkles, but no rain. Again it has been very isolated showers. Tank is dry, but we do have grass.

Road: Knowing that the price of asphalt had almost doubled I went into last weeks meeting prepared for calling a halt to the project and getting our money back. I mentally already had the money spent on a new sprinkler system around the house. One of the neighbors really made an effort to collect more commitments from the few who had not paid anything and one or two of the BIG ranches. He was able to make the project doable. We've deposited a bit more in the road fund and will again. The good news is that they will be paving the road and it will be done very soon.

This morning around 9:00 a.m. there were four bucks come up to the back looking for corn. I did have some on the ground. Two of these bucks were trophies. Huge with big racks. Not the largest I have seen, but #2 and #3 by far. The four stayed for a while, but were spooked and went up the mountain.

Road Repairs

Following the last post on Tuesday we did get some more rain, although very light. Total is still only about 1.2 inches. I think we did get a lot of nitrogen though as the grass has greened up very well. The rain/mist was so light some days that it may not have been measurable. It is unusual to have a weather system set over Texas for a week especially in August. We can not complain about that at all, but the tank is still bone dry. NO run off at all. We may have some chance of rain later in the week.

With the price of deer corn doubling in the past six months they are lucky we are still putting it out. I have started putting out less and it does seem to bring them out earlier in the evening. I guess it runs out sooner so first come first served. It's always gone by the following morning. I already culled a lot of raccoons.



Road Work: They have finally gotten down to my main gate with the base gravel work on the county road. It has been a two year project at this point. The county road is very hard to drive on with all the loose gravel until it gets packed down which has been very rough on our cars. It is certainly wider than before but it still seems low in some areas. Of course the rains we had last year probably would have gone across at most any height. The county has taken so long to get this work done that the price of road grade asphalt has doubled since the neighbors agreed to pay for the asphalt on this project. Most of the increase has been within the past month. Great timing. We have a neighborhood meeting scheduled for tonight in the neighbors barn so we'll see what develops. Interesting that they just got the road completed yesterday just beyond the gate where this meeting will occur. The road will be better once it is packed even if we don't pave it so having to put up with all the mess may have been worth it.