Spaulding Smails

Chickens will eat the shit out of bugs. I built our chicken run adjacent to our garden. Pest count in the garden went way down once we got the chickens. My only complaint is that they mess up the mulch in the flower beds. More of an annoyance than anything.

I hope you're right about wind and rain only. But, their house is surrounded by huge trees as well. Rita took down 50+% of their timber. I'm guessing this could be worse based on projected wind speeds.

Good news: My wife's 90 year old grandmother evacuated her house in Orange Monday night. The house flooded in Harvey and will probably flood again with this storm surge. Bad news: She evacuated to her 70 year old daughter's (my wife's aunt's) house in Starks, LA. More directly in the line of the storm. They have a farm and didn't want to leave their animals. My wife begged them to let us come get her and bring her to Dripping Springs. They all politely declined. The farm has somewhat of high ground where the house sits, but they're surrounded by swamps. So, best case scenario, the house survives the storm, and they're probably landlocked with no power for a pretty long time. I don't want to think about the worst case scenario... More bad news: My FIL left his house in Cypress to go to his fish camp on Toledo Bend this morning to help out his buddies that live there. While possibly admirable, he literally drove into the path of the hurricane where he's going to ride out what will surely be hurricane force winds in a mobile home that is surrounded by 100' pine trees and faces due south on the main body of Toledo Bend. Awesome.

Within the last week, we've had a checkered garter, ribbon snake and rat snake all in the back yard. Have yet to get a picture, but it's nice to see some variety, and I definitely think they're controlling the insect population. I just wish they'd take care of the mosquitos too.

Ha! Did this come from someone in Austin? Because I'm relatively certain we framed the new portion of this house after they finished the demo. Modern stunner with a historic front facade.

We just mounted it directly in the concrete. Those bulbs are pretty durable.

We built ours homemade years ago when we had our place on Lake Medina. 5 gal bucket, metal halide ballast + bulb, concrete and lots of silicone. Worked like a champ for 5+ years and was still going strong when we sold the place. Kids loved fishing for catfish at night. Plus, easy to move on a variable level lake like that. Here's a forum where they talk through something similar if you're into DIY. https://fishwestend.com/forum/threads/1851-DIY-Underwater-Lights

One of the best things I've done in the past couple of years was getting a trailer at the ranch. I was out on Sunday in 106 degree temps and was glad to have a place to cool down other than my truck. Same. Just bought a 12' trailer that I keep out at the ranch. I got tired of pulling my 16' trailer out there when needed. So much easier to load rocks and move brush. Not to mention the lower height for sitting and taking a break. We also use the hell out of it now for moving road base instead of a bucket at a time with the tractor.

The biologist didn't come out to take a sample? He did not. We sent him pics. Deer were very healthy and none of the CWD signs were present. He said if we found another, he'd come out. Have not seen one since.

That's a bummer on the CWD. What a gut punch. We haven't seen any signs at our place (yet). We did have three younger deer dead on our place last year. No signs of trauma. No bullet wounds. No signs of predator attack. Nothing. Found them both before the buzzards got them. My dad called the wildlife biologist to verify we didn't have anything funky going on, and he felt like it was most likely enterotoxemia. Basically, the deer just gorge on acorns, and it throws off their digestion. He said he was seeing a lot of that in 2019 due to the amount of acorns being produced. Makes sense because we had an insane amount of acorns on the ground last winter.

The more I looked at him, I totally agree. I found a pic of the one that I shot last year (30"), and side-by-side, he was noticeably younger in the face and neck. We saw two HUGE axis at separate times last week (neither on our property). One when leaving the Llano River Saturday and another behind a high fence on 290 between Harper and Fredericksburg. The second was so big, I turned around to get a better look. He was a legit 36" and super wide. I think we're going to pass on this guy.

I was out at our place in Kimble County this weekend. Saturday, afternoon, we left downtown Junction at 4:40 and it was 106. Pulled up to the gate of the ranch at 5:00 to a torrential downpour and 69 degrees. We got a little over a half inch of rain in 30 min then another decent downpour around 8 PM. It was actually chilly sitting out on the porch. Total surprise and absolutely awesome and much needed.

Updated pic of the axis we've seen on and off now without velvet. Pretty decent buck. I'm guessing right at 30". Headed back this weekend, so if he shows up, I may put my son on him.

Ha! It is total overkill, but it was a fun project. I had a 12 lb pork butt and a big turkey breast and some sausage and it just looked puny. May need to start just cooking more and freezing it.

Mostly finished up the pit this weekend with some help from a few buddies. I had the doors cut by my fab guy. I screwed up on the fire box door dimensions, so had to get those re-cut at the last minute. Everything went pretty smoothly, but we ran into a few issues along the way. I'd do about a dozen things differently if I did it over again, but all-in-all, I'm super stoked. Broke it in with some chicken and sausage Saturday night, then a pork butt and a whole turkey breast yesterday. Takes a while to get up to temp, but holds heat really well. I do have some smoke leakage and some of the exterior stonework has already cracked despite the fire brick liner. I need to go back and patch some areas with refractory mortar. Biggest issue is the counterweight for the larger door isn't heavy enough. I'm going to have to add a second weight.

Could also be a ghost mouse. A mouse ghost if you will.

I'm now 100% convince that @Ghost of LL is dealing with a mouse. We've been working a skeleton crew at our office since March due to COVID. Pretty much everyone is working from home. I have to come in to the office a few times a week for misc stuff like checking the mail, signing checks, etc. One of my project managers has a ton of kids and nowhere to work from home, so he gets his admin stuff done at the office. He called me last week and asked if I was playing a prank on him because he's found dog food in his printer paper tray twice in the last month. I was baffled and said it wasn't me. I usually take my dog with me to the office, and he has a sealed container of food that I keep in my office closet. So, it was natural for him to suspect me. But, it wasn't me. Fast forward to this morning, and I went to our shop closet to grab some plastic for site protection. I looked down and happened to notice about 30 pieces of dog food in a paint spray gun bag. My dog doesn't always eat his food, and I never think to dump it back into the sealed container. This HAS to be a mouse hoarding food. Gotta be it.

Great feedback and suggestions. I probably should have qualified this more. Needs are pretty mixed and varied. Oldest son is a fishing machine and can be on the water all day. Dude just did a two day paddle into a headwind on the Devils River with me and didn't miss a beat while outfishing me. My middle son is special needs. Good mobility, but wouldn't fish, and would probably tolerate the boat for an hour max. My daughter's too young to really get a feel for her fishing interest long-term, but I'm guessing she can take it or leave it. Wife loves to fish, but would only be able to do so when we have respite or family in town to watch my middle son. Personally, I'd wade fish over anything else. But, I'd probably take clients and employees down there a few times a year. I'm doing that right now, but it's almost always with a guide. I'd say 40% with my just my oldest son wading or drifting with artificials, 10% with my whole family except the middle son soaking bait, 10% with all five of us just cruising, 10% solo wade fishing and the remaining 30% with guests as a mixed bag depending on their interest and skill. I'm originally from Corpus, and still have a ton of family down there. Most of my family that fish run Majeks. Johnny Majek was a friend of my grandfather, so that may be somewhat sentimental. My business partner and another buddy have Haynies and love them. So, I really do need something that runs skinny but can take chop like @fattyflattie mentioned. Needs to have sides for sure. @Handcruser, that Robalo looks sweet, but I think the open bow and shallow draft are going to be must-haves for me.

I totally believe it. My wife mostly takes care of our chickens. I made sure that my son and I were the ones snagging them out of the coop and butchering them for that reason. I didn't want them associating that experience with her. Usually, when we open the coop to let them range during the day, they come busting out. For the next week, they all kinda chilled in the corner when we opened the door. Especially me. Even though we did the butchering on the other side of the property, they wanted no part of leaving the coop. And, they still want no part of me. They know when something's awry.

So, I'm in the very early stages of looking for a bay boat. Will probably pull the trigger next winter (21-22). My experiences have been primarily with Haynie and Majek. But, I really like the look of the Mowdy as well. Probably something in the 23-25' range. Needs will be mixed. Some wade fishing. Some drifting. Some bait soaking. Some cruising and messing around. Primarily used around Rockport, but may run down to Baffin occasionally as well. I have a wife and three kids (8-10-12), so dry and smooth ride trumps skinny water at this point. Thoughts or suggestions?

We slaughtered and butchered our seven roosters two weekends ago. Did beer belly chicken with one of them the next night. Brined him overnight. On the pit for a few hours over oak. So damn good. If he's big enough, that might be a good choice. We vacuum sealed and froze the other six. Love the coq a vin idea. Just sent that idea to my wife for supper tonight.

I had that issue a few summers ago. I think it had to do with me mowing during the heat of the day. Too much stress, blades get mashed down by the tires. I could be wrong, but that was my analysis. Couldn't find any visible signs of disease or bugs.

I use the heck out of the skeleton bucket on my skidsteer. Perfect for separating rocks from fill, etc. I think it would work great. If you have a little dump trailer or something you can move around with a utility vehicle or truck, that seems like it would be a great setup. Plus, you could move the manure to a different area to compost. Where are you located? I bought mine from this guy. Out in Marble Falls. I've had it about three years and no issues. https://idigtexas.com/product-category/skid-steer-attachments/rock-buckets/

We lucked out on our end. We've been in communication with the owners over the last several weeks, and they've been great about extending cancellation periods and offering a full refund if the beaches completely close. I've heard other owners are not so generous. Like so many others, I'm not sure on what the right answer is here. So many factors to consider. We're planning to eat at the house for every meal. Only activities would be beach and golf. Three day trip. So, minimal economic impact on our part to Port A, but also about as minimal of a footprint as possible from an exposure standpoint.

Headed down this weekend. VRBO is a block from the dunes. This may mean a pretty damn quiet beach with plenty of room to spread out and no need to worry about kids running in front of a truck.