Surviving without a car

It's not easy to survive without a car here in Texas. I have had about enough of laying in this hammock and catching up on 8 back issues of National Geographic and 6 novels..HA!!...its time to head out.....so I decided to check out the rideshare on Craigslist.org.....to find someone who was traveling to the Big Bend area that I could ride along with....lo and behold Trevor answered my request and I am meeting him today at the Quiet Valley Ranch in Kerrville, Texas (a great friend Bill is taking me there!) as he volunteers for the Natural Building Colloquim in 2 weeks. Turns out Trevor is building a dome near Terlingua which is where I am headed!! So really not having a car isn't such a bad thing.

Rodeo girls

Laura and Bonnie have been hard at it, traveling miles of Texas to compete in barrel racing at various rodeos....there's a rodeo somewhere in Texas everyday! I have been tagging along and have learned how to drive their truck and trailer so they can rest or do schoolwork.


Tack room in the rear of the trailer.

The horses legs have to be wrapped to protect them from the strains of making those quick stops and turns and from hitting each other.
Laura rounds the second barrel on Mooney.

And then after its all over they get a bath!

Compost and Garden

I want to encourage everyone to create a garden and a place to compost all those vegetable and fruit scraps! I prefer the easy method of composting directly into a garden. First I made a raised bed of soil as I live in the Blackland Prairie with a heavy clay content so needs good drainage. I just knocked a few old boards together, since I would have to travel 20 miles to get any rocks, though that would be longer lasting and prettier. I mixed in lots of horse manure from the girls horses and will systematically dig holes through this garden and bury the scraps, water it and joila it will be black soil in 2 weeks! Ready to plant all kinds of nice veggies!! So forget the gym, go buy a pair of gloves and a shovel and get out in your yard and do some very rewarding work! Its great for the body, mind and Earth...what more do you want?!!

Autumnal Equinox and Chichen Itza

Today is the autumnal equinox (Latin for equal night) which marks our first day of autumn. The sun’s light is directly over the Equator, so every place on earth has an equal number of hours of light and darkness.

While the earth orbits around the sun, the position of the sun changes in relation to the Equator due to the tilt of the earth’s axis.


I am missing an amazing phenomenon back in the Yucatan now at the Maya ruins of Chichen Itza, a phenomenon that was carefully mapped by ancient architects and astronomers.

On the day of both the vernal equinox and the autumnal equinox (and several days leading up to and after the events), afternoon sunlight bathes the western balustrade of the El Castillo pyramid's main stairway causing seven isosceles triangles to form and create a shadow that imitates the body of a 120 foot long rattlesnake that creeps downwards until it joins a huge serpent's head at the bottom of the stairway. How the Maya managed to build a monument of incomprehensible scale (all done without the wheel) to highlight the time of year when the hours of daylight and darkness are equal is extraordinary! Truly, a demonstration of the Maya's extreme aptitude for astronomy.

Lucinda Williams

Started off the evening with a friend from Lake Charles, Louisiana, Curtis, at his cajun restaurant "Evangeline Cafe"...I had the crawfish pistolettes....yummeee!! (he also has live music 5 nights a week)...then we went to a taping of another friend, Lucinda Williams at Austin City Limits....I knew her before she became famous as we are both from Lake Charles. Her music is described as roots-rock spunk - alternative country.....she has won several Grammy Awards and is currently on tour in the United States. Austin City Limits is an American television music program broadcast from the 6th floor of the Communications building at the University of Texas. It was a lot smaller than I anticipated which made it feel intimate....and we had good seats. I got to visit with her briefly after the taping as she had to get on the road to her next gig in Bossier City, Louisiana. As I watched a crew of about 9 people load up a trailer with lots of gear behind her 2 tour buses, I thought about how far she had come since the days of old when she would pull up to a bar in a beat up car with her then boyfriend, Clyde Woodward, and tote her guitar and amp to play for a small audience.....its great to see someone realize their dream after working so hard! And it feels good to know someone famous!

Garner State Park

The weather was perfect this weekend for camping on the Rio Frio at Garner State Park in central Texas hill country. This cypress tree-lined river is crystal clear and perfect temperature for some pristine swimming. I think it's the clearest river water I have swam in in Texas! I could swim and swim upstream, like 150 strokes and never go anywhere...the current was just right!! The stars were incredible too as it was the new moon and no city lights....sitting on the river bank gazing at the milky way and listening to the music of the rio while the guys threw in a fishing line and caught a catfish was over the top!!! Here we were in a state park, fishing and noone had a fishing license....how do I always end up hanging with the bad boys?


It seems that most of the activity centered around the firepit as Hank and Noble proceeded to COOK several amazing gourmet meals!! Tuna sashimi for horsdouvers, shark tacos, beans, steak, polish sausage, apple delights (from Noble's apple farm) and salads and vegetables, all fresh from the local farmers market. I like camping with these guys, they planned, cooked, cleaned and packed!!
Good grill design, nice adjustable heavy duty grill
Now that's a Texas-sized steak!

Raku

Met today with my long time clay group, the Geronimo Art Guild, jajaja…..a fancy name for a few cool women who get together every Thursday at Maribeth’s house to play in the clay. Today we RAKU fired pieces that they had already made. Raku is one process used to fire pottery. The pieces are removed from the kiln while glowing hot (1800°) and placed inside metal cans full of newspaper (or any combustible material) that catches fire immediately from the hot pieces. The lid is put on and the fire inside consumes the oxygen within the can and draws the oxygen out of the pottery, called a reduction chamber. The surface of the pottery is stained with carbon, which gives raku its unique apprearance…The process is known for its unpredictability, so its always a surprise to pull the them out.

Exogyra ponderosa

These giant prehistoric OYSTER fossils are abundant in a gravel deposit on the San Marcos River where I swim. They once lived in the shallow seas of Central Texas (during the Cretaceous Period) over 65 million years ago!! The left valve is large and swirlish, the right valve (middle in photo) is flattish and much smaller. Wow…..imagine the dinosaurs sitting on the beach plucking these oysters out of the sea and eating the delicate, succulent mollusks inside to his hearts content…I wonder if they had aphrodisiac qualities back then??….can you imagine that?! HA!