December 9, 2015 Issue

Bridget Langdale was invited by Lion Ron Curry to speak at his Lion's Club in Kerrville, Texas on December 1, 2015. Ron had heard Bridget's talk on the Ecology of Dark Skies learning about the importance of a dark sky, while in the 2015 Texas Master Naturalist Class last August.

The Mason County 4-H took part in the District contest last week. Mason county was represented by 20 hardworking kids that had been practicing for the last 2 months. As a Team the Intermediates were 4th in sheep and goats Jay Ahlschwede was 4th in Sheep and Goats Rylan Jordan was 7th in Swine Senior Team was 3rd in Cattle, 4th in Sheep and Goats, 4th in Swine, 4th in Reasons and 4th Overall High Team Ryli Ruffin was 10th in Cattle, 5th in Sheep and Goats, 8th in Reasons Lucas Martin was 8th in ...

A reminder that Saturday, December the 12th is the Community Christmas Party at the Peter's Prairie School- house at Camp Air. At 6:00 PM, friends and neighbors will gather to visit and enjoy a wonderful Barbeque meal with lots of sides and assorted desserts. If you have let the RSVP deadline pass and had planned to attend, give us a call at 258-4495 or email [email protected] (by Friday). MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!!!!

Patricia "Pat" Wagner passed away Thursday, December 3, 2015, at the age of 70. She was born in Austin on March 8, 1945, to Edith (Kidd) and Floyd E.Kothmann. Pat married Phil Wagner September 4, 1965, in Mason, Texas. She was a teacher for many years and retired from Llano Independent School District.

Cliffa Gene Cook of Pontotoc, Texas passed from this life on December 2, 2015, at the age of 92. She was proceeded in death by her husband Ezra Glen Cook, her son Charles Ezra Cook and son-in-law Donald Ray Henderson. She was born August 30, 1923, in Llano, Texas, to Dawn (Spinks) Lange and Walter Lange of Pontotoc, TX. She graduated from Llano High School in 1940.

On Friday, November 13, Mason High School hosted it's annual College and Career Day sponsored by the Career and Technology Department and Family, Career, and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA). When the event originated 5 years ago most guests were Mason community members and representatives from nearby colleges and universities. It has grown to include not only our own successful community members, but other notables inlcuding NASA engineers, Rice University fellows and major universities su ...

Please make plans to attend The Journey to Bethlehem Drive-Thru Christmas Luminary. The Luminary will be held on Sunday, December 13, 2015, at Fort Mason City Park from 6:30 - 7:30 p.m., weather permitting. Admission is free. Please note that there will NOT be a backup date this year. This beautiful event is sponsored by St.

Saturday, December 12, is the day set aside to honor Our Lady of Guadalupe, a very special day to Catholics and especially to anyone with ties to Mexico where Our Lady appeared to Juan Diego in 1531. Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Llano will hold a celebration in honor of Our Lady, as do many Catholic churches throughout the Americas on this special day.

The JV boys basketball teams traveled to Junction last weekend to play in their JV Tournament. The Punchers played very well for their first outing beating Comfort 24-22. The next game the Punchers fell short, falling to Bandera 35-31. In the Third place game the Punchers took on Leakey and trailed for much of the game.

For the second consecutive year, Hill Country Memorial has been recognized by Women's Choice Award as an America's Best Hospital for Obstetrics and as one of America's 100 Best Hospitals for Patient Experience. The Women's Choice Awards identify the best hospitals nationwide that are women-friendly and align with women's health care needs and preferences.

The regular meeting of the Mason Garden Club will be on Tuesday, December 15, 2015, at 11:30 a.m. at the Mason County M. Beven Eckert Memorial Library, Stribling Room. This is our annual Christmas party and members need to bring their favorite holiday pot luck dish and a white elephant gift that can be either garden related or not.

The freshman boys basketball team played last weekend in the Irion County JV Tournament. The boys played well for the first week of playing. They hustled and played great defense which helped the go 5-3 in the tournament. Scores from the Tournament were: Friday: W- Mason-19 Veribest-16 W- Mason- 29 Reagan County 2- 9 L- Mason- 12 Lake View- 25 W- Mason- 18 Ozona- 8 W- Mason- 20 Irion County- 13 W- Mason- 23 Grape Creek- 10 Saturday: L- Mason-28 Reagan County 1- 40 L- Mason- 30 Saints Home Schoo ...

Brad and Jennifer Schneider and the Team of 72 Degrees supported Breast Cancer Awareness month during October by raising and donating $9,938 to help cover the medical bills of Sabrena Vazquez, a team member's wife who was diagnosed earlier this year. 72 Degrees continues to support that fight and thanks all that have generously donated to this special cause.

What are these groovy ladies doing?? Find out this Saturday, Dec. 12 a presents a FREE Christmas Recital. Many local dance students will perform a variety of holiday hits for your enjoyment. Show time is at 1pm in the Mason High School auditorium.

Announcing the engagement of Kassie Marie Haines to Alan Michael Eason. Kassie is the daughter of John and Dayna Haines and Alan is the son of Deborah Johnson and Tommy and Elise Eason. The couple is to be wed on February 27th at River of Life Church at 4 p.m.

Bluebonnet CASA would like to give a special thank you to the Mason Community Foundation and the Family, Career, and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) for their wonderful support of Bluebonnet CASA this season. The foundation made a $1,000 dollar donation towards the purchase of Christmas gifts for all our children in care.

Medicine. A new four-letter word for the 21st Century. Commonly referred to as "meds." Thus, the four-letter word. With the same reputation as other four-letter words. Medicine used to be a good thing. Mothers would say: "Take your medicine and you'll feel better." And we would. Now medicine makes us sick. It's too much. It's too strong. Or just downright wrong. More than one million people die every year from medicine. 1,000,000. Not from the disease at hand. Nor the symptoms. They die from re ...

Steven and Jake Olson welcome their new baby sister, Karena Gail, born on November 7, 2015. Grandparents are John and Karen Olson of Mason, Texas.

Christmas During the Second Chance Animal Rescue's Cottage Christmas last Thursday, young Finn, the grandson of John and Carol Olsen, was overwhelmed at meeting Father Christmas!

 Varsity Cowgirls @ Ingram Tuesday, Oct. 1 Mason 10—20—21—12 = 63 Ingram 6—9—4—8 = 27 Scoring—Steeley Smith--2, Monaco Schmidt—3, Kenley Stockbridge--14, Justyn Tedder--15, Sara Powell--2, Cheyenne Ivey--2, Kayla Guice—22, Cristina Mejia--2, Kristen Gipson--1. Rebound Leaders—Powell--10, Stockbridge--10. Blocks, Steals & Deflections—Powell--7, Stockbridge--7, Guice--10. Assists—Schmidt--4, Guice--3. Varsity Cowgirls vs. Christoval @ Brady Tournament Thursday, Oc ...

As we age we pay attention to the ads on TV about all the new Scientific medicines or devices that will miraculously cure whatever ailment you have. At the end of these fantastic claims they tell you the "possible side effects" the medicine or device might cause. Most of those side effects are worse than the malady you have in the first place including the possibility that the medicine or device could even cause death in "some cases".

Next up on the Holiday Season 2015 list of quick and easy recipes is this beauty! It has a lot of ingredients in it, but the resulting cake is delicious, with a very complex taste that I'm pretty sure you'll enjoy. Ingredients: 1 ¾ cups of A/P flour 1 ½ cups packed brown sugar 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon 1 ¾ teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon baking soda ½ teaspoon ground ginger ¼ teaspoon salt ¼ teaspoon ground cloves 1 can solid-pack pumpkin 4 eggs 2/3 cup vegetable or canola oil 1 cup ...

EARTH FRIENDLY is an important concept for our own health and well being. It is something that every household needs to consider for the health of its inhabitants, not to mention the beneficial effects on the earth. While the term "earth friendly" conjures up all kinds of visions of recycling, solar power and hybrid cars, I like to think about the ORDINARY PRODUCTS I use in and around my house. According to the EPA, INDOOR AIR POLLUTION is one of the nation's most pressing personal health conce ...

The Mason Lions club met Tuesday, December 1st for it's monthly business meeting. There were 33 members and 1 visitor in attendance"Boss" Lion Joel Kuykendall was responsible for the program.Secretary Chase Smith read the minutes from the board meeting. The board entertained 3 bids for the Christmas dinner and accepted the bid from Nacho's.

Since Pearl Harbor Day was Monday, some of you may be interested in reading about the war or watching some World War II movies, and we have a great collection of each. DVDs include The Fighting Seebees, Foyle's War, or Military History Collector's Set: Hitler's Britain; How Hitler Lost the War.

It's working. The terrorism, I mean. You can't watch the news, or go on Twitter or Facebook, or have a conversation, without hearing one side or the other of how we should be dealing with terrorism. And most of the time these conversations turn into heated debates, with both sides repeating talking points they've heard from spokesmen for 'their' side. Our country is being split in two by Islamic Terrorism.

Back some twenty-five years ago, I was one of the most organized people I've ever know. SO WHAT HAPPENED? I not only brought the bacon home and fried it up, but I also did the dishes, too. Now, it's a different story. I think about starting some project, then convince myself that it doesn't really need to be done or most likely I'll put it on the back burner for another day. Is it that I've gotten lazy?

Column #655 for Release Saturday, December 5, 2015, or Later It's funny--in the real world, as well as cartoons--how names "catch on." Long-ago Roadrunner cartoons--perhaps unwittingly--popularized a business name: Acme. That was the name of companies making the products the coyote tried dozens of times to subdue the bird. Several other companies have thrived in spite of their names.

The past few weeks have been very busy around the City, and the coming weeks will surely continue this level of activity. The lights are all on around the Square every night, as well as some of the buildings just off of the Square, and the light tree is up in Heritage Park and with the various windows and buildings being decorated it is certainly "beginning to look a lot like Christmas."

I cannot believe that the year is almost over! It has been such a successful and productive year at the Mason County Chamber of Commerce. Many improvements and accomplishments were made in 2015. Our new website was launched, we had a significant increase in membership and through good planning and budgeting we were able to increase advertising which in turn brought visitors to town that shopped, ate in our restaurants and slept in our beds. The Wild Game Dinner was a huge success!

Patricia "Pat" Wagner passed away Thursday, December 3, 2015, at the age of 70. She was born in Austin on March 8, 1945, to Edith (Kidd) and Floyd E.Kothmann. Pat married Phil Wagner September 4, 1965, in Mason, Texas. She was a teacher for many years and retired from Llano Independent School District.