Fall 2002 Observation!

[FrmlyZ]

There appears to be no mast at all this year. The oaks, hickories, walnuts, butternuts, ect produced no nuts at all. There are no simmon's and even the sumac produced few berries. The chestnuts produced a lot of burs; mostly empty. The fuzzy-tailed rats have been going through them finding the few with nuts; no small task as it is like peeling a pork-q-pine. There were no wild cherries. What the fruit trees produced has been consumed by the wild life. The magness pear which has produced bushels, each year, for the last 25 years had about 10 pears. Very few blueberries. We have had some dry spells [nothing unusual] but were already 6" above normal before yesterday when we got 2" more. Guess that makes us 8" above normal. Our wildlife will do okay cause we will feed them this winter. The wild turkies and the deer have already been around looking at the food trays. How is it where you are?

Wonder what happened this year? Must be dem chem trails. [img]biggrin.gif[/img]

Best Wishes,,,,,

Z

[Lon Frank]

Hiya, Z.

BTW, I meant to say thanks for your post to the storm thread. I do happen to know where "Red Stick" is, and why it was so named. Weren't the French explorers great? You just gotta love anybody who could name places like Gros Tete and Grand Tetons, and get away with it. I think they met a tribe of my in-law's ancesters, as well, the Gros Ventre.

Anyway, we've had a bumper crop of cypress seed cones here. The tree rats have absolutely covered my fishing dock with cut husks and little limbs. Since we only have one and a half days of almost-winter, I'm sure the little theves will survive. Actually, I feed them and the birds, anyway, and quite often the fish, whether I want to or not.

[Pammy]

"who could name places like Gros Tete and Grand Tetons, and get away with it."

Must have been Pugsly's relatives. [img]wink.gif[/img]

[FrmlyZ]

Lon:

Don't know exactly where you live, but I did visit friends back in the 60's. We turned south at some town called something like Winnie [I am scrounging the memory cells here]. They lived in something close to a shack in the swamp. What do I remember; remember the old saying about the 60's; if you remember you weren't there. [img]biggrin.gif[/img]

They have moved to Norman and now live in an expensive subdivision and send embossed cards each year at Christmas. So it goes. [img]wink.gif[/img]

Best Wishes,,,,,

Z

[Lon Frank]

Z, my particular shack on the bayou is about 20 miles from 'downtown' Winnie. Me and Kit are thinking about going to the Rice Festival over there tomorrow. Beans 'n rice, gumbo 'n rice, dirty rice, shrimp rice balls, fried rice, rice puddin'..............and a 60 year old tilt-a-whirl!

I'm tellin ya, we got some fancy doin's down here!

[FrmlyZ]

Lon:

Nice reply. I've been out sick with the CDC's latest virus. I have been, for sometime, digitizing slides and negatives. These go back to the 50's and grade school. We are talking 10 to the fifth range. I started doing some of the stuff that had been exhibited. Being sick, I did some more personal stuff. Pulled up a friends dog who was named Winnie. The ol'mind thought that is where I got it.

I would post some of the things that have been exhibited [it is copyrighted] but I am afraid that this site would take weeks to load a small image [if I could get it that small; much of it is satire].

Best Wishes,,,,,

Z

[big kumara]

Pheasant numbers are down, especially West River--no tall grass for proper nesting this year. A friend of mine has a ranch near the Black Hills--last year he had 2000 round bales of hay put up by the end of June. This year he had zero. He got about 500 when they opened up the CRP land, but he'll have to buy the rest or sell down the herd. I saw fields of sunflowers in late August that were in full bloom and only three feet tall [img]frown.gif[/img]

What little hay did get baled will be under heavy pressure from deer this winter. Homeowners can expect to get their landscaping ravaged by deer this winter, especially in the Black Hills (drought, forest fires, prairie fires). The GFP will have to set up a LOT of feeding stations this winter.

Raccoon population is pretty good, judging from the number of road kills. Coyotes are up in some areas, but way down in other places. Deer look good, but antelope will likely be down.

Duck hunting will really suck because the water holes are still dried up, even after the rain we've been getting lately. Although, the holes that haven't dried up could see huge concentrations of ducks as they pass through. Hunting could be very good in those areas--if you can get permission from the landowners, which isn't likely unless you know them very well. Goose hunting should still be good.

None of the trees produced much seed this year because of the drought. Except mulberries--everything was splattered with purple for quite awhile, lol. Weeds and mosquitoes weren't much of a problem (drought), but the grasshoppers were downright biblical.

Barn swallows were kinda sparse this year--not enough skeeters? Or too many cats? They flew the coop about two weeks ago. I only saw two hummingbirds all summer.

[larsguy]

Autumn arriving slowly this year. Until this very day, it's been in the 80s. Still, firebushes are flaming and mums are mumming but few trees have turned, grass is still green and mice remain outside.

I love the light of autumn, the long sharp shadows and the clear air.

Late summer bees have taken over the hummingbird feeder. I can't even drink a beer on the deck without the bees flying into the glass. This is not right.

[FrmlyZ]

Yep, Fall;

Well, we have to hire another faculty member. I have the joy of putting together the ads for Science and such places. I spent a few hours determining what was the latest boilerplate needed for the ads. It has changed in the last 6 months. Used to be an anti-discrimination statement. Now it is even different for print ads and web ads. Oh well!

Anywho, back to the subject. Whilst I was working, pup kept trying to tell me something. I was too busy to listen. He got my attention by pissing on my foot. Then I got it.

Took him outside for a walk. As we headed for the pond, there was a whirr of wings. At least 30 wood ducks were on the house side of the pond [big trees there]; they took off and landed on a far arm of the pond. We are used to seeing a few around here, but never that many in one place. Haven't seen anything so purty in a long piece.

After I wash my shoe, I will thank the pup. [img]biggrin.gif[/img]

Best Wishes,,,,,

Z

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ October 10, 2002 04:07 PM: Message edited by: FrmlyZ ]</font>

[Morbius]

No hunting this year on the Mojave Big K. 4 year drought has stressed the desert quail/chukar population to the point where you'd be embarassed to shoot one. Will go out just to be with buds but doubt I'll take a gun.