Category: 2016

Birthday week
by rakeeter

Since we have four birthdays to celebrate in July we play them for all they are worth.  Abigail’s (July 7) comes first and we celebrated that one early since they would be in Grand Cayman on her birthday.  Then we get to the BIG THREE toward the end of the month, Kari and me on the 25th and Chris on the 26th.  That being Monday and Tuesday we partied on Sunday.  There were cakes and cards and presents, oh my.  On Monday Kari treated me to a trip to the bookstore where I got to pick out a book as her present to me and then we had refreshment.  On Tuesday Jill and I did sort of the same thing.  We went to the lawnmower store where she bought me the folding limb saw I coveted, then more refreshment.  It was sort of hard to go back to days without refreshments after that. Continue reading “Birthday week” →

by rakeeter

It was about the nicest little rain storm that came huffing and puffing down I-40 Friday evening.  Although a chance of rain was predicted, we had been disappointed many times before and were skeptical.  Even when the weather radio sounded an alarm we didn’t expect much.  Even still I helped Joyce get the chickens and cats squared away, just in case.  No sooner than we had returned to our movie than here it came, a genuine thunderstorm that rained pretty hard for about 15 minutes, long enough to give us .55 of an inch, which is not nothing from our point of view.  After it passed we were treated to a spectacular rainbow that persisted for quite some time.  The moisture gave use a respite from watering Saturday but the hot, dry wind off the desert soon made it just a pleasant memory. Continue reading →

Frogs
by rakeeter

Cattails and pond grass were taking over areas of the pond so I donned my waders  to do a little weed pulling.  As I approached the pond on the west side I noticed several little leopard frogs about the size of my thumb hopping out of my way.  That indicated a new crop of frogs which could have only come from the frogs we collected as tadpoles from Wildcat Bluff last year.  It seemed only about six of the tads progressed to the frog stage and of those only one survived the winter, or so I thought.  We weren’t able to get anymore tadpoles out at the Bluff this year so I figured we were back to square one.  I also thought it would take a couple of years for the frogs from last year to reach breeding maturity.  Not so, apparently.  Later I went to the east side of the pond and discovered little frogs everywhere, a biblical plague of frogs.  Joyce and I are quite pleased.  We should now have our sustaining population of leopard frogs for the first time in half a century.  No self-respecting pond can be without frogs. Continue reading “Frogs” →

Red River
by rakeeter

daughters and granddaughtersWe enjoyed our 10th (+/-?) annual trip to Red River, at least this we did.  There were the usual activities; fishing, hiking, swimming, movies and ice cream.  We did not bother the fish, though not for lack of trying.  The ladies were disappointed at not getting a single nibble but that’s the way it goes sometimes.  They gave it a pretty good effort and, when that failed, they took it out on the swimming pool.  Vivian did her best but finally had to bail on the hike along the nature trail that winds around and up and down the side of the mountains along the river.  It’s a bit much for a five-year old.  Kaylee didn’t go because her tummy was unsettled but Sophia and Rebecca stuck it out and now can lay claim to having conquered the infamous Red River nature trail. Continue reading “Red River” →