Honky-tonkin’

  • March tulips
    Sunday, March 27, 2005

It was supposed to be a pleasant day here in the Panhandle for St. Patrick’s Day, but nooo.  The predicted calm didn’t last past sunrise.  And it’s cloudy to boot.   No rain since October, in case you were wondering.

Jill said the mosquitos in Garland are terrible.  She and the girls were here for spring break this week, left on Friday.  It may be warmer in Garland but the mosquitos take the fun out of outside activities.  Not a problem, here, though.  The fearsome four were able to spend a lot of time outdoors.  The wind didn’t seem to bother them much and the days warmed up nicely.   They were treated to ice cream and a movie in the man cave every afternoon.

The Hunt tribe spent the night in Amarillo on their way home from skiing in Breckenridge, Colorado.  Kari had everyone over for dinner and we had a nice visit.  Griffin and Garret are good-sized fellows.  Brighton spent most of the time off in the bedroom with girls.  I had to seek her out to say hello but she was friendly enough when I did.  It had been several years since they had stopped by on their way through town.

Abigail passed her driving test Monday.  She, Chris and I spent some time last Sunday practicing parallel parking, the one area she didn’t have much confidence in.  Tuesday evening she drove herself to VB practice, her first solo.  There will be many more.  She and Kari are in Denver this weekend for a VB tournament and she probably helped out on the driving during the trip there.

This past week I got a lot done on the reconfiguration of the grapevine support wiring.  I braced the corner posts on three of the corners and will finish the fourth one this coming week.  I worked on that Monday and Tuesday but Wednesday and Thursday I devoted my time to getting the water feature at Wildcat Bluff Nature Center working again.  A creek with rocks at one end and a small pond at the other was built when WCB was established 25 years ago.  The rocks at the head of the stream are designed to resemble a spring with the water  running down to the pond to be pumped back up to the spring again.  It’s really a nice arrangement.  The critters are drawn to it and so are our visitors.  The original line apparently got stopped up and the water couldn’t circulate a couple of years ago.  Last year piping designed to drain a swimming pool was used to circulate the water and it worked well.  Unfortunately the line was made of thin material and didn’t hold up past the one season.  We replaced it flexible PVC, which is designed for ponds and water features and much more substantial.  It’s more expensive, too, but should hold up for years.  The line used last year was a bright blue and conspicuous running up the stream bed.  We toyed with burying the new line, but, since it is black, we decided it wasn’t necessary.  The vegetation in the stream will obscure it soon enough and it will be easier to repair if that should become necessary.  For now the water is flowing, although we aren’t sure the pump will last.  We don’t know how old it is.  It may surprise us.  Money flows into WCB like molasses in January so we have to pinch pennies till ol’ Abe breaks wind.  A new pump would be $200-$300.  Donations are being accepted.

Joyce’s walking buddies Joe and Buddy and their Average Joes band were playing a Smokey Joe’s down on Sixth Street Saturday evening and we went there for dinner and to listen to them.  It was our first foray into Sixth Street nightlife and we had a good time.  There was a pretty good cross section of locals there from bikers to semi-respectable septuagenarians such as ourselves.  The service was friendly but very slow.  However, the food and green beer (St. Patrick’s Day, don’t you know) was worth the wait and the band didn’t disappoint.  They play there every third Saturday and we look forward to next month’s performance.

Over 60 years ago Mom said we ought to rename Six Acres Meadow Lark Mound because of all the meadow larks on the place.  Back then it was just a piece of prairie on the prairie in general.  Since that time there are many more trees and the meadow larks have abandoned it for more open spaces.   Lately calling SA Robins Roost might be more appropriate.  There are innumerable robins around now and I say that without hyperbole.  It would be impossible to count them since they fly around so much.  They sometimes make one want to duck as the burst out of the junipers north of the shop.  They fill the air with their cheerful song and generally are welcome, except that in places they make a terrible mess.  Our back patio has been treated with irreverence to the point where it going to require a lot of cleaning before anyone would want to sit out there.  Before I do that, though, I probably need to trim some of the branches above it to cut down the roosting above.

Chris texted me he saw the mallards on the pond Saturday.  Joyce thinks she’s seen them a time or two in the last week so I guess they are in residence again this year.