First signs of spring 2008!

[MossRoad]

I posted this last year, regarding Robins... the date was Feb 10th, 2007.... Ever since then, I have discounted Robins as a good predictor of spring's arrival... although I still greatly enjoy seeing them. Haven't seen any yet, this year, but I did hear them as I took out the recyling bins to the road this morning.

The Perfect Day: By MossRoad
Last Saturday was my 46th birthday. We got up early, the sun was out, and we made pancakes for breakfast. I used some very good Vermont maple syrup on my stack. We then went to watch my 8th grade daughter play in a very good, close basketball game. They won. We came home and my wife took the kids shopping so I went ice fishing at a lake where I grew up. I sat on a bucket on that ice by myself in the, cold, crisp air all afternoon. It was 7 degrees. People came and left but I stayed. The springs along the high bank were flowing lightly and there must have been 50 robins poking around in the mud and leaves only about 20' away from me. Towards sunset, doves landed at the waters edge and had their evening drink. I caught 60 or 70 fish, although only two were big enough to keep. That's fine with me. I went home and fried up two pounds of bacon, a couple onions and ｾ of a pound of liver. The kids had BLT's. Then we had a German chocolate birthday cake with coconut-pecan frosting. Opened my birthday presents and then watched a movie with the family. I ended up falling asleep on the couch with my wife. It would have been a perfect day if only I could have gotten some seat time on my Power Trac.


The End.

 

[czechsonofagun]

Don,

Thanks for the warning, but I was sorta expecting a snake picture from your title!!! Hopefully we're still a few months away from snake season. We're still in coyote season and would like to keep it that way for awhile longer.

Eddie

Speaking of which, I found this:

Club 1911.com :: View topic - Caught my longest to date today (more lng winded than usual)

funny

 

[txdon]

Yes Ron it is good to have a Birthday a few weeks after you break your camera.

RobS, it is a Panasonic DMC-FZ18. 8.1MP and most important to me an 18 optical Zoom.


".....It would have been a perfect day if only I could have gotten some seat time on my Power Trac." - MossRoad

MossRoad and Bird I was thinking of y'all when I took this picture of Karen mowing the back yard with "her" ZRT. (I think she needs a bigger one.)

 

[Bird]

Yep, Don, you might have to let Karen use your Kubota to mow.

I mowed my yard this morning real short with the grass catcher to get rid of the old dead grass now that it's starting to green up. And I saw something I wish I had pictures of because it happened so fast I'm not even sure what I saw. I had finished the front yard and was in the back yard and had killed the engine on the mower while I emptied the grass catcher. Just as I was putting the grass catcher back on, I heard something rattle the chain link fence less than 15' from me and heard a small squeak or squeal from a small critter, and looked up just in time to see a very small bird leave the fence on a fast downward slope into the yard about 20' from the fence and a small raptor of some kind right behind the little one. The raptor caught the little one and immediately took off straight away from me and over the 6' wood fence across the back of the yard.

Now I've seen hawks catch rats behind the tractor when I was brush hogging and when I was cutting hay. But I've never seen anything happen as fast as this did today. I think the raptor was a small hawk of some kind (much smaller than the redtails I'm accustomed to seeing), but it happened so fast that I couldn't even swear it wasn't an owl.

 

[tallyho8]

My azaleas have been in full bloom for 2 weeks now!

 

[BB_TX]

Got my garden tilled and my 1015s in the ground. Does that count?

 

[RobA]

Saw some skunk cabbage coming up. Right where I want to move some dirt. Sure hope no one sees it before I hit it with Roundup.

 

[Lasgambler]

WHATS SPRING? We go from nice weather to, "TO HOT TO GO OUT SIDE"!!!

 

[txdon]

Saw some skunk cabbage coming up. Right where I want to move some dirt. Sure hope no one sees it before I hit it with Roundup.

What is Skunk cabbage and why do you hope no one sees it????

BB - Tilling counts!

Also, today I saw a Tree with teeth but when I got closer!!!! -see photos thread.

 

[RobA]

What is Skunk cabbage and why do you hope no one sees it????

It is (according to Wikipedia) "a low growing, foul smelling plant that prefers wetlands". Around here it starts to emerge this time of year. It doesn't mind if it snows or freezes after it comes up. Skunk cabbage is "notable for its ability to produce heat of up to 15-35 degrees Celsius above air temperature by cyanide resistant cellular respiration in order to melt its way through frozen ground". In other words it generates heat. Its foul smell attracts insects which help in pollination.

The key word here is "wetlands". The area of my 22 acres where I have seen skunk cabbage is not technically classed as wetlands. If the powers that be saw skunk cabbage they might say it was "wetlands" and severly restrict what I could do with that part of my property. Fortunately it "responds" well to Roundup. Not sure if it's the same in Texas but up here you can't mess with wetlands.