Most of us need not be reminded that September can be a fairly busy

time of the year. There are a number of activities that take a bit more of our time than usual. Some of them that readily come to mind might be school taking back up, field work getting the small grain patches cultivated and sown, football season beginning, college kids getting off to school, and bird season, to name a few. Early activities in the Pecan orchards & bottoms also occupy producers and harvesters. Fall is a favorite season for a lot of folks and seems to be the peak of the year’s activity for San Saba.

San Saba has certainly been fortunate regarding weather spells the past couple of weeks. Actually, we’ve had good luck on the rainfall pretty well throughout the entire summer season, especially compared to some surrounding areas of the State.

Rainfall rates the past couple of weeks reported measurements generally in the means & extremes of 4" to some over inches. In fact, the rains being scattered out over a 5-6 day period sort of made keeping up with the amounts a bit more difficult. Having to tend to 5 or 6 gauges at the places scattered over the County can keep us more mature folks busy trying to remember when & if we poured them out or left it in. We did let a couple of them fill plumb up, just so we could say that the gauge ran over. That is a spectacle that doesn’t occur in these parts very often.

On the top end of the scale, I think Floyd Huffman out-distanced most of the crowd, reporting about 9.5" out around Pecan Grove. Lee Miller, out toward Hall Valley, came up on the low end with about 7" less than Floyd, but still a welcome rain. Paul Henry said he was a bit more lucky than that. One of the most humorous stories told to me came from the “Table of Knowledge” in the Café. The participants were giving their rain gauge reports & when Jerry Johnson stated 4 & a half inches, some smart fellow queried, “Aw, is that all.” That, my friends, is a good measure of fine times. For those of you that might still read the “Angelo Std. Times”, you probably peruse the pages of Ross McSwain’s “Out Yonder”.

Ross has been penning that column for several years, and has written for the “Times” even longer than I can recall. He and Jerry Lackey are of about the same vintage. Anyhow, he had a welcome article in the Paper, Mon. a.m. regarding the advent of the Fall season and how nice it has been with all the rainfall over most of west Texas, as well as the cooler, cloudy days.

Ross went on to visit regarding the change of the season, the Fall Equinox, Fall colors in the foliage, and dreaded daylight savings time. He did remind us that Ben Franklin was one of the first folks to suggest daylight savings time. Now I hear that even Germany has it. I had to agree with him on our use of the term “Fall”, whereas city folks & people back East might use “Autumn” . He did say that the colors of the trees changing might not be as vivid in other areas of the State, due to our not having as varied a selection of trees. He mentioned that the Pecans & Mesquites would soon be turning and losing their leaves.

I think we have plenty of color if one takes notice of the Cedar Elms, Post Oak, Flame Leaf Sumac, Virginia Creeper, China Berry, and Western Soapberry. These are all more prominent around the crossings of the creeks, draws, and rivers. One of the most probable reasons for McSwain’s having less Fall Vistas to view is that he’s from Brady.

Most of the football this past weekend went well with us at the Harkey House. The Armadillos outscored Johnson City, A&M beat the Aggies of Utah State, and Kubiak’s kids, the Texans, beat the old Houston team, the Tennessee Titans. Jerry’s "Boys" didn’t fare as well in their new stadium on Sun. night. I really didn’t mind their losing as much as I did their keeping me up so late to do it. Guess the Mayor & yrs. truly will see how it goes the rest of this week out around————Harkeyville!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!