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Life off the grid in the SW Texas desert. An experiment in sustainable living. NUMBERS AT THE END OF EACH BLOG POST: temp at 8PM,high temp,low temp,rainfall,wind conditions(CalmBreezyWindyGusty). YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/c/TheFieldLab Daily live streams at https://www.youtube.com/thefieldlab/live
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- John Wells
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19 comments:
End of the day at TFL. 360° panning shot from the center of my property. Coming up on 10 years here and still not another house in sight. Don't get any ideas. I have a very strict rule...We can be friends or we can be neighbors - but we can't be both. News Theme and Dreamy Flashback by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...) Artist: http://incompetech.com/
The valley where our Mahan Hunt Camp Cabin is located - the Nine Points Mesa Draw Valley - has experienced a real boom in cabin building over the last 40 plus years. Now we can view them east, west, north, and south of us. Got where I can not even sight in my rifle off my front porch anymore! Dad placed a ring gear (from a tractor) - 100 yards out - as a sighting target many years ago. But now it lines up with another cabin. Thankfully - those neighboring cabins are still out of range of the shotguns we use to harvest our doves & quail for dinner - so we will not even think of relocating (at 81 years of age). Heck they might be needed if one of us gets injured or ill!
John ... great perspective on TFL. You live in a beautiful, quiet place.
Ron ... I get your point. I'm about to turn 70. Now and then when I get
"growing pains" I think about who I might call for a quick ride to the emergency room.
I think you are becoming happy there and accustomed to your environment, seeing the beauty and what to be grateful for.
Very pleasing view at :38
Sam Finn -- We had a beautiful 40 acre hunting tract in the west side of Cedar Springs near Chalk Draw - with tremendous views and no neighbors in sight! But the hunting was not good - because there was no natural sources of water & we did not have a water catchment located there and it was a long rough ride up there - from our Mahan Hunt Camp! So for many years we just drove up there and admired the great views - and came back to our Hunt Camp to shoot some birds to eat.
All the ranch predators such as coyotes, hawks, mountain lions, rattlesnakes, etc hunt near permanent water - because many of their prey animals require daily water. If a person wishes to hunt on the desert - they should follow the lessons taught by these animals & the local Game & Fish Dept. Professionals & purchase a tract with natural water (very rare) or build in an inexpensive water catchment. This is the recommendation of the Texas Game & Fish Dept. They have a great numbers of water catchments & guzzlers on the Elephant Mountain & Black Gap Wildlife Preserves to assist the wildlife there. And it helped reestablish the almost extinct Texas Bighorn Sheep as a viable population - on the Elephant Mountain preserve! They now have so many - they have moved some over to the Texas Big Bend State Park.
The Elephant Mountain & Black Gap "preserves" have modified the environment to accommodate big game for the primary purpose of scheduling hunts to keep them in business. They make a small fortune each year by doing a lottery called The Texas Grand Slam - raking in over a half million dollars per year. "This is truly the hunting package of a lifetime. The Texas Grand Slam offers one lucky winner four separate Texas big game hunts: desert bighorn sheep, white-tailed deer, pronghorn and desert mule deer." I don't have a problem with providing hunting opportunities on a limited basis to provide funding for these operations, but there is no honor in killing under these circumstances and it is sad that this is the best way to provide funding. Guided hunts in these situations is little more than shooting fish in a barrel. Trigger happy twits looking for an easy trophy - not needing to hunt in the wild for food to feed their families. FYI - Southern desert bighorn sheep populations have not been endangered for many years - trending upwards since the 1960s when their population was estimated at 6,700-8,100. They are adapted to a desert mountain environment with little or no permanent water. Some may go without visiting water for weeks or months, sustaining their body moisture from food and from rainwater collected in temporary rock pools. They may have the ability to lose up to 30% of their body weight and still survive. After drinking water, they quickly recover from their dehydrated condition.
Knowing my feelings on the subject of sport hunting, I would appreciate it if people would refrain from making comments about hunting unless it is specific to the blog post.
Interesting bit last summer in Borderlands News from Sul Ross on Aoudads (imported critters) and Desert Bighorn Sheep about their interaction and determining whether they compete for same food resources: http://bri.sulross.edu/pubs/borderlandsnews/BN_2016_7.pdf
As for neighbors/friends, in my long experience living around the world, I've found you often need a neighbor as a friend. Sometimes even want it.
Beautiful video, John, nicely done.
Unfortunately, it has been my experience here that my 2 closest neighbors turned out to be complete assholes...hence the rule.
My comments were mostly to encourage property owners to build water catchments & guzzlers on their desert ranch property - which greatly aids most desert animals. Your Field Lab has one of the largest water catchments on the Ranch - utilizing your very large multiple shipping container greenhouse and you also collect rainwater from the nearby dry creek - when it rains. This enables you to provide water for your personal uses and water the longhorn - and all the thirsty animals that come by for the desert gold - of rainwater. And so many bees - they recently plugged your shower pump! Therefore, I know you like to provide water for our desert wildlife friends - and so do the many property owners who have put in smaller water catchment/guzzler systems. Our Many Tinajas Club encouraged both hunting & non hunting property owners to build water catchments & guzzlers because -----------------That is an action that will help almost all of our desert wildlife!
Speaking of your neighbors, I used to follow a blog from a family near you. That blog has shut down. Did they move out?
What was the name of the blog, or the name of the blog owner? Lot's of people have blogs that I am not even aware of.
One of the most beautiful and saddest treats I had was seeing a beautiful Elk outside somewhat near the North entrance of Big Bend National Park in the middle of a beautiful night. He was majestically standing by the road (maybe by private ranch). As you know, the Elk were not wanted there anymore because they ate the plant life.
So I was going to make a joke and say, "so I shot the elk standing there", but that is not funny so I will not say it.
That is just a beautiful, sad memory of a lone fellow who might never have a mate.
----Margery ----- I believe the elk you saw may have come from the Budweiser Game Preserve on their Nine Points Mesa property. That ranch has American elk and many species of African plains animals stocked in there - but the elk get out frequently - due to inadequate fences. Those of us with property in the eastern watershed along Nine Points Mesa Draw (below Nine Points Mesa) - view them quite frequently. They are very large majestic looking animals. One even used the water catchment guzzler we had established at our formerly owned Cliff Cabin property on Nine Points Mesa Draw. ----------------------------------- The Budweiser Ranch has also damed the Nine Points Mesa Draw - creating several large lakes - so very little water comes down the Nine Points Mesa Draw anymore. And because there are no commercial livestock operations here anymore - the damming of this valuable watershed - now primarily hurts the wildlife that were formerly dependent upon this water. I suspect the local wildlife would say - "They stole our water for a bunch of foreign wildlife!" Therefore, I agree with John Wells comment - "it has been my experience here that my 2 closest neighbors turned out to be complete assholes". That Budweiser Ranch has caused a disaster for the wildlife trying to live on the watershed formerly created by water flowing from Nine Points Mesa. And this was one of the primary reasons we had to start building those water catchments - to provide more water for our local wildlife.
TY Mr. Mahan. That is very interesting.
There is a man here who roamed the Big Bend area in the early 40's from the Mathews family in Marathon. But then he went in the military and became a Col. He is retired here and legally blind now but he gets a smile on his face when that area is mentioned and likes to hear about it today.
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