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Hurricane Harvey hit and was heading right for our home, but then turned tail and went back to the coast.  The eye came to within about 50 miles of our location.  It brought a fair amount of rain, measuring about 12 inches over two days.  The ground was so dry and the rain so steady that virtually none of the rain collected in the sloughs, so we concluded that most or all of it sunk into the ground.  The best rain that has occurred in this area, as far as ground soaking goes, in a long time. Others got more, much more than they needed.  This rainfall, of over inches in some areas, caused rivers to get to near record stage and flooded many areas.  It will be long time recovering from this.

We had an interesting conversation with Glenn Keith, an architectural welder from Wimberley.   He was born in Wimberley, not far from the center of town.  He recalled many interesting occasions, one being that his mother made mustang grape wine and he peddled it to the students of Texas State--long before it was TSU. Here's the back of his business card, it shows just one of his projects---a front entrance gate. We concluded that he should jot down some notes of the history of the area, but Glenn was not too enthused about all this. He was full of good practical information, such as reminding us that we have very few ticks because we now have all these fireants.

It always gets dry in central Texas, but this is as dry as it has been even compared to the drought of 5 years ago. One measure of the drought is when frost weed wilts and keels over. The animals really suffer and we have not seen but one or two butterflies so far, and here it is mid July.  We had to dig several plants that we had put in the ground about two months ago because when watered, some animal dug them up thinking it had found a source of water.  Those  plants are now in pots in the breezeway. Two bird baths filled with water one day are empty by morning. The vegetable garden is finished, the flower garden is all but finished Last rain of any merit was April 17th

On occasions we go to the KwikSave market at the Exxon station in Wimberley for coffee and light lunch from their food selection.  Plus, they have gasoline prices competitive with the lowest in the area. Its always interesting to find some local people to chat with who come to the store for drinks or food.  Some sit to rest and eat, others just buy snacks and leave. Recently two men and a small boy arrived in two large dump trucks.  The trucks were red, rather new looking and really well maintained.  They parked out in front of the gas pumps as that is the only place to park vehicles this large.  The drivers and the small boy came into the store and as they were about to leave, walked past our table.  I could not resist commenting on their trucks and how well they were maintained.  That seemed to spark their interest in conversation, so we chatted at length. Seems as if they were drivers for a local man who owns the trucks.  What was especiall...

The following rhyme recalls the school day recess activity of about 1954 in Carl School.  It was written about 1965 by DGTusch.

Plum, Texas  6.25.2017 Plum is a small town just to the west of LaGrange.  It is an historic town settled by Americans and German immigrants in 1869 along the MKT railroad track. The first settlers established the Baptist Chuch.  Later it was a favorite place for Czech immigrants to settle, and with a larger Czech population, the community was able to build the Catholic Church.  The stone for the Catholic Church appears to be transition limestone, which is quite flinty and much harder than one typically knows limestone.  It was quarried at Muldoon. The Catholic Church, Sts Peter and Paul, has hosted a feast every year since 1927, so this year was the 90th year that they put on this fund raising effort. The food was good, maybe the best of all the church picnics so far this year.  It featured fried chicken, sausage, smashed potatoes, sauerkraut, beans, and dressing, along with tea and a dessert. The dining area was small, and the tables were close toge...

Schulenberg, Texas 6.11.2017   We another good picnic at the Knights  of Columbus Hall in Schulenberg, right alongside Hwy 77 just south of the city downtown.  This KC hall was large and they had a very efficient serving line.  The food was really good, consisting of fried chicken, sausage, sauerkraut, green beans and smashed potatoes.  All with dessert for $9.00 Here is a photo of the inside with the many people enjoying the outing: Since this is a fundraiser for the church, they also had a silent auction and a regular auction.  The items in the auction were those that were donated to the picnic by individuals and by local companies. Outside, there was a really tuneful Czech band: We listened to the music for maybe 30 minutes and then the band took their break.  We sat next to a couple who were visiting from Fort Worth, the lady having grown up about two blocks from the church, so it was a homecoming for them. While we ate our lunch...