Texas Spring/Summer Thread

[txdon]

Oh I would also. Can't find good window washers. My brother cleaned windows and he wouldn't do mine!
hugs, Brandi

Brandi, we found the perfect window cleaning pad. It comes with a pivoting head on a pole and the pad really does clean 20 windows in less than an hour with no streaking - simply an incredible product.

Clean outdoor windows in half the time - Windex

 

[two_bit_score]

Since FG19's rain dances aren't making much rain have you guys ever tried grillin meat? That usually brings a rain around here from nowhere. Beautiful day here today but about the time the grill was hot I heard thunder out front and could see it getting dark. Went to the front porch and could see rain falling from the sky just north of here. We were lucky for the next 12 minutes and got the meat cooked. Everything else from the garden. We love eating stuff from our garden. We haven't been to the store for 3 weeks now. Have to go soon, getting low on TP.
Ron

Great looking steak and 'maters.

 

[two_bit_score]

That's what I've read and been told. And it does seem that the horned toads and big red ants all disappeared about the same time.



I don't think I'd heard that before, but it sounds likely. I know I've not seen a tick in years; and never saw any when we lived in Navarro County, but we sure had lots of fire ants. I've also read that fire ants are actually good for cotton crops because they eat boll weevils.

I heard fire ants eat termites.

 

[bindian]

There's another one I missed :confused3:
Please explain.
Ron

Ron,
Here is the link for cornmeal algae control. I only use it in the summer months. Homemade Algaecide | eHow
The pond dye I use I get at TSC.
hugs, Brandi

 

[bindian]

When was the last time anyone saw a horned toad? I could've asked when was the last time you saw a jackrabbit but I saw one last week. First one since early 90's.

Back in 1997, the Panhandle was covered in them. My kids and I didn't know they were illegal to keep and travel with. We bought home about 15 and fed them fire ants. We kept them in an aquarium with about 3 inches of sandy dirt. Each night they huckered down with just their eyes above the sand. I think we feed them small crickets also. A few died off and the kids took the rest to my ex MIL's lakehouse to turn loose. I gather Texas Horny Toads are illegal to have or transfer, but Arizona Horny Toads can be sold.

The hundred of acres of grass at Hobby Airport have hundreds and hundreds of jackrabbits. My supervisor hit one on the service road from the hangar to the terminal. I made a sign with a crude rabbit on it with a RED line through the rabbit and posted the sign near where he hit the jack. That sign didn't last long.
hugs, Brandi

 

[bindian]

Brandi, we found the perfect window cleaning pad. It comes with a pivoting head on a pole and the pad really does clean 20 windows in less than an hour with no streaking - simply an incredible product.

Clean outdoor windows in half the time - Windex

Thanks Don. I usually just wait to I pressure wash everything and wash them then.
hugs, Brandi

 

[Lou66]

I have many fire ants.. send Horny Toads ,, they can have their way on my land.:confused3::shocked::laughing:. Lou

 

[blueriver]

A guy asked me if my hay was "certified fire ant free" I says .. What? He told me last yr he bought some hay in Louisiana and just over the line in Arkansas he got stopped and asked for his papers to verify fire ant free they made him return the hay.

So, I investigated and sure enough there are fire ant quarantined areas .. You can transport in the area but if you haul outside the area you must provide documentation of "certified fire ant free"

Ok dept of Ag inspected my hay storage set fire any traps and provided me with a stamp of my farm number to put on the paperwork "certified fire ant free"

 

[farmgirl19]

You got a rain guage like the blue one on my back porch in earlier post? Here's wishing ya a good soaking.

I don't have one of those blue, sophisticated gauges like yours, robby, but my old fashioned one out in the front looks like I got 0.6" of rain, last night. Had to take the flashlight out to look at it. Just glancing over things using the flashlight, I don't see any roofs from barns or sheds, so maybe I avoided the damage. When the rain first began falling, I think what I was seeing was actually hitting the ground in Eastland, as it was coming "down" completely horizontal. I was glad when those winds died a bit. I'll get a chance to look things over a little better, at sunup, right before I leave for work.

Getting better than a half inch of rain, the second week of August sure is great! Maybe I'll grow some more pastures. It might be too late for anyone to get another baling of hay.

 

[farmgirl19]

A guy asked me if my hay was "certified fire ant free" I says .. What? He told me last yr he bought some hay in Louisiana and just over the line in Arkansas he got stopped and asked for his papers to verify fire ant free they made him return the hay.

So, I investigated and sure enough there are fire ant quarantined areas .. You can transport in the area but if you haul outside the area you must provide documentation of "certified fire ant free"

Ok dept of Ag inspected my hay storage set fire any traps and provided me with a stamp of my farm number to put on the paperwork "certified fire ant free"

That is the first that I have heard about that, but it makes sense, I guess. The fire ants are going to continue to migrate, but maybe some vigilence will slow them down. It should make your hay a better commodity for those in the fire ant free zones, with you having the certification.

 

[Bird]

Brandi, we found the perfect window cleaning pad. It comes with a pivoting head on a pole and the pad really does clean 20 windows in less than an hour with no streaking - simply an incredible product.

Clean outdoor windows in half the time - Windex

Don, I hadn't seen that product. I do the outside of our windows while my wife does the inside and we use Invisible Glass glass cleaner and blue shop towels. Walmart has the Invisible Glass in the automotive section instead of the household products section. Of course I use the same thing on the car windows, and I prefer the aerosol version.

 

[txdon]

Bird Invisible glass is excellent but time consuming. This is FAST, if one is on the hose and the other on the swivel pole - 15 sec a window. The taking off and on the screens takes longer. It has some kind of sheathing action that leaves no spots on the rinse. The pole reaches high enough, or over bushes, that you don't have to move a ladder or step stool around.

 

[Bird]

Bird Invisible glass is excellent but time consuming. This is FAST, if one is on the hose and the other on the swivel pole - 15 sec a window. The taking off and on the screens takes longer. It has some kind of sheathing action that leaves no spots on the rinse. The pole reaches high enough, or over bushes, that you don't have to move a ladder or step stool around.

I guess maybe I need to give that a try.

 

[jinman]

I just googled images of hornets and didn't see any like I described in earlier post. So, if it's the size of a small hummingbird, very loud, by itself, and usually hovering about three or four feet above the ground, then what is it?

The biggest hornets at my place are these cicada killer wasps. They are huge and buzz the ground about 2' to 4' above. They look frightening, but this story from The Atlantic tells the whole truth. They are huge fascinating animals and fun to watch when they are dragging a cicada back to their tunnels. They sure can get your attention when you are picking peas and they buzz you. They're louder than a bumble bee.

 

[jinman]

We were lucky for the next 12 minutes and got the meat cooked. Everything else from the garden. We love eating stuff from our garden. . . Ron

Are you growing your own iceberg lettuce? I've grown leaf lettuce, but never had success with iceberg.

When was the last time anyone saw a horned toad?

I saw a horned toad scamper off the gravel road about 2 weeks ago. At first I thought it was a tree lizard and then noticed it's short wide body as it headed into the grass. I'd love to see more of them. My theory is that they were wiped out by fire ants because fire ants are everywhere while insecticides and herbicides are not. On the place I grew up we had tons of horned toads while my uncle and dad used DDT around their barns and other insecticides also in the '50s and '60s. There were horned toads everywhere. Then, in the '70s thru '90s, the fire ant invasion happened and the horned toads disappeared at a time that almost no insecticides were being used on our place. The quail disappeared and the dove, kildeer, and pigeon populations also seemed to be decreased. Right now, I have several red ant beds on my place and I won't mess with them because I hope it encourages horned toads. They are something I've always loved and really hate to see them disappear.

 

[pacerron]

Are you growing your own iceberg lettuce? I've grown leaf lettuce, but never had success with iceberg.

No lettuce. The green stuff you see in the pic on the tomatoes and in a bowl is shaved cucumbers.
We call them Hungarian cucumbers since my wife's grandparents were immigrants from Hungary and her grandmother always made them that way. There are fancy Americanized recipe's for Hungarian cucumbers but these are very basic.
Just shaved cucumbers with salt on them. Let set for 20-30 minutes. Squeeze the water out and add a little mayo.
We had corn too but eat it last. She wraps it in plastic wrap and cooks in the microwave for a short time. Keeps all the flavor in.
Ron

 

[pacerron]

Speaking of basics. It is always said:, "you can hold a ton on a string if you apply it slow enough."
We went to the pond this morning with some old, used, nylon baling twine, a milk jug, and a rag with a little
copper sulfate in it. I got on the end of the dam and my wife unrolled the cord out to the opposite side. She tied the milk jug and bag on in about the middle. We raised it up and walked toward the other end. When we got to where the floating stuff was we let the bottle and rag down into the water and started dragging it toward the other end. It kept getting
harder to pull as the mat was being collected by the string. Finally had to go back and get leather gloves for both of us so the twine didn't cut our hands. When we got to the other end we came together and a massive amount of weed was collected along the string like collecting an oil spill. So back for rakes, pitchfork, and the tractor while she got in the edge and started throwing the stuff up on the bank. Then I put it in the loader by the pitchfork full.
She had her walkie-talkie in her well endowed T-shirt pocket and it skied out into the water. But we found it. Letting it dry in the sun but it probably is shot.
The loader bucket is 6 feet wide x 32" deep so quite a haul on a little piece of twine.
I have some 1/2" or bigger nylon rope around here somewhere. I think we will "belay" the ends, one to the tractor and one to the little green deere. She can drive the deere across the dam as I move slowly along the other side with the tractor.
Probably tie 2-3 milk jugs on the line to keep it slightly submerged. A few trips that way should get rid of a lot of the weed without using chemicals.:thumbsup:
Ron

 

[jinman]

A guy asked me if my hay was "certified fire ant free" I says .. What? He told me last yr he bought some hay in Louisiana and just over the line in Arkansas he got stopped and asked for his papers to verify fire ant free they made him return the hay.

So, I investigated and sure enough there are fire ant quarantined areas .. You can transport in the area but if you haul outside the area you must provide documentation of "certified fire ant free"

Ok dept of Ag inspected my hay storage set fire any traps and provided me with a stamp of my farm number to put on the paperwork "certified fire ant free"

I've heard of blister-bug free, but never fire-ant free. Blister-bugs in hay will kill animals whether alive or dead. Surely, they mean live fire ants instead of dead ones. I don't know how you'd every guarantee a few dead fire ants weren't in the hay.

 

[Bird]

I had a friend and co-worker who had a lakeshore house, pier, and boathouse. He said the weeds, reeds, etc. got pretty bad along the shoreline one year and he got an old bedspring, tied a rope to it, hauled it out a little ways in the boat, dumped it into the water, then pulled it to the shore. He said it cleaned up the vegetation very well.

 

[Lou66]

I could never pass fire ant free hay.. I doubt anyone along the gulf coast could.. unless they have some special blend of ant killer,, I know that a good fertilizer like 26-3-3 will keep them down for a while.. but next month they are back.. Lou