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If things had gone according to plan, Joyce and I would be winding our way to Red River now. Unfortunately, we were planning on visiting the Shewberts there but one of their friends passed away Saturday and they were returning to Amarillo for the funeral this week. It’s my understanding the weather has been chilly in Red River, a contrast to the 90’s we’ve had all week, so maybe it’s just as well our trip got postponed. Gary and I are keen to play a little golf so we’ll look for another opportunity to make the trip soon.
Abigail had several of her volleyball teammates and their parents over for a party last Sunday evening. Joyce and I were going to excuse ourselves but Abigail wanted me to come, I can’t think why. The girls were pretty much absorbed in each other and after a hotdog or two we made ourselves scarce. I was afraid I ran the risk of having to play volleyball but they didn’t get a game up until late, about they time I begin my metamorphosis into a large spherical member of the gourd family.
Speaking of pumpkins, Joyce has a nice crop of them on the caliche mounds and they are already turning orange. Joyce is afraid they’ll go bad before they are needed sometime in October.
Joyce harvested her grapes this week. Since she has only one vine they weren’t overly plentiful they have a very nice flavor. We planted three more table grape vines this year so maybe in the future there will be a better supply. I test the wine grapes almost daily as they ripen toward harvest time. In the past I may not have harvested at the optimal time because I had to work it in around the job. This year, since I no longer have that constraint, I’m trying to do a better job of harvesting at the peak. The 2011 and 2012 harvests were done August 25 and August 20, respectively. It remains to be seen when the grapes will come closest to ideal sugar and acid levels. At this point it appears that will be somewhat later than August 20-25.
Abigail and Rebecca start back to school this week. At dinner Saturday night they both expressed reluctance to do so. I think that’s because they don’t want to give up the pleasant pace of summer for the more regimented schedule of the school year. Can’t say as I blame them. I’m not sure if the Wylie girls start back this week or not. Likely they do.
A crew I hired cleaned up the elms on the south side of SA this week, spent several days at it. There were 17 trees involved: nine were trimmed and eight were removed. Most of those removed were completely dead but there were two or three that were as much dead as alive. My experience is once they get that far, it is best to remove them. Otherwise they just have to be removed a year or two later and don’t look like much in the meantime after the dead has been cut out of them. The remaining trees look pretty good. The outfit that did the work has a pretty good eye for aesthetics and trims trees the way I would if I were doing it, if not better.