Frozen February

January may have flown by, but February seemed to go on forever.....at least while we were frozen in. That brief bit of snow we had last month was just a starter apparently, as this month we had a dose of real winter.  

This "cold snap" started out as a crystalline wonderland, with fences and tree limbs sparking in their coats of ice. The boys were here for the first day of the icy weather and they had a ball exploring the ice encased tree branches, pulling chunks of ice off of the frozen bird water pots, and admiring the various textures of ice. As we toured the yard there were a few science lessons too, like, why does the heater (heat pump) have ice on it? Papaw explained that, and soon we all went inside to defrost our hands! 

Over the next couple of days the weather turned much colder and much less picturesque.  Our specific location hit 4.8 °F at 7 a.m. on the 16th. We had two days of extreme cold, and soon after, it warmed slightly and we began to have snow, which was much more picturesque than the ice. The dogs really had never seen snow as deep as we had with this storm, and they thought it was great for romping in, though they never wanted to stay out for very long. 

It was interesting to go out early in the morning while the snow was fresh and check out the various tracks..... birds mostly, and small mammals. Watch decided to follow one set of tracks into the woods - odd little feet with something dragging, which after consideration we decided was probably a cat or skunk. We have all manner of small critters living in the bushes at the corners of the property so it's hard to know for sure. 

As the demand for heat increased the electric grid suffered and we began rolling blackouts, that stressed the pumping capabilities of our community water supply, and then that failed too. Yea - back to the "good old days", preparing meals by the light of candles and lanterns,  buckets of water for washing up and stored water for cooking. 

Actually, many people had it much worse than we did, so not complaining too much on this end!

I'm sure the folks up in the Dakotas and other northern states think we're wimps down here, but really, no one here has the gear necessary to be really comfortable when the temperature hits 4 degrees! 

Central Texas homes aren't adequately insulated for one thing (we usually want to keep the heat OUT, not in!) and no one, except maybe a few hunters, has clothing that's suitable. 

We won't even talk about how to drive on snowy roads, and what to do to be prepared for really cold weather. Even tow trucks are often not equipped for the road conditions we had. 

Our years in Oregon, particularly eastern Oregon, where we lived near Crater Lake, gave us a pretty good background, so other than having the electricity out for a time, and the subsequent loss of water service, we weren't terribly inconvenienced.

We had plenty of stored water, and our rain storage tanks came in handy too. Of course, we didn't have to get to work like many people did, so we just hunkered down, enjoyed the view of sparkling snow and ice covered trees outside the windows, and tried to stay warm. Defrosting the bird water pans 2 or three times a day was one of the primary tasks. Not only did they ice over quickly, the ice was thick! almost two inches thick on the coldest days. 

In preparation for the coming "cold front" Steve had managed to get both of our generators working and weatherproof the RV, and he did everything he could think of to protect the household plumbing.  All his efforts paid off. We had no broken pipes when everything thawed out. Apparently not many people could say that. The hot topic of conversation on our neighborhood Facebook group was plumbing parts. People who were working on their own plumbing were trading them around and giving tips as to which, if any, hardware store in town might have what was needed. Plumbers were in hot demand too, as some of the issues were more complicated. 

The temporary loss of water and power utility services has certainly given all the talking heads a lot to chew on, and they are taking advantage of it, with everyone pointing fingers at everyone else. I'll let others take care of that. Our challenge is cleaning up the split trees and shrubs, and the puddles of mushy frozen foliage that used to be our landscaping. 

All the gardening pros advise "wait two weeks before you do anything" to see whether something is really dead or not. Ug. It's pretty obvious for some things, and having to look at dead twigs for two weeks is rather depressing. Every one of our large prickly pear cactus clumps shed a large number of pads. I don't know if it was the weight of the snow, or simply that they became too brittle to hold up the weight of the pads when they froze. Two of our favorite large shrubs had major limbs break beyond hope of recovery so they've already been taken care of, now there's just a broken cedar tree to tend to. 

Even so, our week of winter (that felt like a month) has quickly moved us into spring. We had a high of 81 just a few days after those days of intense cold!  Now we're back to more normal weather in the 70-50's during the day.  The balmy weather has all the birds singing like crazy, so it even sounds like spring!  We had masses of robins in the yard just a few days ago, busily harvesting worms or insects in the grass.

My wish last month to have the cedar wax wings hang around was granted. They're still a nervous lot, seldom sitting still long enough to get a good photo, but I've managed to determine that the flocks that are massing around the edges of the watering pans are juveniles, not the adults I photographed in January. 

My first clue was that they were smaller than the ones I saw in January, and then when I finally got the binoculars on one I noticed they didn't have the little red wing tips. It turns out that feature shows up during their second year. 

They're such funny looking little things, with their bandit masks and bright yellow tail tips - quite striking close up but very plain from a distance. They don't nest in Texas, I've learned, so the flock of young ones will probably be moving north soon.  

Every time I approached a window to take a photo they jumped and the whole flock instantly headed for the tops of the trees. It's characteristic of the waxwings to roost high up in trees. . . safe, but not helpful for photos! 

They often had to fight for space in those trees, as the whitewing doves and robins had also moved in - their large numbers made for a huge increase in demand for bird seed and water. It's amazing how much food and water a flock of songbirds can consume. The squirrels help do away with all that bird seed and water too. They pretty much hid out while the weather was so cold, but once it warmed up  they made up for lost time. 

Now that things have defrosted and the mud has dried up a bit we're on to the garden planting and tree pruning stage of spring. Planning a summer trip is also in the works! 

Where did January go?

Wow, this month certainly flew by! Even without traveling we seem to keep plenty busy! After neglecting this blog for so long I vowed to post an update at least monthly until we're able to hit the road again, so here's what's been happening at the ranch this month. 

We started out the month with The Great Bambi Adventure.

This problem was a holdover from late December, when I looked out the back window and saw a fawn drinking out of a bird water pan. I was shocked! 

In the 10 years we've lived here we've not had any deer in our gated and fenced yard other than two or three that managed to sneak in while we opened the gate to drive out, and we were able to chase them out immediately. 

For convenience we started calling the fawn Bambi (though we think it is a girl, and Bambi was a boy). Bambie apparently arrived shortly before her mother, which I saw slip through the gate as I was going to my car to leave for town.  

This doe was smarter than our previous visitors, and in no time she managed to hide in the brush. I didn't know at the time she was following her fawn, so when the fawn showed up at the water pan and I saw the mother around the corner I knew we had 2 deer in the yard - Yikes!  

The doe managed to jump the gate at some point (the only place low enough for a deer to jump over) but Bambi was too small to jump that high, so she became a resident. We were faced with quite a dilemma - if we left the gate open the dogs would wander out and more deer would probably wander in.  What to do???

It became part of Steve's daily morning walk around the property to open the gate and then try to flush the fawn out and work it down the driveway. The fawn always managed to dart sideways and hide in the brush again. Finally we put up a temporary fence that created a path to the gate and with a little strategy succeeded it moving Bambi out. Seeing that little white tail heading down the driveway was one of my happiest days! It seems to have joined the local herd with no problems, and we're certainly hoping we don't have a repeat of this adventure! 

In the middle of January we had a bit of snow. 

It's been several years since we had enough to even accumulate. This storm delivered a nice amount of snow that gave the grandsons a chance to throw snowballs at each other, and enough to melt slowly into the soil. 

We've had a very dry winter so I know the wildflowers will appreciate that, and the Magical Giraffe that lives here seemed to appreciate the view too. 

I think everyone can identify with having "too much stuff", and when we moved here we downsized considerably in regard to space to store the "stuff" and still have access to it....so.... we've created a couple of new storage buildings. The crew working on the newest project showed up the day after the snow, so it was a rather chilly enterprise, but they didn't seem to mind.  The company we use for construction is  DNA sheds and they are GREAT! 

Rather than an off-the-shelf shed, we can plan the configuration exactly the way we want it, door sizes, windows or not, etc. It's amazing to watch them put one up. 

They bring the parts mostly cut to size, paint the exterior pieces laying on the ground, assemble the walls, but on the  wall panels and trim, and poof! there's a building! All done in one day. They built one for us last summer, attached to the RV parking area. In this photo all the trim strips have been painted and are drying while they finish the walls and put on the roof.

They finished both of the small storage sheds we wanted this time in one day. Now Steve is paneling the inside of one and installing lights, then we can move in all of the items that are crowding us out of the house!

The lack of water for wildlife this winter has been pretty noticeable - I think that's why the deer wanted into the yard. We always have a nice variety of migrating birds for that reason too, and this year is no exception

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I looked out the kitchen window a few days ago and that water pan was covered with cedar waxwings, all busily dipping and sipping. 

They're a very nervous bird, and it was hard to get a clear photo. It didn't help that the many robins who also wanted a drink kept chasing them away. 

Cedar waxwings love the little berries on the juniper trees that are so common around here too, so it's a pretty comfortable environment for them. They are a beautiful little bird, with such fascinating coloring and pattern, I wish they would stay around a little longer but we seem to always be just a stop along the way to somewhere else.  

The robins are still here though, by the dozens! and soon we'll have young cardinals, finches and then the buntings to watch.  

It's a Texas Kind of Christmas

 Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

We hope this letter finds you and your family well. That seems to be a constant concern these days. This whole year seems to be one big blur, creeping by on the one hand, but suddenly, almost over! It's no surprise to anyone I'm sure for me to say that this has been a very strange year, but I was surprised to see I hadn't made a post since last Christmas! 

We did have a few things of interest in our lives this year! The really good news is that Kendra’s Lyme infection went into remission early in the year. She now has a job with a 911 data management company and it’s keeping her plenty busy! The boys are doing well in their “virtual” school, and of course, growing like weeds, as they say. They seem to be adjusting pretty well to the whole new situation, but very much look forward to the occasional opportunity to play with an actual friend face to face! 

We did manage a camping trip to Lake Bastrop with the boys in March. Jaxen had a very successful day of fishing and was quite pleased with himself (now he just needs to learn to clean his own fish!). We had another camping trip in June in June when we inaugurated our new inflatable canoe (much easier to carry than the old one!). Raylan wasn't too sure about the whole thing, but we reminded him how brave he was on the trip before, so it worked out well. 

The south shore of the lake, where we stay, is perfect for canoeing. The water is usually calm and there are several small fingers to explore and examine the wildlife and plants along the shore.The Covid shutdown in our area began on the day we left the campground! At least we got two short trips in before things closed down  Our only outing after that was an April trip to the Witte museum in San Antonio for the dinosaur exhibit. 

 As with most places everything here has been pretty much become “virtual” if it happens at all. Steve even bought himself a new tractor online! A couple of phone calls to discuss details and before we knew it “Big Blue” was being delivered! It’s really been a big asset to our maintenance activities around the place, and he’s having a good time mastering all the new features our old tractor didn’t have.

 

Lots of gardening, cooking, art, craft and sewing projects to keep us and the boys busy (when they are here), and all the outdoor time we can fit in. New building projects and a lot of general puttering about the place have kept us occupied, though we’ll be really happy when camping opens up again! Right now our usually temperate weather is pretty darn chilly, but we're hoping that by the time things warm up in the spring we'll be able to get out and travel a bit.  I’ll close this with our best wishes for you and your family for a very Merry Christmas, and health, happiness and all good things for you and the family in the New Year!