The sand I was working with began to darken. It became heavier and started to stick together. Then it started to stick to me and my shovel. I looked up and my evening had come prematurely, as I saw the sky darkening. The heavy clouds were determined in their movements to fully envelope the sky. I yelled over to John and Brad who were helping me move Crinum ‘Rose Parades’, “We can call it if you want to.” They just quickly glanced up and kept digging. We were already dirty, already soaked now, so everybody decided to just keep working. On top of that, we were in a bad mood, because the gophers had moved from their normal delicacy – our tulips— into our Roman hyacinth plots set on the sides. (A “bad mood” can really keep you moving sometimes.) The heavens opened up with their deluge as we were finishing and as the last of the crinums were transferred from one plot to the next, Erin pulled around the corner. She had just come from Dallas, and she had lasagna, sloppy joes, and key lime pie. My brother’s wife really knows how to win your heart over!

We cleared the field, and we plan to harvest the rest of the oxbloods from that plot in a couple of weeks. Then we will put in another summer crop, although it will be a month late getting into the ground. There is a pear tree in the field there, and it makes a lot of pears, but they’re really not the best eating. They never ripen and the tree has been so mismanaged, it has a bad form and narrow crotch angles. I think we might have to take it out. It would go along with our theme of cleaning that is going on. We killed another copper head by the cold frame, bringing our count to two now. It was no small snake. I don’t mind snakes really, but copperheads are not welcome on the farm.

The gophers did get into our Roman hyacinth plots. Why oh why our Romans? Please stop eating our bulbs. We were planning to put some of them on the website for sale this year, but I think we will have to hold back the ones that made it and keep propagating them for a couple of years now. Bulbs are so slow to start with, and then to have this set back with one of your rare bulbs. The good thing is that at least a sampling from of each of our sources has remained, so we have not lost the genetic pool. We still have the early grays, the blue/violet purples, the whites, etc. But oh how it hurts!

The morning after we had cleared the field, I had some tractor work to do before I drove into Dallas for a lunch appointment. I went to switch out the implement, and after slicing my hand and getting my clean clothes greasy, I found this implement had broken sometime over the past 6 months. We had another though and I switched them out and finished my work. By this time, I was late for Dallas and still had bags to pack, etc. I showered, switched clothes, and was running around trying to get everything together. Fischer, notorious for having to smell everything, managed to stick his dirty nose over my pair of newly cleaned slacks. I lost my temper and didn’t know what to say and just yelled “Stop nosing me!” Brad looked up from what he was doing in the office, and I felt silly. As if the dog could understand what I was saying or even a sillier thought is that I could hope to live and work on a farm and keep my pants clean.

I made it to my lunch appointment at Café Pacific in Highland Park Viliage—a nice little spot in Dallas— without any time to do anything with my dog. I looked for a shady spot and found something half shady. As I walking to the café, the sun came out and I realized the spot wouldn’t work. I asked the valet guys if they could do something, and they were gracious enough to find a shady spot, but it happened to be right in front of the restaurant. If they were o.k. with a dirty farm truck there in front, it worked for me. I walked in and sat down for lunch, and had a good view of the cars from the window. I saw the valet gentleman pull up in my truck, with the dog sitting next to him, and then I knew, when he left the door open too long, what was going to happen. My eyes and conversation wondered from my guest, as I saw the seen unfold. We now had a Weimaraner loose in Highland Park Village. 5 valet guys couldn’t get him as he slipped off his color off and ran up to the classy lady getting out of her sporty red car. Fischer just wanted to be her friend, but he’s no small dog and she quickly hopped back in her car. I managed to call him, load him up in the truck, made my apologies, and finally sat down for my lunch. Never a dull, or rather, always an embarrassing moment. I would like at this moment to once again thank all of my A&M Corps of Cadets buddies for buying me such a wonderful companion this last Christmas.

I was supposed to drive to San Antonio, but Dallas ran long and by the time I had finished my appointments, the Central Expressway was completely stopped, and an accident had happened on I-35 South. I opted for a game or racquetball with an old friend at the SMU (Southern Methodist University) courts in time to let the traffic die down. Racquetball with this old friend can be more like football, and if I wasn’t sore enough from the farm work, I was definitely done in now. I decided to stay in Dallas and leave for my 9AM appointment south of San Antonio the next morning. My 3:30 AM departure turned into a 4AM departure with the dogs (my friend and his wife also have a Weimer) getting loose amongst the condos again. We rounded them up and I made it to my appointment by 9:20.

And now here I am, in Boerne, Texas. My appointment this morning went well and I look forward to explaining it one day. Three of us had burgers at “Fat Cowboys” in Pleasanton, Texas. Pleasanton claims to be “the home of the cowboy”. Our conversation turned towards that of families, and grandchildren. “I’ve got two more in the hopper” one man exclaimed. The other gentleman with us chimed in “he’s got grandchildren growing like grass.” I laughed internally, smiled externally, but was really beginning a serious afternoon lull. One gentleman offered his sofa for a nap, and I took the offer. After a rough wake up, I made the drive for a BBQ this evening in Borne, and am waiting here at a Starbucks for it to start (Starbucks always has a reliable wireless service). Here tomorrow, then off to Houston on Monday. Why do I mention all of these things? Believe it or not, they are all related to flower bulbs. I wanted to visit a Crinum grower today, but our schedules just didn’t mesh.

Had to take some pictures for the new website, and only one was used, but I thought they were fun pics so I’ve included some. Mostly crinums. Poison ivy once again, but really, who cares at this point. I’m just going to itch for a few months until the field work is over.