Monday, November 18, 2019 We’ve been in the home for 2 months now and are wrapping up the build. Still have a few odds and ends that hopefully will be complete in 2017. But at this time I think it’s safe to publish the numbers – what...
More infoWell, I had my day in court. Totally unsatisfying. If you’re wondering what I’m talking about, read part 1 here. Back to the story. I spent several hours preparing my presentation to face Jon Muran in small claims court. I...
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So after several weeks of building fences and other preparations, we finally have cattle on the ranch. We have 9 adults and 5 calves that I bought from my father-in-law. The two cows that don’t have calves should be bred, so I’m off to a good...
More infoAfter several months of waiting, Dunn’s Fish Farm showed up at a local feed store. I bought 200 Channel Catfish, 200 Black Crappie, 100 Copper nose Bluegill, and 10 lbs of Fathead Minnows ($475). Unfortunately, half of the crappie were dead...
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Working cattle is a necessary endeavor that every rancher dreads. Lots of pushing and prodding, a few rambunctious animals, and tons of poop and flies. The challenges start when you try to round up the cattle. It’s important to...
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If you were with us for And More Water – Part I, you saw the cisterns that we put in to capture rain water from the house. Yesterday I finally got around to completing the system. When I built the cistern, I left a 2″ stub up in order to...
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Hurricane Harvey passed through this month and dumped about 12″ on the ranch over a 5 day period. It was rather insignificant as the water fell at a steady slow rate, and had plenty of time to move through the terrain and make its way off...
More infoWhen I built the pond in front of the house (the one that catches the rainwater overflow) I was left with several yards of spoils. They had been stacked up for several months and were quite unsightly – with weeds growing in great...
More infoWell 2017 concludes my first year in the cattle business. And I must say, I made some big mistakes. 1. I paid too much for most of my cattle. I was paying premium price on moderate quality animals, and I was paying bred heifer pricing...
More infoHeading toward Christmas I could see the bellies swelling and the udders filling. I knew we were going to have some winter calves. I pulled two heifers out of the heard (#12 & #21) and put them in a paddock with hay so I could...
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Added more earthworks to the ranch. This time I put a swale in as the first phase of my orchard. A swale is basically a ditch on contour. The idea being that runoff acclimates in the ditch and slowly infiltrates the soil instead of running off...
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I’m not a big wine drinker, but when Molly and I visited Fredericksburg this spring I couldn’t help but pick up a few grape vines. I picked up 2 of each of the three varieties available – Black Spanish, Blanc du Bois, and Champanel. ...
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