Prairie Drifter
Well-known member
My skills are ok, my grip, not so much! We picked up 2.27 last night. Brought us over 7 inches for June and 14 for the year.
NEWS FLASH: Drought ends at Ponderosa
- Thread starter M. R. Byrd
- Start date
M. R. Byrd
Well-known member
I hear you there about the grip.
You have done well on rainfall also. :thumbsup:
Prairie Drifter
Well-known member
It's amazing to see water in your creek and the cows shining and lush! The good Lord sure built an amazing thing, nature! I'm coming by Friday! Heading to Garden to pick up a dog.
M. R. Byrd
Well-known member
Stop by if you can. Would love for you to see the Ponderosa in "full bloom".
Prairie Drifter
Well-known member
I'll really try to make that work. Gotta meet a gent from Texas in GC to pick up a dog. Going or coming I should be able to stretch my trip. I'll be by myself, so there will be no backseat driver! Been wanting to set foot on the Ponderosa! Love that short grass prairie! Might get to see the Ark flowing out west! Probably some trail cams under water
M. R. Byrd
Well-known member
Sounds good.
Bilbo Baggins
Active member
I'll really try to make that work. Gotta meet a gent from Texas in GC to pick up a dog. Going or coming I should be able to stretch my trip. I'll be by myself, so there will be no backseat driver! Been wanting to set foot on the Ponderosa! Love that short grass prairie! Might get to see the Ark flowing out west! Probably some trail cams under water
Troy,
Try to make it to the Ponderosa, time well spent.
M. R. Byrd
Well-known member
Bilbo,
You wouldn't know the place now. Green everywhere and weeds tall as you and still growing. I spent the last two days on my knees weeding part of the two row miles of trees and shrubs I planted this spring. The slits in the weed barrier for the trees and shrubs are full of weeds/grass and some chest high. In the last two days I have hand weeded almost a mile of shrubs(shrub every five foot). I am beat.
You wouldn't know the place now. Green everywhere and weeds tall as you and still growing. I spent the last two days on my knees weeding part of the two row miles of trees and shrubs I planted this spring. The slits in the weed barrier for the trees and shrubs are full of weeds/grass and some chest high. In the last two days I have hand weeded almost a mile of shrubs(shrub every five foot). I am beat.
Prairie Drifter
Well-known member
You didn't look beat! Every one knows we all need to spend more time on our knees! Maybe me more than most!! Thanks for the tour! Glad I came after the rains. Cover is great! Mr. Bob seemed to concur. 2 Jackrabbits in one day as well! I don't envy your tree maintenance chores. I got into that deep at Norton before weed barrier was the thing. It can get ahead of a guy with just a rain or two. Gotta love the pigweed and koshia though. The trees sure took a beating from the drought. It will take years for them to be replaced. Keep up the good work! I truly appreciate all the time you spent with me.
M. R. Byrd
Well-known member
Always a pleasure spending time with someone that appreciates the finer things in life(dogs, critters and habitat).
M. R. Byrd
Well-known member
Prairie Drifter,
Here is the one coneflower I was going to show you. I forgot to look it up. I have some of the purple also.
I caught up with this critter after you left.
Here is the one coneflower I was going to show you. I forgot to look it up. I have some of the purple also.
I caught up with this critter after you left.
M. R. Byrd
Well-known member
Here is what the weeds looked like in the slits in the weed barrier before I started pulling them.
Prairie Drifter
Well-known member
Maynard, my brain works better when it is idling. I think that one is called Mexican Hat. I'll check. The Jacks have it pretty rough on your place. Open their mouths and some plant falls in. If you want to destroy an hour, turn a pup out and let him get a peek at Jack! Might as well head for the truck. His ears are shut off and the gears are locked!
M. R. Byrd
Well-known member
Ah, Drifter, if I could take you back in time. Well let me try--
It is 1960 and the ground you saw grown up in grass was all being farmed. Farmed with two Moline U's and twelve foot one way plows. All that 200 acres with the 25 miles of terraces. And that north center pivot wasn't there and that farm ground and terraces extended onto it. The top terrace that I mentioned only had about 25 acres in it, but the terrace was four and a half miles long and it took roughly an hour for my dad and me to make our opening round. No minimum tillage yet. No no-till yet. No herbicides yet, just a one way plow to battle the weeds and battle we did.
Oh, yeah, and the farm dogs. At that time we had Rebel, a female silver and black German shepherd and Skippy, a female rust colored whippet. They were with us everywhere and followed behind the plows. After a round or two they might take a break and lay there waiting for our return, but usually would follow all day. Our tractors, of course, had no cabs or shades. Our water jug was a gallon Coke syrup jug wrapped tight with a burlap bag that was pinned around the jug with eight penny nails.
Where was I, oh I was going to tell you about the dogs and the jack rabbits. Now imagine this field of weeds being turned into a dry fluffy field of pure dirt and lots of it. Now let a jack rabbit get flushed out of the weeds and the race is on. What a show was about to unfold. The jack at first in a leisurely trot until the whippet opened up the throttle then the jack goes into a full lope. The heavy German shepherd lagging behind and stopping for air and to cool down. The whippet is getting close to the jack and the jack makes a sharp turn and the whippet turns, but not sharp, but more like a big jet plane making a turn. This goes on for what seems like an eternity. Usually the jack escaped. Sometimes not. Sometimes the dogs even teamed up and the whippet would put the jack in front of the German shepherd.
No video games back then, just plenty of work, but also some entertaining times that I remember very well.
It is 1960 and the ground you saw grown up in grass was all being farmed. Farmed with two Moline U's and twelve foot one way plows. All that 200 acres with the 25 miles of terraces. And that north center pivot wasn't there and that farm ground and terraces extended onto it. The top terrace that I mentioned only had about 25 acres in it, but the terrace was four and a half miles long and it took roughly an hour for my dad and me to make our opening round. No minimum tillage yet. No no-till yet. No herbicides yet, just a one way plow to battle the weeds and battle we did.
Oh, yeah, and the farm dogs. At that time we had Rebel, a female silver and black German shepherd and Skippy, a female rust colored whippet. They were with us everywhere and followed behind the plows. After a round or two they might take a break and lay there waiting for our return, but usually would follow all day. Our tractors, of course, had no cabs or shades. Our water jug was a gallon Coke syrup jug wrapped tight with a burlap bag that was pinned around the jug with eight penny nails.
Where was I, oh I was going to tell you about the dogs and the jack rabbits. Now imagine this field of weeds being turned into a dry fluffy field of pure dirt and lots of it. Now let a jack rabbit get flushed out of the weeds and the race is on. What a show was about to unfold. The jack at first in a leisurely trot until the whippet opened up the throttle then the jack goes into a full lope. The heavy German shepherd lagging behind and stopping for air and to cool down. The whippet is getting close to the jack and the jack makes a sharp turn and the whippet turns, but not sharp, but more like a big jet plane making a turn. This goes on for what seems like an eternity. Usually the jack escaped. Sometimes not. Sometimes the dogs even teamed up and the whippet would put the jack in front of the German shepherd.
No video games back then, just plenty of work, but also some entertaining times that I remember very well.
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Prairie Drifter
Well-known member
Yeah Maynard, worked for a gent in high school that had a Minni Mo hand clutcher onion burner! Oh what a rig! Had a 706 Farmall with the narrow front end too. What a slug in the mud! We either worked ground all day or stacked alfalfa. Day started at 5. Fed the bucket calves then took the International pickup into the feed grainery and scooped a load of feed to take to one of the two feed lots. Scooped the feed into bunks then went back for the second load. Finally, breakfast! After steak and eggs, ahhhhh, it was to the hay stacks, tractors, or we'd drop a steer and butcher. We butchered 5 my first week. How convenient that I was a trapper and good with a knife! Riding in the truck between the two Votapka's was also a treat! George smoked and his son ragged him about it incessantly. Felt a bit trapped in the middle! Frequently, George would drop a rattler on the stack with the bales and we'd give him time to wiggle into the stack before getting back to work. This family had a pasture where the stock tank was a concrete bunker back in the hill with a trough on the front. I remember spending a day in there with the wheat scoop slopping out about 4 inches of mud! Ahhhhh youth! Every day ended at 9:00 p.m. I figured it out one time and I was making about 36 cents an hour for my efforts!
M. R. Byrd
Well-known member
Mowing a path through the jungle today. This patch of giant ragweed is nine foot tall and the lambquarters is six foot tall. All the critters will like this.
In this picture is lambquarters in the foreground. The tree in bloom is western soapberry. Some people called it Chinaberry, but that is another tree. I have not found that the deer use the western soapberry other than for cover as it growes up in groves. The other trees are hackberry and the deer like to browse the scrub hackberry where they are thick and only two to three feet tall.
In this picture is lambquarters in the foreground. The tree in bloom is western soapberry. Some people called it Chinaberry, but that is another tree. I have not found that the deer use the western soapberry other than for cover as it growes up in groves. The other trees are hackberry and the deer like to browse the scrub hackberry where they are thick and only two to three feet tall.
M. R. Byrd
Well-known member
M. R. Byrd
Well-known member
My helpless feelings with the drought the last four years has turned to working like crazy to keep ahead of things. The weeds in my new tree/shrub planting have to be taken care of. My spring planted crops need sprayed for weeds and have been on the list of my spray contractor for three weeks, but the rains and the wind has kept them out of my fields. I am sure not complaining about the rain. It creates lots of potential for my crops and for weeds and cover for the critters and good grazing for my cattle. Prairie Drifter got to see some good pasture growth and some severe overgrazed pastures in the area. The pasture I have my cattle in now have not been grazed for two years and really look good.
Prairie Drifter
Well-known member
As a butt cover for Maynard I'll say that the overgrazed pastures were across the fence on the neighbors! The beetles were all sunburned on the top half! Worms were dying everywhere because the top half dried out so fast that they couldn't bend their nose back down to get in the ground! I threw a dime across the fence and the shadow was a half mile long!