Tear Down the Wall

For years I've been putting all the rocks cleared from our land along the property line with the lot to our East.  Now that we own that lot too, it was definitely time to get rid of them.  Moving tons of rocks to the boundry was no big rush, but I didn't want to take years to get rid of them.  Enter the small but mighty Bobcat.  One long day, one complete transformation.

Slippery Slope

This is a view from 20' up in the air looking down on one of my bird feeders and the cable supporting it.  I developed this hanging approach (along with supposedly squirrel-proof feeders and squirrel baffle dome) as the best solution to keeping the unwanted critters from stealing all the birdseed.  And for the most part it has worked, at least slowing them down enough that the birds can get about a week of food before the thieves make off with the rest.    

Now for my latest addition to the design after recent raids on the feeder.  See the orange-ish tint on parts of the cable, which I lathered with auto grease to slow down the raccoons and squirrels.  I greased both the horizontal cables and the vertical one which hangs the feeder, plus the vertical brackets on the feeder itself.  I was pleased to see today that my greasy scheme has helped; there was more birdseed remaining than usual after one week, and there were several areas where the grease was rubbed off by something trying to navigate to the feeders.  I only wish I had been there to see whatever it was slip-sliding away to the ground.  Perhaps my next addition will be one of those motion-activated wildlife cameras to catch them in the act....

Bless the Blanco

If you ever have a wild-child (or grandchild) who needs to burn off some energy, come visit us at our place with access to the Blanco River.  Shallow enough to be relatively safe, big enough for all kinds of adventures.   Rock throwing was Blaze's activity of choice last week, although picking up a dead minnow was pretty good entertainment too.  Note Ann's look which seems to be saying "this could be bad" in the first photo.  Yasmine was the only one smart enough to stay out of his range.  After an hour or so Mike and I had pretty well thrown out our arms, so we packed it in and headed back to the house.  Where Blaze was magically transformed into a calm and quiet little gentleman.  Well maybe not even close to being calm and quiet, but it was still a great diversion. 

  

Boared to Death

For years I've heard stories about and seen evidence of boars (also called wild pigs or hogs) on our property. But I'd never seen one myself until I ran across this one (literally while jogging) just down the road.  Seems it got the short end of an encounter with a vehicle.  I read that they are all varying mixes of domestic and wild breeds brought here by early settlers, and that grown ones can dig holes five feet deep and do all kinds of property damage. This one, not so much.  Bacon, anyone?