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The nuclear physicists or the late 1800s referred to themselves as an orthodoxy of scientists, especially those who worked in the field of the transmutation of the elements.  This was the field that started in the late 1800s and culminated with the production of the atomic bomb in 1945. Many of the scientists thought long and hard about how this community of scientists managed themselves.  Who decided what to work on, who decided what theories were correct, what was it that made the whole process of discovery move forward to untangle this puzzle of how the atom was composed, how elements could be modified by irradiation and how elements were to be catalogued.  We take the periodic chart of the elements for granted today, but someone had to devise the logic of how to arrange all the elements in a logical manner.  This logical manner, once devised, led the scientist in predicting what elements could exist but not yet discovered. Some could be created by bombardment of...

Two years ago, we discovered the Kingsbury Aerodrome, not more than thirty minutes from where we live.   Its not advertised broadly, perhaps because those who need to know about it already know about it. The Kingsbury Aerodrome is a privately held 501(c)3 organization that is home for the fair and open house of the Pioneer Flight Museum.  For this, don't think of a Museum like a building housing all sorts of artifacts.  Think instead of a budding effort by an owner of a sod airstrip and a perhaps a 100 acres of once pastureland, plus some metal barns that are in the first stages of becoming storage places for vintage aircraft.  And another vital component is the large number of members who are volunteers to take care of the site and help with the annual fly and drive in. We missed last years fly in because we chose instead to go to Alpine to the convention of the Center for Big Bend Studies---its always on the same date as the fly-in.  This year we chose the Fl...

County fairs are receding as the rural land gets chewed up into subdivisions and commercial property. But, county fairs still exist and we found one in Guadalupe County, Texas where the county seat is Seguin and much of the land is agricultural--mostly for ranching as only a few crops are grown there at this time. This county fair ran for three days a week or so ago, and so we decided to check it out as we always like to see farm animals and especially like to see the work of young people doing 4-H work. Sheep and goat judging was going on when we arrived so we first took in the sheep judging, but quickly moved over to the goat judging as it looked more interesting. The owners of the show animals must have their animal under control and with goats, apparently grabbing them by the head is one way to do it.  Then they have to have trained their animal to stand erect and with their back legs stretched out so that the judge can assess the muscles in the back. It must take some a...

We received about 3/8ths inch of rain last night with the arrival of the cold front, the second of this fall.  The first one, about two weeks ago, was dry. Normally a diary entry on the subject of rain doesn't get initiated because rain is not that noteworthy.  But here, this summer, it is noteworthy since this rainfall last night is more rain in one storm than we have  received since May, five months ago. Drought is not uncommon here, as evidenced by the struggle that oak and elm trees have to get established, but the  mesquite, ashe juniper and prickly pear cactus seem to have no problem getting a foothold.  Lots of change occurs as one moves west past the 100th meridian.  But this drought, right here at this place, is far worse that the major drought of 2011 or 2005.  Rain storms that cross Texas are normally rather small cells and move in different directions depending on the time of the year.  It is possible that with this pattern of rain, ...

The big store now seems to be Amazon.  But, interestingly enough, Jeff Bezos made a statement that he believes Amazon (as we know it today I might add) will not be here twenty years from now.  As most know it, Amazon consists of itself as an online store plus a huge aggregate of smaller online stores and brick and mortar stores.  So when you buy from Amazon, you might have your goods provided by some small store--and if you are a price shopper, it will be from the lowest price offering.  This is a rather straightforward business model, made possible only by the internet and its connectivity.  There were others who appeared to have thought of this model before Amazon, as some companies offered to sell you anything you want---they would get it for you.  Amazon, however drove through to the finish line to develop the system.  The others, who envisioned this business model, never followed through with the implementation. Now that Amazon is successful with...

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 ...

In the early days when transportation horsepower was limited to the number of horses pulling a wagon, we find that the route from some Point A to another Point B did not always follow the route of the  shortest distance.  This observation is true for  hilly country.  Wagon routes found the route of least effort, but maybe more distance, while modern highways found the shortest distance, using more effort.  Better wheels and bigger engines on transport vehicles made all this change occur. So, this begs the question of how wagon routes were chosen to get from a Point A to a Point B in hilly country before the car, the train. First off, wagon drivers did not want to pull up a hill only to give it back again by going down the other side of a hill.  In fact, going downhill was often a chore because wagons did not have adequate brakes and so the wagon would tend to run up on the horses.  As an aside, one old trick was to chain a log to the wagon at the top...

Every year we buy large quantities of black oil sunflower seeds for the birds.  We do the same for the deer with sweet feed and corn. Then, there is the matter of water for all of them.   We are in the middle of a 5 month drought and with two bird baths and a large stock water trough,  up to 20 gallons of water each day are hosed into these vessels. The bird baths need an extra step of attention, as the raccoons visit the water, and as coons normally do, they must get into the water and mess it up badly.  The bird baths require cleaning often. So, because of the drought, primarily, this has turned into a daily work and resource ritual. In years past, we have had serious droughts in the summer and have done the same thing.  Then, there is the time in the winter where it seems as if the food for wildlife is scarce, so we feed then as well. But, we are always reminding ourselves that these are wild creatures and they have existed for a long time and without our h...

We stopped for coffee this afternoon at the Exxon convenience store in Wimberley.  This is a busy store because their gasoline prices match the non branded stations in town, they are open 24 hours a day, and they have a very complete convenience store including hot lunches served to your liking.  Plus, they have tables for sitting and relaxing.   In the past it is in this sort of environment that we have encountered the most interesting people.  Sometimes we initiate the conversation, sometimes they do; not predictable at all. As I was paying for our two coffees at one of two registers, there was a man of about 60 years of age buying his lunch at the other register.  Holy cow, what a thick accent; unmistakably Australian.  He was such a stir with his "mate" this and "mate" that it caused the lady who was taking my payment to have one ear cocked towards him at the other register and still paying attention to our transaction.  I said to her "I am bettin...

I came across some correspondence with my dad in about 1978. He was describing a contraption that he had built in order to satisfy my mother that they were secure at night when sleeping with the front door open , only the screen door shut to prevent mosquitoes from entering the house.   The screen door only had a small latch on it so it was quite insecure.   Anyone who wanted to cut the screen, open the latch and get in the house could do so quite easily.   This is why my mother was concerned for sleeping with this insecure situation. So, my dad decided to rig up a security system based on parts that he had in the basement. The following paragraph is his writeup of the system that he had rigged up. We left the front door open nights since your mother was afraid someone would cut the screen and reach in and unlock the door. So I fixed that. I mounted a mouse trap in the basement and put a piece of mica in as an insulator and fastened it to about 20 feet of monofilament ...

J. Frank Dobie was one of the best writers of stories of the Southwest. The book that I have read many times is Coronado's Children, a book about hidden treasures.  It was often rumored that Coronado had stashed away lots of valuable treasure as he and his entourage traversed the southwestern states.  It was storied that he had placed gold in this cave, or that cave, only to be lost due to the erosion of information with passing time.  I have read these stories many times as they are written with such finesse that it is really difficult to tell whether they are tales or are they accounts of scattered information.   The stories have captured the minds of many people as some have spent years looking for buried treasure. Then I read a story of an early settler finding a man with a gunshot wound and helped him to a place where he could recover. As it was, the man died (that's an important part of the tale) but before he died he told of a stash of gold coins that he hid ...

There must be a direct correlation between the number of people and the availability of land.  If there is a direct correlation today, it might not be the same in the future as the value of land is shifting.  Individuals seem to not care to own land and large corporations, seeing the profit potential in land are hungry for land. In Texas, it all started with the separation of Texas lands from Mexico as a result of the war with Mexico.  Those early settlers and those who fought in the war with Mexico were given grants of land from the Republic of Texas as a reward.  The grants were large (by todays standards) ranging from 1380 acres to 640 acres. The process went something like this:  the grantee was given a certificate which when submitted to the government, allowed the grantee to request a survey in an area chosen by the grantee.  That survey then took on the name of the grantee.  Since this parcel of land now had its first owner, that owner is said...

Our town has a monopoly supermarket that is really customer oriented.  Some of the features are that in spite of state laws prohibiting the presence of dogs, uh, mutts, some customers  bring in their pets into the store by brushing right past  anyone who may raise an objection. It provides food for not only the human customer but also the birds of the neighborhood. Where are we?  We are not in a Mexican town  bordering Texas, where even cattle could roam in and look around and probably not even be noticed.  No, its not that kind of market, it does have doors which are usually closed and opened only automatically when a customer approaches the door. But what about the birds? Take a studied look at parking lots where cars arrive having driven through a lot of bugs and you see Grackles greeting each newly arrived car and immediately going to the front end of the car to inspect it for any fresh bugs that may be plastered on the frame or grille.  Their be...

Topics such as this one seem to come out of the blue---the term used in the past, now we say its an idea that came out of cyber space.  No matter what, the topic was an interesting one. Here is the scene:  its rural America, the year is about 1940, the War had not started for us but was on the horizon. Most families had cars, but usually only one. There was no television, phones were basic in that most people had so called party lines, thus making them unsuitable for chatting between family members. This situation created the normal behavior of frequent visits between relatives, but also between unrelated friends. Dad and mom would announce that we were going to visit so and so, and we would all get in the car and drive to their house.  If they were home we would be greeted cordially and spend the next few hours chatting.  If there were no other children in this household, we would sit like little angels and speak only when spoken to, which was not often.  If ...

Local history is interesting because it often comes from stories passed down over the years. The only problem is that the stories usually undergo some change with each generation of story tellers so that the current version is no where near that what actually occurred.  But, that too, is part of the enjoyment of local history. Hays County, where we live, is quite rich in history because it is sandwiched between Travis and Bexar Counties, both of which have their own rich history.   Hays County has some local history in written form, but not nearly what it should have given its wealth of history. Every so often, we encounter a unique opportunity to chat with someone who was pretty close to the situation which created the history. We were cleaning up the front entrance when a truck stopped and the gentleman got out and walked to where we were working.  He introduced himself, and I immediately recognized his name.  He's the man that lives in the stone house----th...

The cat is an indoor cat.  We let her outside once in a while, but only supervised and never in the rattlesnake season.  Rattlesnakes do a job on cats, especially those cats that don't have street smarts from being outside for most of their lives.  It goes like this:  There are those cats that have learned how to deal with all snakes, and that includes rattlesnakes, but these are the ones that were lucky in their encounters with poison from the fangs.  Those that weren't so lucky are not here as examples to write about. Earlier, we described how Cat would climb up an oak tree and then sit high up in the branches and look like an abandoned soul, wanting to be rescued.  But, we kept telling her, "you got up there, now you can get down".  In an oak tree that is possible as many of the branches are big and sloped in the right direction.  So, she makes it okay. On her last foray in the outdoors, she got all excited because she smelled that some feral...

The bull is missing and none of us know where he has gone. The bull just turned up missing one day and left no forwarding address. We live in a  community covering 2000 acres, around which is a perimeter fence.  The purpose of the perimeter fence is to keep the cattle inside our individual properties. The cattle herd consists of about 100 head and are the property of two of the residents. There are only a few fences inside the community, so for the most part, the cattle can roam all the parcels of land freely.  Its rather wild country, consisting of open grasslands and patches of very dense brush. The herd usually has just one bull, sometimes two, but two bulls in small herd usually get to fighting with each other so one is better. Now, the missing bull could have excaped, died naturally, been shot by a hunter, or rustled.   Cattle rustling has not gone away and still is a serious crime.  But to steal this big bull by getting him into a trailer would not ...