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Russell is on the Zero Turn but even though it is a powerful machine at 38 horsepower and a 72“ cut, it has a great difficulty with 3 ft tall grass and weeds. We’ll have to attack this piece with the 15ft batwing shredder. Russell will continue on to the golf course and mow it. We keep that grass at a reasonable height so it’s easily maintained by the zero turn.
Eric is nearly 15 and nearly 6ft tall now. He can operate the big tractor easily and compared to a lot of other work around here, he’s realized this isn’t such bad duty. We’re trying to kill the more noxious weeds by mowing them. The bermuda grass is flourishing right now and if we can get the weeds knocked down, we think the bermuda will take over and choke them. Anyway, this is also our way of adding organic matter back into the soil. Building the soil is our long-term goal.
Rebecca went out to feed Legolas today and found Legolas’ good friend Plucky the chicken perched on his head. Plucky stays pretty much in Fred’s stall and spends some time in Legolas’ stall. It’s a good situation for both of them, because Plucky eats the bugs that dare to come around and Legolas provides some nice leftover hay for Plucky to use make a nest. Also, Plucky manages to grab some of the oats that fall to the stall floor. But it’s rare to see Plucky in this spot. Luckily Rebecca had her phone cam ready.
Love this Slideshow I found on Youtube of America the Beautiful set to the music of Ray Charles.
Robbie, Peter and I were out walking around this morning. Naturally, they found their way into the creeks!
Ryan’s Fall’s is a great place to play on a hot day.
You may have heard the news lately about how the Dallas/Fort Worth area is getting deluged. After years of drought, we are just grateful for the moisture. This year has been extraordinary. It looks like a tropical rain forest. We love the rain. Here are some pictures of Robbie and Peter taking advantage of the constant flow of water over Ryan’s Falls.
Ahhhh…. what a relief from the heat!
This is down at Nauvoo where some large branches were snapped. Good thing no one was camping down there when it happened.
It’s like this tree behind Eric just exploded. We suspected lightning, but my guess is the tree was weakened by years of drought and just couldn’t withstand the heavy wind pressure.
Here’s a nice Pecan tree that was literally snapped off by a powerful westerly wind. The force of nature is impressive.
Well, here is the finished product. It was a monumental effort by all members of the family and it was beautiful to look at.
But the winds of change were about to blow.
I was a little concerned about it blowing around and getting beat up, so I went to Home Depot and purchased some screw in anchors out of an abundance of caution. The day I went to HD was a stormy day. I got a call literally as I was leaving the cash register. It was from Russell informing me that a major windstorm had blown through and the Chicken Dome blew away.
I couldn’t believe it.
This is proof that not everything turns into a fantastic success here on the ranch. This dome was only a success in the fact that we worked together to build it. But it would have been better if it didn’t blow away.
This is what was left in the pasture where the Chicken Dome once stood. Apparently the wind picked it up and flipped it upside down snapping a lot of the support struts. (That we so painstakingly cut at certain angles and then predrilled for the screws). Oh the pain.
The dome leaped this fence in a single bound. Or something like that. You can see it in the above picture lodged in another fence across the driveway.
And there it remains today. It’s just too much to face. Maybe another windstorm will blow it away to OZ.
Meanwhile, we’ll have to come up with another mobile chicken coop. Stay tuned.