Creating a Lake

[Willl]

Does anybody recognize what it is?

Iris.

 

[patrick_g]

Me too, definitely iris. I have some that take care of themselves and bloom beautifully every year out in a pasture by one of my 100 year old pear trees.

You can dig down and get some of the bulbs to spread the "iris patch" way faster than it will spread on its own.

Pat

 

[Bird]

Eddie, I know domestic strawberries are raised in the south, so I don't know of any reason wild ones wouldn't grow, too. However, I've never seen or heard of wild strawberries in our part of the country. The only place I ever found any personally, was northern Canada a ways this side of the Alaska border in 1972, and in northern Pennsylvania in 1993. All the ones I've seen looked just like the domestic berries, but much much smaller.

 

[Egon]

When cycling in Alberta it was not uncommon to stop and pick some wild strawberries and eat on the spot. They are usually sweeter than the domestic version.

Wild strawberries, raspberries and saskatoon's were quite common on farm where I grew up. And Morels in the spring.

Many of the domestic strawberry seedlings may be grown in Nova Scotia.

 

[patrick_g]

My only experience with wild strawberries is from NW Ohio where the berry looks like a miniature of the domestic berries in our garden but the flavor is way superior to domestic berries. The leaves on your mystery berry look reminiscent of a strawberry but I have never seen strawberries that look quite like the red berries in your post. We have a book on edible wild plants but my wife is gone and I have no clue where it is.

Pat

 

[BayouMan]

Hey Eddie,

The lake is starting to look awesome. Nice looking Irises growing by the waters edge. See those in swampy areas around here. Those look like wild strawberries to me. We have them growing in our yard, but I never knew if they were edible.

Mike

 

[charlz]

They look like wild strawberries.... find a ripe one and taste it! Used to find them every now and then as a kid in Montana... way sweeter and better tasting than the 'domesticated' ones. Usually a little smaller than the end of your pinky.

 

[Knight9]

Eddie,

It's hard to see the scale of those red berries. Are they quite a bit smaller than a typical store strawberry? My back pasture is half covered with wild strawberries. They are very small, but have a delicious flavor. My kids and I will go sit out there on the grass, eat stawberries and "chew the fat".

 

[ETD66SS]

Is the water in your pond always so muddy?

How long does the water in ponds down there take to clear up?

I'm surprised, I can already see about 6 feet down in my pond, and the water has a greenish hue...

 

[KentT]

They look like wild strawberries.... find a ripe one and taste it! Used to find them every now and then as a kid in Montana... way sweeter and better tasting than the 'domesticated' ones. Usually a little smaller than the end of your pinky.

If the blooms are white, it is a wild strawberry. If the blooms are yellow, it is a "Mock Strawberry" -- we called them Snake Berries growing up in East Tennessee, where both occur. That would be my guess, since I think you're a bit too hot and dry for wild strawberries there...

These potentilla are not poisonous, so it's safe to taste one. One taste will tell you if it's a real wild strawberry or not.

Mock Strawberry - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Ranger Rick]

We called them Indian Strawberries. In VA they grow in our lawn and gardens around the house. Ranger Rick

 

[charlz]

If the blooms are white, it is a wild strawberry. If the blooms are yellow, it is a "Mock Strawberry" -- we called them Snake Berries growing up in East Tennessee, where both occur.

I notice the bumps on the berry in Eddie's pic are more pronounced just like the ones in the "Mock Strawberry" pics. Likely that is what they are. I guess we will have to wait for Eddie to try one.

 

[EddieWalker]

Is the water in your pond always so muddy?

How long does the water in ponds down there take to clear up?

I'm surprised, I can already see about 6 feet down in my pond, and the water has a greenish hue...

Unfortunately, pond water has a tendancy to stay muddy for awhile here. It will clear up and change color once the rains stop, but we're in the rainy season and there's not much to do about it. I got over an inch and a half last Wednesday in 45 minutes. When it rains like that, the water picks up allot of silt!!!!!

There is an 80% chance of a severe T Storm on Wednesday, so it's just gonna get worse before it gets better.

Eddie

 

[ETD66SS]

Unfortunately, pond water has a tendancy to stay muddy for awhile here. It will clear up and change color once the rains stop, but we're in the rainy season and there's not much to do about it. I got over an inch and a half last Wednesday in 45 minutes. When it rains like that, the water picks up allot of silt!!!!!

There is an 80% chance of a severe T Storm on Wednesday, so it's just gonna get worse before it gets better.

Eddie

Ah, ok. So it goes through seasonal changes? I thought it was still muddy from construction of the pond...

 

[EddieWalker]

Steph and I were on one of our many walks around the lake this morning, when we had a rare treat. Deer are not very common on our place, in fact, we're lucky to see them a few times a year. Today was the third time this year that I've seen a deer here.

She walked out of the woods, looked at us, and ignored us as she walked across the road on the other side of the water. Then behind her, out ran the fawn. This might have been the very smallest one that I've ever seen!!!!

Eddie

 

[Tororider]

Too cool, nice photo work too! That fawn must be brand new because I don't think I have ever seen one that small either. The doe looks healthy.

With all your property why aren't there more deer? Do the coyotes keep the populations down?

On an unrelated subject, any progress on the turkey pen?

 

[EddieWalker]

I wonder about the deer too. With our mild winters, 4 feet or rain per year, and incredible growth of plants, I would think that we'd have allot of deer and some very large racks on them. But it's just not so.

There are the rare bucks that get very, very large, but they just don't happen very often here. There are also some areas with quite a few deer per acre, but not here.

My theory is a combination of too many coyotes, too much hunting preasure and we're on a natural low population cycle. The coyotes are very numerous. We've been trying to take out as many as possible, and from what I can see of watching for tracks, we might be succeeding on a limited basis. There are fewer tracks out there now then I've ever seen. This land and the surrounding land was leased to a guy who shot allot of deer. I confronted him when I bought the land and he wanted to still hunt it, but I found five kill sites when he hunted it and you are only allowed one deer a year here. He either lied about how many he killed, how many people he had on here, or there were others tresspassing and shooting the deer. It's probably a combination of all three. I also guess that I'm lucky if I found half of the gut piles from before I bought the land. I had an option on the land during deer season and access to be on the land at that time.

There is some evidence that the populations are just on a low cycle. Lots of deer, few coyotes and the population increase. Then the coyote level increases and the deer population declines. The coyotes are very good at finding and killing fawns, so that's why I've been so determined to kill as many coyotes as possible this past winter.

From following their tracks, we've learned that they really like it around the edges of the lake area and other areas that I've cleared. We've seen some sign in our fields, but most of them are concentrated along the edges of our woods and open areas. That might be the biggest reason for how many deer we have. It's just too thick for them and even though there's all sorts of trees, brush and shurbs, there's not allot of food for them because it's too thick to support large numbers of deer.

Eddie

 

[billbill1]

Eddie, when we first moved to our current home, there were deer in the yard all summer long. I didn't have a camera with me (wish I would have) a doe was grazing down by the timberline. She had been there 15 minutes or so and a very small fawn came out and nursed, in broad daylight. Really interesting. I killed one of your Texas deer last Saturday morning, coming back from our daughters in Houston. We were almost to Ennis and a small deer ran in front of the car, knocking out the ac at around midnight. $500.27 later, all is back to normal. I thought it was a coyote when I hit it but the hair left behind in the grill, confirmed it was a small deer. That makes 4 that we have hit since 1997, we have way too many deer in northeast Kansas.

 

[RobJ]

Man that's a great shot Eddie!! Probably the earliest I've seen one is mid july. Twice we almost walked on top of one, once in the woods and the other in a field. My son was probably 8' from one with it finally jumped. Never saw the doe which is usually nearby. My dad use to see them at him place in Lovelady every year. They would walk across his coastal pasture, the doe would have the fawn lay down in the middle of the field, hidden in the grass, then head off to the woodline and watch. Really cool.

It's funny about deer in certain areas. You have I-20 to the south, probably doesn't mean much because we see deer on I-45 south of Huntsville every evening when we are driving up. Looking at an aerial of your place you have a nice stretch of woods to the west, some to the east. but limited somewhat on the north. Of course many places you might see tracks but no deer, 2 steps and they are in the brush never to be seen as you round the corner on the atv.

But I found some droppings a couple weeks ago along the cypress creek in spring. very small living area but some deer are around there.

Rob

 

[patrick_g]

Folks are encouraged to wait a while for their first hay cutting because so many fawns will just stay put and get cut up.

Nice picture. Fawn looks to be less than a week old.

I haven't seen many deer the last couple years but we still have plenty of tracks of varying sizes. They are still aound.

Pat