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.

Meteor

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.