Category Archives: Texana

Our wet month

Posted on May 9, 2007 | Comments Off on Our wet month

May is fixin’ to live up to her name. Some big storms that have been edging closer all week are due to poke their noses into our atmosphere by this evening, possibly strong, possibly bringing heavy rain. Tonight through Thursday night. Figures. I finished the backyard yesterday. Nothing makes St. Augustine grow fast like a big rain.

UPDATE  Line of storms–stretching from Georgetown to San Antonio–is moving in at 10:45 p.m. An hour later, the rain had moved on and the rancho had a mere tenth of an inch. Ho hum.

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Posted in Texana, Weather/Climate

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Cadillac ranch

Posted on May 8, 2007 | Comments Off on Cadillac ranch

They’re still flocking from all over to see what Banjo Jones likes to call the Texas Stonehenge:

"…I met a woman from Ontario, whose husband stayed in the car on the feeder road by I-40, while she walked out into the pasture for a closer look…"

Before they the Cadillacs went into the ground their headlights were broken, in keeping with Aztec burial practices.

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Posted in Texana

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Garden blogs blossoming

Posted on May 6, 2007 | Comments Off on Garden blogs blossoming

Pam Penick, mother of one of Mr. Boy’s pre-school chums, contends Austin may be the capital of garden blogs. Sure are a lot of them around, mainly about native plants, but including this one on my great great grandmother’s favorite antique rose. Lost mine to the deer, but plan to plant another.

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Posted in Antique Roses, Texana

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They left out the puppet shows

Posted on May 6, 2007 | Comments Off on They left out the puppet shows

Michael Wayne Martin was my favorite story of a Texas legislator gone bad. From performing religious puppet shows at churches in his hometown of Longview, he fell from grace in the early 1980s when he hired his brother to shoot at him to draw sympathy for his re-election campaign. Instead he was arrested by the Texas Rangers while hiding in one of the big stereo speakers he used for his shows. Later he admitted to perjury under a plea bargain and left state politics. Now he’s back, as just plain Wayne, running for city council in Bee Cave, southwest of Austin. The daily has this good piece on him, indicating that Mike is still not entirely out of the woods. Except they left out my favorite part: the puppet shows.

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Posted in Texana

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Record snowfall

Posted on May 4, 2007 | Comments Off on Record snowfall

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December 25, 2004’s record snow in Texas of anywhere from two to six inches, including the most snow in Brownsville in 109 years. We have pix of Mr. B. romping in it at the rancho. I think that might be Lake Travis, the dark spot in the white, top left. Satellite view, courtesy of NASA’s Visible Earth. 

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Posted in Texana, Weather/Climate

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White Elephant Saloon

Posted on May 4, 2007 | Comments Off on White Elephant Saloon

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One of my favorite buildings in Fredericksburg, Texas, in the Hill Country west of Austin. There were three White Elephant Saloons, part of a chain built in the 1880s. The others were in Fort Worth and San Antonio. The one in Fort Worth, where Bat Masterson is said to have once worked, is still a bar  country-music venue, but this one is a gift shop. Not sure about the one in San Antonio, but it was originally on Alamo Plaza.

UPDATE  Here’s a profile of the owner of the Fort Worth one, as of 2002, including details of a historic gunfight.

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Posted in Texana

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Concealed carry

Posted on May 1, 2007 | Comments Off on Concealed carry

From airports to zoos, there’s no place Republican Gov. Rick Perry doesn’t want Texans to be able to carry a gun:

“The last time I checked, putting a sign up that says ‘Don’t bring your weapons in here,’ someone who has ill intent on their mind — they could care less," Perry told reporters. “I think it makes sense for Texans to be able to protect themselves from deranged individuals, whether they’re in church or whether on a college campus or wherever."

The liberal Texas media (which, like everywhere else, is most of it) will howl, but it makes real good sense to me.

Via Instapundit 

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Posted in Texana

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