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They have always had several sayings in regard to the weather and patience. Such said sayings as: “All good things in time , will come.”, Winston Churchill said “Patience is sorrow’s salve.”; while Shakespeare wrote, “He that must make a cake out of Wheat, must also tarry the grinding.” The most amusing one ever heard was in reference to the person that was praying for patience, but followed up with saying that he wanted it “right now”. It would seem assured that , willingly or not, we’ve been forced to exercise quite an amount of patience in waiting for the next rain. As of this writing, early Tues. morning, it looks like we got between .40-.60 here on W. Wallace, while Daddy’s gauge showed about 6 tenths. Jr. Goode reported about a half inch for upper China Creek. I can’t take any credit for the rain, but I did put up a new rain gauge out on Johnny Brown Lane this past weekend, compliments of Lady Z’s bankers down at City National. It’s a pretty neat gauge for folks like Emmett Lee Grumbles that like to drive by & read the amount as the water in the gauge magnifies the scale so you can read it from a distance. Anyhow, most folks would really enjoy seeing it fill plumb up.

We got a nice note from Douglas Crim this past week. Douglas & I got to visit a good bit at our Class of ’63 reunion this past August & have been trying to run down an ol’ Armadillo buddy, namely one Pedro Cisneroz. The last time I heard of Toby, seemed like might have resided down in San Antonio. We don’t know if he’ll see this or not, but if any of you might have an address, phone number, or e-mail on him, Doug & I will see to it that he receives some mail. I’d bet Esther would like that.

If you’ve been paying attention to the highways & by-ways the past few weekends, it seems like more hunters are coming in each week. One good word of advice to local shoppers might be for us to get most of our trips to the grocery stores, cafes, stations, the feed stores, & down-town shopping done during the week. Mind you, I’m certainly not complaining of the increased business around the County, just reminding you of a helpful hint. Otherwise, you might find yourself trying to exercise some aspects of that virtue we described in the opening paragraph.

Looking to the yard, garden, & orchards, there are several things we can do as we are about at the point where warm season growth goes dormant. There is still time left to fertilize the lawn and ornamentals if you didn’t get it done in the past couple of months, & even though lots of plants are dormant during the late Fall & winter, it’s still helpful to water every now & then if it doesn’t rain enough. Helping roots stay healthy during dormancy goes a long way toward better plant growth at emergence or bud break in the spring time. Here again, it might be timely to remind ourselves to plan on what kind & where we might want to add any landscape trees or shrubs. Some of my favorites on the tree list for our Hill Country area are Pecan, Eastern Red Oak, Chinquapin Oak, Elm, Live oak, Burr Oak, Box Elder, Chinese Pistache, Bradford Pear, and Lacy Oak. Some shrubs that do well in our area are Mountain Laurel, Crepe Myrtle, Mexican Persimmon, Pomegranate, and one of Momma’s favorites, Lilac. If you need to plant any fruit or nut trees in the orchard this spring, it would be wise to figure out which ones you want and check with the County Agent or your favorite Nurseryman to help you with getting the variety best adapted to our area.

Here’s hoping all yall took some time on Tues. to pay tribute to all the Americans that have served and done their duty so that we all are able to enjoy the freedoms allowed us in the greatest State of the best Country in the World. I’ll guarantee that the Mayor & yrs. Truly will have done our part, out around————Harkeyville!!!!