At the beginning of this Spring Break I set out to accomplish several chores: Construct dirt foundation for alleyway and stalls, change tire on flatbed trailer so I can haul tractor to repair shop, take tractor to repair shop and return, shred mesquite sprouts and replace rain gauge. The list changed. No surprise there.
Putting more of a fine gravel foundation is delayed because stalls and the alleyway are still wet. I have changed the tire on the flatbed trailer and will load the tractor later today. Before I can hitch up the shredder, the linkage to the power train operation must be repaired. So, the list has changed and I have conducted manure management tasks before I take the tractor to Stephenville — muckraking with tractor.
As I worked on cleaning the corrals, I let my gelding, Star, out for a browsing and to visit his friends over the fence, like neighbors chatting across the hedge in suburbia. When I went to halter him and bring him back after two hours of browsing, he bucked and snorted on halter like a rodeo horse. He wanted to remain out and become satiated with grass to a point of sleepiness. I can’t let him do that since he is laminitis prone, a condition that requires close monitoring of green grass consumption. Star entered Broke Tree Corral and continued to act horsey with bucking and running. What a day he was having! Here is Star munching on grass about an hour before the rodeo began.
My morning had a few Kodak moments — no more Kodachrome, I know. Digital rules. The Bluebell bell flowers opened up with the few minutes of sun this morning and I brought the camera down to the pasture before I started cleaning the corrals. Bluebell flowers erupt all over the two front pastures. Where I had one patch of bell flowers a couple of days ago, now the flowering occurs in multiple patches.
The final photo in my continuing year-long goal of photographing the different species of flowering plants on the ranchito is another Ground plum or milkvetch, but with a different color, a more blueish hue to the blossom. I’ll go ahead and give it a different number because of the definitive difference in color.
9. Ground plum, milkvetch (blueish-violet blossom), Astragalus crassicarpus?
I will take some photographs of the namesakes of the corrals. I have had to give them names because Corral No. 1, Corral No. 2 get lost in the process of giving directions to cowboys and haulers. I end up saying, Put the horse in the corral with the broken tree in it! I have no signage for the place, just naming with visible, easily identifiable attributes (broken tree, well house, pecan tree). Nothing like trying to identify a sparrow these days, a process we are all still involved in as the attributes continue to be noted.
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Sage to Meadow ~ Jack Matthews 