Texas Metal Tanks Wildlife Waterer

Several weeks ago, I ordered a Wildlife Waterer from Texas Metal Tanks.  The tank itself is a 90 gallons and measures 30" in diameter by 33" tall.  On top of the tank is essentially a 6' cone to collect rain.  Additionally, it comes with a tank screen that goes into the bottom of the cone (TASS20 from rainwaterharvesting.com) and a galvanized water dish with shut off float (Pet Lodge PW13).

The company that made the waterer is in Dripping Springs.  Considering the size, it would cost $275 to ship it so I made the 2.5 hour drive to go pick it up today.  

There was a hose that came with the setup to connect the large tank to the watering pan but it was only 2' long.  I'll need to get another as I plan to have the tank quite a way from the pan.  I'd like the tank out of the way so that it is not in the way of shooting with the pan in the feeding pen so that hogs will not destroy it.

I also need to come up with a way to fasten the cone to the tank.  The company provided several 2" screws to screw it down to a flange on top of the tank.  This would work but they couldn't be very tight or they would distort the shape of the cone.  I'm going to try to come up with another option.

The last thing I need to do is put a fence up around the waterer so that hog does not try to rub against it and push the whole thing over.  A 16' hog panel is 5' in diameter when formed into a circle which should work.  I have a spare panel I can use and will just need a few T-posts to secure it to the ground.  

Lastly, I need to level the ground so that it is sitting perfectly flat as when full it will have 720 lbs of water inside.

More Brush Burning on North East Corner

In 2018, I used a skid steer to do some clearing at the properly which resulted in a burn pile in the north east corner.  That pile has now sat in that location for five years.  Yesterday, I started the pile on fire.  I made about eight trips to pick up bits of yaupon I pulled back in November and burned it on top of the pile.

This is what the burn pile looked like when I finished clearing on April 16, 2018.

The following picture is from yesterday morning right after I started the pile on fire.  Over the five years, some of it broke down which made burning it a little easier.  However, the big pieces that remained at the bottom are all oak.

The following picture is after the pile burned overnight.  Despite the heavy rain storm, the fire kept going and was burning still this morning.  There were parts of two stumps left and that is essentially it.  After five years, I'm glad this pile is now burned.

North Fence Work and Relocation (Part 2)

I've been slowly doing some work on the north fence line.  Many years ago, the neighbor ran fencing around his property by wrapping it around trees.  The trees did not perfectly follow the property line so there are some areas where it runs onto my property.  The fencing is so old that it has become part of the trees so moving it isn't that easy.  To this point, I've largely just moved existing T-posts over without touching any trees.

I storm came through recently which blew down several trees.  Some of those were coincidentally on the property line and had the fence grown into them.  I took the opportunity to remove the fence from these trees so it was not damaged (long process), cut down two of the trees, and then moved the fence closer to the proper spot.  

The challenge now is that there is a power pole that is near the property line.  One of the guy wires that hold it into place crosses over the property line.  In order to move the fence, I'd need to come up with some way to deal with this area.  Additionally, I wanted to install some field fence which would not work out too well with the guy wire the way it is.  While this is still something to consider later, I made some excellent progress today.  

Unfortunately, toward the end of this day, I was feeling horrible.  I probably should not have worked as I wasn't feeling that well to start with.  I found out a couple of days later that I had COVID.  

Fox at the Cabin

 After almost a good week of working at the cabin, I happened to notice a hole in the ground near the cabin.  Upon closer inspection, it appears to be a fox hole.  I can't imagine the fox would still visit it after all the noise I've made for a week straight, but I put up a game camera to see if the fox stops by.

The hole is about 8-10" in diameter and angles down at about 45 degrees.  When it is just about 24" into the ground, it appears to turn left.  In the picture below, I included a glove by the hole for comparion purposes.  The second picture shows how close the fox hole is to the cabin.  

I'll update this post more if I can catch a few pictures of the fox with the game camera.

Fox Dens | All You Need To Know - All Things Foxes

Addressing a Railroad Tie Fence Post

On the east side of the property, the majority of the property line is fenced rather nicely.  There are four runs of barbed wire with black pipe corners like at the front of the property near the cabin.  The one exception is on the south side of that property line.  The new fencing just ends at the black pipe H shown below.  Beyond that, is an old railroad tie and some really old barb wire that runs to the corner of the property which is marked by an oak tree.

The area between the railroad tie and the tree marking the corner was massively overgrown.  While I had the excavator, I cleared the brush from that area so that I could get this area of fencing improved.  While clearing, I decided to go ahead and pull the railroad tie as it was angled such that it would block me continuing the fencing down the side with the standard black piping.  

Pulling the railroad tie required that I disconnect the neighbor's fence but it's a rusted and broken mess so anything I did would end up an improvement.  That was two weeks ago and today I finished the job by putting the railroad tie back in the ground but a couple of inches over so I could continue the metal piping.  The railroad tie is also now straight up and down.  I fastened the neighbor's old fence back to it better than before.  I want to keep it so that he connects any future fencing to it rather than my fence piping. 

North Fence Work and Relocation

This weekend and last I spent a little time working on the north fence line.  This is one area where the neighbor's fence is actually on my property.  I'd like to put up a better fence but I need to get this one straightened up so the new fence is placed properly.  This is a bit of a task as the neighbor ran this 20 years ago and mainly wrapped it around trees approximating the property lines.  Over the years, it has grown into the trees and has sunk into the dirt.

This first picture is from last weekend before I really started doing much work.

The following is from this weekend a little more than half way through the day.

This is then one of the last pictures I took looking back from a different direction.

 

Buffalo or Blue Grama Grass

The picture below is of the grass that was predominantly growing on the property until the massive drought last year.  I'd like to buy some of the same type grass seed to get grass growing in some areas where I disturbed the soil.  I used a cell phone app to find out what type of grass this is and the app indicated it was Blue Grama.  As I researched more, I found that Blue Grama and Buffalograss look very similar except for their growth habits.  Blue Grama grows in clusters where Buffalograss grows more as tuff.  This means I'll be ordering a little Buffalograss seed when the spring arrives.