July

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?

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

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

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

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

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

Kenzie
RIP
8 July 1999 - 26 April 2010

Nice Week

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

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!

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.