Sports

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SIGNS OF SPRING

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I’m coming to you from my little writing station at home today, very early in the morning. I’m pushing deadline for my weekly column this week in hopes of getting a ‘fresh’ wild turkey photo for you. While out in the woods near my home yesterday morning, I heard a distant rifle shot which triggered the gobble of a wild turkey only a few yards back in the brush. I was packing in some corn to a feeder I have set up for hogs but when I heard the gobble I forgot all about wild porkers and quietly slipped out of the woods in hopes of calling the bird in for photos today! The Rio Grande subspecies of turkey were stocked not far from my home a few years ago and the birds appear to be doing well. Hopefully there will be a hunting season in a few years but until then, I will continue hunting them with my cameras. I’ve discovered this is almost as much fun as hunting with a gun or bow but I dearly love chicken fried wild turkey breast and fajitas made from the drumsticks and thigh meat. In a few weeks, I will be heading down to the Hill Country to hunt turkey on the famous Y O Ranch near Kerrville. In my opinion, there is no place on earth that is more beautiful during the spring than the rolling hills and bluebonnets this time of year than down in the Texas Hill Country.

Why are my trees dying?

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The rains have returned, and we have had above average rainfall during the fall and winter, so why are all my trees dying? In September 2011, most of Texas was in a drought - the most severe drought in Texas history. Across the state, trees - particularly mature oaks, elms, pines and junipers - were dying simply from the lack of water.