August 2025

August 3 We got a shower during the night, but I haven’t checked the gauge. A quarter of an inch fell Thursday night. The grounds crew had plans to make a brush run Friday morning and we determined the rain wasn’t enough to prevent it, so we loaded up the pickup and headed for the brush site. It was two weeks before that we got stuck in the mud there, but we were hoping it had dried out sufficiently to allow us to dump our load. T’wasn’t. Again, we weren’t given any advice about mud when we weighed in, but we saw puddles here and there and when we got to dumping area, we could see it was going to be too muddy, so we turned around and went back home. At the naturalist meeting Monday evening, some of the members from Canyon said they had recently gotten four inches of rain. The brush site must have caught some of that downpour. It is only a few miles west of SA and I think we got a half inch or so. Just shows how spotty rain can be here on the High Plains.

August 11 It was raining kittens and puppies when we left for church this morning. We got blow dried good this week and from the tallest tree to the humblest blade of grass the SA flora was panting for water. This morning’s sad little sprinkle was just a windshield spotter. We need something more substantial and maybe one of the days forecasted for rain this week will pan out.

There is a new feature on SA. Well, not actually on but it might as well be. Someone, feds probably, is erecting really tall light posts along I-40 through Amarillo and one is smack dab adjacent to the place. When I look out my kitchen window, it towers over the trees and looks like it is right among them. My guess is the light posts are between 50 and 60 feet high. They haven’t been turned on yet and it may be we won’t need any outdoor lights and maybe not some indoor lights either when they are.

August 17 Our luck ran out last Monday evening, or maybe it didn’t. There was a storm alert just before I headed out to pull weeds in the front yard. It was the usual: torrential rain; high wind; hail. I learned later I didn’t catch the “baseball size” part of the hail forecast. The storm clouds in the north were impressive, but I figured any rain would start small, giving me time to slip back in the house before anything serious started in. In the meantime I would work on weeds since there was no guarantee we would get any rain at all. Later, as I was wondering if I should go ahead and water the flowers, Kari came running over to tell me about the possibility of large hail. That and an impressive lightning flash and thunder crash convinced me it was time to take cover. There hadn’t been any preliminary drops of rain, but no sooner was I inside than the fun began. The rain came down in sheets and the wind was really rocking the trees. Then it started to hail. Since the storm was coming from the north, the back porch windows were getting hammered. Luckily, the hail was quarter sized but there was a lot of it and it must’ve been forming at high altitude because stones were rebounding four or five feet in the air when they hit the ground.

Assessing the damage next day, besides the ground covering of leaves and twigs, there was half the pear tree in the front of 2005 down, a dead elm in the southeast lane toppled over and a large elm limb down in the south lane. The storm didn’t do the garden much good, but my flowers weren’t badly damaged. So, lucky, danged lucky we avoided the really big hail. (Later I learned that many houses a mile north of SA will be getting new roofs.)

August 24 A walk on the wild side Jill and Kaylee arrived as scheduled Wednesday evening after dinner. We didn’t stay up late chewing the fat because we had to be in Lubbock for Kaylee’s move in window, 8:30 to 9:30. It was a pleasantly cool morning in Lubbock, and we got busy carting Kaylee’s gear into her dorm room without delay as soon as she had checked in and procured her room key. Thankfully, her room was on the first floor of Murdough, a dorm that was old when I went to Tech. It had been updated and Kaylee’s room, though by no means fancy, was pleasant enough for the task at hand. Her roommate wasn’t going to arrive until the next day, so Kaylee and Jill had plenty of time to get her squared away. My assistance was minimal. I mostly just lent moral support. Jill and I got home about 6:00 and, after a trip to the grocery store and a quick dinner, we went to bed early.

We were up early again the next morning and drove down to McBride Canyon. Kari had joined us, and we parked the Pathfinder near the rock house from where we followed the road on down the canyon. The sun hadn’t peaked over the canyon rim yet and it was borderline chilly. It was still, so we didn’t suffer and were soon out in the sunshine. We followed a road that branched off the main road through the canyon and led to a gas well and eventually to an overlook of the Canadian River valley. It was interesting to see all the different animal tracks in the road.

After our hike, we drove down to the Alibates National Monument so I could fulfill my duty of checking on that facility for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Great Texas Trails map. When Kari and I were there in May, we were told the visitor center might be closed down, and we were relieved to find it still operational. Though they are functioning with fewer people, it looks like it will remain open for the time being.

It took three trips to the brush site to dispose of the tree that was blown down by the storm last week. That is, the half of the tree. We haven’t made any attempt to cut up and haul off the Siberian elm in the southeast lane. It isn’t impeding anything so it will have to wait till that portion of the perimeter comes up in the rotation.

August 31 Wrapping up August SA is looking pretty good, especially for the end of August. We’ve accumulated two thirds of an inch of rain in the past week and the place has greened up nicely. In fact, it’s looking a little hairy, a contrast from a week or two ago when the grass had begun to go dormant. We will be mowing well into September, and maybe beyond if SA gets more rain. Of course, the weeds are thriving as well. The northeast perimeter and a couple of other spots are commanding our attention. The Velcro weeds are giving us all we can handle. I had hoped I could control them with the weed eater, but, alas, trimming them seems to encourage them, so we are down on our hands and knees pulling them.

The birds did a good job of gleaning the grapevines. The rest of the garden is not producing to Kari’s satisfaction. She is getting tomatoes but not much else. She has heard other gardeners in the area blaming the dearth of pollinators for the lack of garden production. Don’t know if that’s true but Kari says there is a noticeable shortage of bees and butterflies.

On to September