Abigail spent her last day of SA employment down on her knees chopping weeds in the pasture with a sharpshooter. For the past month she and I have spent the first hour of the day with me chopping the weeds and her collecting them in the wheelbarrow and piling them up on the dirt mounds for us to haul off to the dump later. There were easier tasks she could have done on her last day. Apparently she figured that was the best way to help me, which shows the kind of hand she’s been all summer: willing, bright and taking initiative. Over the years I’ve observed and supervised people enough to know those qualities are not as common as they should be.
It was raining when we arrived in Red River, the first they’d had for a while. It was more than an afternoon mountain shower and I was concerned there would be more during our stay. Fortunately, the days were clear until we left on Friday. It is the last time Kaylee and Rebecca will be able to fish in the 12-and-under pond but they seemed to get enough on Tuesday. Sophia and Vivian fished Tuesday and Wednesday and, while they had nibbles, Vivian caught the only two. One of them was the biggest (over 15 inches) fish I’ve seen in that pond while the second one was the size (less than 10 inches) we normally catch. With the big one, there was enough fish for anyone who wanted it on Thursday evening. Aside from the big fish, it was an uneventful week, just the way we like it. Abigail was Aaron’s guest when his folks took them to the Broadmore Hotel in Colorado Springs to celebrate Aaron’s graduation. She wanted to reciprocate so Aaron came with us to Red River but had to stay in the old folks condo. There was plenty of room and he claimed to have had a good time, even sent us thankyou note for letting come along, but Abigail took a big chance subjecting him to me for four days.
Keeters in Red RiverRebecca, Kaylee and Sophia take a load off.
SA was as hot and dry as we left it when we got home Friday. The weekend held the possibility of rain but the latest radar showed the storm missing Amarillo Friday night. It was wrong. It started raining about 10 o’clock that evening, continued through the night and noon Saturday for a total of 1.71 inches plus another .03 Saturday night. It was mostly a slow soaker, just what we needed. The powers that be called a rain-out for our 4th of July get- together on SA and moved it to the San Jacinto academy cafeteria. Terry Lopez works there and pulled some strings. As it turned out, we probably could have managed on SA because the sun was shinning all afternoon.
June came wet and left dry. It’s been nearly two weeks since any moisture fell from the skies and three since any appreciable amount fell. There are still lots of wildflowers out at the Bluff but there probably won’t be for long. It’s time to start catching up on the mowing out there. We had to let it go because of all the wildflowers mixed in with the weeds and grass.
Memorial Day morning, after visiting the cemeteries where we found the ancestors resting easy, and having breakfast, we drove out to Riverland to see the wild flowers. I heard someone at the naturalist meeting say that the wildflowers along the Cas Johnson road leading to Alibates National Monument and McBride Canyon were putting on a show. As you can see from the pictures above, they were right. The fragrance of all those flowers was good, too.
First sighted, a Western Kingbird on April 25th. That’s a sure sign of approaching summer. About the same time we began getting regular visits at our feeder by Black Chin hummingbird(S). The cherry trees we planted a few weeks ago have little green cherries on them. Not many, but some. The weeds are defiant though I do my best to keep them mowed down. Other than a couple of gales in March, it has been a nice spring.
by rakeeter 
