August 2024
  • Granddaughters and cats in the garden

August 2 Today I was by myself out at the Bluff. Rebecca had other commitments and Abigail, while in route home, was still out of the country. Since arriving, I had been busy dragging hoses around trying to water trees from the two tanks which are part of the catchment system. It was still early and there had been few visitors. I heard a female voice say good morning but didn’t respond because she was some distance away and I thought she was talking to someone else. I had noticed her earlier and noticed she had a small dog on a very long leash. She and her dog were close to the butterfly garden then and I was hoping she wouldn’t let the dog crap in the garden as sometimes happens.

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July 2024
  • Sunrise over SA

July 10 Our 4th of July was uneventful since we had celebrated Independence Day the Saturday prior. First Abigail then Rebecca came down with a bug so the SA crew was never at full strength the first week of the month. This week we were at full strength and have been hard at mowing, trimming and weeding. Most mornings we have been starting our day at 7 a.m. and weeding in the garden until about 8:45 but this morning we had a hard time finding any weeds, so we moved on to other things by 7:30. Certainly there are plenty of weeds elsewhere on the place to keep us busy. Abigail and Rebecca have the place about 3/4s mowed and I’m in no hurry to mow the pasture or meadow. We should get after the weeds and maybe get them under control.

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June 24
  • Trees and sky along Columbine trail

June 30 June has faded into the twilight. It was a good month. We tallied 4,24 inches of rain, more than twice our June average over the last 16 years. The place greened up nicely for or 4th of July gathering. That event was well attended. Our annual trip to Red River went well. Everyone seemed to enjoy it.

This month I converted to a new web hosting service and, well, things aren’t quite working, mostly due to my ineptness I suppose. I thought everything was working and wrote the post as the month went along on my phone, but I’ve discovered that even though it told me it was saving the post, it wasn’t. Maybe I’ll add to this as time goes by but for now, we’ll just have to live with an abbreviated version. Under the circumstances, I will offer a refund to all who request one.

May 24
  • Down through McBride Canyon

May 1 The other night at the Texas Master Naturalist April meeting, the speaker was Bary Nusz and his topic was slot canyons. Seems the Panhandle has quite a few of them, particularly in Palo Duro Canyon State Park. Learn more and view his pictures at barynuszart.com.

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April 24
  • Chris hangs up his spurs

April 1 No April Fools We got .14 of an inch of rain last night. More is needed, certainly, but that’s a good start.

April 8 Eclipse Hooray! Eclipse Day! So excited. I have my eclipse glasses ready to go. Can’t wait.

In other news, Chris got fed up and retired. Says he liked his job and all but his boss gave him the fantods and he decided to walk just because he could. April 5 was his last day and we had a minor celebration during happy hour. He says he has been so busy at work lately that he’s built up a list of to-dos that will keep him busy for a while. After that, who knows. It will be interesting to see what mischief he gets into as time goes by.

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