NQ99HQ

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 ...

For years we always made an effort to stop in Comfort on the way from Medina to San Marcos in order to catch the used book sale of the Friends of the Library.  It is held in an old metal building that once was the old ice house.  A damp metal building is not the perfect place to store books, but there is no other facility to hold the books, apparently.  As a result of arriving early, we always found a parking place near the book sale location.. Not that the book sale is all that popular, but on this day, the town is set up for their big Christmas in Comfort street sale and parade. Last year, we went after lunch and found that it was so busy that finding a parking place anywhere near the action was near impossible. So,this year we went early so that we could get to the book sale and to have some time to roam the street vendors----and, you guessed it, have lunch. It all worked perfectly.  We arrived a the book sale and were able to park nearby.  We found some go...

During late September, 2018, we visited with a neighbor, a rancher, who has lived in this general area all his life and in Hays County, his present location,  since 1946. We contacted him from a clue that he is one of  the oldest of our neighbors here in Southeastern Hays County. On the phone, he said, sure come on over, I am here all the time.  So, we visited, armed with a list of topics of at least 20 items that were of interest. Here are a few one liners which we found interesting: He attended a one room school in the area.  The school was on Purgatory Road, and still stands.  Later we drove the short distance to the site and spotted a building through the brush that borders the road and took this picture.  Later, we sent the picture to the historian and he said it looked like it was the old school but could not be sure.  Here is the photo:  There is a cave on the Summer Mountain Ranch subdivision near the old windmill on the south end...

Criminal investigators always use the phrase "someone of interest" when they refer to suspects regarding criminal activity.  In this case, the term is used differently. We are always on the lookout for a good cup of coffee; not the Seattle, Washington stuff, but one of the myriads of other good coffees. The Seattle people would like you to think that there is only one coffee worth paying $3 per cup.  Discerning drinkers like us always shy away from the hot-pot-on-a burner coffee because they have a reputation of having set on the burner for a long time.  The bigger urns with specialty coffee may not be any different but they seem different. Alpine does not have but one or two specialty coffee shops, and they are all Seattle prices (oh, yes, that's another criterion for good coffee, it has to be reasonably priced). So, we have learned to stop at those big service stations for a cup of coffee because they often go big time for good coffee.  We hit the Stripes gasoli...

We ventured to west Texas this year.  We often go to Taos during this time frame, but the two day drive is getting kinda burdensome, so we picked west Texas.  This time of the year is the conference of the Center for Big Bend Studies and that was our primary reason for the trip,  But, seeing an opportunity to take in some scenery of the rugged area and possibly finding some land to acquire we went three days early. Cat, as usual was riding shotgun.  As long as we can find a motel that will take cats, we choose to haul her along with us for two reasons.  One is that she is entertaining, and second, the cost is usually less than putting her in the local kennel.  In addition, she has told us that she does not like to stay in any kennel where she can hear dogs barking. We travelled around San Antonio, heading first for Castroville where we stopped at an all time favorite bakery for some pastry and coffee.  Since we left home without breakfast we did not...

We both grew up in an era and an environment that was conducive to playing outdoors.   Perhaps that was because of the absence of television and certainly before cell phones and digital games.   We have always looked upon our experiences in the out of doors as a “given” and not anything unique.    That’s all changed---especially for the urban population. On the subject of nature, as we like to write about each month, we often hear how we must do certain things to preserve and protect things in nature.   We hear that native plants, clear running streams, all the natural components of the out of doors need our help to survive.   Because of population growth and land development, there is no doubt that is true. Then we happened on the comment by a conservationist which went something- like this:   “We need nature as much as nature needs us”. So, for this newsletter, we did some research into that concept and here is what we found: Children are...

By now all readers know that we are always on the lookout for picnic style lunches put on by local churches, or other groups in the area.  Heck, will drive two hours for a lunch of this type if the prospects for information are good. So it was that we headed for Geronimo, a small town, really small town, just north of Seguin.  The menu was advertised as chicken and dumplings, plus dessert.   Chicken and dumplings are not at the top of our list of food delights but we decided to try it out for a "first time". The hosting organization was the Veterans of Foreign Wars post in Geronimo.  The VFW seems to be suffering lately based solely on conversations with veterans of more recent wars.  Often time we find that veterans of the Korean or Vietnam wars never join the VFW.  The sense seems to be that the VFW is for the two world wars vets.  It would be interesting to find the view of the VFW on this matter.  Anyway, as a result, the VFW volunteers seem...