Category: SA Times

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Jill, Kari and I took the shorties to Wildcat Bluff Thursday morning.  It was cloudy and cool, almost misty, and we needed jackets.  One nearly needed a machete to navigate the paved trails around the nature center.  The weeds were encroaching to the point where the two sides almost touched.  About every other weed had a spider web spun to its neighbor on the other side.  I wore shorts and came home with lots of spider web flotsam and jetsam wrapped around my legs because I was made to go first.  We discovered a nest of walking sticks.  The girls counted maybe a dozen, although I’m not sure of the final count. Continue reading “Just when needed” →

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It was Red River week this week.  We left on Monday and returned on Friday.  Everything was pretty much as we left it and we enjoyed the mountain air.  There was some rain on Tuesday but otherwise we stayed dry.  Except for when we went swimming.  They have a nice pool where we stayed, which is the main reason we stay there, that being one of the granddaughters’ prerequisites dating back to when Abigail was knee high to a chipmunk.  Then, I had to get in the pool because Kari was busy with Rebecca who was too small to participate.  Now, all five GD’s are aquatic.  Can’t say as I mind not being required to get in the pool.  The older I get the less inclined I am to want to get in what amounts to a large bathtub with strangers.  And there were plenty of strangers, more than other times it seemed like to me, especially of the short, screeching variety.  But as luck would have it, after we came back from a longish hike, when a dip in the pool seemed inviting, there was no one in it but the members of our party who had returned early, so I took advantage and slithered in with the rest of them.  I managed to avoid drowning at the hands of an exuberant granddaughter and emerged refreshed and ready for lunch. Continue reading “Pilgrimage” →

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Despite a rain day with precious little rain, I managed to get all four quarters of SA mowed this week.  Friday I mowed 2005 so the place would look its best on Saturday when we congregated for our annual July 4th celebration.  There was a good turn out and the weather was decent, though it had warmed up from the seventies mid-week to a more normal July 4th temperature.  Janice scored a blow-up water slide (pictured) at a garage sale or maybe dumpster diving, not sure, and it took the place of the slip-and-slide that served us well for a number of years.  Last year it was determined the S&S needed to be replaced and the water slide worked admirably.  It got quite a workout, too. Continue reading “Celebrating the 4th with a 5th” →

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We’re about to wrap up June and over the month we’ve actually gotten more rain (4.75 inches) than we did last month (4 inches).  Of course, last month was dry as a bone until a few days before Memorial Day, and the rain was more spread out this month.  Regardless, we’ve gotten a lot of rain in the last 40 days and nights and while we are grateful, it does create a new set of problems.  The weeds are on the march and I’ve already mowed the place twice, I hope to go over it a third time in the coming week,  Oh, and there is rain in the forecast about mid-week.  So if anyone tells you old Keet aint got nuthin’ to do, tell them they don’t know what they’re talking about. Continue reading “Reverting to the mean” →

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No rain since last weekend! What ever shall we do?  Come to think of it, we did got a wetting Friday night, I think it was, or was it Thursday.  Looks like there is a possibility of rain Wednesday, though.  Am I being greedy?  Maybe.  I just don’t want to go back to drought conditions.  I’ve heard that the weather folk think we will return to normal precipitation in late summer but when you’ve nearly died of thirst, you tend to worry about where the next water hole is. Continue reading “Green and growing” →