The Irony of it all

It strikes me so ironic that the last couple of months of summer last year were so dry and hot that every county in Texas had a burn ban in effect. We were in the process of clearing trees for our driveway and couldn't burn any of it and the volume was quite large...we just started dragging everything to the side and piling it up.

There was more to work on than just the road too. There was a fence to build, gates to install, the fenceline to clear of all the saplings that were destined to grow into the perimeter fence and ruin it.

The month of May was mostly dry but when it rained it poured and it was impossible to get anything done.

In June, Eric got a staph infection and was in the hospital and Ann had a kidney removed. So, June was out of the equation. We did some work in July but when August hit and the 100 degree temps were everyday. We had more than 69 triple digit temps in 2009.

But...once it hit triple digits and stayed there...it was almost impossible to get much work done.

When it's so hot that water is dripping off of you in the shade, trust me, you don't have much energy to be clearing out trees.

Everyone was tired of the heat. Everyone was wishing for some rain to end the drought.

Well, we got our wish. When it started raining, it kept raining. It rains most days now. Fall was cold and wet, winter was colder and wetter. This winter has been colder globally than it has been in 30 years. I've had to wear a coat everyday since the week before thankgiving. The mud is so deep at the ranch that every step is a squishy one. There are streams running across our driveway path. At least I know where to lay culverts now. I also know a couple of good spots for stock tanks.

I would love nothing more than go out and finish burning the brush. But, it keeps raining. I guess I'm just used to the old fashioned Texas Winters where it's cold for a day or two and then it's sunny again. Well, not this year. I'm just going to have to wait until Spring comes. Maybe since we have had a cold winter, we won't have such a dry hot summer. We can always hope, right?

The Burning

So...we finally have a couple of nice days in the middle of Winter. Time to start burning all of the brush that we've accumulated. Here is a picture of Ann feeding the fire. After almost burning down the woods, we decided it would be safer to use the "burn" barrels for what I bought them for. In about two hours we had reduced a pretty good pile of brush to ash. That's me, feeding the flames. Once we had the first brush pile going and under control, we didn't want to add more to it because it was starting to get late and we needed to let it die down before we left. We decided to go for a stroll. Below, I'm pacing off a potential building site.

While we waited for the fire to die down, we took apart the blown down cabana and stacked the pieces. Here you can see what was left. I'm hopeful that we'll be able to rebuild it.

Fire! Fire! We had some serious heat going on.

After a full afternoon of burning brush in a barrel, we drove off into this sunset. It was a good day!

Merry Christmas from Circle-H

Well another year almost gone. Where does the time go? Torie came down for a week and I really enjoyed having her home. She had to leave before Christmas but we had a small celebration with her here.

I drove her out to the Vamtek Circle H Ranch and she picked out a homesite for herself. I think it's in a good spot and not too far from ours.

I took a picture of the Cabana all blown over and crumpled. When the weather clears up AND when I have the time...I'll try to drag Eric out there and rebuild the thing. Hopefully, a little more stable against the wind that picks up around here.

I really do need to build some windmills when we have a permanent structure out here. I might as well take advantage of the wind.

Here are the pictures that I took, not too many but it was fun to see Torie out here. I hope it gave her a chance to see a dream to live here. I would love for us all to be out here together at some point in time.

October-rainy season-mostly uneventful

We didn't do much during the month of October. It's been wetter than usual so the prospect of doing anything serious has been hampered. We discovered a few very important things though that will help in the future when we extend the road out to the back. During wet seasons, we have a few creeks that flow across the place...and a bonus...the place that we thought must have been a stock tank 20 years ago...filled up with water and appears to be holding it quite well. Another project...dredge it out and make it useful again. There is a spot that looks like it was struck by lightening and all of the trees are dried to a crisp. I gathered up a bag of Texas Elm seeds and went out this weekend to spread them. Hopefully, they'll take. Here are some pictures taken the last couple of trips out there.

Labor Day weekend - another work / fun party

I managed to take some extra days off over the Labor Day weekend and decided this would be a good time to go out and clear some more of the driveway. After all, we only have 1200 feet to clear. :) Todd and his family went out along with me and Ann. They stayed in a tent...we stayed in the RV. It's a little cooler now that we are getting a little rain so the AC in the RV got things nice and chilly inside. We actually turned off the generator, switched the fridge over to propane and opened up the windows. I slept pretty well once "Shadow", our black lab, settled down. He was on alert the whole time. If we were outside, his nose was to the ground 'popping'. I had to keep him on a leash because he would get a scent and take off. We cleared out a lot of dead trees and only a few living mesquite trees that were small or almost dead. It's been so dry that many of the trees might actually be pulling everything down to their roots because there just isn't any ground water. Things were so nice in the RV and the kids and women all went inside and put on a DVD for the kids to watch. It was a good time. We cooked hot dogs over the fire, cooked pork roast in a dutch oven and one evening, we roasted marshmallows and made s'mores. Zoe didn't want one, she just wanted a marshmallow. We all looked at her a little funny. I think she had never had one. Once she tried it, she ate it up. For just camping out a couple of days, we had enough food for several more. I'm continually surprised how well the fridge in the RV works. The freezer...freezes and the fridge keeps things cold...even on propane! I love it. I guess that proves I'm simply getting old. Todd and I got a lot of work done. We cleared about 300 more feet of trees. Now we need to work on getting the cactus out and bring in more road base. It's hard work, but really therapeutic. Ever heard of "jumping cactus"? I don't know what it's really called but this stuff is bad. I remember always getting into it when I was a boy scout. It's the cactus that just keeps on giving. It doesn't take much. You barely brush against it and then you have cactus needles in you the size of a tiny hair for days to come. Duct tape comes in handy here. Also a good sharp knife blade scraped across your skin can get some of them out. Neat huh? NOT! We also took the time to put up a mailbox. It's official, we have an address. Yeah! I took an old 4x4 fence post and used it for the mailbox post. I think it turned out ok. Doesn't look new. That's what I was aiming for. The women decided that they would go back into town and take the pets and kids with them and stay the night in our house and let Todd and I have some alone time with each other. I really appreciated the time. It's not that often that we get the chance to just hang out and visit. So, we loaded up Todd's van, kissed our wives goodbye and saw them off. We saw a small rattlesnake but didn't have a chance to kill it. I hesitate to just kill for the sake of killing. Now I'll have to be on the look out. I won't hesitate if I have to defend myself. This one wasn't interested, he looked at me and went down a hole. We saw more cotton tail rabbits and we also saw a really odd looking beetle. I have no idea what kind it was but It looked rather scary so I killed it. I know...I know...but it could have been poisonous, right? Josh took time to pose for a picture with 'Papa'. A section of trees were all bent over, up-rooted and scorched white. Not a leaf on any of them. Some of them broken off 20 feet up. I have no idea what did it but it was a little weird to walk up on a section of trees like that. What could have done it? How could something turn the trees white like that? Heat? The ground wasn't touched. It looked like something big came crashing through the woods, but only a small section was affected. I guess this will remain a mystery.

Another HOT day at the Ranch clearing trees

So...we have a moment last Saturday where we find ourselves with nothing much to do. I had already watered the straw outside that tries to pass as grass, replaced the kitchen faucet and taken my wife out to Lunch with Molly and Larissa. Our afternoon was suddenly open. Molly volunteered to watch the pets until 5pm so we decided to head out to the Circle-H and give it a quick inspection. Just before leaving, Ann called Todd, (They had camped out overnight, or so we thought.), Todd said they had just gotten there around 2pm and was getting ready to work on clearing more trees from the proposed roadway...would I bring my chainsaw? I'd be lying if I said I was over joyed but it was a chance to spend some time with Todd and his family. Well...I had not planned on actually working, but... Next thing I know, I'm throwing the saw and gas can in the back of the truck and we're off. We noticed that the whole family was there and even though they were under the gazebo, it was obvious that the 103 degree temp was cooking them. Of course, the grand-sons were no worse for wear... Todd and I surveyed the scene and I saw what he had been working on, so I fired up the saw and was about to start cutting when Todd gave me the 'cutthroat' sign by slicing his hand past his throat. I turned off the saw to see what was the matter and he pointed out to me that I had forgotten to close the bar oil reservoir and was leaking oil all over the place....Ooooops. Not a good start. Regroup. Ok...Todd and I surveyed the scene...and I started cutting and Todd started hauling. We were going along at a pretty good pace, when my right hand really started hurting. I turned off the saw pulled off Todd's gloves that I had borrowed and realized that my right ring finger was starting to become de-gloved by my gold ring. I guess, between the heat, the swelling and the vibration of the saw, my ring was digging into my finger, had broken the skin and was slowing sliding up the bottom pad of my finger. The skin was kind of accordion shaped. I pulled it back into place and pocketed the ring. Ouch! I stopped cutting shortly after that when I started seeing black and was light headed. Too hot. Geesh, I'm getting old. I had brought 2 liters of water with me but the heat still got to me. I was soaked...at least I was still sweating. So...after that, we took a stroll around the perimeter, talked about the future of the ranch and headed back to the family at the gazebo. All in all, it was still successful. We still got a lot done. This section doesn't even look like it used to have trees. I try to cut them off as close to the ground as I can. This spot is pretty much clear. The yellow flags mark where the road will go.

Setup a Storage Shed and wandered around a bit

The gate still looks good and seems to be holding up, in spite of a proper "H" brace. The road is still in good shape.

The gazebo was still standing this time. Last time we were out, it was blown over lying in a clump of twisted metal. I drove some stakes into the ground to help but it still needs proper placement.

We brought a few extra chairs...

NO! That is NOT an outhouse! That is the new storage shed that we put together. Ann thought it would be funny to take this picture because is looked just like I was going to the outhouse.

Here is a picture that shows how dry it is out there.

Me walking around.

Here's a small grassy clearing...where the road is going to go through...someday...only about 10 more dump truck loads to get back this far from the county road.