Sizzling Summertime

Spring was wonderful, and now summer is upon us.  That means many things.  For one, it’s warmer…much warmer…and for a the next several weeks, it continues to be humid.  The wildflowers have disappeared, and the beggar-lice (hedge-parsley, also called beggar burs, beggar’s ticks and by other four-letter names) matured a month or so ago.  They look like tiny (pin-head size) cockleburs, covered with coarse bristles with hooks at the tips.  They stick to everything…socks, pants (and underwear if you do laundry without de-burring your socks).  

They are deceptively lovely in the spring, with lacy leaves and tiny, delicate flowers.  Growing from 6 to 18 inches tall, they are the perfect height to completely cover a dog with burs.  About the third week of June, we began to take defensive action.  We put shirts on our dogs so that at least some of the beggar-lice will attach to the fabric and not to the dog.  

With the shirt-tails tied up out of the way, the dogs don’t mind at all and it saves hours of de-burring after our walks.  Here is what one of the shirts looks like after a morning walk through the pasture and a dip in the creek or stock tank.  It catches a lot of burs, but there are still plenty on the dog.

Normally by mid-July, we have packed the RV and are on our way to cooler climes.  When asked where we are traveling, John always says “to 5,000 feet.”  That’s where it starts to cool off to our liking.  This year, we had planned to spend a week in Santa Fe, a month in Buffalo, WY, and several weeks in Custer, SD.  Unfortunately, even though the western states have had fewer cases of the virus than other areas, we are still reluctant to travel this year.  We will miss the friends we visit on the road, but will plan to spend our time in Texas this summer, going back and forth between Volente and the farm.  

When we travel west, we like to stop in Laramie, WY, for a few days at the Albany County Fairgrounds.  There is a wonderful indoor shooting range there, and the opportunity to spend time polishing our handgun skills under the excellent tutelage of Range Master Roy Kern.  We do have a small outdoor range set up at the farm, and hope we don’t get too rusty before we go back to Laramie.  A couple of weeks ago, John and I shot our (very old) 20 gauge “snake gun” that we sometimes carry with us in the ‘Gator in case we need to dispatch a rattlesnake.  

I also got a lesson firing a rifle in case one of the feral hogs shows up close to the house. If they’re within 40 yards, they will be pork chops!

Except for the one that charged Rue several weeks ago, we usually see them on the game camera, but mostly they like to visit in the wee small hours of the morning when we are sound asleep.  

There hasn't been a lot of excitement here at the farm the past month, but we did come across this beautiful female red-eared slider turtle busily digging a hole for her eggs.  

She had urinated to make digging easier, but when she saw us she changed her mind and moved on to another nest site.  It's a good thing, the first place she chose was under a live oak tree where the cattle hang out, a good 200 yards from any water.  

So far, it has been dry both in Hamilton and in Volente.  Temperatures have been typical…most days in the 90s, with several days in a row in the mid-100s.  

Here is our red-neck outdoor cooling system at the farm.  

The dogs have a swimming pool, but John and I make do with a fan and a sprinkler, and hope the breeze doesn’t feel like it’s coming from a blast furnace.  We'll be back and forth between Volente and the farm and will keep you posted on our adventures.  Stay tuned, stay cool and stay safe.

Powering on through the Pandemic

And what else have you been doing, you ask, during the time you’ve been self-quarantining at the farm?  Well, we haven’t been wearing masks except when we go into town, and it’s been easy to practice social distancing when we see practically no one but family.  Even then, we have temporarily given up the hugs we normally use to greet each other, but I hope that will end soon.  Oh, and I haven't been putting up many blog posts because of data usage concerns.  

While we've been at the farm, we've seen beautiful sunsets 

As well as full moons.

We have seen our Mississippi kites soar overhead,

And watched their fledglings exchange their juvenile plumage for adult feathers and take wing.

But the kites weren't the only feathered friends that visited.  In addition to the golden-cheeked warblers we showed you earlier, there were several summer tanagers that chased each other through the trees around the house.  

We have spent time with family, among them Michal's niece, Anna, her husband, Joel, and kids Jamey and Laura.

Cousin Kathy and Kaia joined us for a walk and some brush burning.

Later, Cousin Kelly and Buddy came for a visit as well.

We have also gotten together on several occasions with Kathy and Eric and neighbors Mickie and Larry Tigner, so our social life here has helped keep us entertained. 

On one of our short trips back to Volente, Brian and Debi came for dinner, along with our grandson, Gage.  We have missed them during our self-imposed quarantines, and it was great to get together.

Gage completed his studies at Angelo State University this spring, and we had planned a big celebration to mark the occasion.  We had to forego that get-together because graduation, along with so many other activities, was canceled.  The good news is that Gage was able to find a job in Austin in his field of study, business management.

Although the past month has been a bit dry, nice rains earlier in the spring brought us a beautiful crop of wildflowers here at the farm.  In addition to the bluebonnets, we enjoyed a few of these unusual orange milkweeds.

The antelope horn milkweed is spectacular from bud to flower.  

We encourage them because they are the host plant for the monarch butterfly.  And, they are just as beautiful as their seed pods ripen and spill the beginnings of new plants.

In the last week, the bluebell gentians have been blooming.  Most of ours are the deeper blue variety,

but we also have some with the creamy white centers as well.

A couple of other wildflowers in the blue/purple category are this pretty "common" petunia below,

and this western horse-nettle.  It might be called a weed by some, because the foliage is very prickly.  The flowers are lovely, though, don't you think?

Another flower that some call a weed is the buffalo bur.  You can admire the delicate yellow flowers, but don't come too close.  The burs are savage!

One of my favorite flowers has to be the mountain pink.  They usually appear in profusion after a rain, and look like little pink ice cream cones.  Right now the caliche hillsides at the farm are covered with them.

One reason I haven't put up many blog posts this spring is work!  We have spent a lot of time cutting, shredding, poisoning and burning brush to remove invasive species from the land so that the grass can grow.  We have been joined in our efforts by my brother and sister-in-law, who have spent almost as much time here this spring as we have.  

Another reason I haven't been blogging much lately has to do not with work, but with fun.  At least, it's work that is fun.  Cody and I have been working sheep at Jack and Vivian Christensen's place just outside Meridian a couple of days each week.  I am ever so grateful for their hospitality, for Jack's practical suggestions as to how we can improve, and for both Jack and Vivian's continuing encouragement and support.  Thanks to them, Cody and I have made great strides in becoming real working partners.  I'm also grateful to good friends Lindsey Posener Williams and Kathy Mazzola for taking photos and videos of Cody and me.

Fetching sheep

Shedding a single 

So....in spite of all the anxiety and restrictions, it was a very good spring!  And now that it's summer, we're back in Volente for a couple of weeks, taking care of stuff that needs doing.  We expect to be back at the farm later this month.  After much consideration and prayer, we decided, at least for now, that we will not travel in the RV this summer.  We will miss being on the road, but now is just not the time.  We will continue to have adventures, though, so stay tuned.  

Surprise!

Life is full of surprises, and today we got one of the pleasant variety.  When we went down to check the cows, we found #7 with a new bull calf.  

We hadn't expected this cow to calve for at least another month,  but she wasted no time in producing her 2020 offspring.  We hope he will be joined by a little brother or sister in the next few days.  

A Very Special Day

May 31 was a very special day.  It marked the seventh anniversary of Rue’s joining the Bagley Pack.  Not long after losing Nickie to a rattlesnake bite, we had seen Rue's photo and videos on the All Border Collie Rescue site.  We thought she would be a good fit for our family.  The approval process was thorough; after filling out a lengthy application and telephone interview, we also had a home visit.  Finally, ABCR was convinced we were a suitable home, and we were approved.  Then came another wait while transportation by volunteers was arranged to bring Rue from Tulsa to Austin.  At last, on May 31, 2013, she arrived.  She came with her name.  It could refer to a plant whose leaves are used in herbal medicine.  Or, it could mean "bitterly regret."  We prefer think it came from the French word for street, since she was picked up as a stray on the streets of Tulsa.  She has been a challenge as well as a joy, but we couldn’t imagine life without our Rue.  She is our beloved companion as well as a confident cattle dog, and she loves helping with our cows.

We celebrated Rue’s adoption anniversary with an ice cream picnic.  (What else would it be on a picnic table?)  Everyone politely ate their own…

...but when Rue saw Cody eyeing her almost-empty cup, she quickly grabbed it and retreated to the yard to finish.

Cody wore a bit of his above his eyebrow,

but everyone had a fine time.

Too Many Adventures

Life here at the farm has been pretty mundane during most of this virus-induced self-quarantine.  However, today was different.  Around mid-morning, the Bagley Pack and I walked over to check on some brush piles we burned yesterday.  On the way back, the dogs were exploring the line of cedars that spilled down the hillside toward our upper stock pond.  Rue stopped suddenly and barked several times.  It wasn’t her “squirrel bark,” so I walked over to investigate.  She was staring intently into the trees, on full alert.

As I came closer, I could see Cody and Kota on either side of her, several yards away and also looking into the brush.  Then, as I approached, Rue (reinforcements having arrived) inched forward and I saw what she saw.  There, about 15 or 20 yards beyond was a feral hog standing his ground with the three dogs in a semi-circle watching him.  He (I assume it was a boar hog since he was alone) was black and big…probably 3 times the size of one of my dogs and weighing perhaps 150 pounds.  

I froze, and at that moment he made a quick charge toward Rue, who was in the center.  If you’ve never had something that dangerous lunge toward you, and with nothing between you and it but a border collie in full retreat, you’re lucky!  Fortunately, the hog was apparently only bluffing, because he came to a sliding stop after a charge of about 10 yards.  I joined Rue in beating a hasty retreat, and Cody and Kota called off and followed with no urging.  Please forgive me for not staying around long enough to get a photo.  I did, however, capture this image on our game camera a couple of weeks later.  I'm sure it's the same hog, as he seems to come in for a snack almost every evening.

John and I went back later to try to find the beast, but he had moved on.  The experience was especially unnerving, because of the way the hog behaved.  Feral hogs are no strangers here, but always before they have run when the heard us or the dogs.  We seldom see them; there are only a few grunts and crashing in the brush as they make their escape.  This one had every opportunity to move away when it heard us, but it inexplicably chose to stand its ground.  It will be a long time before I take a walk on our “mountain” without carrying something that goes “bang” in case I run into that fellow again.   

And that wasn’t the only excitement in the last week or so.  While the dogs and I were confronting a feral hog, a quarter-mile or so away my brother, Allan, was eliminating a rattlesnake with his ‘brush hog,” a shredder that we pull behind the tractor.

Last week Allan and Jef’s Brittany spaniel pup, Rosie, had another very scary “adventure." Rosie was hanging out with her dog cousins at our house last Tuesday.  I was working in the yard and she was messing about 50 or so yards away north of our house.  I heard her yip, and looked up just as she jumped back, then eased forward toward something in the grass.  I knew immediately what she was likely looking at.  I ran toward her, calling her to me.  When I got close, I could hear the snake “singing” as loud as it could rattle.  

I took Rosie back to the yard and put her in our outdoor kennel, then called John to bring the shotgun.  We were able to locate the snake, a 3-4 foot specimen, under a cedar tree and shoot it.  Rosie, unfortunately had a bite on her face under her right eye, but only one fang had struck her.  After a quick trip to Coryell Vet Clinic in Gatesville, antivenin treatment and an overnight stay, she was able to go home and has now recovered completely.  

Snakes are a part of our world here, so we are always on the lookout for them.  Our dogs receive vaccine shots twice a year, and all have also gone through “rattlesnake avoidance” training.  That gives us some measure of comfort, but we can’t forget how we lost our Nickie to a rattlesnake bite seven years ago.  It has made us especially mindful of the damage they can do.  We’re just glad our recent encounters ended with the elimination of vipers rather than a snake bite.