Texas Fall/Winter thread!

[Western]

I can remember when I was a kid on the farm, wild sunflowers were a hated nuisance just like Johnson Grass in the garden.

Bird, I think you right in terms from a farmers perspective, but these day's if they have a field full of Wild sunflowers, they lease it to dove hunters. Since I only use my land now for mostly wildlife I plant my food plot with Millet and Sunflower in the Spring, deer usually mow the plants down when they get up to around a foot.

FWIW, for lack of a name, I gave them one. I've been calling these "Peppitos" for about 30 years, ....Unless someone else knows what they have been called longer than that.

If you have the time, place them on a piece of foil off to the side and "smoke 'em" until they are cooked. Prime eating!

Kyle, that is how we do it, in foil. Much more tender I think that way. I have always heard them called "Dove wraps", but honestly never thought about it, I guess there should be a term.

 

[jinman]

Well, today is the last day to work on my pond dam before the rains come. If it doesn't rain, I'm okay with that, but it it does, I want to ready. I've raised my dam up about 4' and need to go another couple of feet to be on the safe side. I'm starting to be "clay poor." I've used almost all of my stockpile and have to find more before finishing the dam. I know where it's located, but just hauling from a stockpile is a lot quicker than digging and then hauling. I'll try to get a few pictures by the end of today.

Time is a wastin'; I have to go get fuel. . . :thumbsup:

 

[Western]

Jim, you act like your "re-tired" posting on TBN at 8am when you have work to do!! 70% chance of rain after midnight and 80% tomorrow and they say this storm system could have severe weather in it. I can do without the Severe part, and could use Friday to work on projects, like you need to do, but a few area lakes need topped off, so...
Wonder if they make a Blue pill for that!

Mid 70's again today, we are averaging 10-15 degrees above normal, almost gives me "premature" gardening fever.

 

[Bird]

But Punxsutawney Phil says we're in for another 6 weeks of Winter. Of course, if it's the kind of Winter we've had so far, who cares?:laughing:

And like you, Dennis, I figure more rain for these lakes would be good, but severe weather we can do without.

 

[bigbull338]

i hope we dont have much winter left as the winter grass is growing real good.

 

[Western]

Today I went to the lumber yard to get material for another small job, (Hometown building supply) ,they have onion sets out, but they really didn't look to good. Last time I bought some that looked that way there, (very little green and "weak looking" they did poorly. I know it would be cheaper to buy onions but hey......

I just hope the growers in the Valley get some decent weather, so the price of produce will come down some. Canning is a word that is getting tossed around my house quite a bit here lately.

 

[Bird]

i hope we dont have much winter left as the winter grass is growing real good.

I went to donate blood (double red) at shortly after 10 a.m. this morning, then came home and mowed, edged, and trimmed our yard and the next door neighbor's. Whew, his was bad. So I spent about and hour and a half with the string trimmer, then only a little over 35 minutes on the ZTR mower.

But we're ready for the rain now.

And yep, Dennis, it's just about the time I usually set out my onion plants.

 

[jinman]

Jim, you act like your "re-tired" posting on TBN at 8am when you have work to do!!

You betcha I'm reeee-tired. The hardest part of my day is deciding whether to have one mug or two of coffee in the morning.

Pond building uses a lot of fuel. My neighbor bought me 20 gallons of fuel a couple of weeks ago as a pay-back for jobs I've done for him. Since then, I've bought another 20 gal and yesterday 20 more gallons. Even so, that's cheap payment for what my backhoe does for me.

I got my pond excavated enough to be ready for rain. I didn't take time to pretty-up things, but most of that I can do from the bank after the pond floods. My dam is up except for the final 3 ft. The middle of the dam (16'-20' wide) is solid clay. I added clay about 6" at a time and then packed it by driving back and forth over it with my 20k lb backhoe. I started adding excavated soil on each side of the clay so that the dam is about 40' thick at the base. I think it will hold just fine.

Here are some photos. Notice the spot with red clay on the right side of the first few photos. I can take about 8-10 more yards from there by sloping the bank, but after that, I'll have to move to another clay spot. I've used up every bit of my clay stockpile on the dam. The last photo is my grandson on top of the filled spot where all my spoils went to fill in another huge gully washout. He's 5' tall, so you can see how much I've filled this area. At some point, I'll have to add topsoil and get grass growing in all these slopes. If I can get the topsoil, I'll probably get the slopes hydro-mulched. I'm sure not walking up and down with a seed/fertilizer spreader.

 

[Western]

You betcha I'm reeee-tired. The hardest part of my day is deciding whether to have one mug or two of coffee in the morning.

Very important management decision, that will decide how the rest of the day goes:thumbsup:

Here are some photos. Notice the spot with red clay on the right side of the first few photos. I can take about 8-10 more yards from there by sloping the bank, but after that, I'll have to move to another clay spot. I've used up every bit of my clay stockpile on the dam. The last photo is my grandson on top of the filled spot where all my spoils went to fill in another huge gully washout. He's 5' tall, so you can see how much I've filled this area. At some point, I'll have to add topsoil and get grass growing in all these slopes. If I can get the topsoil, I'll probably get the slopes hydro-mulched. I'm sure not walking up and down with a seed/fertilizer spreader.

Jim,, I think discovery channel should get rid of "Gold rush" series and have a "Clay dig" show at Jim's, thats allot of digging and you actually have something to show for it!!

I don't know where all the "severe " storms went they predicted, but so far I might have got 1/10th if I squeeze the leaves real hard.

 

[Western]

I went to donate blood (double red) at shortly after 10 a.m. this morning, then came home and mowed, edged, and trimmed our yard and the next door neighbor's. Whew, his was bad. So I spent about and hour and a half with the string trimmer, then only a little over 35 minutes on the ZTR mower.

But we're ready for the rain now.

And yep, Dennis, it's just about the time I usually set out my onion plants.

Bird, I wish you where my neighbor:laughing: If I gave 2 pints of blood, I'd use that excuse for about a week:laughing:

Seriously, I know your neighbor is older and it's a blessing he has you for one.