Tree Update 2016

I have received a bit of criticism regarding my extensive coverage of the calves this spring.  So in an effort to "please" my few readers, I will be more expansive in my farm coverage.

In February of 2015 we purchased three red oaks and one live oak and had them planted.  Below you can see they have leafed out...

 red oak

 red oak

 Levy Family red oak gift

live oak

All the trees are thriving and will provide much appreciated shade in the future.

Before we left our home in the Dallas area, we were given a gift of a red oak tree clump by our beautiful red oak tree in our front yard.  This clump of trees has traveled with us to the farm.  We planted it last spring and today it is doing very well.  

During January we planted all of the small live, red, and burr oak trees we had planted from acorns before we left Dallas.  Amazingly these trees are doing extremely well!  A few are represented below:

This group is very small in tree size, but everyone of these trees has leafed out and seems happy to be in the landscape.

Peg's birthday pecan trees gift from the Arietis are doing well...

A quick check of the recently planted bare root plum trees revealed that every tree was beginning to leaf out!

Unfortunately, the little buds and leaves are hard to see but they are there.

Finally, looking to the future I am happy to announce that the acorns planted last fall are beginning to sprout!  More babies!!!  I am hoping that these trees will be the replacements for some of those lost and we are still loosing from the drought of three years ago.  These trees will go out into the pasture when they are ready.  

infant burr oak

I think our father would be tickled to see us carrying on his legacy of planting trees.  For me it is what I am suppose to do as a citizen of planet earth.

More Baby Pictures

It was a lovely evening so I headed out into the pasture to visit the calves.  They had just had dinner and were feeling content.

Lucky was one of the first to come over to me as I sat in the go-buggy.  I have seen her running around a lot lately which tells me she's doing well.

What a sweet little face!  Although she lead everyone over to me, she did not get as close as the others.
Here is Biscuit.  He chewed on the seats and floor.  I was able to reach down and pet her nose. Surprise is behind her.  Surprise was chewing on the bumper!

Foggie is always curious and comes by whenever I stop.  I am amazed by his growth!  I went back and looked at his pictures from a couple months ago and he's become a big guy.

Think this is the baby crop for the spring.  The bull was a short distance away courting one of the ladies.  So I have more babies to look forward to in the future!

Catch Up

Need to go back and do some catching up from the last couple months.  So...

Peg has wanted to start a pecan tree grove.  So for her birthday Jonnie, Jim, and I provided funds for the first two trees in her grove.  These pictures were taken in February and since then they have leafed out.

Peg has also searched and searched for wild plum trees.  Finally she ordered six little baby bare root trees that we have planted on the north side of house.  No leaves yet but we have our fingers crossed.

And then there is The Castle...  I received it as a Christmas present back in 2014.  Peg bought it for me as the sales person said it would only take half a day to put together.  We worked on it for close to 20 hours.  Finally we quit because we were arguing whenever we sat down to work on it.  I should have known we were in trouble when the bag of screws, nuts, washers, etc. filled up a large cereal bowl. Before Thanksgiving we called a friend who came and got it to put, what we referred to as "the nightmare" together.  He called a week or so ago and said he thought it was "as good as it was going to get" and set it up.  There were several challenges associated with the set up.  He repeated several times under his breath, "and the nightmare continues!"  We missed the March return of the Purple Martins this year because of the late date of set up.  There have been a couple mama and daddy martins by to check it out, but no renters. Maybe next year...

Winter

Winter is our new adoptee.  She is about eight years old and comes to us from a sad past.  Anyone who knows us must realize, as Winter does, she has been relocated to Doggie Heaven On Earth (our home). Her eyes remind us of a family human friend.  We have discovered that Winter is almost blind, hears nothing, has heartworms (is being treated for them), and is afraid of thunderstorms. Having said all that, she is the sweetest thing.  We call her Little Bit because when they bobbed her tail, they took off too much and she only has a little bit left.

Here she is modeling her new Thunder Vest.  I am praying that all the commercials are accurate and this thing works.  Otherwise, the stormy nights are going to be very long and unpleasant!

Reclaiming A Brush Burned Area

As we burn brush, we try to reclaim the burned areas.  Usually we throw out some rye grass seed.  On this day, brother Jon had sent us some little blue stem and flower seeds.  The grand kids wanted to help so we put them to work.

A fun time was had by all, and we have our fingers crossed that the seeds will germinate!

Babies

Foggie and Snowflake continue to be best friends.  It is unusual to see one without the other.

 Foggie and Snowflake

This is Biscuit.  Not sure of sex, but Biscuit is one of the recently born calves.
Below is Dot.  A couple days after Biscuit was born, I looked out in the pasture and saw this white dot, hence the name.

After a recent rainstorm, Surprise was born.  A real cutie by all accounts!

Our most recent arrival is Lucky.  Lucky got the name because there were a bunch of vultures feeding on a dead skunk at the time of his birth.  Those birds unable to get to the dead skunk decided to try to get Lucky.  Lucky's mama chased them away until he was able to stand.  He is lucky his mama loved him so much!

Finally an update on ADD.  She's grown into a beautiful little calf!  She is still is very independent, but knows her limits.  

The nursery usually comprises all the babies at some point during the day.  Make no mistake, there is at least one mama close by watching over the youngsters!

Friends

It has been fun to watch the developing friendship between the two youngest members of the herd. Snowflake and Foggie are adorable together.  Yesterday when I was working in the yard, I looked out into the pasture.  I could only see Snowflake and she was snoozing.  I watched and looked but could not see Foggie.  Finally Snowflake stood up and created a shadow, I thought, in the sunny pasture. The shadow was Foggie!  The two had taken a nap together side by side.  Both then "poked" over to their mamas for a snack.

The mamas "tag team" watching their youngsters.   Also, I got a "visual" on Foggie, and he is a boy.

Thought this was a cute picture of Snowflake as she was waking up from a nap.