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With the rain we had last weekend, SA has greened up nicely. I spent some time on the mower this past week and will again in the coming week. In fact, with the way the grass is growing it may be a matter of starting all over again as soon as I’ve finished going over the place. Or not. We’re going to have a stretch of hot and dry which, without any additional moisture, could make the grass go dormant. We shall see.
Kari hosted her small group from church Friday evening. I managed to get most of the south end mowed on Thursday so the place was looking pretty good. My new assistant grounds keeper Abigail is saving me time by collecting twigs and anything else I don’t want to hit with the mower before I mow a section. That saves me a lot of time which I can apply to covering more ground. Big help.
Tuesday I spent some time pulling weeds in the pond and came away with itchy bumps on my forearms and hands for my trouble. The effects were similar to poison ivy, only not as severe. I pulled cattails, duckweed and another pond weed called, I think, pond weed. I’ve pulled cattails and pond weed before with no ill effects. Only they duck weed was something I haven’t handled much before so I suspect it was the culprit. After the first night the itching subsided but I still have the bumps. It may be a while before those clear up completely.
I was asked to do an interview for the 20th anniversary of the Texas Master Naturalists and obliged them. Members of the Panhandle chapter did the interviewing. I was provided a list of questions in advance but didn’t do much preparation. I’ve only been involved with the organization a short time and didn’t have very good answers to some of the questions. I decided to do the best I could and not worry about and it worked out OK.
Rebecca was offered a partial scholarship to a tennis camp recently. Kari got a letter from Kids, Inc. which she put to the side without opening for a while. Rebecca participated in Kids, Inc. tennis but Kari felt it was a waste of time so she wasn’t in a hurry to read the letter. Rebecca took a private lesson, or maybe lessons, from a local fellow who played tennis professionally. Turns out he was the one behind the scholarship and the camp isn’t put on by Kids, Inc. Rebecca has been taking some lessons from a high school tennis coach and is the only girl in her group. Apparently she holds her own.
Joyce is busy trying to keep the seedlings in the garden watered. The sun dries the surface out quickly and young plants with limited roots systems can suffer if not tended carefully. A rain such as we got last weekend can lull one into complacency and the first thing you know you’ve let some tender young plants get too dry. Joyce had to replant some of the okra damaged by the hail last weekend. Parts of Amarillo got rain and hail just a couple of nights ago but it missed SA. It would have been nice to get the rain but not the hail.