Mess of Fish

Baby Triploid Grass Carp

 Grandpa Grass Carp

6-8 inch Channel Catfish

Went to Dunns Fish Farm in Fittstown and picked up 10 Triploid Grass Carp to help weed control in Merritts Pond. These fish will consume 2-3 times their body weight per day in pond vegetation. As they get larger (like the one I dispatched last year in the photo) (theres that dispatched euphemism again, don't you love it?) they tend to eat a lot less vegetation and a lot more expensive fish food. I still have another in the Front pond I need to get rid of. 

 Also put 30 6-8 inch Channel Cat in Merritts Pond and 70 CC in Front Pond. 

Mess of Fish

Caught all these in the Front Pond on my fly rod in about 45 minutes while I was waiting for Merritt to get here. Released them all, but in hindsight should have probably keep the bream, since I think there are way too many in this pond. 

Arachnophobians Anonymous

Tarantula 

Scorpion 

Found the scorpion in the shop and the Tarantula just outside the shop. Didn't think of it then but how cool would it have been to catch them both and put them in a cardboard Colosseum for a fight to the death. Twisted? Maybe. I dispatched (I don't like to use the K word) the Scorpion with the heel of my boot, but let the Tarantula live to fight another day.

Spray, Baby, Spray

Herbicide Treatment June 10, 11, & 12

I've been killing Sericea and Spraying my fenceline with a 25% Remedy/75% Diesel mix.

Red is Remedy, Blue is Pastureguard

Deer Bed in Sericea 

Found several large deer beds in very tall sericea close to Cry Baby Hill (who comes up with these names anyway?).

Blah, Blah, Blah

Monarch Butterfly on Horsemint 

Rode the perimeter on my mountain bike this am, jumped up couple hen turkeys and their poults on the south fence line of the East 40. East 40 pasture is full of wild flowers and butterflies, this is the first Monarch I have seen. Mostly see Black and Tiger Swallowtails.  Then I mowed the perimeter, then I mowed the lily pond pasture, then I did some work, then..... blah, blah, blah. Like anyone cares.

Subjects may appear larger than they actually are.

Hammered some big bream on the Front pond with my fly rod this evening, probably caught a dozen or so  like this and 4 small bass.

Merritt in her Earlier Phase of Dog Napping (see previous post on Dog Napping)

Merritt says she is coming up for a visit tomorrow, but then again she has been saying that for the last 4 days. I'm hoping the picture of the fish will entice her to show up. She has been waiting on a small job confirmation however, that might have something to do with it.

Ranch Record Keeping (Boring......Pictures of Dirt)

Killdeer guarding eggs.

This Killdeer had made a nest in the gravel in my neighbors driveway. As I approached her to take this shot she adopted a very defensive or maybe offensive stance. She is protecting 3 eggs that are camoflauged just below her. She won, I backed off. 

Albino Channel Catfish

This is an Albino Catfish that is coming up for 42% protein fish food in the Big Muddy. I put up another Moultrie Feedcaster feeder on the Front Pond on June 3. My food regiment is 200 lbs per month on the Big Muddy and 100 lbs per month on the Front Pond. Haven't noticed any Hybrid Striped Bass eating this new expensive food however, but the turtles sure do like it.

Big Buck  Track (Could it be THE Ghost Buck?)

Huge Buck track I came across today, and no Jimmy I ain't telling you where.

Average picture of really nice dirt

Hey how about this here [sic] picture of dirt, I told you this could get boring, you were forewarned. I applied 300lbs triple 13 and 100 lbs 32-0-0 to this .80 acre horse pature food plot, then disked it in and dragged it. We might get some rain in the next couple days so I thought I might get ready to broadcast some seed just in case it does.

Braums and Spiders, or unrelated pet peeves

A pet peeve (or pet hate) is a minor annoyance that an individual identifies as particularly annoying to them, to a greater degree than others may find it.

Merritt has a pet peeve against large spiders, like the one I encountered in the middle of the trail today.

I on the other hand have a pet peeve against the take your order speaker at the Ada Braums. Its old, beat up and in bad need of repair, just like it has been for the last 2 years since we have been coming up here. 

So every time I go in Ada, I reward myself with a junior twist but I must also endure a visual assault when I place my order. Is it worth saying something about. I don't know. Or if they repaired their speaker would the cost of a junior twist go from 86 cents to a 2-3 bucks like at TCBY, etc. I don' t actually lose any sleep over this, not that much anyway.

Charlotte's Web?

Ada Braums Drive Thru Speaker

Approaching Storm

We caught the very southern tip of the storm system that went through the midwest today. No rain, just dramatic skies and high winds.

View from front gate

Looking east down CR 1560

Nothing to do with the GBR but a very cool ad by NIke

Double Click on Link Below to play

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idLG6jh23yE&feature=player_embedded

Turning Dirt and Double Duty Spray Rig (Ranch Record Keeping)

I know it may sound strange but one of my absolute favorite things to do on the ranch is turn dirt. Turning Dirt or Disking is what farmers do to prepare the soil for planting. Its actually the step after plowing but I don't have a plow so I skip that step. I was up on the tractor before the sun came up this am turning dirt and loving every minute of it. I'll let the new seeds that were disturbed germinate and go back in once more with Roundup to kill everything before applying fertilizer and disking once more. 

Ghost Buck Pasture Disking 

Horse Pasture Disking

Set up my four wheeler for Double Duty Spraying. 25 Gallon ATV sprayer is filled with Pasturegaurd for controlling that Devil plant, Sericea Lespedeza. 60 gallon trailer sprayer has 2% Round up for preparing food plots.

A good weed is a dead weed

Lily Pond Pasture Experiment

I bush hogged about 6 passes of the Lily Pond pasture prior to applying roundup but there is so much dead material (Thatch) that I'm afraid my round up application may not penetrate so I'll spray both the cut area and the uncut area to see what works best.

So much Thatch, so little time

More Exotic Flowers

Name this flower

Horsemint

Known by a number of common names, lemon beebalm is a 1-2 ft., aromatic winter annual with unusual, tuft-like, lavender to pink, whorled flower heads. Each whorl in the elongated spike is subtended by whitish or lavender, leaf-like bracts. Several stems grow from the base and are lined with pairs of lance-shaped leaves.
Horsemint has a distinctive citrus or lemony scent when the leaves are rubbed or crushed. It is very easy to grow and often forms large colonies. Bees and butterflies are attacted to this plant.
Linnaeus named the genus Monarda in honor of a 16th century Spanish physician and botanist, Nicolas Bautista Monardes (1493-1588). Monardes never went to the Americas but was able to study medicinal plants in Spain because Spain controlled navigation and commerce from the New World.

Tiger Swallow Tail

                                             Tiger Swallow Tail

Misc Memorial Day Weekend Happenings

Small buck checking out my food plots

                            Merritts new favorite sport, Dog Napping.

                             Told you, same day, different dog. 

                                           Pumkins Perch

Misc Memorial Day Weekend Happenings (Gary & Savannah)

Gary & Savannah fishing Merritts Pond

Savannahs first Catfish

Gary helping Savannah after a slip in the mud. What a gentleman, of course he shouldn't have pushed her in the first place, my opinion.

Dan Hunting

Dan Hunting with a new strategy and a new weapon.

I have a particularly sick friend who somehow finds humor in the fact that I mowed over Bambi last week.
His name will remain anonymous to save him any embarrASSment however.
He sent me the image above as some kind of sick joke I guess, not realizing how traumatized I have been over the whole Bambi incident.
Steve, your photoshop skills are better than I expected!!!

Weissman Visit

Ours friends from Dallas, Alan, his wife Janet, Natalie and Ryan came for an overnight at the GBR and we enjoy their visit very much. They seem so normal compared to everyone else we know. That is with the exception of their family obsession with fire and firearms. (Relax Alan, its a joke)

We did a very small demo burn to show Ryan how it works.

Ryan has a very adventurous spirit and wants to do it all. Burning, four wheeling, chainsawing, shooting, etc. 

And so does his sister.

Natalie could put Annie Oakley to shame.

Nat's Cat

Nat's Bass with Ryan helping. He really had a great attitude considering his sister smoked him fishing.

Flora & fauna (what the heck is fauna anywho?)

Bluebird Eggs hatched and they are pretty darn ugly at this point

This Centipede was about 9 inches long and 1 inch wide and very fast moving

Wild Rose

Shrums (Louisiana slang for shrooms)

We made some tea from these and I was seeing all kinds of crazy stuff