NEWS FLASH: Drought ends at Ponderosa

More from this evening.

These birds really didn't want to get out of the road and let me pass.

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And finally this mulie gave me a look with a patch of partridge pea in front of him.

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The critters made my evening and I thought I would share.
 
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That's not your normal height big bluestem in the pic with the muley! Great that you've gotten rain along this year. Should really help some of the poorer areas recover more from the drought. Keep up the good work.
 
Actually the grass isn't as tall as looks. There is a terrace between us. The grass is tall though this year and could hide a deer easily. So is the fireweed. I was mowing a legume/brassica food plot the other day adjacent to the corn and a mulie doe came out of the corn. There was a patch of fireweed in the center of the food plot about 30 foot wide and 70 feet long that I left for the birds. The doe went in there and I mowed round and round it and she never came out while I mowed with the 15 foot batwing mower.

The turkey were out tonight in force. One had a noticeable hop. Never could get close enough to see what his problem was.

Really good seed set on the Illinois bundle flower this year.

Lots and lots of grasshoppers this year.

Lots of milkweed also.
 
I haven't heard anything about cottontops for awhile. I just don't get down Morton County way to know. If I hear something I will pass it along.
 
Log me for 3.59 inches over the weekend! Also sent 6 puppies home with new owners as far away as Michigan and College Station, Texas. That should rank fairly high for an August weekend in either category! We do have skeeters!
 
Drifter,
Big weekend all around. Glad to see those beautiful pups going to their new homes.

Two 0.30" showers at the Ponderosa over the weekend.
 
Drove up closer. Drove the Polaris right up to them, putting it and me between them and the six foot tall fire weeds on my right side where I figured they would escape. They really didn't pay any attention to me until I accidentally dropped my glove I had removed so I could video them with my IPhone. Then my shovel slid off also. "Oh crap", I thought.

https://youtu.be/tustmTd8-T4
 
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Snake gaiters have pretty much been standard wear all summer, although I didn't have them on today while running the ATV sprayer. Snake gaiters will be worn during dove and early muzzleloader season for sure. This location is 200 yards from where my bird dog got bit in April. I think the water flowing in the normally dry drainages that are packed with driftwood and debris this year has relocated some big rattlers.
 
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Prairie Drifter said:
Maynard, my waist is 34" in case you're making him into a belt! He's a goodun!
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You have one of those youthful waistlines that I haven't seen for fifty years or so. Heck that snake is even long enough to get around my fat tummy. Both of them hanging were about five foot.
 
Prairie Drifter said:
Yer kinda hard on rattler amore' there old boy! Needed you in the garden of eden!
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You got that right. Well I am on my old Polaris ATV and no snake gaiters. I do have a shovel with me though. Figure I will make a fast run to get between them and the tall weeds and get them with the shovel. I roll up and see they are more interested in necking and loving than in my presence, so decide to take a quick video with my IPhone, but have my leather gloves on. Have to get one glove off, I do, I get the camera on, I hit the start button and in three seconds I drop my glove right down in front of the snakes and as I try to catch it my shovel slides off. That is why that second video is only three seconds long. The snakes really don't react to me until the shovel goes to work.
 
Maynard, we could use you out here in west Texas and southern New Mexico for the annual "rattlesnake roundup". I would not recommend dropping your shovel out here though. Have to call you "Butter Fingers" from here on out.
 
Bilbo Baggins said:
Maynard, we could use you out here in west Texas and southern New Mexico for the annual "rattlesnake roundup". I would not recommend dropping your shovel out here though. Have to call you "Butter Fingers" from here on out.
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I'll have to admit I was ill prepared for what was happening. In all my years I had never seen two snakes having a little foreplay. Just like other species, it seems the sex drive reduces otherwise natural escape tendencies. I certainly wasn't planning on filming up close or I would have had my phone ready to video. Had I not dropped my glove and then the shovel, I would have gotten more close up video. After I saw that they were really not paying any attention to me at all was when I decided to video. That big snake would have made a perfect mount had I a way to dispatch it without damaging it. I have never killed this many big rattlers as I have this year. I really think the rains have dislocated them from normal homes.

Really not interested in spending time in heavy rattlesnake country.
 
M. R. Byrd said:
I'll have to admit I was ill prepared for what was happening. In all my years I had never seen two snakes having a little foreplay. Just like other species, it seems the sex drive reduces otherwise natural escape tendencies. I certainly wasn't planning on filming up close or I would have had my phone ready to video. Had I not dropped my glove and then the shovel, I would have gotten more close up video. After I saw that they were really not paying any attention to me at all was when I decided to video. That big snake would have made a perfect mount had I a way to dispatch it without damaging it. I have never killed this many big rattlers as I have this year. I really think the rains have dislocated them from normal homes.

Really not interested in spending time in heavy rattlesnake country.
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It is looking like the "Rattlesnake Roundup" should be moving to Dodge City this year. I had two in my yard last year and I caught them both. I gave them to the high school science teacher who collects exotic species. I can think of better things to collect than rattlers but what do I know?
 
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