June 8, 2008.Harper, Texas. Weather.

The weather in Amarillo was very hot and dry and windy. Everyone told us that the 108 degree temperature was very unusual. And the extreme wind is usually over by mid May. But all told, this would not be a place I would want to live. We were told by several natives that the climate is perfect. Four seasons, very short winter and very little humidity seemed to please these good folks. Not me. Too hot, too windy, too dry. I enjoyed the place, then I will move on. Many times in our life we have been told that the horrible weather was very unusual, and that it mostly is lovely. I don't believe them. Most people do not notice the weather in their own town. Because they live there and they like it, they pay no attention to the weather, until someone from another place notices the fierce weather. It is an interesting observation of human behavior.

Many months ago, a small fish, a perch, went down the pipe from the big tank to the shallow tank used by the cattle. There she stayed, hiding out in the cement blocks put there by Ken to give the gold fish a place to hide. Yes, we put 12 goldfish in the cattle trough. Unfortunately, there are no long any gold fish there. Either a raccoon ate them, or a heron, or the perch. The perch has grown and grown and seemed to have laid eggs in an area she excavated for them. But no baby perches, because we have only one perch in the cattle tank. Problem solved yesterday. In the big tank we have eight gold fish, four solid orange and four white with orange spots, plus one perch. So we trapped the perch in the cattle tank and dumped her into the big tank, hoping that the perch in the big tank is a male. Today when I fed the fish I could never see both of the perch at the same time, but at least the gold fish have not been eaten...yet. Now Ken says that the one fish was a female because she was making a hollow to lay her eggs, but no male was there to fertilize the eggs. My suggestion was that perhaps in the fish species, the males make the nest for the eggs. "No way", says Ken. " That is the ladies job in the fish world". Can this be true?