by 
We’re winding down the summer here on SA. Days are getting shorter, nights are getting cooler and school started this week for the neighbor kids. Someone stuck a sign next to the 2005 driveway saying Home of Future Tascosa grad, or something along that line. They must do that for the athletes. I can’t think they would do it for everyone likely to graduate from THS. Abigail seems to have survived her first week of high school, even having to be a VB practice at 6:30 each morning. An Li’l r reported no problems managing her first week of third grade. No report yet on how the Wylie girls fared, but no doubt they handled everything with their customary aplomb.
Joyce made some excellent peach cobbler from the peaches she picked off the lone fruit tree in the orchard to survive the drought. It’s a nice little tree and the peaches were tasty, but not plentiful. She thinks she might like another peach tree or two. She’s picked all the apples, a pretty good crop, and they are also excellent. She’s got them down in the man cave for storage. She continues to make a most excellent hot sauce with her bountiful tomatoes. She uses those with blemishes for the hot sauce since they just get chopped up anyway and we enjoy the nicer ones in a variety of dishes. It’s the time of year when about every other person is trying to give away some produce and Joyce is doing her part. She finally picked a water melon but I doubt that she will be very generous with those. There are only six but the one she picked weighs over 37 pounds and the remaining five look to about the same size. She hasn’t cut the one she picked yet. We’ll find out soon enough if it is time to pick the others. There is lots of fruit on the pear tree on the south end. After picking, they need a little time to finish ripening and not be hard as a rock, or so I’m told.
We are drying out. The grass isn’t as green as it was and its growth is spotty. Some areas are greener and grow more which makes it less satisfying to mow. It probably would start going dormant before long regardless of whether it rains or not because of the advancing season. We’ve recorded over 30 inches of moisture so far this year here on SA, which is about 50% more than the average (18 inches) for the year and more than the previous two years combined. It will be interesting if the greater-than-normal moisture pattern continues over into the winter months in the form of snow. Might need snowshoes if it does. With the rain has come lots of toad stools and other mushroom-type thingys (see top right). There is one that is just a brown ball with a smooth, plastic-looking skin. They are about twice the size of a golfball and explode with what looks like brown smoke but is no doubt spores when hit by the mower or weed eater.