Adios Rojo

 


Rojo the rooster
Photo by Chris Zbinden

Rojo the rooster stopped running.  He was a good ol’ rooster.  Always kept a benign watch over his flock and even tolerated the guinea, mostly.  We buried him up on the caliche mound in an unmarked grave which may seem cold but at least we didn’t just chunk him in the trash.  We are down to three black hens, one gold hen and one guinea.  It’s doubtful any will survive the year since they are at the end of their normal lifespan.  Not sure about the guinea. Continue reading “Adios Rojo”

Tree-trimming time

Spreading, or prostrate, junipers live up to their name.  In fact, all junipers tend to spread as they are a very undisciplined species but spreading junipers raise it to an art form.  It may be possible to plant one in the middle of a football field and, in time, have it cover sideline to sideline, end zone to end zone.  After having my friend Doc help me clean up under and trim a juniper due east of 1911, a task in which we made use of Doc’s gas hedge trimmer, I decided it would be a good investment to have one of my own.  I’ve done some trimming with a hand trimmer, a thankless task if there ever was one, and a corded electric hedge trimmer.  Doc’s gas trimmer worked well when we could get it started and keep it running long enough to get something done.  That experience gave me the idea of exploring a cordless electric trimmer since it will be used infrequently and gas engines really need to be run periodically.  There are many cordless models on the market but I decided to stick with Stihl, which is the brand of most my other other equipment, such as edger, string trimmer and chainsaw. Continue reading “Tree-trimming time”