WILDLIFE SATURDAY

Hope your weekend is off to a good start.

We were cooking dinner not too long ago and looked out the kitchen window and saw this...

...just a couple of deer strolling through the driveway and front yard.  Nothing like a wonderful meal, a couple glasses of wine and some local wildlife just casually saying hello.

We love it out there here!

#lifeisgood

RECLAIMING RAIN WATER

When we didn't have our well to water our plants, we've left the wheelbarrows to sit upright and left some of the 5 gallon buckets out next to the barn and shed.  Even after we got the well, before we moved in I only had to go a few times to fill up the buckets.

That's because all other times, I used rainwater!

We really wanted to see how it would work and how much water we could reclaim.

We are amazed at how much we collect!  This is one of the wheelbarrows after a rain (and I had already dipped in a bucket for some water)...

These three 5-gallon buckets were full up to the top (I had already used some of one bucket before I thought to take photos).  Fifteen gallons of water here just ready to use.  Now this is just to water the plants we had temporarily put behind the barn until we were out here and could use the hose.

But what that did was make us realize that we should really look into reclaiming/harvesting rainwater.

Now that we have our gutters, it should be easier to adapt something for use.  Doing some research now! 

GUTTER GUARDS

We recently posted HERE about our new gutters.  This was something we found online that was recommended to us and we think is a good extra level of protection, especially being rural.

They are gutter guards, used to prevent animals from going up the downspout.  They often use them as ladders to access roofs or as nesting sites.  The most common culprits are squirrels, mice and rats.  We also read that lizards and snakes can climb them looking for insects or other creatures, giving them access to the roof and possible points of entry.  Worst case, they can even become trapped in a downspout and die, and we SURE don't want that.

We bought them HERE on Amazon.  They are a little pricey but well-made and heavy duty for sure.  They screw on (screws included) and come in a variety of colors to match various gutter colors.  

The piece at the end comes slides off for easy cleaning if you need to let leaves or debris out of the gutter.  

We bought eight of them and put them on all of our downspouts.

They fit fairly tight with pressure, but they do have holes and come with screws for attaching them to the downspout.  It was super easy.

A couple had to be turned sideways because of the way the gutter was mounted but hey, as long as it does the job and keeps out creatures, we are fine with that.

BACK ON THE ZEN MACHINE

 The first official mow of the year is in the books.

The service shop dropped it off a couple weeks ago and I had to wait for some rainy weather to finally clear out.

I am finally able to start clearing some of the areas "post construction" that had grown up a lot.  Wish I had a before pic of this but suffice to say, it was heavily overgrown.  This area still has some construction debris, concrete chunks and such in it so I have to walk it first and move stuff or mow around it for now.

Also cleared around the well shed and Barnabas (the big mesquite).  I got as close as I could but will have to use the string trimmer for the closer to the tree.

It was a usually time, about an hour and a half and did about three acres.  The weather was cool and it was definitely a moment of Zen...until...

Speaking of construction debris, I looked at the mower before I closed the shed doors and thought, "what's wrong with the mower?".  Oh crap, a flat tire.  Sigh.  This mower has never had the tires treated with that awesome green good,, ha, so I will be off to the store soon to get some tire Slime.

There won't be any mowing this weekend because it is supposed to rain all day Saturday so I'll have time to get that and get the tires fixed. 

And hey, now I have a concrete driveway to do this type of work on!  Can't wait!  It will certainly be much easier.

Hope your Easter weekend gets off to a great start!

DANGER IN THE WELLHOUSE

So this weekend, I was outside in the beautiful weather and decided to check out the well shed.  I opened the door and looked inside.  Mostly clear, a few crickets hopped around and then I saw these two.

I took a picture from up high...see them there?  Here, let me get closer...

This was the first one.  Sorry, this one is a bit blurry, I was in the dark, with an LED light, trying to keep my hand steady enough to take a picture.  It might be hard to make out the mark on the abdomen.

But in this next one, it will become clear what they were...

BLACK WIDOWS!!

Yikes!  The well house is the perfect spot of course, dark, no one going in and out all the time, humid.  Spiders love that.  There are also some Daddy Longlegs in there, but those won't cause harm to you, ha.

I took the Stem spray (for spiders) and dispatched them quickly.  We can't have dangerous spiders in a spot we (and technicians/repair people) have to go into to check/adjust things.

We just have to be careful!

GOOD FOOD AND KITTY CAT SUNDAY

Another week has flown by.  The other day, the Zen Machine was returned after its "spa time" and it will be mowing time.  The weather has turned unusually cool, and we'll take it!

This is one of our favorite, quick, go to meals.  We roasted some chicken and asparagus.  Yes, we do pull the skin off before we eat it, It's just prettier in a picture with it on there, ha.

We like asparagus so much, we are thinking of a special raised bed just for that (starting to make our garden plans for later this year) because it's a perennial.

Here is Babygirl enjoying the same cool weather. Still a little skittish at times but coming around.  When we go out and "talk" to her, she rolls around like this.  You think she is fitting in? Making herself comfortable? Ha.

#catdistributionsystem

BOBCAT SIGHTING

Well, apparently it's a regular Animal Kingdom out here at the farm, ha.  The other morning I went outside from the back door of the garage and I saw movement.  When I realized what it was, I quickly went back inside and I took this picture.

Kind of hard to tell here, he/she ran back there and then looked at me looking at it...

Can you see it there by the fenceline running?  Let me zoom in...

Here it is.  A bobcat!  I wish I had a clearer picture but I was inside taking it through the window.  I did enhance it some so we could make out features.  Then I found a good comparison picture online...

Image via wikicommons 

Here is a better picture of what they look like!  You can't deny, what a beautiful animal.

2nd Man said no "here kitty kitty" with this one!

SPRING IS BLOOMING OUT ALL OVER

 Things are budding out!

The new peach tree we got last Fall...

Blueberries are all in bloom...

One of the plum trees...

This is the sour orange tree (the other new one, Satsuma, hasn't bloomed out yet)...

And one of the pear trees!

One of these days/evenings, I need to get working on the fruit tree beds and clean them all up and add soil and mulch for the season before it gets to hot out there.  I have to remind myself that we live here now, this doesn't have to be a few hours on a Saturday project once a week.  I can do one or two a night when I get home from work.  Or half on Saturday and the other half on Sunday.  It's a whole new way of thinking/living, ha.

Happy Spring!

GOOD FOOD A METEOR AND OUTSIDE KITTY WEEKEND

 Happy weekend!  Well we had a good weekend with a little overhead excitement thrown into the mix.

First up, we had some good food.  2nd Man made this dish using some whole wheat noodles with cubed pork, mushrooms onions and seasonings.  So good.

Jack, the one eyed kitty, eats at the end of the porch so he's not as nervous coming all the way up onto the porch.  He is SO feral, could be a factor of him only seeing out of one eye.  He is probably just having to be extra cautious.

Now for the excitement...

We were sitting here on Saturday afternoon and heard a huge boom.  "J" texted us and said "please tell me you heard that", we did but weren't sure what it was.  She said her windows rattled and plates in the cabinets made noise as well.  We didn't notice that (maybe the house being so new, everything is still tight).  We weren't sure if a plane had crashed or a pipeline had blown up.  Calls started pouring into local media and police.

A couple of hours later, NASA confirmed it was a large meteor, weighing about a ton, streaking through the sky at about 35,000 mph before breaking up just a few miles away.  Though not yet confirmed, it even appears one house North of Houston was struck by a piece that came through the roof, the attic, the ceiling, struck the floor, cracked the slab and bounced back up, hit a TV and went through the wall!  I guess that's what 35,000 mph does, ha. 

We would like to have seen the streak in the sky.

Or maybe not, ha.  

THREE FREE TREE SAPLINGS

Our nearby Master Gardener program had a free tree giveaway.  Well, saplings, but hey, saplings become trees someday!

They did it in conjunction with Texas A&M University AG program.  There were a choice of six trees, each household could only get three.  And you couldn't get all the same.  We wanted three pecan trees but since we couldn't do that, we did our research and chose a Nuttall Oak, a Shumard Oak and the Pecan.

I asked them about the pecan variety, they said it was just a native Texas variety but weren't sure.

They had (as always) a well oiled process to keep things organized and running smoothly.  In about 15 minutes, I was on my way home with our three saplings.

Here they are.  They suggested soaking them in water overnight to rehydrate the roots and then getting them into some soil.  I did that and then the next day, I headed to the garden center to get some soil.

I got the soil and found this.  I figured it would be fun to try out.

And sure enough it worked great for scooping soil from the bags into the clay pots.

Here they are, planted and watered and ready to watch for tiny new leaves (stay tuned for that).  They said we can let them grow in these large pots until the Fall when it's best to plant them (if not planting now).  I asked them about this because I figured if I stuck these in the ground like this now, they'd struggle and risk being eaten by a wild animal or mowed over by me, ha.  One of the Master Gardeners told me to just let them grow in these until Fall, when they should be a good size to get them in the ground.

Now we wait to watch their progress.  We don't know where we will plant them yet but with all these acres, we have plenty of choices.  One of our goals this year is to get a lot, if not all, of our property professionally cleaned up.  Then we can find the perfect spot for these "forever trees", away from the house.

Someday!