Pictures

More Outdoors Pictures, February 14, 2011

My friends keep sending me some neat outdoors pictures and one very unusual one from Dave Lazor, a Senior Softball buddy from Washington.  He sent me this one that shows a pride of mountain lions.  I always thought that mountain lions were solitary and wouldn’t covey up like these pictured.

One of my teammates from last year, Everett Sims, sent me some pics from game cameras on their ranch in Jackson County, on the Texas coast.  The first pic taken on, January 25th shows 2 bobcats, with one of them exiting through the fence wire.

The next pic shows  2 bucks, one a 10 pointer with a palmated antler and he’ll be a shooter next season!  Down south of us the bucks haven’t shed their antlers.

The most unusual is a “shot” of a young buck and a bobcat, both within the feeder wire.  The buck is keeping an eye on the cat who’s busy with something else.  I wonder if the bobcats are eating the corn?

Pictures

“Cans”

Driving home Wednesday afternoon, on a stock tank right beside State Highway 16, (the Texas forts trail), there was almost a hundred pintail ducks, or sprigs, crowded into the less than half acre tank.  Pictures of the ducks taking to air with their white plumage, would be “neat” for my blog, so making a mental note to remember my camera and stop by on Thursday afternoon and take, hopefully, some action shots, the only ducks sighted were these 2, male, canvasbacks, or “cans”.

According to Wikipedia, traditionally, in the winter, the Chesapeake Bay on our east coast, supported the majority of canvasbacks, Aythya valisineria, but because of the loss of aquatic vegetation in the bay, their range has shifted to the south and west, to the lower Mississippi valley.  It’s interesting that valisineria is the scientific name of wild celery, canvasback’s food of choice, but market hunters and habitat loss has all but eliminated this fine, table duck.  After one duck hunt, my mom cooked several red heads that are very similar to “cans” and, far from it, those red heads weren’t “fine table fare”!

The recent severe winter storms that we have encountered must have pushed these ducks over and down to us.  Having hunted for years on the prairies and saltwater bays of the upper and mid Texas coast, these 2 “cans” are the first two that I have seen up close.  Years past, the breeding stocks fell to alarming levels, and most years the season was closed on these big ducks or the limit was one male of the species.  They were rare and in over 30 years of duck hunting I never shot one and only saw one killed.

Identification of this canvasback was easy because of his “slanty” bill, while a red head duck’s head is a more rounded, traditional duck shape.  Male red heads and canvasbacks are very similar in coloration, so in flight, look for the “slanty” bill and head shape.

Hill Country Happenings

That Time Of Year

It’s that time of the year again! Wind blowing hard out of the south, then coming back with a vengeance from the north, temperatures swinging wildly, high 60’s in the afternoons, below 30 at night, snow, sleet and ice, the ingredients of what, around here, is called winter. But, this one has been a real doozy!

Last week we had our fair share of winter, 4-1/2 days of below freezing temps and last night another “norther” blew in. This morning the temp was 16, wind howling from the north, last nights sleet covering the car windshields (and windows on the north side), then it started to snow. Because of the wind the snow didn’t accumulate on the ground, so it must have blown all the way to San Saba or Llano counties.

There is a bright side though because one of my neighbors said he was “covered up” with gray foxes and for me to come over and try my luck. This sure beats my job of the last 2 days, cutting and splitting firewood. Last weeks cold snap completely exhausted our supply of split oak, putting me to work.

However, better times are ahead! Starting Saturday the forecast is back to normal for this time of the year, no new “northers” on the horizon, afternoon temps in the high 60’s and low 70’s, evenings pleasantly cool, so it’s back to fun things like softball, or working on my new book, but yesterday (before the front) I did cut down a dead, oak tree, so I’ll have to temper cutting and splitting wood with my softball and writing.

Random Thoughts

Status Of My Book, February 7, 2011

Starting my second book, Why It’s Called Hunting, on January 20th of this year, it’s time for an update on my progress, or lack thereof. Now’s a good time to look at my original plan, which was:

1. Study Createspace’s offerings, be familiar with them and during the process, chose the ones that I’ll use.

2. Organize, rewrite (as needed) and arrange in chronological order the best and most interesting hunting stories from my blog.

3. Write, or rewrite, one word, one paragraph and/or one story per day.

4. Touch up, and if necessary, rewrite the Foreword, Acknowledgments and After Word.

5. Organize pictures and change to 300 DPI.

6. Figure out the best way to change the entire book from MS Word to PDF.

7. Edit, Edit, Edit, Edit! If possible, have the book professionally edited.

As of today on item 1, there hasn’t been any review or work of Createspace’s offerings, but I’ve been faithful on organizing in chronological order and writing at least one story a day and I’m halfway through the stories! So far, I’ve completed rough copies of the Foreword, Acknowledgments and After Word.

Learning from my first book, The End Of The Line, I’ve already set up a folder and page number for each picture, but I’m waiting until the rough draft is finished to change all of the pictures to 300 DPI, the same for changing from MS Word to PDF. As each story is reviewed, I’m editing it and this will be the first edit of many.

Three weeks into the self publishing project, my status review shows that I’m making progress of finishing the rough draft of the book, setting it up, editing it on the fly and I’ll worry about the “nitty grittys” after that.

Hill Country Happenings

Finally

This was truly a cold front of epic proportions!  Here in central Texas we had temps below freezing for 4-1/2 days, it snowed twice and the wind was clocked at over 50 MPH!

Thursday night we had more snow, only just over an inch, but for the second time in the same storm.  We had a nice dusting that covered the garden and the only things showing were my Texas 1015 onions.

The mesquite trees showed the snow and our Suburban (manufactured before the Obama takeover of GM) was “covered up”, for us, but not like the vehicles along Chicago’s south shore.
    
Finally after 4-1/2 days, Friday afternoon the temp climbed above freezing and most of the snow melted.  For the next 10 days we’ll have warm afternoons and cold nights, but nothing like this epic winter storm!

Hill Country Happenings

Winter Storm Continues

With no respite until tomorrow afternoon, the folks in Mills County, Texas, like everybody in the mid west of our Country, has been under the influence of one of the worst winter storms in history! The storm has closed down schools, virtually stopped air travel and made highway traveling iffy at best.

Two days into February, the Chicago area has already experienced a record snow for the month! My friend Randy Pfaff, a Pastor in southern Colorado, e-mailed me that the temp yesterday was 25, but not to worry because by Saturday it will be in the 50’s. He included a picture of some “serious” icicles on one of his outbuildings.

Back to Mills County, around here we’ve had freezing weather since before midnight on January 31st and we won’t see it over 32 until Friday afternoon. That’s 4 days below freezing, very, very unusual for central Texas! Generally a “norther” comes in and drops temps quickly, but they recover to normal within a day, even last year when it hit 8 one day, by the next day it was in the high 30’s.

It has been very cloudy, but Tuesday we had the sun come out for a couple of hours causing a little of the snow to melt, (but it froze right back). My Texas 1015 onions are still proudly sticking above the snow, but some has blown off or melted.

More snow is predicted for tonight. Anyone expect a little Ice Age?

Hill Country Happenings

Deep Freeze

Today in central Texas it is colder than a well diggers XXXX!  It’s snowing, 21 degrees, with a wind chill of 5 and the wind is blowing 25-30, gusting over 30!  The cold front that is savaging our Nation hit here last night around midnight with thunder, lightning, sleet and big wind and it hasn’t let up since then.

Here’s the snow, real little flakes, swirling around our back yard (the shooting range and target is in the background).

Then a look at the garden shows 1 inch or more, covering the three rows of Texas 1015 onions, bravely sticking up through the snow.  Those things hanging across the 8 foot, deer fence are uneven pieces of soaker hose.

It’s forcasted that this weather will hang on through Friday, 3-1/2 days below freezing with a low of 12, wow!  This means that I’ll have to break ice so the cows can get water.  Walking over to the old ranch house I even slipped on a patch of ice, but, thank the Lord, I didn’t fall!  I prefer much sunnier and warmer climes!

Hunting

A Jolly Rancher

In early January, Fred Walters, my neighbor and friend, asked me to accompany him on a quail hunt to his lease near Lockhart, Texas. This would be my second trip to the lease and remembering the luck that I had on ducks this past December, besides the 8’s for quail, slipped 5, number 6 shot into my hunting coat pocket

Still being without a dog, we had busted into an average sized covey and had reduced their number by 3. Luckily we found all of them, and as we looked for the last quail, in the brush ahead, was the damn of the “duck slaying” stock tank where on the last trip I had bagged 19 ducks, without shooting them on the water, with 5 shots. Fred looked for the last bird and told me to go on up and check for ducks and if they were any, take care of them.

Exchanging the shells in my pump and clipping the other 2 between the fingers of my left hand, I quickly, but quietly, walked up behind the damn and eased my eyes over the edge for a look, and to my surprise there was many, many different varieties of ducks swimming and feeding in the small tank. Quickly ducking back down, I tried to wave for Fred to come up, but he couldn’t see me through the thick stuff, so I decided as he had said, “Take care of them by myself.”

Easing over the tank dam, the surface of the water exploded as the ducks took to air! Up they came and boom, boom, boom, my 12, gauge barked! I had picked out a duck for each shot and as they caught the wind and swung back over me, I quickly slipped the 2 shells that I had jammed between my fingers into the pump and let fly, boom, boom and 2 more fell.

Glancing back into the tank, I counted 13 ducks down. I was careful in picking out just one duck, but the spread and pattern of the shot had knocked down 8 more. Dreading retrieving them, because I knew we’d be over the limit, I started picking up the ones close to shore and then started “chunking” the ones left out in the middle.

Fred heard the shooting and ran up as I was “chunking” the ducks. My tally included 2 greenheads and 2 pintail drakes along with 9 other of ducks. We each had a lot of ducks in our freezers back in Houston, so we were over our daily bag limit by 3. I was crushed, but Fred assured me there would be no problem. He said, “We’ll just clean ‘em all and leave 3 big ducks with the rancher. Hopefully, we’ll be OK!”

The rancher happily took the ducks we gave him and said, “Don’t forget that I like quail too!”

We got him some quail the next trip!

Sports

Senior Softball, 2011

We’ve already heard around town that the old guys are at it again. Even though the Senior Softball season doesn’t officially start until February 18th (weather permitting) in Pasadena, Texas, for Mickey Donahoo and I our season started yesterday. Last year our seasons ended in October, so we’ve had a 90 day, respite from our avocation.

At 1:15 PM we met at the high school baseball park and kicked off, (a poor choice of words, but this is a football town), our Senior Softball season for 2011 and were greeted by temps in the high 60’s, very little wind and a bright clear sky. Today the weatherman is smiling on us with more of the same except the temp will reach 75. Based on our ten day, weather forecast, it’ll be raining tomorrow, but Sunday and Monday look OK for workouts, then the cold and rain start up for 5 days.

We warmed up, stretched, played catch, then took 30 swings apiece and for the first day, our timing wasn’t that bad! This morning when I got up and rode my stationary bike, I wasn’t too sore, my right arm felt good, but the “swinging muscles” in my back were a little tight.

This year our season will again run until mid October, with a 2 week, break until deer season. We do have a 6 week overlap with Goldthwaite’s high school football season, but, being dedicated football fans, we’ll both work around it!

Random Thoughts

A Dilemma

Even though yesterday I was up by 6:15 AM, productivity was not a word that we used around here! Rising, 18 minutes on my stationary bike, breakfast, checking my e-mail and then on to Brownwood for Layla to get a facial, but my goal there was to get my .22 semi-auto fixed, but alas, no gunsmiths in that thriving town of 20,000 folks.

The rifle had just passed the one year warranty (that figures) and when I went to sight it in with a new 4 power scope, I noticed the bolt release catch had somehow become defective. Normally just slide it down and the bolt returns to the closed position, but not this time. The release catch didn’t have any tension and the bolt remained open. Quickly, on the hood of the jeep, I disassembled the rifle and tried to find some “catch” or spring that would release the bolt. Twenty minutes later, no luck, so began my quest for a gunsmith.

Goldthwaite, population 1,800, Lampasas with 6,000, neither had a gunsmith. The closest, according to the yellow pages is Coleman, 5,000 folks and 70 miles away, too far for a .22, for now. Being real tight, I don’t want to spend much to get the bolt released so this morning I called the manufacturer and after a 5 minute, wait, I talked with one of the repairmen.

Explaining my problem, he asked where was the closest gun shop? “Coleman, 70 miles away,” I answered, adding, “We’re smack dab in the center of Texas and are close to nothing.” The repairman said, “Our closest repair center is in Austin” and I quipped, “That’s only 90 miles southeast of us!”

His first suggestion, pull back the bolt and lift and pull back on the bolt release, and clunk the bolt snapped forward. This fixed the problem and working the bolt back and releasing it a couple of times, it worked properly.

The manufacturer is sending me a schematic of the gun’s action. I guess that since I bought the gun on sale at well known discounter, the price didn’t include a schematic!

Bits and Pieces from Jon H Bryan…