All this week there’s a good chance of rain for our County and Monday morning greeted me with a mugginess that I thought I had left behind on the Gulf Coast!

Quickly breaking a sweat, but soldering on with my walk, I came upon this doe tucked back in the thick stuff. She sat still for one “shot”, but vamoosed quickly
Keeping up a steady pace, scanning the brush on both sides of the County Road, I glanced down and there was a big snake track crossing the road, probably a big king or rattler.

Stopping, my search of both sides of the road turned up no snakes but it’s easily seen that this was a big one. My shoe tracks are beside the heel size rock.

Each day I check my butt pack and make sure that my camera, cell phone and .22, kit gun are there. Before the summer is over, I bet that I’ll run across this snake again and if it’s a rattler, curtains for it!

Walking each morning in the before sunrise coolness is fun, healthful and something that I look forward to, but on Saturday, jackpot! I walked up on a real nice buck still in velvet!

This “shot” captured him sensing me and turning sideways.

 
Now he saw me and on this “shot” he has turned facing me.

What a nice deer!

Heading east on my Thursday walk produced no pictures or, other than the beautiful scenery, anything of note. However, my walk on Friday, after a nice dawn shower, was interesting to say the least.

Having owned this property for fifteen years, walking around it for five of those and being the next to last stop on the Star Mail Route, I had paid no attention to the five mail boxes that represented the last stop on County Roads 406 and 408. The five boxes are for ranches located on both roads, the most distant, being on the Colorado River, five miles away.

Someone in the past had constructed this unusual appliance to make the mail delivery easier. The base is a truck tire rim, the stem is a drill pipe and the mail box holder is a wagon wheel. Star Routes are bid on and “owned” by private contractors and I bet the U.S Postal Service hasn’t ever approved this contraption!

Heading south on this walk takes me by the horse pasture, where, last week, one had jumped the fence and was happily grazing along the road until I scared it back inside. The fence is still almost down and the horses could easily jump it.

While his buddies were grazing, this horse, the fence jumper, saw me coming and never took its eyes off of me. He knew that this crazy man would probably raise his arms, let out a yell and scare him again!

June 30th through July 3rd, Layla and I will be gone to Liberty, Kansas to where I’ll be playing in the SPA Midwestern Championship, Senior Softball Tournament. The Texans, after winning State in Dallas two weeks ago, should do well in this one.

My morning walk last Saturday was pretty uneventful, but I had to stop and get a picture of this beautiful, mare feeding. It’s easy to see that she hadn’t foaled yet.

Then, in the shadows, several hundred yards later, one doe showed herself long enough for me to get a “shot”.

The walk didn’t get exciting until I got home. I still hadn’t taken my ball cap off and I went to the side of our house to move a sprinkler, and on the way, bumped into a hanging plant. With my ball cap pulled down and looking at the sprinkler, I never saw the plant and never saw what was resting among the leaves.

After moving the sprinkler, I walked to the back door and felt something crawling on my neck. I reached up and swatted, what I thought was a june bug, but turned out to be a tarantula. After the swat, it landed on the porch and I had Layla get me a sack real fast and using a broom, coaxed it into the sack. Sack and tarantula were carried out to the cow lot and I shook the big spider out on the ground. Their bite, more like a bee sting, is only dangerous to a human if you’re allergic to the venom, but seeing the big, hairy spider, that was on the back of my neck, certainly made my heart beat at an aerobic level!

The past two and a half weeks, each morning I have been packing my camera and no worthy “shots” appeared; no snakes, deer, rabbits, or even livestock. Each evening, out in our field, but too far for a picture, we can barely make out some newly born deer struggling through the Sudan grass. These are the fawns from the first estrus cycle. Obviously the does are “fawning” right now.

Tuesday morning I did get two good “shots”.

This deer is ready to drop her fawn. She must be from the second cycle?

Just like heifer number 80 is ready to drop her calf.

Some times the natural order takes precedence over getting some good “shots”!

My Great Uncle, Lee Wallace, a lawyer, writer and judge, was quite a “sport” and well known throughout our State. He was my Mother’s favorite Uncle and some of his exploits are near legendary.

Around the turn of the 20th century, Lee, County Attorney for Kerr County, Texas and another lawyer, decided they would go and visit one of Lee’s friends in Pecos, Texas, probably a hundred and fifty to two hundred mile trip. Remember, no interstates and very few cars then and their chosen mode of transportation was a team of horses, pulling their wagon.

Here Lee is shown with his “Sunday” rig.

A car trip from Kerrville to Langtry, even with our modern highways, is not easy today and in the early 1900’s, had to be a nightmare. To bolster their courage, along with their pistols, they took two cases of whiskey, one for their trip and one for Lee’s friend. Wouldn’t you know it, their wagon broke an axle near Rocksprings and their three to four day trip turned into a week.

Finally arriving in Langtry, with the whiskey gone, and no “gift” for Lee’s friend, his friend’s court was in session. The bar was closed, and they witnessed the strange brand of justice practiced by, Lee’s friend, Judge Roy Bean!

The complaint was by an Anglo rancher that one of his horses was stolen. Judge Bean brought out a Mexican man that was already in jail and said he must have done it. The jury found Mexican guilty and Judge Bean sent him back to jail for a longer term or a hanging (Lee never said). With the swift sentence, the bar quickly opened and warm greetings were exchanged.

After several days, with Lee’s visit and business completed, he and his fellow traveler loaded up for home. To bolster their courage for the grueling trip, Judge Bean presented them with two more cases of whiskey. Four days later, minus the whiskey, they arrived safely in Kerrville.

Back then, you had to be careful of the water you drank!

We were in Dallas last Wednesday through Friday, to participate in the Texas Senior Softball Championships, but Mother Nature intervened in a big way. Early Thursday morning I awoke to an awesome electrical show, seventy to eighty mile per hour winds and a driving rainstorm. Another washed out tournament was my first thought, but by noon the sun was shining and a good, steady wind was blowing from the south, just the ingredients to dry out the fields. We played a shortened tournament on Friday and my team, The Texans, won our age group.

Back home in Goldthwaite, Thursday night’s storm was almost equal to that morning’s storm in Dallas. The same speed winds, seventy to eighty, sustained for over an hour, five inches of rain and golf ball size, hail. Folks around here said if the wind hadn’t been blowing so hard, our rain gauges would have shown eight or nine inches.

After the fact I heard about the Goldthwaite storm and after asking if everyone, including our pets, were safe, my second thought was about my garden, just swinging into production.

Friday afternoon as I was leaving Dallas, I noticed a huge, thunderhead to the northwest. Switching on the radio, I followed the track of this storm all the way from Mineral Wells to Hamilton, thirty miles east of Goldthwaite. This was the worst of the three spawning four tornadoes on the ground, grapefruit size hail, loads of rain and high, straight line, winds. I was real lucky since I was running ahead of the storm and it turned east, away from Goldthwaite.

Arriving home late Friday afternoon, during a good, heavy rain, the garden was too sloppy to get into and inspect, so Monday morning I took these pictures of the small amount of damage.

Worst hit were my wild garlic and dill. These plants are on the northeast side and bore the brunt of the wind and I lost two, dill and one, garlic plant.

The dill and basil around the jalapeno plants were pushed around, but will survive.

The black eye peas, since they were on a long trellis, were almost flattened, but are still producing.

Most protected were the Kentucky wonder beans and straight neck squash.

Here you can see the squash blossoms and one squash ready to pick.

Looking back over the past spring, the garden has survived one freeze, a heavy wind storm and two hail storms. This should make the surviving plants strong and help to produce a great harvest!

Not having walked for the past eight days, yesterday morning I started to get back into the groove and clipped off a quick two miler.

In the half-light just before the sun peeks over the horizon, right out of my side door this doe was standing just outside of the fence around my  yard.

I got one bad shot of her standing and another of her tail, waving goodbye to me!

Pressing on, as I rounded a curve in the road, there was a horse! He had jumped over a bad section of fence. Not even thinking about a picture, I raised my arms, let out a rebel yell and chased it back over the fence and into its pasture. Its buddies were still grazing and had not made an effort to join him. Straightening up the fence the best that I could without tools, I continued my walk.

This old, still pumping, windmill was probably built around 1920, the same as the one outside of our old house. Almost ninety! I wonder how much stock it has watered over the years?

The deer were thick this past Monday morning. Having just cleared my gate, I looked up and this doe was watching me from about seventy-five yards. She pawed the ground once then took off.

Another three hundred yards, these two were watching for me, my footsteps on the gravel road alerting them. The doe’s tail, on the right, is at half cock and she and her partner bolted right after this shot.

No deer for the next half mile, until the road turned and this doe was crossing, but stood still, watching me. She stayed, eyes glued on me, until I was within a hundred yards, then took off.

My pulled groin muscle is (almost) healed, i don’t feel it grabbing on the inclines and I’ve extended my walks out to almost one and a half miles. These walks are fun, they promote good health, the weather is usually fine, there’s an abundance of wildlife around here that offers some good opportunities for out of season shots of the camera variety.
This Thursday and Friday we have the State Championship, Senior Softball Tournament in Dallas. My “healed” groin will get a good workout there!

My walk last Sunday was much more eventful than the last few!

Starting out from my house, I hadn’t walked a quarter of a mile into a nice breeze before I got this “shot” at a nice doe. She was just standing and looking at me. Lately the deer have been in “high gear” by the time I spotted them.

When I returned home, I went to get a drink of water and looked out into the field behind my house and spotted a “trespassing” jackrabbit. Seven jacks will eat as much grass as a full grown, cow so I immediately unlimbered my .22 mag and cut loose on the trespasser.

My first shot rolled it and the second put it away. The field was just planted and the new sprouts clearly show, so I didn’t go out and pick up the rabbit for a “formal” picture.

Measuring my success, it turned out to be just a sight over two hundred yards. I took the shot from a rest on the third post from the left on my back porch.

Practice counts!