May 2022
  • Iris by pond

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.

Alibates Flint Quarry National Monument
Cottonwoods in the distance were showing of their spring foliage, a contrast from the brown, lifeless grassland

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.

Scout McBride 98 sign
McBride 98

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.

East dolomite point
Maybe this is dolomite point.

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.

Dolomite point west
This may or may not be the geological formation that gave the name to
Dolomite Point Drive in the Alibates Flint Quarry National Monument.
Dolomite Point
Dolomite Point
Dolomite point
Dolomite Point

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.

Goosed

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.

Continue reading “Goosed”
Erethizon dorsatum

  • procupine


As I finished my workout early one morning last week, I glanced out the open garage door and saw a porcupine ( Erethizon dorsatum) strolling across the driveway.  It followed the fence around to the backyard, climbed a juniper and settled itself down on a limb for the day.  It paid no attention to us even when we approached it for a closer look.  That evening about dusk it roused itself and I saw it in the front following the fence again.  I opened the gate to the rest of SA and it ambled out as though that the was opening it had been looking for. Continue reading “Erethizon dorsatum”

Natural observations

  • Wild flower
    May 4, 2013 Caprock Canyon


It appears the hummers have abandoned us.  We replaced the old feeder they were used to with a new one and for some reason they wouldn’t sip from it.  After examining it, they would fly off.  That is the black chin(s) would.  I saw a transient visit it but the black chin ran it off, a dog-in-the-manger attitude if there ever was one.  We bought the new one last year in Red River and the store proprietor told us the one we selected was the favorite of the hummers around there.   We finally went back to the old one but have had no customers since.  It’s been several days so it doesn’t seem that our regular(s) are just in a snit but have moved on completely.  With the dry spell the flowers are sparse so you’d think a steady source of sustenance would be attractive. Continue reading “Natural observations”

New trails

  • Wildcat Bluff
    Wildcat Bluff from west


Joyce and I visited Wildcat Bluff to see the new trails.  Some cattle have been but on the trail area to graze and we were told they have created some new and interesting trails from the windmill/stock tank to the back 40.  Currently the Windmill Trail runs from the visitor center to the windmill.  Amazing, huh?  Anyway, one of the WCB board members is an avid hiker and often makes use of the WCB trails since he lives close by.  Even before the cattle were put on the property he was advocating building some new trails through the west end of the section, the part west of West Amarillo Creek (dry, of course).  The other evening at a board meeting he said the cows have done a bang up job of creating trails pretty much where he would have suggested.  It was nice Saturday afternoon so we thought we’d go see for ourselves. Continue reading “New trails”