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

With Gustav bearing down on the coast, and evacuations in progress, one of the major problems is finding stabling for those whose evacuees include their equine family members.  A lot of arrangements are made on a one on one basis, or on equine lists at YahooGroups and such.  However, the Horze Gazette has a wonderful resource, their Emergency Layup Directory, which lists facilities and individuals who have space for evacuated horses. 

Please, spread the word on this one.  It's terrifying to be running from a storm with horses, even worse to not know where you're going to be able to keep them until you can return home. 

If you're able to take in extra horses in an emergency situation (which means, of course, being able to quarantine them in some fashion from your own), by all means let the Horse Gazette know.  It's one way we can help those who are in harm's way. 

We love to talk on here about the beauties of our communities, the parks, the businesses, the homes.  We introduce you to the pretty side of where we live, and that's as it should be.

However, when moving into a community, there are some things that are not so pretty, that are more mundane, that need to be addresses. 

One of these is garbaged.  Just imagine what would happen if there was no one to deal with this issue!

We own the remnants of the old family farm in East Texas (my grandfather's parents bought it when he was 3 months old), and I've seen what can happen when people don't have anything to do with their garbage, or don't care to haul their own garbage to the dump and pay the small fee for doing so.  It's not pretty. Imagine a pretty babbling brook, covered by a small bridge.  Now, imagine that brook full of household garbage, including an old mattress, that someone stopped on the bridge and dumped because they didn't want to drive the few miles to the county dump.  I've seen that, on our own land, by presumed neighbors who drove through and trashed our place. 

This is a concern, especially when moving to the country from the city.  I remember when we moved from Austin to our little ranch outside of Jarrell, I had no idea who would pick up the garbage and how that would be arranged.  Fortunately, our agent was on top of things and provided us with this information.

In our area, Clawson Disposal is the answer.  For about the cost we paid in the city, or a little bit less, they pick up garbage not only in Jarrell but in the surrounding countryside and in other communities. We can put out up to five cans full of garbage each week.  In addition, I've put out a rusted out BBQ that was left here when we bought the place, old heaters, etc. - they take them away and deal with them for us, something that we had to wait for that one or two days a year to deal with in the city.

Locally owned and operated, they are active in the community, including providing dumpsters for the once a year day set up for folks to clean up their community and get rid of large garbage.  They help with other community festivities and problems - they're part of our community.

Isn't this lovely blue trash can preferable to the photo above right? 

On another forum I was led to an article about Tiny Texas Houses, which led me to the website of Discovery Architectural Antiques in Gonzales, Texas.  This company sells salvaged architectural items for restoration. 

They've come up with a new project that I think is just awesome!  The Tiny Texas Houses Project takes those salvaged architectural items that they have in inventory and builds 95% recycled (wiring, plumbing, etc., being new) tiny, portable houses from them.  Each one will, of course, of necessity, be somewhat unique. 

I'd love to have one of these on our place as a guest cottage/office/man cave!  It would be great for a horse facility, too, as a tack room/lounge for boarders/students.

Today was the 2nd Annual Ice Cream Festival in Austin, Texas.  (Yes, as I've said many times before, any excuse for a party!)  Given that we're having a record string of 3-digit temp days, my Meetup group that attended the event scheduled our attendance for opening, at 10:00 a.m.  (The event ran from 10:00 a.m. to 7 p.m. - we were out of there by noon.) 

This event, as most Austin events and festivals, was a fundraiser - this year for the Austin Children's Shelter. There were children aplenty (and dogs, too!) at the festival, as one can imagine.  This young man had a great time greeting, and dancing with, Mr. Ice Cream Cone. 

There were, as usual, many booths.  Food and music.  A petting zoo and pony ride.  And, of course, ice cream.  Amy's Ice Cream. (Wouldn't be an Austin Ice Cream Festival without our local Amy's.)   PJ Madison's. (Great chocolate amaretto gelato!)  Austin Scoops.  And more.  Plus, of course, some "real food" (had a great chopped BBQ sandwich at the Austin Spice booth - and they had some interesting "politically incorrect" labels on their hot sauce bottles).  

Having stuffed ourselves (the Kashmir Cinnamon from PJ Madisons was especially tasty), a few of us went in search of shade.  Sat and talked (to musical accompaniment from the tent next door) about many things, including whether we could possibly eat yet another dish of yet another flavor.  A lovely Saturday morning spent in Austin on a hot summer day.  I think we'll do it again next year. 

Our local newspaper here in Georgetown, Texas, is the Williamson County Sun.  It has news about the area (rarely national news, unless it pertains to a local), when and where the next fundraiser with good food is going to be, news about local businesses - your typical small town newspaper. 

For quite some time now, there's been a column in the Sun that I read religiously.  It always perks up my week - frequently I'll read it out loud to my husband as we're driving down the road and we'll both smile or laugh at the familiar goings-on being described.  That's one of the joys of the column, that it is something we can relate to.  Being word people, the excellent writing is another pleasure. 

Now the columns of Eggs In My Pocket, by Mary Fenoglio, local writer who lives outside of Florence, Texas, have been collected into a book.  You can be sure I'm going to run right out and buy a copy.  Her writing evokes the joys and trials of country living in a way that puts you right there (if you've ever had any similar experiences).  Sometimes, I think she's looking over my shoulder and describing what happened to ME last week. 

If you're thinking about moving to the country (or if you already live there), I highly recommend you get the book. Or pick up the Sunday Williamson Country Sun and read the columns.  Or both.  They're a treasure.

Here in Austin, sometimes traffic gets - interesting.  It's not that Austin drivers are particularly bad, or that traffic jams are bad in the overall scheme of things (though sometimes locals bemoan how horrible the traffic is, it's not comparable at all to the places where traffic jams are a 24/7 fact of life). 

After analysis, I've come to the conclusion that the main problem is that we have many people moving here from different places, different states.  Lots of different states (and countries, come to that). 

Most of these fine folks are relatively good drivers - in their own state.  They follow the traffic laws and customs as they know them.  However, when you throw all of them together in one area, each following the laws as they know them, but all the laws and driving customs different, you get a little chaos - it's inevitable. 

So, for those of you moving to Texas, or planning to move to Texas, or planning to visit Texas, take a look at the Texas Drivers Handbook put out by our Department of Public Safety.  You're going to have to read it to get your Texas Driver's License - might as well get a head start on it! 

And, remember - DRIVE FRIENDLY!