Interesting rock

Mike and I set off for our walk this morning and we stopped and picked up Blue as usual on our way to Pebble Beach.  We were walking along as normal with the dogs about 50 feet in front of me and coming back to check on why I am so slow every once in a while.  Suddenly both dogs stopped and I kept walking until I got about 10 feet from them and then I stopped.  Blue came back and went behind me about 10 feet and Mike stayed there and was looking at something off to the right.  Then Mike cocked his right front foot up like he was a professional hunter and pointed.  Then he took off into the brush and then a big boar came out and run across the road in front of me.  I yelled at Mike and he came back.  Blue came up to me as if he wanted to know if it was gone yet.  He was remembering the encounter he had a few weeks ago at the dump and he didn't want another one.  We walked on down to the river without further incident.

I did find an interesting rock at Pebble Beach.

When we first starting finding rocks like this, we thought that we had found something made by the Indians because of the unusual markings.  We have since learned that the markings are fossils.

If you click on the image you will be able to see the imprint of a shell in a couple of places on the rock.  I am not sure what the rest of it is or means.  Anyhow, it is another interesting rock for my collection.

Finally a picture of the pigs

Mike and I set off for our walk this morning and just as I turned down the road behind my house towards Four Corners, there they were.

Mike ran up to them and came back when he decided they didn't want to play like other dog.  A few seconds later Mike was barking at something down in New Valley.

It seems like they are getting tamer.  There was a time when they wouldn't hang around anytime when they saw a human or a dog.  It was almost like these were willing to pose for me.

Water Treatment Plant

For those of you who have been here and are familiar with the old Water Treatment Plant on Blue Wing Rd., with the strong odor as you go past, I thought you would be interested in seeing it as it is today.

This is a picture of where the old tanks used to be.  They have it almost complete torn down and filled in.  The story is that they are going to make a park out of the place.  I hope so.

Muddy Walk

We got some rain from Huricane Dolly and the roads have been too bad for walking for the past two days except for the driveways and that isn't very exciting or fun.  I couldn't stand it any longer and neither could Mike so we got out this morning and went for a walk.  It wasn't too bad and the mud will dry and shake off the soles of my shoes and Mike is light enough on his feet so he didn't even get muddy.

I was a cactus blooming that I haven't seen for several years.  I saw a cactus like this one blooming the day I heard about Gerlinde passing away and I named it after her.  I am not sure what happened to Gerlinde's cactus because I haven't seen it in over a year.  Maybe this one will take the other's place.

We didn't see any pigs but we sure saw evidence of them all over the road.  This low place in the road has to be one of their favorite places after a rain.

Mike thinks he is a hunting dog.  The trouble with him is that within a few minutes he will find something else that captures his attention and he loses the scent.  He is still a puppy and he sure likes to get out and explore.

Hummingbird

Last evening was a good one for watching the little Hummers.  They were all over the place drinking and hovering and chasing each other.  They are a  joy to watch.  I caught this little one coming in for a landing.

He had a little sample.

Then he decided that it was good stuff and he would have a seat and stick around for awhile.

Ahh, that is refreshing.  He needed to take a break and let it go down the old windpipes.

Moon

I have been watching the Discovery channel's series on Leaving the Earth or something like that.  It is the story of the space race between the US and the USSR.  Very interesting and of course it talks a lot about our moon landings.  So I get up this morning and walk out to get Mike and go for our walk and I look up and there is the moon.

It was nice to be able to see the moon against the light blue sky of an early morning in Texas and to think that man walked on the moon and came home.

Hurricane Dolly has hit south Texas and has gone inland so it will soon die down.  We are hopeful of getting a few inches of rain out of it but we have had nothing yet.  Now understand we don't want a lot, just one or two inches.  Maybe later this evening or tomorrow.

Wild Turkey and Raccoon

I got ready to go for a walk early this morning because it was so nice and cool outside.  I think it was cooler outside that it was inside early this morning about sunup.  Anyhow, Mike wasn't anywhere around again.  I think he and Blue and Mosquito take off on their own walks early in the morning.  I left anyhow and went towards Pebble Beach.  Mike caught up with me when I reached the cul de sac.  He got his swim and then on the way back I noticed this wild Turkey feather.  This is the second one that I have found in the last month so they must be nesting down there somewhere.

After we got back home, I decided to take another walk and see if I couldn't find some wild pigs.  So I grabbed my camera and my gun and headed out.  But just as I walked out the door, I saw Mike playing with something in the dirt.  I got him to spit it out and it was a baby lizard.  He was catching it and tossing it and then catching it again.  I made him leave it alone.  I am worried that one of these days he is going to try and play with a snake.  He wants to play with anything that moves.  Oh well, hopefully God is watching over him.

We headed on down towards the picnic area and just behind my house, I saw something in the road.  We got up to it and it was a dead raccoon.

I knew that we had raccoons here but I had never seen one.  I am not sure what killed this one.  Mike wanted it but I led him away and then tossed it off the road.  I am sure the buzzards will have a meal.

The rest of the walk was uneventful and we didn't see any pigs.  At least Mike and I got our exercise in for the day.

4 pigs but no picture

Mike and I walked down to Pebble Beach this morning by ourselves.  Blue was not to be found when we went passed his house.  It was kinda boring for Mike without someone to chase and play with.  He tried to get me to chase him but I wasn't going into those high weeds.  On the way back, we found Blue and he was all wet so Mosquito and him must have been down at the river someplace.

Later in the morning Mike and walked down to the dump and it was uneventful on the way down but coming back we saw two pigs on the side of the road.  They were medium size and I had my camera ready but they were too fast for me.  As soon as they saw me, they hit the brush and were gone.  Mike went after them a little ways and then saw something he didn't like and turned around and came back.  We walked on down to the picnic area and on the road down, we saw two more pigs.  Again I had my camera ready and I got a shot of at least one of them but I am not going to post it because you wouldn't be able to see it.  I have to zoom in on it and lighten it and then I can only see it because I know it is there.  You would not be able to see it with the low resolution on the blog.  I will get a clear picture one of these days.

Rio Grande

I got up this morning about 6:00 and let Mike out.  About 7:00 I went outside to go for our walk and he was already out walking with Mosquito and Blue.  They looked like they were having a good time so I let them go by themselves and I came in and checked my email.  About 7:30 I went out and Mike was back so we went down to Pebble Beach.  We picked up Blue along the way and they really had a good time this morning.  They were chasing each other and playing and just having a great time.

On the way home I say some more of the Rio Grande spawning places.  These were just to the right of the island where we saw the buzzards a couple of weeks ago.

They might be some of the fish that were at the picnic area a few weeks ago and got washed down with the flood.  I was too far away to see them close so I didn't recognize any of them and I don't think they saw me up on the bank.

Egret and Swimming

We had a nice walk down to Pebble Beach this morning.  As we were walking down to the beach, Blue took off and started barking so I got my camera ready to see if I could capture what he was stirring up.  It must have been this white Egret you can see in the middle of the picture.

After all that excitement, Mike and Blue went for a swim.

Before we left to come back home, they both took off someplace out of my sight and came back all muddy with the gray river mud.  I told them to go wash off and Mike got back in but Blue decided that he liked being muddy and so we came home.

Morning walk with a pig

Mike and I went for our walk this morning.  I stopped by the picnic area first.  Almost every morning when I approach the bank there is this huge crane type bird that flies off down the river.  Now I try to be ready with my camera but every time I have my camera ready the bird is not there.  Go figure.

 

I also checked on the Rio Grandes that were spawning.  You can see them again now that he river is down but the water is still a little muddy so you can't see them to well in this picture.  I was surprised to see them after the little flood we had down there.  Maybe they are different fish.  I didn't see any that I recognized from the last time and none of them jumped out of the water to say HI.

We continued our walk towards Jackie's house when I heard a grunt off to my right.  Mike heard it too and he started toward the brush but he didn't go very far.  I could look through the brush and see a big black pig.  It must have weighed at least 200 lbs.  I took a picture but it came out blurry.  You can barely make out something black in the center of the photo.

One of these days I will get a clear shot of one of them.

This is a path they follow to go back and forth from the Salado Creek to the area behind the dump where they like to hang out.

White flowers

First, I am sorry that I haven't posted for a few days.  I have been busy scanning and posting old pictures to another blog.  These are old pictures of my family and I wanted to get them in a blog so other family members could share them.

I have been walking everyday but it has been very slow as far as interesting things to see.  Sometimes it goes like that and it is a good thing.  After all I don't want to see snakes everyday or buzzards eating on something.

I have noticed these pretty white flowers the past few days.  They fold up at night so all you see in a green stem and then they start to open as the sun comes up and then they stay open all day.  When they start to open in the mornings they have this pink shade to the outer side of the flower.  They are all over the roads on the ranch.

This is when they start to open in the mornings.

This is them fully open.

Pigeon

We went out for our walk this morning even if the roads were muddy.  We both needed the exercise.  When we got down to Four Corners, Mike scared up a Pigeon that was sitting on the road.  He flew up into a tree and acted like he wanted his picture taken so I obliged him.

After I took his picture, I noticed that he was roosting directly over the road where I was fixin' to walk down.  I didn't want him using me for target practice so I shouted and that did the trick and he flew off.  Doesn't he look like he was waiting for me?

We went on down to the Picnic area and of course the river is up from all the rain and it is muddy.  I think it is interesting how the San Antonio River and Salado Creek merge there and you can see the difference in the color of the water as they come together.  The Salado is normally muddier that the San Antonio.  Hopefully you can see the difference in the picture.

 

So we had a nice walk and I got my shoes all muddy but they scraped off and as soon as the mud dries, I'll be able to shake the rest of it off and be ready for another day.

Egret

I saw this white Egret this morning on our walk.  They are such pretty birds and especially when they are flying along following the course of the river.  They are hard to get a picture of when they are flying but I will keep trying.  I wish I knew how to manually focus my camera.  It wants to auto focus on things I don't want to focus on.  Oh well, you get the idea.  You can see his/her reflection in the water.

Hummingbirds

Yesterday morning I was standing at my front window and I saw four Hummingbirds at the two feeders on my front porch and two more Hummingbirds at the feeder under the tree in my front yard and three more that were hovering around the feeders on the porch, ALL AT THE SAME TIME.  That is 13 Hummingbirds all at once.  For those of you who are familiar with Hummingbirds, you know how rare that is to see that many at once and then to see four of them on one feeder and even four on two feeders at once.  It was amazing.  Of course I couldn't be anywhere fast enough to find my camera and get a picture of all that.  But this afternoon I was watching TV and I saw four of them on one feeder and I had my camera ready this time.  It is not a real good picture because I had to take it through the window and the screen but you can see all four of them either already on the feeder or getting ready to eat.

 

River and Pigs

The river is down from the little that it rose last week. You can see where the river reached its highest point on the far bank from Picnic Area.

It was so calm and peaceful down there this morning.  The birds were singing and the skies were a pretty blue.  I took this picture because I liked the way the old dead tree's image was reflected in the river and I wanted to share it with all of you readers.

Now I know that the regular readers know that I talk about the wild pigs and maybe some of you are starting to doubt me since all I ever seem to do is talk about them and we can't seem to catch one or even take a picture of one.  Well, for all the hunters or trackers out there, here is some proof.  For those that don't hunt or track, this is a pig track and you can't really tell from the picture but it is a good size one.  One of these days I will take a picture of one, dead or alive.

Rain

Well, we finally got a little rain here yesterday.  I am guessing that we got maybe a 1/2 inch of rain here at the houses.  But it must have rained someplace up north over the rivers or maybe they just opened the flood gates in San Antonio so that the downtown Riverwalk doesn't flood.  Any how the river is up.  I took this picture on July 1st.

And I took this picture this morning, July 4th from about the same spot.

Of course the river is muddy now and we are getting all the souvenirs that people were so kind to leave laying around like, cups, cans and bottles.  People are so nice, aren't they.  I love it when I go to a historical site and see where someone was nice enough to carve their name on a wall or anything else telling me that they had been there.  I just wish they would have included their address or telephone number so the cops could show their appreciation.  Oh well, I will get off my soap box and enjoy the rest of the day.  I hope everyone has a great July 4th.

San Antonio River Authority

Jack and I met with a representative from the San Antonio River Authority this afternoon.  Jack had Margaret call them because he wanted them to come out and take a look at the river and all the moss and alga that was growing in it.  He looked at it and took some samples and some measurements of the oxygen levels, pH, temperature and several other things.  He said it was normal for this time of year without any rain.  Everything was fine and all we needed was some rain.  It looks like we might get some rain sometime this week.  They are forecasting a 20% chance of rain everyday.  It is clouding up outside right now and it smells like rain.  What a wonderful smell.

Anyhow while we were down at the picnic area, Jack asked him about the round places in the river.

There was one place that looked like a B-52 came through there.  He told us that it was the spawning grounds of Rio Grande Perch.

 

There was one fish in each of the round places.  They look a lot bigger in the picture than they really are, they are only about 3 or 4 inches long.

Well, I was hoping that I was going to be able to tell you it started raining before closing for the day but it doesn't look like I am going to be able to say it.  It is getting a little dark in the clouds and the wind is picking up but no rain.  Maybe I will have some good news tomorrow.