May 30
We visited the cemeteries this morning, Kari, Abigail, Rebecca and I. We placed small jars of flowers on Mom’s, Bernice’s and Joyce’s graves. It wasn’t easy to come up with decent bouquets, but we managed. Heat, drought and wind sort of put a damper on the flowers. There was only a gentle breeze this morning when we were making our rounds, which we were grateful for. We were all feeling our loss of the last year, though little was said. I’m told it gets easier as time passes and I suspect that’s true, but I don’t think any of us felt it was much easier yet. Breakfast cheered us some and we’ll get together this afternoon for hotdogs and ice cream, which will help.
Mr Drought continues, though we did get some rain a week ago, the first reasonable amount of moisture since March. It was less than an inch (.82) but the grass still managed to green up just a little. We have possibilities of rain later this week and, if we get anything significant, that might continue the greening process, which would be nice. As Kari and I were walking out of the symphony hall Friday evening we overheard a woman in front of us telling her companions 10 inches of rain fell on Amarillo in 90 minutes back in 1978, causing considerable flooding. That much rain over six months is hard to imagine right now.
Abigail returned from Lubbock week before last and has been helping with the place, though it was too cold and rainy to get much done last Monday and Tuesday. I hadn’t gotten around to changing the oil in the mower so we took care of that, plus a few other little inside jobs. We are taking today off to show proper respect for the holiday and we could get rained out if the forecast is accurate for later in the week, but we sure won’t begrudge the moisture. We’ll take it when we can get it.
Rebecca and I spend some time driving around the neighborhood on Sunday afternoons. She is making good progress and we have only been honked at twice, though the second time was uncalled for, in my opinion.
May 1
It was time to visit Alibates Flint Quarry national monument again. In fact, past time. I’m supposed to visit it each quarter and I never made it out there during the January quarter. You’ll recall I volunteered to keep tabs on AFQ for the Texas Park and Wildlife Great Texas Nature Trail Map. TPW asks the Master Naturalist chapters to monitor trails on the map to verify that the information provided by the map is still accurate. My job is easy since AFP is a national monument and unlikely to change much or fall into disrepair.
I dropped everything and devoted Saturday April 30 to taking care of that bit of business. It so happened that the City Nature Challenge fell on that weekend as well and, since our chapter president asked all members to summit at least one observation, I figured I could kill two birds with one stone, not that I killed any birds, which would not be in keeping with the Nature Challenge. People all over the world participate in the challenge by posting observations of flora and fauna to the iNaturalist app or website. Scientists use the data to try to keep tabs on nature around the world. I saw precious little fauna and had to settle for flora, which would at least hold still long enough for me to snap a picture. I made eight or nine observations. The beauty of submitting observations to iNaturalist is that knowledgeable people monitor the site and will help identify what one has submitted, which is nice because I had no idea what the things were I was submitting. I recognized a gourd but did not know it was a coyote gourd. Still don’t, really, because one person called a coyote gourd and another called a buffalo gourd. They get into scientific names but that is a bit much for me.
I have been to the flint quarries several times, most recently last fall so I didn’t see the need of going on another ranger-led hike to them. Instead, I explored some of the side roads that branch off the main road leading to the quarries. They mostly led to gas wells. I had always wondered where the McBride 98 well was. It is far and away the biggest producer among the McBride and Rockwell wells. One of the side roads led to old number 98. I was impressed by the amount of machinery around it, as you can see in the picture. Guess that has something to do with its production.
I also discovered a road that didn’t lead to a well. It is called the Dolomite Point road and it leads to a geological formation formed into a point of caprock (dolomite). At least I think that was the point in question. You can see from the picture it is sort of an odd feature in the river valley. One can drive to the top of it so I did and admired the view from there.
The Dolomite Point Road branches off in two directions, one going east and one going west down the river valley. I took the east branch first and that’s where I saw what I believe is the dolomite point that gives the road its name. That road petered out eventually and I retraced my steps to take the west branch. On that road I saw another interesting geological formation. Now that I think about it, maybe that one was the dolomite point in question, only I think of the eastern formation as being a point and the western formation being a miniature Palo Duro Canyon Lighthouse-looking thing. Neither formation has a sign on it so I guess it is up to the individual which one to think of as THE point. Maybe both, in which case they should call it the Dolomite Points road.
I also hiked along the Mullinaw Trail, which runs along the river, though the river is hard to see because there is tall grass, head high to me, growing on the riverbank. I saw some ducks but couldn’t get close enough to them to get a good look. They seemed to be all black, and, no, they weren’t mud hens. There is a black scoter in the bird book but according to it they don’t visit our part of the country.
It was a nice day for getting out and prowling around. A cold front blew in during the night but by the time I was out on the moor the wind wasn’t strong and what there was felt pretty good whilst I meandered in the sunshine. There are a couple of more trails on the north side of the river, either in Moore or Hutchinson County. The nature challenge requests that observations come from one’s county of residence, Potter County in my case, so I saved those for another day. My next visit will be in the July quarter. Should be plenty warm by then.