Hip-Hip-Hip Hooray for Summer

The final school bell for the year has rung and it's now officially summer! The morning after school was out, Dyke loaded up the boat, fishing poles, sleeping bags, cook gear and other sundries and took the boys to the Texas coast (Palacios...where we spent 10 years) to fish for 5 days. Prior to their departure, I came down with a sinus infection shortly after having a root canal, so I stayed home (it's just as well anyway...mosquitoes, humidity, fish slime and salt water don't rate very high on my list). So, I have been home on the couch for the last 4 days watching John Wayne movies, slurping chicken noodle soup and poppin' antibiotics three times a day. Today is a better day...I'm not on the couch. Last evening before dark, I went out to check the cattle - they had come up to the barn to rest in the shade. I discovered two of the cutest day-old calves you'd ever seen! Snow white with black splotches and the other with caramel brown splotches. I could tell Fudge and Rosa were proud and they let me get close enough to touch 'um. The flies were everywhere, so in my half fevered state, I got the fly-sprayer out, mixed a solution and sprayed 'um real good. The wind was in my favor, so I didn't have to chase them around - the wind carried the mist and got a good dosage on each one. I felt better knowing they'll sleep well without those pesky biting flies! I'd post a picture of the calves, but my camera batteries are dead and I haven't felt well enough to venture all the way to town to get more. Maybe tomorrow.

The "wheaties" are here this afternoon to harvest the wheat. It's not a high yield year at all, so it'll be interesting to see how many bushels/acre we make. The wheaties travel from Canada to Texas harvesting for people along the way, then they head back up for the corn harvest and further on to haul fuel to the diamond mines in the arctic circle. As I gaze out the window, the wind is again blowing full force with all of the wheat chafings filling the air! Their combines are GINORMOUS and look like aliens from some sci-fi flick! As amazing huge as they are, they work with practiced precision -almost like a tightly choreographed ballet - one swiping east, while the other swipes west.. laying 12 foot wide swathes of wheatstalk....wish I had my camera.

Two weeks ago, we had some bad storms pass through and dropped @ 4+ inches of rain. It filled the pond up and saturated all of the land for miles. That felt good. Here are some pics of the lower pasture after the rains.