Ants on the farm

 

One animal that I have no trouble photographing is the Texas harvester ant.  They are easy to find at several locations on the farm.  We were told by someone "in the know" that it is a very good sign of a healthy environment if you have the harvester ant.  We probably have 7 or 8 mounds in 3 different locations.

Unfortunately, they are kind of small for pictures.  If you look for the reddish spot, you can see a bunch together.

The harvester ants are a favorite menu item for the Texas Horned Lizard.  Unfortunately, the horned lizard is endangered and I haven't seen any in the area of our farm.  In addition, the harvester ant is what you get sent when you have an ant farm.
Though the mounds really have very little height to them, they can be five to ten feet across.  The ants clear all of the plant products in every direction to create large circular open spaces.

The harvester ant gets its name because it harvests a variety of small seeds from grasses and plants.
If you look closely above (I know it is hard), you will see the yellowish hulls they've removed from the seeds before they store them.  They will also eat small insects. 
They mate after rainy days and the males die.  The females fly off, shed their wings, and begin new colonies by digging a burrow and laying eggs.  These ants eventually become worker ants, which care for other developing ants, build the nest, and forage for food.  There are reports that a single queen can live and reproduce for as long as 30 years in nature. 
The harvester can be aggressive when messed with.  Their sting hurts and some people have allergic reactions when stung.
I like this ant as it is beneficial to the environment.  However, too many mounds are not good as is true of any thing. 

Enjoying a beautiful day at the farm

We decided to spend a restful day at the farm yesterday.  Our only chore was to set up the night vision camera next to the deer feeder.

With the camera set up, hopefully we'll get some good pictures of interesting animals at the deer feeder.  Just for the record, we are watchers not hunters!

Then we headed to the tank for some good clean fun.  Rooster had already rolled in something really nasty and smelly on the walk to the feeder.  Hopefully he will spend enough time swimming around so that we don't have to endure it on the car ride home.

 

 

As you can see, we had some rain since last week.  Unconfirmed reports of 2-5 inches.  The tank is as full as we've seen it in some time.  The pasture looked green and lush.  A good spot to dry off after a dip...

 

Well, one dog got a bath and rub-down.  The other was off after a dip to find more nasty stuff to roll in.

 While Rooster was running around, we sat and enjoyed the view, the quiet, and the peace.



 

 

 

Beulah is always contemplative and "in the moment."

Then we headed back to the live oak grove to eat lunch, read, and bird watch.  This is how our picnic set-up looks.

While Rooster enjoys the "busier/social" aspects of picnicking, Beulah has her own routine...

 

Of course no place says home like the restroom.  We are so grateful for our "bit of civilization in the country."

The weather was perfect, in the low 90s with a breeze out of the south.  It was cool and comfortable in this beautiful setting.

As we sat, ate lunch, read, snoozed, and bird watched, we could not have enjoyed ourselves more.  We had seen our owls when we drove in, listened to a host of birds singing in the canopy of the trees, and watched a family of bluebirds as the young were taught how to catch bugs while darting out from the edge of the branches and back again.

We had a fantastic day at Little Bluestem!

The result of no zoning...

Well as most people moving to the country discover, not everyone has the same aspirations and goals.  Like us, they want to enjoy the peace and quiet without a bunch of restrictions and the neighborhood busy bodies breathing down their necks to cut their lawns and keep their yards picked up.  Everyone wants to make their property reflect their personality--notice the large tractor tire in the front yard below.  This landowner's property is on a 2 acre tract of land that was carved out by the highway department when they tried to straighten out the main road.  This little piece is separated from it's original much larger acreage by the road.  The original land owner sold this little strip so he wouldn't have to bother with it.  He sold it dirt cheap, with the consequences pictured below.  Several people have attempted to buy this guy out, but even with it being an eye-sore, no one wants to pay the premium price he is asking.  If he should sell it for what he's asking, it would be the highest price per acre in the county.  So, we all drive by, point, shake our heads, and pray for a fast moving, area specific, fire.

The Live Oak Grove

 

This is a view of the shaded grove of live oak trees as we drive in the west gate of Little Bluestem.  You will notice the many large branches that hang over the open space below.  One of the things we love about driving in early in the mornings is there is a pretty good chance we will see perched on the branches two great horned owls.  We have to come in slowly and be very observant or we'll miss them because they do not want to be around us and quickly take wing.  The vary large and old live oak trees in this grove are to the left of this view.  We can only guess that these trees are probably over 150 years old. 

You may see the storage building where we keep our chairs, grill, tent, etc.  No matter what time of summer, there is always a cool breeze through this shady spot.  We've eaten many a lunch and had a few overnight camping experiences under the protection of these gorgeous trees.

Besides the owls, we see and hear all sorts of other birds in these trees.  The chickadees and titmice are probably the most active.  The cardinals are very vocal and visible as they call to each other and the fledged babies.  On the branches which are at the edges of the grove, we see scissor-tailed flycatchers and other flycatchers which are as yet unidentified.  They swoop out into the open, grab a bug, and swoop back to the protection of the branches/trees.  At the vary tops of the trees, I hear finches and warblers.  These little guys are very difficult to make a positive ID on because of the bright sky behind them.  I plan to install several bluebird boxes in the future as I've seen them on various wires.  I was feeling pretty good about the songbird population in general until I saw a small flock of cow birds.  This bird lays its eggs in the nests of song birds and pushes the song birds' eggs out.  The poor song birds end up raising a "no-good-welfare-destined" mooch. 

Flying over the pastures are a variety of hawks, falcons, and buteos.  Again, if the lighting isn't perfect for me to ID them, they get called a hawk, falcon, or buteo.  Have seen and heard a red-tailed hawk along the drive.  Scavenging are the vultures and the caracara.  The caracara historically is found further south, but as the weather has heated up, they've extended their range north. 

 

 It is always pretty sad when I have to include pictures from books.  If the bird or animal is not front and center when I'm in the mood to take its picture (mostly I just love to watch what they are doing) then it just doesn't happen.  Maybe my attitude will change now that I have some place to post them.  On the other hand, it may not...

A Thorny Situation

One of the many things we love about Little Bluestem is the openness of the land.  Unfortunately, the previous owner did not stay up with some very important maintenance.  Controlling the mesquite is extremely important as it spreads widely and quickly.  The mesquite tree puts out a long pod full of beans/seeds.  Cows like to eat these.  As cows move around their environment, they poop.  If they are eating mesquite pods/beans, they are pooping mesquite beans into a ready-made delightfully fertilized mess.  Wherever they poop, we have a new mesquite tree in the making.  So farmers must spray the trees in early summer every year.  They use a combo of diesel and a herbicide called Remi. 

 

The tree above was sprayed about 3 weeks ago.  It is dying obviously, but you can already see the number one reason we don't like these trees, the thorns.

My fingers give some perspective of the medium size thorns on this tree.  I had to turn my car around one day and was off road very briefly and got a large thorn stuck in the side wall of my tire.  There was nothing I could do but buy a new tire!

So besides spraying, what are we doing?  Well, we're pulling down the dead trees and limbs and putting them into brush piles to be burned.  Since 2010, we have sprayed every year and finally most of the trees have died and dried out enough to be pulled down.  The trees that were sprayed this year will be left to die and dry out.  Our brother, Jonathan, has asked us to send him a 10 lb bag of mesquite every month so he can use it in his Bar-B-Q.  Not happening!  He also passed on this little known bit of trivia:  if you throw a chunk of dried mesquite into a swimming pool, it will sink to the bottom.  It will not float!  It is a tough and formidable adversary to say the least!

 

 

We are lucky that we don't have that much mesquite to remove.  But it is still a lot of work to do it by hand.  We really can't use a tractor because the thorns will get into the tires.  A bulldozer would be ideal, but then what would we do once all of it was dozed and piled up for us?  At this point, the 100+ degree weather causes my brain to scream, "Be smart and pay for a dozer!"

 






We've got termites?

 Yes, we've got them!  If you look at the stalk of grass, it is enclosed in a combo of plant particles, dirt, and termite spit.  I'm told this is called a termite tube.  The tube is how the termite does what a termite does in a controlled and protective environment.  It can eat the grass stalk without "worries."

 

Here's another one.  



You can see the tubes follow the patterns of the fallen grass.

 

 

More tubes.  These have some holes which suggests they may be abandoned.  Termites are one of those social kinds of insects with workers, queens, etc.  They are not part of the ant family.  They are very particular about their environment.  When the temps rise or fall into ranges they don't like, they head underground where the temperatures are constant.  They also need the humidity to be very high (95-100% range) so will burrow into the ground all the way to the water table.  This is good news for us because it may indicate that the area where we see these tubes may be where the water table is closest to the surface.  We will keep this in mind when we drill our well. 

 

We also see these tubes covering whole branches (small ones) of woody bushes and trees.  Unfortunately, when I went to try to find one to take a picture, I couldn't remember where I had seen them.

Cow Musings...

The cows on our land are not ours.  They belong to the guy who is renting our farm.  From various spots and at various times we have observed this group.  When we sit and eat our lunch, all the babies slowly move en mass closer to watch us.  They often will get within 10-15 feet.  I will stand up at this point and they will move away, only to slowly approach once more.  A year ago, we were eating and watching as a lone cow came out of the trees by the culvert.  She walked all the way over to the other side of the pasture where the other cows were and mooed several times.  All the cows stopped grazing and followed her back across the pasture to the protective area of the culvert.  They all disappeared into the brush and trees.  We didn't see what all the fuss was about, but have assumed she was showing her new calf to the herd as there were several fairly new babies among the group.

 

The picture quality is not great, but above is where the proposed site of the house has been staked.  By the way, this will be the view from the back porches.  Anyway, we have staked and re-staked and re-staked at least four times.  Each time, the cows knock down the stakes and stomp on the flags and wooden stakes.  Last week we decided to use rebar with the flags.  Saturday we checked and the rebar was still in the ground, but the flags were torn off.  We reflagged the rebar.

 

Each birdfeeder is low enough so we can easily fill it without a ladder.  The cows reach up and knock the feeders and spill the contents.  Often doing it while we are still in sight.

I am an avid carnivore and love beef.  What I have discovered is cows are a very social and curious group.  I am trying not to think too deeply about these creatures and the fate that awaits them.  Peg is determined that we will raise our own cows in the future.  I don't know if I'll be able to send our "charges" to market... And eating them, well, I just couldn't do it............ (Per Peg: "the current "rage" is grass fed beef...any takers?")

Big News for Bartlett

The big news which made the front page of the Temple Daily Telegram newspaper is that Bartlett (7 miles from Little Bluestem) is going to host the second series set for the NBC television series "Revolution" about a post-apocalyptic America.  The first season was about a civilization suddenly finding itself without technology...maybe an EMP?  See below the movie set they are building which may cause a slight inconvenience to the town as it is closing down Evie street.



For the out-of-towners see below Main street.

Here is our West gate entrance which is one of our first improvements and leads into the Oak Groove on the West side of Little Blue.

And speaking of gates ...here is the South gate tractor entrance which is slated for a new gate.  This gate is "impossible" to close so we never use it but essential for large farm equipment.

Well June is not the best time for pictures as the affects of the drought really take its toll and the grasses have turned from the lush greens to dried out grasses.  This corn is dry enough now so will be harvested this next week.

The farm dog a.k.a. the nose "Beulah" getting a drink. 

 Well this hole is six feet in depth and demonstrates the correct drainage soil type for the septic that will need to get installed for house.

 

The house will be built on part of the upper wheat field which was separated by electric fencing from the cow pasture.  We put in a cattle guard separating the house and the cow pasture so we would not have to add another gate. 
 

 One less gate to open....

Yes we are "city" enough to feed the birds..

 

 

The electric is overhead until you get within 800 feet of the house then goes underground.  City enough not to want to view the poles from the house...

 

Always check on the mustang grapes.

 

Well this bull nettle will need to get eradicated.

 

 The drought has kicked in and the pond is losing water.  Down a foot in a week.

Enjoying the peace of the country.

 

 We always walk to the pond so the ani-mules can take a dip.

 The cows get fed corn stalks, not high in protein but a little something.

 We had a visitor this weekend so left the pond to see who.

 

 Beulah pretty excited to hear a diesel truck...part of her old pack.

And so two now.