[Synopsis]

Ouch, that's cold! It's 77 and sunny with no wind here in Fort Worth where I live. It's probably about 70 degrees in Broken Bow right now. They had some big ice storms up in that part of the country earlier in the winter. Thankfully we didn't get the ice down here.

[Guthrie Kid]

First off look at the redbud tree blooms! Summer is near!

This is across the street from my place. This is what the crosstimbers look like when you let them be, no thinning or naturally occuring fires. The trees in the center of the picture are ~ 50ft. tall.


This is my yard, what I have done is made an attempt to replicate what the crosstimbers would look like if we still had wildfres that would burn some of the understory on occasion, a natural proccess.


In this photo the grizzly old tree in the foreground is a Blackjack tree.
The larger tree in the background is a Post Oak. I estimate both of these trees to be ~ 60 yrs. old?


In a couple of months this will all look like a jungle!
I just took these a couple of minutes ago with my newfangled camera!
Soon I will get some better pictures for you all to look at.

About forgot this link!http://www.uark.edu/misc/xtimber/

[Synopsis]

Great pics Guthriekid. You have some nice property there with all of the trees and what appears to be a small lake or pond in that last picture. I couldn't tell for sure, I see blue though. That redbud is about ready to BURST with color. You have to put up some pics of the area once it's in full bloom. BTW, what kind of camera did you get. I just purchased a Canon A540 in December and love it.

I checked out the website about crosstimbers last night and was hooked. I'll bet I spent a good hour wandering around that site, reading about the crosstimbers. I didn't know anything about the crosstimbers, although Gerty and Southern Hughes county is heavy "old forest" country. I've bookmarked it to go back again and again. Thanks for the wonderful resource.
We need to start a "Cross-timbers" thread all by itself. It could cover a wide range of places throughout Texas (where I currently live) and Oklahoma. I have some good (what I now know to be) pictures of cross timber country here in the Fort Worth area and will create another thread so that the moderator won't lock this one for going off topic. Stay tuned!

[Guthrie Kid]

I can understand why you thought that was a pond in the picture! It is not though, it is my shop where I am setting right now as I type.

My new camera is a simple Kodak "Easyshare C433", I can't believe how good the photo's look since I have it set on what is supposed to be the lowest quality setting, or so I think. After using a Cannon AE-1 for many years this is awful diffrent...but, I must say I am enjoying it very much! It took me a while to jump on the electronic, bandwagon so to speak.

Yes, a dedicated Cross Timbers thread would be good however I guess I don't understand your concern, are the moderators really that picky on here? As you can see I am new to this forum.

[Synopsis]

Hi G.K.
Sometimes the moderators get picky, but if they do, we can just move/create another thread!

The camera takes great pictures. I checked it out and they are very reasonably priced. I used a Kodak Easyshare about 5 years ago (at work) and the picture quality was utterly fantastic. The only thing I didn't like about it then was that the software compatibility between the camera and computer was a little hard to make work. I'll bet they've got that little kink worked out now. The pictures really are great.

That shop looks like a bluer than blue body of water through the trees. Do you work there all the time? If you work for yourself that's fantastic. I don't work for myself but I do work from home for a company out of Oklahoma (although I live in Texas). THE BEST company for which I've ever worked (and I've worked for some giants) and it's from right out of Oklahoma.

I'd still suggest starting a cross-timbers thread because it would be more appropriate. If someone came wondering across the site it would certainly be more descriptive of the subject matter. Besides, I have a lot of photos that I could post from North Texas and it just doesn't seem quite right putting them in the Gerty, Oklahoma photo blog - I guess it's the information manager in me,which is part of what I do for a living.

[Guthrie Kid]

Synopsis,

By all means, start a Cross Timbers thread. I'll leave it up to you as you are obviously the old hand on this forum.

Yes, I am now working full time in the "Blue" building you see in the picture. I worked for a Fortune 500 company that was H.Q. right here in Oklahoma up until a few months ago. It was bought out by a bigger fish out of Houston. (you maybe are aware of what company that would be?) It takes alot of self control to do this, I have a tendancy to go for a stroll in my little forest every time I get stressed out on the 'PUTER or the phone. The hour of my post may give you some indication of my circumstances all in all I am much happier now however!

Later, from the CROSS TIMBERS!

[Mattie Jo]

your back yard looks like ours. but ours also has either poison ivy, poison sumac or both. i was trying to clean out some honeysuckle that had overgrown, and now i have poison ivy or sumac.

I have yet to identify the trees but will when they have leaves.

those fumes will make me more creative? ha.

[Guthrie Kid]

Here is what it looks like today:



Here is a picture of the oak trees, they are not as overgrown as one might expect because I have cattle foraging here:



Here is what the Crosstimbers look like in their unmolested state:



http://www.cityofguthrie.com/#

[Jammie]

Oh yes, now there are some pretty pictures. Thank you for posting them. I get pretty bummed when winter is here. It's just so "dead" outdoors and the lack of color is depressing. Glad winter is over.

[Synopsis]

Beautiful Guthrie Kid! Thanks for posting. I never had a chance to go back up to Gerty and take pictures there yet, but I'll try and go again soon. I'm sure that it's very green and beautiful up there. If possible I'll take pics of the same areas I took earlier in this thread to show the difference.