Baymule’s Farm

[SPedigrees]

I’ve got my 2 little granddaughters for the week. Monday we had a birthday party. Tuesday they helped me work sheep, worming them, then we went to the grocery store. Yesterday we went to the Lufkin zoo. It is a small jewel nestled in the tall Piney Woods.

Entrance to the zoo.

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A steam engine. Probably used in logging back in the day.

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A shady walkway. The whole zoo is shady, pleasant on a hot day.

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An observation deck, there are several scattered around. They provide a cool place to sit down, let kids run around and play and watch the animals.

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The leopard.

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A water feature with ducks and turtles.

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The reptile house.

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Chick FIL a lunch!

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We went to Hobby Lobby and got things to do crafts with. We will stay in today and tomorrow because it will be 102F and 103F.

Oh what fun you three are having! That zoo looks like a sweet spot to visit for sure, and your little gal with the cheetah suit probably enjoyed seeing the leopard. You're a good grandpa for sure, and your granddaughters are cute as buttons!

 

[baymule]

Gotta go through Huntsville to get to Conroe, so yesterday I took the girls to the Sam Houston Memorial Park. There is a museum too, but we didn’t go in that. There are old log buildings, some with dog runs on the middle. At times, they have living demonstrations with a full blacksmith shop, spinning, soap making and things that were essential to early Texas. The old log homes are scattered about in a park setting. There is a creek running through and a duck pond. Feral chickens and cats make it their home. There is even a garden, growing what would have been a homestead food source.

The best of all is Sam Houston’s house that he was living in when he died. The Steamboat House. It is one room wide, 2 story, with each room opening onto the railed porch.

The girls loved all the old log homes, climbing narrow stairs to reach the second dog run landing. Rooms were not open, but had plexiglass over the doorways so people can look in. It was fun, and I taught them a bit of Texas history. Sam Houston won the Battle of San Jancinto against Santa Anna, winning Texas freedom from Mexico. He was Texas’s first President.

 

[digitS']

Complicated lifetime, that Sam Houston.

I have a Sam Huston in my ancestry. He was just a few years older than the other Sam and from just a few miles distant in Virginia where they were both born. They were cousins, LDS tells me, but not close. His grandfather had dropped the "o."

Steve

 

[baymule]

Loggers are clear cutting the forest behind and on one side of me. Look at the background to H brace I built a couple of weeks ago. Tall forest!

This was yesterday. Same H brace.

I talked to the guy running the shear and he ran it down the fence line. He sheared off the stumps, gone, out of the way! I need to set a brace at the corner, under the tree and run a string from brace to brace to establish the fence line.

 

[flowerbug]

are they going to graze it?

 

[SPedigrees]

are they going to graze it?

Wondering the same thing. How do you feel about having all these trees gone? I imagine it will reduce danger of fire, and you won't have to worry about a tree falling on a fence or roof.

 

[baymule]

are they going to graze it?

No. It may lay fallow a couple of years. . Or the owner may hire a bulldozer to push up all the branches and tops into a window for burning. Also to bulldoze the stumps up. I don’t know. This is managed timber land, owner is third generation. It will be replanted.
East Texas is timber and cattle country. Timber is renewable, it gets cut and replanted.

 

[baymule]

Wondering the same thing. How do you feel about having all these trees gone? I imagine it will reduce danger of fire, and you won't have to worry about a tree falling on a fence or roof.

Fire danger will be about the same, if not more. The branches and tops will be left where they fall, and they will dry out.
I’ll miss the trees. The land will be replanted, but it takes years to get timber size again.

 

[ninnymary]

Well good thing you don't have neighbors. You can still run around naked in your house. haha

Mary

 

[baymule]

Well good thing you don't have neighbors. You can still run around naked in your house. haha

Mary

Or on the porch at night when o go outside to see what the dogs are barking at. LOL