by 
So far this month, approximately 1,466,330 gallons of rain have fallen on Six Acres. That is 50% more than all of 2011, the worst of the recent draught years. Though our temperatures remain mild, any savings on A/C bills will probably go to gas for the mowers. No complaints, though. This deep watering was much needed. The mosquitos teetered on the edge of extinction but have made a nice comeback and have been removed from the endangered species list.
Early in the week we got to see a performance of Tom Jones by Abigail and her merry band of thespians. It was entertaining. The next day they, along with the rest of the city’s eighth-grade theater troops, performed for the judges and I’m told they got the highest score the judges give any group, not to say other schools didn’t do as well in the scoring.
The next evening there was an award ceremony for eighth-graders and Abigail was one of two girls receiving certificates for their contributions on the basketball court. That probably broke down to one for the gold team and one for the sliver team, both of which were city champs. Abigail was not expecting such recognition. That was a nice way for to finish up her middle-school career.
Rebecca made the second grade honor roll. Also Sophia and Kaylee performed in a talent show.
Joyce offered Colton Derrick an unspecified reward for any frogs he could catch and give to us. They’ve had a lot of rain in Plainview where the Derricks live and she thought it likely he could scrounge some up. Saturday the whole Derrick family plus Max and a young man also named Colton and a friend of Cameron Derrick drove up with their trove. Joyce treated them to fajitas from Ruby Tequila’s, What I’m trying to get my hands on are leopard frogs to restock the pond. In the last century there were plenty of them around but they got wiped out when a neighbor sprayed for grasshoppers. My preference would be for tadpoles but frogs would be fine. I just need lots of either because there have to be enough to survive to maturity so they can breed and thus perpetuate themselves. What we got was about a dozen toads of various sizes. The Derricks claimed they didn’t know the difference between frogs and toads. I was not surprised because I didn’t think Joyce was specific enough in her request. It’s okay, though. We like toads and we’ll take what we can get of those. We turned them loose in the garden and they scattered like some sort of amphibian jailbreak. Joyce stiffed Colton but she claimed she just forgot.
Memorial Day morning Joyce and I took flowers to the cemetery. This year we had plenty of flowers to put in a, ur, vase. Some years recently we’ve had to scour around to put together a bouquet. Later that morning we collected tadpoles from the little stream running through Wildcat Bluff. We got I’d guess between 50 and 100, plus a few little shiners, a minnow-like fish. Maybe the tadpoles and fish will go forth and multiply in the pond. I hope so.