Wrapping up 2014

We had a busy and productive year in 2014 with a lot of changes on the ranch/farm (we raise cattle and grow grass so you can decide if we are a ranch or a farm).  Since a picture is worth a thousand words, here are some picture highlights from 2014:



We started the year with a rare snow
(about 1/4") which was a big treat for
Ava and Cora while it lasted. 

Our first "livestock" was a box of 26 baby chicks.  We

got that many on the assumption that half wouldn't

survive to adulthood.

Our assumption was wrong as all 26 survived.  Here they are enjoying
watermelon rind treats.  We got a variety so we'd have a third split of
brown, white and green/blue eggs.

Here you can see a collection of eggs. 

We were most excited about finishing the house construction in April (here it
is festooned for Christmas) after living in the camper for over a year.

Pam started teaching Yoga again this spring.  She
currently works at Yoga Pod in College Station and
Om Grown Yoga in Bryan.  She is working on her
certification in Yoga Therapy through a center in Austin.

The next addition was a litter of kittens.  Lilly chose a large plastic pot for the
birthing room. 

Life on our farm is hard on cats. The mother disappeared one night
(after the kittens were weaned) and the father did the same.  We gave
a couple of kittens away planning to keep four. One got killed and
another disappeared.  So, we're down to two males who I expect to
leave any day.  If so, we'll be starting over with new barn cats in 2015.

  

We added 12 heifers and a bull in early summer. 

 

They started calving in October.  Here are two meeting for the first time.  We
are up to four now with at least a couple more on the way early next year.

Clark came for a visit.  He's enjoying a beer with Nicole (she seems to be
enjoying it more than him).  He's settled in Nashville now working with Bass,
Berry and Sims (law firm). 

 

We made a late summer trip to South Padre Island.

Holly and Cora enjoying the Burleson County Fair.  While
there are a lot of things a small community may not offer,
it is offset by other things that bigger towns/cities don't
have (a sense of community is one of those). 

I had one of those milestone birthdays which gave us an excuse to have a
bar-b-q and drink some beer.

I did a little Redfishing in Louisiana.  They aren't trout but are still fun to catch.

We've got a number of these lurking around so I've been practicing my "hurt
rabbit" and coyote calls to see if I can get a couple out in the open and
shoot them.  I'm confident they have been the reason our cats disappear.

Here is a sounder of feral hogs at our cattle tank.  They seem to visit us about
two times a month and too often root up a considerable amount of pasture.

To deal with the feral hogs, I built a trap.  It's basically a round pen made of
cattle/hog panels and T-posts.  This one is about 30' in diameter.

This is the trap/guillotine door.  It's not set in this picture. 
To set it a hinged 2x4 is attached to the rope which is
attached to a tire on the other side of the trap.

Some corn is placed inside the tire and when the hogs
move the tire to get to the corn, the 2x4 is pulled out and
the trap door drops, trapping the hogs inside the pen.

These are the loading gates (there are people who will buy
these wild hogs for processing) to get the hogs from the
pen into a trailer.

Cora really enjoys going to church.  On this Sunday, they
didn't have a Children's sermon.  At the end of the service
Cora decided to have her own on the steps next to the pulpit.

We don't have cold winters in south central Texas but
the north wind can occasionally be brutal (blue norther).
I boarded up the bottom (and the top although not shown
here) to reduce the wind and keep the chickens a little warmer.

Ava was selected to dance as an angel in the Bryan/College
Station area performance of the Nutcracker.  Here's Mimi
presenting her with flowers after the performance.

Pam and I celebrated our seventeenth wedding anniversary
in December by taking a day trip to Salado, TX.  This selfie
was taken at the sculpture park in Salado.  We are trying to
 take day trips to some of the "cool" Texas towns nearby.
With livestock, it's difficult to be gone overnight without
having someone on site. 

 

All things considered, we've had a blessed year and are looking forward to 2015.  We hope you have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.