Good Morning All.
¡Feliz Cinco de Mayo! Está despejado y hace 49 ° aquí en el centro norte de Texas esta mañana. Oh wait! I am not at work any more; no need to habla Espanol. Cool but sunny day yesterday at 71°, a repeat today before getting into the 80's tomorrow. If the forecast is to be believed, it will be dry until next Monday. Eventually it dried out some yesterday, and I mowed about 70% of the front yard, there's still some standing water out there that I avoided.. Today I will get most of the south side of the estate, Friday's target is the west and southwest sides. Might get part of the yard between the house and pool done tomorrow after the grocery trek.
My wife was going stir-crazy yesterday morning, since she hadn't been in the car since last Thursday when we went to town; and she was talking going shopping to spend money. So instead, I took her to the local zoo nearby in the city of Gainesville TX. She is always complaining that I never take her anywhere. Do the weekly grocery/beer treks count??? I don't mind driving places, but after 43 years of a 100 mile round trip commute to work every day, driving just isn't on my "must do" list. But I digress here. The
Frank Buck Zoo is an interesting little place, not a large place and they don't have some of the larger animals like the zoos in Dallas and Ft Worth have. But it is less crowded and my county taxes help fund it. Easy for me to get to as well. Despite being 18 miles away, I only have to make two turns to get there. And there are just two stop signs the whole way, both on the road out front of my place. The highlight to me was the black bears and the flamingos.
This bear was in a "nursery pen", there were five others in the large outdoor pen.
There were a number of juvenile llamas that looked rather awkward.
Unfortunately, their elephant accidentally crushed a handler several years back and was removed to a sanctuary.
BLT today with extra bacon Flo. Double shot of OJ to wash it down with.
Thanks for the many likes and comments regarding yesterday's post;
Rick, Patrick, Justin, Guy, Sherrel, Tom O, Chad, Gary, Jaz, Phil, Hughie, Ken, Karl, Tom, Garry.
Between the road trip and mowing, I got limited time in the train shed yesterday. I did spend time searching my brush piles for suitable twigs to use in making a woodpile, most are too large. I found enough and spent about an hour making the pile.
I'm running trains this evening since it has been a couple of days!
Tom - That lawn looks like a maintenance nightmare. Very nice looking though. I don't even try to come that close.
Troy - As others have commented, nice looking pork chop. Charcoal grilling has always been a favorite with me. Three to four nights a week even in the winter. Only rain and very high winds keep me indoors. In the last week, it has been burgers, beef fajitas, chicken breasts (eventually used in Chicken Parmesan), and salmon fillets. And I do veggies, sliced squash cooks well directly on the grill without foil, and I have a perforated pan for many others. I haven't tried out the smoker on my new grill yet, but have a stockpile of pecan, peach and oak wood dried and ready to go.
Guy - I suffered no ill effects from the Moderna vaccine when I got it in January-February, other than the typical sore spot where I got jabbed.
I cheated a little on the trees that I made the other day. I buy these at Hobby Lobby, spray them with Elmer's spray adhesive and then dip and roll them in ground form. Then I spray them with Dull Coat to keep them from shedding; they still do though.
This is easier than scratchbuilding them with armatures or twigs.
Good luck with the unneeded door.
Tom O - Regarding the zoo: If you're already stopping at the last OK exit, it's less than nine more miles to the exit. It's exit #497, FM51/California St. It's right on the corner inside Leonard Park. The park also has a RR train to ride on and both the park and zoo have picnic areas, one at the zoo entrance and one in the middle by the giraffes. Cost is $6.50 for seniors and it took us about 75 minutes to make the complete round, but we moved slowly. The only ones moving slower were these zoo residents.
Patrick - I doubt that it is rabbits eating tomato plants, the plants are poisonous to them. It is more likely cutworms that decapitate the plants. To prevent them, make a 2" tall ring from a paper towel tube and put it on the plant at
planting time. If rabbits are bothering anything, spread some blood meal around the garden. It is an organic fertilizer that adds nitrogen. But more importantly, rabbits, which are vegetarians are repulsed by the smell of blood and will generally stay away. I use it liberally and I live in rabbit country, especially this year when it seems that many of the coyotes did not survive the deep freeze in February.
Looks like today is another broccoli freezing day since I have five heads in the fridge and I need to make room for tomorrow's grocery trek.
Everybody have a great day and stay safe. Have a Corona on me.
EDIT; I typed this over two hours ago and forgot to "Post Reply" or the forum software just failed. That's it, the software failed
! Just realized that I had posted too many pictures is why it did not upload the first time.