Pick-up Load of Reed Ranch Hogs!

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Ashley's Bass Caught at Reed Ranch!

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Indian Paintbrush Photo at Ranch - Photo by OlJim!

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Father and Sons Gittin' Ready for the Big Hog Hunt!

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Old-Style Log Cabin at the Reed Ranch!

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Ranch Rainfall Jan - Apr 15.9" 3.6"OVER the Average for the Year!

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Large Hog Taken by 8 Year Old On Reed Family Ranch!

A Happy Mothers Day - MsJudy Celebrates!

Annual Reed Ranch Hunting Club Meeting Held in April!

The Reed Bottoms Wetlands at the Reed Family Ranch!

Minor Flooding Hits Reed Bottoms!

Game Harvest Page for 2009 - Hog and Varmint Hunting!

You're Only Old Once!

Stewardship Is Not A Spectator Sport!

Be On the Lookout! Reed Ranch Critter, You've Been Spotted!

100 Year Reed Family Ranch Tribute - Check It Out!

Reed Family Fund - Striving for the Best in You!

More Ranch Photos and Such!

Reed Family Ranch Accepts Credit Card Payments!

Trinity Basin' Ranching - At Its Finest!

Map of Reed Ranch Wildlife Habitat Areas!

And..........
If You Must How To Unsubscribe To This Newsletter!

Blake With His 275 lb'r!

A proud father congratulated his son Blake on the killing of one of the largest hogs to be taken on the Reed Family Ranch!

Blake took careful aim with his .243 and made a perfect shot.

Under his Dad's supervision, Blake had been practicing his shooting for a long time before the trip to the ranch - and he downed the hog in his tracks with a well-placed shot right behind the ear! The hog weighed 275 lbs on the hoof and dressed out at 212 lbs.

Wow!, lotsa meat for the supper table - and some great memories were created, too!

Blake gets the Reed Ranch "atta-boy" award for the month! Way to go, Blake!

MsJudy - wife of olJim Reed - celebrated May 10th as another special "Mothers Day"!

Join us in wishing all the Mothers another happy year! Also, check out MsJudy's Mothers Day gifts - some beautiful cut flowers and new bell chimes for the Reed patio!

The Reed Family Ranch Hunting Club met at the ranch on Satuday, April 25th. After sharing a great meal prepared by club member Terry Ratliff - the club members addressed several topics, including:

increased focus on safety and wearing the blaze orange Reed Ranch logo caps
sharing of personal contact information and phone numbers amongst hunting club members
work planning on several projects, including maintenance of the firing range, purchase of a power washer, adding windows to one of the sleeping areas, and the building of a shower at the ranch.
planning of a club member work day in June
use and maintenance of hunting areas and setups
aging of deer on the hoof
extending the ranch's white-tailed deer hunting season
planning for a youth doe hunt on the ranch in January 2010
ranch guest policies
use of a wildlife biologist to age white-tailed deer harvested on the ranch
and, use of the ranch sign-in/sign-out board

Sure was good to hang out with everybody. Lotsa fun and great fellowship!

The month of May is American Wetlands Month! In terms of ranch goals and such, the wetlands on the Reed Family ranch are some of our most productive landscape. In addition to having some of the most fertile soil in the area - our wetlands offer homes for a whole host of wildlife that depend on healthy landscape and provides excellent grazing on native grasses for beef production.

The Reed Family Ranch is bordered by several miles of the Trinity River Basin's rich wildlife habitat and forested wetlands. There are almost almost 900 acres of wetlands, flooded timbers, lakes, ponds, and sloughs.

Duck and other migratory waterfowl, and various species of river and lake fish and shoreline mammals contribute to a diversified - and productive habitat.

Cattle are able to graze on a variety of grasses. The grazing has been helped in recent years by the ranch's program of cultivating native grasses. Some of the most productive grasses (for both grazing and wildlife habitat) in the Reed Bottoms include Alamo Switchgrass and Eastern Gammagrass.

Heres' a photo of olJim Reed checking out some of Eastern Gammagrass seeds in a winter planting in the Reed Bottoms a few years back - using the ranch's pasture dream pulled behind a tractor.

Flooding In Reed Bottoms at 31.6' Mark!

The Trinity River was out of its banks for a short time this month - cresting at a gauge height level of 35.5'. The river stayed out of its banks in the Reed Bottoms for about 3 days - on May 5th, 6th, and 7th.

The river receded back into its banks on Friday, May 8th.

We sure do feel fortunate to be bordered by miles of Trinity River landscape - and for all the resource wealth it brings us!

So far this year - as of the writing of this newsletter - 22 hogs have been killed by hunting club members and guests. Here's some of the photos that have been taken so far this year!

Malcolm's 250 lbr!	Ranch Guest's Successful Hunt!	Graham's Guests Takes Some Good Un's!

The complete game harvest page for 2009 can be viewed by clicking HERE!

You're Only Old Once!

10 SIGNS YOU'RE GETTING OLDER!

- Your favorite part of the newspaper is "20 Years Ago Today."
- You enjoy hearing about other people's operations.
- People call at 9 p.m. and ask, "Did I wake you?"
- You can't remember the last time you laid on the floor to watch TV.
- Your children begin to look middle aged.
- You finally reach the top of the ladder and find it leaning against the wrong wall.
- You look forward to a dull evening.
- Your back goes out more than you do.
- You have too much room in the house and not enough in the medicine cabinet.
- The gleam in your eyes is from the sun hitting your bi-focals.

Be A Land Steward - Keeping Natural Habitat is Worth It!

Support wildlife and habitat conservation!

Respect the environment and wildlife!

Respect the land and water!

Strive to improve outdoors skills and understanding of wildlife!

Pass on ethical hunting and fishing traditions!

Know and obey game laws!

Show consideration for other hunters and fishermen!

Hunt and fish safely!

And, hunt and fish only with others who abide by the above!

The EASTERN FOX SQUIRREL is about 21" long, has gray and black fur on its back and orange-colored fur on its belly. The tail color is cinnamon mixed with black.

Fox squirrels got their name from their gray and red fur that resemble that of a gray fox.

Due to their ability to adapt to a wide range of forest habitats, they are Texas' most common squirrel. Their greatest numbers occur in open upland forest with a mixture of oak and nut trees. For many hunters, fox squirrels are an important game animal.

Squirrels are usually active early in the morning and late in the afternoon. Fox squirrels nest in holes in trees or build leaf and twig nests. They eat acorns and other nuts, buds, fruit, fungi, insects, amphibians and the inner bark of trees. Squirrels bury nuts for winter food and relocate the nuts by smell. Squirrels find only a portion of the nuts they bury and are important in planting many species of nut trees. A single squirrel can bury several thousand pecans over the course of 3 months.

Be on the lookout for a sighting of a EASTERN FOX SQUIRREL at the Reed Family Ranch!

Sit back - turn your speakers on and enjoy!

100 Year Reed Family Ranch Tribute - 13 minute version
(Allow 2 1/2 Minutes (At Least!) Download Time - DSL and Cable!

100 Year Reed Family Ranch Tribute - 28 minute version
(Allow 5 Minutes (At Least!) Download Time - DSL and Cable!

1st Generation Landoweners - OlJim's Grandfather Jimmy and Grandmother Lottie Reed!	2nd Generation Landowners- Mother and Father, Ora Anna and Tillman Reed!	3rd Generation Landowners OlJim and MsJudy With Lone Star Land Stewardship Award!

Have you ever wondered why some achieve prosperity and happiness - and some do not? Here's some keys to making yourself the best ever!

Remember these things and they could put you on the path to some of the best years yet!

- don't sit around and wait for things to get better; make things better!
- for the next 24 hours, focus on the things you can do to make your world a better place!
- be careful who you give the keys to your brain to!
- and remember, character can be defined as how we choose to behave when life doesn't go as planned!

Water is VERY Important Stuff to a Ranch!

The month of April recorded a total of 7.4"of rainfall in the Reed Ranch area. This gives us 15.9" for the year, which is 3.6" ABOVE OUR AVERAGE of 12.3" for this time of the year. Here's the table where we keep our running totals for 2009 - with some historical overall averages, too!

Check it out!

Here are the totals for the most recent 10 years of ranch area rainfall. Our annual average is for all the recorded years in the same geographic area as the ranch (til way back when) is about 39.5 inches. For the most recent 10 years, our annual average has been about 37.1"

1999 - 26.7"
2000 - 46.0"
2001 - 42.7"
2002 - 38.0"
2003 - 27.4"
2004 - 54.2"
2005 - 24.6"
2006 - 29.0"
2007 - 51.3"
2008 - 30.6"

Winter Planting of Eastern Gammagrass Using Ranch's Pasture Dream Planter!	OlJim Reed Standing in White Clover Pasture!

There's lots of opportunities for outdoors photography at the Ranch and we enjoy seeing all the photos of all the happenin's at the ranch. You're welcomed to stop by ALL of the Reed Family Photo Albums!

Payments by VISA and MasterCard credit cards can now be processed by the Reed Family Ranch.

Faxes with credit card information can be sent toll-free to the Reed Family Ranch at 866-566-1283. Send email to OlJim Reed oljim@reedfamilyranch.com for more information!

Bottoms-Land Water Trough Filled From Shark Lake - Ranch Gravity F low Water Distribution System!

We're proud to have a ranch managed within Texas' great Trinity River Basin that operates under a holistic goal. The Reed Family Ranch's holistic goal focuses on:

diversity and shared vision
learning, personal growth, and economic sustainability
enjoyment of a beautiful, peaceful setting with clean air, water, and healthy land
contribution to society and environment
and, sharing the great outdoors with others

Map of Reed Family Ranch - Wildlife Habitat Areas!

And, If You Must, How To Unsubscribe To This Newsletter

We hope you won't have to leave us but - if you must - click on the button at the bottom of this email and follow the instructions. Thanks!