November 3. October was a dry month, but starting with Friday November 3, about midnight, it rained till nearly midnight Saturday; a gentle, soaking rain that gave us about 2.3 inches and spectacular claps of thunder. Saturday morning during a lull in the rain, I was walking to the shop when a flash of lightning obscured everything and the crash of thunder that followed a second or two later shook the ground and me with it. I was glad when I was safely down in the office.

The sun finally broke through the clouds Sunday afternoon, but the weather pattern wasn’t through with us yet and Monday morning it rained another 1.3 inches. The average moisture for November over the last 15 years is .33 inches. We got no moisture in October but so far this month we have accumulated as much moisture as the typical fourth quarter of the year and maybe as much as the average for the first quarter of the next quarter to boot. Our trees should be sufficiently hydrated for a while. I have been pulling hoses around the place so much this year I don’t know what to do with myself. Maybe we will get to other things more interesting this winter.

October 12 My week in Sachse was informative and fun, but it was busy. The first evening we attended Vivian’s volleyball game. We were a little late getting there because J&D wanted to minimize the time spent watching other teams play but things moved along faster than usual so Vivy was serving in their first set when we got there. I was told she made fourteen straight on that serve. The Hudson Hawks, Vivy’s team/school won that game and the next one. They seemed to be significantly better than that evening’s opponent. The following Saturday we watched her Hawks in a tournament where the competition was about level with the Hawks. These were eighth-grade girls and I was impressed by with their level of play. Vivy plays all around and never leaves the floor.

September 9 Several years ago, a big leaf milkweed (Asclepius latifolia) sprouted in the pasture near the playground equipment. I marked it with a piece of PVC pipe held upright by a steel rod driven into the ground to avoid having it mowed down. At times I have even given it a little water when there had been little rain. It has gotten bigger each year and this for the first time it bloomed in the spring. From the blossoms it formed two seed pods, one of which burst open this week. I collected the seeds, most of which were lying in the grass nearby. My intent is to scatter the seeds on the caliche mounds where the plants can grow without impeding mowing. That will be a small gesture toward helping monarch butterflies survive since that is one of the plants they lay their eggs in.

August 2 Today I was by myself out at the Bluff. Rebecca had other commitments and Abigail, while in route home, was still out of the country. Since arriving, I had been busy dragging hoses around trying to water trees from the two tanks which are part of the catchment system. It was still early and there had been few visitors. I heard a female voice say good morning but didn’t respond because she was some distance away and I thought she was talking to someone else. I had noticed her earlier and noticed she had a small dog on a very long leash. She and her dog were close to the butterfly garden then and I was hoping she wouldn’t let the dog crap in the garden as sometimes happens.

July 10 Our 4th of July was uneventful since we had celebrated Independence Day the Saturday prior. First Abigail then Rebecca came down with a bug so the SA crew was never at full strength the first week of the month. This week we were at full strength and have been hard at mowing, trimming and weeding. Most mornings we have been starting our day at 7 a.m. and weeding in the garden until about 8:45 but this morning we had a hard time finding any weeds, so we moved on to other things by 7:30. Certainly there are plenty of weeds elsewhere on the place to keep us busy. Abigail and Rebecca have the place about 3/4s mowed and I’m in no hurry to mow the pasture or meadow. We should get after the weeds and maybe get them under control.