Critter Cam NOT Invisible!

I haven't posted Critter Cam photos in a while, so I figured I'd throw one up here for discussion sake. As you can see, this deer has caught Critter Cam dead to rights. Yep, for all the camouflage adorning the cam, it's not invisible to the critters.

While I'm at it, here are a few critters taken over the last few months I neglected to blog...
Another, yes, I see you deer...

And again - here a young buck eying critter cam...

And here is a doe with two fawns.

Here is our first fox photo - a red fox. (I zoomed and cropped.)

Finally, an Armadillo.

 

Bustin' Sod!

Sunday was another garden preparation day in which I prepared another 120 square foot section of the garden using the broadfork. Week before last I did the same but recorded some video of using the broadfork to prepare the bed. Since Inge was brushing Herbert, her donkey, I looked around at the tools and things around me to see how I could record myself using my cellphone (HTC DNA) and realized I could access the video controls and leave the lens clear for recording by clamping (gently) the cell phone to one of the garden fence posts. And a little iMovie editing later, here's the results!

Planting Straw Bale Potato Garden

This weekend we planted a straw bale potato garden. I stumbled upon a video of someone in England who planted a massively productive potato garden by placing the seed potatoes on news papers on the ground and covering with straw, manure, and blood and bone meal. I had to give that a try, and for the first time in this blog, I am going to embed a video taken this week of this potato planting method.

If this works out, I may add more videos in the future.

Shedding a Donkey

Shady Side of Shed - Note hay loft in back...

Sunny Side of Shed - Construction assistant eventual shed occupant, Herbie

Inge insisted her Donkey, Herbert, needed shelter. Our neighbor was of a mind that our woods provided enough shelter but it just takes time and effort and a small amount of money to build a shelter. So without further ado, here's Herbert's shelter!

We had already mapped out and built a corral and let me tell you, a corral made life with Herbie significantly better because Herbert has absolutely no sense of personal space. My love of this piece of land had waned dramatically when I lost the ability to wander and camp without a nosy beast sticking its head into everything. Now we toss some hay into the feed trough to which Herbert gladly runs and munches and with the snap of a chain my personal space is saved and camping and hiking in peace restored.

Two summers ago (2011) we suffered through the worst drought on record. 70+ 100 degree days and no rain from February through October. During that period the land withered under the heat, our garden shriveled even with weekly hand watering (from water transported from Cedar Park in 35 Gallon drums). And our woods suffered as well as perhaps a dozen juniper pine trees died. And thus the genesis of our shed.

Kenny, my brother, harvested and de-limbed six of the dead cedar trees with his chainsaw and lots of post-hole digging later (thank God we have blackland prairie clay and not West-of-Austin limestone) we installed cedar posts for my vision of an 8x8' shed with a 4' extension to act as a hay loft. A few pressure treated cross members later and we're almost to shed state.

However, I wasn't paying full price for brand new steel siding. So for several weeks I camped out on Craig's List waiting for a good deal on steel sheeting. I finally got a hit and bought several sheets of steel and over two weekends finished the Shelter. These pictures are from the first weekend of steel application. We were cleaning up as the steel chewed through all 5 of my jigsaw metal cutting blades and it was too late to go buy more for any meaningful work that day.