This is the made-in-China, two-person tent Mr. B. and I used on his Cub Scout camping trip last month. Quite a change from my Boy Scout days in the 50s when we only had WWII-surplus pup tents assembled from shelter halves. They almost always leaked. Lots cheaper now, too. The surroundings are the campsite at Inks Lake State Park, one of the Highland Lakes in the hills west of Austin.
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Tagged Boy Scouts, camping tents, Cub Scouts, Inks Lake State Park, pup tent
My favorite native at the rancho, a member of the wood-sorrel family. Unfortunately, it’s a cool-weather flower and, as the days get hotter, it will disappear until, oh, about December.
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Posted in Rancho Roly Poly, Scribbles, Texana
Tagged native Texas plants, Oxalis
“Every resource that can be put at that border is being put at the border. Every security is being made.” Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said. “But we still need comprehensive immigration reform.”
Why, yes, of course. I’ve seen the twenty-foot-high chain-link fence that runs from one end of the 2,000-mile border to the other, especially its main portion in South Texas. Haven’t you?
Not to mention the private security guards (solving unemployment, doncha know) every twenty feet on eight-hour shifts. That’ll slow ’em down. Yessir.
Not that Janet is a unique liar. She has plenty of company:
The Top 10 Dumbest Things Said About the Arizona Immigration Law.
The common denominator of all ten is the racism charge. If you try to stop illegal immigration from the South nowadays—except by amnesty for all Mexican illegals now and in the future—you are called a racist by practically every newspaper. And by some bloggers who are comfortably far away from the border. Not to mention on CNN, of course.
Even usually-placid Peggy Noonan is quite tired of this old, discredited Democrat ploy. She worries that many, many of us have become so alienated from Washington over this border issue that someday soon, well… Something is going to break.
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Posted in Obamalot, South of the Border, Texana
Tagged Arizona immigration law, border fence, homeland security, Janet Napolitano, southern border
Actually, the Comfort, TX, town museum. Used to be a bank, though. How does a little town rate a museum? It starts by drawing lots of tourists.
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Tagged Comfort, Comfort museum, Comfort State Bank, Texas
Was rearranging a bookshelf when I encountered my Mississippi grandmother’s 1928 copy of Holland’s Cook Book, a product of the Texas Farm and Ranch Publishing Co., whose founder more or less started the State Fair of Texas.
I found and reread the part about how to clean and salt butchered hogs. Still fascinating. I thought there was also a section on cooking possum, but I couldn’t find it. Then I stumbled over the instructions for buying a few dozen eggs in April, when they’re cheap, and preserving them until the following winter (almost fresh) when they’re not.
Takes a big crock and eight or so quarts of water mixed with sodium silicate, also know as “water glass.” Any drug store will have it, it says there. Something tells me probably not nowadays. But I could be wrong. Seems when Obamalot ran its stupid cash-for-clunkers program, dealers were supposed to kill the clunker by injecting water glass into the engine.
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Posted in Library, Obamalot, Rancho Roly Poly, Texana
Tagged Holland's Cook Book, preserving eggs, sodium silicate, State Fair of Texas, Texas Farm and Ranch Publishing Co., water glass
As I am with all good books, I was very sorry when this one was over. This conclusion of the 2008 trilogy really wasn’t enough for me. How about a fourth book? Or more? Hayes loves her characters and makes us love them, too, and so we long to learn how the new generations will fare.
It helps to be versed in Texas history as she deftly insinuates her Germans and Americans into a lot of it, including in this volume the early cattle drives, the Indianola and Galveston hurricanes, and the tragic readjustment problems of some of the kidnap victims of the murderous Comanches. I am surprised to find just two Amazon reviews for the book. At least the sales ranks indicate that it and one and two are selling. They deserve a wide audience, particularly in Texas where they will best be appreciated. Bravo.
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Posted in Civil War, Library, Texana
Tagged Adelsverein: The Harvesting, Celia D. Hayes, German settlements, Texas history
Congrats to Earl Thomas (Seattle), Sergio Kindle (Baltimore), Lamarr Houston (Oakland), Jordan Shipley (Cincinnati), Roddrick Muckelroy (also Cincinnati), and Colt McCoy (Cleveland).
The daily is sputtering over McCoy, the winningest, etc. being a late, second round pick (long after Bradford and Tebow), but I’m not surprised. I still say he’s injury prone and I think we’ll see that in his (probably short) pro career.
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Posted in Scribbles, Texana, Texas Football
Tagged Colt McCoy, Earl Thomas, Jordan Shipley, Lamarr Houston, Longhorns football, Roddrick Muckelroy, Sergio Kindle, Texas Longhorns
THE TEXAS SCRIBBLER 