Cool Water Acres in Bandera

It has been a great few days here at Cool Water Acres. I generally start the day off with some free range eggs. Even though I had free range eggs when I was a kid and remember how bland store bought eggs were when I had to eat them, I still was shocked to see how bright and rich the free range eggs are…absolutely amazing.

Then, I take a nice walk around the 50 acres. It is every bit as enjoyable as any park I’ve visited, with a wide variety of things to see. There is the typical hill country limestone topography. There are the beautiful live oak and red oak. Cedar, of course, and pecan and cypress trees. Apparently the cypress led to the settling of Bandera, since it started as a cypress shingle manufacturing camp. I replaced my camera, so I can show you some of what I photographed on my walk this morning. The yellow in the below picture are cypress trees along Indian Creek, which crosses the property. I’ve also included a picture of the 7 acre lake where I caught a nice bass on Wednesday. I took these pictures from an overlook just a few feet away from my cabin.

The wildlife is also amazing. The house has a sign on the back that says “This house is for the birds”, which is very appropriate. There are a number of bird houses and feeders. Apparently these were the passion of the owner’s mother, who was the original occupant. There are lots of birds, but I’ve also seen squirrels, rabbits, a fox and many, many deer. Each morning on my walk I’ve seen deer, and I was hopeful that wouldn’t change today, when I had my camera. Sure enough, I got a bonus, spotting this big buck for the first time, plus several smaller ones. There were 4 in the second picture, although I can only see one now. On Wednesday night when I left for church I could see probably 20 deer in my headlights as I drove out the drive. Deer season starts tomorrow, so they will probably make themselves much more scarce after that, but either way I’ve already done my “hunting”.

Beyond that, I’m enjoying a bit of luxury with a full time internet connection, color TV and a real bed to sleep in, as well as a gas grill and lots of good books to browse as I sit on the porch. At church I met a fellow who knew mutual friends in Trinidad. What a small world! I'll close with a couple of photos, first of the cabin and second from the porch. The landscape pictures never do justice to the view. I've got to learn how to use that stitch feature on my new camera so I can get a panorama of the view from the porch.