June-July 2023

It’s the middle of July and we settled into a summer routine. Our Red River outing has come and gone. Seems to go by so fast. It was a good trip, I think everyone will agree. No one was interested in fishing which gave us more time for other activities, such as hiking. We scouted out a couple of hiking trails we hadn’t hiked before. The first one was to Cabresto Lake. It was more of a road than a hiking trail but we left Jill’s vehicle and ventured on by foot. Some of us petered out before going very far, but Kari, Jill and I wanted to make it to the lake. I think we got pretty close but I finally turned around because I figured others that had gone back to the car would be wanting to go back to town. Along the road I got to see a pair of spotted fawns. I’ve never seen any before. Don’t know where the mother was, close by no doubt. It started to rain on the way back and a couple in a Jeep offered us a ride. We were crammed in with a man and a woman, their baby in a car seat and their two small dogs. They let us out after it stopped raining, and we made our way back to the car without any problems.

The second trail was a serious hike. I think the whole trail was something like 75 miles but we didn’t go that far. It was pretty steep but was a nice scenic trail along a stream. I saw a snake and it saw me. It was probably a garter snake of some sort and it quickly vanished into the underbrush.

We celebrated the 4th the day after we got home, July 1. Our group was much diminished, Lou Tversky passed away a couple of weeks before and the Dereks were dealing with some health problems. So other than me, the Zbindens and the Wylies, we only had Nicole and Carson join us. Still, we had a pleasantly cool day for and it a nice visit all around, I think.

Abigail and Chris spent a couple of weeks in Switzerland in July. They ran into the some of the Hunts on one of the their hikes and spent some time with them.

We were blessed with a nice rain one night about midmonth, an inch and a half. We also get several small showers of the .06-.10″ variety. The mowing had slowed down but I think that rain got it going again.

Mowing has slowed down again and no rain is forecast near term. We beginning to spend more and more time watering.

School will start soon for those still in school. Rebecca has been helping me around the place the past couple of weeks and her assistance really makes a difference. We have made a trip to the brush site the last two Thursdays. That’s our favorite activity since, once the pickup is loaded, we get to just ride along to the brush site. Unloading is easy and doesn’t take long, so we’re back on the road fairly quickly and when we get back to the shop, it’s quitting time.

I hope we don’t have to go too long without rain and it would be nice if wasn’t so hot, but I know there are a lot of places around the country that are hotter than us, so maybe I shouldn’t complain. We’ll find out pretty soon what August has to offer,