What we are doing -- And INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT TEXAS!!

 INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT TEXAS!! 

1. Beaumont to El Paso : 742 miles.

2. Beaumont to Chicago : 770 miles.

3. El Paso is closer to California than to Dallas. 

4. World's first rodeo was in Pecos , July 4, 1883.

5. The Flagship Hotel in Galveston is the only hotel in North America built over water. Destroyed by Hurricane Ike 2008.

6. The Heisman Trophy was named after John William Heisman who was the first full-time coach at Rice University in Houston.

7. Brazoria County has more species of birds than any other area in North America.

8. Aransas Wildlife Refuge is the winter home of North America 's only remaining flock of whooping cranes.

9. Jalapeno jelly originated in Lake Jackson in 1978.

10. The worst natural disaster in U.S.... history was in 1900, caused by a hurricane, in which over 8,000 lives were

lost on Galveston Island.

11. The first word spoken from the moon, July 20,1969, was " HOUSTON ," but the space center was actually in

Clear Lake City at the time.

12. King Ranch in South Texas is larger than Rhode Island.

13. Tropical Storm Claudette brought a U.S. rainfall record of 43' in 24 hours in and around Alvin in July of 1979.

14. Texas is the only state to enter the U.S. by TREATY, (known as the Constitution of 1845 by the Republic of Texas to enter the Union ) instead of by annexation. This allows the Texas Flag to fly at the same height as the U.S. Flag, and may divide into 5 states.

15. A Live Oak tree near Fulton is estimated to be 1500 years old.

16. Caddo Lake is the only natural lake in the state.

17. Dr Pepper was invented in Waco in 1885. There is no period in Dr Pepper.

18. Texas has had six capital cities: Washington -on- the Brazos, Harrisburg , Galveston, Velasco, West Columbia and Austin.

19. The Capitol Dome in Austin is the only dome in the U.S. which is taller than the Capitol Building in Washington DC (by 7 feet).

20. The San Jacinto Monument is the tallest free standing monument in the world and it is taller than the Washington monument.

21. The name 'Texas' comes from the Hasini Indian word 'tejas' meaning friends. Tejas is not Spanish for Texas.

22. The State Mascot is the Armadillo - An interesting bit of trivia about the armadillo is they always have four babies. They have one egg, which splits into four, and they either have four males or four females. 

23. The first domed stadium in the U.S. was the Astrodome in Houston.

I thought the above is interesting because we spend a fair amount of time in Texas.  It is 84º here in Clarinda at 12:13 pm on Tuesday.  Feels like 92º.  That is why I am in the basement typing this.

This is before I started any clearing.

The trees along the west fence line at our farm have been increasing and I decided to start working on them.

I have gone down there early the last several mornings and have got some of it cleared - and piled up.  Has been pretty hot and about an hour is all I can take.  In picture at left, the big tree is only problem in this area.  Not sure which way it will fall.  Realize now I should have left the one big limb I cut so it would help bring it down in the field rather than on the fence behind it.

The pile at right is maybe 10 feet high, but will shrink as the green leaves dry out.  Will see if renter will push it out onto the crop area this winter and burn it.  Or just leave it lay.

View same as first picture above,
but taken today.  Now it is all cut stuff.

Yesterday I finally got our August trip mapped out; will leave here on August 1st and return around August 15th or 16th.

Later, Lynn