Farm, Lost Maples State Park, Bandera CoolwaterAcres

Ah, the good life...I'm livin' it. I enjoyed a few more days of puttering around the farm, spent some time with my chainsaw and caught another couple of Fightin' Texas Aggie wins on the radio. Then, on the last day on the farm I had a couple of photo ops. I captured one and missed the other. First, the one that got away... I came out of the cabin this good morning and the biggest bird I ever saw in the wild took off from the pond. I'm sure his wingspan was at least 6 foot. Some kind of heron or egret.

Then, that evening I was starting a fire for my evening steak grilled over mesquite, when out of the corner of my eye I see what at first appeared to be a huge fire on the horizon. When I looked, I saw it was a great sunset. Oddly there were great colors all around. Unfortunately, they don't look quite as spectacular in the pictures as I remember them, but here are three pictures. One, looking at the sunset to the west, another looking south at a very unusual cloud arrangement and a third looking east at a thunderhead highlighted by the setting sun in the west!! Ok, so maybe I'm too easily excited these days, but I thought the surround picture was pretty dramatic and unusual.

Next, I spent 2 nights backpacking in Lost Maples State park. I spent the first night on the back side of East Trail (about 5 miles) and the second night on the back side of the West Trail (again about 5 miles. There were nice closer sites, but the sites I stayed at were more remote and at about 2200 foot elevation, vs about 1850 for the lower sites. Very enjoyable, although I was about 2 weeks too early for peak color. Things were really just beginning to change. I also was a bit disappointed that my son, Jon, had to cancel out because he had to work over the weekend on his new job. One interesting story and I'll let you look at the pictures...On the first night out, I heard a heavy animal of some kind near by in the middle of the night. I made a noise and he charged away, snorting. I swear it sounded like a horse. It was about 10 feet away. I have to assume it was a deer., and of course in my minds eye it was about a 12 point buck.

Finally, my new place. I've rented a cabin in Bandera for the month of November. I've been here about 3 hours, but already I've fallen in love with it. It is a very nice, quiet 2 bedroom cedar and rock cabin with great views of the hill country from both the living room and porch. Perfect for me. My camera bit the dust during my second day at Lost Maples, so I'm attaching their pictures from the internet.

Hey, I've got to get into town to buy me a steak to try out the gas grill. Plus, I need bacon to go with the home grown eggs they supply from the ranch here.

One last thought...I've got an extra bedroom for the next month, so if anyone is interested in visiting just give me a call.