by
Rojo the rooster stopped running. He was a good ol’ rooster. Always kept a benign watch over his flock and even tolerated the guinea, mostly. We buried him up on the caliche mound in an unmarked grave which may seem cold but at least we didn’t just chunk him in the trash. We are down to three black hens, one gold hen and one guinea. It’s doubtful any will survive the year since they are at the end of their normal lifespan. Not sure about the guinea.
Not long ago I manged to set the compost heap on fire. The night before we’d had a fire and there were some live coals that escaped my attention when I cleaned out the fireplace the next day. Since I put the ashes in a paper grocery sack it didn’t take long before I smelled something burning. I had put the sack in the garage and while the sack didn’t flame up, the embers were burning little holes in it. I decided it would be a good idea to just spread the ashed on the compost heap, so I did. Later I saw it smoking and sprinkled some water on it. Not long after I was in the kitchen and Joyce, looking at the front window, said she saw flames. I hightailed it out there but the dang water hose was frozen so I had to grab the sprinkling can and get water from the well pond. Apparently some of the embers had gotten down the edge of the heap between the compost and the plastic container around it. That made it difficult to extinguish the embers with the watering can. I managed to do so but not before some gaping holes were burned in the side. Fortunately we have an extra so not much harm done. This part of the world is so dry and the wind so persistent its scary to have any unauthorized fire get started.
We are managing without Kari, barely. Her absence hasn’t affected me much so far. Joyce has been picking A&R up from school but otherwise they and their dad have been taking care of themselves. Chris is taking Abigail to Midland for a tournament and Rebecca will spend the weekend with us. We’ll watch movies and have a high old time. We’ll all be very glad when Kari gets back.
With no moisture since early October and none in the foreseeable future, I’ve started watering trees. I’ve set up a traveling sprinkler on each end of the place so that they travel down the tree line. Although traveling sprinklers don’t require as much attention as other methods of watering, they still require some. Since our nights dip below freezing I often have to wait until mid-morning before I can get the sprinklers going because the water in the hoses is frozen. The weatherman said the other night it might be March before we see any significant moisture, if then. Looking on the bright side, weeds shouldn’t be too much of a problem this spring.