Gettin' HOT.....

Well - it's THAT time of year again! The time where it starts to get HOT out! I figure, if it gets above 70°, then it's too hot. This coming week it is supposed to be in the 80's to near 90°! Way to hot for me!

I have been trying to finish up on a bit of fence that I needed to do before cattle came. I had to "re-arrange" a little bit, so I could make room for a new goat pen, so there were a few spots that needed attention. I guess I finished just in time, too. The cows are supposed to begin arriving this afternoon.

There is a culvert tube that comes across the road from my neighbor's pond. It has been there for several years, and always causes a washout and degrading of the road edge with a heavy rain.

Since I had to take that part of the fence down - it was all brambles, patches, trash and brush - I called the county Road Department to see if they wanted to do anything while it was down. Thursday they started, and yesterday, they finished most of it except for rip-rap.

I went down to watch for part of the operation and the men doing the work, said "Hey, look at that"! Down by my feet was a HUGE Crawdad (Crayfish, Crawfish, whatever....)! It was as big as my hand. I reached down and grabbed him behind his back and held him up. He was about 2" wide at his "beltline" and a bit longer then my hand. He had large, meaty claws and arms. He was also BLACK!

I've seen hundreds of Crawdads, but I have never seen one this big nor have I seen a black one before. Most of the ones I've seen have been a reddish brown, or a greenish color. The other guys said the same thing. One of them told me it would make nice catfish bait. I said, "Go ahead, but I sure wouldn't want to latch into a fish who could swallow THAT Crawdad!"

Either way, Mr (Mrs?...) Crawdad went back into the hole and left to take their chances with the construction project.

This time, they extended the tube about 10' and dumped a few loads of dirt/rocks/concrete into the hole over the top. When they finish, I will be able to get the fence done. It will be the hardest part of the entire project. I'm just glad it's only 60' to 70' long.