The Outside Thread

[Ecurb Noselrub]

5 Best Drives in Texas, according to me:

1. FM 170 from Lajitas to Presidio, right along the Rio Grande, through mountains;

2.  Panther Junction to the Chisos Mt. Basis, Big Bend National Park;

3. Willow City Loop between Fredericksburg and Llano;

4. Texas 118 through Davis Mountains State Park; and

5. The River Road up the Guadalupe River from New Braunfels.

Honorable Mention for Bikers:  FM 337 from Medina to Vanderpool.

[billy rubin]

You should give your kids a book called Following the Wild Bees by Thomas Seeley. If you have a pollinator plantation I imagine your family would be interested in how far the bees are coming to reach The Oasis.

^^^this book just arrived.

magnificent.

high quality paper and biniding, even if its soft cover. colour plates, also of high quality. a mix of history, lyricism, and old school scientific references.

an excellent book.

i'm familiar with the subject matter of lining bee trees, but that sort of esoteric art is rare to see compiled in one place, esp[ecially with beekeeping.

beekeepers are th e prime example of where the academic and litererature sources are wrong, because the beekleepers dont talk or write about what they do. as a former queen breeder, i know this first hand.
\

seeley's book makes me want to have pursued entomology instead of all the weird stuff i ended up doing in my life

[jumbojak]

I'm glad you like it Billy. When you're done with that one I highly recommend Dirt: The Ecstatic Skin of the Earth by William Bryant Logan. More underneath than outside but a highly informative work.

[jumbojak]

I crept in on these turkeys today.



Crested a small hill and saw four hens with thirteen poults. I crawled in about thirty yards for this photo and managed another twenty before they moved on.

I also found this today.



I can't be sure it's not a track from a large housecat but I hope it's from a bobcat. There's a wet spot in the back of the farm that has seen a lot of traffic.

[Bad Penny II]

I've a pair of whip birds in my back yard, I haven't seen them.
I hear them all the time on walks, if I've ever seen one I didn't recognise it as a whip bird.
The bell birds in the clip are pretty cool too.
Just briefly there's a black cockatoo, sounding like how I imagine a teradactyl would sound, I love those guys, they just float.

There were three wallabies in the back yard, a little one just poking its head out for a moment.
We always had wallabies but the fires took them, I hope these ones stick around.

[jumbojak]

Are wallabies a burrowing animal?

[jumbojak]

Saturday is the first day of muzzleloader season this year. I had taken off work for a competition but busted a rib earlier this week. So it looks like I'll be going hunting instead.

My brother and I got our rifles sighted in yesterday, broken neck and all.



That's a PVC tube with three set screws for positioning on his scope that was glued to an old phone case. Hopefully it all works well for him from a stand.

If I'm unsuccessful hunting I think I'm going fishing. Striper season is in full swing and I might find some redfish if I play my cards right. Who knows, if I get a deer I might just go fishing too.

[billy rubin]

^^^ shooting with a broken neck? this reminds me of when i was sixteen years and fell down on my motorcycle and broke my hand.

they put my arm in a cast that immobilized my wrist and i couldn't use the throttle on it anymore. so i smashed the plaster at the wrist part of the cast so i could use the throttle and lived happily ever after, with the bent hand i have now

lol

[jumbojak]

Opening day is opening day. I had him set up with a crossbow for archery season but the 150 pound pull was too much.

[billy rubin]

you ar both insane.

[jumbojak]

Possibly, yes. Quite possibly, in face. Last weekend he went down to an ocean pier to see what the brace would let him do. He cought 89 bluefish and Spanish mackerel. Spent a fair amount of time helping a group of retired women figure things out too. They tried fishing plugs but we're going for a steady retrieve.

You have to catch the incoming wave of predators and work the plug right in front of them. Either that or chuck live bait and hope that they don't just take half of it and in the midst of a feeding frenzy live bait is hard to catch.

He did have a blue stolen by a king mackerel as he was reeling it in.

[Bad Penny II]

Are wallabies a burrowing animal?

I don't think so, they don't seem built for digging.  They have small forelimbs and  large, probably awkward back legs.

Some are known to use wombat burrows at times.

https://theconversation.com/tales-of-wombat-heroes-have-gone-viral-unfortunately-theyre-not-true-129891

[jumbojak]

I'm imagining a wombat being a groundhog on steroids. They look similar but the wombat is ten times the size.

[jumbojak]

Not a lot of action on the river today but I brought home one big red.

[Magdalena]

^^^
Nice!