WildWoods, Our New Lives In Lampasas County, Texas

 We have been very busy moving to our place in Lampasas County, Texas.  Being older and not having any help this move is taking a little longer than I thought.  It is taking a lot of time to go through all the keepsakes and possessions my wife and I have accumulated over the last forty years and sort through it to decide what we want to keep, sell or give away as we are trying to simplify our lives.  Some things we just need to decide whether or not we really need them anymore. If you haven’t used something in ten years it is pretty hard to say you need it no matter how nice it is.   Such things as backpacks and camping gear do not seem to have much importance in my future plans.  I am going to refinish my handmade cedar boats and sell them.  It will be much easier for this old guy to run up the river or across the lake in an aluminum boat with comfortable seats powered by an outboard motor.  I hate to get rid of some things such as my forge, blower and anvil that I have kept boxed up for twenty years just for when I moved to the country.  After three shoulder surgeries I am not sure my shoulders can swing a heavy blacksmiths hammer to pound iron and survive anymore.     

A move to the country lets you know what a different life some people live on a daily basis.  Getting anything done seems to take forever and we are still without TV or Internet as I write this.  It looks as if we will be having Exede Satellite Internet installed and most likely Dish TV.  Cell phone service is very iffy and we have to stand in a certain point on the porch to even get a signal when we can get one.  We are currently with ATT but will check out Verizon to see if it works any better out here.  I am looking into a micro cell booster and will have to see if that helps.  We may just be in a cell phone dead area and have to live with it.  If anyone has a suggestion I am open to all options.  We have to drive a little over a half mile to the County road to get our mail each day, packages we find dropped inside the gate in a plastic bag.  We see trash cans out at ranch gates one day a week so it looks like we will be able to get trash service out here if we carry it up to the County road but it remains to see at what expense.  One must stay alert for stray livestock or poultry on the County Road and buzzards flying up from road kill are a regular hazard.  Deer can jump from the bar ditch at any time and one must stay on the ready to miss them as needed to drive out here at night.  Often drivers on the narrow county road make a habit of taking their half of the narrow road out of the middle no matter which direction they are headed.  There are even a couple of drivers that must think the county road is an interstate as they drive the narrow rough road at extreme speeds and law enforcement on the county road here is next to nonexistent.

We are enjoying eating most of our meals out on the front or back porches and have seen some unbelievable sunsets and sunrises in the last week.  It was 45 degrees one morning and may soon be too cold to eat breakfast on the porch, or at least I will have to start getting dressed for coffee or breakfast.  We have seen deer and turkeys from the porch several times and listen to the many birds each morning.  The clear sky at night is covered with stars, satellites, planets and other sights we would never see in the Round Rock/Austin metroplex area due to the night glow which is nonexistent here.  There has been a constant flow of migrating Monarch Butterflies for the last week.  Last evening I set on the porch having some hot tea before bed and listened to the calling of an Eastern Screech Owl and a Long Eared Owl echoing across the pasture, each trying to make sure he was heard.   The moon has been shining like a beacon for several nights and we hear the calls of unidentified migrating ducks and geese as the fly over high in the moonlit sky.  Today we saw a Cara Cara or Mexican Eagle on a fence post near a road kill up on the County road.  We have identified 125 different birds here at the place not counting all the multiple kinds of sparrows and warblers that I cannot identify.   This area is a mostly un-recognized Mecca for birders I am beginning to realize more and more.  Up until recently we have had multiple Painted Buntings at the feeders and bird bath on most days.  Most of the humming birds have left for other parts of the country.   I hear or see Ravens and Crows almost daily.  We saw two Merlins, a Kestrel, a Red Tailed Hawk, Speckled Belly Geese, Sandhill Cranes and kettles of Broad Winged Hawks migrating overhead this week.  There were eleven mature Rio Grande Gobblers at the feeder behind the house.   I hope to someday be able to have a place for birders to come and observe the plethora of winged and other creatures that abound here at WildWoods.  It will be a common occurrence to live among the wildlife that abounds here on a daily basis.  Most of the time we cannot hear any vehicles, no sirens or people noises just the sounds of the country. 

It rained 5.5 inches and we could not get out to the County road for three days so we will be spending money to put caliche on the road in the near future.  I am enjoying the daily ranch work but it sure would have been easier about twenty years ago.  I slipped this last week in the mud while working on a new fence with my brother and hurt my wrist.  It is really swelled up and has a big knot on top, I am hoping that nothing is broken and it is just a bad sprain.

Our Dorper Sheep herd of sixty ewes and two rams are doing well and our guard Llama seems to be earning his keep.  He is always on alert and comes running to check out any strangers or activity close to the sheep herd.  I hope he will be able to fend off any coyotes or stray dogs as well, especially during the lambing season.  I find the livestock work to be very satisfying, I am sure when they start lambing in late February it will get much harder.  We should have all natural grass fed lamb for sale by May.  I am reading an interesting book by Bill Stockton titled Today I Baled Some Hay to Feed the Sheep the Coyotes Eat.  I have always been around cattle all my life and only raised sheep once before so I am refreshing my knowledge with lots of reading on sheep and also raising them naturally without growth hormones or antibiotics.  I will tell you my favorite books in a later blog.  I need to get the sheep pens built and find a pig to start feeding.  I plan on using the sheep pens to raise a hog all natural after I work the sheep for the season.  I have to dig a trench to run a water line for the stone trough, the barn and the sheep pens from the well.  The chicken pen has to be moved from Round Rock and a predator proof roof put on it.  I also want to build another Hawk mew and start flying a hawk again.  It would be nice to build a sand pit to knap arrowheads within.  I still need to hang the hardware and the sliding barn door for the pantry along with all of the wood blinds on the windows.  We are going to have to hang all our wall hangings, prints and other objects one sticks on the walls.  There is furniture to refinish and even some to build for the house when we get settled in.   It seems there will be plenty of work to go around.  Clearing brush and burning brush piles could be a full time job here at WildWoods.

 Our cats have adapted well to ranch living, I sometimes open the front door to find a gift of a field mouse or vole placed on the welcome mat.  It remains until I pick it up and throw it off the porch where one of the cats will usually eat it. We have mice out in the barn that get into any feed or food items not sealed in mouse proof containers.  I hope to start putting a couple of cats on patrol out there each night and see if they can solve the problem without poison.  Bear our Great Pyrenees/Maremma guard dog is having a difficult time staying close and may be a struggle as he wants to check out the whole country.  He thinks he should run the deer away from the deer feeder out back every morning and it will be hard to make him believe otherwise.

The food plots we planted for the sheep and the deer are coming up and are green for the first time in several years.  The pasture is lush and I cannot remember it looking so well going into winter. Hopefully we will have grazing for the sheep all winter and won’t need to provide supplemental feed much at all.  There is a good acorn crop so the deer and turkeys have a lot of groceries right now and should be in good condition going into the winter.

My Uncle brought his deer rifles by and left them for me to sight in for him before opening day of deer season.  I actually shot them in from the front porch and no one complained or called the local law enforcement.  This is indeed a different lifestyle than living in the metroplex where citified people call the police if they see you put an uncased rifle in the truck.  I don't think I will miss much of the city except eating and shopping.  Cabela's, Bass Pro and Gander Mountain may lure me back once in a while.

We are meeting lots of people, neighbors from nearby ranches, and making new friends each trip to town.  It is amazing the people at the feed store and other places that ask if we are the folks that built the house out at Nix.  Wal-Mart, Tractor Supply, Ace Hardware, the hamburger joints, the Donut Palace, the few local restaurants, Churches and the feed stores are the centers of social activity in small town Texas.  Word seems to travel fast around here no matter the news.  The local newspaper, The Lampasas Dispatch Record, is published twice weekly and everyone looks forward to the local news.  The paper is delivered by mail and comes late in the afternoon on the publish date, no more reading the daily paper early in the mornings with coffee.  We are learning to enjoy the local radio station FM 101.9 which is a sort of Country, Western Swing, Pop and other combo station.  We may try to attend one of their tailgate concerts in the Ace Hardware parking lot in the future.  The radio station puts out a little news classified daily bulletin that all the businesses keep for locals to pick up when you shop that I actually look forward to reading.  We hope to get more involved in the community as time allows.  If you are getting older and have some dreams of moving to the country my advice is do it as soon as you can while you are young enough to handle the physical labor.  It will be hard work, but the life style looks like it is worth it.  Wild Ed

Feel free to click on comments below to leave a comment or read the comments of others

Midwest Birding Symposium 2013 Recap: Part 2

This is the second half of my 2013 Midwest Birding Symposium recap.

 

Some additional images and memories from the four days of birding, symposiating, and socializing at the 2013 Midwest Birding Symposium. There were welcoming signs everywhere for attendees. 

The main entrance to the Lakeside Chautauqua.

Many of the Lakeside businesses, like the Ohh La La Cafe, stayed open just for the MBS.

It was great to see old friends and to meet new ones. The MBS is a great gathering point for that.

Carlos Bethancourt from Canopy Tower Panama and Elsa Thompson, founding publisher of Bird Watcher's Digest.

Greg (left) and Tim outside the Birder's Marketplace.

Greg Miller of "The Big Year" fame, meeting Tim Appleton, co-founder of The British BirdFair, the world's largest birding event. The MBS is one of those events where you have an opportunity to meet people you know from social media or from their affiliations and accomplishments. In that way it's a lot like a birding family reunion.

The speakers during the MBS were talented, engaging, and fascinating. Twenty different presenters spoke on things as varied as gull ID, moth watching, pelagic trips, nature journaling, birding in the digital age, and phone-scoping!

MBS attendees during a morning keynote program in Hoover Auditorium.

We had an army of volunteers helping us with the MBS. More than 100 Lakesiders volunteered to help and about another 50 kind souls from the birding community stepped in to do everything from stuffing attendee bags to guiding bird walks to driving golf-cart shuttles and helping to direct lost attendees to their proper destination.

Lakeside volunteers at our pre-MBS luncheon.

Four of the gals on the Bird Watcher's Digest staff, from left: Michelle, Laura, Wendy, and Ann at the MBS closing ceremonies.

In 2011, the MBS attendees in Hoover Auditorium on Saturday night set a world record (recognized by The Guinness Book of World Records) for the most people doing a simultaneous bird call. We hooted out the call of a barred owl. This year we participated in The International Day of Peace by having a giant group Peace Hug.

Everybody enjoying a #peacehug and flashing the peace sign for The International Day of Peace.

The American Birding Association, Lake Erie WingWatch, Columbus Audubon, and The Ohio Young Birders Club helped us make Young Birders' Day at MBS eventful and enjoyable. Despite the icky weather, the birding was really good. So was the pizza.

Five designated birding locales were selected as "official" MBS birding sites and volunteer guides were there at each site just after dawn to lead small groups of birders. Lots of great birds were found, including two species of phalarope, red knot, merlin, and golden-winged warbler.

On Sunday morning we held the Roadrunner 3K Fun Run and about 20 brave souls did not let the cold temperatures and howling Lake Erie wind deter their desire to run. We even had the Blue Goose from Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge in the run. He (she? it?) finished surprising well despite never once taking to the air.

A very special thank you to our Ohio birding pal Ernie Cornelius for taking many of the images you've enjoyed here and on the MBS site. Ernie also coordinated getting images from a half-dozen other photographers and the he prepared a slide show which we projected on the giant screens each night in Hoover Auditorium. Thanks Ernie!

MBS Official Photographer Ernie Cornelius

And then it was Sunday afternoon and time for everyone to head home. It was another successful Midwest Birding Symposium and we owe that to all the support from our sponsors, co-hosts, volunteers, speakers, vendors, staff, and friends.

The next Midwest Birding Symposium will be held in Bay City, Michigan, on September 10–13, 2015. If you'd like to get your name and contact info on the pre-registration list, you can do so at www.midwestbirding.org.

Bird Watcher's Digest is starting an exciting new series of birding events.

In February of 2014 we'll be hosting our first-ever Reader Rendezvous in Minnesota where we'll go birding with funnyman Al Batt. Follow this link for details.

And in early April we'll be back at the Grange Insurance Audubon Center in Columbus, Ohio for the second annual Birding Optics & Gear Expo. This sales-oriented event gives you a chance to "try-before-you-buy" choosing from among hundreds of optics and gear products for birders. 

Don't miss it!

We'll see you out there with the birds!

Pick the Proper Caliber for Your Game

 

This week I am going back to an old topic and an even older picture of a trophy that hangs in a place of honor on my wall.  If you run into me today it has been a long time since I looked like the hunter in the picture.  The Desert Mule Deer in the picture was taken with a .243 at extreme range and it took multiple shots to anchor him.  All were fatal shots, but because of the long range, bullet expansion was non existent.  Remember with small fast bullets that you will need enough velocity for the bullet to perform properly.  If you plan on long shots use enough gun to maintain down range velocity and bullet expansion.  I get the same question over and over from new hunters and even from experienced hunters that should know by now what calibers to use on specific quarry. The questions usually go something like the following. Is a ____good enough to hunt_______? You can fill in the first blank with whatever caliber and the other blank with whatever animal you wish to and the answer should still be the same. Use enough gun to humanely take the quarry you are hunting at the distance you should expect to be shooting. It should also have enough energy to cleanly kill if your shot is off just a little bit. Bullet placement and type is so important in a clean kill. I am not going to get into arguing the merits of all the calibers. I usually rank them as light caliber, standard calibers and magnum calibers. I have harvested surplus doe and exotics on a game ranch where we used small fast varmint calibers and out of hundreds taken, all were killed cleanly. The key was taking only good, standing shots from a solid rest at reasonable ranges. I have also spent hours trailing deer for clients that had been shot with the latest greatest magnum on the market. The difference was bullet placement. If you shoot a super magnum and the recoil makes you pull, the shot it would be much better for you to shoot a lighter less powerful round that you could precisely place the shot. I guided Desert Mule Deer hunters for many years and carried a lightweight .243 for my backup rifle. That little gun put down many a wounded deer that had been shot by a large magnum but hit badly. The .243 did not usually drop big Mule deer on the spot, but very few ran more than a hundred yards. In wide open country that is not a problem. If you are hunting in thick brush country where a deer disappears in 10 yards you might need to shoot a caliber that will anchor them on the spot. Bullet placement was usually very precise as one can shoot the .243 with ease and the rifle is light enough to shoot very well off hand. Step up to the .308 and the result will be more knockdown with just a little more recoil if you need the power. If you are on a high dollar trophy hunt and can handle the recoil shoot whatever you feel you need to put your trophy down on the spot. You alone can really decide what amount of recoil you can handle. The key is to be honest with yourself. When a hunter asks me if I will sight in their rifle for them I can assure you most of the time they are afraid of the recoil and just do not want to suffer the pain of recoil. Lots of people can’t handle a hard-kicking rifle and you should not have to. There are too many good choices of calibers that will get the job done without excess recoil.

These days a lot of people are shooting an AR-15 platform in .556, .223 and other short cartridges that fit the platform. Some want to hog or deer hunt with the guns because they are accurate and fun to shoot. Many have been told by others that the .223 is too small to hunt deer or hogs. It depends on how big the deer are in your area and at what range you will be shooting them, the type of bullet you will be using and at what speed it is moving. It also depends on whether you can place your bullet precisely and if you are willing to pass on a shot if you do not get a good standing shot. My wife dropped a large Hill Country buck last year with one shot from her little .223.  She has often passed shots when bullet placement would have been questionable due to brush, angle, distance or when the deer would not quit moving. I have culled hundreds of hogs, whitetail does and exotics through the years with a .223 and love the little round. The key is bullet placement. If you make a bad shot with a .223 you will have problems as it does not have extra power to blow things up if you are off target like some of the larger more powerful cartridges. On the other hand do you need a large magnum caliber to hunt 75-100 pound whitetails? I think not. If you are hunting 700 pound Nilgai Antelope on the coastal plains of South Texas or Wild Feral Bulls along the Rio Grande you will need the most rifle you can effectively shoot with all the recoil you can stand. Just fit the caliber and velocity to the game.

If you wish to use a marginal caliber be sure and use the best bullet and power cartridge available and practice so you can put the bullet where it goes. A feral hog hit in the crease behind the ear with a .22 or .17HMR within 50 yards will go down like a sledge hammer hit it. Shoot it in the shoulder with the same load and all you have done is wound an animal. It seems a lot of people want to hunt coyotes and other predators with a .22 LR or .17HMR. Those calibers will work but they are by far not the best to use. How many of us shoot everyday, once a week or even once a month and have enough skill to precisely place those calibers?  Would it not be better to hunt them with one of the fast .22 caliber centerfires that will anchor them for sure?  I have guided many self-proclaimed expert shots that must have had something wrong with their rifles or just had bad luck because they could not shoot a decent group at the target range with their guns, and missed shots at game within normal distances. It is funny but experienced guides can usually tell which clients will be able to shoot well and those who cannot. It is not some psychic sense but mostly how someone carries themselves. A truly good shooter pays attention to the guide and does not have to tell everyone what a good shot they are. The guns and scopes have been taken care of but show some wear. They carry shooting sticks or shooting bags for a rest. The rifle stock and strap fit them. The brands of ammo they carry all match and are the same bullet weight. They do not tell me their rifle was bore sighted when I ask if they checked the zero on their rifle. They don’t tell me their last kill was made at 375 or 450 or 600 yards. If you think you can shoot that far tell me how far your bullet drops at 450 yards without looking at a ballistic chart. Then tell me you have a laser range finder and trained for several months or even years in long range shooting and I might start to consider you did make that shot if you have a tactical ranging scope on your flat-shooting, well-worn, sniper rifle. Now if you can find a 400 yard range within a few hours driving time of your location go try to hit the target when you finally get time to practice. I usually smile when a hunter that tells me he can shoot the long shots tells me we need to try and get closer to a 250 yard deer.  Remember shooting off a steady rest and bench is not like making a shot in the field. If you really want to train for long range shooting go on some prairie dog hunts. It is one of the best teachers of long range shooting I know of, if you take advantage of the long range targets and learn how to hit them. Most people will be amazed at the holdover and wind drift that takes place on really long shots. I love hunting with experienced prairie dog hunters as they can buckle down and make a long shot when it counts. If you question your firearm or caliber, go shoot it awhile before the hunt and you will know if it is enough gun or maybe even too much gun. Like I always tell my hunters, you can validate your man card with the shot you make and the game you hang on the meat pole. The caliber of rifle you carry means very little about what kind of shooter you are. Good Shooting, Wild Ed