Photo: This is not a lake, but is instead a normally dry pasture covered with fourteen inches of rain from Hurricane Harvey. Last August Hurricane Harvey tarried around for a while and caused significant damage to our roof and the front of our house. The front was added in the 1950s to a house ... Read More
farm
Texas Weather – December 2017
Winter wonderland early morning December 8, 2017. Texas weather, especially winter weather, can be highly variable. This December illustrates that. Tuesday, December 5, 2017 It was a warm day. As Susie and I walked from the house to the greenhouses I almost stepped on a coral snake ... Read More
Hurricane Harvey Recovery – September 12th
Photo of damage to the interior and exterior of one of our greenhouses. Before I launch into what we’ve been doing since we finally got commercial power, I need to thank my brother-in-law, Danny Rokyta. Danny came over the day before Harvey hit to make sure Carl and I had properly installed our ... Read More
A Weird Short Ecotour Offer
Photo: A young copperhead in our yard. Photo by Carl Clapsaddle. For three years now I’ve been toying with offering an ecotourism venture at our farm during our copperhead season. This evening cinched the idea for me. Susie and I got home from our volunteer fire department meeting (yes, on ... Read More
It’s Going to be a “YUGE” Snake Year
Photo: A large female Western Diamondback Rattlesnake (Crotalus atrox) in a barrel after capture and prior to relocation. No, this is not a political post. It appears that we are in for lots of snakes this year, hence the “Yuge!” We usually see lots of snakes; after all we’re in the country and ... Read More
Climbing Cactus
Photo: Flower of Selenicereus spinulosus, a climbing cactus from Texas. Back in 1997 while we still lived in Santa Fe, New Mexico Susie (my wife) and I visited Goliad, Texas to see my mother and grandparents. On the return trip we took a leisurely route toward Del Rio, Texas before heading home. ... Read More
Our 108 Year Old Fig Tree
Photo: A 108 year old fig tree planted in 1908 by my great grandfather. Fig trees are common around old farmhouses in Goliad County. They were easily propagated and maintained and provided a fruit that could be eaten fresh or dried or preserved as a jam. When my grandfather was an infant in ... Read More
Rescuing a Baby Cardinal
Photo: Rescued baby Cardinal perched on fence. This afternoon our German Shepherds (Canis lupus hybrids), Oso and Maya, and I (Homo sapiens) were walking up to the yard from the greenhouses when the dogs alerted to a distressed chirping sound in the grass off the path. Following the dogs I found ... Read More
Living Close to Nature
Photo: A yellow jacket or paper wasp (Polistes sp.) nest on a ladder. On the farm, we live very close to nature. An example of this happened today. Susie, my wife, complained that the cellphone booster wasn’t working right. She thought Saturday morning’s storm might have misaligned it. Yes, we ... Read More
Brown Tree Frog
The photo is a brown tree frog sitting on my hand. The farm is home to a host of amphibians. With the recent rains we hear a cacophony of lustful toads and frogs singing all night. Among the most commonly seen amphibians are the tree frogs because they roost under house eaves and on tree trunks ... Read More