Tag Archives: Texas Hill Country
FREE RANGE: FOOD, NATURE, PLACE, AND MORE
The Wild Ram of the Mountains
Okay, show of hands. How many of you knew that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (better known as the Mormons) played a prominent role in the settlement of the Texas Hill Country? Don’t feel bad; I had … Continue reading
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Tagged Bandera TX, Civil War, Fredericksburg TX, German Texans, Gillespie County, Handbook of Texas, Lyman Wight, Mormons, Sam Houston, Texas Hill Country
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Christian Althaus and the gift of perspective
For all of my whingeing about the difficulties of adjusting to life in Texas, even after thirty years here, I know I’ve had it pretty easy, especially compared to the nineteenth-century settlers who endured almost unimaginable hardships while trying to … Continue reading
Learning to listen, and love
I have a new role model: Steve Nelle, a wildlife biologist with the Natural Resources Conservation Service, an arm of the USDA, in San Angelo. Martin and Madroño Ranch’s redoubtable manager Robert and I went to hear him speak about … Continue reading
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Tagged Adam Gopnik, cedar, Charles Darwin, compassion, earthworms, H. L. Mencken, Karen Armstrong, Texas Hill Country
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Lenten reflections: dead trees, bafflement, and submission
Fittingly, this Ash Wednesday began with a vigorous north wind, the kind that knocks dead branches out of trees and can make you a little leery about walking outdoors. It blew me back to the moment that I first got … Continue reading
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Tagged bafflement, Dai Due, feral hogs, hunting, Lent, limits, submission, Texas Hill Country, Wendell Berry
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South Texas: a fierce and unexpected beauty
Yum! This week has afforded me yet another in a long—seemingly infinite, in fact—series of opportunities to eat crow. Heather and I returned yesterday from a visit to our friends Hugh and Sarah Fitzsimons’ Shape Ranch, outside Carrizo Springs. As … Continue reading
Posted in Place
Tagged birds, bison, eating crow, South Texas, Texas Hill Country, Thunder Heart Bison
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Hosts, guests, and strangers: thoughts on hospitality
The season of hospitality is upon us, with all its pleasures and burdens. Known in the Christian tradition as Advent, it focuses on the need for preparation, both for the very intimate event of a baby’s birth and for the … Continue reading
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Tagged Advent, Dai Due, deer, hospitality, land ownership, Madroño Ranch, private property, Texas Hill Country
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"The Blackest Crime in Texas Warfare"
Our usual route from Austin to Madroño Ranch takes us through Johnson City to Fredericksburg via Highway 290, and then down Highway 16 through Kerrville to the turnoff opposite the Medina Children’s Home. Every time I pass the sign for … Continue reading
“A cup of tea, a warm bath, and a brisk walk”
A path is little more than a habit that comes with knowledge of a place. (Wendell Berry) If you are ready to leave father and mother, and brother and sister, and wife and child and friends, and never see them … Continue reading
Posted in Place
Tagged dogs, Henry David Thoreau, Madroño Ranch, Roaring Fork River, snakes, Texas Hill Country, walking, Wendell Berry
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Double vision: prophets, tribalism, eugenics, and the environment
As I dog-paddle through the sea of books threatening to drown not just me but the overwhelmed shores of my bedside table, I found these sentences: “For those who draw near and offer themselves before God, satisfaction of hunger is … Continue reading
Posted in Nature
Tagged agribusiness, Austin, Bible, Ellen Davis, environmentalism, Orion, prophets, Texas Hill Country, Theodore Roosevelt, Wendell Berry
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The literary environment (with apologies to the Williams Alumni Review)
Confession: I consider myself a loyal son of alma mater, but I usually just skim the quarterly Williams Alumni Review before tossing it into the recycling pile. A story in the June issue, however, caught my eye. “The Literary Environment,” … Continue reading