December 28, 2003

We're winding down a pleasant Christmas holiday. The wind that blew so cold yesterday has settled down, except for an occasional breeze. We've had blue skies all day and this afternoon, if one was in a sunny spot out of the wind, it was pretty comfortable. The dripper on the birdbath is dripping but it is dripping on a stalagmite of ice, in spite of exposure to direct sun for a significant amount of the afternoon so the air has remained cold throughout the day.

Genna and I worked on tree trimming Friday and Saturday morning. Friday we took care of a few more of the trees in the interior on the 2005 end of SA. The hackberry next to the lily pool got a good trimming, raising its canopy considerably. We got two loads taken to the chipper before we petered out. Yesterday morning we launched ourselves at a juniper on the north perimiter which was nothing but dead limbs about halfway up. Some of the dead limbs were pretty big and, of course, there was a multitude of smaller ones. Joyce and her daughters were planning to go see the last of the Lord of the Ring movies and had invited me to go along. I was keeping my options open and when Joyce came out to where we were working to remind of the time and I told her I thought I would skip the movie and try to finish the trim job. Something in her body language indicated that that was the wrong answer. Not wishing to disappoint or risk their wrath plus being more than a little tired of the day's trimming project, I changed my mind and abandoned the field, literally. I left poor Genna still stuffing limbs in the pickup which I left in the pasture. I had just enought time to clean up and choke down a bowl of soup before it was time to go. The movie was really long but pretty good and I had just enough daylight to get the load in the pickup taken to the chipper and the tools put away (Genna had taken care of most of them, bless her).

Yesterday evening K,C &A joined us for Thai takeout. I

got a nice fire going and after dinner Abigail, Jill and I watched Cinderella. Abigail likes that movie. We've had a lot of time with Abigail over the holidays. She's fun to be around, mostly. She can't quite manage the tractor Joyce and I gave her for Christmas but it shouldn't be long before she can. It is a John Deer that she can pedal. We hope she is able to ride it on the grass, otherwise she'll be limited to our driveway.

Kari, Chris and the dogs just passed by the sunroom window. No sign of Abigail. They've either misplaced her or sold her to gypsies

Our first Christmas on SA in 30 years was a pleasant one. We spent Christmas eve and Christmas day at K, C &A's. Bernice and Janice joined us Christmas Eve and Jill arrived Christmas afternoon after spending Christmas Eve and Christmas morning with Dave. We waited until Christmas evening to open presents so Jill would be with us, something we've done the last couple of years anyway because Joyce had to work Christmas day. Kari called us when Abigail woke up Christmas morning so we could go down and be there when she went to see what Santa Claus had left under the tree. It turned out to be a doll of the Barbie type, though I don't think it was Barbie. I heard someone call it Bell. That was what she asked Santa Claus for. It came with a couple of different outfits and it fell to me, I'm not sure why, to help Abigail change the doll's outfits, a task for which my rough fingers are not well suited. We managed, though, but I was glad that evening when we wheeled in her tractor. I'm better with tractors.

The shadows are creeping up the trunks of the trees to the east. Joyce has promised to warm the left over Thai food. Other than gathering a little wood for our next fire, I've spent the day in the house taking it easy. I think I'll finish out the day that way.

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December 14, 2003

We've had a beautiful weekend. Friday was very cold and snow was promised by the weather boys almost all day but it never came down. We were really disappointed. We were hoping for a nice snow. Saturday dawned clear and cold, but still. Genna and I waited until mid-morning before venturing forth. It was plenty chilly even then but we layered up and because we were timming trees we had no problem keeping warm. The day turned into one of the nicest in a while, really a perfect day for tree trimming and we took advantage to get three loads hauled off.

There is quite a bit of work involved in trimming enough limbs to make a load but even the three loads we managed were just a drop in the bucket. Much of the timming involved widening the lane so the pickup didn't get scraped going down it. However, we did get some interior trees cleaned up and collected the various piles which had been accummulating.

Joyce and I tried a new restuarant for dinner called

Just Noodles. Kari recommended it and it was pretty good. It was about six o'clock when we finished and were going to go home and veg but decided to see if Abigail wanted to go look at Christmas lights. She did and so did Kari, so we loaded up and headed for Bishop Hills. That is out the Boys Ranch road and most of the houses participate in decorating. It's a tradition and they get a lot of traffic through there. They've got arrows that guide you through but really you just join the line of cars and slowly drive through. It was pretty nice and Abigail enjoyed it. From there we went to the area around Margaret Wills elementary school where there are a lot of little ginberbread houses. That was kind a neat area to look at Christmas lights. Finally we went to the high-dollar are between Georgia and Washington north of 34th. There are some really big houses in that area and they really decorate. They offer carriage rides through the area and we saw one. It was a pretty nice way to spend a Saturday evening less than two weeks before Christmas.

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December 7, 2005

Much has happened over the last two weeks. We've been to Salt Lake City, Wichita Falls and Big Bend. We've had Thanksgiving, happy hours, worked around the house and been to Riverland. On a chilly, windy afternoon last week we drove out to Riverland, Jill and I in the pickup and Kari, Abigail and H&E in Kari's vehicle. They helped me gather a load of mesquite for firewood. There is lots of dead mesquite around and it makes nice firewood, being quite dry. I also showed them the site of the old dugout Amos McBride built and we checked out the old Whittenburg party house.

After getting all the Christmas boxes out of the attic I took up what boards had been put down on the rafters in the attic and put down decking. Now we have lots of attic storage easily accessable and we can finish the process of moving in and getting things stowed away

properly. Moving to smaller quarters has not been without its hallenges.

Friday night we celebrated happy hour at Genna's. The Zbindens enjoyed the back porch. After choking down some pizza we went to our house so Joyce could show of the Christmas deocrations. I started a mesquite wood fire and Joyce served the mouse cookies she and Jill had made that afternoon. Those were pretty cute and tasty, a peanut butter cookie, I believe, with miniature M&Ms for eyes, ears and nose and a piece of licorice for a tail.

My trip to Salt Lake City, which seems like a long time ago now, was interesting. I had time to wander around the city a little. I stopped in the Family Search Center in Tabernacle Square and a nice, young woman helped me do a little ancestor research. I was able to find some information on Cordelia Timmons but nothing on her parents. Tabernacle Square and the buildings in it are infested with young women who are very nice and wish to help you find what you are looking for. The one that helped in the research center caught me off guard and I agreed to a visit by local Mormons. They've made one attempt but I wasn't home.

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December 1, 2003

Twas in the wee hours of Friday morning following Thanksgiving that we crawled from our warm beds, loaded into the vehicles and set sail for Big Bend. Our target hour of departure was 4:30 but as these things usually go it was closer to 5:00a.m. before we were under way. Our intent was to stop in Odessa for breakfast. By leaving so early it was felt Abigail would sleep most of the way to Odessa and the trip would be less tedious for her. We did stop for gas but noone seemed inclined to prolong the stop over breakfast so we just broke out the munchies, of which we had an ample supply, and continued on our way. Abigail handled the trip with her customary aplomb.

We had wanted to arrive at our motel while it was still daylight. We had been told it might be difficult to navigate in the dark and it probably would have been. Leaving as early as we did, daylight wasn't a problem. We were there mid-afternoon and our accomodations were waiting for us. In case you are wondering, the drive from Amarillo to Terlingua, where we stayed, is about 515 miles and takes 8.5 hours of driving time (not including stops) at the speed limit. It is a long drive, certainly, but easily made in a day.

For me the highlight of our time in Big Bend was the hike back along the Chimneys Trail, a rock formation visible out on the mesa. From the road the Chimneys are about 2.5 miles over mostly level ground. They are visible the entire hike and appear closer. There are petroglyphs left by the indiginous peoples and some modern graffiti. It was past mid-afternoon when we got there. The skies were clear and there wasn't much breeze. There were no other people on the trail besides our group. After loafing around the rocks and eating some snacks we headed back to the cars. Genna, Kari, Chris and Abigail quickly left me behind. Hans and Elisabeth were behind me and weren't in any hurry either. At one point those in front of me and those behind me were out of sight and sound. There was no man-made object visible: no telephone pole, cell tower, road, airplane, nothing. There was no man-made sound other than my own breathing. There was only the huge dome of cloudless blue sky, a breeze now and then, crickets and the occasional bird. It was solitude such as one rarely experiences and though it didn't last long, I enjoyed it for the moment.

When we checked in at the motel, the manager, David Huff, gave us map of the area and pointed out the local amenities. Terlingua, Study Butte, et al are very dependent on this "high season" for their livelihood. Big Bend National Park is the largest and least visited of the national parks. While the Chisos Basin Visitor Center area had a pretty good crowd when we were there Saturday, it was nothing like the crowds often encountered in other tourist destinations during the peak season and I think the people thinned out considerably after the weekend. We went prepared (thanks to Kari, Genna, and Joyce) to provide our own food. When booking the lodging I selected a duplex for H&E and KC&A not only because they would need more room but also because their accommodations came with kitchen facilities. We planned to make breakfast ourselves, snack for lunch and eat dinner out. Kari assigned each of the four evening meals to a person or group, eg. Jill, H&E, Genna, KC&A. I got a pass because I instigated the trip. The first evening was Genna's and she selected La Kiva, a carnivore's haven according to Mr. Huff. The entrance was made to look like the entrance to a mine shaft and the restaurant from the outside looked like a pile of rocks, sort of. Inside the rock theme was continued. Throw in some of the local characters propped against the bar and one would give it high marks for atmosphere. It must have been an off-night for them, though. It took us an hour to get our food which was just so-so when it did arrive. They were appologetic and comped one of the entres because it took so long. They claimed they were short-handed in the kitchen and someone had screwed up Chris's tuna steak. Anyway, it wasn't a very good start and we were glad we had brought as much food as we had. The only other meal we ate out was at a very small Mexican food place. I thought the food was decent but the place was so small our group of 7.5 caused seating problems. To their credit they were able to handle our orders in a timely manner.

Our first full day there we visited the Chisos Basin and hiked the Window trail. The Window is a pouroff. A pouroff is where a stream or runoff reaches the edge of the mesa and "pours off". This particular one was supposed to be 200 feet but you can't get to the edge to look over. The canyon narrows to just a few yards wide and the rocks are worn smooth by the water so one runs a real risk of pouring ones own punkin self off

if one gets too close to the edge. The gap or "window" where the water pours off looks out on miles and miles of rough, open country, out toward the Rio Grande hidden in its own canyon and on into Mexico. There are many places in the park where one can find these vistas which can't really be described very well. Nor does a photograph do them justice. They really must be experienced in the first person for full effect.

That day we also tackled the Lost Mine Trail. It, too, lead to a wonderful view from a "saddle" which allowed us to look out in opposite directions from a high vantage point. The trail continued from that point, really the end of the Lost Mine Trail, on up to the top of Casa Grande, a towering column of rock. Genna called it quits there and Chris was humoring Abigail at the trailhead of the Lost Mine Trail, but the rest of us pressed on. The trail continued on either side of the saddle and Hans convinced us to go on the side that ran along a cliff face, a basic "don't-look-down" trail about a foot wide. That Hans is a fun-loving guy.

The trail got steeper and rockier as we went. We left Elisabeth and Jill somewhere along the way. Jill decided her knees had had enough and the trail was getting even steeper. Kari was concerned about getting back down. The trail was particulary treacherous because it was a combination of rocks and loose dirt. Kari started to give up where we had to climb a rock face of six or eight feet but later decided she could make it. Unfortunately we never made it to the top because the shadows were growing long and we didn't want to try our luck on the descent in the dark. Another day, perhaps

That wasn't the only time we had to abandon the trail short of our destination because of approaching nightfall. We also got too late a start on the Rancherias Trail in Big Bend State Park and had to turn around to make it back to the cars before the sun set. It was just as well, though. We had gone the wrong way on the trail and were on a loop recommended for a two or three-day hike. Our intent was to hike the Rancherias Canyon Trail which was much shorter and featured a deep canyon and another pouroff. Some of us didn't consult the maps and directions we had with us and those who did misinterpreted them, an easy thing to do since the trails were "unimproved". As a result we wound up hiking an easy 10 miles round trip and got back to the cars about sundown. I had been out in front, determined to reach that blasted canyon. I was still smarting from the defeat the day before on the Casa Grande trail. After hiking for some distance up from the road we reached the high mesa. This was another time when we were the only people around and we were following rock cairns out across the creosotebush flats. It seemed likely the canyon would be just over the next horizon but after several disappointments I became skeptical. Finally I decided I had to turn around to make it back to the car by sunset. Our group was strung out over the better part of a mile and I collected the others as I backtracked. The day wasn't a total disappointment, though. We got lots of exercise, enjoyed some solitude and nice views and we also covered a good portion of Highway 170, considered to be one of the most scenic in Texas. It's called the river road because it follows the Rio Grande and it does indeed afford an interesting and scenic route. Some of the more jaded in the group didn't think that much of it but I thought it lived up to its billing and will look forward to driving the entire lenght from Study Butte to Presidio another day.

We were frequently treated to coyote howling, yipping and carrying on. One morning about 5 a.m. the pack went through the motel area. The Chisos Mine Motel has several buildings strewn around 10 or so acres. We knew the coyotes went through the motel area because they were whooping it up pretty good as they went, like so many bachanals winding their way home after a night of revelry. We saw a few deer in the Chisos basin, quite a few roadrunners, but not a lot else. We didn't see any pecaries and no panthers. There are some of the latter in the park and there are warning signs along some of the trails.

I would recommend Big Bend to anyone who likes the great outdoors. It is nothing if not that. We only saw a small part of the park in the three days we had there. For me, at least, there is plenty of motivation to go back someday. I've been to Switzerland, Costa Rica, the Carribean and now to Big Bend, right in my own backyard, so to speak. By the way, Abigail was an outstanding little trooper. There are many things in Big Bend that jab, trip, prick, sting and bite and she had a few close calls, but I'm happy to report she returned unscathed and it was fun having her with us.

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November 16, 2003

We had a beautiful weekend. You couldn't beat Saturday and Sunday ran a close second. Both days started cold, a little frost here and there, but with clear skies. Saturday I started off in shorts and a Polartec jacket and was on the chilly side. Our first project of the day was to plant more fruit trees. Using the posthole diggers I quickly warmed up and nolonger needed the jacket. Early afternoon I even shed my shirt to expose my scrawny, fishbelly-white, punkin self to a few rays. The sun felt good.

Like I said, our first order of the day Saturday, after bagels of course, was to plant some more fruit trees. Our order of trees came in from the Arbor Day Society Thursday or Friday, which was pretty good timing. These trees were much smaller than the ones we planted last weekend. They were little more than seedlings. Most of them were about 18 inches to two feet from the tip of their root, which were exposed, to the tip of twig which served as a trunk. That meant I had less hole to dig but even though the holes were smaller than the trees we planted last weekend, there were ten of them, so I got a pretty good workout. We planted three cherry trees, one plum, two peach and three apple. These trees may bear fruit about the time Abigail graduates from high school. The Arbor Day Society also gave us a red maple for ordering the other trees. They'll give you a red maples if you spell their name correctly, I think. Anyway, we planted that one just east of 1911 in a spot where there had onece been a tree, no doubt an elm.

We also got 10 seedlings for joinging the Arbor Day Society and Genna and I planted them in the nursery behind 1911. Joyce had to go over and stay with Bernice while Janice got a permanent. We put the nursery on the other side of the line of junipers back of the house, more or less underneath the junipers. It is recommended they stay in a place like that for a couple of years until they get some size to them. The will be protected from too much sun where we put them and it will be easy to keep them watered with them all bunched up in an area about eight feet long and four feet wide. After planting them we mulched them with pine straw. It is kind of neat to be able to harvest our own pine straw muclh, particularly since they don't seem to seel it here. We also put a chicken wire fence around it because the rabbits like to sample new things.

We're still getting some pretty nice color, yellow mostly, but the oak in Genna's front yard is turning reddish brown. There is a little oak in the enclosure showing off a redder color. The oaks in Quadrille are also red.

They started on the fence to the south last week. In case you don't know, Genna wanted a fence on the south because the offices to the south, the people coming and going seemed to be a little too up close and personal. I would have felt the same way, I'm sure, if we didn't have this brick wall and good wooden privacy fence between us and Quadrille. Anyway, she wanted a fence and felt they should have put one in when they put those office buildings. As a matter of fact, city code required that they put in a fence but they got Mom to sign a letter saying she didn't care if there was a fence there or not. The letter actually said she wasn't going to take her fence down and another fence would cause there to be a place for trash to collect. Plenty of trash collected without the second fence but we won't get into that. Of course Mom wasn't going to take her fence down. She was an old lady who never did like messing with stuff like that if she could avoid it, even when she was young and able. Some people might say the builder of the office park took advantage of the situation to save themselves a little money but I'm sure they only had everyone's best interests at heart. Along comes Genna and her research reveals the fact that, yes, the builder could skip the required fence as long as the adjacent property owners agreed. Genna didn't agree and told the city so.

The person working with her at the city asked that we at least talk to the people at the office park about a fence so we went to see Bob Farin, the man who built the office park, Quadrill and Quadrill Park where K,C&A live.

Bob didn't want to build a fence. More acurately, he didn't want to pay to build a fence. He had, in fact, sold off the various office building so it wasn't his problem. We sort of thought a visit to Bob would be a waste of time but we accommodated the city and went throught th motions. It has taken a while, quite a bit of work on Genna's part, phone calls mostly, trying to keep things moving, and she even ponied up a significant chunk of money herself, something she didn't have todo but was willing to and wanted to do to try to get the project done.

I've had a bad case of the fantods for years over the way our fence on the south has been treated by they office park. Heck, lets just say Ferin. Here's why. When Dad originally put in the fence around SA (and inside SA) he used angle iron posts set in concrete. The concrete was level with the gound. Over time dirt built up around the post and rusted many of them out so that they broke off. When he rebuilt the fence, a project I helped in quite a bit, he tried to make sure the concrete was high enough so that dirt wouldn't build up around the base of the post. He also painted the posts with aluminum paint and the result is that some of the fence is 40 years old and in very good shape. When the office park was put in, they did some landscaping along the fence and pile dirt up in some places so that the base of the post was covered. To make matters worse, they put in a sprinkler system to make sure that the dirt around the steel posts stayed moist. The most egregious of this practice was on the corner post on the southwest corner. They put in a tree and built the soild up some 12 inches above the level of the surrounding area and the corner post.

Let me tell you a little about good fence engineering. The corner post is very important. It provides the foundation for the rest of the fence. It is much heavier steel and is bracked so that the fencing can be stretched between corner posts, drawn tight, and supported by the much less substantial regular fence posts. I helped Dad did up the old corner posts and reposition them. (He moved the fence out closer to the property line. Originally he had allowed for a riding lane around the place.) We did that with the other posts as well, but the other posts were maybe a fifth as substantial as the corner posts. Let me tell you, there was a hundred pounds of concrete on each corner post if there was a pound and that concrete extended maybe three feet into the ground. That means it had to be dug up and lifted out of the hole. Heck, it must have been two hundred pounds considering the diffiuclty we had toting them. So, you can see why I've been upset for a long time to see wet dirt piled up around the one on the southwest. A number of years ago when I was here for a visit I dug the dirt away and put some metal flashing around it to try to keep the dirt from coming in contact with the post. Bob Ferin happend by when I was doing that and when we met with him a few months ago he claimed I jumped down his throat when he stopped to ask what I was doing. Maybe I did but I didn't hit him in the head with my shovel. Sunday I dug the dirt out around the post again.

I had an interesting time in Los Angeles last week. I was in the Orange County area a couple of years ago and of course Kathy and I went to Disney Land and Knotts Berry Farm when we were kids. Otherwise, I've not been to LA. As it turns out there is a 7:30 flight each weekday from good old Amarillo to LAX. There weren't many people on the flight, which stops in Las Vegas, so I had a pleasant ride out there. I had the day free so I drove around the area. I drove through Bellair, along Sunset Boulevard, through Bererly Hills and so on. Eventually I got tired of driving around and it was late enough I figured the hotel would let me check in. It had been raining a little all afternoon. After check in, I went to get something to eat. When I came out of the restaurant I saw the sky was black as coal to the west, where I had spent most of the day. The next morning I was interested to read they had had a lot of rain, hail, mud slides, floating cars, you name it in the area I spent most of the day driving around. Dodged another one.

This week I'm off to Salt Lake City. I'll have a little free time to kill so maybe I can do some exploring. I'll let you know if I find anything innersting.

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November 9, 2003

We planted three cherry trees Saturday. It was a team effort. Genna, Joyce and I pitched in to get it done. I guess you can throw Kari into the mix as well. She bought the trees as various Mother's Day/Father's Day/birthday gifts. After planting the pinon last weekend I expected the operation to be fairly easy. The containers were smaller so they would require less hole and where they were to be planted shouldn't have any tree roots of any consequence. However, I was mistaken.

We planted them in the area to the east of the barn and on the south side of the line of junipers. That was at one time used as a garden. Joyce and I had our garden there the year we lived here prior to our banishment to the Metroplex. Genna had kept the grass going there by watering it. In fact, the grass was in pretty good shape. I expected the soil to be easy to dig in but it was not. I may have dug in harder ground but I can't remember when. I guess the lack or rain is the reason the ground is so hard. We had to use Genna's digging bar. That's something like a crowbar, about four feet long, solid steel with one end pointed and the other wedge shaped. After getting down eight to ten inches with the shovel we employed the bar to loosen up an inch or two at the bottom of the hole, then scooped out the loose stuff with the shovel. Blasting powder was considered but we didn't have any.

We mixed the dirt we took out with potting mix and gypsum and hauled off the rest with the wheelbarrow, a big enough chore in itself. By and by, though, we got all three planted pretty well, I think, and hope to have cherries by Joyce's 60th birthday.

We also planted some of the bulbs Joyce ordered. We used the auger we bought earlier in the fall for the purpose and planted quite a few daffodils in the meadow (between 1911 and the enclosure). Since that area had been irrigated once over the summer I expected no problems using the auger. I might mention that Gennas planted three cypress and several hollies without encountering the degree of difficulty we did planting the cherry trees. Unfortunately the meadow wasn't much improvement over the orchard. In places the drill just didn't have the power to turn the auger. I left a number of two or three inch holes Joyce covered over. We did get all the daffodils planted though, after which I had to lie down.

The weather had been chilly and overcast all weekend, not bad for being outside if you are working and nice to be inside if you are not. I kept a fire burning most of Sunday morning and Joyce put her mother in the chair next to it when Janice brought her over, to keep her warm.

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November 2, 2003 Riverland

Genna and I went out to the ranch Saturday morning. I called Clay Schnell Friday and arranged for him to meet us out there at 9:30. Clay owns the ranch a leases our piece of it. He had a key to give us so we could get in to Riverland anytime we want to. He also told us we could have the run of the place. He's a pretty nice guy, and knowledgeable about the history of the area. He took us to what I think was the dugout Grandma Rockwell's brother Amos dug. It was just out in the middle of the mesquite and I don't think I would have recognized it for being a dugout if I had just stumbled across it. I remember Grandmother Rockwell saying that Amos built a dugout and lived in it. I guess I was thinking about something dug into the side of the canyon wall but I've seen pictures of dugouts out on the prairie. In those pictures the house is only about half a dugout sunk in the prairie with the other half protruding above ground. The ones I've seen had sod roofs and maybe even sod walls. I guess that is a pretty good design for the area since it would be warm in winter and cool in summer, relatively speaking and the low profile would give less exposure to the wind.

Right now they don't have any cattle on the grass since they are trying to let it improve after the effects of recent droughts.Clay seems to think the drought is relenting. He pointed to the inch and half they got out there in June. Genna isn't so sanguine. She thinks it may be getting worse.

There are no cattle on the place but there are three big, black bulls. Clay said they wanted to move them when they moved the cattle but the bulls decided they wanted to stay put. The cowboy that works for them is named Pee Wee. Apparently that nickname doesn't apply to his stock of good sense. These are big guys so I'd defer to them, too, and they don't call me Pee Wee (at least not that I'm aware of).

We also saw a couple of deer. We'd been seeing tracks and speculating on whether they were deer or pronghorns. Not that some of the tracks couldn't have been pronghorn, but we saw a couple of deer

in a mesquite thicket. Neither had antlers.I think they were whitetails butGenna thought they might be mule deer. Didn't seem to me their ears were nearly large enough for mule deer. They were sort of mouse-colored. They didn't seem too skitisch and didn't run off as we drove buy. Clay doesn't let people hunt on the ranch.There's an old house out there overlooking the river valley. I didn't know it was out there but Clay told us about it. He said the Whittenburg's. It has a big kitchen and a big room running the length of the house on the side that faces the river valley. There are big picture windows giving a nice view and a large, rock fireplace occupying one end. It's in pretty bad shape now but it must have been pretty nice at one time as a place to go and enjoy the great outdoors.

When we got back home we went to a nursery where I bought a pinon pine. They were just unloading a shipment of them so a little tree that until just recently was minding its business somewhere near Las Vegas, NM is not decorating my garden area just to the northwest of the driveway. We also planted the three little mesquites we collected that morning.

These we put in the meadow in the area where the baregrass grows. The first little mesquite we tried to dig up was about 16 inches high and a little bigger around than my thumb. After digging down 10 inches or so and seeing that the tap root didn't seem to taper much if any, I abandon it. Genna speculated that the cattle crop the young trees off that subsequently grow back while the root keeps getting thick and longer. It's hard to find any mesquite seedlings so she may be right. Eventually we did find three though, that came up in one shovel bite. They were along the road embankment.

Joyce and I just hung around the house today. It was a mild day but I had no ambition and she didn't get in until 1:30 last night. Yesterday evening it was cool enough that a little fire felt good but this morning when I got up it was warmer than it was when I went to bed last night. We've had a moist south wind blowing most of the day but the clouds that had me hoping for rain eventually dissipated.

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October 19, 2003

There was a dome of high pressure over the area this weekend and the result was spectacular weather. Saturday was warm with only light breezes. It was an excellent day for working around the place and we managed to get a little tree trimming done. Genna had collected a couple of piles of branches which we loaded first on the pickup. Then we collected some limbs which were left here and there when the tree trimming was done. After delivering that load to the brush collection point we drove out to a place called Gebo's, out on 3rd St. It is a farm and ranch supply type of place and has all kinds of interesting stuff. For one thing, it has a good assortment of work clothes, things like insulated overalls, jackets and boots. I might like to have some insulated overalls. On the other hand, I might prefer to remain indoors by the fire when insulated overalls are necessary. We only bought one thing there, pipe insulation. Since we had removed the straw from around the hydrant in the barn we needed to replace it with something to keep that from freezing. Joyce said she and Kari bought heating pads for the kitties. Them old dogs get to spend the nights at least indoors. Joyce washed the barn windows. I'm not sure that has ever been done before.

She was only able to get to the insides of the windows on the cat side because there is a table against the wall in that stall she could stand on. I mowed the meadow Saturday, the first time this year. I decided it would be better to do it now because next spring the old dead grass might be lying flat where the mower couldn't cut it. That would certainly happen if there were snow. The tractor didn't have any problem getting through the tall grass but I had to go over some areas again because the grass got pushed over rather than cut. It looks pretty good. I could do some raking and maybe I will. Before I mowed I cut down the straggly Russian olive in the corner and piled it on the load we had collected from timming the elms along the street. Actually I only put the small limbs on the load because I cut the trunk up for firewood. When we were loading the limbs Genna had collected I cut up the larger pieces into firewood. Joyce and I went to the store after I cleaned up and got stuff for dinner. We got sausage to grill, bread, broccoli and stuff for a salad. Genna joined us and we had a pleasant everning stuffing ourselves. When we had cleaned up after dinner we walked over to Braum's for hot fudge sundaes. It is a little remarkable that in mid-October we could walk after dark in shirtsleeves somewhere and get ice cream.

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October 26, 2005

Genna and I made it home in good order. Our drive was uneventful, just the way we like it. We stopped at the DQ in Henrietta and had a little breakfast. We got more coffee for the road but it was just as bad as the coffee I got at the 7-11 close to Jill's.

After the Cowboy game I got out and washed the car. It had the buildup of two road trips and was pretty dirty. The wind was out of the west and though not strong it was chilly. In the sun it was pleasant but I parked the car in the shade so it wouldn't water spot so badly and it was a little cool. After washing the car I filled the birdfeeder and watered some plants before taking a stroll around the place to

see how things are looking. The grass is getting pretty brown. The wind which must have accompanied the cool front blew most of the leaves off the pecan tree down at 2005, the one which had been displaying such nice color. The honey locust next to it is also mostly devoid of leaves. It just has lots of beans which aren't attractive. Many of them have fallen but more have not.

I managed to find something here for dinner but our cupboard is pretty bare. Perhaps tomorrow evening I'll get to the grocery store. It will be a challenge to get my chores done after work before it gets dark, get my grocery shopping done, get home and fix dinner.

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October 13, 2003

It was cold enough this morning for a little fire and since we hand't had one yet I wanted to test out the system. Yesterday afternoon I collected a box of kindling and I got up about 6 this morning use it to start a small fire. I didn't do a very good job of laying the fire so we had to use a little gas to get the logs going. I don't like using gas. It's the esthetics or lack of when you turn on the gas. Aren't esthetics why we have a fire? Anyway, it was the first one of the year and I was a little rusty. The facilities worked well, though. No smoke in the livingroom. Jill had spent the night and eventually joined us by the fireside. Jill got into town Thursday before noon. We celebrated Joyce's birthday with dinner at Kubuki Japanese Steak House, Joyce's choice. I took Friday off and we (the five of us girls) spent the middle hours of the day visiting nurseries. We're trying to find some trees to plant. We didn't buy anything, though. The planting part may have held me back. I knew I would spend Saturday painting so why buy something just to let it sit around in its bucket and possibly suffer for it. We also looked at rocks.

There is a place out the Canyon e-way near Rockwell Road called the Rock Ranch. They have an excellent selection of rocks, from gravel to large ornamental rocks. I'd like to have a couple of the large ones but am a little squemish about spending money on a rock. That seems like an absurd way to spend on'es hard earned and also I wonder about where they get the rocks from. What is that doing to wherever the get those big rocks? After lunch Abigail and I were allowed to go home and nap until nearly happy hour. It was a pretty nice way to spend a Friday. Saturday I painted as I've said previously. I pretty much got it done and I'm glad because I've had several Saturdays in a row devoted to that onerous chore and I'm ready to something else. I say pretty much because I didn't paint the front screen or door jam. They don't get much weather and probably don't need it. Genna, on the otherhand thinks the door jam should be sanded so it doesn't stick from the last time it was painted and repainted so it doesn't stick. I'll put it on the list.

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