New Tool

After pricing tractors, Peg purchased a new tool...

Here she is in the doggie containment area doing a little work.  She had the whole area mowed in 20 minutes.  With the weed wacker, it took a couple hours.  Oh, the "power" of having the right tools! No way can this mower handle the whole yard, but it is a first step in that direction.

Wildlife Update

This morning I was drinking my coffee, reading news accounts on my iPad, and gazing out the window when I heard a lot of "whoo-who, whoo-who."  As loud as it was I thought there might be an owl on the back porch or on the roof somewhere.  That would be very cool!  It was in the 20's so I just looked out the windows and saw nothing.  I sat back down and then a dove started flapping at various windows. I looked out again and saw two doves riding the porch ceiling fans!

I was very disappointed that it was doves that I heard!  This couple rode the blades around and around as the wind moved them.  I kept thinking, "I hope they have the good sense not to build a nest there!"  "Good sense" is the key since I think doves are about the dumbest birds ever.  But after sitting on the blades and flapping around at the windows most of the morning, they moved on.

I have seen this before but never so dramatically.,.. All of the cows were grazing in the pasture and a couple of the moms were laying down to the side with all of the babies who seemed to be napping. Suddenly a coyote came trotting into the pasture.  All of the cows looked up.  The coyote trotted toward the group of babies.  Lead by one of the bulls, the cows stampeded toward the "nursery" heads lowered and ready for a fight.  The coyote made a detour away from the group but circled right back around to test their resolve.  All of the cows lowered their heads again as they ran right at the coyote who at that moment decided a meal from a different location might be a good choice and ran for the woods. Once the hunter was gone, the cows continued their grazing.

I am not seeing the deer like I had been in December and January.  Our deer feeder needs a new battery and we haven't gotten in gear to replace it yet.  But what I am seeing is 3 or 4 bucks grazing together as a group.  They still have their antlers and seem to be moving and eating together.  The mamas and youngsters continue to move through the yard and pasture also. I just am not seeing them as often as before.  Can't wait to see the new fawns in early summer!

Unexpected Visitors

Well maybe I shouldn't say "unexpected" as we hear their loud calls whenever they fly over so we know they are around.  Yesterday two Sandhill cranes stopped over to spend some time in the pasture.

When we are in Yellowstone, we see and hear these guys all the time.  I have heard they are hunted in south Texas and are referred to as "rib eyes in the sky."  Apparently they are pretty yummy eating.  For us, it was just neat that they made a stop on our little plot!

More Tree News and Tractor Update

On the advice of a person in the know, we have enclosed our new trees in chicken wire.  Amazingly the process of doing this went very well.

We were thrilled that it was so easy!  One, two, three trees safely protected from the ravages of the deer and whatever other monsters were out and about.  Then, as so often happens with our projects, we were unable to finish the job because of poor planning!

We are about six feet short of enclosing that fourth tree!  What to do?  We decided this little tree was going to have to survive for a while exposed to the elements.

Our lawn/grass in recent weeks, because of the good rains we've gotten, has grown very tall.  We have no equipment except for our weed wacker and brush cutter.  Both are hand-held and totally inadequate for this massive job.  However, in recent weeks, Peg has wacked as best she can so we have access to the doggie containment area and various other spots around the house.  Our thoughts yesterday were to go look for a tractor and various attachments to begin really tackling this problem. What we found costs as much as a small car!  So for the time being it looks like we be wacking.    

Trees

A year or so ago, Peg and I planted close to 100 acorns.  The squirrels probably got all of them.  As an alternate plan, I planted 25-30 acorns in a small fenced protected cage.  All this has been documented previously.  Prior to our move, we brought all the survivors to the farm and enclosed them in a small protected meshed area.  Recently we moved these "babies" up to the house where I could keep an eye on them as we move toward summer.

In addition, we received a generous Christmas gift of money to buy a tree.  So a couple weekends ago, we headed to Bastrop and the Hope Valley Tree Farm.  Here is the new addition we chose:

This shummard red oak is gorgeous!  It is a lot bigger than our "babies".  We also picked out three other trees.  We picked the spots in our budding landscape for them to go and today all were planted.

But what of the "babies"?

  Here they are in readiness for some attention.

Burr Oak

A couple burr oak acorns that will soon be planted.  It seems the burr oaks we planted did the best but we have some red oak and live oak babies too.
The level of responsibility just jumped several fold!  New trees and growing babies needing our attention so they can become a permanent part of our landscape.