LOL byndeweedbeth---thanks for visiting us in Texas! :)
What IS Texas Pride?
LOL...wish we could send you some of our excess water!
Oh we get our share but in the form of storms/floods!
LOL!! I came out 86% Dixie. I'm sure I have some Confederate ancestors along the way somewhere!
Some people got more than their share of water this year. What Texas needs is more reservoirs and lakes to capture all that water, but they are difficult to put in a state that is either too flat or too porous. I think it is time to rethink the need for a lawn and encourage the use of cisterns. Mind you, I said encourage not subsidize (a bugaboo of mine).
Linda, my heart goes out to you. Runaway development is never welcomed except maybe by the seller. Often there is nothing we can do to stop it. Perhaps if the folks in your town got together to protest, you could get some concessions. In the past, if one didn't like the population growth, one could always head west, but that's crowded too. So we are moving into areas "Where no man has gone before." We get a lot of people from Houston here in Fayette County. Land prices in the Round Top area have gone through the roof because of the influx of people. Our ranch is worth over 4 times what we paid for it 8 years ago, maybe more because we have frontage on the Colorado. When our new hospital was built two years ago, a 456 acre ranch across the highway from the hospital went up for sale. The initial asking price was $4.5 mil. When it didn't sell, the owners retained a real estate agency in Houston and raised the asking price to $10.5 mil. It hasn't sold yet, but it will. The ranch is located outside of La Grange so city restrictions don't apply. The county only one building restriction — regarding disposal of sewerage. A disaster waiting to happen. :-(
This is a photo of one of the pastures across the creek and near the woods. We have at least 100 live oaks that are 200 years old or older with circumferences of over 25 feet.
Oh! what a gorgeous scene Veronica!
bettydee, would your home happen to be blue and on a curve going up a hill?
It's especially good looking with NO fire ant mounds - but it looks freshly mowed.
I wasn't born here but I got here as fast as I could! I moved here from Michigan in 1980 as a very fresh 20-year old with no job and no prospects. I fell in love with Dallas immediately. Why? The people are SOOOOOOO friendly here and they're not shy about talking to strangers. Also, back in the '80s Dallas was a magnet for anyone looking for a job, so folks just like me were coming from far and wide and were happy to find work here. I can't speak to the Texas Pride thing (though my Great Great Grandfather taught school here in Texas just before the Civil War broke out) but what I love about Texas is how diverse it is -- both the environment and the people. There is a very real "Go ahead and do it!" attitude that I have never found in Michigan. I can picture myself living in different parts of Texas (my favorite area is Fort Davis) but I can't imagine ever living outside of Texas. The whole attitude, and I'm not sure how much of that is pride, per se, is a very real part of me now.
Carla
We're glad to have you, Carla.
LouC
Why thank you, LouC. And now I'm fixing to go get me a coke. ;-)
Carla
uh... Loonie... there's no "g" in fixin' :-)
Janet
ps Welcome to Texas and y'all come on down, ya hea'
Now, get'cha any flavor Coke, y'all want, 'n set a spell.
"Coke" ha I still call it pop! I won't conform! Bwahahaha! ;)
Thanks, Josephine.
Lou, the ranch is off a Farm to Market road and down a so called gravel (hahaha!) road. La Grange proper is ~ 17 miles away from the house.
Bubba, I took the photo just after we shredded that pasture. The land had been overgrazed when we bought it and have spent the last six years renovating it. You couldn't see the grass for the weeds, both annual and perennial. Shredding (mowing) is one way to manage the annuals. Many of the most troublesome weeds have very very long lived seed. But we are making progress. This winter, given time and health, I want to go out and measure the circumference of the live oaks. There is a live oak society in Louisiana, where only live oaks are members. To be a member, the oak's circumference must be over 8 feet in circumference at measuring level — between 4 - 5 feet off the ground. Those with a girth over 13 feet are classified as centenarians.
http://www.louisianagardenclubs.org/pages/oak.htm
And believe me, we HAVE fire ants. You just can't see them. I keep a prescription salve on hand to calm my reaction to the bites.
This message was edited Oct 3, 2007 5:49 PM
hahaha Tir funny how the score turns out. Where did you move from before Texas? if I may ask
Like I said born and raised and spent majority of my life in Illinois (lived in Ft. Knox for a lil over a year and in Germany a yr.) but put me in the southern states and get me around enough people everyday and soon I will have the "slang" picked up and sound almost the same as y'all do.
As for coke, soda, pop... I use all 3 or I just call it by it's name Pepsi, Dr. Pepper etc.
Great Picture Betty!!! you sure hide the Fire Ant hill well *giggles*
Carla I know hat ya mean by the friendly folk I may not know that many and be out and about to get to meet folk but even in the stores they say Hi how ya doin (I'm sure part of it is their job) but back in IL they don't' say Hi how ya doin today when you go in to the grocery store like they do here.
In my subdivision, people often wave to each other as they pass on the road. But we keep to ourselves mostly. Since DH is disabled and I don't like social events where people drink, it just happened that way.
Wrong, that is not a job prerequisite. Have you had anyone nod and raise one finger on the steering wheel when you pass going oposite directions on the road. No one would be surprised or dismayed if stopped and actually told them how you're doin'. Just a natural love of mankind, I guess.
hahaha, Linda, we cross posted. We don't all drink.....and if we do...the wishes of those that don't are honored and don't make them feel bad. You would be surprised at the friends you could make that would be willing to help you anytime and would be appalled to think they were intruding. It is just such a natural thing.
And folks look you in the eye when you meet them on the streets or in the store and they smile and say hi ~ how you doin? How's you Mama? or Daddy? or Papaw or ...
And yes, wave ~ don't know who they are and don't need to, we all wave.
The kids were visiting and we gave our son the keys to the Jeep. He thought (at 19) he was soooo cool. Everyone was waving at him... LOL didn't have the heart to tell him... 8 )
well no one other then one neighbor near us has stopped adn said hi or talked to us ..glad he did though as he gave us info on the place and is real nice haven't meet his wife yet but then her and I both work and hubby has meet the one kid on the other side of us.
I had fun today and really enjoyed meetin up with Cocoa she told me of the monday thing (can't remember the whole name of it but it is a flea market the first weekend in Canton)
OH boy~ you haven't lived till you been there and done that! First Monday trade days. Wear comfy clothes and footwear and dig out your little red wagon ~ LOL
yeah that's it
was tellin DH about it n how we'll have to go check it out
Enjoy!
Actually starts on Thursday before the First Monday of every month. By Monday pretty much everyone has gone home. So....find first Monday on the calendar and back up.
my only problem is I don't have any day off other then sunday and weds so can only go on sunday to it
Same here and we have done Sunday. In the evening, you will find some dealers willing to "bargue" ~ lol We don't go often as it is a long drive.
This message was edited Oct 3, 2007 9:49 PM
will have ta check it out at least once so we can at least say we went LOL
Grew up in Michigan but not born there.
Guess I'm outta the loop....everybody talking about somebody waving and something that goes on Thursday? I tell ya...miss a couple hours on Dave's and you miss that party. :)
Linda, as "friendly" as any southern state claims to be I always find people stick to themselves in neighborhoods. But there is an exception. You have to be the one willing to go introduce yourself first. We did that in our last neighborhood (new construction) and we went and said hi to everyone who moved in after us (and since we were one of the first we knew most everyone on our street). We enjoyed lots of dinners at our house and neighbors. We had neighbors pop over to talk when we'd be out working in the yard. We had neighbors give us baby gifts. Etc. We lived there 2 years and you'd think they were the best set of folks. But no one would have talked to anyone if someone didn't start first.
Now we've rehomed again :( and same ol' same ol' we'll have to be the one to initiate conversations again but perhaps things can be as sweet as the last place.
First Monday trade days in Canton
Actually starts on Thursday before the First Monday of every month.
is what you missed lol Cocoa was telling me about it today when we went rose bush shopping.
Michigan a nice place to be too . one of my best friends lives in the Ann Arbor area along with my x's uncle who is a "professor"? at the university there ..he study the naked mole ...LOL
There is a Flint MI to. :) Small world sometimes.
Yes there is ..above Ann Arbor was there once with my friend shopping lol
Also a Saginaw MI/TX, Midland MI/TX and the list keeps growing! LOL.
The first time you go to Canton for "1st Monday" you will not get through it all. If you did you would probably walk more than 5 miles.
Everything is there: collectables, plants, animals (pets to livestock), tools to tractors.
I've never heard of Canton and I thought I'd been all over Texas!
Cocoa-that's wise advice for any town. In Houston it is now illegal (maybe county wide) supposedly to sell pets from the roadside. But yeah people still do it. To bad.
Cocoa, can you explain more? What is it that you suffer from?
Go to: FirstMonday.com
We started going 37 years ago.....very, very different now. Then it was conducted from card tables, blankets on the ground, back of a car or pickup......well....it's different
It is only 60 miles from us.
Bronc, it's complicated but the short story goes like this. Canton is the only city to have it's own Heath Dept. separate from the State of Texas. Trading livestock and farm goods is over a hundred year old tradition and is how First Monday got it's start. Some traditions need to die...Our area is now a hot spot for puppy mills. It's hard to go a week without the local news reporting on seized and neglected animals. Any breeder worth their salt has a "legit" means of selling animals. Others bring a litter to give away and dump locally when the weekends over. I have 7 pets, can't take anymore. Sadly we get about 30 animals dump on our road each year.
Sorry to hear of such inconsiderate #$%^.
When we went there years ago, it was with FIl & MIL to get some more ducks, chickens, and geese for the farm.
Canton is on SH 19 just south of I20.
We found several kitchen items we had searched for many years to find.
Could not believe how BIG it really is. A wagon, water, and hats are a good idea. Canton is not completely flat, so good walking shoes are in order, too.