New Residents

We had some new fencing installed last month to facilitate the pasture rotation Peg wants to achieve when she gets her herd.  Unfortunately the group of cows we've had so much trouble with at the deer feeder, were so pesky that the fence builders rounded them up and took them elsewhere.  Here are their replacements:

It's a varied grouping of young cows.  Red, the bull, returned with this group.  They seem less "worldly" than the other group, so hopefully we can get back into the deer feeder business.

A quick update on the baby trees... before the other group of cows were removed, they had managed to locate and pull up several of the newly planted baby trees.  I have my fingers crossed that a couple that weren't discovered will make it!

New Babies Launched!

We planted a bunch of baby trees yesterday.  The last group we planted, we kept in pots for two years.  I thought we lost most of that first group the second year because we kept them in the pots too long.  This group was planted in the pasture in what we hope are somewhat protected spots tho not so protected that they will miss out on sun and water.  So far the cows have not bothered them.

 Bur Oak

Bur Oak 

Red Oak

Who knows how these babies will fare...  My dream is to look out in the pasture some fall in the future and see the colored leaves of the trees we planted.  

Late Afternoon Nap Time

Just got the Go-buggy back from its yearly checkup today.  I wanted to go check on the baby cows who I hadn't seen in a week.  I found them behind a little rise snoozing.  All of their heads popped up and their ears cocked forward as I neared.  The look I got from the mamas watching them was, "Please go away, we just got them down!"

Beulah

You can say a lot of things about Beulah, but killer would not be a term you would use.  After finding a baby bunny, she carefully brought it into the house for a bit of cleanup.  Let's just say the bunny was not thrilled and may have needed a bit of heavy handed redirecting which resulted in it meeting its "Maker."

Unfortunately, all of this took place on my bed!  What a mess!  Beulah was unhappy that it ended as it did with a dead bunny when all she was trying to do was clean the critter up!

More Feeder Troubles

The cows didn't get the memo that the deer feeder area is for the deer, not them!  So once again, after repairs were made and the feeders reloaded, the cows made a mess of things!

It is very discouraging!  They are so bad about it that when they hear the timer go off to spin out the corn, they come running.  The poor deer don't have a chance.

In the perfect world above, the deer feeders are for the deer!

Past Lives

In our past lives we had priorities that were, well, let's just say they are best kept in the past.
Unfortunately they bubbled up recently.  Both girls are paying the price or have paid the price for their recklessness!  How?  The consequence of smoking a Black Cat is expensive, etc., etc..  The rest is history...

Thank goodness for modern dentistry!  The smiles are man made!

Game Cam Pictures

The Game Cams have been snapping a lot of pictures of late...  Mostly of deer.  Peg has selected these pictures as worthy of being highlighted.

This one is noteworthy because it shows that the deer are learning to eat out of the protein feeder.

This guy is a "regular" and probably the biggest buck we've seen so far.

Finally, the next generation is represented by this little guy!  Alert and smiling for the camera.

Finally An "Exotic" At The Deer Feeder!

Yep we've been waiting to capture the "exotic" on the game cam!  Lots of patience was recently rewarded.  It looks familiar, yet its species remains a mystery...  What is it?

What we know: it is diurnal, likes corn, and solitary.
Hopefully we will get additional pictures and information in the future.

Rooster's Nemesis

"Who'd a thunk it?"  We had a day time encounter with Rooster's nemesis.  We were going around filling in holes the critters had dug around the foundation and came across "Toadie."  He's the big toad that comes to the doggie door area after dark to eat the bugs attracted by the lights in the house. From the looks of him, he's done quite well by himself!  For reasons I don't understand, Rooster is scared of him.  Even when given the opportunity to get his tennis ball, Rooster decided to not move forward.

I saw no teeth displayed or any signs of aggression from Toadie.  He remained calm and collected! Rooster saw his ball and moved in to get it, saw Toadie, and left the scene.  There are times when I wish I could quell Rooster's enthusiasm.  Toadie has the secret!

Twins?

I knew there were fawns around as I had seen them at various times since spring.  These two were seen by the cameras at the deer feeder recently.  I doubt they are twins...

Always good to see the next generation!

Time To Grow Up

I was fixing to let out the doggies for our morning coffee time on the back porch.  The temperature was a lovely 74 degrees with sunny skies and a slight breeze.  Usually I just open the door and let everyone out but something caught my eye!

How did all of that doggie hair get into such a big clump?  Wait, no, it's something else!

I am betting this little guy's mama brought him by last night and said she was going to run an errand and would be back soon.  Well, his mama was kicking him out and he was now on his own.  I honked horns, threw a ball, and tossed about ten rocks at him.  Stinky did not want to leave.  In fact he was determined not to leave because mama had told him to "stay put."  The sun hits the whole back porch very directly by 3;00 in the afternoon.  He was gone when I checked in on him a few minutes ago.

Once again tragedy was averted!  No one got sprayed!

Revised Deer Feeder Repair Entry

As often happens with me, I deleted my entry on fixing the deer feeder.  Hopefully you already enjoyed my snappy remarks so there is no need to try to completely try to replace them.

Basically, Peg and I gave up getting any help from anyone and used our own brain power to gut the the deer feeder and fix it ourselves.  It required skills not in abundance and infrequently used!  "At the end of the day," we made the repairs ourselves.

New Doggie Door

For the last couple of months, Peg has been bugging me to get a new doggie door.  At this point in time, I can't remember why this issue had even come up.  Was it because a co-worker had just put in one at his house?  Did the old one need replacing?  Who knows, but she went ahead and ordered one last weekend.  The rascal arrived this week!
Our new double flap doggie door cost $109.00.  The new tools we had to buy to install it cost $230.70.

Do we buy the cheap new electrical tools or the more expensive ones?  Considering that we already had three other drills (none of which could accommodate the large drill bits we needed for this project), we bought a new one and the saw to cut the opening larger.  We went middle of the road on cost...

So here it is our new doggie door.  I had to work with Beulah for some time to get her to use it because she was scared of all the loud and shrill noises made while we were installing it.

8-22-16 Peg just got back to me regarding this post.  She reminded me that the doggie door faces north and when the north wind blows a lot of very cold air was entering the house.  With the double flap of the new door, this should no longer be a problem.

New Doggie Door

For the last couple of months, Peg has been bugging me to get a new doggie door.  At this point in time, I can't remember why this issue had even come up.  Was it because a co-worker had just put in one at his house?  Did the old one need replacing?  Who knows, but she went ahead and ordered one last weekend.  The rascal arrived this week!
Our new double flap doggie door cost $109.00.  The new tools we had to buy to install it cost $230.70.

Do we buy the cheap new electrical tools or the more expensive ones?  Considering that we already had three other drills (none of which could accommodate the large drill bits we needed for this project), we bought a new one and the saw to cut the opening larger.  We went middle of the road on cost...

So here it is our new doggie door.  I had to work with Beulah for some time to get her to use it because she was scared of all the loud and shrill noises made while we were installing it.

8-22-16 Peg just got back to me regarding this post.  She reminded me that the doggie door faces north and when the north wind blows a lot of very cold air was entering the house.  With the double flap of the new door, this should no longer be a problem.

August Rains

We have gotten some unusual August rains.  This time last year we had already gone 2.5 months without a drop of the wet stuff.  In the last week, we have had over 11 inches of rain.  All of it is fantastic because I was spending at least a couple hours everyday watering the baby trees.

 
All of the tanks are full to the brim.  The really nice thing about the rains is they came hard and strong but only delivered about 2.5 to 3.5 inches during any 10-15 hour period.  This allowed for the majority of the  water to be absorbed rather than just run off.  I could almost watch the ground swell as it took in the wetness.

An added benefit has been to see some critters we do not typically see when it miserably hot and dry.

  

Armadillo

Todd Turtle, Timmy Turtle's little brother

Another benefit of the clouds and rains is the temperature.  We have been in the low 80s for over a week.  Weather prognosticators are saying this storm has broken the back of our Texas summer and we will not experience the high 90-105 temperatures again this year.  Time will tell and I'm hoping they are correct!

Two Other Critters

Finally have a couple pictures of the two other critters that frequent the feeder.

Coyote

Raccoon

Much as I hate to say it, we are getting better at fixing the glitches we encounter with the mechanics with the feeder.  Now we need to improve the quality of the pictures we are getting from the cameras.

The Buzz Around The Feeder

There is daily activity around the deer feeder.  Some the kind we are looking for and some that is not really desired.

The deer are not relaxed yet and look ready to bolt.  They relax more as temps go down and their trips to the feeder increase.

As part of our routine doing ranch chores with the kids, we always find time to refill the feeder and make sure it is running correctly.

Finally it doesn't matter how well we discourage the cows, the feeder area is under constant assault from them.