by 
Abigail spent her last day of SA employment down on her knees chopping weeds in the pasture with a sharpshooter. For the past month she and I have spent the first hour of the day with me chopping the weeds and her collecting them in the wheelbarrow and piling them up on the dirt mounds for us to haul off to the dump later. There were easier tasks she could have done on her last day. Apparently she figured that was the best way to help me, which shows the kind of hand she’s been all summer: willing, bright and taking initiative. Over the years I’ve observed and supervised people enough to know those qualities are not as common as they should be.
The moisture in March and April really got the weeds going when it was too cool for broadleaf weedkiller to be effective. Once it did warm up I managed to spray the other sections but not the pasture before it turned dry and the weedkiller wasn’t very effective again. The pasture was mowed several times but the weeds just came back stronger. We had accumulated a significant pile of weeds over several weeks when, finally, Abigail and I loaded the pickup with the first of half a dozen or so loads and headed off to the dump. When we got there, we were told by the man directing traffic at the dump dump to take them to the compost dump. I didn’t know there was such a thing. He said it was by the brush dump and he called to a colleague there who said he would direct us to the compost dump. When we got to the brush site, a man in a city pickup pointed off to the west and took off in that direction. I thought he wanted us to follow him, which we did, but lost him as the road curved around some of equipment sheds. Not knowing what to do, we continued to follow the dirt road around the north side of the dump until we concluded wherever we were going it wasn’t to the compost dump. We turned around and headed back the way we came but soon encountered a man, maybe the same one, in a city truck coming the other way. When we pulled to a stop next to each other he asked if we were lost. I said we were and he told us to head on around the way we came to the brush dump. I am very familiar with the brush dump having made more trips to it than I care to think about and had no trouble in circling back to it. When we got there, our pickup man was already there. We could only conclude that the dirt road we had been following circled round to the brush site from the direction pickup man had been going. When we met up with him again, he said the compost dump was on the south end of the graded area where the brush dump is, about 150 yards away. Abigail and I were chagrined, but in our defense, being told someone would guide us to the compost dump made it sound like it was not easy to find, whereas if we had been originally told it was on the south end of the brush dump area we could have driven right to it. We figure the landfill technicians got a good laugh over a couple of bozos driving all over the country in search of a place to dump our weeds. We had no trouble finding the brush dump on subsequent trips.
There have been a few small rains but not nearly enough given the heat. For the first time in several years we are concerned for the trees, especially on the perimeter. I have even started running water down the irrigation ditch on the west side in an attempt to get water to the trees along there. Belaire Street blocks any access to moisture to the west so those tress don’t have the opportunity for poaching that those on the rest of the perimeter have.
The new pavilion at Wildcat Bluff is nearing completion. I’ve spent most of my Saturday mornings this summer helping with that project. The last couple of Saturdays we have been putting on the metal roof. There have been six or seven volunteers involved when four would have been enough. Last weekend I stood around more than I liked so yesterday I spent most the time mowing with the new zero-turn mower the Bluff has, thanks to some generous donations. Most of the guys will be back tomorrow (Labor Day) and maybe finish up. I will not however, since Rebecca and I are going to celebrate the holiday with a round of golf.
There was a beautiful sunrise this morning and the air was cool, fresh and clean from the rain we got last night. It wasn’t a lot but we’ll take what we get.