by rakeeter 
February 8 With reasonably warm weather having settled in, Abigail and I were able to get some work done for a change. We removed some grassy weeds in the southeast quad lane and did a little tree trimming.
Continue reading “February 2026”by rakeeter 
January 11 After a long spell of relatively warm weather, January reasserted itself with cold wind, sleet and overnight lows in the teens. Abigail and I trimmed and delivered a load to the brush site this past week before the weather turned. Now the forecast is for afternoon highs in the sixties in the coming week so we should have another productive week grooming SA. We’re going to tackle the garden and flower bed cleanup.
Continue reading “January 2026”by rakeeter 
December 14 Christmas approacheth. Hobby Lobby was busy when I visited it last Monday morning. I found what I was looking for, generally, without much time spent browsing the shelves. Since I wasn’t looking for a specific item, I was open to anything that might make a nice Christmas gift for someone on my list. Once I had found one item that would answer, I had to stand in checkout line for 20 minutes, but I was grateful for having at least one gift.
Continue reading “December 2025”by rakeeter 
November 9 Kari and I visited McBride Canyon for my quarterly Great Texas Trail inspection. Unfortunately, the Alibates Flint Quary National Monument visitor center was closed due to the government shutdown. All was not lost though; we were able to take a nice walk down the canyon road and along the river valley. Starting out, the wind was a might chilly but we warmed up quickly as the day warmed and the wind lessened to the point we began to look forward to the next little breeze that came along. It was a clear day, good for a stroll. We didn’t see any fauna and the flora was mostly dry. Some cottonwoods along the river were bright yellow and the sagebrush on the sides of the valley were a nice greenish blue.
Continue reading “November 2025”by rakeeter 
October 5 Hot and dry, it is. Last month I only recorded .79 inches of rain for a month that averages 1.4 something so we were already dry before this month started. I’ll have to start watering trees pretty soon unless we get rain.
Underneath the Japanese black pine in the front among the rocks was a seedling from that tree. I’ve been watching it all year and it has been doing well, but it wasn’t in a suitable place for continued growth. The JBP I planted there, I don’t know, maybe 20 years ago has grown taller than the chimney. Therefore I decided to see if I could transplant the seedling. It rooted down through the landscaping cloth and it was not easy to dig up even though the seedling was only six to eight inches tall and the roots were minimal. I put it in a plastic pot and we’ll just have to wait and see if it prospers. If it does, I’ll transplant it somewhere suitable. Maybe I’ll experiment with making it a bonsai tree.
Continue reading “October 2025”
