Double B Ranch 2023 June - December

2023 has been a hectic year with Austin going to college and Lauren graduating. Even with all that, I still made time to get out to the ranch. It seems there's always something breaking. This time, it was the axle on my Polaris.

June 30 - July 2

Yep, that doesn't look right

It's always a good day when you can take down a feral hog.

A wild turkey walking through the yard

There's a story to this little guy.
I was sitting in the porch swing, enjoying an evening beverage. It was just before dark, and across the field I could see several hogs coming down the creek bed.
I grabbed my rifle, steadied myself as best I could, and took a shot from the swing.
Had to be one of my best shots hitting this little guy as he was moving from about 80 yards.
Found him the next day and took this picture.

Summertime at the Double B Ranch dipping pool

...gate hardware installed.

Yeah, it's DONE and ready for the parties!

WooHoo - feels great!

Since the Polaris is still in the shop with the broken axle, I've been taking my truck to the blinds.

View from one of my deer blinds.
This is the older blind in the north 100.

CLICK HERE TO SEE A VIDEO FROM THE DEER BLIND

You can always tell when I've been drinkin' when I start taking "gun sunset" pictures.

Gosh, it is nice and pretty.

My truck enjoys a beautiful Texas sunset.

Meanwhile, back at the house....

July 21 - July 22

I remember this guy.
1st shot hit him, but he took off running.
I was able to reacquire target, and hit him on the run - dropped right there.

My brother Bill joins me for an afternoon drink in the dipping pool.

Bill has enjoyed it so much, he's looking into building one at his place too.

This was cool - a Coach Whip snake came to the water trough for a drink.
How does a snake know there's water in there?

He was about 5 feet long - very pretty.

The 1st Native American artifact found on my property.
This spearhead could be over 10.000 years old.
I've since found many others.

July 31 - August 5

At first I thought a pig damaged my feeder.
Upon closer inspection - nope - it was me.
I accidentally shot the motor when I was aiming for a pig under the feeder.
D'oh!

Another relaxing afternoon by the dipping pool.

August 26 - September 3

This weekend, my buddy Blake joined me.
When we went down to the same place where I found that spearhead - look what he found!!!
No question what that is.

We also built an extension to the drinking trough.
See that tree just right of center?

If you look close you can see a round water stock tank.
I did this because the only other water I provide is right next tot he dipping pool, so I wanted something more remote for the animals.

September 14 - September 15

Wes and Brenda joined us this weekend

CLICK HERE TO SEE A VIDEO OF JACQUI AND BRENDA ON THE SEE SAW

We weren't very productive, but it's nice sometimes just to relax and enjoy everything with friends.

THIS IS A GAME CHANGER!!
Our Internet, TV and phone now have better bandwidth at the ranch.
We were watching college football. streaming - everything working 100%

October 11 - October 15

Look at the rack on that buck!!

While not directly ranch related - this was the 1st time I drove my new car to Kerrville where I swap for the truck.
I was supposed to park one more spot to the left, but that was a low/wet spot.

Thankfully, I only had to do this ONCE before I was able to move to a covered spot.

I had to relocate my StarLink dish due to obstructions from he trees.
While it was a bit of a challenge doing this by myself, in this spot t works perfectly.

Another spearhead!!

October 20 - October 21

Wes and Brenda joined us this weekend as well.
Nobody got up early to join me in the blind, and they missed out on me taking down "Blondie the Pig"

They're usually black, so it was odd seeing one this color

CLICK HERE TO SEE VIDEO OF SOME FRIENDLY DEER

CLICK HERE TO SEE MORE VIDEO OF SOME FRIENDLY DEER

Wes and I drove back to San Antonio to pick up my Texas Hunter's deer blind.
He and I assembled and put this bad boy in its new home.

Silly Brenda

October 30 - November 1

Hey there buddy!
This is a Texas Spiny Lizard

After a long HOT and DRY summer (over a month of 100 degree+ temps with ZERO rain) we finally got some decent rain.
It's very welcome, but yeah - I got stuck in the mud and had to build my own rock road to get out.

My car is FILTHY but since it was on grass I decided to get a couple pictures

November 10 - November 13

Pigs destroyed this feeder

And I had to haul this feeder out of a deep mud hole.
As I said, there's always something that needs work at the ranch.

I will fix this guy soon.

Since finding the 1st spearhead, we've found may other Native American artifacts - most are broken - but still super neat to me.

November 17 - November 18

Eric, Bill and I enjoy dinner at the Harper Tex-Mex place.

Bill lets me look through his new night vision thermal scope.
It's super cool~!~!

Drinks at Bill's firepit

December 8 - December 9

Friday morning, December 8, I took this very nice 8 point.

We estimate he's about 4.5 years old.

You get a better idea of his spread in this picture.

And finally, I finished putting together our new deck furniture.

The raccoons had to check it out the 1st night.

The dipping pool deck is ready for a party!!
That's it for this year.
Y'all come back now - ya hear!!