An Owl’s Breakfast

Barred owl looking for breakfast

Barred owls make their presence known at dusk by their distinctive “who cooks for you, who cooks for them all” calls.  We figure the pair is just checking in with each other before they go off hunting for the night.  Several recent evenings after the long afternoon shadows melted into near darkness, one of the owls glided to the ground near us.  It grabbed something from the grass and moved to a tree limb.  One evening it flew back to the woods and then returned to the ground in front us so we believe it was hunting for food to feed chicks. Later both owls were stealthily at work near the barn and trailer but we could barely see them as it was dark by that time.  We concluded that our little solar yard lights attracted bugs and small critters which is why we frequently see the owls hunting in this area.

Last Saturday around 7:00 a.m. while we were eating our breakfast, we were serenaded by the usual many bird dawn songs that get more abundant as daylight brightens.  We noticed a big bird flying among the trees in the distance and we were distracted by a song bird we could not identify.   Suddenly, the large bird glided through the air straight for us.  It was barred owl!  I guess it decided we were too big for its breakfast, so it perched on a limb nearby.  Suddenly, the cheery morning songs birds fell silent and their songs were replaced by repeated alarm calls of a single Carolina wren. Through the binoculars I saw that the little, but very vocal, wren had a bug in its mouth (how can it chirp with a bug in its mouth?).  It was probably planning to take the bug back to its nest to feed its chicks.  The bird of prey perched nearby clearly caused the wren distress.  

From the limb, the owl eyes and head actively searched the ground and trees. Most eerily, it seemed at times to stare straight at us. I was ready to duck if it spread its wings to glide our way. Mostly, it kept close tabs on a squirrel scurrying around the base of another tree.  The owl was very patient but we were not and we had work to do so we finally got up to start our morning project.  We don’t know if the wren got to its nest with the bug for breakfast or if the squirrel survived to scamper another day.

This is the first time we’ve seen the owl hunt in daylight so we believe it probably has a nest of chicks and to spend more time hunting.  Just like the little wren, not only was the owl hunting for its own breakfast, but also breakfast for its chicks.

Lemonade.  Some say that if life gives you lemons, make lemonade.   In that vein, we thought “if extreme drought gives you dead oak trees, make hardwood flooring!”

One summer morning in 2011 while drinking our coffee, we noted the difference in the woods due to the drought. We pondered how many oak trees would ultimately die due to the drought and how many we would cut down to prevent a hazard.  How were we going to dispose of such large quantities of wood?   We already had more firewood than we needed and chopping all of the dead trees into firewood, even with a hydraulic splitter, was more work than we wanted to contemplate.  Ronnie starting talking about buying a portable sawmill and making the trees into lumber.  At some point he mentioned that a friend of his knew of a mill in Huntsville next door to a facility that makes hardwood flooring. 

From there we had a eureka! moment.  Was it possible to harvest the dead water oak, have the mill cut the logs into lumber, dry the lumber in the mill’s kiln, and then take the lumber to the hardwood floor plant  to make hardwood flooring for the future Dogwood ranch house?  We began to get excited at the prospect of turning a tragic situation caused by the drought into something positive.  We would not have to waste all of those trees!  Flooring made from wood from the property would be unique and enjoyed for many years in the ranch house.

After hours of research, the plan was official.  We took an inventory of the dead trees, classified them by type (water oak, red oak, American elm and cedar elm), measured the trunk circumference and estimated the number of eight-foot trunk lengths we thought we get out of each dead tree.  We marked them with an orange ribbon and spray paint.  Our survey only included trees that were easy to get to and not those deep in the woods.  We ran calculations of how many board-feet the trees would yield and how many board-feet we need for hardwood flooring in the house.



Evan helping Ronnie paint the ends of logs

Water oak, a type of red oak, is commonly used for hardwood floors.  We took the dead trees down, cut the trunks into 10, 8 or 6 foot lengths and sealed the ends with a protective paint.  For dead trees near infrastructure, we hired professionals (“tree monkeys” as they all themselves) from Rodger’s Tree Service in Brenham.  As expected, Roger’s team did an efficient and professional job at a reasonable price.



Ronnie loading logs onto Frank's trailer

To haul the logs to the mill, we hooked-up with Frank Belt from Huntsville who was doing construction work in Brenham.  Frank was driving a large flat-bed trailer back and forth between Huntsville and Brenham every day so we hired him to pick-up the logs at Dogwood and drop them off at M&G Sawmill. http://www.mgsawmill.com/



Logs ready for Frank to Haul to M&G Sawmill in Huntsville, Texas

Unfortunately, the guys at the mill say some of the wood is not suitable for flooring because the logs are too soft in the middle, a common problem with large water oak. They will cut as much lumber as possible and dry it in their kiln for several weeks.  That’s where the wood is now.  We hope to get at least enough flooring for the living room. 

We also have logs from two red oak trees we plan to use for lumber to build the front door for the house.  Those logs will be included in the second batch we take to the mill.

Texas Drought

Dead. One hundred million to 500 million trees with a diameter of 5 inches or greater on Texas forestland succumbed to the 2010-2011 drought according to the Texas Forest Service.  A few hundred of those were on our little patch of Texas we know as Dogwood Ranch.  On Dogwood, most of the dead trees are water oak; many were huge beautiful trees over 60’ tall some with a trunk circumference of up to 80 inches – that’s a tree too big to hug!   

So far, we have taken down at least 15 large dead trees as they became safety hazards with the potential for large limbs, or the whole tree, to fall and damage persons or property.  Several large water oaks, including the ones with 80+ circumference trunks, were partially hollow inside or have a soft center, meaning the tree was starting rot.

Through much of 2011, we helplessly watched the drought take its toll on Dogwood.  Hundreds of trees had brown crispy leaves by mid-summer.  In the fall, those brown leaves hung-on to the trees, rather than being shunted as would occur on a healthy tree.  When a deciduous tree fails to drop dead leaves in the fall, it is a good sign that the tree, or a portion of the tree, is dead.  On many trees the bark began to fall off.

Little grass grew in the pasture spring 2011 and by summer, it was pretty much scorched.  There was not enough grass for the cows to eat so we had to buy more hay earlier in the year.  Due to the drought, we bought a stash of hay from Mississippi as hay in Texas was already scarce. 

The small pond at the top of the hill was dry by June.  We took this opportunity try-out the new John Deere tractor and dug the pond a little deeper so that when it did start raining again, we would collect more water. Thankfully, the pond on old Dogwood never went dry, although the water level was lower than we had ever seen it.  Since the pond didn’t dry-up like most ponds in the area, there is credence to our theory that this pond may be feed by a small spring or seep.   

Even cedar (juniper) trees died, which is amazing as they are so hardy.  One large tree by the barn is a huge brown thick mass of dead cedar.   According to our cattle foreman, this is the worst drought in memory the local old-timers who have never seen a drought so bad that it killed cedar!

The live oak trees at the top of the hill looked stressed all summer and through the fall.  They did not lose all of their leaves, but they shed some due to stress.  We noticed the foliage was thinner and not nice deep green.   There are a few live oaks that look like they have died, but most at least appear to be hanging-in.

Perhaps related to the drought are early morning coyote sightings this year. Several times after sun-up we’ve seen a coyote (once a pair of coyotes) trotting across the pasture and into woods.    Since we have never seen them before this year, we speculate that the coyotes are travelling further from the den for water and food so they are not getting back home until daylight.

Most heartbreaking of all was watching the ranch’s namesake dogwood trees die.  The leaves yellowed; were brown by late summer and turned black by fall.  Usually in the fall they have little bright red berries along with colored foliage, but not fall 2011.  Through the winter the black dry leaves remained on the trees.  I tried not to think about what was happening and even avoided going to the dogwood area most of the summer, fall and winter. If I did have to go over there to work on a project, I tried not to look at the trees.  I simply ignored what was happening as we were helpless to prevent it but hoped what seemed inevitable would not be true come spring.

Well, it its spring now.  Usually by early March, the dogwood trees are about to bloom with delicate white flowers to herald the arrival of spring.  Peak blooming is typically the third week in March.  This year there are no buds or flowers.  There will be no peak blooming week as there will be no blooms at all.

Last weekend, I finally made myself walk over and look at the dogwoods along the creek.  When about 10 feet from the largest tree, I thought about how beautiful these trees have been in all seasons, how we would anticipate the spring bloom and plan a party to share the brief dogwood blooming with others, how dramatic the scene looked when the entire stand of dogwoods were in full bloom together and how the honey bees would go nuts for about three weeks collecting pollen.  I remembered putting my 90+ year-old grandmother on the back of the ATV and motoring around the property so she could see the blooming white beauties, including taking her down the trail to see the wisps of white blooms deep in the woods – she truly enjoyed both the ride and the trees!  We received so much enjoyment from these trees over the years; they are part of what has made Dogwood special and unique.  With all of these memories in my head, while I was walking toward the trees still covered with the dead crispy leaves from summer discolored bark,  I couldn’t help it folks, I start to cry. How silly, they are just trees, but I just felt sad. 

After getting that out of my system as I wiped the tears from my face Ronnie looked over at the dogwoods and said “hey, I see some green on that one.”  We took closer look and sure enough, there was a little twig sprouting out on the trunk with a few little green leaves.  We surveyed the rest of the dogwoods along the creek and most, not all, had small sprouting green leaves!  Some limbs were dead andbreaking off, some of the tree tops had no leaves and some bark was discolored, but on close inspection many of the trees were pushing out little bright green stems with leaves.  Back in the woods, the dogwoods that enjoyed more shade during the harsh summer were covered in leaves!  Clearly there will be no delicate white blooms this year but perhaps these little trees on the forest edge are tougher than we gave credit.  It’s possible that this spring’s effort is their last gasp in a losing struggle to survive after being damaged due to drought, but at least now, combined with recent rains, they have a fighting chance!