Christmas Party at the Farm

Today was an interesting day. At the invitation of some friends, we joined them at their farm for a bit of Christmas good time. There were about 30 people at this party---maybe get-together would be a bit more descriptive---and we knew only 3 or 4 of the total. We got to talk to a number of interesting people, young and old, not sure of rich and poor.
The family that invited us have doing this get-together for many many years--like 40 or so; and it is one of those deals that seems to be handed down from generation to generation. The second generation was in charge, but the third generation was certainly in attendance and acting all the part of apprentices. So, you can see where it is going.
There was the host and hostess who own the Farm, there were their children and their friends. There were friends who run other businesses in the area, and on and on. No one was dull and lacking an opinion on local politics and the direction things are headed.
What made this get-together especially interesting is that it began at 6:30 in the morning, deep inside the farm, in a grove of trees. Today was chilly as the temperature never got above 37 degrees, but it was clear and no rain. A warm fire cheered things up and also provided the heat for cooking the breakfast, which if wondered, was the centerpiece of the morning.
Also unusual was that arriving at the party, no one could see much of the other people as it was dark, but within the hour, dawn began to break and there they all were.
Breakfast was coffee, beignets, scrambled eggs, fried potatos, sausage kolaches and a lot of good people.
Druids we were---for a brief time.

Comments

Aermotor Windmill Lives

The Aermotor windmill is probably the oldest iconic windmill In the United States today. We bought one that was very old at a seller's booth at the Round Top antique market. This was back in the late 1900s. So that makes it 20 years ago or so. We first erected this windmill In Fulshear in the backyard. We had to get Architectural Control Committee approval to do this. Because some of our neighbors may have some bad experiences with a neighboring windmill, we had to assure them that we would not let the brake slide and provide that nasty shrieking noise. Other than that, there was no objection to looking at a windmill. W e erected the windmill in Fulshear. It was quite a chore for us as we had no idea where all the parts fit together and how they were arranged. For example, we learned that the sail wheel with its struts is built with the same concept as a bicycle wheel with its spokes. After much head scratching and consulting the internet we had it to ...

Cause and Effect

We have this great world atlas book published by the National Geographical Society, which by the way, we bought at the local library used book sale for $2. Probably this low price of the book pains the Society but it sure makes my reference to maps an easy task without having to wake up my computer. The book occupies a permanent spot on a book stand in our breakfast room, standing ready to supply map information on request. The book happened to be open to the page showing the whole of Antarctica featuring all the outposts and even some commentary of scientific significance. One such comment was on ice coring data of historic temperatures and carbon dioxide content. I can understand how the CO2 content of the ice can be preserved over many centuries at varying depths, but I am unsure how the prevailing temperature of some thousand years ago can be preserved in the ice cores--but that's another issue that we will not get into here. So here is the comment on the data of the ice...

St. Josephs Church Picnic in Yoakum

Off on this nice day to visit the old town of Yoakum. Yoakum is like many towns of this size, they grew to moderate size in the mid 1900s, then plateaued and now are not growing at all. Yoakum has a central area that consists of old brick buildings that are mostly unoccupied or are occupied with marginal businesses. We attended a church picnic in Yoakum a year ago, but that was the Lutheran Picnic and this one is sponsored by the Catholic church. We first drove directly to the Church, but this was not the place where the picnic was held---it was at the Community center in the old part of downtown, along the rows of warehouses paralleling the railroad tracks. This town was once a shipping center for agricultural products, like especially tomatoes. Now there is little of that produce and so the warehouses sit there rather bleak looking. The dinner was the usual, beef stew, sausage, smashed potatoes, sauerkraut, and bread. And don't forget the desserts...

NQ99HQ

Search This Blog