It’s a sure bet that most of us had an exceptionally good weekend with plenty of food, family & fun while observing one of our Holiest of Holidays. Not only did we take time for all the afore-mentioned activities, we were blessed with a nice half-inch rain, as well. Our community gauge on the shared fence with Tony’s “Onliwon-Pecan Place”, measured .45 inch, Daddy’s still had some water left in it from the last rain, so it really looked good, and other reports from close to town ranged from a little less than a half inch up to about 60 points. One can always say that the last rain was good, but hope the next rain is better. Anyhow, we have a forecasted chance of getting some more moisture the latter part of this week, and let’s hope that ol’ Rusty & Baldy are right on this one.

There is lots of increased activity out in the yard & garden since the past frost & recent rain. Here’s hoping that the last frost is done with, which should be right since we’re past Easter now. I know quite a number of folks that have a hard time telling when Easter is going to fall each year & am really somewhat amazed that ol’ Jack Frost knows how to figure it. Anyhow, no promises here, but Momma always said not to put out your tender plants ‘til after Easter. What with that being a “given” now, go ahead and put out your tomato & pepper plants, sow your peas & beans, but better save your Okra seed for a couple more weeks, yet. The soil needs to warm up a bit more for Okra to do well, as it is close kin to Cotton & likes warmer weather. It might be advisable to keep your boxes & buckets handy, though, and keep an ear out to the weather man.

As far as the yard goes, we’re seeing a lot of people undertaking early spring chores with mowing, trimming, pruning, and fertilizing lawn & landscape plants. We also see some folks out in their yards applying herbicides on their lawn grass for weed control. There is nothing wrong with this if you might happen to have any idea as to what you’re doing & what you are putting the weed killer on. Most home-owners don’t. With a bit over 40 years of lawn & landscape advising, one of the most easy concepts of lawn maintenance I’ve tried to get over to folks is pretty simple, but very difficult to get them to understand. Watering & mowing are the two most basic principles of proper management, but folks seem to want some “wonder” miracle in weed control. Without going into a lot of detail, if one waters properly & mows frequently, the grass will take care of the weeds, as will the continued mowing. Coming out of the dormant winter months, a number of the species of weeds get the jump on the slow emerging grass, & it looks real ugly during the early season. Show some patience, calm the lil’ Ladies’ fears, and help nature take it’s course.

If you really want to get some useful & educational material on all this, do yourself a favor & call or go by the County Agents’ office in the Courthouse and they will be more than glad to provide you with some printed material dealing with all aspects of the afore-mentioned programs.

The recent frost last week was somewhat erratic in doing it’s dastardly deed in the Pecan orchards & bottoms, with some of the newly planted orchards showing a good bit of terminal damage on the emerging buds & shoots. Some of the larger trees & Native bottoms also got hit pretty bad. There is a lot of networking between all the producers & managers from here to Oklahoma regarding the severity of the frosted areas & the ensuing effect on this season’s nut set. Here again, patience is the key, and other than providing proper management to your trees, the producer can do very little else except worry about it. Time will tell and we’ll all know more about the situation come about mid-June; even more than that in October.

A whole bunch of ol’ deer hunters will become master chefs this Friday & Saturday over in the Park at Llano. About an even hundred will gather all this week getting ready for the Annual “Crawfish Open” extravaganza that will feed several thousand visitors. The Crawfish boil, Golf tournament, roping, & Zydeco music fest is truly a sight to experience & behold. “Teaspoon” Tony Navarra, Bubba Barber, Jim Timmons, Son Will, & a few other folks have been rounding up our big pots & burners for several days getting ready to do our part with boiling a bunch of Cooper’s Sausage, Cajun style. There is a ton of just about anything you’d want to eat, at a very reasonable price, while listening to some lively music and supporting a very good cause. You might want to come by & check it out & maybe the Mayor might even come as yrs. truly will already be in attendance quite a distance from out around————Harkeyville!!!!