We're Harvesting!

Yes, we're harvesting some cool weather crops.  A bit of lettuce, spinach, and radishes...

We had a wonderful salad with our turkey bone soup!  I had forgotten how wonderfully tasty fresh vegetables are.

"Knock-on-wood" the critters stay away from the crop!

It's Done!

It's done!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Yep, we finally finished the front walk.  It was back-breaking work, but we're done.  We had a big rain event a couple days ago and the water drained away from the house the way it was suppose to, so that's good.  Now we need to move all of the extra crushed granite and flagstone--another back-breaking job...

Big Move

We had been planning to move the protein feeder down next to the deer feeder for several months because it was getting no feeding action.  We had asked several people to do it for us but all have been busy---deer hunting.  So we did it ourselves.  Thankfully is was fairly light and easy to take apart and put back together.  So here it sits in anticipation of some hungry deer...

Pantry

The drought over the summer was broken by heavy rains we got at the end of October and during November.  Unfortunately, the warm growing season was over so little grass was produced.  Now the cows are having to be fed hay that is brought in.  The hay bail area becomes the hangout for everyone.  It reminds me of a charity food pantry.  The cows, like people, come running when there is a delivery.

You can see ADD standing there with her daddy.  Dad is babysitting while mom is off running an errand.

Water

Water is a big deal in this neck-of-the-woods.  Thankfully we have a tank that has been reliable providing water for all the critters on our plot.

Interestingly we have two other very old tanks which fill when we get copious rainfall.

This old tank is down by the deer feeder.  When it is at its fullest, is is about 2.5-3 feet deep.  Rooster loves to walk around in it when it is full during the hot summer days.

This tank is probably the oldest.  It is located west of the drive a couple hundred yards in the trees.  It is here that we see our turtle friend, Timmy, when he's out and about.  Again, this tank only fills when there is a very heavy rain.  One reason I am calling attention to them is they are attracting all kinds of ducks.  Both offer lots of protection from the elements and are great hiding places from predators.  The bad news is it works both ways.  I watched a coyote stalk ducks the other morning along the edge of one.  He came close to getting a meal but failed on this day.

Early December Sunset

The sunsets have been spectacular the last few days.  Here are a couple examples...

future one....

This is a late December sunset; another "feast for the eyes!"

Rewarded

A couple weeks ago, Peg and I put the fencing panels surrounding the deer feeder back up.

The extra money we spent on the stronger posts paid off.  The other day when the cows made a check of our work and were not able to push over the posts and get in, we felt pretty good about our work!

Cooler Weather

Took this picture the other morning when the air temperature was in the low thirties.  The tank water was so much warmer than the air temperature, a little fog was created.  Then add a slow north breeze, and it becomes a little spooky.

Update On ADD

Even though ADD is kind of a free spirit, it is very difficult to get close.  I finally was able to and made the discovery that he really is a she.  She has grown and is acting more like a little calf.  After a delicious breakfast prepared by her mama, ADD heads away to join the small group of calves.  She is the youngest so after a bit of time with them, she follows her mama out into the pasture and lays down for a nap while she grazes.  And that is pretty much the order of things throughout her day.

 
From this photo, it is apparent how much she has grown in the last month or so.  Looking around at the other mama cows, it is obvious that several of them are fixing to "domino".  So ADD will have some new friends soon!

Work Continues Two

Now that we know how much work the front walk is going to be, we're beginning the procrastination process.  It is back breaking work!  I would like to say there is some fun and a sense of accomplishment in a task done well, but for me there isn't any.  Yet we continue...

Our latest strategy to keep us at least marginally focused, is to do a little bit every weekend.  My next posting of the walk will show it as complete.

Work Continues

The work continues on the front walk.  We were unable to do anything Saturday because of the wind and cold.  Winds of 25-35 mph brought in a front.  It was very unpleasant.  Today it was cold but there was little wind so we worked 2-3 hours digging out some more of the walkway.

We are two-thirds finished at this point.

The crushed granite and flagstone were delivered.  Seems like a lot of both!

We have been putting the soil we've removed in low spots along the drive.  Not sure how successful it will be redirecting rain water to other areas.  If we are able to eliminate some standing water after a hard rain, we've done okay.

What's Going On?

The last couple of weekends our focus has been the yard, garden and preparing the walk for the flagstone.

 lettace and spinach

 radishes and turnips

 green onions, kale, and carrots

We'll see where we are in 45 days.  It is too early to be bothered by critters but I'm not holding my breath.  

We have ordered the flagstone and granite base so we can install the front walk.  Peg has done an excellent job digging down the 5-6 inches we need to dig so we can install it.  I'm not much good helping with my bad back, but I haul the excess dirt away and have taken and planted the buffalo grass plugs in several places.  We had to wait for the rains to make the soil loose enough to be dug out.  

After several hours of work, we are a little more than a third of the way through the digging.  Peg is a real work horse tho she does get a little grumpy if I don't do things just the way she wants me to. There is no special machine we know of she can get to make this job any easier.  Honestly, I am afraid to have her working with "that" kind of machine!  Once it's all dug out, then we need to create the walkway.  

Kind of a poor example of the plugs I planted, but it's a start.  We also tore up the soil for a larger area around the house to be planted with the buffalo grass seed.  The only grass that survived the 41/2 months of no rain, was the buffalo grass.

It is practically impossible to see the new baby buffalo grass seedlings, but they are there.  The very green grasses coming up is the rye grass from last year.

Peg spent some time hitting my old acorn hunting grounds in Dallas recently.  We have planted an assortment of live oak, red oak, and burr oak acorns for future tree plantings.  The babies are enclosed to protect them from the digging critters.

I happen to know that an armadillo dug the hole below.  He has gotten into my potted flowers and dug hundreds of holes out in the yard.  The devastation is horrible!  The bunnies are also doing massive amounts of digging.  What a challenge they pose for the farmer!

Thelma And Louise

The neighbors have brought their cows back to their land next to ours.  I think I mentioned the last time the cows were there that they had two donkeys.  Well Thelma and Louise have returned with the herd.  I'm not sure which is which though they are different.

One has a white nose and the other a black nose.  The black nose donkey is curious but stand offish.  The white nose donkey will eat grass out of my hand and will let me pet her.  By the way, they are both Jennys, which means they are girls (as implied by their names).  God really over did the ears!

The New Member Of The Herd

Here is the newest calf arrival.  I am calling him ADD, which I will explain later.

 He's about three days old in this picture.

Here is ADD with his mama.  His mama is the only black cow in the herd.  So I look for her, then ADD.  Since ADD's arrival, I have observed her strong motherly connection and incredible patience.
I first observed ADD a couple days before I took these pictures.  What caused me to pay attention to this little guy was his mama would start walking with him at her side.  After only two or three steps, he would make a right angled turn and head off in a completely different direction.  She would hurry over to him, get him along her side again, start walking, and ADD would do the same thing.  I watched this over and over.  He seemed to have his own agenda or as I suspect, could not stick to what needed to be done.  With coyotes running through the pastures all day long, ADD's survival depended on him sticking with his mama and the herd for protection.  Needles to say, I was not making any bets he would last long.  However, ADD has gotten better.  He is moving now with his mama and the herd, though he still moves away occasionally.  I have my fingers crossed he makes it!

Owls

The great horned owls have returned!  I have seen them and heard their hooting a couple times recently.  They are magnificent!  Too dark for pictures but imagine their hoots to one another across the yard and pasture!

We continue to be plagued by game cam problems.  Even with the new cameras, there is always some kind of challenge.  A few recent pictures:

Rocky the raccoon leaving the area after enjoying some corn.  If he gets any larger, he may have problems...

We've had a number of pictures of the daddy deer doing a little jousting in anticipation of impressing the "ladies."

The morning "coffee clutch" just seems to be getting bigger!  I think I see the bull participating too!

Morning Moon-Set

Rooster tipped me off to the "big ball in the sky."  What a beauty!

RAIN

Finally we had rain, the first measurable since Memorial Weekend.  Our rain gauge measured 8.5 inches of rain for this past weekend.  The tank is full, cracks in the yard are gone, and the dust has settled.

Renewal comes to mind!  More rain is forecasted for this next weekend.  We'll take it!

Fire!

The word "Fire" can be a pretty scary word around here.  Right now in Smithville, a town in Bastrop county (70 miles away) there is a large uncontrolled fire going.  Several thousand acres have burned, as well as a bunch of structures.  A couple evenings ago I took some pictures of the smoke.

It has been hazy the last few days, but the affects of the smoke on us is minimal.  All of this is a reminder that we need to be practicing fire safety in the event a fire occurs in our vicinity.

Two Fears

Out in the country, there are two fearsome events that are for, the most part, unavoidable.  One is a flat tire:

Mike came over to check on the cows and his plans got put on hold due to a flat tire.  He called me to give him a ride home because no one was at his house.  If I had not been here to give him a lift, he would have had to walk a couple miles home.
In the last two weeks, we've had a flat on the go-buggy and more recently, a mesquite thorn took out a tire on the Bad-Boy.  All are costly and very inconvenient!

Our other Fear is fire.  Today there were two fires southeast of our little plot.  They were probably 2-3 miles away, but headed in our direction.  The good news is the wind velocity was fairly low and there is a plowed field and a road between us.

I think we are okay, but I will need to monitor them.