Just Horsin' Around - Thoughts on Central Texas Real Estate and More

On the way in from tucking in the chickens this evening, this is what I saw.  Well, close - photos can't seem to capture the beauty or the color or the enormous size of the harvest moon rising - just imagine this moon about four times this size and a lovely rose red tinged with gold. 

One more reason to live in the country.  Moons never seem so big in the city. 

This year marks the 75th anniversary of the St. Elias Mediterranean Festival, put on every year in downtown Austin by St. Elias Greek Orthodox Church.  The block is closed off to traffic, and for two nights every October, there is Mediterranean food, booths, singing, and dancing, both professional and amateur. 

Traditionally the 2nd weekend in October, this year it will be held on October 5th & 6th, the first weekend, so if you marked your calendar last year, be sure to change it. 

This is one of those Austin traditions you must experience, and if you go once, you'll surely go again.  If you haven't been, try it this year - you won't be sorry! 

On an assignment from our sales manager, I've been thinking about how to describe what I do concisely.  I ponder it consciously, but also the pondering goes on in the back of my mind while I'm doing other things.

Finally, driving down the street the other day, how to describe what real estate agents do popped full-blown into my head.

We herd cats.

Yep, that's it, we're cat herders. 

Think about it.  Our job is to corral all the many aspects of a real estate deal, from finding the property or the buyer, through getting all sides together on what the deal will be and getting all the myriad of signatures and initials in the right place, to shepherding all the various parties involved in the closing of the deal to do what they're supposed to do when they're supposed to do it, all the way down to corralling them all at the closing table so that everyone walks away happy.

This while they each have their own ideas and opinions and priorities, many of them conflicting and going in different directions.  Quite the challenge.

What is that but herding cats?

A couple of days ago, we experienced one of the joys of living on a country property.  This happens once a year or so, and it always reminds me why we moved out here and why we stay - it's just one example of the things we'd never experience living in the city. 

Dot, current herd matriarch and daughter of Roselind, one of our first two Murrey Grey cows, surprised us with a bull calf late one afternoon.  We did not know that she was expecting (cows can be very reticient about disclosing that fact), though we had begun to suspect because of the enormity of her midsection.  Daddy was a travelin' salesman passing in the night (well, not really, we suspect the neighbor's bull who is not always a respecter of fences - if you want to get to know your new neighbors when you move to the country, trust me, get a bull - it's the fastest way). 

Headlight, named for the markings on his forehead that show brilliantly from a distance, is a wonderful little boy at all of two days on the planet.  He is not at all concerned about being handled, and just considers me one of the herd.  His attitude towards the world is one of warm, calm acceptance.  The dogs find him fascinating to the point of getting themselves in trouble with both me AND Dot - they don't want to hurt him but do think he's the strangest-smelling dog they've ever seen. 

Headlight just takes it all in stride.  Next year, we hope to have another, this one out of Bianca, Dot's daughter, and in addition, a foal out of Memory by Manny, our stallion.  With luck, we'll have a flock of chicks, as well, if one of the hens turns broody.   There's always new life when you live in the country, to put all your troubles in perspective and add some joy and humor to life.  I highly recommend it.

Country directions - aren't they fascinating?  As a real estate agent specializing in horse property, they can be a real challenge sometimes, but they're always entertaining.

Nothing so boring as "Take a right on Maple Street.  Go left at the stop light at Elm, go three blocks, then take another left on Williams Drive, and it's the last house on the right."

The title of this blog was taken from actual directions given to a party held out in the country.  Thing was, they were good directions - that horse COULD be depended on to be standing in that corner of the field whenever anyone drove by.

One time I was giving directions to someone, and I noticed my young daughter cracking up.  Later, I asked her why.  Now, some background:  Schwertner is a tiny community just up the road from us.  By tiny, I mean that in the town, proper, there may be as many as 30 houses, but it's questionable - most of the residents of Schwerner live on farms and ranches nearby.  The directions I gave were, in part, "Head east on FM 487 (FM being Farm to Market).  At Schwertner, turn right."  Those were actually excellent directions, because there's only one turn in Schwertner off 487, and if you turn left, in about half a block you'll be in a cow pasture.

I quickly learned, after we moved here, when telling people where I live not to give them our address (which changed within a month of our moving here, after I'd one all the address changes for the move, when we were 911'd for the volunteer fire department).  Not to even, in some cases, give them our county road number.  If I did that, and they still looked confused, I'd say, "We live next door to the old Foster place," and light would dawn.  Eleven  years later, that's still the best directions to give.  When we moved here, Southwestern University owned the property.  The gentleman who leased the land to run cattle on had been leasing it from Southwestern for 35 years then.  There hadn't been any Fosters on it for at least that long.  But it's still, and likely will be forever, "the old Foster place".

SOver the years I've had the good fortune to tour many of the museums in Austin:  the Umlauf Sculpture Garden (one of my favorites - his sculptures are so tactile), the Blanton Museum of Art, the Texas Museum of Natural History (with the GIANT armadillo fossil in the basement and the more-than-life-size stampeding horses out front) and many, many more.  It was an experience I shared with my children, and a solitary pleasure. 

Sunday, September 23, is not only the first day of Autumn, but it's also the 10th Annual Austin Museum Day, when admission to 30 museums and sites is free.  From the Austin Children's Museum to the Umlauf Sculpture Garden and Museum, The Blanton Museum of Art to Women and Their Work, Austin Nature Center to the Texas Music Museum, and more, it's a great opportunity to sample and discover (or rediscover) all that Austin museums have to offer.

On September 30, 2007, the Georgetown Animal Shelter and Georgetown Animal Outreach will put on Art for Animals, a fundraiser for the animal shelter.  Desserts from local restaurants Chantal's Bistro, Down the Alley Bistro, Laurie's Too, McAllister's Deli, Monument Cafe, Nonna's Cucina, Village Inn, and Wildfire, music by a quartet from Georgetown's Southwestern University, coffees from Cianfranci Coffee Company accompany live and silent auctions of artworks done and donated by artists ranging from the animals of the animal center to a Dahlhart Windberg print and more.  Other items include a golf package, stays at various lovely inns around Georgetown, and gifts certificates for services.

All in all, a great time to benefit a great cause. 

Austin and Central Texas being the "green zone" that it is, there are frequently green events in the area.  Upcoming ones are the City of Austin's Green City Fest at City Hall.  Speakers from Mayor Will Winn and the City Council  to John Dromgoole (Natural Gardening Guru to Austin) to topics from food to rainwater collection to wildlife.  And, of course, music.  And food.  Wouldn't be a festival in Austin (heck, wouldn't be an event of ANY kind in Austin) without the latter two, though the food at this event is mostly a list of the many restaurants within a short walk of City Hall.  (Yes, we're all about the music.  And the food.)  There'll be a Kids Corner for the little ones, with entertainment especially for them, and a Teen Panel.  Well worth attending. 

The last week of this month is the annual Renewable Energy Roundup and Green Living Fair in Fredericksburg, a major 3-day event with just about every kind of "green" demo and vendor and talk that you can imagine.  And you get to stay in Fredericksburg!  And eat German food!  And buy Fredericksburg peach preserves and other goodies to take home!  For $20 for the weekend (less for a one-day pass), you can learn about sustainable practices such as solar, wind, and geothermal power, water use, rainwater harvesting, conserving energy, green and sustainable building practices, straw bale construction, organic and sustainable food practices.  And there will be activities for the kids, food, and, yes, music.  

Both of these are great places to go to get a LOT of information on ways we can live WITH our environment, not against it.  Remember, quite literally, the world is in your hands. 

The 2007 Austin City Limits Festival is this weekend and is in full swing right now.  There was a dramatic moment when the explosion of a couple of propane tanks set an RV (and many surrounding items) on fire, injuring 4 people, two critically enough to be sent to the Burn Center in San Antonio.  But the music never stopped.

Blogs being what they are, of course, people are blogging about the Festival even as it's going on.  Here's an assortment of views of this year's event, as well as some news reports about the event.  Many have photos.

So, for those of us who can't for whatever reason actually attend the festival, here's a little second-hand participation.  Enjoy!

Drenched in Blog (based in Houston)

The Daily Traveler

Norbizness

JigsawJoey

Texas Oasis

SRV and Double Trouble Honored

Sara Hickman (A Perspective From On Stage)

A.V. Club Blog

Reaching the Austin City Limits

Zooglobble (Covering the Austin Kiddie Limits stage among other things)

Outside Blog

Do you have an idea of what they are?  If so, don't forget to participate in the contest to name the Seven Wonders of Williamson County, conducted by the Williamson County Sun.  The wonders can be natural or man-made.  If you don't have anything in particular in mind, perhaps this is a good opportunity to get out and explore the county, making a list as you go.

Once you have your list, you can submit your nominations to features@countysun.com, including your name, telephone number, the name and address of the wonder you're nominating, and the reason you think it qualifies.  You can also submit photos in .jpg format along with the nomination. 

Finalists will be announced this month; presumably, then the voting begins!