Christmas Lights

Put up a star and some lights on barn.

Blue Bonnets

 Pearl Harbor Day - Granny Kleypas' birthday.

Blue Bonnets are coming up after the little bit of rain we've had - seeds are amazing things. The plants will just stay small and grow roots until spring when all of a sudden they will start growing and explode into magnificent color - hopefully they won't dry out before then. But Blue Bonnets are tough - some of them will make it no matter what.

Culvert Progress

ok made a little progress. Needs some tuning up but there it is. Now need to figure out a gate and some other details and be done w it for awhile.

Might need to move the entire thing over a few feet.

Road Work

Road guys finally came - took out old culvert and established grade for new culvert. So hopefully new culvert goes in this weekend. Road work was inspiration to try to finish this thing up - need to come up w a gothic arch spanning the opening and a gate.

Sorry to say we will loose some big trees to this drought. Can only water so much - hope idea of drought continuing is wrong. Lake Winedale is very close to completely dry...

And speaking about dry... Terlingua or Bust, The Field Lab, and others from west Texas are blogs I look at, they're doing their own thing out there.

Double Center

Noticed this recently - pup is a double. The leaf in the middle is a peculiar shape, almost a mirror reflection.

Got permit but no new culvert yet.

Gone Swimming

We often stop here overnight when heading west - Balmorhea State Park.
San Solomon Spring creates a huge swimming pool out in the West Texas desert.

Also county guy looked at driveway - they will do a little work on road side then Roy will put in new culvert.

Second Column Done

Now what? Thinking of adding two more rock columns. Need to get a permit for Roy to do the culvert.

Old Road

ok moved base over a few feet into old road - a commitment to new road.

Old Column Base Out

With difficulty got the old column base out. We put it in about about 40 years ago with Dad. Planning to relocate it a few feet over...

More Gate

second post in. now need to move the old concrete base for rock column over about three feet. Moved the first one over awhile back.

Front Gate

Here is a new post for the entrance.

2.1" and Kissing Bugs

Final rain reading above. Now it's back to hot, and for a while, miserable humidity.

Have been battling Kissing bugs, Triatoma sanguisuga (left) this spring. Last year they showed up and bit me in my bed. I caught the culprit and identified it. Freaked out bc of the Chagas Disease connection, host for parasite Trypanosoma cruzi - had a blood test that was negative. Fumigated the house twice and thought that was the end of it. But it seems to be a seasonal thing, they return in May and June. Have caught four of them in the house and sent them to Robyn at the Texas Department of State Health Services lab. Turns out three were negative for the Chagas disease parasite, but one was positive - bummer. Now I'm paranoid about sleeping - that's when they get you. Was hoping to avoid using poison and find them in the house before they found me, but I may have been bitten again last night, so I will probably fog the house again. Interesting thing about fogging is that it killed about 20 scorpions in the house. The flea bomb pyrethin seems to really get them - I sort of hate killing the scorpions, they haven't bothered me so why should I bother them. Maybe they eat Kissing bugs.

Raining!

Left the Farm at 5:30 this morning, radio station must have been hit by lightning so went off for 30 min  - was 30 min late leaving for work. It was raining off and on during the night, and a big rain just as I left the house. From work I see on Don's weather station it is 1.47". First rain in many months, our area has been designated an "exceptional" drought area (worse than extreme).