A century of Turkey talk 2000-2100.

[memphis]

Would you believe it's still raining here? I'm so over this!

 

[rjohns39]

Would you believe it's still raining here? I'm so over this!

I just looked at the radar, you have your own special rain cloud.

 

[memphis]

Yeah....its special all right. It's also only 48. Chilly & wet. Yipee!

 

[R2elk]

R2elk...have the coonhound entered in his first sanctioned hunt. Wish me luck. I expect him to qualify and not embarrass me!

Good luck.

And I'm curious about Mr. Picky & the wild girls. Will there be baby Mr. Picky's running the countryside? Do you think the wild girls descend from that one hen who showed up for all those years? Is it possible they are following their moms wild ways?

Unlikely at this point. They never showed any interest in breeding while I was watching them and they left before night and are not back this morning. They did seem to be happy about spending time with the other turkeys.

I am guessing that this is the same one from last year and that she has brought a daughter along. The hen that kept coming back never brought any others with her in all the years that she showed up.

If he gets his nose into something he won't pay much attention to me.

I think that is more like he goes deaf and completely ignores you.

 

[CindyinSD]

Today's visitors
Wild Turkey hen

with a White Leghorn

Chasing tail.

Ohmygoodness that’s so not fair, R2! DH wouldn’t believe me that you just took those pics. Where the heckfire did you get all that green grass?! I’m so jealous! “That’s so not fair,” (she wailed.) Blow some of those tropical breezes this way, will you? C’mon... Be a pal.

 

[R2elk]

Ohmygoodness that’s so not fair, R2! DH wouldn’t believe me that you just took those pics. Where the heckfire did you get all that green grass?! I’m so jealous! “That’s so not fair,” (she wailed.) Blow some of those tropical breezes this way, will you? C’mon... Be a pal.

I am routinely having 60°F weather with an occasional 70°F. Unfortunately, I have no control over the weather and unlike you and Ralphie sharing the bad weather, I cannot share my good weather.

@Bantambird can confirm that I really do have green grass.

It took me many years to convert this sagebrush and prickly pear area into the green grass with trees that are here now.

 

[CindyinSD]

It is beautiful! Congrats... having been in the area many times, I know that’s a real achievement!

 

[CindyinSD]

So... how did you do it?

 

[R2elk]

So... how did you do it?

I plant trees and shrubbery that can tolerate the soil, water and climate conditions. I keep trying different varieties until I find something that works. I had a well drilled and run it 24 hours per day x 7 days per week in order to keep the plants alive. I initially started with American plums, Russian Elms, Lilacs, Hackberry trees, Rocky Mountain Junipers, Nanking Cherries, Blue Spruce, prune type plums and Russian Olives. The Russian Olives have now been declared a noxious weed so the state could pay a politician's buddy to remove them on public lands. Now they provide him with free (government paid) advertising for his tree removal service.

I am slowly replacing the Russian Olives with Greenspire Lindens. They survived the nasty fall and winter that killed off the Russian Elms. The start of the grass was dry land pasture mix which since has had a number of other grasses added such as annual and perennial rye and even a batch of Buffalo grass.

I am working to add Yellow Chokecherries since they can actually be harvested without interference from the birds. The Evans Bali cherry trees also easily survived the killer fall and winter without any damage and produced a nice crop of cherries.

The abundant tree, shrubs and grass roots have greatly helped hold moisture in the sand. The falling leaves have contributed to the slow creation of 1/2" of actual topsoil that was not here 30 years ago.

 

[CindyinSD]

Wow! Impressive—no wonder few people achieve that kind of results!