When the interloping cattle were wandering about Roundrock last week, they spent some quality time among the pecans. What you see above is one of the staked and fenced pecans that I guess one or two of the cattle decided might be a good place for rubbing. Obviously, my handiwork was no match for their backsides. The brown condition of the leaves tells me that this happened earlier than just last weekend. Or it could have been that the tree had come out with leaves this spring and then died. (The pecans have tended to do this -- I think it's just to thwart me.) I didn't take a close look to see if those were green pecan leaves at the bottom, but I suspect that this spot in the planted grid is now a void too. Elsewhere in the pecan plantation is this happy looking tree: I think this one might actually make it in what seems to be a pecan-hostile territory. (I planted pecans here because someone who ought to know said it would be a good place for them. I think it would have been if there was more than just rock in the ground.) This tree is now taller than I am, which I take as a sort of important milestone achieved by the tree and by my dreams. That's the dam in the background, and if you can make out some white dots at about two o'clock, that's the plastic bag experiment station. It's time for me to give some love to the pecans. I need to put new fencing around the survivors since their cages are getting too small. I could also mow around them a bit to give them less competition. In the late summer, the grasses and other plants here can grow taller than the pecans, depriving them of sun. Missouri calendar:

• First day of summer/solstice: longest day of year.
• Cattail blooms are covered with pollen.

Today in Missouri history:

• Actor John Goodman is born in Affton, Missouri on this date in 1952. (I lived in Affton for a couple of years after I was married.)
• The flowering dogwood is named as Missouri’s official tree in 1955.
• Kansas Citian Mastin Gregory won the LeMans 24 Hour Grand Prix on this date in 1965.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 20th, 2008 at 1:01 am and is filed under Green Things, Stewardship. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.