New Ranger
April 29 2007
We’ve been busy here lately doing a lot of maintenance and “fixing up.” We’ve been on the fence lines quite a bit while at the same time keeping the ranch “baited” to lure anything over as we close up the holes. We haven’t seen anything too bad, just some small holes for pigs and small deer. I took the bulldozer further back and am working on some of those rough spots on the road that rattle your teeth out when you drive over.
Dave has fixed a lot of areas with the skid steer too. I’ve also gotten a few more pile burned...two to be exact. We missed this big storm system that passed through. We only got 1/4’’ of rain from it. It has been windy and has also dried up on the surface.
The cedar guys have made tremendous progress in the back down in the main valley. At least where they can get their skid-steers on account of the swamps are still wet and flowing in the back. I found one spring in the middle of the ranch near to where we lost that pig. Water is bubbling out of the ground, and with no cedar to drink it up, down it goes to the tanks which are still overflowing.
I saw three elk cows one night at that back feeder. At least I think they were all female. I was looking at those elk down the road, and it looks like those bulls have shed their horns. All cypress trees are alive and well. I was really glad to see that. Even those two that are under water still have leaves on top. I am still getting pessimistic predictions on those, however.
We moved four heifers that are staying with us over to the other side. We’re keeping them well fed in that little field behind the barn. I’m planning to keep the bull for about one more month with the main herd to make sure all those cows are bred back before moving him over to the east side to service those 13 heifers, who by the way are looking excellent. That should give us some February babies from them. The main herd has been enjoying a full run of Dogleg, so everybody is happy. The windmill guy has been out to drill the holes which means he must be getting close. I’ve been calling him once a week just to keep the pressure on. We should be getting electricity to the cabin soon. The Co-op has set the pole so now we have to dig a ditch from that pole to the cabin and run some wires from the cabin to the meter loop. We’re on the list of my dad’s septic guy to come out and put a small tank in. We’re getting a very friendly price too. The local guy here wanted to put in a 1000 gallon tank with a huge drain field and a price to match which is just not necessary for that little cabin. I’ve also got the water line buried now with dirt and concrete where the digging didn’t get deep enough.
I’ve had the shredder out and going as well. I mowed some front areas, and Dave just started today in the cow pastures. I planted the big field last week with some Sudan-Hay and got some fertilizer on it as well. Our coastal field isn’t looking very healthy for reasons unknown to me, but I’ll be working on it. I’ve cleaned up the area around the new tractor barn. It looks so good I’m thinking about enclosing it on three sides. We’ll see. I fixed the horse pens so that the horses can access those stalls from the main pens. It makes feeding them a lot easier and will be good for winter time. I really thought that I had found that black horse.
The farrier knows a guy who knows a guy who had one or two in Amarillo TX, however no calls have been made back to me and it has been a few weeks. This week I’ll be getting back to work on setting posts for the new fence around the houses. I should also be picking up the new ranch vehicles this week too. “Vehicles” is plural because Eleanor and I have also picked out two ATV’s that we have had our eye on. I’m going to take our ranger in to get a full service job. If the road paving guy stays on schedule, he should be getting started in two weeks.