Monthly Archives: March 2010

March 4, 2010 · 7:39 pm

The Blue Sign

Blue Sign on Pasture Gate, TSCRA

One of the protective aspects for livestock in Texas and the Southwest is the familiar TSCRA blue sign. Texas and Oklahoma are divided into districts with a special ranger from TSCRA chasing down rustlers and thieves that pinch off everything from one cow to a whole herd. I have these signs on all my pasture gates that front a public road. Rustlers admit that they try and stay clear of places with the blue sign, but it doesn’t always work. Recent letters to The Cattleman, the official publication of the TSCRA, compliment special rangers catching the bad guys: “Our camp house and barn in Waller County was broken into and several items were stolen–including a pair of spurs my dad had made for me 26 years ago….[They] were recovered five days later in Vega (30 miles west of Amarillo).”

Here at my place, I am in TSCRA district 10 and H.D. Brittain of Weatherford, Texas, is the special ranger. I’ve not had a reason to call H.D., but the shooting of Bald-Face Lie has put him on the list of persons to interview about the status of the investigation.

My uncle Floyd in Cherokee, Texas, near San Saba, was a member of the TSCRA and posted these signs on his place. The entry to Floyd’s ranch was a cattle guard that several ranches used for access to their own property. Wired to the fence, next to Uncle Floyd’s cattle guard, was the blue sign of TSCRA that cautioned desperadoes to move farther on down the trail.

Still No News on Bald-Face Lie Shooting

Bald-Face Lie Profile 2009-2010

Sorry to report that there is no news on the shooting of the filly, Bald-Face Lie. I’ll see what I can do to find out some additional information. If you Google the Weatherford Democrat and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram newspapers, you can read some articles about previous depredations in the area. I, frankly, do not want to post articles of such violence, but, as Kittie Howard wrote, “There is something Really Nasty out there.” I think despite the gore, we have got to speak out about this craziness and drill down into the American culture to burn out those ideas and pathologies, fostering violence against people, animals and nature. The Really Nasty has to always feel the heat and hear the hooves coming at ’em.

I am writing an article on the shooting of several buffalo up north of Abilene, Texas, months ago. It’s a piece I want to spend time on, nail it down and write about the rancher that slaughtered the herd that had “strayed” on his land as well as the culture (regional and historical) that underwrites this behavior. I may have to post the article on another blog than Sage to Meadow, but I’ll let you know where.

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March 1, 2010 · 10:43 am

Sandhill Cranes Going North

Sandhill Crane (Grus canadensis) Flying North, Hannibal, Texas, February 28, 2010 (click to enlarge)

Yesterday, February 28, 2010, as I came back from feeding the horses at 5:50 p.m., I heard the tuk-tuk–tuk-tuk–tuk-tuk of the Sandhill Crane overhead. The cranes were heading north, about 1,500 feet above ground level. I first saw them over Hannibal, Texas, six miles to the south of us, and after I got the camera and starting taking pictures, they had flown over the ranch and were two or three miles away to the north. They were circling and moving north at the same time. Thirty minutes later, another flock of cranes, this group shaped in a V configuration, were flying faster in the same direction. Their tuk-tuk calls were less frequent. I suppose they were intent on catching up with the crowd ahead of them who had found, most likely, a good marsh to settle down for the night. Preferring flight than chat, they sped quietly into dusk.

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Filed under Sandhill Crane

Tagged as Hannibal Texas, Roger Tory Peterson, Sandhill Cranes