The former gin, known as Hobbs

- Hobbs Gin, 2007 -

Since I mentioned this photo in the previous post, I thought I'd go ahead and show it to ya'll. It was pretty well dilapidated in 2007, when this was taken. It looks like it was being scrapped.

According to the Handbook of Texas Online, the Hobbs Co-op Gin was formed in the 1940's. I also found an Environmental Protection Agency Facility Detail Report that has some obscure details about the gin.

Trespassing, but just a little

- Hobbs Gin Office -

You can't get anything past me. This morning I went out to look for a photo opportunity and found that the Hobbs Gin is no more. It must have been torn down between April 2007 and now. I give that year because that's the last time I took a photo of the gin. I suspect it was more recently, though, to make room for trucks filling up at the fresh water station that is now there, built a little north and west of the Conestoga storage building. The photo is of the gin office door. Sorry about my shadow.

I remember seeing an oil painting of the gin at Dale and Doshia Cave's house. I'm pretty sure Doshia painted it, she was talented that way. Dale was manager of the gin for many years.

I drove on around to Aunt Vera's house (Guy Weems) and noticed the barns and outbuildings are now gone. A little building in the field just south of house has also been leveled, where there was always stacks of Treflan jugs and buckets.

Claude's house (Claude was Guy's brother), just to the east of Vera's, has been gone for some time, but the tall pine trees and cellar remain.

There are some new looks on our road, too. The Landes's are nearly finished with their country house, the Munoz's are putting up a nice pipe fence, and Ronnie Green's house just got a fresh coat of paint. I've thought about contributing to the neighborhood aesthetics, but just a little effort makes me feel like napping right away. Maybe I'll get it into gear by the time the scissortails show up and the mesquites start to bud.

Hobbs Cafe closed for Easter weekend

I didn't want anyone to be disappointed in case they made plans to have Sunday dinner at the cafe. Open again on Monday!

Worms, houses and family

- Custom Touch Village -

The early bird gets the worm, but the early worm isn't so lucky, right?

Anyway, the Snyder Daily News beat me this week, with their photo of the groundbreaking on the new Custom Touch Village on SH 208 south of Snyder, because I played hooky from writing last week. I took the photo a week before they did, in case I get points for that.

The lazy reporter lets someone else scoop the story then just adds her two cents worth. Or this one does.

I first saw a photo of the barracks on the Cline Shale Alliance facebook page. The Alliance reported that the unit was being shipped from South Dakota in time to be featured in the Rattlesnake Roundup Review parade.

A few days later, I saw the unit on a truck trailer in the La Quinta Inn parking lot in Sweetwater. I snapped a photo and shared it with the Alliance group.

The theme continued when I saw the barracks again on SH 208 last week.

I am very susceptible to advertising and multiple exposure, so now I wish I had a whole bunch of housing units so all my kids and family could live right next to me. I just know that they fantasize about living next door to their mother. I'm sure their spouses would appreciate having their mother-in-law underfoot. What a perfect life!

The Abilene Reporter News also did an article on the Custom Touch Village site this week.

Local girl makes good, Kelly Spinks next weekend

- Kelly Spinks -

Kyndra Vaught from Hobbs took home the 2013 Miss Snake Charmer title from the Sweetwater Jaycees annual pageant, held in the Sweetwater Municipal Auditorium Thursday night. She won $2,000 in scholarship money, part of that from also winning the talent portion of the contest. We heard her sing when Greg Maldo performed at the Hobbs Gym for the New Year's dance, and that little lady can belt it out. We're proud to have her representing the community.

Speaking of dances, Kelly Spinks & Miles of Texas will be performing at the Hobbs Gym this coming Saturday, 8:00 p.m. Call to reserve a seat, 325-575-3393. They play traditional country music, so get ready to hear the fiddle!

It seems like a new well is being drilled every day around here. I noticed yesterday a rig just southwest of the Camp Springs corner. That's in Scurry County, but it's mighty close to Hobbs. I've been paying close attention to the caller id numbers lately, just in case a landman should get my number.

If you want to see a "bevy" of oilfield activity, drive north of Snyder on SH 208, where there's a rig, tank or pumpjack about every five acres.

There's also a cool collection of salvaged vintage pickups out there, just as you're leaving town. This has nothing to do with the oilfield, but I want the green one.

Beaver's Store site to be rv park

- Formerly Beaver's Store -

A major undergoing was achieved this week by the owners of the former Beaver's Store site at Camp Springs. Charles and Lisa Lee, along with Peggy Lopez, razed the house and store to the ground, with plans to make it a camp site for workers that are expected to inundate the area as the Cline Shale exploration heats up.

Wood was reclaimed from the store walls and floor. "There was double layer of tongue and groove on the floor. About 25% of the wood was salvaged", said Lisa Lee, wife of Charles.

Repairs and removal of old pipe was necessary to make an existing water well viable. There is now running water at the site. "If you don't have water, you don't have anything", said Lisa. The Camp Springs area is known for it's abundance of good, natural drinking water from underground wells.

"Cleaning up" activity is occuring all across the area. Driving through Mitchell and Scurry counties, it's possible to see old houses being razed, moved or refurbished. There are a lot of new rv parks and pads for oil tanks. It's like everyone is preparing for the big party.

There have been some doubts about the reality of the impact the oil business is going to have in this area, seemingly because the effect has been happening before the cause, but the installation of pipeline for PVR Midstream, to be used for collecting gas from wells on the Cline Shale, may herald the changes to come. Read more about PVR's Midcontinent Midstream Systems, in particular the Hamlin System, and their Businessweek Snapshot by clicking the highlighted links. 

An acknowledgement goes to twitter user @blair1220 for the PVR info.

Rattlesnake Roundup redux

- Nolan County Coliseum -

I was looking for information about the upcoming Rattlesnake Roundup in Sweetwater and came across some comments, long, long comments, about how barbaric it is to hunt snakes and kill them, accusing the people of Sweetwater of forcing their children to witness reptile beheadings and skinnings and ruining the socio-ecological landscape of the West Texas animal kingdom. I would like to turn the kaleidoscope and show the context of the event from my view.

The photo shown is the coliseum, the hub of roundup. All the captured snakes are there. In the past twenty years, I haven't gone in there, except for a brief ten minutes about ten years ago, because it costs a lot of money to get inside that building. Also, the smell of fried snake and live snakes does not make a pleasant potpourri, and people are packed shoulder to shoulder on the arena floor. I've been going to the roundup most of my life, so, to me, if you've seen one snake, you've seen them all.

I go for the free entertainment, the flea market. I get nachos with jalapenos, curly fries and a funnel cake, every year. The roundup is a tradition for my family, although I must admit, as everyone goes their own way, soon it will be just me making the yearly trek.

Here's the set-up: Directly to the east side of the coliseum is the inside flea market, five long aisles of merchandise in every form, so full of people that it's a long troll past booth after booth of t-shirts, antiques, purses, rugs, jewelery, books, doo-dads and whatzits. About half a mile to the east is the carnival. Half a mile to the south is the open flea market. The distance from there to the carnival must be a full mile, with the park in between, which even at this moment is filling with rv's and campers, and where the BBQ cook-off is held. There's also a faux gunfight in the park, OK Corral-style, that occurs at intervals.

The place is full, full, full of people and I go to see them, not the snakes.The excitement and bustle that is infused in the town the week leading up to the weekend of the main event is contagious. A lot more is going on than just snake-skinning.

Oh! And this year is the added excitement of seeing Riley Sawyers, star (that's the way we see it around here) of Rattlesnake Republic.