Houston

I visited my oldest and dearest friend since the 7th grade this weekend in Houston.  I lived in Houston 43 years before moving to the Texas Hill Country.  What strikes me most as I get closer to Houston on the drive is the changing vegetation from brown to lush green.  I do miss the green - not the humidity - but the intensity of the green and, at times, the hustle, bustle of the city.

On my first visit several years ago to my friend's house, she met me at a specific spot and proceeded to tell me that we would turn left at the first stop light after the bridge.  So here I am following her car but was somewhat puzzled when we kept traveling straight after going over 5 or 6 places that I considered a sort of bridge. 

I travel regularly over "low water" bridges that are approximately 20 feet in length and most of the time there is no water.  The above photo has water but it is the only one I could find after searching through bookoos of folders.  :D  However, you get the idea.

It wasn't until I saw this one did I understand what she meant by bridge.  It is at least a half of a mile, maybe longer.  I couldn't help but laugh at myself because I'd forgotten what bridges were like in my old hometown of Houston since we'd moved to the Hill Country in 1982.

Lake Houston.  Don't you just love the fluffy clouds.  Houston skies are like that most of the time. 

More to come on the trip to Houston.  I took a wonderful walk down memory lane.

Until next time, God bless.

Hunting Wildlife, Part II

Eureka!  At last, some wildlife captured on film (?), disk (?), digital (?).  Film doesn't really apply anymore, does it.

Deer are stirring around as the sun goes down.

The two small outside circles call attention to eyes and the circle just to the right of the deer looks to be a skunk.  I think Mr. or Mrs. Skunk lives under the red barn just a few feet to the left of this photo.  When I let the dogs out of the yard fence, both dash to the red barn to sniff the space under it.  Something lives there and Maggie, for sure, wants at it.  Luc likes to identify a smell and then moves on to another smell.  lol  Maggie hates skunks.  I've seen her grab one and slam it to the ground over and over again, ignoring Mr. Skunk's defensive measures.  When Luc gets a whiff, he wants no more of it and moves away.  It's the devil to get skunk off Maggie.  First I use tomato juice, second is a mixture of peroxide, Ivory dish soap, and baking soda, and then a bath.  But with all the efforts, Maggie will still carry a faint smell of skunk for about a week.  Therefore, we try to time the walks to when skunks are tucked away in their dens. 

Thought this was a pretty good shot.  There are three deer in the photo.

As soon as the rain lets up, I'll take the camera back to the garden to see if the cantaloupe-eating critter can be captured in a photo.  So far, Tropical Storm Hermine has given us 2 inches of rain which is added to the 2-4/10's inches last week.  We are extremely pleased because our rainwater collection tanks are almost full.   We lost about 4,000 gallons of rainwater earlier this summer when hubby mowed too close to one of the tanks.  The mower sheared off a valve, i.e., water went everywhere.  Fortunately, there is a cut-off valve between the two tanks which was closed and we were able to save about half of the water.   We've been limping along rainfall-to-rainfall.  July and August are usually very, very dry, and many times September is the same.  Hermine put us in good shape.

Until next time, God bless.

Hunting Wildlife

This wildlife photography thing is not as easy as I thought it would be.  I set the camera in the big garden for 7 nights trying to catch the critter that eats cantaloupe.  I moved it around several times to get a better angle. All I got was a couple of photos with one tiny shiny eye, sometimes two tiny shining eyes.  After 7 days and nights, I wanted to get "something" and moved the camera to another location where I see deer jump the fence every evening except the last two.  lol  Meanwhile back at the garden, the critter came in to dine on more cantaloupe.

Here is "bad" dog, Luc, and the only photo worth posting from the deer crossing location where the camera was armed and ready to fire upon any movement.  I brought the camera up to the house this morning to be moved to a location where I saw at least 5 deer staring at me yesterday evening as I walked out to check the big garden.

I've not given up on the garden marauding critter but I want something to show for this effort.  One thing I learned when moving the camera to a location other than the garden:  carry gloves, a limb saw and a lopper along with the camera to cut away brush, etc., so the camera will have a clear view.  While cow trails are easy to spot, I'm going to have to start trying to find wildlife trails.  Now that is a good one for this city-bred gal. 

Until next time, God bless.

Sky Watch Friday

We've got a norther blowing in which means in Central Texas at this time of year that our morning temps may drop below 70 degrees.  :D

For those who are waiting to see what kind of critter is raiding the garden, all I have with the wildlife camera so far are two tiny, shiny eyes.  Whatever it is, it is small; most likely a bunny.  I moved the camera closer to the cantaloupe that seems to be its current favorite.  Stay tuned.  Tonight might be the night that the camera gets a good enough photo to identify this critter.  As soon as there is a good one, I'll post it; then it is on to bigger  critters of the day and night.

Go here for skies around the world. 

Until next time, God bless.

Addendum:  Those skies brought 2 1/10 inches of rain last night! Hallelujah!

Straight Out of the Camera Sunday

It's Murrieta 365's Straight Out of the Camera Sunday time.  There are two rules:  1) photo must be taken by you; and 2) no tweaking.

To set these photos up, I mounted a wildlife camera in my garden to discover what kind of critter was eating just about every near-ripe and unripe cantaloupe in my garden; watermelons remain untouched.  I woke up at 3 AM this morning and was too excited to go back to sleep in anticipation of what the camera captured during the night.  The first photo was taken just after everything was set yesterday afternoon - - - I thought.  Unfortunately, I did not notice that a piece of black plastic that is being used to solarize the back row of the garden was not weighted down.  So, the camera took over 230 pictures of the plastic waving in the wind.  :D  The wind stopped, apparently, and the next shot is when I went out this morning to get the card.  The critter must not have feasted on cantaloupe during the night.

The camera is cool, though, takes pretty good photos and does what it is suppose to do, i.e., snap photos when there is movement.  It stamps the date, time, moon phase, and temperature.  I'll be making adjustments today to make sure the plastic is weighted down and/or not in the camera's sensor zone.  I am patient and will catch the little varmint in my garden yet!

Go here for more SOOC photos.

Until next time, God bless.

Critter Watch

The wildlife camera arrived yesterday before noon! Needless to say, I am quite excited.

The camera runs on 12 AA batteries which take at least 10 hours to charge.  The first 8 were in the charger by 1 PM and the last batch were in by 11 PM last night.  The software was installed this morning. 

And, finally all the batteries were charged up, camera mounted in the garden, and ready to see what comes tonight.  If the night visitor is caught on camera tonight, it'll be posted on the Straight Out of the Camera Sunday.  Stay tuned.

Until next time, God bless.

The "Little" Garden's Produce

The "little" garden has produced quite a bit for its size.  Here are a few examples:

The onions did well and will plant more next year.

I've 7 tomato bushes, but the Roma are the biggest producers.  The stands are falling over because I can just push the legs down about a foot or 16 inches before the ends hit rock.  :D  Nevertheless, it hasn't stopping the Romas from producing like crazy.  I've canned salsa, dried tomatoes, eaten and given tomatoes away.   

The size of these sweet green peppers are nothing to write home about but at least I've been able to pick a few.   I did not get one last year.  lol The peppers taste great; chopped them up to saute with onions and fresh tomatoes for scrambled eggs. 

These are dried on-the-vine black-eyed peas, a/k/a cow peas.  I did not plant enough this spring to get more than one small pot of fresh peas.  I let the rest of the pods dry so I can do a fall planting in the "big" garden.  

 

This a rescued cantaloupe from the "big" garden.  As mentioned before, something has eaten and/or ruined every cantaloupe in the "big" garden.  I snatched this one before the critter ruin it and am hoping it will ripen out for eating.  Speaking of the unknown critter, I've been tracking on Fed Ex the wildlife camera that was ordered Tuesday night.  The camera arrived in Austin last night and I just may have it this afternoon.  I can promise that the camera will be positioned in the garden within 24 hours of its arrival.  This morning I found two more green cantaloupes with chunks out of them!  Whatever critter is raiding my garden is going to have to tangle with me.  I've had to stop putting up the chicken wire along the bottom of the fence for a few days because my hands have been "eaten" up by the wire.  Gloves are too bulky to wear; fine motor skills are needed to tie the wire to the fence.  If the chicken wire effort does not do the trick, the only thing left to secure the garden is a solar-powered, electric wire around the perimeter.  :D  I don't want to do that. 

This year's gardening has been more of an experiment in what and which varieties will or will not grow in our calichie/limestone soil even though the soil has been amended with good compost.  The soil needs more amending; we've plenty of old hay that the cows have left on the ground along with some cow patties.  I'm going to work some of the hay into both gardens, the "big" and the "little," but can't decide whether or not to order more compost and when, i.e., late fall or early spring.

Until next time, God bless.