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Gee, we have not been in Yoakum for some time, so we decided to make the trip a few days ago.  The weather was iffy, but we decided to go anyway. We arrived in Yoakum about 11 am, just in time to hunt for the best café.  Earlier, we picked H & H Café, not knowing that we had been there before, some years ago.  Well, it looked just the same.  We had a smoked meat sandwich and sat for awhile and enjoyed watching the locals come in for lunch.  It turned out to be the best place in town, confirmed by the many who chose to have lunch there. Then we found the tourist bureau and chatted with the young lady who was staffing the place for the day.  She had lots of good answers for all our questions, like where is the local gun shop, and where might we buy a good cup of coffee. We chatted about a lot of topics, but one caught my ear.  Nearby is a town spelled Hochheim.  She says the local pronunciation is Ho heim.  Obviously a german name, and the germans would have said hoke heim.

This is a continuation of the trip to McDade, because in the McDade Museum, we asked if there were any one room school buildings still standing, and she said yes, at Knobb Springs.  We had our county map book with us so found Knobb Springs, but we were a bit uncertain how to get there as it was in the back of the beyond. But, we did find it. At the last bend in the road there was a church, fairly new, and this old school building.  Just as we pulled in to the big spacious yard (no ditches, no curbs just a field well mowed) a man came by and I flagged him.  He stopped, and we asked him if this was the old school building.  He said "yes" and then said "maybe it is open, it usually is". Here's the story that was put on the Carl School site;  you can read all about it here: carlschool.wordpress.com

McDade you say, where is that? Well its on the edge of Bastrop and Lee counties and was once a thriving agricultural center, mainly for the growing of watermelons.  It is on a spur railroad, now not in operation.  The call for this trip was a parade celebrating watermelon days, a barbeque lunch, a car show, and later on a race of lawnmowers around a circular track. Off the agenda, but on our agenda was the historical museum.  It was rustic, but it was good. We spent about an hour there. One noted old sign was on the wall listing all the killings that occurred over the years.  Those who lived were called the Yegua Notch Cutters.  Yegua is a creek that runs through the area. (note that Print Olive was the notch cutter for awhile, then he was the notch) The parade had a few floats and lotsa horses.  Two horses had the smallest of riders. This one a little cowgirl, the next one a little cowboy. (back in the line a bit) Stockdales float was the best!  Stockdale is some two

Go to highway 304 north from the Interstate highway, turn right onto BuckBend Road, then go left on another county road, then a sharp right turn (obviously following section lines) then another mile or so, then left on another county road and after some 15  miles of this in an area near the Caldwell County line, we found the Criss Ranch. Now is the time to ask:  Why to the Criss Ranch? We saw an ad for an estate sale on the web.  It was complete with pictures of what was for sale.  We saw nothing we needed except there was so much stuff on this old farm that we had to go investigate. We know what its like to still own most of what you have acquired over the years, but we are working the pile down to something manageable.  But here is a ranch whose occupants kept everything they ever acquired or so it seems.  The occupants had been an older man and lady, the man had died some years ago and the woman, most recent age of 82 died just recently. There were two brick homes on the site,

The cat became rather sick with vomiting and the whatnot.  Investigation turns up the following:  The night before, Dee noted a tree frog on the wall in the bathroom, too high up to get down by herself.  So, to keep the frog contained she shut the door of the bathroom for the night.  Next morning, the cat was very sick and the frog was nowhere to be seen. Poked through the vomit and there were the remains of the frog.  Now, we all know that some toads, maybe some frogs, are toxic.  Well, this one was for sure. Took about three days to recover.  All is okay now, and, the cat has encountered yet another life experience.