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.