Rain, sort of

  • 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.

Joyce has been busy the last few days getting the rest of the planting done.  Cucumbers, peppers, okra and some melons, I think.  The tomatoes she planted earlier in the month are doing well.  The challenge is keeping everything watered.  Yesterday’s showers not withstanding, the heat, wind and lack of rain means watering is a constant activity.  I just wish we could at least get enough rain so that it wasn’t necessary to water trees.

The Zbinden girls are out of school now.  The Wylies have to go this week, I think.  Kaylee and Rebecca will start middle school at the end of the summer.  Kaylee is going to a magnate school in Garland and Rebecca’s transfer request to Crockett was accepted.  For the first time in I think 10 years there won’t be a Zbinden girl attending Olsen Park elementary school.

Kari went with us to the cemetery this morning.  We don’t have an overabundance of flowers but there were enough to make up bouquets for our moms.  Joyce put a penny on Jim Brokenbek’s grave, signifying we had been there.  He was a war veteran and I’m told a penny signifies the grave has been visited, a dime that the visitor served with the deceased and a quarter that the visitor was there when the deceased died (in battle?).

Saturday morning I ran a travelling sprinkler down the south side of 2005 to water the trees along there.  Later when I checked it a couple of frogs hopped into the lily pool.  Late last summer when we were getting a lot of rain (for us), the frogs reproduced and fanned out around the place.  A couple, at least, made it down to the lily pool so maybe these I saw Saturday were the same ones.  That means they’ve had to survive not only the winter but the dry conditions so far this year.  It’s not impossible they hibernated in the lily pool though I tried to keep the leaves out of it through the winter and burrowed down in the leaves is where the frogs would spend the winter, I think.  I haven’t seen the frogs around the lily pool before Saturday so where have they stayed moist after the weather warmed up?  No doubt many frogs perish when they are away from a reliable source of water but apparently enough manage to survive to repopulate ponds and playas when the rains come again.