Most everyone is aware that feral hogs are a real problem. Driving around Glen Rose it is not hard to see how bad the problem in that unless your property is fenced off, the hogs come at night and root through your yard, garden, etc. causing thousands of dollars in damage. It is almost impossible to exterminate them yet the people affected keep trying. Today at 6:30 AM, we were up to watch the latest attempt at hog eradication. In this situation, some local men with trained dogs showed up on Chalk Mountain to try their hand at solving this problem. They had a pack of specially trained dogs (with radio collars) whose job it is to find, track and chase down any feral hogs they can find. Some of the dogs are trained to hunt the hogs down and others (with the protective vests on such as the Pit Bull in one of the photos)  then go in and grab the hogs by the ears, feet, tail or whatever they can grab and hold it down for the hunter to come in a kill the hog! All the pictures here were shot this morning in a variety of locations as the dogs and their handlers roamed all over the mountain. When the dogs were ready and turned loose, they were all business and looked like a bunch of kids just turned loose in the candy store. However, no luck today but they will come back next week and hunt at night.

You probably remember the photos I took of the ice storm last week on Chalk Mountain in Somerville County, TX and after surveying the damage, the clean up work has begun. Coming back to the ranch late last night, I spotted a tree in which someone had left a ladder leaning against after pruning the broken branches. I photo was begging to be taken and thankfully the landscape light was still working which gave me barley enough light to work with. Luckily I had my Canon M6 with me which was perfect for experimenting with.

But “red sky in the morn, sailor be warned”, or so they say.  I was a sailor once a long time ago when I was young and do remember that statement to be true. After a week of rain, sold, ice and just down right miserable weather, the sun actually came out at noon today. The ground, however is sopping wet and things are still a mess. Going into town today, the stores and restaurants, not to mention the highways, were jammed so it looks like cabin fever finally got a break. The sunset tonight was glorious and this photo is from my house in Johnson County but I can imagine what it was like on Chalk Mountain.

We woke up this morning to thunder and lightning and even had a strike so close the intruder alarms went off. There are a lot of cedar trees on the mountain that are being torn apart because of the ice, so much so that when standing outside you can hear the limps break off which creates a sound similar to the sound of gun fire. Looking around this morning we found a dozen or so trees with major damage and may have to be cut down or way back. The sad part is that since the mountain is made up of limestone, there is very little soil on top of the rock and trees, any plans actually,  have a hard time getting solid roots down into the rocky crevasas so when you loose a tree up here, it takes years for a new one to regenerate. The scenery today is shear beauty but sometimes beauty has consequences.

In north Texas, we have been inundated with rain over the last few days and last night a cold front came through which dropped to temperatures in to the 30’s. At my house, we had 5″ of rain over the last two days but the ground was so warm nothing froze. But to the west at the Lookout  Ranch on Chalk Mountain (which is about 600′ higher in elevation than my place) everything above the ground formed with ice. Although quite beautiful, the icing caused a lot of tree limb loss and frozen gate openings. The forecast is for off an on rain through Saturday but no more icing. The scene above is at the ranch looking to the north toward Bluff Dale and Tolar. Cold and dreary!

This morning as we were driving in the hill country, we passed a small herd of nice looking longhorns which reminded me of a photo I took in 2005 in down town Dallas. On the banks of the Trinity River in the southern part of downtown Dallas on Riverfront Drive, there is large gas station named Fuel City. Before they expanded, they had several acres fenced off on the north side of the river that held a small group of longhorns. This guy was the best looking of the group and the day I was there and was standing under a shade tree and not willing to move. I was trying to get a different angle but yelling at him was no help so after some time, I ended up with this pose. The spot where he is standing is now a car wash!

While walking on the square in downtown Glen Rose tonight, I spotted our friend and local artist, Trent Summers, painting the Somervell County (Texas) Court House. The evening light was lovely tonight and was able to catch him as the sun was going down.

Navigating through the mill this morning, I heard one of the workers asking if anyone had seen his clipboard! I found it!

Searching for some unique wood or reclaimed timber to build a farm table with, I came across a source of Longleaf Pine. You may have never heard of Longleaf Pine but it is an endangered species of pine. Reason? In the mid-1800″s there were 80,000,000 acres of this pine in the Southeast US and by 1910, it was pretty much gone. The primary reason being that the nature of the Longleaf Pine made it clear, straight and with few defects, it was ideal for shipbuilding. It was also the primary source for long straight timbers used to build the textile mills in the Southeast. I found someone who dissasymbles these old mills and brings them to Texas (2X2 beams pictured above in the warehouse) then runs them though a mill to create boards for floors, cabinets, home building, etc. I was lucky enough to find this material which will give a nice provenance to the table and am now experimenting with which color stain best compliments this beautiful old timber.