Feeding the catfish in the far pond

There aren't many of the catfish left in the ponds right now - the water is so low. And when we had all the rain last fall, we think the bigs ones made a run back to the big lake on the overflow water.

Oh Happy Day

Oh Happy Day

(I'm trying uploading to our blog from my phone - haven't done this before!)

We did some work around the ranch today for our Wildlife Certification.

The weather was perfect and the day was glorious!

A long time gone

Hi everyone -I've been gone from our blog for a long time now.  A lot has happened in that time here on Sage Creek Ranch.


Tim has done some major work on the land.  One of the changes was to clear quite a bit - a few acres.  This change has modified the landscape to allow different birds and animals nesting (and hiding) space.  In these areas, it's now like walking in a park rather than the woods.  It's really lovely.






Lots of trees have been cut and/or cut down entirely to create the space.  We have a huge pile of tree debris that I'll post later.

Although much of the land still looks similar.  For example, no changes have been made to the pond at this time.  Just behind the pond is the picnic area with tables and a fire pit.  It's also a nice camping spot.  We had some friends here for a bachelor party just last weekend.

And, one other new feature is the spa tub.  Tim and I gave this to ourselves for the holidays last year.  We use it almost daily.  We love our tub in the woods and under the stars.

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.