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.

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.