by February 8 With reasonably warm weather having settled in, Abigail and I were able to get some work done for a change. We removed some grassy weeds in the southeast quad lane and did a little tree trimming.
There was a large 3-trunked hackberry in the juniper tree line that had gotten overgrown. It was a volunteer but decades old and, though I wasn’t crazy about having it around, I didn’t want to tackle cutting it down altogether. There was also a trunk of a dead jujube tree, also a volunteer, that had had its higher limbs mostly trimmed off when I had some dead elms along there cut down. It was alive in 2003 when we moved back and for some years afterward. It was growing right next to the hackberry. Maybe the two trees were competing, and the jujube finally lost the battle. Anyway, it had been dead for some time, and the roots had rotted out. I noticed several years ago it was barely standing and needed to be removed but kept putting it off. I wanted to include it with the hackberry trimmings so I looped a rope close the top, so I pull it over without getting mashed. It came down easily enough and I set to work on it with the chain saw. Soon I had cut into several pieces that Abigail and I loaded in the pickup along with the other trimmings and took it to the brush site. I’ll say this about the hackberry: not my favorite tree. It is a native species and is drought hardy. There several of those on the place that have been around as long as I can remember, which is getting to be a long time. I think the birds dine on the seeds and scatter them all over the place. I’m always having to remove seedlings.
February 15 Happy Valentine’s Day to all my readers. I hope your significant others showered you with love and chocolate.
We attended Max’s funeral Thursday in Plainview. Jill arrived the day before and went on to Lubbock to visit Kaylee but returned to Amarillo that evening and spent a couple of days with us. Max’s funeral was well attended. People had nothing but good things to say about him. He pastored the Methodist church for 14 years where the service was held and half as long at a Christian church there after he retired from the Methodist church.
Our opportunity for rain Friday and Saturday passed without any, sad to say. All we got was chilly wind. The rain went south of us. I hear that Lubbock got some and the Dallas area got a lot. I think we had the greater need but it didn’t work out. Maybe next time.
February 22 Another chicken has gone missing and most likely fallen prey. This one was named Angel and was on of Kari’s favorites. It’s hard on Kari and Rebecca to lose any of their flock but it’s harder when it’s a favorite. Angel was. I guess it’s only natural to have favorites and there will probably be other favorites even if Kari and Rebecca try not to have any. Angel was all white, thus the name, I suppose. She was also a little smaller and sleeker than some of the other hens.
I glanced out my kitchen window a few days ago and saw a fox chasing a hen through the meadow. As I was trying to get some shoes so I could intervene, I saw the rooster, King Julian, high-tailing it after the fox, which would have been comical if it wasn’t a matter of life and death. When I finally got my flip flops and made out the front door, the fox was chasing the rooster back the other direction. I don’t know if the fox caught the rooster or the rooster tried to stand his ground, but feathers were flying as I finally made out into the meadow and succeeded in driving the fox off. I would like to take my shotgun to a fox or two to make them behave but the police would take dem view of that, I’m sure.
February 28 Kari and I enjoyed a marvelous day yesterday. The weather was exceptionally good, sunshine, warm temperatures and light winds, and we took advantage of it to pay my quarterly visit to Alibates Flint Quary National Monument. We got there about 10 o’clock and chatted with a ranger lady who was working on one of the rock stream features around the visitor center. Through her we established there were no changes I needed to report to the Texas Parks and Wildlife so they can keep their trail map up-to-date. Then we went to Riverland and did poking around. We ran into the stockman we ran into last year and he recognized us. He and his son had been checking on the cattle. It is calving season and they like to keep tabs on them, which they were doing on horseback. The had trailered their horses when we met them at the entrance gate. Now, that would be the way to look the country over. Anyway, we did encounter the herd as we drove through the pastures and there were lots of little ones. Pretty cute.
Eventually we made our way to McBride Canyon to eat our lunch, then headed home. That evening, we attended the symphony. The orchestra did a very entertaining job of playing the West Side Story theme. Oliver Herbert, a cellist, was one of the guest soloists followed by singer Sarah Beckham-Turner, a classically soprano, who is from Amarillo and has performed in many venues around the country and possibly beyond. She currently serves on the voice faculty at West Texas A&M University. My lack of sophistication prevented me from fully appreciating her performance, but I give her credit her songs even though I couldn’t understand the words.
When we made plans for the day, I was afraid I would be pretty tired by they time get done, but, I managed to get through it without any problem.