Garden

There will be some fruits of her labor as well.

The first tree's peaches are getting close to ripe.  I check them every day.  The other tree, a later-ripening variety, will be ready in July or August.

Zucchini and tomatoes in progress.  We've already eaten the first few Zukes.  They say if you go visit someone in the country in Texas, you better lock your car door or when you leave you'll find they've stuck Zucchini in your car.

Flowers

 If you ever wonder what Kathy does while I'm doing all the stuff I blog about, you should come sit on our back porch some morning and drink a cup of coffee.  She has a wild cacophony of colorful flowers and a menagerie of bees, butterflies and hummingbirds.  It's a cool, fragrant, beautiful, peaceful place to sit and think.

Life is good.  Come on down and smell the roses.

End Shoulder Work

After the rock-loading phase of the barn project mentioned previously, I consider both shoulders fully repaired and back in action.  I had a time in early April when I thought I had re-injured one, but it's turned out to be fine and I'm happy with the results.  Thanks to everyone who did my chores, cut my meat, and prayed for my full recovery.

Now it's time to get back in the gym and begin the process of rebuilding the physique I had back in...my dreams.

Barn Project

It started out as a simple chore to muck the barn stall after moving Angel back outside.  It seemed to grow and grow until it took 3 days and both tractors, but I'm almost finished.  I did muck the stall, moved almost everything outside so I could rake and sweep, and added this gate to the end nearest the runaround so I can have the doors open for breezes when there are livestock in the runaround.  You can see from the lawn chair I took an occasional break and stayed well hydrated despite the 90+ degree heat.

 It's something I've wanted to do for a long time, just never got around to it.  It's pretty simple actually and although it's still just wired in place it will be easy to weld up. The hinge will be to the right in the lower shot, and the gate will swing all the way back to be against the barn door when it's closed.  

I've wanted to make better use of the runaround and plan to move the round pen out to the pasture across the lane.  It's not completely accurate but if you envision it as a square, then divide the square into 4 smaller squares, the barn is in the lower RH quadrant, the round pen in the upper RH quadrant, and this scene looks out onto the lower LH quadrant.  It's been so rocky I had to be very careful with the lawn mower, and there were several individual rocks and a mound or pile that were too high to use even the shredder. So I started picking up rocks...

After 8 loads like this I'm almost finished.  I'm sure the big pile was the remains of the old rock granary that burned when I was a little kid.  Many of them have straight and square edges, like they've been worked.  They must have just dug a hole and thrown most of it in there after the fire.  This will make the lower LH and upper RH quadrants pretty smooth and grazeable.  The upper LH is a rocky, mesquite-filled jungle that will be a project for another day.

Life is good.  Come on down and carry rocks with me.

Busted Handle, Early June

The flood waters have receded and we switched back from mud boots to regular boots on Monday.  Before the rain Angel and Cowtown had both sustained the same injury, bad cuts just above the back of the hoof.  I treated Cowtown but took Angel to the vet and she has a bandage that has to stay dry, so she's been in the stall in the barn for quite a while.  With sunshine and gentle breezes, one pen has finally dried out enough for her to go outside.

Amy elected not to delay her trip to Kansas to stay and muck the stall ("I shoveled my share of it.  It ain't hurt me none." comes to mind) so I started that today and, before I could begin--you guessed it--I had to repair the handle of the rake.  This is the good rake too, the one I didn't run over with the tractor.  Things just don't last like they used to...

My new water works has been useful for giving Cowtown hydrotherapy and watering Angel.  We had placed a hydrant by the diesel tank to get water across the lane for the horses' trough.  I added the hydrant on the left for use around the barn.  Someday Kathy's going to miss all the hose I borrowed...

As we've worked outside lately, Amy and I have debated whether we were hearing quail or just mockingbirds imitating quail.  Today all doubt was removed, as this pair came to the shade right next to the horses' trough.  I can't remember when I last saw quail--it has to have been in the 70's. The male is on the tree branch, the female on the ground to the left.

Life is good.  Come work outside and listen to the birds.

Wet Weather

At the end of the wettest May I've ever seen, here are views of the pecan orchard under the Leon River bridge (we could see fish swimming in it), the field on the other side, and the river itself. On our little hilltop we didn't have any flooding, but there were creeks in the pastures, the tank is full and we had mud everywhere.