River Run III

With the wading behind us we traveled just down the road about half a mile to the Cedar Hill cemetery where several generations of Adamses are buried. Elizabeth enjoyed visiting this older cemetery. From there I let Elizabeth drive for a little bit. Of course she sat on my lap and only steered but she really enjoyed it. Grandma would have been scared a bit since Elizabeth was sight-seer driving and hoped the car would stay on the road by itself. Of course I had my hands on the wheel the whole time.

Then Emily wanted to give the driving another shoot and I let her drive a good bit until we got to Roosevelt. Along the way she saw some wild turkeys running in the pasture and nearly drove over this turtle which was crossing the road at a low water crossing. She was so intent on figuring out what the thing was that she almost drove too close to it. I was having a hard time getting her to turn a bit to miss it. Luckily he lived to cross the road another day. I moved him off to the river out in the pasture.

Along the way I found this goat shed which does not look like it gets much use anymore. There is nothing in the picture to give you the impression of its size but it would hit me about mid-stomach. They were used for sheared Angora goats which were very susceptible to rain after being sheared. Now days I think they leave a small ridge of mohair along their spine to protect from from the elements.

Once we got to Roosevelt we headed to Junction for some Cooper's BBQ which we reviewed over on the bubbaqlog. Then we headed back to Angelo by way of Menard and Eden. All along the way into Texas I noticed that though every town, no matter how small, seemed to have a DQ that it now seems they also have a Sonic. We stopped at the Eden DQ and loaded up on ice-cream. Eden too had a Sonic around the corner.

Across the street from the DQ was a convenient store with an unusual sign above it. Something you do not see often outside of Texas.




In the end the girls seemed to really enjoy themselves contrary to their initial believes about the trip. Elizabeth who got to chew her first bubble gum in Lubbock wanted to chew gum the whole trip and found it to be a real treat.

River Run II

After driving slowly through the Camp Allison area and pointing out TX Grandma family we headed down toward Otto's crossing and the next one for wading. Since the last time we were here Otto's crossing was a bit slick for wading I headed for the next one which stops short of the Cedar Hill cemetry.

Here is a link to the last trip to Cedar Hill



It took some sweet-talking ALB to calm her fears of the running water and snakes and whatever else she could makeup to head on down the river with Emily and me. Once we got her down there then the screaming sorta slowed to every five minutes. The river at this point is pretty much solid flat rock and we could have driven the whole distance. It is a very nice place to wade and get to see the river from a different perspective.






We moved a pretty good ways up the river.








Of course Elizabeth like resting in the shade and drying off a bit.

River Run

Some of this is over at M.E.'s Blog but that has limited access.

Today we decided to go wading down on the head of the Llano River at Cedar Hill between Sonora and Junction. We headed down to Sonora at about 9am this morning and along the way I pointed out various landmarks which for once the kids actually paid attention. Between Eldorado and Sonora I pointed out these small concrete markers (picture to the left) along the fences of the highway. They are markers for the highway right of way or mile markers. The reason I pointed them out is that their grandfather mentioned once to me that he help put these out along the highway between Sonora and Eldorado. So I stopped and we walked over and took a picture of one.


On the way back to the car, Elizabeth says, "Dad, what is that?" I looked around and thought she was talking about a beer can. I mention it is a beer can and she says, "No, that?" I look down where she is pointing and it is a very small and alone Blue Bonnet flower! We had been telling her about them while driving down from Lubbock. She was excited to see it (picture of it on the left.) It was not much and we did not find many more until we got to Sonora.

We drove on into Sonora and visit the Court House to see of Joyce (a cousin) was working. Turns out she retired January 1st and was in Ennis helping with a new grand baby for her daughter Becca. So we explored the upstairs courtroom which they had redone. It was very nice. Not like it used to be when I was a kid playing around the courthouse.

Elizabeth wanted to visit Aunt Essie so we headed over to the cemetery for a quick visit then we were off to the river.

We drove down I-10 East and jumped off on the old highway (3130 now), that parallels the interstate, where I pulled over and let Emily take over for her first drive. She basically drove down the same road I did for my Granddad. She had fun but was worried the whole time. When Emily first got into the car then Elizabeth lost it. She started saying loudly that we could not do this and that Emily did not have a driver's license and continued to repeat this and was very distressed. She told us we could not do this to her. :) Finally she calmed down and enjoyed the ride. Along the way some deer ran across the road a good ways ahead of us and Emily slowed down then stopped. When I looked out into the pasture there was a huge set of antlers sitting on a normal size buck. Upon a closer look it was an Axis deer and when I started to get out to take a picture it took off. I took over driving and drove up on down to Baker Road then on through to Cedar Hill and the river.

We stopped at the Cedar Hill School and showed Elizabeth where her great grandparents went to school in a one room school house. We have been here before about three years ago but Elizabeth does not remember it. I told Elizabeth how Grandma Bessie and Aunt Essie played an undefeated girls basketball team that practiced and played in the dirt pasture behind the school. :) It was a six-man team where two players played defense, two played center and two played offense. The court was split into three regions and allowed only two players in each region.

We drove on down to Camp Allison which is sorta a park where folks can have picnics, BBQs, and dancing. But when I got there I was in for a bit of a surprise. They had closed it off because of public health concerns. Too bad.






More in the next blog about our wading trip and more.

Cement Pond and Possum Crossings

Well I arrived at Angelo at about 7pm Texas time. It was warm and I needed some relief. Turns out the swimming pool is a nice temperature for swimming. Emily sure is missing out.




I guess my "farmer's tan" is really showing. Though my arms are darker too far up to be a true farmer's tan. Only the hands should be darker.

Well this morning I got up at around 5:45am to head outside for some exercise. First thing I noticed it was still pretty much dark here. In Los Alamos it is daylight between 5 and 5:30am. I guess it has to do with the fact Angelo is in the western part of the Central time zone and LA is in the eastern part of the Mountain time zone.

Anyway, I was moving along at a pretty good pace just a block from the house down the left side of the street. I was moving under some live oak trees that were blocking any light making it darker. Now the paved streets here are black but just barely due to gray rocks and something that makes them whitish. Due to this background of light gray I barely noticed something crossing the road just off to the right in front of me..it was moving right to left at a good pace and it had was basically a long white streak. That is right the first thing I thought was "SKUNK!" Since I was right on top of the thing and I could not stop or get out of its way then I angled left and hoped to cross in FRONT of it and it be none the wiser. I was holding my breath as I went by ... then as I looked down I realized it was a "POSSUM" who saw me and turned and ran back the other way. I cursed "Dang Possum". It was the usual white and light gray and blended into the road very well in the darkish morning. I was a good bit relieved.

Well I have to get busy. I have handloads to get ready. Visit my Mom's store rooms to see what we want to keep or get rid of. No telling what else to do today.

Oh they finished the watertower. It is a shiny ugly color.

Courteous West Texas Drivers

The rest of the trip to Angelo from Lubbock was uneventful. I started listening to the Color Purple video back at Cline's Corner and it lasted me to Lubbock. The movie is a good bit easier to deal with than the book. Issues are inferred in the movie instead of detailed like the book.

When I left Lubbock I ran into more "West Texas rainstorms". There were a bunch of dust devils and the wind was killer. I had to stop and get gas in Post, TX. By the the temperatures seemed over 100F and the wind was no stop. While pumping the gas it felt like when you stand in a small kitchen next to the oven but with a fan blowing the heat over you. The wind in this case did not give any relief and maybe made the problem worse. It was stifling and hard to breath. And at times like these I wonder why I miss Texas so much. :)

One thing I noticed on this trip is that there is a trailer campground behind the Gas'N Grub at Colorado City. I had never noticed it before but I think it has been there a long time.

Now I know many say Texas driver's are terrible but I am never so sure of this belief. As always I found the roads with generous shoulders that West Texas drivers still use to help you pass on the highway. Often drivers still pull over on the shoulder, when it is safe of course, to encourage you to pass and so you can do so with a good view and safety. And when you have passed then just a quick wave in the rearview mirror is all it takes to say "Thanks!" and they wave back.

As Emily and Elizabeth learned back in April on Spring Break that in rual Texas places the drivers will give a quick wave to oncoming cars just out of habit. And if you give them a quick wrist wave from the stearing wheel they will wave back.

It may all be habit and no one cares about anyone else but I do not like to think like that. It just seems friendly to me and it puts a smile on my face.

The Book Inn

Well after being swept into Lubbock by a "West Texas rainstorm" (aka dust storm) and finally getting out of the A/C'd truck to feel the heat I stopped at where else but Rudy's. The food was better than normal I think.

After a quick bite I decided to head over to one of my favorite used books stores called The Book Inn. I have been going to the Book Inn since I moved to Lubbock in 1988. I was a bit nervous with anticipation because I was not sure it was still open or if it had been sold since the owner should be getting close to retirement.

When I got there sure enough it was still there and the sign said OPEN. As I walked through the door there was Kyle the owner looking the same but maybe with a tad less hair and a good bit more gray than last time I was in the place. But the store was pretty much the same with a good bit more books in certain places than I last remembered.

I spent 1.5 hrs there looking and visiting with Kyle. Turns out there one of the other used book stores in town had been sold and The Book Inn picked up a good number of books from that store. The store was owned by a retired TTU math professor named Dr. Ford. When Dr. Ford passed away Kyle picked up some of Dr. Ford's personal library of math books. And guess what I found? Another hard copy of Abramowitz and Stegan. This would be the fourth copy I have picked up in this store in the last twenty years. Still priced at $20 which is just about the Dover price in the large paper back. It is a great deal. This book makes a great gift for the nerdy science types. Well at least to those who appreciate the book.

Also I picked up a copy of an ASU professor's book called "They Called Them GREASERS". I had always wondered about this book and its follow-on. When I was in my first year (1982) at ASU I met a fellow student, Bill Lane, who would go to the ASU library to do research for Dr. De Leon. It was a small paying job and he would go through the microfiche of newspapers and US census records looking for stories on Hispanics and blacks over a given time period. (Bill taught me how to use the libraries resources of microfiche and I searched my family tree and looked at old newspaper clippings.) Anyway Bill's research was included in De Leon's books one of which was "They Called Them GREASERS" and maybe one more that I never heard of after.

Last I talked to Bill was in around 1994 in Lubbock where he is a practicing lawyer. At that time I had not seen him since 1984 when they moved to Lubbock. And I have not talked to him since our visit in 1994.

Also at The Book Inn, I picked up a copy of "Gustav Dresel's Houston Journal". It is a translation of Dresel's journal from his travels of Texas and North America between 1837 to 1841. This predates the actual arrival of the settlers from German through the Society of German Emigrants by about 7 to 8 years. But at this time they were looking in Texas for the settlement grants.

Too be honest I could imagine going into that used book store and coming out with about 100 books on history and so forth that you just cannot get in modern bookstores and only found in libraries.

We will need to return often since Kyle said he was thinking of retirement in a couple of years. He only opens the store in the afternoons most of the time now since he has trouble getting around and he spends mornings doing e-trading of books.

So if you are in Lubbock and want to drop by then it is:

The Book Inn
2241 34th Street
Lubbock, Texas
806.763.6682
Owners: Kyle and Maxine Hollingshead

The store is just east off of University on the south side of 34th.

How Texas town became polygamist's refuge

Very interesting article about how this all started down around Eldorado. Though I would not call that country a prairie here is the article.

Trouble on the West Texas prairie

We came through Eldorado the day before the phone call and a few days before they raided the compound so to speak. Kinda weird timing since we are not to home all that often in the year. I find the temple amazing in its setting. Sad situation.

Sonora Trip 2008

Today, with much encouragement expended, Emily reluctantly joined me on a quick bus trip to Sonora from San Angelo. A trip I took a few times to visit Grandma and GrandDad.


TK reminded me today that we took one together once. I vaguely remember it.


Here is a reminder of the Cold War. PAVE PAWS. A radar installation to watch the southern part of the USA from incoming missiles like from Cuba. I believe it is closed down but who knows. It is located between Christoval and Eldorado, Texas.





Here is Emily walking into Sonora from the Bus Stop. We had to cross the Devil's River Draw bridge which Dad help build (though it had been widened and such since then.



Sorry to say we got off late from the terminal and Gwen took off to Sonora with Elizabeth a bit sooner than I had planned so they caught up with us at that Exxon. I had hoped for about an hour of walking into Sonora and to the court house. Oh well. We drove on into Sonora and visited the court house and ask for Joyce (a cousin) but she was at a doctors appointment which most ironically was in San Angelo. :) We walked around the court house square for a few minutes then headed for Sonora's Cemetery to visit Aunt Essie's resting spot since we had not been here since she passed away in Nov 2006 right before we left for England. I mentioned it to Elizabeth last week and she has not let go of the idea. She asked repeatedly when we would visit where Aunt Essie is dead. :)

Of course on the way out of the cemetery I drove by the No Name Grave of outlaw Will Carver. It is a simple head stone has a date on it and that is all. This maybe the first time, of many visits, that Emily caught onto this bit of cemetery history. She actually asked questions about it and how he died. "In a gun fight with the local sheriff of course", I told her. :) Really. Right here in Sonora itself. One of the Butch Cassidy's Wildbunch gang was killed in Sonora....wow!

Ghost Towns

The girls and me drove around Angelo looking at the lakes and ghost towns.

Here we are looking down Twin Buttes Dam. OC Fischer and it used to be the worlds longest earth dam at some point. One side of Twin Buttes had water and the other side was pretty dry.




We went on over and visited Knickerbocker a community that used to be pretty good size in its day.

We went on and passed Tankersley which is a ghost town too so to speak.





We drove over a low water crossing of what I think is one of the heads of the Concho river. This was on the way to Sherwood.








Another picture of the Sherwood Courthouse that Emily seems to love. Sherwood is a ghost town due to the railroad bypassing it for Mertzon.












The Sherwood Cemetery is an interesting country cemetery to visit.







We drove on into Mertzon and took a picture of what I think is it courthouse. Hard to believe they bypassed Sherwood for this courthouse.




We also saw the Wool and Mohair house. West Texas Wool and Mohair. Even in small towns like this they have a Wool house. Mertzon is about 839 in population.


On the way back to Angelo (about 26 miles) to eat lunch with Grandma and Mom, Emily discovered that Texans like to wave at each other when they cross on the highway. Texas is a friendly place alright.

Water Tower Work

Here is the promised picture of the Southland water tower work being done behind Mom's and TK's house.

The curtain is raised part way. A plaque on the water tower door says that the water tower is 100 feet tall. Don't ask how I know these things. ;)







Here is a later picture with the curtain raised 100%.

This water tower has been a landmark for Emily and Elizabeth when we get to Angelo. Since Emily was little we would say, "See we are not far from Grandma's now. There is the water tower."


They now look for the water tower and even at times say they see it even though we are not even out of New Mexico. It is almost a game for one of us to say we see it first. Of course now it looks like it is wearing a Chinaman's Hat. :)

Places In Your Hometown

Since I got this idea from Semicolon (San Angelo) then I might as well place a link to it so you can she what Sherry said. :) And yes Teresa and I had one of those leather notebooks too.

So here is a list of interesting places in my hometown/family's hometown:

San Angelo

1. Twin Buttes Dam
   
   An earth dam 8.2 miles long. It is the younger brother to the O.C. Fisher Dam on the other side of town. As a kid I thought it the coolest (and scariest) thing to cross in a car.











2. Fort Concho

One of the best preserved frontier forts along the Texas Forts Trail.


3. John Glenn Jr HS

The main building of this JHS is circular and the two gyms are also the same shape and have been featured in some geometry books. I am not sure but I think Glenn will no longer be a Jr. High and will be used for something else soon. The school had an interesting first ten years because it was a model campus and school for a weekly schedule instead of a daily schedule. Plus many of the classes were taught in a non-traditional way using work packets. Using the packets students could go at their own speed and complete class work ahead of time. For example several kids finished all the way through eight grade math and just being a seven grader.


4. Central High School

As mentioned at Semicolon this was one of the first open campuses using a college sorta layout. One note of history/rumor passed on to me from Verle and Judy Theriot is that Central was originally named Benjamin Franklin HS when it opened in the 1950's but the students did not like the name and voted to rename it but could not come up with a new name. So they temporarily named it Central High School. :)


5. Steak House(s)

Well Angelo does have a lot of independent steak houses. Zentner's, Zentner's Daughters, Western Skies, Twin Mountain, Lowake (near Angelo), ... just to name a few.


6. Cactus Hotel


A landmark in San Angelo. It has been restored and looks great. I have read that during the last great flood in Angelo that the flood waters reached the fifth floor of the Cactus. Hard to imagine. Have a look at the link above and some of the interior. It is incredible.






7. Texas Theater


"Cooled By Refrigeration"
Painted on the side of the theater.







8. El Paseo de Santa Angela

This area in San Angelo is near Fort Concho and has been developed into a community centered part of town. A really neat place to visit now. You are within walking distance of several sites including the old Santa Fe Railroad Depot and several places to eat.


9. Elmer Kelton's House

Not much to see really. Just a normal house on Oxford Street in San Angelo. But kinda cool to drive folks by there.


10. Angelo State University

Just to show there is some form of higher education in this part of West Texas. :)


11. Sherwood Courthouse

Really cool old Courthouse sitting in the middle of nowhere thanks to the railroad bypassing it.

Sonora (in the Area)

1. Caverns of Sonora


2. Sutton County Courthouse


3. Eaton Hill

Now a wildlife refuge but once belong to the Eaton family of Sonora who ran the water works. My Dad tells stories of roaming around on the hill with his friend Dan Eaton.


4. Sonora Cemetery

My family is laughing if they read this. I love cemeteries and love dragging people to them ... but to be fair the Sonora Cemetery has at least one point of interest. The "No Name Grave" which is strongly believed to be the resting place of Will (Bill) Carver (top left) a member of the Wild Bunch as in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Carver was a native to Sutton County and he was reported in the local newspaper to have been killed in Sonora in 1901.


5. Fort McKavett


6. Fort Terrett


7. Cedar Hill (Llano River)


8. Wildlife out any road from town


9. Bumper Gates

Reminder: Anthrax ....

"Anthrax is a naturally occurring disease that takes a toll on livestock and wildlife when pastures become dry after prolonged wet periods, said Dr. Bob Hillman, Texas’ state veterinarian and head of the Austin-based animal health commission."

Anthrax Story from SAST

We have a cousin who had a job to drive around Ranch pastures, down toward Del Rio, Texas, looking for dead livestock to burn for this very reason.

Where Are They Now: Gary Morris

Wokeup this morning with the song "West Texas Highways" on my mind. Decided to lookup Gary Morris and see what he was up to these days. I love hearing this gentleman sing.

Found this: GaryMorris.com

Spooky how he looks like Kenny Rogers now. Wow.

Interesting quote:

Les Miserables was a giant step for me and yet it ended my country music career. The string of hits ended, and in fact, country radio has never played a new record of mine to this day

- Gary Morris, the first American to play Jean Valjean in Les Miserables.

Elmer Kelton: Sandhills Boy (Memoirs)

Last week I finished reading Elmer Kelton's memoirs Sandhills Boy: The Winding Trail of a Texas Writer. If you are an Elmer Kelton fan the this book is a must. It is a good read and engaging.

From reading this it is easy to see where Mr. Kelton gets a lot of his material and stories in his novels. Mr. Kelton seems as sentimental in life as in his fiction which I can appreciate since sentimental is my middle name.

Here are a few quotes I found funny and interesting:

Once while we were on horseback in what we called the Beef Pasture, Ralph Scoot spurred after a badger. Roping a badger is only a little less difficult than roping a coyote, but made a catch. That turned out to be the easy part. Getting his rope back was far harder, for badgers are notoriously ill tempered. The little animal abruptly went on the offense, going up the rope toward Ralph and his startled horse. For a while it was all he and the horse could do to stay out of its way. In such a situation it is usually best to let the badger keep the rope.
......

We had one person who could have been in the model for the Sad Sack comic strip in Stars and Stripes. He seemed unable to get anything right the first half dozen times. In firing a machine gun at the target sleeve, he froze to the trigger while the weapon kept blazing away. The sergeant tried to get his attention by shouting and beating on his helmet with a wrench. The firing did not cease until the ammunition box was empty.

“Why didn’t you stop when I to you to?” the sergeant demanded.

“I couldn’t hear you,” the soldier said. “Someone kept hitting me on the head.”
......

Shortly I was on a train bound for Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio to be discharged. There we were given indoctrination to prepare us for return to civilian life. .... Among other things, we were counseled on various occupations we might find compatible with our military service. For instance, a long list of potential jobs was offered for a clerk-typist. A great many possibilities were listed for someone who had worked in the motor pool.

My classification, however, was rifleman, infantry. The list was times short. One item was walrus hunter.

In later years when I struggled with my writing career, I sometimes wondered if I had missed my true calling.

......

To those misguided souls who claim the Holocaust never happened, I can only wish they had been to those places with me. After all these years I occasionally awaken from a nightmare, seeing again what I saw then.
......

We were being prepared to go to the Pacific for invasion of the Japanese homeland. The atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki put an abrupt end to those plans, to our great relief.
......

He soon discovered the truth of the old adage that you can’t go home again. He was a stranger in his homeland. Most of his relatives were gone except the younger generation, who did not know him. Most of his boyhood friends were either aging or dead. He found himself more alone than before and began writing letters to his American friends, expressing a hope that he could return to Texas when his health improved. It never did. He died, as lonely as ever, in a homeland that no longer was home, a querencia that lived only in his heart.

......

But he never went back, not even for a visit. I guess it would have been to painful. ... Dad’s instincts were right. In many cases it is better not to go back.

"Might Could" Snow

Well it did actually. But I just wanted to use the term "Might Could". A coworker noticed that I used this term a good bit. Along with Fixin To and so forth. I looked it on online once and found a unique word of the day site that had it listed. Might Could. Have a look it is kinda interesting. And it says I am not illiterate in using it. Shows what it knows. ;)

About the snow, while I was cooking steaks on the grill out back we had a white out. It is not sticking but was coming down very fast and thick. Big flakes too.

Interesting weather up here lately. Snow in May. I do not think I have seen that in the
nine years we have been here. :)

Vandal hurts Butterfly at Caverns of Sonora! :(

by maeleaf3

Story about Vandal from Angelo Paper

The Sonora Caverns have some of the most beautiful formations in the word. Pictures from the Caverns. Including a nice picture of the butterfly.

I am a bit sad since I had looked forward to taking my girls to see this formation. I am in shock someone would break it on purpose.

Bumper Gates

Bumper gates are getting pretty scarce these days. Used to be a common sight around Texas but I have not seen very many lately when visiting down around Sonora where I grew up seeing them.

The following two examples are the only two styles that I am familiar. Both were found near Sonora, Texas.

This double style bumper gate was found on the old Highway that run parallel to I-10 east of Sonora before you get to the Baker Road exit. This style is one which I am most familiar. This particular one in the picture is almost all metal but Uncle Ben and Granddad Rode used to build these out of mostly wood. There were several on Baker Road but I think they are all gone now and a couple on the road out to the Old Rode Place.

Riding these can be fun and the challenge is to ride it as far out to the end of the gate as you can. Since the end of the gate will travel the longest arch of the full 180 degrees max then you can pick up some real speed before slamming into the fence post stop on the other side.



This is what I call a single style bumper gate and they too travel around a max of 180 degrees but they do not stop at the fence line. They are more like a flapping door to a kitchen. They open approximately 90 degrees and swing back out another 90 degrees. I have never rode one of these but it looks like it could be fun. I was pretty much grown by the time I first saw a bumper gate of this style.


A lot of the time you will find a bumper gate, especially a single style, over a cattle guard. The reason for this is the fact that goats and possibly sheep can walk over a cattle guard by walking on the rails or pipes. So a bumper gate is placed over them to keep the goats in the pasture. Seems like an after thought on how to run goats in a pasture after a cattle guard was put in place to begin with since if you knew you had both in the pasture then you could just put up a bumper gate by itself to begin with.

A Texas Word: Barditch

I have heard alot of speculation to why Texans use the word barditch for the ditch on the side of the road. Like they BARrow the dirt from the side of the road to build up the road leaving a ditch.

I have found that in England long ago there was a ditch around the town of Boston which was called a barditch.

Boston Barditch

"1200 There are the first references to the Barditch, the boundary around the east side of Boston. Consisting of a ditch and internal bank, the earthwork was probably constructed some time during the twelfth century. The ditch presumably surrounded the twelfth century settlement although during the thirteenth century and later, property was held outside the Barditch, indicative of urban expansion. It is not clear whether the ditch had any defensive purpose but it is more likely that the bridge across the Barditch would have provided a suitable collection point for tolls from those visiting the fairs or markets. The length of the ditch was used as an open sewer and rubbish tip. It may not have been until the 16th century that the ditch was made to ebb and flow with the tide in order to keep it comparatively clean and it was the responsibility of the frontages along the Barditch to scour away the filth."

Another Boston Barditch Reference

A Bitterweed To Swallow - Tickle The Tongue

Bitterweed washes used to be pretty common sight when I was a kid in sheep country. Trucks going into this pasture or ranch had to be washed down to keep from transporting the weed/seeds into the pastures.



Sometimes these postings were accompanied with extra tall fences to keep other animals like deer from moving it into pastures.
Those tall fences are now associated more with the deer management industry and trophy deer/wild game hunting but there were times when they were setup to help with bitterweed transport.



Tickle Tongue was/is pretty common around the Sonora, TX area. Dad would always grab a leaf and start chewing on it for fun. Then handed me one so I could enjoy the tingling and numbing effect with him. :) It did not taste bad nor good just different.
For some reason there always seemed to be a wild persimmon bush nearby which was a weak spot for Dad. ;)







This did not even include Locoweed. I do not remember what locoweed looks like or even what color it is....white maybe purple. And no we did not taste it. ;)

Sherwood Courthouse

Sherwood, Texas (Irion County).