The summer season seems to have arrived here in South Texas and with it comes many thoughts and realizations. Of these the first that comes to mind is that IT’S HOT! From there you can contemplate all the rest. The Summer time of year brings forth the hot and dry days. Work at the ranch and leases slows to a minimum. The animals find their shade and sanctuary also for these hot summer days.

This time of year your trips also drop off to the minimum. You span your trips to the lease or ranch to maximize your feed and for us in West Texas our water inventory. You make sure each trip that all the feeders are close to empty. In our case then you make several trips to the common well to obtain water to fill your stock barrels. You don’t get a lot of rain out where we are at.

Now that I have said that let me preface this by the fact that Hurricane Dolly at this time is dumping lots of H20 on Limited 10 Ranch. This water is a gift from God to be sure and is appreciated and welcome.

Each of these summer trips takes on a very important role in the ongoing attempt to make all those damn animals happy and healthy. So you take your once a month trip with this in mind and dream of those cool days to come back soon. You set up your day with the fact that you only have till around noon to do work and after that your body starts to boil. In West Texas if you’re still pounding around much after noon you’re looking to become heat stroke causality. Yeah I know some of you young folk can pound and stomp all day but us old fat rednecks after noon start looking for the trailer, generator, and A/C.

Once that big ball of fire hits high in the sky I bail to the confines of my little RV called Rambo and fire up the generator and A/C’s. I walk out back and take a quick shower, and then come inside to cool down. Once inside and cooled down you finally think it may be time to find food and cold drink. I’ve been know to fix a Gin and Tonic and kick back start the trusty DVD player and fall asleep watching a movie. This is the only way to pass those 105+ days.

Around 6 o’clock you start to move again and get some dinner ready and think about where you want to hunt for the evening. For me in the Summer I tend to migrate to the closest blind and that would be the Double Blind just at the edge of camp. With the short walk to the blind t-shirt, shorts, and a pair of Crocks works just fine. About 7:30 you sounder up there and wait for dark. I do my hunting by the solar lights on the Pig Feeder. They make more then enough light 75 yards away to see just fine in the scope on my 45-70 Marlin. Yeppers that big bullet will drop one of those Swine pretty damn fast.
Sometimes the Swine come in early, sometimes late, and sometimes never. That is why it is called hunting. You never know for sure what lady luck is going to throw your way.
Anyway once down from the blind I hit the sack for what is left of the time till around 6:00 AM and start the routine again from the start.
Summer is tough time for man and animals for sure, but it is just a fact to deal with when you live down here. You make the best and get your work done early and hunt late.