Dog days

  • Dung beetle and coyote scat

August is starting slow. The place is still green, sort of, and Abigail has it all mowed nicely. There were a couple sprinkles of less than a tenth of an inch, which dries out quickly when it is hot and windy as it has been lately. Abigail will only be available to help with grounds keeping for a couple more weeks then I will have to mow myself. Of just let it go. If it doesn’t rain there won’t be any need to mow but we will have to start watering which is just about as time-consuming. Maybe we ought to be grateful for the dog days of summer when congress is on vacation and thus less likely to get into mischief. Mark Twain was right, I think, when he said no one’s life, liberty or pursuit of happiness is safe when congress is in session.

Joyce and I ventured out of our bubble to Quitaque and Caprock Canyon state park yesterday (15th). The park invited the Master Naturalist group to participate in what they called a bio blitz. They wanted add flora and fauna to their database and were asking for volunteers to go and seek same. We hadn’t paid a visit to the lovely and talented Renée Dudley for some time so we decided to take advantage of the opportunity. After dropping Joyce off with Renée, I went on to the park, which is only about 10 minutes away from Renée’s house. I picked a park trail and headed off about 9:00. It was already getting warm and the forecast was for a high of 100. I left the trail when it crossed a dry creek that appeared to be going the same direction as the trail. I figured it might yield more fauna than the trail where there were noisy hikers ahead of me. The creek bed was rocky but flat and, winding around the edge of the caprock, it afforded colorful views of the canyon walls lit by the morning sun. There was bison spoor in the creek bed and the prospect of rounding a bend in the creek and coming face to face with one added a tinge of excitement to an otherwise calm stroll.

I hiked for about an hour and a half stopping infrequently to take pictures to upload so the park can add them to their database if the object wasn’t already in it. I photographed a few plants I thought they might not have but didn’t think it necessary to include mesquite, prickly pear, etc. Fauna was scarce. I saw lizards but they wouldn’t submit to being photographed. I took a picture of a dung beetle rolling a four-inch coyote turd like a lumberjack.

I returned to the trail when I was ready to turn back. By then it was hot and there was little breeze. The deer (bison?) flies were out in force which made it difficult to photograph anything so the return hike was more of a forced march than a pleasant stroll among nature. Nature mostly bit like a sonofabitch and I was interested in getting back to the safety of my vehicle.

When I got back to Renée’s and had cooled off and rehydrated sufficiently we headed off to lunch at one of the two restaurants in town. Back at Renée’s after lunch we sat around and visited. Renée had whipped up some home made ice cream and baked a cake so it was a pleasant afternoon all around. I recommend Dudley Gardens for its cozy home decor and unique garden designs and attractions.

On the way home we saw a small patch of rain on the northern horizon and wished it was over SA. It was still active an hour or so later and we drove through it shortly after passing through Claude. It turned out to be a hail storm, as well. At one point the hail was large and intense enough to cause us to pull over along with the rest of the traffic. When it began to abate we headed on and arrived home without incident but were reminded to be careful what we wish for.

So much for August. Our hot, dry month ended on a high note. We got 1.77 inches of rain Saturday evening. There was high wind and large hail associated with the storm but we were fortunate not to get any of that. There is a middling-sized dead elm limb down in the back yard and I might find other evidence of the storm around the place when I get out and prod around, but I never heard any high wind so maybe that limb was just ready to come down and only needed a little encouragement. I had been watering trees with impulse sprinklers the last few weeks and this nice rain will make that unnecessary for a week or two, maybe more. It will also green up the grass and make it grow. Last year I let the grass grow tall in the fall before cutting it in November. Maybe I’ll do that again this year.