Back one more time

After the bad trip we had a few weeks ago the XO and I tried it again this weekend. We had not intended to do anything that even looked like work so to insure a low impact day we drove down to the Big Bend. On our way down we dropped in to see John Wells at the Field Lab. He left upstate New York for the sunny Southwest about four years ago and has lived a self sustaining life as a recluse (with many, many friends). He was baking a loaf of bread when we showed up and we had a nice chat. While we were talking his longhorn, Benita, showed up to mooch some feed and see who was there. She is as close to tame as a longhorn could be and even allowed the XO to scratch her side. John turned down our offer of lunch at the Grub Shack (waiting for the bread to finish) so we bid him ado and headed back to the hi way and on South to Study Butte and up the river to Terlingua and Lajitas. For those who have never been up the river road from Terlingua to Persidio you have missed the best 70 miles of West Texas. The only problem is the "getting there". For a really nice vacation try the Lajitas Resort or the Big Bend State Park. Look 'em up.

A Bell for the Bunker

The trip was not a total failure last week. I have searched for a suitable bell for the gate post for several years. Why isn't there a bells are us. I found one in Taos NM last year but the weight of that much brass and the cost of shipping put it out of the question. This one came through a lucky chance and I had to run all over the hill country to get my hands on it. For the last few months I haven't been able to pick it up let alone hang it. So on a chance I took it along, just in case. I intended to do no work at all but I picked up the wind turbine to bring back for sale and thought I had enough strength for one try at hanging the bell. It worked.. Yea..