by There is a trace of snow left from Friday evening in the shadow of the “witch tree” juniper in the meadow. And yet the apricots are blooming. At least they were before Friday night’s low of 24. I even see traces of green from the gramma grass, which surprises me because I didn’t think it had gotten anywhere near warm enough, that is the soil hadn’t gotten warm enough, to encourage the natives.
Yesterday was pretty nice in spite of the covering of snow in the morning. We knew the forecast but gambled that the moisture we got wouldn’t keep me from spreading a load (#9) of granite and it didn’t. In fact, Rebecca got a shovel and helped me. With her pitching in we had the load spread in nothing flat. The closer we get to finishing spreading granite over the entire are, the more anxious I get to finish. The bare dirt area remaining stands out in contrast to the granite, which is pleasing to my eye.
As I said, it snowed Friday evening and the neighbors were down for pizza, at least A&R were, so we built a nice fire and watched a movie. We used up the last of the wood I had stacked on the front porch. That’s probably the last fire of the season.
Joyce and I stained the swing I’ve been working on all year. I finally finished getting it stripped to bare wood. We used an expensive redwood stain that is supposed to protect the wood from the weather. It was what was put on it originally and I think it looks pretty good. We haven’t done anything about the support posts, though. They still have the paint on them where it hasn’t flaked off. Maybe during warm weather we can work on that if we have time.
One of the goonies has spent the last two nights outside goonie tower. Saturday morning it showed up but so far it hasn’t this morning. Joyce speculates it has a nest somewhere and she’s resolved to find it today so she can snatch the eggs and perhaps dissuade the goonie from spending the night outside the safety of goonie tower. It is likely to become an ex-goonie if it continues to do so.
Last Sunday I took advantage of the nice weather to rake leaves and twigs around 1911, knowing that there was a high probability we’d get another blow and there would a fresh crop of detritus to rake. Well, we did and there was. I think it was Wednesday when the wind gusts were as high as 60+ mph. So there were more twigs but not leaves. The danged oaks in the neighborhood hold onto their leaves well into winter and then turn loose of them to blow onto SA and drift against the fences. They’ve pretty much blown off so there doesn’t seem to be more adding to the drifts. Last Sunday I raked up five bags and I’ve probably got several more I hope to rake up today. That’s just around 1911, mind you. Maybe I can con Chris into raking along the fence on the west side of SA. He doesn’t like to do that sort of thing and can be pretty slippery if he doesn’t want to do something, but maybe if I look pathetic enough, he’ll do it.