December 24, 2004

Christmas Eve Morning

It snowed all day yesterday, though lightly. Jill and Dave managed to navigate the drifts, such as there were, and make it in about 9:30 last night. This morning while they slept in I slipped out and shot these pictures. Our thermometer said it was about 10 degrees.

I had to be quick in stepping out of the warm pickup and snapping the picture I wanted else my fingers would grow numb and refuse to operate the camera controls.

Top

December 19, 2004

It has been nearly a month since I updated this page. I apologize to the multitudes that depend on my ramblings to assuage their meaningless existence. Of course, there may be some that haven't noticed, coarse people with no appreciation for extraordinary prose.

Let's see, what has taken place since my last accounting. We celebrated Thanksgiving in Garland with Jill. Kari and I ran the Turkey Trot Thanksgiving morning. Kari set me up, although she needn't have bothered since I came down with a bug a day or two before and wasn't at the top of my game. We took the train from downtown Garland to downtown Dallas. Kari forgot her fare and I didn't have enough ones. I dropped Kari off to buy our tickets while I parked the car because we were running late. Tickets had gone up to $2.50 rather than the $2 I was prepared for with my four ones. Kari bought one ticket which forced me to break a $10 for the other. Change is made by the ticket machine in $1 coins, which meant I ran the race with an extra 10 or so pounds in my pocket. I didn't post a very good time. I hadn't expected to, but had wanted to do a little better than I did. Old ladies and cripples were passing me.

We spent another week in the Metroplex when I went back down to do some consulting at a client's. Joyce went with me and we, of course, stayed with Jill in Garland. The client is in Arlington so I got to commute an hour or more each way for several days. Although I didn't need it, it reminded my why I'm glad I don't live in that area anymore.

This week I was in the office all week except for Tuesday when I went to Los Lunas, which is about 20 miles south of Albuquerque, to work with another client. I always enjoy the drive west through the ranch country. There were lots of pronghorns, one herd of 50 or more.

Yesterday was a really nice day and I managed to get some work out of Genna. We trimmed the pear tree in the front of 2005. It had lots of low-hanging limbs and dead wood which we removed. One largish limb had just broken off without any apparent provocation. The limb wasn't dead but it appeared it was dying and could no longer support its own weight. I'm concerned that that is indicative of the health of the tree buy maybe it will respond favorably next spring to our pruning. That took us all morning and we got a fair amount of firewood as a byproduct. We have collected quite a bit of firewood first to last so we can keep our hearth fires burning with abandon. After lunch we dug dirt out of the pond and filled in a few low places where there had once been trees. There are a number of those around the place. That is hard work so we'll have to take it a little at a time.

We're looking forward to a short work week and Christmas. Jill will be here Thursday evening, I'm told. She'll have to hurry to get my presents wrapped by Christmas day. We have a wedding to go to in Plainview Thursday evening, Max's grandson.

Top

November 21, 2004

We're having another chilly, damp weekend, but it isn't snowing. Joyce said we had a brief but heavy downpour around 5:30 this morning to add to our already well-ahead-of-average rainfall for the year. I slept through it. Even though it was chilly yesterday, Genna and I were able to get some tree-trimming done. In fact, with the temperature in the 40's and little wind, it was just about ideal for that activity. We cut and hauled three loads, which is a pretty good lick and about all either one of us care to do at any one time. It gave us a chance to try out our replacement equipment, a pole saw and a regular chain saw. Both performed well and allowed us to do much more in less time than we could dream about last year when we were doing it manually.

Yesterday evening we went with the Shewberts to the Outlaws Supper Club for dinner. It's out east of town near the airport. We drove in Gary's Camry and it was really out of place parked among all the pickups. The place was just about full when we got there but we didn't have to wait for a table. There were lots of cowboy hats around when we got there and we might have looked a little out of place. However, I did wear my Wranglers and boots. After awhile, though, the crowd changed to look more like us, middle-aged white people. Gary and Phyllis swear the last time they ate there,

several years ago, the place was full of bikers but it wasn't a biker kind of evening. It was cold and drizzling. The waitress said they get all kinds in there and we had no reason to doubt it. The building is sort of the worse for wear and located off by itself on an otherwise unsettled stretch of East 3rd across from the railroad tracks. As you might guess, Outlaws features steaks and is otherwise limited in its menu. It was pretty good, but the steaks Joyce and I got, sirloin, were a lot bigger than we are used to. Next time we get together with the Shewberts we may try the Coyote Bar and Grill.

While Joyce, Kari and Abigail will leave for Dallas tomorrow morning I still haven't decided whether Genna and I will leave Tuesday afternoon or Wednesday. There seems to be a difference of opinion but some of the forecasts say it will snow Monday and Tuesday. I doubt that would present and impediment if it does happen because driving southeast one usualy drives out of the snow fairly quickly.

In order to lighten the burden of some of my loved ones, I have prepared some suggestions for things I would like to have for Christmas.

Top

November 14, 2004

Snowy weekend

It has been a beautiful weekend so far. As much satisfaction as I get from working outside around the place on weekends, it is nice to have an excuse not to. Despite the weathermen's predictions that it would rain Saturday morning and switch to snow around noon, it did just that. Genna and I stopped by Home Depot, which Joyce says we should support because they support our troops, support the families of employees serving on active duty in the national guard, and so forth, and which I thought I was already doing a pretty good job of supporting, to look for something to stake my slash pines with and hold them up straight. Two of the three I planted last summer came with a tendency to bend over. One I had already given some support which proved inadequate when it snowed. I wound up buying stakes and Chris helped me tie them up yesterday evening. Both were bowed nearly to the ground by the weight of the snow. At my suggestion, Genna bought a new door bell while we were there. Since the original one hasn't worked for a decade or two, maybe it was time to replace it. About 10:30 I went down to help her install the new door bell. It was just beginning to snow then and the flakes were small. In fact, they may have been sleet rather than snow flakes. Before long, though, it switched to huge, beautiful flakes of snow and quickly covered the ground.

The law of unintended consequences has nipped me in the behind thus: The snow collects on our roof. When melting begins the snow slides of en mass creating drifts below the eves. Around most of the house that isn't a problem, but in front of the garage it can make it difficult to get out of the garage.

This morning I shoveled snow so Joyce wouldn't have any problems getting out to go to her mother's. When Genna and I were in Home Depot I looked at their selection of snow shovels with the intention of getting one. All they offered, though, were these great big grain shovels in two models; one with a metal scoop and one with a plastic scoop. Neither looked sturdy enough to me so I eschewed them. This morning I had reason to congratulate myself on my uncharacteristic sagacity. The snow that comes off the roof is very wet and heavy. My regular shovel handles it nicely since the scoop is small and doesn't pick up more weight than the shovel or I can handle.

Abigail just called to invite me to watch a movie with them. It's been a movie kind of weekend. We, of course, watched a movie after or as a part of Happy Hour Friday evening. She spent the night with us. I'm beginning to know Stuart Little by heart. After some discussion of when I should come down, Kari decided they would come here. Their arrival is imminent so I need to get the fire built up again. I rekindled it this morning early but let it die down after Joyce went to her mother's.

We will go to Garland next week to have Thanksgiving with Jill. Joyce and Kari are flying down Monday so Kari can visit a doctor. Genna is going with me when I drive and will spend the holiday with Kafrum. I'm not sure whether I will take off Tuesday or Wednesday. Genna wants me to decide so she can let Kafrum know what to expect, which is reasonable.

Top

November 7, 2004

Halloween and first snow

We got home safe and sound after and excellent weekend in Dallas. It's late and I'll not trouble my brain with writing much but I did want to get these pictures out there. My precious little Princess Abigail was my only customer on Halloween but, as you can see, she would be a tough act to follow so perhaps it is just as well.

The snow pictures were taken Tuesday morning before I left. It continued most of the day, I'm told, and accumulated to about nine inches according to Genna. I don't know why she would lie about a thing like that. I had some difficulty getting out of the garage because of the snow Tuesday and this balmy afternoon I washed my car.

Top

October 31, 2004

Hay ride

It is harvest time on SA. We're cutting the hay we've been growing all summer. Last Sunday I cut and raked the meadow. Abigail helped me haul the hay to areas where the winter weeds are bad and spread it as mulch. The idea is to smother out the weeds. That particular variety is a grass so Weed-B-Gone isn't going to kill it. It is an annual and I'm hoping if I keep it from going to seed I'll get it under control. Last spring it was pretty bad and would get worse each year if not interdicted.

During the week I spent some time mowing and raking in the pasture. Yesterday Genna and I continued that job. She raked while I mowed. We had already tidied up the waterline trenches which involved raking the dirt into a nice pile on top of what was previously a trench and by the time we were finished raking the pasture we were both pretty well raked out. Once we had the hay raked into nice piles we hooked the trailer to the tractor and Genna drove the tractor while I loaded the hay. That worked well and was a lot faster and less effort than using the wheelbarrow. We wanted to go to a nursery so we only hauled one load. There are maybe two or three loads left in the pasture which I hope to finish today.

Joyce left for Clovis Friday afternoon. She's spending now through election day helping the Republicans get out the vote. She called last night and reported that she had spent the day going door to door. She and her colleagues worked an affluent neighborhood where there were strong Bush/Cheney sentiments so she didn't encounter any unpleasantness. I hope that continues to be the case. It seems the loyal opposition has gotten a little crazy this election cycle.

My week included a trip to Enid, OK where I sought to do a little business with an oil & gas company. The trip was a success and I enjoyed the drive, although it was a little long at four and a half hours. I made that trip several times in high school with the orchestra when we went there for a competition.

I particularly like the stretch of road between Miami and the Oklahoma border. It passes through the Canadian River breaks and is more interesting than the farmland on either end of it. Visibility wasn't great, though. There was fog on the trip up and rain on the way back. The only wildlife I saw was a pheasant cock crossing the road.

Tuesday morning I'm driving to Grapevine for a show. I'll spend a couple of nights in a hotel in Grapevine. Joyce is flying to Dallas Wednesday. She'll stay with Jill and I will join them Thursday evening. We'll probably come home on Sunday. I'm going to take my clubs in hopes of playing golf with John Saturday.

Genna was having trouble with debris in her water line. It clogged up her drip irrigation system and her travelling sprinklers. She pretty well determined that the debris was coming from the old water pipes rather than being sediment from the well. One recourse was to install a filter but it seemed like sooner or later she was going to have to deal with the pipes, they being nearly 60 years old, so she decide to replace them. The stuff they used is a fairly new product made of plastic. It isn't PVC but comes in large rolls and is flexible. It really is just plastic tubing but it is guaranteed for 100 years. Now, I wonder who is going to be around to collect if it doesn't live up to the guarantee. In addition to the pipes in the house, the plumbers put in a new line from the well to the house and from the well to the barn. The trenches will be evident for years, but what are you going to do? The water at the barn is now accessible from the outside. They put in a nifty freeze-proof valve I think is going to be an improvement over the spigot in the barn.

As you can see from the picture, the garden continues to produce. The mosquitos have been very bad lately so Joyce hasn't spent any time in it. Yesterday Genna and K&C collected some things.

Top

October 24, 2004

Fall color and other random shots

We're getting some pretty nice fall color here on SA. At least we're getting yellow. The pecan trees really show out here. They didn't do that in Garland. Genna suggested we visit the nurseries now to find trees that turn red this time of year, which seems like a good idea. If we had some of those we could maybe someday have spectacular falls here, although some wag said the Panhandle doesn't have fall. It has blow off. Friday was a good example of that. It was pretty windy, but apparently not windy enough to blow off most of the leaves since these pictures were taken yesterday.

I spent last weekend and the first part of last week in Toronto at a show. The weather in Toronto was chilly and made more unpleasant by quite a bit of wind. One evening I went with some folks to the CN Tower, which you see in the picture.

I think they claim it is the tallest man-made structure in the world. We went out on the observation deck and the wind at some 1,000 feet was particularly fierce and cold. They have a section of flooring made of plexiglass. Standing on it you look straight down to the ground over a 1,000 feet below as though you were suspended in thin air. It is not a very comfortable feeling. The rational mind can assure the inner child that it is perfectly safe, but the child isn't convinced.

Yesterday evening Janice brought Bernice over so we could celebrate Bernice's 89th birthday. Max and Juanita drove up from Plainview and joined us. Joyce got some fajitas and we just stayed here for dinner. After dinner Bernice opened her presents.

Top

October 10, 2004

Canadian and other random shots

Yesterday was Joyce's birthday and we spent the afternoon with the Shewberts on a little trip to Canadian, Texas. One of Gary's customers told him about a restaurant there worth visiting. Once past Pampa, or maybe White Deer you get into the Canadian breaks and the countryside becomes much more interesting than the flat, featureless farmland encountered on the first part of the trip. In fact, it becomes really interesting. We saw turkeys, a deer (on the way back) and a fox (also on the way back, close to White Deer, I think, required sudden braking to avoid rendering it an ex-fox). Canadian is pretty small, maybe a couple of thousand souls. They have converted an old wagon bridge across the Canadian River into a walkway and we spent some time there when we first got to the area. It seems to me the bridge must have been for the railroad. It is made of iron and quite substantial, much more than it seems one would need for wagons. It is also at least a half mile long and makes and interesting walk. The river itself was flowing pretty well, not the trickle it sometimes is.

After strolling over the bridge we drove back into town and had dinner at the Cattle Exchange. They have done a good job of restoring this interesting old building and they have a nice, if somewhat unorthodox restaurant in it. When one first goes in, the people behind a counter take your order, take your money and hand you a hotel key with a number on it. The hotel key naturally is what we used to get when we checked into a hotel: a key with a large piece of plastic (only in this case it was leather) with a room number on it. Then you seat yourself, a waitress collects your key to match up with your order number and brings the food. They don't serve liquor. It's probably a dry county. And they don't have much of a dessert menu. In fact they may not have any. Since one has already paid for the meal, it's hard to make later additions. Their prices range from at $30 filet mignon to a more reasonable chicken dish. They serve an excellent bread, no doubt made on the premises, and at the end of the meal they bring a

small dish of bread pudding, no doubt made from the previous day's bread. Now, let me tell you, that small dab of bread pudding is almost worth the two hour drive by itself. We were complimenting the pudding to our waitress and she offered some for the road, an offer I alone accepted. It is in the refrigerator waiting for me now.

I had to use an umbrella when I went down yesterday morning to open the gate, a prelude to our Saturday morning bagel ritual. We only got a quarter inch but that rounded off the three quarters we got the day before. When we got home yesterday evening it had rained a little more. None of this was forecast. Where once it seemed it could rain all over the area and exclude Amarillo, now it seems to rain on Amarillo and not necessarily anywhere else in the area. We've had five inches in a little over two weeks here on SA. It's welcome of course but we're a little less fascinated by precipitation than we were, say, this time last year.

Genna and I worked on the tree line in the pasture a couple of hours yesterday morning. I worked on it in the evening all week pulling weeds and trimming back the junipers. Genna graciously offered to pull weeds while I trimmed. Her's was the more onerous task and by just trimming I was able to cover a pretty long stretch of trees. The idea as I may have mentioned is to make the juniper foliage more dense to make a better screen and hopefully shade out the weeds that grow underneath. It will also make it easier to mow along the juniper line, if I ever mow again. Just kidding. I will.

There was a hummingbird sipping nectar from blossoms in the Joyce's herb garden.

Top

October 3, 2004

We were supposed to have house guests this weekend but they had to cancel. We took K, C & A to the airport in the wee hours of yesterday morning so Joyce and I have been left to our own devices most of the weekend. We went to the Bagel Place yesterday morning for breakfast. Thursday evening I had started pulling weeds on the north end of the pasture so when we got home I went back to that activity. I was taking advantage of the ground being soft because of last week's rain. The weeds were mostly dead because I sprayed them, oh, probably back in July. Even still some of them had attained impressive size and had commensurate root systems. Not easy to pull. Joyce helped me finish up. She brought the pickup down and loaded the weeds we had pulled while I trimmed a little on the junipers, sort of pushing them back to the grass line. We gathered up the juniper trimmings and took it all out to the brush dumping site.

Friday morning I was in my office when a man drove up in a backhoe. I was curious and went out to inquire. Seems one of the houses on the east that backs up to the place, the next one to the north of the Storseth place, was having sewer problems. The sewer, water and gas mains run up what used to be an alley back there just on the other side of our fence. However, there is so much junk in the alley, it is impassable. In fact, I don't think a vehicle could get down it even if the junk were cleaned out. There is at least one gas meter that looks like it would prevent it. Anyway, they wanted to get in there with backhoe so I let them. That entailed taking out a couple of fence posts and taking the fence mesh apart.

I was assured they would put everything back and they did, although they used metal posts, the type that can be driven into the ground, in place of the original fence posts. Some dirt got shoved up on some of the fence posts and one of the elms got scuffed,

but otherwise I guess we aren't much worse off. That section of fence desperately needs attention anyway. Of course, I am concerned that if I were to put it right and someone else needed their sewer worked on, what then?

Joyce and I walked down to inspect the dig after lunch Friday and ran into Eddie Storseth. I hadn't spoken to him since we've been back, nor in the preceeding 30 years for that matter. He didn't know we were living in 1911 or Genna in 2005. We had a pretty long conversation. Eddie is a pretty good guy but his views don't exactly dovetail with mine on some things. Can't fault him for that, though. That could be said of most people.

Joyce and I went out to the Rock Ranch yesterday afternoon to look for rocks for the walkways we want to build in the front. We passed the Backyard Adventures manufacturing facility and were alarmed to see they didn't have much mulch piled up. We plan to reduce the grass area in the front and need that mulch for ground cover. I'm hoping they've simply cutback because their business is seasonal, requiring less product going into winter than in the spring. At the Rock Ranch we were assisted by a nice-looking and polite young man with nary a visible tatoo, ear ring, nose ring, or any other sign of self-mutilation. He was refreshing.

Abigail spent the night with us Friday night. After pizza, she and I settled down to watch Alladin. Joyce didn't get much sleep because the Abster was ready to go to Hawaii and didn't feel sleepy. Joyce had no trouble getting her up and going around 4 o'clock so we would be ready when her parents came to pick us up. We both were ready to go back to bed when we got home about 5:15.

Top

September 26, 2004

Trip to San Diego

It's a beautiful day in Amarillo, overcast, with light rain falling. I'm very glad to be home. Of course, one can't get out and work in this weather. I probably wouldn't have anyway, but it's nice to have the excuse to stay inside and loaf. Although I've been on vacation the last several days and loafing much of the time, it is still nice to get a little more loafing in before I go back to work tomorrow. It rained a little yesterday. I saw evidence here and there when Chris picked me up at the airport last night. It was raining when I got up this morning and continues to do so very lightly. Joyce said we accumulated two inches last Wednesday, the day Genna and I drove off for San Diego. There are over two inches in the rain gauge now. I don't know if Joyce emptied the rain gauge, but I suspect she did. If so, then so far we've accumulated over four inches in less than a week, a veritable flood for SA.

When I got up this morning I was wondering what to do for breakfast. I was too lazy to go get something or even fry some eggs so I had yet another granola bar. That's what I ate on the trip home yesterday evening, that and Southwest Airlines peanuts, and I was ready for something else. Fortunately, Kari invited me down for pecan waffles. Delicious.

Our trip to San Diego went according to plan, no hitches. We arrived Thursday afternoon and went immediately to visit Ophilia. She was in pretty good spirits and glad to see us. We enjoyed seeing her, too. I haven't been around her much over the years and it had been quite some time since I've seen her, Ronald's funeral probably being the last time and not the best circumstances. I didn't realize how much she looked like Dad, Lester and probably other of her siblings. I guess she came the closest to Lester, even in her demeanor. She examined me closely, wanting to see my eyes. She said you can tell a Keeter by the eyes. I told her I thought it was the ears.

Genna wasted no time in broaching the subject of selling her house and Ophelia said she was ready. Her attitude is good. She seems to be satisfied with where she is. As far as nursing homes go, it's not bad. Ophelia would tear up occasionally when she thought about her siblings now gone. It can't be easy to be the last of the Mohicans, but overall she's pretty jovial and about as alert as one could hope for at such an advanced age. She is somewhat skeptical of her roommate, though. Genna was, too. She felt she was a manipulator.

Gary and Susie were there when we got back from breakfast Saturday morning. Gary had talked to some people who handle auctions and estate sales, including one recommended by a friend who used to do a little antique dealing. Genna was to meet with him Saturday afternoon after she took me to the airport. This person offers several services ranging from handling the estate sale to removing the entire contents of the place and auctioning it off. The young woman living next door came and looked the house over. She told Genna she's interested in purchasing the house herself, both as an investment and as a means of controlling who moves in when she resells it. If Genna is satisfied after talking to the auctioneer and the neighbor follows through, the whole thing could be a slam dunk and Genna could be back on SA in a very short time. We'll keep our fingers crossed for her. San Diego is very nice up to a point. Certainly the weather is nice, but I for one like to have a little inclement weather. I like a little winter. Between the population density with consequent traffic and the constant roar of IH8 down in the valley, I was glad to get back home. We're not unused to traffic noise here, but the worst days here, when the wind is out of the southeast and we get the full effect of IH40, may not be as bad as IH8 is at all times, even at night. Last night when I got into bed I was amazed at the quiet. There was a very slight breeze out of the north and when that happens there is practically no highway noise and none that penetrates the house. It was quite a contrast.

Top

September 19, 2004

Abigail and her father fly a kit

After dinner Saturday evening Joyce and I decided to drive around a little bit, just to see what we could see. We passed the big field of sunflowers out on Soncy. They are apparently being grown commercially. We couldn't see them very well as we passed, though, because the sun was getting low in the sky and the field is on the west side of the road. We were driving south.

We drove on to Canyon. We wanted to take a look at the WT campus. It has changed a lot and I can't even remember what buildings my classes were in. It's a nice campus though, and growing, from the looks of it. There is a snazzy new event center down the road from the rest of the campus.

From Canyon we drove on to Palo Duro Canyon. We got there about sunset and just drove around. We were treated to a pretty nice sunset and then a nice moon rise over the canyon rim. It was cool and pleasant to cruise around with the moon roof open.

Genna and I tackled some elms Saturday. We trimmed back the last few branches that overhung the office park on the south. We had previously pretty well trimmed things back but there were a few limbs that were still a little low. It never seems to fail that what seems like a very small job takes longer and we wind up with more trimmings to dispose of than we thought. Once we finished there we started in on the big elm in the corner behind 1911. It is one of the biggest trees on the place and there were some pretty good-sized limbs that needed to come down.

We had to employ the extension ladder to get to them and ropes to keep them from wrecking the fence when they fell.All this we managed to do without hurting ourselves. There is vast potential for injury when dealing with sharp, high-speed power tools, heavy timber and elevation. I am a little sore today, though. My arms taking a beating handling the chain saws.

Speaking of chain saws, the pole trimmer has already proven itself to be a good investment (as has the hard hat and face shield I bought at the same time). We debated about getting another chain saw. The old McCullock of Dad's, bought in 1972, can be a little cranky to start and may be heavier than what is available today. McCulloch went out of business I'm told and parts aren't available. We had been trying to sharpen the chain ourselves but it still didn't cut very well. Before replacing it altogether I decided to have the chain sharpened by the place where I bought the pole trimmer. I also cleaned the air filter, which was pretty dirty. Anyway, we used it yesterday and it worked just fine. Perhaps we'll get another 30 years out of it.

We're scattering to the four winds next week. Wednesday Genna and I are driving to San Diego to throw an old widow woman out in the street. Joyce is flying to Dallas Thursday and she and Jill are going on to Hot Springs for some R&R. I'll fly home Saturday evening leaving Genna in San Diego to put the final touches on our treachery.

Top

September 11, 2004

Visiting McBride Canyon with Barbara and Grady

We got up early Labor Day morning and drove down to McBride Canyon, arriving before sunup. Grady and Barbara Howard joined Genna, Joyce and me but K,C&A didn't make it. It was too early in the morning for them. I know how they felt. It was too early in the morning for me, as well, but I like to get down there early. It was in the mid-50s when we left home but it was 46 when we got down into the canyon. That didn't last long, though. The sun soon got up high enough to warm us. The bugs were bad so we mostly just rode around. I like to get down there early because that's when you see the wild life. I was disappointed though. All I saw was one garter snake. We did see some deer after we left the canyon and went to Riverland. You can see the picture of the one by the stock tank. We saw several more high-tailing it across the prairie. Grady and Barbara are Panhandle history buffs and had never been to McBride Canyon.

They are also interested in plants and we collected some seeds and a couple of small plants, two of which I planted in the xeriscape. We were back home by noon. It had gotten pretty warm and I was glad to get in out of the heat.

Yesterday Genna, Chris and I did some tree trimming. We mainly worked on the group of three junipers on the southwest edge of 2005's immediate yard. Genna has been cleaning up that area, trimming the holly out of it, if holly is what that is. We took off some of the overgrown lower limbs and cleaned out the dead wood. We also took off one of the trunks of an oak south of the house, the one that was interfering with another tree, and trimmed back the lower limbs of the junipers on the inside of the line from due south of the house around to the driveway.

Top

August 29,2004

Genna and I made good use of the power pole trimmer I bought last week. I had intended to invest in one when we finished the south lane, which we did last week. I decided such an appliance would make it a lot easier to trim the trees rather than using the hand pole saw I have. After loading up the last of what we had trimmed earlier in the week, we did a little more trimming using the power trimmer and it did not disappoint. After lunch we tackled the big cypress tree along the street on the south end. Genna felt if it were trimmed up it would allow the small juniper between the cypress and the street to grow and fill in better. There was quite a bit of trimming to do and no way we could have done it all in the two hours it took using the pole trimmer. The pole trimmer has actually changed the equation so that hauling off the trimmings is now the bottle neck whereas before the trimming was the slow part. Effective as the trimmer is, it still gives my arms and shoulders a pretty good workout. It extends to 12 feet and that really taxes me, but not like the manual trimmer and the effort of sawing a limb. I hope I didn't work Genna too hard yesterday. We finished up hauling the trimmings off about 3:30.

Joyce called a little bit ago and said she won't be home today. She's taking care of her mother while Janice is out of town.

Janice has gone with Terry, Nicole, et al to Dallas for the week. They are staying with Jill. Nicole may be attending a seminar, but I'm not sure about that. Joyce spent the night last night at her Mom's. When she called she said her Mom seemed listless today so she decided it would be easier to stay there rather than try to bring her over here.

We saw a little bit of the Hunts as they came back through on their way home from Colorado. Abigail sure does enjoy playing with them.

This morning I put out bird food, including peanuts. A squirrel has been busily burying them. I wonder if it would feel less compelled to do so if I put out shelled peanuts. Yesterday I saw a bird I've never seen before. I was in the sunroom late yesterday afternoon and noticed it working busily in the junipers east of the house. I don't know what it was doing. It looked as though it was finding things to eat but I don't know whether is was seed or insect. It was a small bird, maybe a little larger than a wren, with a longish tail. It was colored like a mockingbird.

Top

August 22, 2004

Weenie roast

Joyce says the forecast is for our cool weather to be over. We've had an amazing week for mid-August, more like late September. Yesterday evening it felt good to stand close to the fire after the sun went down. We had a weenie roast and the youngsters played on the playground equipment, as you can see from the pics. They were still going well after dark.

Genna and I have nearly finished trimming the junipers back in the south lane. We hauled off three loads yesterday morning. She has been raking and bagging the area where I trimmed the evening before, which has greatly accelerated the process. We'll easily finish next week. Of course, finish isn't really accurate. We will complete that phase but the purpose in opening up the lane in the first place was to facilitate trimming the elms.

You may notice from the pictures that the pasture looks like a wheat field ready for harvest. That is blue gramma seed heads and we're amazed at how that area has responded to the rain we've gotten this summer. It hasn't been irrigated any and last year was looking pretty rough. I'm leaving it long because I think that helps to retain the moisture better during the normally hot months of summer. I say normally because that hasn't been the case this year. Very unusual. We could still get some pretty hot, dry weather, though. Anyway, I'll mow it this fall so it will be ready for next spring and so we can enjoy this winter's snows.

Kari's house was dark when I passed by Friday on my morning jog, an indication she wasn't going to join me. I had crossed the highway and was loping along Olsen not far from the old Krabbe house when I heard something behind that sounded like a dog. Not a dog barking, but more like the sounds a dog makes when it is running. I glanced over my shoulder to see if some canine mugger was about to make a mistake,

but I didn't see anything. I kept running but got the feeling someone was behind me. I guess I heard it, but it was more like I felt it. It has happened in the past that I was early or Kari was late and so she missed me when I passed her house but caught up with me. On those occasions I've had the brief moment of excitement between realizing someone is close behind me and finding out it is Kari, so I looked over my should again expecting to see her. It wasn't, nor did I see anything, so I kept plodding along. Finally the faint sounds of someone or something behind got the best of me and I stopped and turned around. There was an old black dog running along at my heels, invisible in the dark until I turned around. It ran at my heels the entire loop I make and was still with me as I walked back down Bellaire to cool off. As we reached the south end of the street a couple came walking toward us. I had been wondering what I was going to do with the dog and had decided I would shut him up in our yard and let the animal control folks pick him up. He looked like a black lab but I don't think he was wearing a color. I figured his chances were better if I got him off the street. As it turned out, he fell in at the heels of the couple walking the other way. I turned around and was walking the same direction but more slowly than they were so they were increasing the distance between us. I'm sure they were waiting for me to call my dog but instead, when we got even with my gate, I ducked in while they weren't looking. I hope they were dog lovers.

As Genna and I were driving back from dumping our last load of trimmings yesterday a familiar object came bounding toward us along Western. We were next to the golf course and I guess someone's drive hadn't gone as planned. The ball hopped across Western and rolled up a side street. I followed it and retrieved a perfectly good Titlest.

Top

August 15, 2004

Estes Park

Home finally. It was a long but uneventful drive from Denver. We left after breakfasting at an excellent little place in downtown Denver called the Delectable Egg. Last evening we had dinner at La Fondue. That, too, was excellent. I had eaten both places when previously in Denver on business. We arrived at our hotel in Denver about 2 p.m. and spent a couple of hours loafing in our room before venturing out to find a place to eat. The plan was to get on the free bus they have running up and down what they call the Sixteenth Street Mall, a street through downtown closed to all but bus traffic. There are stores and restaurants up and down the street and the plan was to ride the bus and scout out some places to eat. That plan changed shortly after we got on the bus. It was packed and very warm. We decided it was cooler to walk. We looked at the menus posted on the outside of several restaurants but

eschewed those establishments because they were more than we wanted to spend. Though I had eaten at La Fondue before, I didn't know where it was. Limited as we were in the ground we could cover on foot, we still managed to stumble across it and were rewarded with an excellent meal. We went back to our room and spent the rest of the evening watching the Olympics.

It was good to see the countryside south of Denver so green. The last time I was through there it was very dry and had been for sometime. In northeast NM there was water standing here and there. When we crossed the Canadian River on the way home it was flowing strongly, evidence of much rain on the watershed between then and when we had driven across on our way to Colorado. That should help Lake Merideth a lot.

Top

August 14, 2004

Rocky Mountain National Park

There is a nice view of downtown Denver from our eighth floor room at the Warwick Hotel. We've just lugged our bags up, too cheap to get a bellman to do it. We had a beautiful drive this morning leaving Estes Park. Highway 7 snakes around through the mountains and drops down onto the plains at Lyons. We lucked out on our accommodations at the Anniversary Inn in Estes Park. They were excellent. Walt the innkeeper served breakfast both mornings at 8:30. There were a few other WASP couples that didn't make any more noise than we did. The house was a 100-year old log cabin, according to Walt, and everything about the place was first class. It was well worth the $100 a night or so, especially when you throw in an excellent breakfast. Oh, and he kept fresh-baked cookies around for his guests.

Thursday we drove up through the mountains west of Pueblo, taking our time in getting to Estes Park. It would have been much faster to go up I 25 but speed was not what were interested in. We drove through Rocky Mountain National Park and over the Great Divide before dropping down into EP. Elk are so common in the park it was like seeing cattle in the Texas Panhandle. That didn't stop a lot of the tourists from stopping to take pictures. There was a regular traffic jam when there were a couple of big horn sheep about 100 yards from the road.

Our first evening in EP we tried to walk downtown to find a place to eat. It was early evening and we hadn't eaten in awhile. After walking about a mile we decided we didn't want to take the chance it was another two or three miles so we circled back and got the car. When we drove downtown we found it packed with people all looking for a place to park and a place to eat.

We wound up circling around through Rocky Mountain National Park, waiting 15 or 20 minutes for a highway crew to let us through the area they were working on and driving up the road from out digs to a place called Mary's Lake Lodge where there is a restaurant we had read about in some of the literature at hour B&B. By then it was getting late and we were getting weak. Turned out the food was good but the service was atrocious and we were ready for bed when we got back to our room.

Friday after breakfast we walked downtown (we new how far it was this time and how to get there) and wandered around. It's a pretty nice place, lots of shops and restaurants. It is a tourist destination so it has all the usual trappings of such places but it is a nice place to walk around and the weather was really pleasant. We wound up walking half way around EP Lake. By the time we headed back to town to try to find something to eat the sun was overhead. Before we got back to our room we had both gotten too much sun, as you might expect at high altitude and not wearing sunscreen or hats. You could say we didn't adequately prepare.

We got a little rest in our room Friday afternoon, then got in the car and drove back into the park. I wanted to take some pictures and Joyce went along to humor me. We drove back up the Great Divide, stopping at intervals to burn some digits. While we were downtown earlier we had made reservations for dinner at a restaurant called the Wild Rose for 8:30. We thought it would be a good idea to make reservations based on how packed the restaurants were the evening before. Turned out we needn't have bothered. By 8:30 the dinner rush is over and you can take your pick.

Top

August 11, 2004

View from Capulin Mt

Joyce and I had a pretty good first day. We weren't in any rush to get on the road. Consequently it was 10 a.m. before we got started. The sunflowers were in bloom in New Mexico and the roads were lined with yellow. We spent a couple of hours touring Capulin Mountain, an extinct volcano in Northeast NM. We learned that all the hills around were created by volcanic activity at different periods millions of years apart. Capulin Mountain was created about two million years ago, I think.

We followed the trail that climbs to and then circles the rim, finally dipping down to crater floor. There was a cool wind blowing, Capulin Mountain is over 8,000 feet high, which was nice because the ascent is pretty steep.

We made it to Pueblo in spite of some rain and hail. Tomorrow we'll figure out the scenic route to Estest Park

Top

August 8,2004

Morning Glories in the Garden

Joyce asked me to put some pictures of her morning glories out there so she can share them with you. They were putting on quite a show this morning so I snapped a few pics. It started off pleasantly cool this morning, about 63 degrees. No wind. I wasn't sure when I first rolled out of the sack that I wanted to do anything constructive today, but, when I got warmed up a little, I wound up accomplishing quite a bit.

Grady Howard gave us six wildflowers he had started from seed he collected in Kansas. The plants are about eight to 10 inches high, green, and very healthy looking. One looks like it will bloom soon. Grady said they need a lot of sunlight and we weren't sure where we were going to put them. The xeriscape would qualify on sunlight but we didn't know how much water they required. Being wild flowers, I suspect the are pretty tough. We wanted to put them and the hearty hibiscus he also gave us around the birdbath. The iris have thrived there but we would like a little more color than the iris provide. I settled on a compromise. I planted three of the Kansas wildflowers in the xeriscape, three on the west side of the smaller of the two pecan trees in the back garden and the hibiscus I put close to the birdbath.

Before I planted the hibiscus, though, I removed the iris. They needed to be divided anyway and I decided they would look nice along the Quadrille wall. I spaded up about 15 feet along the wall and planted pieces of iris there. Separating the iris was taking a lot of time and I had already filled the area I had spaded, so I took the remaining clumps and stuck them along the wall. As time permits, I will divide and plant them. They may suffer a little in the interim but iris seem to be almost indestructible so I'm betting they will manage until I can get them taken care of properly.

Joyce saved me again yesterday, as she has done so many times over the years. Genna and I had hauled off last week's lane trimmings and I wanted to haul off some of the stuff in the shed to the dump. One just has to do it, sometimes, or it never gets done. Anyway, I had loaded the pickup with some stuff including a considerable length of copper tubing. I know that stuff is valuable but it was from the candy shop, which means it has been stored away for over 50 years.

Dad never used it and, while it's quite possible it could come in handy, I was determined to make progress. Joyce came along and saw it and, after admonishing me, called John Tversky. He and his sidekick were delivering a hot tub, but he said they would be by in a couple of hours to look at the stuff I was wanting to get rid of. John told Joyce now was a bad time to go to the dump. Because of the hail storm a couple of months ago, there is a lot of reroofing going on and the road to the dump is littered with nails. Well, I didn't want to go to the dump anyway, so I started in on the mowing I had planned to do.

True to their word, John and Matt showed up in a couple of hours. Matt's parents sell antiques and Matt aparently does some wheeling and dealing. They were willing to take everything I had in my pickup and I trundled out more stuff which they also took. They said they would take pretty much anything I wanted to get rid of so another day I will go through more of the stuff in the shed, so I don't give away something I might regret, and ask them to come back again. That will make pretty short work of getting rid of that stuff and save me a tremendous amount of time and effort hauling it off to the dump. I hope they can get some good out of the stuff. I guess they know their business and their actions aren't entirely altruistic, but I know some of the stuff they are just doing me a favor. Anyway, I won't worry about it.

Yesterday evening we went with the Shewberts to Umbarger for dinner at a barbeque joint there called the Rafter, or something. It was pretty good barbque and it was kind of fun to see a little country on the drive back and forth. Gary took us by the Canyon Country Club which I had never seen before. It is up the little valley that runs below Buffalo Stadium and is a wonderfully secluded area, very quiet, with a pretty little golf course and some nice homes, both modest and ostentatious. I could be tempted by such a place if I weren't pretty well committed to my current digs.

As previously reported, Joyce and I are going to Colorado Wednesay. We will return next Sunday. I didn't want another year to go by without going to the mountains. It has been four or five years since we went to Red River and I've never seen much of Colorado.

Top

August 1, 2004

Photo Tour of SA

There was a squirrel standing on Henry Hedgehog's head. You'll recall Henry is the little statue in the back garden. I filled up the bird feeders a little bit ago and managed to spill the shelled peanuts in the process. That squirrel is busy burying them. I would prefer he just eat them. There are a number of peanut sprouts around already.

Joyce is at her mothers pickling cucumbers from the garden. I've spent the day so far puttering around the house. Our doorbell hasn't worked in a while. Several weeks ago I talked to someone at Home Depot who seemed to know what he was talking about. He made some suggestions for trouble-shooting the problem. I happened to be thinking about that at the right time. He had said of the components of a doorbell, the transformer is least likely to go bad. I seemed to remember something in the hotwater/heater closet in the garage that might be a transformer. It wasn't plugged into the wall socket so I plugged it in and the doorbell worked. How it got unplugged I don't know but I'm glad to have one less chore on my list, especially since I got out so cheap.

I got some pretty good work out of Genna yesterday. We made three loads of trimmings, two of mine and one of hers. These were trimmings we had already stacked up so we were just hauling them off. We finished up just before lunch and she made the mistake of asking if there was anything she could help me with after lunch. I planned to mow, but we had stopped by Lowes on one of our brush trips and bought weed killer so I set her to spraying the west lane. I sprayed it earlier in the summer but the July rains started a whole new crop of weeds.

Now that the sun has come out it is a perfect time to spray. There is enough moisture in the ground still so the plants are growing vigorously, which is the time to spray them. The grass in the lane is in very good shape and I'm confident Genna's spraying will dicsourage the weeds and leave more moisture for the grass

The grass in the pasture and the meadow is knee-high. The blue gramma has lots of seed heads. They may not actually be seed heads because if you hit them they emit a little puff of smoke, pollen no doubt. It goes without saying there are weeds, too. Most insidious is the undesireable grasses because weed killer doesn't phase them. One in particular is common around here. It is a bunch grass that puts up tall stems with a white, brush-like tip. The bunches can be quite large and so far the only way I've been able to get rid of them is to dig them out by hand. I've pretty well rid the back garden of them but the front grass is so full of them it's going to take a while. Not mowing the pasture and meadow allows them to go to seed, which is counter productive. I've used a weed whip to lop of the seed heads or blossoms or whatever they are, but as with most things around here there isn't enough time or energy to stay on top of them.

Yesterday after I finished work I was in the garage about to get out of my work clothes. I felt something on the back of my neck and thought it was debris kicked up by the trimmer. However, it seemed to move and I reflexively grabbed at it. My hand closed on something which I immediately flung, as it turned out, into the mop sink. It was one of the hunting spiders common in this area. It wasn't much bigger than a jar lid. I don't know where I picked it up or how long it had been riding on my shoulder.

Top

July 28, 2004

A taxi driver in Irvine where I spent the first part of the week said the people are so rich and drive such fancy cares there that they refer to Porches as Volkswagens. I didn't mention that that's what I drive, a VW, not a Porche. He said the average home in that area is $500K. That's a lot of K. I was in no position to dispute with him. From what I saw I had no reason to doubt his veracity. I have never seen so many general aviation aircraft in one place at one time as I saw at John Wayne Airport in Orange County. It looked like a Wal-Mart parking lot on a Saturday afternoon. Is a private plane what passes for a second car in La La Land?

I fudged a little bit and stayed at a La Quinta instead of at the Hyatt Regency where the trade show and conference was held. The difference in room rate was about $100 a night, so even considering the extra cab fare, I probably saved the company upwards of $150.

Of course, I didn't know when I made the arrangements the La Quinta was right next to railroad tracks and that there was a crossing right there, too, so the trains blew their whistle when they came through, which they did frequently.

So, the weather was wonderful, the scenery lovely and all the people are rich and beautiful. Good to get back to reality and the reality is the grass and weeds are growing like mad around here. I guess I'll dose the weeds this evening and start doing something about the grass tomorrow evening. Maybe Genna will let me mow around her house. She's nice that way. I took my mower to the repair shop today. It has some sort of respiratory ailment. They told me they had a two-week backlog. Nothing like a lot of weeds and grass to mow to make the mowers break down. Fortunately, I have a backup

Top

July 25, 2004

Abigail's Birthday Party

It's birthday weekend. We started celebrating yesterday with dinner at Joe's Crab Shack. Then we went to K, C & A's for cake and presents. Abigail, Kari and I watched The Jungle Book after that. The celebration will continue today when we congregate here for burgers and homemade ice cream late this afternoon.

It has been cool and wet lately. Yesterday was gloomy and is again so far today. It is nice to get what cool weather we can this time of year, and rain. When was it? Thursday night it rained quite a bit. Friday morning there was 1.8 inches in the rain gauge and water was standing in puddles here and there. That is a veritable flood for us. Nice part about it was there wasn't any accompanying storm, just rain. Oh, maybe a little lightening and thunder but no high wind, hail, tornado or what have you. All week long I had been working in the lane again but yesterday it was too wet to drive down the lane and haul off my trimmings. Yesterday Genna and I stopped by Home Depot after bagels. They were out of Weed-B-Gone. The reason is that with the rain we've had in June and now the last week or 10 days the weeds are growing like crazy. Seeds that have lain dormant for a long time are now sprouting. Joyce has been fighting goat heads around the barn and in the west lane outside the fence. I guess those devils can lay dormant for years, then appear overnight. Joyce is determined Abigail never has to experience the tender mercies of a goat head.

Tuesday night we had the Kirtons over for dinner. Genna joined us as well. We had a very pleasant visit with them. Stacy didn't care for the roast Joyce fixed but it was probably good that that's what we had. Given Stacy's limited range I don't think Wes get's a lot of home-cooked meals like the one Joyce prepared.

I'll leave for Irvine, CA tomorrow after lunch but be back Wednesday afternoon. I'm attending a trade show. The trip will be short and sweet, thank goodness. Maybe I'll get some work done in the lane when I get back. Genna seems a little skeptical of the trimming I'm doing. I think she's afraid by cutting the junipers back to the line of elms I'm cutting them too drastically. Those along the south lane have had little to no pruning and extend generally several feet beyond the elms. By trimming them back I'll be able to get the pickup up and down the south lane which will allow me to more easily pursue my life's work, which is trimming trees on SA. Dad had it pretty easy just mowing, although I guess he did a little pruning. Mostly, though, the trees weren't big enough to need trimming when he walked the land. I need to work at catching up on the trimming the next few years while I can still chew the leather. Hopefully keeping up with the trimming once I have caught up won't be too difficult.

The garden keeps Joyce busy. She has to pick things daily. Yesterday she was lamenting having to pick beans. Apparently that is more work than tomatoes and squash.

Top

July 18, 2004

Evening on the Canadian River

Things slowed down a little this past week and several evenings I was able to get some work done after dinner. The result was the east lane is looking pretty darn good, if I do say so myself. I have trimmed back the junipers to roughly the old elm tree line. That has made it much easier to get the pickup up and down the lane and that has made it easier to pick up and dispose of the timmings. Trimming and raking is all I did during the week with the idea of getting it all cleaned up and hauled off Saturday. Chris showed up and gave me a hand, my regular sidekick being out of pocket, and that allowed me to not only get the trimmings disposed of but get a few others things done as well. I let Chris load and haul off the bigger stuff while I raked and bagged the smaller stuff. Chris had some things he wanted to take to the dump after we were finished so he loaded the 10 bags I had filled and took them too. I was planning to put them out for the trash guys Tuesday but now that little chore has been taken care of.

One evening last week I was working in the lane when Kari and Abigail came by with the dogs. Abigail wanted to help me so Kari went on. First Abibail raked a little, then she assured me she could handle the loppers. She did her best but she finally decided they were too much for her. After that she wanted to catch up to her mother and the dogs. Kari was almost to the end of the east lane headed south and Abigail lit out after her, hollering for her to wait as she went. I watched her go expecting at any moment for Kari to hear her and stop. She didn't, probably because of highway noise but Abigail kept going at a steady trot. I figured I'd best keep her in view until she was safely handed off to her mom so I started out after her. I expected Abigail to slow down to a walk but she didn't and I had to kick it into gear when she disappeared around the corner.

This I was reluctant to do, it being late in the day and I being pretty darned tired. As I galloped around the corner and headed west up the south lane Abigail was still well ahead of me and still loping along at the same pace so I had to keep jogging after her so she didn't get too far out of sight when she turned the corner headed back north. By the time I reached the well area she had caught up with Kari, who was carrying her then. I had run half way around Six Acres in my heavy boots and was real glad they finally hooked up so I could walk back down, collect my tools and call it a night.

We got some rain last night. It started raining about 12:30, I think, and rained nearly an hour. Our rain gauge had about .7 inches in it but it may have been partially under a tree. We got another little shower this morning.

Joyce is beginning to haul the produce out of the garden at a pretty steady rate. Squash and cucumbers, mostly. I mowed inside the garden yesterday. The long grass was making it difficult for Joyce to control the weeds. The little toads have scattered all over the garden and can be found nealy everywhere. The rain we had last night and this morning may have encouraged them to leave the garden, which would be a mistake. It can turn awful dry awful fast.

Chris was out of town most of last week and Kari and Abigail spent several nights with us because their house sprang a leak. We couldn't locate the source and had to shut off the water. The plumbers had to use special equipment to track down the leak and had to jackhammer into the slab to fix it. They were able to turn their water back on Friday evening but the repairs to the floor won't be finished until this coming week.

Top

July 3, 2004

4th of July Celebration on SA

May 29, 2004

May on SA

April 25, 2004

A Trip to the River

April 17, 2004

Easter Egg Hunt and McBride Canyon

April 4, 2004

Spring Bloom on SA

We're getting a little rain now. Sunday afternoon, a little rain keeping me from working, life is good. We did accomplish a few things yesterday. With the help of Genna, Chris, Joyce and Abigail, I finished the privacy fence. I simply bought treated eight-foot posts, stuck them in holes and dirted them in. Then I tacked eight-foot privacy trellis between them on both sides of the post. Next we'll plant roses and/or honeysuckles to grow up on the trellis. The screen alone is enough to provide a barrier between the street and the back of the house. It will be just that much more effective once there are things growing on it.

We got the fence mostly done before lunch. Genna and Chris finished up after lunch while Abigail and I played fisbee. She's a pretty good frisbee player. Then everyone went home and Joyce and I went to get a load of mulch. There is a place out on the Canyan e-way just north of Rockwell Road called Outdoor Adventures that builds and sells high-dollar backyard play equipment. These are elaborate combination playhouse, slide, swing, you name it structures made mostly from wood. There is a lot of scrap wood created as a by product and they grind it up into mulch. Joyce found out about it at one of the gardening seminars she's been to this spring. The mulch created is devoid of the junk that is in the mulch the city creates at its brush sites. While the public is only supposed to bring their tree and brush timmings to these sites, some of the public, those that apparently can't read, bring their scrap lumber, used furniture, and plastic junk that should go to the dump. Instead it winds up in the mulch. The clean mulch at Outdoor Adventures is free to the public, which is just about my price range. Last Saturday afternoon Joyce and I went out there on a scouting mission, not really prepared to get a load. However, once we found the place we decided to load up some since there was a shovel handy. We lost a lot of it on the trip home because we had nothing to cover it with. Yesterday we took plastic sheeting and bungee cords so we got home with a good load which we spread under the juniper on the southwest corner of the driveway. Joyce has planted flowers under there and it is a pretty good place to have flowers. The mulch will help keep the ground from drying out too much and deter the weeds somewhat.

It is my intent to get more mulch and spread it on the northwest side of the driveway and even on the bare ground around the birdbath. That area should also be a good place to plant flowers. Last weekend we helped K&C dig up some boxwoods in an area next to their patio so Kari could have an herb garden there. They replaced a sickly boxwood in the front of their house with a couple of the ones we dug up and I planted the remaining three in the area north of the backporch in the same area as the birdbath.

Last week I went down to college station for a couple of days. They've had a lot of rain down there and the country is a lush contrast to what I've grown accustomed to over the last 10 months. The weather was very nice and the spring flowers and blooming trees made the area very pretty. It did seem to me people who live there must spend a lot of time mowing. The place I was working was in a new area of the A&M campus so I got to see a lot of the campus and the town. It looked like a pretty nice place to go to school.

Jill will arrive this evening and spend the week with us. I hope we have some decent weather while she is here. I may take a day off if the weather is nice and I have time. While the software business hasn't been great lately, it seems I have more than enough to do to keep me busy.

We finished tilling up the garden last weekend and worked in 25 bags of compost. It is ready for planting. The orchard has sprung to life. Some of the very small trees we planted last fall had not shown any sign of life but are now beginning to, all but one. Maybe it will come around as well. One of the large cherry trees Jill and Kari gave me last fall has some blossoms on it. The little cherry tree on the south side of 2005 is covered with them. That is Joyce's favorite because it produces a lot of cherries that are easy to pick because it is so short. I got three bare-root hazelnuts last week from the Arbor Day Foundation and planted them on the west edge of the meadow among the pines. If they fulfill their promise they will provide nice understory, additional screening from the street and food for the squirrels.

Top

March 21, 2004

We have been very busy of late. This commentary has gone unchanged for too long. In our defense, however, until now the month of March has been spent largely away from home and hearth, trips to Connecticut, Phoenix, San Antonio and Las Vegas have resulted in more time spent in air ports than at home, or so it seems. The ICS annual meeting was the first of the month. It was good weather. Not balmy, you understand, but for that part of the world at that time of year pretty nice. I spent the little bit of the afternoon I had left once I arrived there poking around the capital grounds. That being a Saturday I also had all day Sunday to myself, except for dinner Sunday evening at the Andrews'. I spent some time at the Mark Twain museum, a new facility next to his historic home in Hartford. The museum is well done and pretty interesting. In the gift shop I bought a picture of old Sam framed with one of his quotes. I've put that on the wall above my reading chair and I'm pretty proud of it. One of my colleagues at ICS was supposed to represent the company at a conference of school districts in Phoenix beginning the Sunday following the week of the annual meeting. Health problems prevented his doing so and I stepped in to take his place. The weather in Arizona was beautiful and the conference was not too tiresome so I managed all right in spite of the short notice, it being decided the Wednesday before that I would fill in. They threw a party for the conference attendees one evening by the pool. There were lots of stars in the night sky over Scottsdale and probably the rest of Phoenix. A woman I know from the Garland school district kept me company most of the evening and we enjoyed the weather and the refreshments. There were lots of snapdragons in raised beds around the large pool area and hummingbirds buzzed through the twilight making their rounds.

The weather was also nice in Las Vega but that was about the only thing that was. A convergence of spring break, various conferences and college basketball playoffs filled the town to the brim. Joyce and I arrived late afternoon Sunday. We should have known what was ahead of us when the security line in Amarillo was so long. Our flight was full and the crowding didn't end until we were back home. After checking in we got on a bus to go to the hotel where the conference I was attending was being held so I could register for the conference. It took forever to got the three or four miles from hour hotel to other hotel because of traffic. We stayed at a different hotel which was less expensive but we didn't gain that much when taxi fares were added in. It would have been better to pay the higher room rates and not have to contend with getting back and forth between hotels. Anyway we managed. My colleague and I may have learned some things which will be helpful to ICS. Joyce won a little money. I had thought I would not like Las Vegas and had avoided going there even though people said I should go at least once. Now that I have been there I can say that I despise the place, it being worse than I thought. I usually find cities and their buildings interesting. For instance, I enjoy New Orleans, particularly the French Quarter and it gets much of its charm from a devotion to vice. Las Vegas on the other hand is absolutely based on it and lacks the historic charm of New Orleans or many other places. We worked quite a bit on preparing the garden yesterday. The soil was ideal to work in, not being too wet like it was two Saturday's ago or too dry as it was before the rain we got in February. We now have three rows about 30 inches wide and three round areas about five feet in diameter. Next weekend we will get a load of compost to work into the beds so we should be in good shape to start planting toward the end of April.

Top

February 25, 2004

Ice Covered Flowers

February 14, 2004

A Snowy Winter Morning

February 14, 2004

Tour of SA After a Snow

Maybe you would like to take a tour of SA as it was last Saturday (Feb. 14, 2004). The snow started falling in the wee hours Thursday morning. I was planning to drive to Dallas for a meeting in Sherman on Friday. That didn't look too promising when I got up. It was very cold and there was blowing snow. However, when we tuned in the weather on TV we saw that the snow was falling in a band from New Mexico to Amarillo pretty much along I40 so I headed out as planned. In town the roads were covered with snow but traffic along I40 wasn't a problem and the road began to clear about the time I reached the I40-287 Y. By the time I passed Claud I was driving on dry roads and by the time I reached Wichita Falls the sun was beginning to shine. I was lucky coming home Friday, too. There was sunshine in North Texas and I didn't get into any bad weather on the drive home.

Kari and Nicole brought the little ones over to play in the snow around 11 a.m. When I shot the pictures above it was pretty cold. My fingers and toes were getting numb by the time I got back in the house. By late morning, though, it was pleasant to be outside. When I went out then Kari and Nicole were helping Parker and Abigail build a snowman. I got my old sled out of the shed and began taking Parker and Abigail for sled rides. I was amazed at how easy it was to pull them across the snow. We started out running and they enjoyed that a lot, but I wore down pretty fast so we had to start walking.

My circuit took us from the 2005 gate area counter-clockwise around 2005. Each time I arrived back at the snowman-building area Abigail wanted me to "do more". Eventually though Parker wanted to play baseball and it was just me and Riley. Riley isn't much of a load but she's a good sledder. We got into the lane in the southeast corner and followed it north, then west and came out by 1911. We made that circuit a couple of time. Then Abigail joined us for one last time around.

Today I broke ground on the garden. I used a spading fork and loosened up an area about 20X3. I also loosened up a circular area where there once was an elm tree. I'll take the rototiller in to get it fixed this week and with a little luck I can do a little tilling next weekend. Joyce asked how much area I was going to prepare. I told her I wasn't sure. A lot of it depended on time and energy. I may find I don't need to do any spading prior to using the rototiller. It just seemed like it would be easier if I loosened the ground a bit. If I find the rototiller can break the ground then things will go faster. At any rate, I plan to err on the conservative side. I think it would be better to start small and build on that based on the experience we gain this season. I think it would be better to be saying gee I wish we had planted more of this and that than to finish the season thinking my gosh we really over did it.

Top

January 26, 2004

New Trees

It was really nice today until the wind started to blow. I went out to putter around shortly after noon. The sun was shining and it was still. The air was cool but if one stayed in the sunshine it was nice. Then the wind picked up out of the west. It got pretty gusty and the shorts I had on were nolonger comfortable. I wanted to get Abigail to help me take some pictures but had to wait until after he nap. She was cooperative for the first few but then she got bored and refused to cooperate. She wanted to go to may office and work. Maybe the chilly wind had something to do with that. Anyway, that's where we went. After we got tired of that we went into Genna's office and pestered her

We had been wondering for some time if elm made good firewood. Wesley had told us it doesn't smell good and seemed to me I had some recollection of that. However, yesterday we were trimming on the elm between the meadow and the street.

There was quite a bit of dead, some of it pretty good sized, and I cut it up to try in the fireplace. This morning I burned some and I've got some burning now. Turns out it is good firewood. It doesn't burn to fast or too slow, it doesn't pop much and it doesn't have any odor that I can detect. That's good news because we have a lot of the stuff. Between elm and mesquite, I might not have to buy much firewood

We got the last of the trees we bought a couple of weeks ago planted yesterday. I had sort of planned to plant the two one-gallon pines in the back somewhere but decided to plant them among the three 15-gallon pines we planted on the western edge of the meadow. Hopefully in a few years they will create a nice effect in the area. Genna planted 5 one-gallon pines in a grove southwest of 2005. That, too, should be interesting if they prosper over the next decade.

Top

January 17, 2004

First Snowman

We nearly got a covering of snow Saturday. It was snowing when we got up. Genna and I made our usual Saturday bagel run but were glad to slither back into our respective lairs out of the wind and wet. I was not sorry that we were unable to continue our tree-timming. It is necessary work but it will keep. Perhaps next weekend we can continue the trimming that's needed on the western edge of the meadow. The pine we will plant when the timming has been done will no doubt be content a little longer in its bucket, especially with the moisture we got.

The snow kept on until the afternoon and a light rain fell much of the rest of the day. Genna is guessing we got about 3/8ths of an inch, which is almost significant moisture. We take what we can get these days.

K, C&A and their dogs got out Saturday afternoon and cavorted in the snow. They even built a snowman (see picture at left), Abigail's first, of course, and possibly even Kari's.

The snow was very wet and not very deep so there was a lot of grass included in the snoman's body parts. Still, it was a pretty good snowman and still stands silent guard as the rest of the snow retreats to the shadows. It will diminish as the days goes along, though. The sun is very bright.

As the snow accumulated yesterday the juncos could be seen searching the birdfeeder for seeds. Unfortunately I had let it run dry. Finally their plight stirred me to action and braved the slop to fill the feeder. I also filled the see holder on the little ornamental snowman we have outside the sunroom window. It was also had no seeds in it but it did have snow. I scooped it out as best I could and put seeds in it. The juncos were quick to take advantage and I got a pretty good picture (to come) of them from the sunroom. I shot several pictures from there, which was a much more comfortable place to work than when I went outside to take pictures of the snowman construction.

Top

January 3, 2004

Tree Trimming

Genna and I were able to finish our tree-trimming project from last Saturday this Saturday. The forecast had been for a cold front to move into the area by noon but it held off until sometime in the early morning hours of Sunday. Because of that we had a beautiful day Saturday and we took full advantage of it. It was great to be outside and we were very pleased with what we were able to accomplish.

There was a juniper on the south perimeter about 50 feet east of 1911 that was nothing but dead limbs over half way up its trunk. It was pretty unsightly and Genna wanted to tackle it, which we did a week ago. We got the limbs cut down but ran out of steam before we got them trimmed down and loaded in the pickup. This past weekend we finished the job. Not only did we get the limbs either trimmed and stacked neatly if they were large enough for firewood or loaded in the pickup if they weren't, but we got two little trees transplanted from the enclosure to the gap left by the timming.

We dug up a juniper sapling about three feet tall and put it between the trimmed juniper and its nearest neighbor on the east. The little juniper had no future growing up as it was in a tangle of grapevines and brush. We were surprised and delighted once we got it dug up and replanted what a nice speciman it is. We're hoping the move doesn't cause it too much distress. If it doesn't it may not take it long to plug up the gap left by the trimming.

We also dug up an oak seedling growing within a few feet of the juniper sapling. The oak was about 18 inches high but the thickness of its root indicated the tree had been lopped off at least once, since the root was nearly the thickness of my thumb where it met the trunk while the trunk was maybe the thickness of my little finger.

Junipers don't put down a tap root. They seem to spread their roots close to the surface so they can quickly take advantage of any moisture that falls. As a result even a fairly good-sized one like the one we just transplanted isn't all that difficult to dig up. The oak was a different story. This one had a tap root 24 to 30 inches long and it wasn't easy to dig down deep enough to get it all. In fact, I didn't. I managed to get all but the last eight or 10 inches so it will be interesting to see if it survives. I think we did a pretty good job of planting both. We dug holes that should be plenty big, used a little gypsum to help loosen the soil, and gave them a dose of root stimulator along with a good watering. We will, of course, keep them watered and we'll just see how things go this spring.

We're getting a good opportunity to test the new birdbath we got. It is actually just the saucer, which is heated so it won't freeze, and designed to replace the regular birdbath saucer during the winter. No doubt the water in the regular saucer would be frozen today, if there were any water. The regular saucer is cracked and leaks. It was about 20 degrees when I got up this morning and though it may have gotten above freezing today, I doubt it would have gotten warm enough to thaw the regular saucer. The heated one, though, is free of ice and the birds are quite taken with it. There are robins, sparrows, juncos, bluejays, something that may have been a painted bunting and one or two others I need to look up. Since it was warm yesterday the dripper was dripping when I set up the new saucer late yesterday afternoon and when the heated saucer got full enough it tipped over. It is a little deeper than the regular saucer and holds more water, thus more weight, enough to unbalance the pedestal. We just removed the pedestal and placed the heated saucer on the stepping stone the pedestal sat on. It doesn't seem to make any differnce to the birds.

Top