Still Dry!

It's been 5 weeks since there was measurable rain in the rain gauge and the 10 day forecast is for zero rain.

The pumpkin patch is a bust.  The few that grew are rotten and eaten up with bugs.

The four fields planted with brassica are very different.  This one had very little germination and not much in the way of weeds either.

This one is about 1/2 germinated but there are a lot of weeds.

This is the soybean field that I broadcast brassica into.  It has a fair amount of germination but needs rain.

And the orchard field came in with stripes.  But very good in the stripes.

It had both oats and brassica and has been getting browsed.

I thought they were mainly after the oats but on closer examination, they like one of the varieties of brassica at this stage.

Poop of the week in the brassica.

Meanwhile, this is what one of the clover fields looks like - getting burned out.

Orchard field brassicas look good.

From the porch one evening - have had up to 11 in the field before dark.

I decided to replace the main field mock scrape/licking branch.

Old one out.

New one in.

First night - some curious visitors.

The atv is back so I did some spraying.  It's not the optimal time of year for spraying but I feel the need to do something to knock back grass and weeds in the burned up clover patches.

Perfect morning for it - no wind.  And cooler weather coming up.

I did some 200 yard shooting from sticks while sitting.

Feeling pretty good banging iron from that distance.

I even shot the buffalo in the heart.

The butterflies, weeds and flowers don't seem to notice the drought.

Persimmon.

About 8' tall ironweed.

Coyotes.

Turkeys.

With poults.

Fawns still in spots.

And not weaned.

The chores never end.

Grass in the clover.

I've watered the trees in the orchard three times.  Have already lost two cherry trees.

30-06 Prep for Elk Hunt

I'm headed back to New Mexico this year so I need to be sure more 30-06 is dialed in.  I'd like to be 1.75" high at 100 yards which should put me right on at 200 yards.  

When I was evaluating loads recently, I was zeroed at 100. So the first thing I did was dial in 7 clicks up and shot a 3 shot group.  I was left so I dialed in 5 to the right and shot 3 more. Looked pretty good.

So I let it cool and then shot a 5 shot group from 100 yards.  Pretty good.

So I moved back to the porch which is 217 yards.

Zero seemed about right.

So I banged iron 3 times and called it good.

Dusty started work on some driveway maintenance this week.

I still had a couple of the original metal culverts that were starting to collapse.

He replaced them.

This is Dusty.

Seems like a good job.

He also fixed my tractor ramp by the gate.

We have had zero measurable rain this month.  The last good rain was July 19.

The pond is getting low.

In this food plot, it is burnt out under the trees where the trees have sucked up any available water.

But the rest of the plot is overrun with grass and weeds.  My sprayer is still down so I went ahead and mowed them - not recommended in dry hot weather but I couldn't let them go to seed.

The brassica that I planted has spotty germination - the orchard field is best.

I had also put some oats in and it looks like there are some oats up too.

The upper pond field is spotty with weeds.

But it shows some oats too.

Below the pond is very sparse - mostly bare dirt.

But if you look closely you can still see blue dots of seed sitting there.  With rain, there is still a chance but there is none in the 10 day forecast.

In the main field where I had heavily browsed soybeans, I just over seeded with brassica without tillage. There is a surprising amount of germination despite the lack of rain.

The soybeans are hard to find out there.

Where they exist, they've been mowed down.

The driveway remains the best clover plot.

I don't particularly like thistles but they do attract butterflies.

I've seen this graphic on Facebook and think it's interesting.

One of my mineral sites is surprisingly under-utilized.

The prairie plot warm season grass seems to be doing well.

Poop of the week amongst the burned out clover.

A few more trailcams from the grandkid visit last week.

I hadn't checked this camera in about a month.  It had coyotes.

And a bobcat.

This one showed a coyote slipping thru the electric fence at the orchard.  For the second week in a row, I hand watered those trees.

This is a really cool hawk photo.

Several young bucks out and about.

Look at body size difference here.

And still lots of spotted fawn activity.

The turkeys are busy too.

I startled a big group off the roost on one of my walks.

The poults are growing up.

And they are enjoying my planted seed.