Signs of Spring

Last week we could see wee leaves appearing on the trees. This week, they are really starting to pop as you can somewhat see through the fog (it was a great foggy Saturday). The oaks on the upper yard lose their leaves in autumn. After studying several leaves and referencing a couple of books, we believe these oaks to be Post Oaks. At the very least, we think they are in the White Oak family. We hope so any way. White Oaks are not as suspectible to oak wilt as the Red Oaks. These trees are just awesome and we would hate to lose them to the hideous oak wilt.

Last weekend, we converted a deer feeder left on the property to a bird feeder and the birds have discovered it. Essentially, this meant removing the corn feed and loading bird seed. I am not much of a fan of feeding deer, then stating that they are over-populated as an excuse to shoot them. Truthfully, we don't need corn to attract deer--they show up on their own accord. By the way, the fan is on very low speed so we don't hurt the birds. We miss the orioles, but look forward to their return on the next migration.


I continued my donkey and llama poo-scooping duties which is on the agenda every weekend. We are really starting to develop a small mound in the future garden area. Yes, I am including a picture of the dung hill. Some may consider it gross. I consider it part of nature.

This week, we finally caught Jasper braying on video. Actually, Sean caught him twice on video. The first video was of Jasper dashing out of the barn as Sean was approaching him. Jasper equates people in the barn with him as an anticipated "capture." I have included below a link to the video of Jasper braying. You can't really see him, but if you turn up the sound, hopefully you can hear him.


We also captured pics of what I am referring to as "llama wrestling." Joker is the white llama on the left, Titan is on the right. Jasper and the llamas seem to be getting along fairly well. I believe Jasper takes his guard duties seriously.

Maiden Post

This is my maiden post for my maiden blog. I have been sharing pictures and stories of our new "ranch/farm" with friends and family by email. I think this would be a better medium.

I have never been much of a diary keeper. However, something happened when we purchased this piece of land in the Texas Hill Country just a hop, skip and jump from Luckenbach and an honest drive from Enchanted Rock. We live there part-time--weekends only. Nonetheless, it seems every weekend so much happens ... even if it is only relaxation and watching the sunset. Or sitting on the porch in the mornings listening to the birds.

I so enjoy early morning consciousness brought on by a canyon wren. To date, we are not sure if we have ever seen a canyon wren in person. From our bird book, they are not very colorful. Their song completely makes up for lack of colorful appearance though.

Even scooping donkey and llama droppings relaxes me. Want to know why? Because Sean and I are returning that to the earth for a future garden.

I am coming full circle. I grew up in Richlands, Virginia. When I hit 18, I could not leave faster for the city and college. I did not grow up on a farm, but we did have gardens. It was common in that area and time to have a garden. Much of the food on our table came from the garden made by mothers, grandmothers, aunts (yes, the women).

At that time though I could not wait to shed my rural roots and leave small town life behind. I have been living in cities since then. I made my way to Austin, Texas by way of Richmond, London, the Washington DC area, back to Richmond and then to graduate school in Austin.

In Austin, Sean and I rented a community garden. We soon realized how much better vegetables taste straight from the garden--especially tomatoes. Nothing like home-grown tomatoes.

Later we bought some property in the Frederickburg, Texas area. Can you say rocky? We had always noted that a nearby property looked really nice (very few rocks) especially when it came up for sale about 3 years ago. We would occasionally walk up to the fence and say hello to the goats and donkey while admiring the terrain. At that time we did not consider it feasible to buy that piece of land.

The picture of the sunset is from the porch of that property. It recently came up for sale again and we took the plunge after much thought. The goats are long gone, but the donkey came with the property.

I don't think it was the intent of the previous owner to keep Jasper there by himself. She had people who wanted to take him, but Jasper refused to go as we found out later. Good thing we said we would take him as part of the transaction.

Mind you, I would never have "adopted" him if we did not have family that visits him and his two new llama friends daily. We also have a neighbor who comes and works with him a couple times of week as well. He makes me laugh when he brays. We are enjoying getting to know him. At times, I think he is warming to us too, but it comes with lots of caution.

Future posts will be devoted to Jasper and our experiences in the Texas Hill Country area over time. Stay tuned if you wish.