Thankful for small blessings!

We finally got some rain.  A pretty general 1.2 inches all across the board.  I believe the official weather station reported 1.3 inches.  While this is encouraging, it is only a small portion of what we need.


We were putting down our yellow herbicide when the rain interrupted us.  We lost about a day and a half, before the thirsty ground sucked the moisture down.  We started on our last field yesterday about lunch and if all goes well we will complete it and the yellows later today.


Then we will park the big field cultivator and take the dual rear tires off the tractor and ready it for the planter.


This should be a quick process, then we will get the planter from the barn and hook it up.


I had said rain or not, May 12th I was going to begin planting, whether that meant dusting it in or going to moisture and trying to get it up without more moisture.


It has been about twenty years since I have put down a yellow herbicide and to be honest I haven't missed it.  The smell, the yellow stain on clothes and skin, the drift and over spray that get on the sprayer and boom.


We are putting down the yellows to help control some weeds that are becoming resistant to RoundUp.  Mainly tumble weeds and a few scattered careless weeds.  We haven't had an issue with the tumble weeds, but many of our neighbors have and they have blown across us scattering their seeds, so we are taking preventative measures.


The are new seed varieties that may be ready next year that are 2,4,D resistant, meaning we will have an option of planting those varieties and using amine for weed control.  Of course any 2,4,D product I have ever used has had a serious drift issue.


We'll. tackle that when we get to it.


Last week on the day we were rained out of the field, Slats and I were moving an old fuel tank we had used at the farm at Plains.  It is a big rectangular 17,000 gallon capacity tank originally built for the oil field.  I had asked Slats to check it and be sure it was empty of fuel.  He removed a man hole cover and learned it was empty of fuel but the two inch valve had been open since 1982 and the floor of the tank was covered with dead rats.  This tank had been sitting for 32 years and we decided to move it.  I backed the 4850 up against it and Slats threw a chain around it.  I began idling off with it and Slats began walking to retrieve the man hole cover.  After moving the tank only a few feet, I saw Slats reverse his direction and he was stretching those long legs and stepping quickly while looking over his shoulder.  I instantly began to think rattlesnake den, but when Slats stepped up on the tractor with me he told me "When you began mobbing that tank a big bobcat started to come out from under it.  It had it's mouth full open and was screaming and I didn't know if it was a damn this tank is hurting me scream or an eat me scream!  I wasn't going to wait around to see."


When we finished moving the tank, we walked back to where it had been before and the bobcat was lying there in three pieces.  So it was the damn that hurts scream Slats heard.  The surprise was that there was a litter of baby bobs under there too.  Only one was alive.  Slats was going to take it to Casey our neighbor who was always saying he wanted a real cat, but when Slats went to get it, it too had died.


That explains a number of barn cats that have disappeared the last couple of years.


Sunday members of Memama's regular Sunday din er crew were spread from Amarillo to Austin, the only exceptions being me, Memama and Joni.  I invited Memama to go to Abilene with me to church and dinner and a movie.  She accepted and I called Joni and told her she was welcome to join us, but she declined.


I woke Memama at 6 minutes after 7 and we hit the road at 8 minutes after 8.  We made 9 o'clock church service and afterward got to see Shug and Tommy Springer.


My friend Debbie had met us when we got there and she had Memama some pictures and a fresh peach cobbler, so Memama was scoring big even before her day had really started.


After church we left and drove to Abuello's and actually walked right in and sat down.  No waiting.  They gave Memama a T-shirt and a Mother's day card when we were seated.  We ordered some layered dip and Mexican lemonades before ordering our entrees.  We were done just as it got busy and in time to make a 12:10 movie time.


Memama had told me this past week that she really missed going to movies, something she and Pepa use to do weekly.  So I decided I wanted her to see the movie God's not dead!  She seemed to enjoy it.


Afterwards I drove through Sonic and got her a diet coke and an ice cream cone.


We went and had the white Caddie washed and headed home.  We weren't gone that long but it was filled with activities!  When we got home, I gave Memama a really sweet card with a DOLLAR in it!


Within minutes of our return she was in her gown and resting her back!

FATHER, thank YOU for YOUR rain blessing. Thank YOU for a special Mother's Day and I ask that you bless my MOM with many more. Thank YOU father for being faithful to meet our needs.