Those Are Some Big Acorns

We've been staying busy lately, mostly with activities at Rio Concho West (RCW). Last week, we had a hamburger supper followed by bingo, and that was fun. Every year, the employees of RCW host this supper for the inmates, and those folks surely do make some good hamburgers. We also attended the monthly wine and cheese social. Those of you who know Donna know that she is not going to pass up the opportunity to drink some free wine. Last month, I mentioned to the crew how they were discriminating against beer drinkers. Guess what? They brought me some beer this time around. Those are some thoughtful folks. And Donna joined the other old folks at the clubhouse on Saturday for an afternoon of bingo. I guess we are getting pretty settled here.

When RCW is not entertaining us, we dredge up our own entertainment. For the past few weeks, we've been gathering acorns from the bur oak tree in our front yard, and we have made a good haul. Donna likes to strew a few acorns around the back yard from time to time in hopes of luring deer into the yard. Last year, we sat perfectly still one night as one deer came almost to us and then proceeded to eat one of these gargantuan acorns. I'm surprised its teeth did not crack. I'm even more surprised it did not see us sitting about 10 feet away.

Here is a picture of at least 2 different types of acorns, together with a quarter, for size comparison. The bur acorns are at right. The top one, of course, still has its husk intact. The acorns at left are what most of us are accustomed to.

Here's another picture of a bur acorn in my hand. This one is still in its husk.

A bur oak out of its husk.

And yes, the correct spelling is bur, not burr, even though it is often spelled that way.

We have an old paper grocery bag full of these acorns, and we'll scatter them for the deer in the weeks ahead. Our tree has just about dropped all of its acorns, so the harvest is about over.

We had a bit more rain yesterday (Wednesday). We've truly been blessed with good rains this fall. We had about 13 inches of rain in October, and that is well more than half of our annual average. As a result, our lakes are in better shape than I've seen them since we moved here almost 8 years ago when we retired. In fact, according to the Water Data for Texas website, Texas lakes at this time are 87.4% full. Now, if you check that a week from now, the figure will be different. Currently, our area lakes are as follows:

• O.H. Ivie @ 41.5%. This is the important one for us, as this is where we get our water.
• Twin Buttes @ 49.8%. This lake has shown the biggest jump. It was almost dry about 2 years ago.
• Nasworthy @ 88.9%. This is more of a recreational lake, and the city tries to maintain it at about a 90% level. When it gets too low, water from Twin Buttes is released into it.
• O.C. Fisher @ 14.7%. This is the lake located at the state park and it is formed solely by the North Concho River. I'm confused as to why it has not collected as much water as the others. I had thought that rains on its watershed were plentiful, but perhaps not. Or perhaps the gates were opened to allow water to flow downstream to O.H. Ivie. I just don't know.

And in closing, let me share a snapshot of a Rio Concho West sunrise I took a couple of days ago.

Sun coming up over RCW