June 24
  • Trees and sky along Columbine trail

June 30 June has faded into the twilight. It was a good month. We tallied 4,24 inches of rain, more than twice our June average over the last 16 years. The place greened up nicely for or 4th of July gathering. That event was well attended. Our annual trip to Red River went well. Everyone seemed to enjoy it.

This month I converted to a new web hosting service and, well, things aren’t quite working, mostly due to my ineptness I suppose. I thought everything was working and wrote the post as the month went along on my phone, but I’ve discovered that even though it told me it was saving the post, it wasn’t. Maybe I’ll add to this as time goes by but for now, we’ll just have to live with an abbreviated version. Under the circumstances, I will offer a refund to all who request one.

May 24
  • Down through McBride Canyon

May 1 The other night at the Texas Master Naturalist April meeting, the speaker was Bary Nusz and his topic was slot canyons. Seems the Panhandle has quite a few of them, particularly in Palo Duro Canyon State Park. Learn more and view his pictures at barynuszart.com.

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April 24
  • Chris hangs up his spurs

April 1 No April Fools We got .14 of an inch of rain last night. More is needed, certainly, but that’s a good start.

April 8 Eclipse Hooray! Eclipse Day! So excited. I have my eclipse glasses ready to go. Can’t wait.

In other news, Chris got fed up and retired. Says he liked his job and all but his boss gave him the fantods and he decided to walk just because he could. April 5 was his last day and we had a minor celebration during happy hour. He says he has been so busy at work lately that he’s built up a list of to-dos that will keep him busy for a while. After that, who knows. It will be interesting to see what mischief he gets into as time goes by.

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March 2024
  • Spring break ensemble

March 16 Spring break is winding down. The Wylie women are preparing to depart for home with their customary calm and aplomb. Highlight of the week was trip to Palo Duro Canyon on Tuesday. The weather was good and we hiked to the Lighthouse. It has been a long time since I’ve hiked there and I don’t remember it being as long as it seemed this time. We stopped by the Bagel Place to load up on fodder on the way and got to the Lighthouse trail about 11:00. Not realizing how long the hike would take or that some members of the party had not eaten breakfast, I suggested we make the Lighthouse trek before lunch. When we got back around 3:00, people were ready for something to eat and drink. As we made the trip to PDC, I wondered where we would hike after the Lighthouse. No one was interested in hiking after lunch so we headed home.

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February 2024
  • Snowy four wing salt bush

February 11 Snow was predicted for Sunday and so it passed that I spent the day holed up in my comfy little house reading, listening to music and watching the snow come down. Saturday was damp and dismal so I spent the day inside as well, but I was grateful Friday was suitable for outdoor activities and Abigail and I got a good start on cleaning up the southeast tree line. Wednesday we were able to do a little trimming and load up the proceeds plus previous collections and make a brush site run, which we were glad to do because it wasn’t a very pleasant day. In fact, it started to rain just as we were dumping our load. Gosh, had to run the windshield wipers driving home. We only had Wednesday and Friday to work on account of our trip down southeast so we eschewed the Bluff and worked on SA.

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