Category: 2016

There was a nice little shower of rain last night, accompanied by some gentle grumbling thunder.  We registered .34 in our nifty new special super-accurate rain gauge recommended by cocorahs.org. With Rebeccai’s help I set it up last Saturday.  I was afraid given how dry we’ve been lately that it might be a long time before it got tested but this little shower was timely.  The gauge is structured so that one can easily tell to the 1/100th of an inch how much rain is in it, or snow.  Going by our old gauge on the fence I would have guessed .40 of an inch.  So far this month we’ve collect 1.54 inches, a little off our average of 2.07.  As hot as it has been we could use the extra .53 plus some. Continue reading “.34” →

We have enjoyed several days of calm and quiet.  The wind, what there was which wasn’t much, has been out of the northeast cancelling out the highway noise.  Wish it were that way most of the time.  We could use some of that rain other parts of the state have been getting.  I say some because we don’t need no stinkin’ deluges around here. Continue reading “All quiet” →

Joyce and Li’l r planted flowers in the containers underneath the black pine next to the front porch. That tree, which we bought in Garland after moving to Amarillo 13 years ago and brought home in the back floor board of our car, is now taller than the chimney. Some lower branches had taken over the rock bed underneath and needed trimming to open the bed up again for the flowers, both planting and growing. For some time I had entertained the notion of trimming some limbs but was hesitant to do so since once removed, limbs can’t be put back on. Now that I have finally done so, we are happy with the way the tree looks and have reclaimed the chimney liners and other planters underneath to plant annuals for a little color. Continue reading “Gardening notes” →

Temperatures in the 40s aren’t bad unless the wind is blowing at about the same speed as the temperature, as it was here on May 1.  If the workers on the High Plains were marching, and I don’t think they were, they were wearing their parkas.  As for myself and the lovely Mrs. Keeter, we hunkered down in the house and enjoyed a restful Sunday.  Oh, we did venture forth to attend church.  We even took Joyce’s brother Max with us.  He spent the night with sister Janice, who is recovering from surgery and would have been without adult supervision because the rest of the family was attending a wedding in Austin.  Janice is doing better, by the way.  She had been in considerable pain and the surgery relieved some of that, I’m told. Continue reading “Raw May Day” →