March is winding down and my sister-in-law, Lori, is going with it.
There is too much food and too many flowers because that is what we do when someone is dying, when we don’t know what else to do as, gradually, the unthinkable becomes accepted and even ordinary. We make more food and bring more flowers.
A while back I was giving a talk to a group of people about the condition of our Hill Country habitat when a woman, obviously peeved about my suggesting the overabundant population of deer was damaging the habitat and needed to be reduced, blurted out, “Well, you just like plants more than animals.” My initial thought was that it was just a reflex response to my suggestion that some of her beloved deer should be shot.
On further reflection, I think that at least part of her response was ...
Farmers and ranchers have until April 2, 2021, to apply for assistance from the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) in response to the winter storms that hit Texas in February.
USDA NRCS is offering agricultural producers technical and financial assistance through its Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) for the recovery measures listed below:
Animal Mortality and Animal Mortality Facility
High Tunnel Systems
Irrigation System and Irrigation Pipeline
Livest ...
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Arthur D’Andrea, the chair and sole remaining member of the Public Utility Commission, resigned late last week at the request of Gov. Gregg Abbott. D’Andrea pledged to remain on the PUC until Abbott names a replacement. In the announcement Abbott said in part, “Texans deserve to have trust and confidence in the Public Utility Commission, and this action is one of many steps that will be taken to achieve that goal.”
Texas Monthly obtained a recording of a March 9 call D’And ...
Gillespie County Sheriff Alfred Klaerner was making a turn on one of those crazy streets in downtown San Antonio when an excited policeman came running towards the car, waving his arms and shouting “Hey mister, you can’t make a left turn here.” The sheriff, not wanting to contradict a fellow peace officer but considering himself a pretty fair judge of distance, calmly leaned out the window and said “Yeah, I believe I can make it all right.”
Alfred Klaerner was Gillespie County she ...
Most of us learned about our nutritional food pyramid in school, where we were advised to eat lots of the bottom layer (grains, cereals), slightly less fruits and vegetables, much less meat and fish and only a little of the top of the pyramid, sweets. The food pyramid has recently been replaced with something called the “food plate” which shows what we should be eating in a kind of a pie chart (no pun intended) superimposed on a plate.
In biology, the idea of a food pyramid has long bee ...
Many people place oaks in a somewhat more revered category than other trees. Mighty oaks are used as a symbol of things that are strong, long-lasting and reliable. There are about 400 species of oaks that grow to tree-size worldwide, 58 of which grow in the U.S., and 38 of those grow in Texas.
AUSTIN– An unknown number of people appear to have been targeted with an email that asks them to validate their profile information with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. TDLR did not send the email, and the agency urges anyone who received it to delete the email without clicking on the link or confirming or providing any personal information.
A TDLR licensee alerted the agency to the scam email, and the TDLR Information Security team is investigating.
The state’s unemployment rate dropped to 6.8% in January, down a tick from December’s 6.9% rate but double the record low of 3.4% in May 2019. It is unclear what effect the mid-February winter storm had on employment, when power outages swept the state and many roads were impassable. We’ll find out next month.
What is certain is that state lawmakers must grapple with a revenue shortfall as they build a biennial budget, since sales tax revenues are down from the previous year.
Governor Greg Abbott’s mask mandate reversal will go into effect today, March 10, but people in Blanco County might not see many changes, according to a county official.
The governor’s executive order, GA-34, which was announced on March 2, allows folks to decide whether to wear a mask and allows businesses to open at full capacity.
“I think Gov.
