More on the wildlife at the farm.

Previously I commented on the big cat sighting Peg and I made early one morning less than a mile from the farm while driving in.  It was brought to my attention very quickly that we did not actually see it on our farm.  However I will argue all day that due to its proximity (less than a mile), it's range or territory does include our farm. 
We are being pressured by Ben (4 yrs), Peg's grandson, to fill the farm with a wide variety of farm animals.  He has decided that a Petting Zoo type environment would be really cool!  I am pushing him to reconsider as it is abundantly clear who would be feeding and caring for such a menagerie.  I hope to convince him that the native inhabitants are far more interesting (and less trouble).
Our addition of the Boss Buck deer feeder has been a lot of fun.  Although we have seen 2-4 whitetail deer emerging from the brush near the feeder to get water during the day, most of our sightings have been with the night vision camera set up at the feeder.  I don't remember how big the racks on the bucks we've seen were, but they've not been shabby.  Of course we have pictures of lots of mamas too.  We have also seen deer down by the culvert where there is a lot of protective brush.  Rooster, our lab, has long enjoyed chewing on antler pieces we purchase at the pet store.  It was not surprising when one time we were out hiking around, he went into the bushes and came out with a nice antler.  He was so proud of himself for making the discovery and danced and pranced waving it around in the air.
The coyote has appeared on the night vision camera several times.  When we've camped, we've heard the yelps as the family regroups after a night of hunting. 
Of course the always opportunistic raccoons make regular visits to the deer feeder.  We see them, on camera, eating the corn right beside the deer.  One afternoon recently, we saw this animal about the size of a medium size dog at the fence line.  It looked like it had been headed toward the feeder, then saw us, and turned and headed back to the trees on the other side of the fence.  We identified it as a raccoon, but it was a big one (Big Daddy?).
Rooster enjoys bringing armadillo to our attention.  We're not talking about the dead ones you see all over the roads of Texas, live ones rooting around.  He doesn't mess with them, he just will bark so we can see that he's found another one.  As Peg pointed out previously, we also have their holes/dens around.
Rooster barks to let us know he has found our big turtle (named Tommy) a couple times.  The turtle lives at the edge of the culvert and we always see him there.  Not sure what kind of turtle he is yet but we're working on it.
Since we've been working on the mesquite and piling it into brush piles to eventually be burned, we've seen cottontails and a jack rabbit or two.  I love bunnies and rabbits because they bring in the predators (hawks, owls, coyotes, and big cats (?)).  I do not point out this obvious fact when praising the greatness of the "local" residents to Ben. 
The next obvious question might be, What about snakes?  Well we've seen only one small green grass snake.  They have to be around, we've just not seen them.  Know all the poisonous ones are in the area...  Oh, several months ago we were siting under the Live Oak trees and saw a snake skin halfway up the tree.  It looked like a rat snake skin to me (good guess).
Sorry no pictures with this submission.  We haven't figured out how to transfer the pictures from the night vision camera and animals are not good about staying still and posing for us.