October 2025

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.

Abigail brought Kaylee home (SA) for the weekend to celebrate Rebecca’s birthday with us. Chris and Rebecca took her back to Lubbock.

October 12 Quiet week here on good ol’ SA. Whatever shall we talk about. Abigail was at large all week so I worked solo. Mostly I trimmed and applied Tordon to fledgling trees around the place, particularly under the big juniper growing along with the china berry in the front yard of 2005. China berries propagate themselves aggressively and last year Abigail and I tackled the removal of all the small and not so small saplings growing up around the mother tree. It doesn’t do any good to just cut the trees down. They grow back. I found this Tordon vegetation killer and we applied it to the stumps after cutting the saplings down. It seems to have worked so now I’m going after the smaller trees. That involves a lot of low-level work on hands and knees and crawling around under the juniper. The Tordon has to be applied while the trees are leafed out to be effective so there’s pressure to get as much done as we can before the leaves fall.

I also started prepping my fence so we can apply fresh stain to it. Step one was to sand off the graffiti that was applied several years ago. That didn’t turn out to be as difficult as I was afraid it would be. Still, I could have done without the extra work. Next, we go over it with a power washer. Like the trees we are trying to clean up, we’re in a race to get the fence job done before cold weather sets in.

Oh, and I’m participating in the Texas Pollinator Bioblitz. That involves observing and photographing pollen producing plants and pollinators like bees, hummingbirds, moths, etc. That is easier said than done. The plants are okay but the bugs won’t stay still long enough to be photographed.

October 19 The sun is rising over the Canyon, coffee is brewing, dishwasher is washing: all is right with the world. At least this little piece of it. We have enjoyed the weekend here at Dove’s Rest. Yesterday we visited the Canyon and walked the Paseo del Rio trail. There was a running event along there so we dodged runners along the way. There have also been walks from the house we are staying in, some hotubbing and some nice meals. A pleasant weekend and a short 30 minute drive home after breakfast.

Abigail and I got started staining the 1911 fence. We hosed it off Monday and started staining Wednesday morning about 8 o’clock, finishing off our can of stain about lunchtime. We covered about a quarter of the fence in that time and we will resume Monday morning. Weather permitting, I anticipate we will spend all three workdays on it but I won’t be surprised if there is still some left to do. It isn’t easy work.

Tuesday, Abigail and I attended a playa day in Bushland. A lot of the program we have seen before but overall it was interesting. We visited the Texas Seed something or other experimental grass seed garden, which was interesting but it began to rain so we bailed out and went home.

October 26 Friday evening Kari and I attended the symphony. It was called A Fantastic Symphony, George Jackson conducting, Fiona Shea, violin. Ol Fiona, all of 25 years old, played Violin Concerto No. 3 in B minor, Op. 61 by Camille Saint-Saens. She grew up in Lubbock but now is traveling widely performing with various symphonies. I was impressed; so young and so accomplished. During the intermission after her performance, I was wandering around to stretch my legs and walking down a corridor I encountered her walking the opposite direction. She seemed in a hurry to get where she was going while stuffing something in her mouth. Intent as she was on the morsel, there was no eye contact.

October 31 As usual, Rebecca and Abigail were my only trick-or-treaters on Halloween, but we lit a fire in the fireplace and made the best of it, including eating all the candy I bought for the occasion.

Kari and Chris went to Santa Fe for the weekend so they could take advantage of the free room Chris earned from one of hotels he frequents when traveling back and forth to Switzerland. The freebies were about to expire so Chris offered me the ticket for Saturday evening’s performance of Tom Sagura at the civic center. He planned to take A&R. I went with them instead. Chris included dinner at a restaurant of our choice and we dined at Joe Tacos, which is one of my favorites. The dinner didn’t disappoint, and I enjoyed it and the evening with the ladies.

Sagura is a comedian and he drew a crowd. I am not in his target demographic. In my dotage, I am not interested in hearing toilet, cannabis or vulgar sexual humor so I wouldn’t recommend him. But, as I said, it was nice to spend time with the ladies.

One can hear the katydids murmuring softly in the butterfly bush if one can ignore the traffic noise.