NQ99HQ

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...