The sliding door in my office is the scene of falling leaves from the hardwood trees. Deer have come by gathering the dropping acorns from the ancient white oak beside the house. If we would have had a frost here before the time I wrote this column it might have been gone.
When my wife and I first were married, her family would butcher on Halloween because it was cold enough to cut up the animal the next morning. This year it won’t be. Bow hunters must run their kills to the freezer or locker plant to save them from spoiling.
According to deer hunters, the warm weather has put off the usual rut of buck and does by this time. I am not any expert but buck activity around the does in my area has been very limited.
Farmers continue to put up hay. I spoke with an older man who sold his cows a few years ago because of his age and inability to herd them. He cuts his hay now putting it up for sale and laughed about how valuable that crop was this year. “Everyone made lots and it is sure cheap.”
During my trip west to New Mexico a week ago, I saw lots of major ag development in both west Texas and western Oklahoma. I sit on the Oklahoma’s State Electric Cooperative Board and at this month’s meeting I talked to several representatives from the region about these developments.
Much of this acreage had been in the USDA Land Bank program and the owners got paid for years not to farm it and to hold down agriculture production. Those leases have run out and something had to be done. Deep wells were drilled and great irrigation circles were set up with the majority of that land being planted to corn, milo or alfalfa hay. The total development is massive on the west side of those two states.
The new oil income has brought on a lot of land clearing in Oklahoma too. First, was the clearing of many burn areas that occurred back in the drought of a few years ago. These of course were the easiest to bull doze off and re-sow to grass. Some land in scrub timber was cleared or thinned with those hydraulic jaws on the 3-point tractor lift to the back of the driver that scissor off the smaller trees at ground level and is handy. I had seen them in operation up in Missouri and years ago did a TV show on them when I was still on TV. The first time I saw one was when a farmer was snipping off scattered cedars that were invading his pasture. And the time when I interviewed the implement dealer, we cut down some good size post oaks and they fell to either side of the tractor by their design, though cab protection is advised.
Whatever you do it is important you do it safely. Wear protective glasses in all cases, even blowing leaves, weed eating and especially mowing. It only takes a small propellant in the eye to cause you a trip to the emergency room and even blindness can occur. You don’t have a safety director to tell you what to do but don’t take chances.
Whether you get a chance to hunt or not the season lie ahead. It is obvious the Fish and Game Commission has done a good job of helping to recover our wildlife. There are a dozen does in my neighborhood and most raised an offspring or two so hunting them is important no matter how tenderhearted you are about Bambi. We’ve come a long way since the early 1960s when there was a one-day deer season in Arkansas.
Good bless you, your family and all of America, Dusty Richards
