An Old Goat Ranch in Texas

[BayouMan]

Hey Terry,
Still enjoy following this thread! Great job on the water line install. You should just about be done with your 8 week tour by now. Anymore updates to share?
Mike

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Yah, things are finally cooling down a bit...time to get the real projects going...jk

 

[kfvintx]

Almost 3 months since last update..... I hope life is treating you well Terry to the point that updating this thread is the last thing on your mind.

Of course, it kinda has the same "taste" as crack so for those of patiently waiting for our fix..... please give us something :licking:

On a side note, it looks like Vermeer is your choice of ride for rentals. I know you have great relationship with the yard closer to TOGR but should you ever find yourself in need of equipment they don't have and you are on a more direct route to TOGR, they just opened a new yard just down the road from me on 290 headed out of Houston (about 8 miles outside of Beltway so you could bypass some of the traffic).

 

[brin]

Yeah, I miss Terry's posts too...Heck , I am waiting for his book he says he is working on...I know this is a tease....the next post from him will be a real whopper...LOL

 

[terry.dinerman]

Its nice to know you folks care!

Be patient....we are having severe Internet "issues" out here on the ship....an update is on the way...

Be CAREFUL out there...!

Terry

 

[NormL]

Its nice to know you folks care!

Be patient....we are having severe Internet "issues" out here on the ship....an update is on the way...

Be CAREFUL out there...!

Terry

WHEW!! Happy to see it's just internet issues. YOU be careful out THERE!:thumbsup:

I read this entire thread a few weeks ago and I wish to add my vote of appreciation to all the others expressed here.:licking:

 

[terry.dinerman]

Thanks for waiting, All!

It was a good month at home and I am almost finished up out here in the Oil Patch for this trip....had to throw my toys to get my Network link back up and am still unable to upload to my photo-site...

You get used to a certain level of technology awfully fast....

The Old Philosopher said any sufficiently advanced technology will be indistinguishable from magic....

Right ..... BUT sometimes the magic doesn't seem to reach all the way out here to the Galactic Rim.....

The Net has been particularly infuriating lately....with so many IT geeks massaging a global communications network that relies on an operating system authored in 2003, it just stands to reason that it should always be working at top efficiency.....

To top it all off, some twit has decided that a "Net Nanny" program is now desperatly needed to keep folks walking the narrow path, and has narrowed an already skimpy bandwidth to hair-thin....

<sigh>

"Network Support" out here is just another oxymoron like "Military Intelligence"...

Oh, well, at least I am back on...

The Army spoiled me....I could be so far out in the bush I could see the Middle of Nowhere...and our web-guru "Ed the Head" could unfold a ground station and have us up and running before supper....

Memories....
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September at The Old Goat Ranch finally brought some less than scorching weather...the big bushfires that came so close that the smoke was darkening the sky are finally out....one of the smallish ones was less than a mile up the road....and some rain has began to fall...we got a full day of gentle, soaking rain, that dampened down the fire threat, but then the weather began to blow further north or south, taking the moisture with it.

Despite the soaking, TOGR is still as dry as a powder-house, and between the pine beetles and drought stress, the trees have suffered mightily.... dozens of the pines are certainly dead tho I will wait till spring to see if some of the hardwoods are just dormant.

In any case, I will be a really expert tree-faller and fence-wrecker before long, as I will have lots of trees to practice on.

Anybody wanna come and cut down some trees? Fix some fence?

Those two activities always seem to occur together when I'm involved.....


Looks like I better ask Santa for a nice new Sthil chainsaw....I don'think Good Neighbor Joe wants much to do with me after our last tree-falling adventure....

 

[jinman]

"Network Support" out here is just another oxymoron like "Military Intelligence"...

Oh, well, at least I am back on...

The Army spoiled me....I could be so far out in the bush I could see the Middle of Nowhere...and our web-guru "Ed the Head" could unfold a ground station and have us up and running before supper....

Whether intentional or unintentional, I see a lot of humor in your description of the military. First you poke fun at it and then say how much you miss it. There's a bit of that in all of us ex-military vets.:laughing:

 

[terry.dinerman]

Whether intentional or unintentional, I see a lot of humor in your description of the military. First you poke fun at it and then say how much you miss it. There's a bit of that in all of us ex-military vets.:laughing:

Unfortunately, Jinman, I have never had the honor of serving....backintheday a minor medical issue kept me out of the Navy, the Navy recruiter was so upset he tried to get the Marine recruiter to work things out, and the Marine recruiter was also unable to sneak me by the Doctors....

So I went to work instead...and wound up working for military contractors off and on ever since....backintheday as a construction and salvage diver and this last round as a Medic....funny how things work out...

I've been in the company of real heros...in peace and in war...and seen the very best our Military has to offer...

But I have also seen the waste and mendacity as well...it is a sad truth that no organisation of such scope can immunize itself against all the faults and deficiencies that human nature is heir to...

But on the whole...I stand in awe of our Warriors...

Now...with that said, remind me to tell you my Military Intelligence Story...

It'll cost you a cheap cigar....

Terry

 

[terry.dinerman]

Another drought issue is going to be the wildlife....last year's enormous crop of acorns is not about to be repeated...leaving me wondering if I might not hang a feeder or two and do some supplemental feeding this winter...


Previously I have mixed whole corn and birdseed with good results in the feeders...and scattered crowder peas and soybean mix, scratched in with a harrow out on the lease, to keep a little green sprouting thu til spring....but with the ground so dry I doubt any sort of legumes will even sprout, and with corn prices thru the roof, I wonder if putting out a round bale now and then would be of any value....

Now that so many folks have sold off their cattle, hay is dropping to more reasonable prices...

Any wildlife biologists out there with some advice?

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Also on the Wildlife Front....

Every time Precious Bride and I go Craigslisting something nice happens...

This time, while we were headed off to pick up a load of railroad ties (at popular prices!) we managed to prevent this ancient reptile (pictured below with PB) from ending his long life as a wet spot on Hwy 2004...

For whatever reason, PB and I are constantly finding turtles and tortoises in need of a little help crossing the highway...and tho we may not get to them all before some tire does....we got to this one....

A big boy like this one might be as much as 50 years old ...I sympathize...it ain't so easy moving quickly these days myself....

Saving somebody's life is always a nice way to start a job...
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The ride up to TOGR was thru a parched landscape....many of the tanks that normally hold water year-round were dry, and besides the goat-weed, the only real green was being found by those wealthy enough to irrigate.

MIL and FIL declined the offer of burnt mammal flesh as Hunting Season is in the offing, and the freezer needs some room...so we skipped the usual stop, set up camp and got busy.

With the coming of September and the end of the brutal heat of August, it's actually time to consider the cold snaps to come...and protecting the new plumbing I just installed.

My system has 3 water points that could be affected by a freeze...so I set about insulating them....

Turning once again to the Great Pile-o-Stuff that Precious Bride keeps so well stocked, I came up with enough treated fence pickets, scrap tin and short ends off rolls of insulation and sill-seal to cobble up some freeze protection.

I was rather proud of myself until PB piped up and told me "OOOOOOH!!!! I just LOVE those cute little out-houses....!

Well......they DO look like little outhouses, come to think of it.....