It’s probably a pretty sure bet that each time you start reading "Highlights" the past couple of months, the lead sentence and paragraph seem to begin with the same news; more winter than normal and plenty wet weather.

Though we find it difficult to fuss about the rain, most folks we visit with are just about ready for some spring weather, Bluebonnets, and fishing time. We got a pretty good rain earlier in the week, as it was pretty well coming down most of Monday. Most of the reports we heard, listed amount of anywhere from .5" to about an inch, all over the County. E.L. Grumbles measured about .75" on Johnny Brown Lane down under 5 Mile Hill; Floyd Huffman said it looked like about an inch around Pecan Grove, and Daddy’s gauge had nearly ¾

inch over on Brown. Jarvis & I made an afternoon tour out around Liveoak, Fairview, China Creek, the Bethel, back down the Cotton Belt, coming on in through Algerita and Harkeyville and all the pastures, creeks, and draws were fairly well floating. A little rain goes a long way when things are already saturated. There is a good bit of activity in the Pecan bottoms and orchards this time of year with the producers being engaged in cleaning up trash piles from harvest, pruning the orchards, and cutting and storing scion wood for budding and grafting, later on. Some of the producers are busy planting skips in the younger orchards, as well as some putting in a few of the newer varieties such as Pawnee, Kanza, Nocona, and Oconee. These varieties are also faring notably in the County Pecan Shows around our area the past few years.

John Begnaud penned a good article in the "San Angelo Standard Times" recently relating to the virtues of putting a grape arbor in the landscape, garden, or orchard. A couple of the main advantages would be for supplying a cool, shady spot for one to rest and survey the garden or orchard as well as giving one a sweet supply of fruit for the table, jams &

jellies for canning and the cupboard, as well as some wine for the cellar. If you might be interested in trying some grapes in the garden, some of the varieties that I’ve found to do pretty well in this area include Champanel, Lenoir (Black Spanish), Favorite, and the Cowart Muscadine. According to the information in Womack’s Nursery catalog, it looks like the Schrank Mustang Grape might be a fitting vinifera for our area. Anyhow, I’ve always thought it would be a worthwhile endeavor. I planted a couple of grape vines for Momma in her garden around 15 years back and they’ve fared fairly well with limited care. It looks like we are starting to get some fair-weather days in the coming weeks which should have some of the anglers getting their rods and tackle out for some Crappie and White bass fishing. Visiting with Warden Wilson at the Courthouse yesterday indicated that there was enough water going down the Colorado now for boaters to make their way up into the River from Buchanan. Denver Watkins can probably give you a good up-date on the

situation as well as Kay or Dean down at Sulphur Springs.

The Mayor and yrs. truly watched several of the Winter Olympic events the past couple of weeks, but we’ll be having to turn to other activities now out around—————

Harkeyville!!!!!!