Red River 2018
by rakeeter
  • Red River 2018

As the Red River Fourth of July parade shuffled by, I was sitting in my lawn chair surrounded by wife, daughters and granddaughters, all of us arrayed in our Homegrown Keeter Produce t-shirts.  I was minding my own business and taking it all in when the Citizens Against Violence (CAV) float came along.  It was really just a pickup with some bunting draped on it and there were several women in the bed waving to the crowd lining the route.  As the float drew even with us one of the women leveled her water gun at me with gleeful malice. Continue reading “Red River 2018” →

June wrap
by rakeeter

  • Mickey and Mammy
    Mickey and Mammy

I ran across the remnants of a bird nest the other day.   There were a couple of cigarette butts, no doubt from the strip along the street, included in the construction.  Must have been a grovite bird nest. Continue reading “June wrap” →

Rainbows
by rakeeter
  • Freshly trimmed junipers

Joyce and I had a nice chat with LTC (retired) Allen West this past week.  He lives in the Lake Highlands area of Dallas now and was in town to talk about the Booker T. Washington Initiative to a group of us blue-bloods at Amarillo Country Club.  He was as pleasant and personable in person as he seemed when we’ve seen him on TV.  Under West’s leadership, the BTWI will attempt to employ Washington’s (not the nation’s capital) belief in entrepreneurship and free enterprise as the only true path to prosperity and well-being to revitalize the spirit of the American Dream by emphasizing that all Americans can be entrepreneurs.  The Texas Public Policy Foundation has an enviable track record of success with these kinds of programs and I have no doubt they will make a difference with this one. Continue reading “Rainbows” →

Rain, sort of
by rakeeter
  • purple flower

We got some intermittent showers yesterday, which was unexpected.  These were more than the six to eight inch varieties (distance between drops) we’ve seen lately.  It rained hard, just not for very long and .17 was all I could squeeze out of the range gauge this morning.  The showers did cool us down some and the moisture didn’t hurt anything so we’ll take it. Continue reading “Rain, sort of” →

Natural observations
by rakeeter
  • Wild flower
    May 4, 2013 Caprock Canyon

It appears the hummers have abandoned us.  We replaced the old feeder they were used to with a new one and for some reason they wouldn’t sip from it.  After examining it, they would fly off.  That is the black chin(s) would.  I saw a transient visit it but the black chin ran it off, a dog-in-the-manger attitude if there ever was one.  We bought the new one last year in Red River and the store proprietor told us the one we selected was the favorite of the hummers around there.   We finally went back to the old one but have had no customers since.  It’s been several days so it doesn’t seem that our regular(s) are just in a snit but have moved on completely.  With the dry spell the flowers are sparse so you’d think a steady source of sustenance would be attractive. Continue reading “Natural observations” →