We recently travelled to Wilson County to buy a few board feet of mesquite lumber for the next furniture project. We had become aware of Faifer as a supplier of wood harvested from some 100 miles around Floresville and so that was our destination.
Travelling south from Seguin, the road takes you through some areas of sandy soil that has attracted some great oak forests, for example, just north of Stockdale. We were surprised (again) on the lack of commerce in Stockdale---it seems to be declining as a town. Floresville, on the other hand, is very busy and seems to be in the center of business activity of the area. We bought the wood, chatted with the owners and learned a bit about the mesquite harvesting activity of the area.
Back to the topic of personality of an area. Travel northwest from where we live into the so called hill country and observe the nature of business and the kinds of people who live and visit the area. Then do the same for the area south of here, to, say, Floresville. One might generalize and say that there are two basic ways to "earn a living". One is off the land, the other is from industry. The people of the Floresville area live off the land, that is, ranching, farming, oil and gas production, etc. There is little of that in most of the hill country. There, people make a living from industry, that is, tourism, guest ranches, etc. Even the wine making and beer brewing industries are tourism ventures. City dwellers visit these areas like Fredricksburg, where most of the entire main street is filled with nifty gifty shops.
City dwellers are not attracted to the area to the south because there is "nothing to see".
But, and don't tell anybody this, there is a lot to see when you look for the interesting stuff.
Travelling south from Seguin, the road takes you through some areas of sandy soil that has attracted some great oak forests, for example, just north of Stockdale. We were surprised (again) on the lack of commerce in Stockdale---it seems to be declining as a town. Floresville, on the other hand, is very busy and seems to be in the center of business activity of the area. We bought the wood, chatted with the owners and learned a bit about the mesquite harvesting activity of the area.
Back to the topic of personality of an area. Travel northwest from where we live into the so called hill country and observe the nature of business and the kinds of people who live and visit the area. Then do the same for the area south of here, to, say, Floresville. One might generalize and say that there are two basic ways to "earn a living". One is off the land, the other is from industry. The people of the Floresville area live off the land, that is, ranching, farming, oil and gas production, etc. There is little of that in most of the hill country. There, people make a living from industry, that is, tourism, guest ranches, etc. Even the wine making and beer brewing industries are tourism ventures. City dwellers visit these areas like Fredricksburg, where most of the entire main street is filled with nifty gifty shops.
City dwellers are not attracted to the area to the south because there is "nothing to see".
But, and don't tell anybody this, there is a lot to see when you look for the interesting stuff.
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