New Game Cam

Well, I've been talking about the deer and how many we have...  Peg picked up a new game cam this past week and the pictures below document what I've been reporting, FINALLY.  Below is a group of bucks.  I've seen buck groupings of around twelve individuals crossing the pasture together.

You can see the deer behind the deer in the foreground is looking into the center area of the deer feeder enclosure.  In the pictures below, you can see that that deer jumped into the enclosed area.  We have been concerned the deer would not feel comfortable jumping into this area.  We feel better now that we can see there are deer willing to make the leap for the corn right underneath the feeder.

These pictures were from Sunday morning (cam times are wrong).  Can't wait to get pictures of some of the fawns and their mamas I've seen around.

Hanging Out

If you are a cow, the 98+ degree days get old.  Our group of bovines spends from day break until about 8:30 in the morning grazing, drinking at the tank, playing (if a calf), and grazing some more. Then they are all about finding a place to hang for the bulk of the day to minimize the effects of the heat. Here they are hanging out:

At about 6:30 in the evening, they get up and head to the tank.  They all drink and some swim/stand in the water.  Then there is another round of grazing until well after dark.  The night passes and the routine begins a new.

August Flowers

Peg was bugging me about the name of the flower below:

It's all along the back roads.  Of course I am terrible with flower names.  So I handed her my books so she could have the joy of figuring them out.

It's called snow-on-the-mountain.  It's a pretty flower and that is about all I can say about it.

This one is silver leaf nightshade.  It is the "weed" we have growing in our yard in voluminous quantities.  It also has stickers so when you pull it out of the ground, you get stuck, which is not fun.

There are other flowers around but these are the ones that have caught Peg's eye.

Spraying The Mesquite

We spent several hours spraying the mesquite trees this weekend.  It is a pest we are slowly trying to eliminate or at least manage.  The biggest problem that directly affects us are the giant thorns which can penetrate tires and my hiking boots.  Some thorns are 2 inches long and extremely sharp (see pictures of thorns in previous postings).  Even a small tree has big thorns.

This is our first year spraying.  The fellow who leases our land has done it previously.  Most of the large trees have been killed and we are now going after the smaller ones.  Cows and birds eat the seeds because they are very sweet.  The seeds are then redeposited resulting in new trees.

We sprayed these trees yesterday.   They look like they're dying...  The red you see is spray paint we used to mark those trees we've sprayed.  It is a step we dropped today as we were a little more organized.

Various Photos Of The Familiar And The Mysterious

As I mentioned a couple of blogs ago, we need to get the game cams up and running.  Unfortunately there are problems either with placement or the cams are dying a slow death.  I have two photos from one of the cams.  Here is the first photo:

There is little doubt what this critter is, but this is not a great picture!  So we decided to give the cam another chance in a little different place in hopes of it taking pictures worth the batteries we're putting in it.
Peg is moving the cam to a nearby fence post.  Maybe if the cows will leave it alone, we'll get some good shots!

This past July was one of those rare months where we had two full moons.  The second full moon is called a "Blue Moon."  Hence the saying, "once in a blue moon."  I took a picture of it about 5:00 that morning.

Of course I have to share the latest and greatest pictures of the youngest calves.  I swear they just are too sweet!

Now for the mysterious...  The game cam took the picture below:

What is this a picture of?