Trying to catch a little slack

 

Here’s another reminder of how bad the drought was (and still is for a lot of Texans).  This rabbit was trying to catch a little shade—under the gate.  It’s a hard knock life sometimes in Texas.

Shipping Cattle

This is a little late, but I guess it's better late than never!  Last month Wexford shipped cattle for the highest prices on record.  It was especially great/disgusting because the cattle were full of green grass from recent rains.  Keep your fingers crossed that the rain keeps coming and the cattle prices keep going up.

You can check out the current cattle prices in Texas here.

Mule Deer at the Lado

It's one of my favorite times of the year--it's almost time to head down to the Lado!  The next few weeks will probably be pretty West Texas focused as I get ready for my fall pilgrimage down to the ranch.  There's nothing better than the desert, mountains, and blue sky to clear your mind and your lungs.

These photos were taken of mule deer watering at the guzzlers on the ranch.  The Lado has gotten some rain this year and there are plenty of animals out and about.

Cleaning the Water Troughs

Neil's wondering why his kids aren't older...

At Wexford, a lot of the water for cattle is found in water troughs fed by underground wells that are pumped by windmills. 

One summer when I was in high school, my friend and golf partner, Amy, and I worked on the ranch--our job was to clean all the water troughs.  It was convenient for our golf schedule, but not necessarily a great job.  It was hot, dirty, slimy, and wet, and my dad and Amy's stepdad still talk about it more than a decade later.  Since there's no cheap manual labor (kids) on the ranch any more, Neil, the Straw Boss, was responsible for cleaning the water trough in the West Pasture recently.  I'm sure he was wishing that his kids were old enough to send out to do that, but I guess the next time the troughs will need to be cleaned the Heard children will be the prime age.

Cleaning over a decade of muck out of the trough.

You know the drought is serious when...

 

... Water Mocasins are drinking bottled water.  

This photo was staged last year, but really isn't that funny.  Both the ranches in South and West Texas have received quite a bit of rain in 2012, but there are plenty of people in between who need water desperately.

Teal at the Duck Pond

Wexford Ranches posted about a new duck pond on the ranch a couple of months ago.  This past weekend, a Norther brought a ton of Teal into the pond.

It's time to go hunting!

Chile Pequins!

If there's anything that's distinctive about food in South Texas (there's a lot!), it's chile pequins.  Most people say it chilli patine, but it doesn't matter as long as it's on the table.  These bursts of flavor and heat are about the size of a pencil eraser and are great fresh, dried, or preserved in oil.

The drought wreaked havoc on these native plants, but since it's started raining again, they are starting to come back.  Gloria de la Garza lives on the ranch; her family has worked for Wexford for generations and lived in the Coastal Bend since Texas was part of Mexico.  She has been collecting the chiles and they'll be planted on the ranch as well as eaten in something delicious.  Gloria found the bottle of chile pequins recently.  Her father Alejandro de la Garza, or Elek to all of us, bottled these chiles before he died in 2004. 

Seeds Gloria collected from Chile Pequins that have been growing for generations.

I keep a stash of chile pequins in Idaho picked by Gloria that I save for when I'm cooking Texas food, though I've started putting it in my Italian food too--delish!  Gloria taught my sister and I how to make hot sauce in mocajetes with chile pequins and I roll out tortillas (and everything else) with part of a broom handle that her father, Elek, used to roll out his tortillas with.  I'm proud to have grown up with a strong food culture, and replanting the chile pequins on the ranch is keeping that culture strong. 

I tried to grow some in my yard in Idaho, but they just couldn't take the cold.  You can purchase a number of varieties of chile pequin seeds from Native Seeds Search.