Mother nature at it finest.
Mara I love your landscape, how many acres.

Richard

I have about 17 acres of Cedar brake, live escarpement oak and grassland on thin Bracket soils in Central Texas. No lawn, just native grasses that came with the place. I take plants that like semi arid and poke holes in the native flora and insert it and hope for the best. Water just to establish. I collect and distribute seeds over the wild portion. I am very comfortable with the ragged look. I spend a lot of energy clearing up the out of control cedar.

We are in drought but it is a GREEN drought. We have had some good spring rains after a dismally dry and worrisome winter. My water tanks are full so I am happy. Lakes are almost empty but the fields are green.

The cylindropuntia imbricata is a native to the Big bend, West and south Texas.

They say it is impolite to ask a Texan "how many acres do you have? " , but your safe, I am not a true born Texan.

`Sorry I know nothing about Texas except what I see on John Wayne movies on tv and less about everything else.

Richard

No offense. Believe me. That was humor. I Learned the hard way. A few cold looks from a group of Big buckled ranchers at a county AG meeting. I am one of the SMALL landowners around here. We have some ranches with 5 - 8 K acres around here but most are a couple 100 acres and a few small developments. .

I had a house in town and when we moved out here to build our wood shop, we had to get land without restrictions and this was worth less than our lot that our house stood on at the time.

It is a lot of work in woods and grassland management. I do more of that than gardening. I did not know what I was getting into. It is mostly what I call "Reductive Gardening". I create view lines and dimension in what was impenetrable brush, an acre at a time. It has been a pleasure to see the birdlife come back and the flora's diversity increase. I have paid for it with broken fingers and strained backs.

I think I'm finally starting to understand the task you have in taming your land. Whoa, mama! I better not forget my brush-clearing gear!

Mara, you're SO close to Austin. Are you going to the CSSA convention? I would go. I know someone else who will be there.

Here is a link that might be useful: CSSA - Can't Stop Succulent Acquisition

I am in a tight financial spot right now. I missed a bid badly and am working for free. I might be looking at a day there. I really wish I could go. I just got back from East Austin Succulents and They can't afford to go either. AND they are the best agave and succulent nursery in Central Texas. Young upstart kids on the block.

. I can't decide what day to go on. I wonder how much it will be at the door or if it will even be available then. I will probably be one of the public crashing the sale..

The tours to West Cave is right near my place ( 2 miles). I swim just west of the bridge there. My first date with my husband was at Enchanted Rock ( the other tour). Amazing place. I would have loved to do the tour to the big bend but Big bend in July is a little harsh. I am a fool not to go to this convention. .

Lovely property, Mara. Not lovely weather for me personally, but great landscape. And I, too, have wanted to ask how many acres, but I heard once that it's not necessarily polite to ask! :) But I'm glad someone asked and you told us. That is quite a bulk of land to tame.

Here is one years worth of clearing a couple of years ago. The set shows what I go through every year. This is the front flat field. The back drops into a canyon. I need to do a prescribed burn of this field this year.

Here is a link that might be useful: Land clearing.

Beautiful land, Mara. Love the orange cat in the picture.

What beautiful property. What a job you have undertaken! But it must be very rewarding to see what you have accomplished.
DH and I have always wanted 'land', we have a small property compared to your acreage. Now that we are older I'm not sure if we're able to handle the
work but would still love to live further out.
Thanks for letting us into your life.

Beautiful native bloomers, Mara...captured so well! Lovely views...whatever you choose to show us! I, too, would've gotten smacked, not knowing it was impolite to ask that question. Sounds like you're working your land well! =) My sis & her hubby have 13 acres near Mt. Shasta. They battle year-round to keep the poison oak under control. Not my idea of fun, but they enjoy the views, the wildlife & the solitude it gives them. Sorry to hear you missed a bid. Good luck with all!

Beautiful photos as usual, Mara. You are lucky to be doing such rewarding and important work! :-)

I got the bid but it wasn't enough to handle unforeseen mishaps. The factory that I got a bid for a bunch of 1/2" glass shelves, decided that I don't order enough to warrant wholesale (2500 per month) so my price per shelf doubled. I am a little scared to call up my client. I had to go eleswhere. I drove out and took a country road to the small town to pick up the glass and found a whole bunch of rock that I picked up for my garden and fields full of rock coreopsis almost gone to seed. I will be back. Boulders in the front seat and glass in the back.

I just saw a western bluebird, painted bunting, Western scrub jays, cardinals , scissor tailed Flycatcher, chicadees, a yellow billed cuckoo, black crested titmouse, benwick's wren, humming birds and a big fat white winged dove all today while drinking coffee.. I have a family of screaming red tailed hawks than make everyone get real quiet. I also saw a ferruginous Hawk last year. That thing is HUGE with a almost 5' wing span. Earlier this week , I had a crested Caracara on a wire by the road. I saw some threatened black caped vireos a week ago. We are full of fox,deer,skunk, coons, and an occasional mountain lion and pack of wild boars.,.

Rose, don't remind me I have to attack some poison oak that is too close to the house. It is where I want to plant 11 Agave montanas that I have been slowly raising from small babes. I have been getting small babies every year so I have a drift of different sized plants under some oaks and a drift of A. ovatifolias under another bunch of oaks.

Here is another picture set of brush clearing fires. I did these as the great drought was broken enough for them to raise the burn ban . Things exploded. It was scary, very scary. But living with 13 huge piles of dried brush with a 6,oo0 acre brush fire near earlier made me want to GET RID OF THEM. I had attacked an area of all trees that year. When you deal with land , things get BIG. Problems get large and one finds oneself doing thngs that this citty girl from Philadelphia and NYC never imagined.

My son is a volunteer fireman. LOL

Here is a link that might be useful: My fires

This post was edited by wantonamara on Sun, Jun 9, 13 at 13:36