by 
Full moon and clouds
July 6 The rain that fell on SA while we were in Red River really got the grass and forbs going again. Abigail had the place nicely mowed before we left but worked all this week mowing the south end. She will work on the north end this coming week.
Since we celebrated the 4th last Saturday because the Wylies were here, we didn’t do any additional celebrating this week on the 4th. I had hopes of making progress around my house inside and outside, but it didn’t seem like I got any more done than basic maintenance.
Yesterday, we attended a reception for Riley ?, nee Lopez. I didn’t catch her husband’s name when I was introduced. Their wedding had taken place some weeks ago in, well, I don’t know the name of the town. Abilene, maybe. Her mother remarried sometime recently also but we didn’t meet her new husband at the reception because he was in Kenya, rather he was making his way back from there and had only gotten as far as Denver.
July 13 another nice rain I say nice because a lot of people in this part of the world know now, if they didn’t before, that there are rains that aren’t so nice. I hope I don’t jinx myself, but these pleasant and timely rains we’ve been getting this year have not been deluges, at least not here on SA. There has been wind but not so strong as to threaten anything but weak tree branches. As for hail, there hasn’t been any to speak of. Thus, it was that we got, after a maudlin week and a half of dry weather, 0.8 inches; just what was needed to keep the grass green and growing. It will be back to mowing and trimming next week.
Finally, this week I managed to do some mowing in the garden. I felt it would be best to pull weeds until we sort of got them under control, which is what we have been doing first thing each morning, when possible, all summer. Kari has created a pretty garden with a variety of vegetables and flowers growing nicely. Her cantaloups and watermelons are doing well on the caliche mound.
Chris and Rebecca made it to Switzerland by way of the South Pole, I think. The trials and tribulations my people have encountered flying the last few years has reinforced my reluctance to fly. I’ll leave that option open but I will avoid it as much as possible.
July 17 Ants The venerable harvester ant or red ant as we called it when I was a boy has always been present on SA as long as I can remember. One bed was the only bed on the place for almost half a century. This was back in the day when the Texas horned lizard was common on SA and surrounding neighborhood. The hornytoads were pretty much wiped out by roadrunners that nested in a tree one year and surrounding vacant lots were filled up with houses so there were no longer any to repopulate SA. Hornytoads dine on ants and probably controlled the ant population. I’ve always been tolerant of red ants except when I waged war on them, something I did from time to time growing up. I can remember some real battles when I mounted an attack on a bed and dispatched its defenders with a hammer, BB gun, firecrackers or other weapons that came to hand. The red demons would mount charge after charge, and I was sometimes driven back until I abandoned the field. Occasionally the ants would succeed in out flanking me and exact some measure of revenge on my person. So, sentimental fool that I am, I have tolerated the occasional red ant bed on the place. For whatever reason, though, the species has been more successful in colonizing SA to the point I had to take measures against them. I applied Amdro to 16 beds on the place in self-defense.
July 18 Mud After a strenuous work week I was hoping to spend a quiet Friday doing as little as possible but then I was informed of a large tree limb down in the lane. For the second week in a row, Abigail and I had to clean up a substantial elm limb brought down by thunderstorm-related wind. I think the poor elms are old and brittle like some of the rest of us and the nice moisture we’ve enjoyed since last November caused the elms to put on more leaves than usual when warm weather returned. The abundance of leaves gave the wind more purchase which caused some substantial limbs to break.
Anyway, we got busy loading up the associated foliage and set off for the brush site. When we got there, we saw puddles along the caliche roads to the dumping area. A couple of years ago when we took a load to dump after some rain, we were warned that there was a strong chance we would get stuck and there wouldn’t be any help in getting us unstuck. We elected to turn around and go home and return after a few days of dry weather. We received no caution when we weighed in this time and the fellow in his Gator who monitors the dumping zone just watched us drive in. Although I could see puddles in our way I thought maybe they could be avoided. They couldn’t. The next thing we knew the pickup was axel deep in the slickest dadgum mud you’ve ever seen. Abigail was driving but we weren’t able to go forward or back. The wheels just spun merrily spraying mud all over the underside of the pickup. Eventually I decided, though I was loath to, that I would have to get out and push. Abigail didn’t have much experience with mud, so she didn’t know to be gentle with the throttle and threw some impressive rooster tails. I was able to dodge those for the most part and also managed to avoid falling on my face. Though I didn’t expect to help matters much by pushing, I did manage to help work our way back the way we came until we got back on semi-solid ground, dump our load and make our way back to pavement. Our Gator man was still sitting where he was when we came in, but we were slip sliding around as we went by and weren’t able to give him that universal symbol of ill will he so richly deserved for not giving us a heads up.
July 30 Birthday weekend Chris and Rebecca managed to make it home last Saturday and we continued to celebrate from the day before, Saturday being Chris’s birthday. Though we got some rain Friday night, the weather has been hot and windy otherwise and we are losing our green. It was good to have Rebecca back with us this work week. We got a lot done. Now it’s on to August.