School has started. It has not affected our household at all. Our youngest grandchild graduated this year from high school. Our only great grandson is too young for school. We look forward to listening to Puncher football on the radio. My husband is still following the Dallas Cowboys. I am still boycotting all professional sports.
It is quiet at the Art Methodist Church.
The impact of COVID-19 has led to financial struggles for homeowners across the nation. In fact, a recent study conducted by OnePoll in conjunction with the National Association of REALTORS® discovered that more than 8 out of 10 American homeowners – 81% – have experienced financial distress due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The effects of COVID-19 have led some homeowners to take desperate measures to ensure they can protect their investments.
The big news lately, quite obviously, is the monumental disaster going on in Afghanistan. The country has been going south on greased rails since the U.S. withdrawal, which seems to have caught pretty much everyone by surprise. And that, in itself, is a surprise, since President Biden had said he was going to withdraw U.S.
On August 17, the Mason Lions Club met at Nacho’s for their weekly meeting.
We had an excellent program on an exciting new initiative coming to Mason County as early as next month. The Rural Health Institute at TAMU is responding proactively to the growing shortage of health-care providers in rural Texas counties.
I spent last week far from Mason County, on a remote bay along the coast of Quintana Roo, Mexico. Espíritu Santo Bay is a part of the Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve, named for a Mayan phrase that means “where the sky is born.” Every day I marveled as the spectacular skies reflected off the crystal-clear waters of the bay, where it indeed looked like the skies were born from tropical waters.
Dr. Kent Rylander, retired Texas Tech Professor, author of the book, “The Behavior of Texas Birds”, and a friend of mine, tells a fascinating story about a classic experiment in animal behavior. The researchers removed an egg from under a sitting goose and placed it next to the nest. The goose got up, extended her neck so that she could reach over the egg with her bill, and then pulled her neck back, pulling the egg back toward the nest.
Tomorrow August 19th in the Stribling Room, Fletcher Clark will perform “The Runaway Scrape” for adults at 6:00. In narrative, song, and characterization, Fletcher Clark recounts this historical flight before the advancing forces of Santa Anna. The Runaway Scrape ends with the Battle of San Jacinto and the emergence of the Republic of Texas.
This neat little recipe will give you some bread in just 10 minutes or so! No oven; no yeast; no kneading, and just 3 ingredients. And it's very flexible as far as those 3 ingredients go. You need to try this one, for sure.
Ingredients:
2 cups self rising flour
1 cup buttermilk (or any other milk you may have on hand)
¼ cup of vegetable oil (or butter, or shortening or lard)
Process:
Place a large cast iron (if you have one with a tight fitting lid) on LOW heat
Stir everything ...
Two teachers were talking. One asked the other, “What do you think are the three best things about teaching?”
“Oh that's easy,” was the reply, “June, July and August!”
August is about over. School is about to begin again. Teachers across the land are psyching themselves up to head back into the blackboard jungle.
This is an especially tough transition if the teacher is coming off a good vacation.
It’s mid-August and storms and rain have finally arrived. The precipitation contains an abundant amount of the atmosphere nutrient nitrogen, which brings a revival of all things growing. It has a little sodium which makes it feel "soft." But to a gardener the power of rainwater is magic! At Dave’s Garden on-line he has a good article about the "magical properties of rainwater."
