Regardless of how hard we might try, many folks that write community columns or similar other pieces for a Newspaper really have a difficult time not mentioning the weather.

We might even add that it is probably twice as difficult if you are in a rural situation where agriculture is the most important industry to the local economy. Any good west Texas rancher or farmer will most readily agree that it seems most of their lives have been spent waiting on the next rain.

There have been some periods of drought out here in the Hill Country & West Texas that it was so dry several authors wrote books on the subject.

Elmer Kelton, one of the most admired Western Authors in the Country, penned a novel named “The Time it Never Rained”. It

was so Universal to the area that most folks thought it was about their home town. Elmer is a fairly good acquaintance of mine for forty some-odd years, & though I’ve read and liked each & every one of his books, the one I just

mentioned was down-right depressing. I’ve mentioned that to Mr. Kelton a time or two, in a very good natured manner, of course.

The recent rainfall we enjoyed through our fair valley of the Pecan was extremely timely in that it didn’t rain out any Holiday activities as well as giving us a good amount of much needed moisture before it dried out too much from the last rain we got.

This last one sort of surprised me when it started thunder booming Mon. morning, but several folks said they expected it. I guess I was still too busy on Sunday trying to get the 4th of July put away. Anyhow, it did a pretty good job. Seems like most folks got

from around an inch up to 2-3" over most parts of the County.

Here in Town, Daddy registered right at an inch, while Shaw showed 9 tenths, and The gauge

on Tony’s fence registered right under an Inch.

The Garvin out on Johnny Brown Lane showed about a half inch, while James Stewardson reported 1.30 for Algerita., Jr. Goode said he got about 1.75" at China Creek, R. Crockett got 2" at Fairview, and Shaw told me that he poured out two inches up toward Bethel. The Colony loop was pretty muddy but it sort of played out as we made our way on around by the Chapel and came in on the Rough Creek Road.

Pam Mann & Ms. Vickie of the V.C. Ranch both turned in 1.20" out on the Pecan Grove Rd. on Jerry’s Branch. The Cherokee Store said they only got about .3", while another source down at G&R said that one of the Broyles

boys might be the cause of that.

The Mayor reported an estimate of about an inch out on the ol’ Baxter just a bit west of downtown Harkeyville & the Doran Bottom got about .9" at the pump on the River.

Activity in the Pecan orchards & bottoms has been a bit slow since 1st generation Casebearer spraying around the latter part of May, as we’ve been receiving near adequate rainfall to preclude much supplemental irrigation. Seems like when we did water the Pecan trees, it would rain enough in the next few days to keep the trees in decent shape.

Orchard & tree monitoring & scouting for the 2nd generation of the pesky Casebearer should give a spray period of somewhere between the 10th to the 15th of

July, depending on each specific location. A good rule of thumb for the 2nd generation spray period would be 45 days following your 1st Casebearer application of spray material. You can also go ahead & include Zinc in the spray if you are spraying young trees or have some new leaf growth on the trees from the recent rains. Some producers also put in a fungicide as we’ve

had some extended wetting of the leaves and warm weather that might encourage Pecan Scab, especially on certain varieties that are more apt to scab. Give the County Agent a call if you’d like more information.

I’d guess that just about wraps it up for this week & the Mayor & yrs. truly will be trying to keep an eye on the situation out

around——————Harkeyville!!!!!!