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Bytes from Hobbs -

• Jennifer Jones is the Hobbs School new principal
• Bodie Hooper was convicted of arson and sexual misconduct. He was sentenced to 55 years. This guy was the neighbor who burned down the house that used to belong to my grandparents.
• The RPQRR will be hosting their 3rd annual field day on Oct. 1
• Hobbs Holler is on twitter
  

Hobbs Homecoming 2010 October 16

Click on the image to the right to see it full-size. It is the complete and return form for the homecoming. Be sure to open it up, it has very important information for you to read! There may be money involved! Not the way you hope for it to be, but money is coming or going none-the-less. If you don't get a form in the mail soon, print the one here, fill it out and return it to Pat Porter asap. October will be upon us before you know it. That reminds me, we need to cut some wood. Do it!

Hiring Principal for Hobbs School

The Prinicipal's position has opened up at the Hobbs School. You can check out the qualifications on the Sweetwater ISD website. Only SISD employees are eligible to apply. Hobbs Alternative High School is under the administration of SISD.

More pipeline news

Hah! News! I just take photos and make up what I think is happening. For this picture, I didn't even get out of the truck, an explanation for the big crack and antenna that's in the frame.

This is taken on the east side of the road across from the old house just north of Hobbs Cemetery. Now here's what I think is going on. They're (Strike? Kinder-Morgan?) bringing in these big wedge tank thingies and then Key is coming in with water trucks and filling up the tanks. Then they're gonna blow water through the pipes laid thus far, maybe to clean them or test them. That's my take. Could be all kinds of wrong.

I found the Texas Register page on the website for Texas Secretary of State Hope Andrade. There is so much information located on this site that you could do searches on your searches for days, keeping you entertained without the need for social networks. The register is the journal of state agency rule-making for Texas, documenting changes that are made to the Texas Administrative Code.

Boy, it's been hot! And speaking of the weather, a friend of mine uses WeatherBug on her computer desktop. It downloads a cute little ladybug onto your toolbar and it chirps when the temperature changes. I've never used it before, but I was checking out the iPad at BestBuy this weekend and WeatherBug was one of the apps on there.

I like the KTXS interactive weather map, but it seems like it's a little off sometimes, especially when you zoom in. I also like NOAA, but it's been acting kind of wacky, too. KTXS Live Doppler is usually my deal-breaker, the absolute authority after I've visited twenty other sites.

Wondering how to spend the fourth? I'm thinking Mexican food and watching public fireworks. We've done all the variations, barbecuing, eating at the carnival, doing our own fireworks or watching the fireworks show, and I've decided this year I want less work and more fun. And no eating at the carnival or in the park. One year we saw a naked, small child crawling all over the food storage area of one vendor, so we went to another stand, only to end up with food poisoning.

I think Casa Olivarez and Towle Park in Snyder sound like good destinations for celebrating Independence Day.

Watch for the cold front coming in tomorrow. Ha ha ha! They should call it a tepid front. But forecast highs will only be in the 80's, lows in 60's, and we'll take that.

Juneteenth Texas-style

The article Forever Free on the Texas State Library & Archives website has a lot of information about the June 19 celebration and what it meant for a black man to live in Texas after the 1865 Emancipation Proclamation. Interesting to note that in 1854 the Republican party was formed by slavery abolitionists. Check out all the links on the site to learn more about Texas history.

Texas-Mexico border conflicts

I wanted to show you some articles written by Christopher Sherman, the Rio Grande Valley correspondent for The Associated Press. He is writing some very interesting copy regarding mounting tension on our border. You can also follow Sherman on Twitter. Illegal immigrants and the cartels have both sides at a boiling point.

What sparked my interest and led me to find Mr. Sherman's articles was that he interviewed my friend Jack Cox (not the Roby one), a land owner at Falcon Lake near Zapata, Texas. They're having trouble with Pirates on that lake because the border runs through the middle of it. Cox is used to being in the middle of the fray, though. He was a hunting guide in South Africa and hunted elephants and lions himself. He was also an oilfield roughneck, which led him to Africa in the first place.

Looking at Sherman's articles in a time line tells a story in itself as tempers flare and patience runs short in the border cities.

Here is the cut-line for the photo; it was taken a short distance off-shore from Cox's camp:

In this May 27, 2010 photo, game wardens from Texas Parks and Wildlife patrol the U.S.-Mexico border on Falcon Lake. Since the Texas Department of Public Safety warned two weeks ago that boaters should steer clear of the international boundary that zigzags through Falcon Lake because "pirates" had robbed fishermen at gunpoint, most of the boats hunting the lake's famed large-mouth bass have stayed on the U.S. side, according to Texas Parks and Wildlife Capt. Fernando Cervantes. On April 30 and again on May 6, heavily armed men robbed fishermen on the Mexican side of Falcon Lake. (AP Photo/Christopher Sherman)

Little camel on the prairie

When we drove into Snyder yesterday, the last thing we expected to see was a camel. People had the opportunity to ride the beast that was situated on the Gallery Furniture parking lot. It was very strong, and I mean smelling. I bet the little girl's mom made her ride in the bed of the pick-up after being on that critter.

I was watching the news and they interviewed a lady who had taken her children with her to volunteer in a tornado-torn area, and I got to wondering, how do volunteers survive? I mean, how do they have the flexibility to leave at a moment's notice, how do they pay bills, how do they pay for the volunteer trip? Well, I didn't find any of that out, but I did find some interesting and informational websites about the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Volunteer Louisiana, Mobile Baykeeper and the Environmental Protection Agency sites were three that kept to the facts, with a lot of details about the spill and training for volunteers. I have some friends in LA and my take is that they are having a mental struggle between enduring this adversity with the carefree nature of their culture and reeling from the horrific reality of what the aftermath will be.

I recently had a problem with WildBlue Satellite Internet double billing me on my debit card. I could entertain you with the whole story, the yelling, nasty e-mails, etc., but I prefer to be a solution person, so I will advise you on how to maintain control of your bank account when paying online. It is short and simple. My bank gives me the option of having pre-paid cards that I can immediately transfer money to from my bank account. I put only the amount of the bill in the pre-paid account, so the billing company can take no more than what I owe. If your bank doesn't offer pre-paid cards, they can be purchased at Walmart and other stores. Another solution is to use PayPal. They will give you a single-use account number to pay debts with so there will not be a direct link to your main account.

If the company you are using is just downright shystery and you can't get any satisfaction, as Mick says, you may need to report them to the Attorney General and the Better Business Bureau. Even if you are not compensated, sometimes information is compiled about bad business practices until there is enough evidence for action to be taken against the company. Plus you get the satisfaction of getting to do something official instead of just screaming at a clerk on the phone who cannot help you in any way and is so far down the food chain he or she hardly counts as Skittles.

By the way, WildBlue rates D+ on the BBB website. The rating system is on an A to F scale, just like in school.

How to sustain love

This would be the name of the experiment I am currently participating in, no final report yet. I'm always curious how people stay together or have life-long relationships with people other than blood relatives. I also wonder how to make it so the final words people say about me are more than "She was here". I guess you have to live life to find that answer.

My pondering was brought about by a message sent to me from Tom Hargrove regarding his late wife, Susan. I wanted to share it with you all. I am glad to have insight into the lives of two exceptional people.
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From Thomas Hargrove:

Friends,

I want to share the epitaph for the grave marker of Susan Hargrove. I drafted the words, but Miles, Geddie, and Emily all made inputs.

Susan was cremated. A third of her ashes were buried at the Hargrove Family Cemetery, established in a Hargrove cotton field 13 miles west of Rotan, Texas. That's where this grave marker is being placed. The marker is flat (horizontal), of "Texas pink" granite (like the Texas state capitol in Austin), with a clear view of a lot of cotton and ranch land, and the famous (in West Texas lore) Double Mountains standing clearly in the distance.

Then we held a special celebration of her life on Nov. 8, her birthday, at Lucas Terraces, our home in Galveston that she loved, and where she died. Friends and family told "Susan stories," then spread another third of the ashes in the yard. We had a catered Texas barbecue.

Most of Susan's other ashes were spread on the graves of her father, mother, and brother in Granbury, Texas.

Susan and I met at age 12 in junior high at Rotan, Texas. We married in 1967 when I was in graduate school at Iowa State University. Then came the Vietnam War, then back to Iowa State. We later had a wonderful life and great adventures at the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines, plus two sons (and a lot of dogs and cats) to raise. Then a good life in Colombia that ended tragically...and changed our lives forever...Susan's brave and strong actions--and those of our sons and some close friends--obviously saved my life.
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I appreciate Tom for sharing this with me. I found it to be very touching and inspiring.

Please note that the photo is an etching of Susan's headstone. Click on it for a magnified view of her epitaph.

All the kids are doing it

Managed burning, prescribed burning, controlled burning. It's not as simple as grandma burning the yard off to make it green in spring.

It's considered a science and proof of that can be found in college and university articles discussing the pros and cons of using fire to get the highest yield from the land. Planning and strategy seem to be vital in the burning process.

The question to burn or not to burn is highly debatable around here. You might be pegged as a hippie liberal if you're for it. Kind of a hippie in cowboy boots, though. The others are too busy with their LSD and fighting against the man and making up anti-war songs. Anyway, for more information, check out the Texas Parks and Wildlife site. This particular link will take you to prescribed burn associations in Texas.

Also, the Rolling Plains Quail Research Ranch will be hosting a Prescribed Burn Tour this Friday, April 30, at the ranch house located near the intersection of US 180 and FM 611.

In the photo is the east field of the old Templeton farm. The burn was done in late March, early April and the land quickly greened up afterward.

Laying it on the line

- CO2 line -

Or laying it in a line, really. The Kinder Morgan Eastern Shelf CO2 project is well underway, and contractor Strike Construction is on the task of laying, connecting and burying the 92 miles of 10" cross-country conduit.

Right about at the prison on Camp Springs road, you can see it on the north side of the road coming across the cotton fields. It runs all the way down to Camp Springs on the Hench Ranch, behind Johnnie Ballard's, crosses over CR 1154, runs behind Anson Martin's, then cuts across FM 1614, just east of the Hammitt's, then heads east across lots of land, the Beaver's, Maule's, Gordon's, Martin's, then here across from us starts going south east and comes out and crosses FM 611 just north of the Hobbs Cemetery, on the south side of that blue house. Then it takes off east and disappears into the horizon.

A map of where the pipeline is running can be found on the Kinder Morgan site, page 12.

Speaking of the Hench Ranch, it is featured in an article of the Sept. 2009 issue of Beef Magazine. Author Larry Stalcup researches the merits of brush sculpting by interviewing Rod Hench, owner of the ranch.

I remember someone actually laughing at me a few years ago because I wanted to manicure the 80 acre pasture we were leasing at the time. It kind of made me give up, and look, now it's in style. My timing is always lagging.

Everyone knows by now that the Rotan Sale was cancelled yesterday because of rain. It has been rescheduled for May 8. That gives three more weeks for people to take their items up there. It's sure to be a spectacular sale, with concessions and everything.

If any of you out there would like to live in our little bit of nirvana, there are two nice homes for sale out here on FM 1614. Well, actually there are three, but one is off the record and is by word of mouth only. The other two are listed with realtors. The Glen Williamson home is listed with Williamson-Branson, and the J. C. Cave home is listed with Stevenson Real Estate. We'd be happy to have you as a neighbor!