Day One Hundred Seventy Eight...

Little House in Hades...okay, maybe not quite Hades, but I can remember when I lived in Hattiesburg, Mississippi people used to say 'It is hotter than the hinges of Hell' and that is pretty darn applicable for central Texas right now. A mild 'cool front' is supposed to come through in the next couple of days, lowering our temperatures to around 99 degrees, instead of 107 degrees. We will take what we can get. Electric and water consumption have been at record highs in Austin the last couple of days, and there is really no end in sight. We need rain, and we need it now! Do a little dance for us if you think it will work. We are ready to try anything.

I have spent most of the morning re-thinking the landscaping around the house, and wondering if next year we might go with plantings that do not need the level of water and maintenance that we inherited with this property. I fully expect that next year we will be in one of those periods that gives us plenty of rain and it will lull us into a false sense of security that water will remain plentiful and we will plant water needy plants oblivious to the cycles of drought that are so common in Texas. We shall see, but the glimmer of hope that El Nino is percolating in the oceans to the south is a seductive thought. We shall see.

We are (okay I am) thinking of going to an auction in Thorndale this morning, just to see what is going on. There is absolutely nothing that I need, but a couple things on the auction sheet have caught my eye. It will take us about an hour to get there, and then that will give us something to do as well. I am not sure if Jody shares my enthusiasm (okay, he could really care less) and I do not know if he will go with me or not, but I hope so. A lot of that will depend on whether Miguel shows up to work today, but I think he will.

Miguel showed up this morning with three other people, and they accomplished a lot of stuff. All the hay has been brought in from the pastures, and lined up (okay kind of crooked, but whatever) near the feed shed. When you are experiencing a drought, hay is like gold, you can get it (sometimes) but it gets really expensive. I am delighted to have enough hay to last a good long while. All is well in that arena, and I am proud that it is hay off our land, too. It took Miguel probably four hours to get all the hay moved, while the other three guys were weeding the landscape beds, and doing other stuff around the house. There is always lots of stuff to be done, we are lucky to have people around that know what they are doing.

It seems my gentle bull Mr. Speckles has been tearing up more fence along the pastures between our property and the neighbors (where the other bull is). So, since the fence reinforcements have been finished, we are now going to put in a double wire electric fence along that side of the pasture, and see if that will deter him from tearing up the fence. I do not know what the alternative will be, but the worst case will be to keep him separated from that pasture, which will kind of defeat the whole purpose if you ask me. Worst case is we may have to get rid of Mr. Speckles, but I really do not want to even think about that.

All seems well with the world right now in cow-ville, but part of that is because it is so incredibly hot outside. It is too hot for Speckles to raise hell with the other bull, so maybe he will just relax for a while. Keep your fingers crossed.

Take a chill pill yourself, and do something kind for someone else, it will make you feel good about yourself. HAVE FUN!