Sightings!

We've had some fun over the past week or so.  We saw two does and their fawns last weekend in the field eating.  And then yesterday, we had two hawks circling over our heads as we sat on our patio having a glass of wine.

Unfortunately, I didn't have the camera with me, so we have no photos of those events.

However, a couple of months ago we went walking through all 55 acres.  The butterflies were out; the clover was blooming; the Allium was blooming and life was good.  Here is what we saw:
 

The cart trail to the guest house and barn

The field on the 25 acre parcel.  This is where we'll disk and prepare to throw down bird seed.  This is where we saw the deer.

This woods is between the field and our little house.

The original stock pond.  View from where we thought we'd build a house, but where we'll now focus our wildlife feeding and viewing efforts.

Our boys and the neighbor dogs out for a romp in the wildflowers.

The pond is about 3ft lower than this right now - it's August in Texas and the water disappears fast.

And the butterflies were out in full force during this particular walk...

Wildlife

One of the activities we do to encourage wildlife is to purposely build possible habitats for the wild creatures we share the land with.  So, instead of our woods looking park-like - no messy underbrush for example - we need to strategically place the underbrush (or overbrush or beside-the-brush) so that animals have safe spaces to hide from their predators.  We've got several now in the yard by the house.  These are some of them.

It may be difficult to see, but I've trimmed all the trees in the yard so that we can enjoy the beauty of the woods as well.

As Time Goes By

Yes - it's been a long time.  I haven't been home much in the past several months and the pictures I've taken of the ranch have been languishing in a digital folder somewhere, forgotten.  Until today.

On Saturday morning I took Evee for a walk.  It was hot.  About 108F.  Amazing there is anything alive in the yard at those temps - but these flowers look fresh and beautiful.  There isn't much else blooming (Or growing for that matter).

The sumacs are doing their thing, even in the heat.

Evee and I took a walk with the boys.  This is the summer driveway both "up" and "down".  

I love our driveway... always have

Photos upload slowly from the hotel.. so more in a few days.

Gone Fishin'

Jay, Jeff, Tim, me and Lily did a little fishin' last Sunday on our pond and on our neighbor's pond.  Okay, I didn't do any fishing this time and neither did Lily, but we were busy entertaining each other.

The fields are blooming with paintbrush right now and are just beautiful.  We haven't had as many other wildflowers blooming this spring as we usually do and I miss them.  

Jeff and Jason did the bulk of the fishing.  Jeff hated fishing when he was a kid.  When I asked what changed his view, he said that no one ever told him fishing was just an excuse to sit in a chair and drink beer.  Once he found that out, he was hooked.  

  We've had lots of bees this year - and we're glad to see them.

Lily's feet hurt in her boots, so she took them off (well, she fussed until one of us took them off for her, but it's all the same, right?)

This fishing set-up, below.  Shermie was protecting everyone from attackers that might get us while we were facing the pond.

This is the first keeper fish of the day - but he's a  big one.  Catfish.  Given the drought a couple of years ago, we didn't think any of what we'd stocked in our pond was still there.  But the catfish were definitely there.

 Jay practices "catch & release" on this little guy.

We went to the neighbor's pond to haul out some of their big ole' catfish.  They have some grandaddys in there.  

By this time, Lily was getting kinda tired.  

She sat in the chair and just played with a little bag.

These were some of the big guys caught.

  All-in-all, the catch that day was probably about 15 - 20 pounds of fillets.  

 All done.  On our way back to the house.

It is amazing to have our own pond to fish in.  And going home with pounds and pounds of fresh, farm-raised catfish to eat is a great feeling.

Around the Ranch

Ms. Gray decided to have her kittens this past Wednesday.  She had 4 little babies that look pretty much exactly like her, but they seem to have a little bit of a stripe.  There are a couple of boys and a couple of girls.  Very sweet.  She had them on the deck in the back of a somewhat broken ceramic vase/pot.  It's perfect place for them.  More pictures as they grow each week.  We'll keep at least two of them, but the other two are available for adoption to a loving home. 

This weekend was "deadheading" weekend.  Meaning the roses had to be deadheaded.  This is before their trim.  There were massive blooms everywhere - the scent as we walked out the front door was heavenly.  This is our third year with the rose garden and it's looking great.  Because of the mealy-bug infestation last year (although they didn't get the roses), we've been putting Neem on everything in the garden since the first green shoots starting growing.

I had a huge wheelbarrow full of rose petals that had been trimmed.  Because of the spiders (I saw a couple of Black Widows while I was trimming) and because of the Neem, I decided not to keep the petals for sachets.  Also - there were so many I would have had pillow cases full of petals, not pretty little sachet packets.

Post trim.  What's left are the roses that have just bloomed and the buds that haven't yet opened.  I didn't take any off this time for cut flowers as I won't be home to enjoy them.  I figured Tim would enjoy them more in the garden than in the kitchen.

And we started to have our first crop of Strawberries!!!  Yum!!!  Right now we get a bowl full this size each day.  By the end of the season, we're going to have to be making strawberry pies and preserves to use them all!

Roses Galore!

The roses are about to burst forth with so much energy - there are probably a hundred buds ready to pop open!

I'm missing my rose garden this week while I'm in Calgary.

This rose bush has my favorite colored roses on it.  Although the color seems to change each season.  They were originally a two-toned orange.  Sometimes they come in looking pink now.

This is one of the two-toned that looks pink (below)

What delights have you discovered lately?

The Orchids

All three of my indoor orchids are blooming!  They are gorgeous right now.  I love the Orchid Shop in Richardson where I bought two of these plants.  

I've transplanted two of them - Gunter at the shop in Richardson told me that they should be transplanted every year.  I lost one last year - not sure if it was due to the transplant or some other issue, so I've been reluctant to transplant the third one.

I often think about buying Orchids when I see them at the grocery or Costco.  But then I remember the love and care I saw Gunter give them and the hundreds of orchids flourishing at his shop and I think 

"no - I'll wait until Gunter has his annual Orchid show and buy them from him".

What's one of your passions?

It's allergy season!

 

 I loved the texture of these leaves budding...

Well, it's that time of year again.  We have had some might weird weather this year...  we went right from snow to allergy season.  Only a day or two in between.

However, we are loving the temps even though our eyes are watering and we are sneezing...

  Tim is thinking that these bushes are called "Redbuds" - anybody know?

I took these shots a few days ago, and these little pods are already in full-leaf bloom.

I love using the macro lens.

Enjoy the day!