by 
Chris hangs up his spurs
April 1 No April Fools We got .14 of an inch of rain last night. More is needed, certainly, but that’s a good start.
April 8 Eclipse Hooray! Eclipse Day! So excited. I have my eclipse glasses ready to go. Can’t wait.
In other news, Chris got fed up and retired. Says he liked his job and all but his boss gave him the fantods and he decided to walk just because he could. April 5 was his last day and we had a minor celebration during happy hour. He says he has been so busy at work lately that he’s built up a list of to-dos that will keep him busy for a while. After that, who knows. It will be interesting to see what mischief he gets into as time goes by.
We’ve had some nice weather; even got a little rain last week, as mentioned above. There has also been cruddy weather of the windy type mostly. Last Saturday it was too windy and chilly for my taste, so I took care of few things indoors, but Kari spent time working in her garden. She got the fencing she ordered to replace the plastic she used last year to keep the chickens at bay and which the rooster learned he could hop over. The new fencing is wire (not chicken wire), taller and should last quite a while. I helped Kari and Abigail put it up, which we accomplished over a couple of afternoons with a cold day sandwiched in the middle that kept us in doors. I think Kari worked in the wind Saturday preparing the beds because she has sprouts that need to be planted soon.
April 10 Duck Weather Tuesday when I was adding water to the pond, I noticed a mallard couple cavorting there. Now, I couldn’t tell from just looking at them, but they behaved like the pair that visited SA each spring for years, but haven’t for the last couple. That is, they didn’t fly away as soon as they saw me, which is what most wild ducks do. I’m going to think they are our old friends and look forward to their extending their visit into the summer.
After a chilly and very windy Saturday, a balmy Sunday and a pleasant enough Monday, rain was forecasted for Tuesday and boy did it. It rained continuously throughout the day and only occasionally went much beyond a drizzle. When I looked at the gauge that evening I could see that there was over an inch and I thought maybe there would be as much as an inch and a half. It stopped raining in the evening but must have started again during the night because I emptied 2.10 inches out this morning (April average .83 inch). When I saw rain was forecasted, I was hoping we would get enough to wash the dust from Saturday’s blow off the grass. I think the grass should be dust free now. The sun is shining this morning, and we could probably see the weeds growing if we looked.
April 15 Holistic weeding Taking advantage of decent weather after the rain, I’ve been assaulting weeds practically non-stop. As expected, the rain and following warm days have kicked them into high gear. Rather than concentrating on one area, I have moved around the place looking for the more egregious infestations, which has the advantage of giving me a good idea about the whole weed problem, a holistic approach to weed control. One of the things that jumped out at me was the growth in the east-side easement. It doesn’t seem that long that I checked and there were few weeds, but that has changed. I’m determined not to let it get away from me as it always seemed to in the past. It will be my focus this week.
April 16 Water Conservation Abigail and I attended a seminar on water conservation sponsored by the Ogallala Commons. It took place at Wildcat Bluff. West Amarillo Creek runs through the Bluff and some folks are working to improve WAC’s ability to hold runoff. The approach is to install a series of retainer dams along the dry creek to slow down runoff long enough for some water to sink in. Maybe these should be called restrainer dams rather than restrainer. The intent isn’t to impound runoff; just slow it down rather than have it just run down the creek bed toward the Canadian River unimpeded.
They are using brush since that is what is available. Ideally they would use rocks but there aren’t any available. They used leftover Christmas trees donated by some big box stores until they ran out.
We took a field trip down the day creek bed to see their handiwork. According to the presenter, the dry creek occupies 22 acres, and its watershed is about 8,000 acres so the runoff potential is considerable.
April 19 Evening at the symphony Kari and I attended the last symphony of the season Friday evening. The symphony itself was Beethoven’s 9th performed along with the Amarillo Choral. We did our usual dormouse routine but enjoyed the performance anyway. The 9th is over an hour long and I was running on fumes before the orchestra reached the fourth movement, which where the singers chipped in. Bless their hearts, they had to sit through the first three movements before getting to show their stuff. There were four soloists that were seated in front of the orchestra (the rest were seated behind the orchestra) and couldn’t scratch, blow their noses or break wind without the audience seeing them. To their credit they managed to maintain their composure for an hour or so before getting to sing. When their turn came, they acquitted themselves well and I was grateful. The piece before was commissioned by the Amarillo Symphony so they could include the Amarillo String Quartet in the performance. The piece was supposed to evoke sounds and other characteristics of the Panhandle, but, as they say, it was probably better than it sounded.
Lionel the cat has been MIA for a couple of months, and it looks like he’s not coming back. He was born on SA, he and his siblings, underneath the prostrate juniper in the enclosure. One of the three kittens died as an infant. Joyce found it on the porch one morning apparently on its last legs and it expired shortly thereafter, despite her efforts to coax it back to health. Moma cat moved on soon after the other kittens, Lionel and his sister Bright Eyes, were weaned, I guess. They were wild and unapproachable, but Rebecca soon had them eating out of her hand. Lionel was more reserved than BE but still popular with everyone. He was a homebody. too. No one remembers ever seeing him off SA so his disappearance is that much more of a mystery.
April 30 Well, that about does it for April. It contrasted with last year when April was so dry even the weeds had a hard time. The two-inch rain we got mid-month greened the place up nicely and Abigail has been doing a lot of mowing. I have been doing a lot of trimming, trying to keep some of the usual areas that get overrun from going to the weeds. The weather has been nice this week and we switched to summer hours, getting started at 7 a.m. and knocking off at 10. That has worked pretty well. Now, we need more rain to keep SA green and growing. Kari is working hard to get her garden planted. The wildflowers, volunteers from last year, around 1911 are really showing out.