It’s been a month since the big ice storm ravaged Austin. The weight of the ice caused SO MANY branches and entire trees to fall. We didn’t venture out hardly at all during the event (just to let out the chickens) as so many branches would fall like constantly! No one slept well, not just because it was cold due to no power, but because you could hear the crashes of falling branches all night :(
And meanwhile Pangea didn’t have a heat source which was scary as she really needs a heat source to stay healthy! So Rob and I took turns slipping her under our sweaters during the day. One night she slept my in my bed next to me and the next night she stayed over at our neighbor’s dad’s place as he had power so his place was warm.
You can see some of Pangea’s shell in this pic.
We had power sometimes and then it would go out again for longer. Anyhow, once we got through the storm, every day you hear chain saws and smell the piles of burning branches. We cleaned up a little of our backyard and stacked branches all the way down our long driveway, and we have waited now for a month for tree professionals to come and do the full cleanup. As these trees are mostly live oaks, they need to be immediately “painted” wherever there are fresh cuts or they will likely succumb to oak wilt. Crew is here working today and for sure our yard will look completely different. Some trees are just practically stubs!
Finally with spring we have all 3 potential laying hens laying again! Even so, we still are planning to get pullets later this spring.
The bird buddy camera continues to provide some nice pics and video, and sometimes I post them in my Instagram. Birds we’ve had visit include: Titmouse, Cardinal, Sparrows (possibly various kinds), Bluebirds, Orange-crowned Warbler, Chickadee, Lesser Goldfinch, Carolina Wren, Yellow-rumped Warbler, and House Finch.
Trail cam having a bit more action with spring too, including lots of skunk activity as well as fox, raccoon, and possum.
We’ve attended our first three classes for Texas Master Naturalist which have gone well. They usually have a couple of speakers each class who are pretty good. Topics ranged from botany to citizen science to laws and ethics. This weekend is our first field trip to Jacob’s Well.
Meanwhile, I recently prepared some more nice papers so they’re ready for dye pot printing this spring. This process is a bit of an effort as you soak in an “alum” mixture first and then dry them, and then you have to soak in soy milk baths three times and fully dry them inbetween. I saved the contents of my dye pot from last year and so I’m hoping to use it again even though there’s mold on it. Don’t think that’ll matter and starting up a new dye pot is a lot of effort. I’ll probably wait until we have more wildflowers around to start making these. So far I’ve only seen Tenpetal Anemones and beginnings of bluebonnets.
More pics below.
