Category: 2020

July started off with a couple of nice rains. Half an inch fell during the afternoon of July 2nd followed by another 1.21 inches during the night on the 4th. It may be hard for people that don’t live in dry country to appreciate how uplifting a good rain is for us in dry country. This year’s 4th of July was one of the nicer ones weather-wise. Even though it was a Saturday I couldn’t help spending most of the morning annoying the weeds. Joyce and Janice had already canceled the 4th of July get together before we started getting rain a couple of weeks ago. The place is very green and the grass is growing enough to hide some of the weeds. There was much mowing when we got back from Red River.

Coyotes, porcupines and now a deer to go with ducks, geese, possums and who knows what else has been sighted on good ol’ SA. Kari was out about sunup recently and saw a deer parading around the north end. She called Joyce who managed to snap the picture above. The deer apparently jumped over the 1911 fence, which is probably how it got onto SA, and left via the gate not to be seen again. I’m not sure what else might visit the premises. The bison haven’t roamed free in the area for something like 150 years.

April showers bring May flowers but we got squat rain last month so any flowers are the result of Joyce’s assiduous watering. Not only was April dry but ended hot. Joyce some days watered the seedlings several times. Here efforts are paying off as the seeds are beginning to sprout. These are mostly wild flowers I planted in the garden beds. They are the default while Joyce is adding a few tomato plants here and there just because she can’t help herself.

It appears the cold front that blew through the first week of April froze Joyce’s apricots. The day before she showed me the thumb-sized (to first knuckle) fruit. We had a pretty good freeze in late March which they apparently survived but the early-April freeze, though about the same low temperature (27°), ruined a promising crop. Maybe fruit is more sensitive to temperature than blossoms. Anyway, Joyce is disappointed to say the least. She has never gotten but maybe four or five apricots since the tree was planted and it looked like this might be the year for a nice crop.

Robins have been on the place in force the last few weeks. They spend a lot of time foraging across the prairie. I’m not sure what they find to eat. Insects, I suppose, since that is what they usually eat. They never visit the bird feeder, which is just as well because the doves, cardinals and juncos go through the birdseed pretty fast as it is. Mockingbirds, though year-around residents, don’t visit the bird feeder either. I guess they rely on invertebrates like the robins. Seems like there would be slim pickins this time of year but maybe there are enough insect larvae close to the surface to provide sustenance. The robins can be heard singing most of the time. They may be the original twitter-verse. While cleaning the lily pool I was bent over just holding the vacuum device to suck up the muck when I felt something on my back. I looked around and a robin flew off. I guess I just looked like part of the scenery to it. We were both surprised.