Busy week...

Lots going on here... the hay has been mowed and raked, and as I type, the bales are popping out of that machine that's been going up and down the pastures all morning.  How that man can work out there in this hot sun is just beyond me... and our property is not the only one he cuts.  I cannot imagine even wanting to get out of bed in the morning if I knew I'd be sitting on a hot tractor in the hot sun and mowing down and baling up hay.

Our handyman R has been here for most of the week, cutting and trimming palm trees, pulling weeds out of flowerbeds, putting down new mulch, and re-arranging the big rocks along the borders. As fast as my husband can get the mulch from the re-cycle plant in town, the handyman can spread it out and give my husband back the empty buckets.  R has been proud of the work he's done here and has promised to keep it all maintained. (From his lips to the angels' ears.)

My husband was up on the roof this morning, spraying nests of yellow-jackets. We thought they were wasps, but as they fell to the ground after one spray of 'Raid,' the yellow/black insects were clearly not as big as wasps. Just as deadly, just not as large. Actually, I don't think any of those flying/stinging things are as vicious as wasps.

The orange cat.... still here, bless his paw-swiping teeth-grabbing little heart. Just when you think you can trust that cat, he reaches out to swipe you with his claws or give you a kitty love-bite on your hand when you're trying to put his food dish on the porch.  I've put the cat-carrier back onto the porch, and so help me, if that cat goes into that carrier again and I can shut the door, I'm bringing his orange/white kitty butt to the shelter.  You would think, after all this time, that he would have learned more manners, but he's a wild cat, from the tip of his whiskers to the back of his tail.

The rain which filled up all of the ponds in the hills here has become non-existent. Not a drop of rain since I can't even remember when.... at least three weeks now.  Our pond still has a great deal of water in it... not quite up to the top, but close. We haven't had a lot of wind lately, and that helps to keep the water in the pond as well.  One of the neighbors told us a while back that the wind would make the water evaporate quicker.  Lots of turtles still in the pond, coming out to sun themselves on the rocks in the afternoon. I'm sure there are snakes in that pond as well, but I don't get close enough to it to find out. My before-moving-to-the-country dreams of having a picnic by our own pond never materialized... for the simple reason that there's just too much wildlife and too many insects to worry about.

Life in the country in these Texas hills.... wildlife and crawling things, slithering and creepy things... if anything at all can go bump in the night, it's living here in the Hill Country. Except bears. I don't think we have bears. And bears wouldn't be so bad.... at least they wouldn't be hiding in the grass and ready to bite your ankles if you got too close.

I need to stop typing... I'll be waking up with nightmares....