West Texas blog - Do it in Texas - SeeYouInTexas.com

October 31, 2007

A lot has transpired since our last entry here. Debbie and I made two trips to the Texas Panhandle, first in early September and then again in early October. We recently returned from a two week trip to North Central Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi and Memphis Tennessee. The later trip was to attend a family wedding. These ladies are from left to right, my mother-in-law Kate Vorhees, Debbie, her sister Jannelle Bean, the bride now Lauren Cunningham, and her sister bridesmaid Sarah Bean. The wedding was on October 20th. Russell Cunningham was the lucky groom.

Debbie and I took a lot of images of the Mississippi Delta and Debbie is working on a Mississippi Delta page. For now enjoy this image of Muddy Waters wax image taken covertly within the Delta Blues Museum in Clarksdale and another shot of Sarah. Some of you may ask what has any of this to do with Texas. The answer, probably nothing! We have the blues too in Texas (e.g. Stevie Ray Vaughn) and many of our artists were greatly influenced by the pioneer African American blues performers. Mississippi now has a blues trail that winds through the Delta along US Hwy 61 from Memphis to Natchez.

July 18, 2007: I had to put this final piece on about the party below. Just could not ditch the image of Badger that looked good, along with this piece on our landing page for a while. This is one of Sheffield's newest citizens and my neighbor! Badger Mooney celebrates at the annual Texas Youth Commission Sheffield Boot Camp Summer Fiesta. The event was held at Alley Oop Park in Iraan Texas on July 7th. For more images of this singular Texas cultural event .... During July 4th holidays we take a few minutes to thank and consider the many thousands of our citizens and citizen soldiers that made our freedom and other privileges possible.

July 8, 2007: Yesterday we held the summer party for Sheffield Boot Camp at Alley Opp Park in Iraan Texas. I am the one dancing, sort of, without my hat. I temporarily missplaced my Mexican hat! But good news, it turned up. I took way too many images, but had an excellent time. Debbie drove home.


How about a great Texas tatoo? It belongs to George Zamarron, who arranged the music.





July 2, 2007:  Debbie and I returned to Sheffield today after an overnight visit to Acuna. We stopped in Del Rio also to do our monthly shopping. Del Rio has a rather nice HEB and a Super Walmart. Deb and I stocked up on medications including a three month supply of my blood pressure medications. We saved enough on that alone to pay for the gasoline down there and back. Unfortunately I accidentally left our camera stateside in the truck, so we did not take any new images of Acuna this time.

June 7, 2007:  Today I transported youth to the hospital in Iraan for routine labwork and dropped two more off on the bus to Houston, paroled home. Our boot camp population has been reduced by over 20% in the recent few weeks. I'm holding in there trying not to stress. It is begining to get warm or around 90+ in the afternoons. It is still cool and moist in the morning with fog in the lower elevations. There are frequent thunderstorms. Thunder and lightening bother Bandit our male sheep dog. That's him. He wants to lick everyone, dig major holes in our back yard, and come inside to stay out of the heat. He is spoiled but not as much as Katie Sue.

I had to upload this shot of my first sunflower bloom in the garden. I have fresh salad from the garden most evening meals. I still have a little lettuce, spinach, radishes, onions, tomatos, and a variety of other items. I have to keep the garden moist now as I have many new things coming up from second plantings. My snow peas are even still blooming.

June 1, 2007: My good friend from Arkansas visited and I showed him some of the back road sights around Sheffield.  Tomorrow Debbie and I are driving over to the Davis Mountains to check out a flea market and other sights at Fort Davis. We will need to travel to Fort Stockton on I-10 and then to Alpine on US 67 to where it intersects US 90 and north from Alpine on TX 118. I will probably add a page on the Davis Mountains and historic old Fort Davis. It is one of the best restored Indian forts in West Texas. Check this snake out, one of many my friend and I photographed along Live Oak Creek Road in western Crockett County. If you can identify it email me!


May 8, 2007: Lord God thank you for your gift of rain in a dry and thirsty land. It has been raining in Sheffield and all over west Texas. I suspect we have had over 4 inches here! It rained over 10 inches in Bakersfield Texas - a veritable flood recently and the desert is abloom.

April 30, 2007: Debbie and I returned from Acuna on Saturday. We drove down Friday, did some shopping, spent the night and returned with some new photos of Acuna as well as some nice shots of the Texas spring bloom in Terrell county. This is a thistle poppy that grows alongside the highways in this region. It rained here Saturday and yesterday. Bakersfield reported receiving over 7 inches of precious moisture. I would say we saw about 1-2 inches total.

April 18, 2007:  Last Sunday I got up and took some shots along the River Road and on Lancaster Peak. After church Debbie and I drove south and took images around Independence Creek. Not too much in the way of wildflowers yet, not massive bloom but it's there if you look for it. I constructed a new page about Sheffield and the surrounding area. This week we are having mid 80s during the day and 50s at night. Debbie and I are going to Odessa so she can take a teacher's examination this coming Saturday. I might take some shots there as I will have time to kill while she is at UT Permian Basin.

I have been working on revising the formatting of the entire site based on some excellent feedback received from a member of the Powweb forum. I am also getting a lot of hits to the site because a number of folks are visiting there and in other forums. My friend Antonio has linked us to his travel site.

April 4, 2007:  Well it is the day before Easter in Sheffield. It was in the 80's here last week but today has been a mix of rain, sleet, and light snow and the low tonight is going to be around 29 degrees. Those pepper plants I bought to put in the garden are sitting in our heated laundry room and my planted tomato plants are covered for tonight.  Coming back from Monahans yesterday I noticed bluebonnets, Indian paintbrush and a variety of yellow flowers covering the wastelands of the Permian Basin and growing more abundant and colorful as I reentered the cap rock country near Bakersfield. I wonder if this pre Easter cold snap will have an adverse effect. Check out my article on the Texas spring bloom from last year.

April Fool (4/1/07): Debbie and I went back to Acuna the second week in March. I went to Corsicanna the 1st week of that month. We are working on revising and expanding our Acuna Mexico page at present, having taken a lot of new digital images on our visit. Be patient. I am still trying to figure out how to downsize the images from our new digital camera. Expect to see a lot of new images in the near future.

It is definite spring in Sheffield. I have many things popping up in the garden along with wildflowers in the garden. More later.

February 24, 2007: An early spring day in Sheffield Texas with steady winds of 30-35 mph from the north and gusting to 50 mph. North winds stopped at around 6 pm. Now it is still outside and 63º F. This was a day of chores and housecleaning.  Debbie and I are hoping for more moisture across the state and especially in the Big Bend for a great spring bloom.

February 18, 2007: Last night I dreamed of coming up to Mama's house in Mississippi. I could make out her outlined image behind the curtains in the window and smelled chicken frying and other good things cooking. I heard the cicadas singing and smelled pine and freshly plowed earth and chicken frying. As I touched the latch to her kitchen door I awakened. And I found myself back in West Texas. It was 4:30 am and cold.

There was no frost on the windshield because there was no moisture. Yes, West Texas alright! The sky came dawn was blood red, crimson, and orange in several shades. "Red sky in the morning, sailors take warning" and I hoped this was no predictor for the day. It wasn't. Another beautiful late winter/spring day in Sheffield.

February 6, 2007: I heard a cactus wren call today and it is beginning to feel a little like spring in Sheffield Texas. Fog in the morning burns off around 10 am.  I need onion plants and some early blooming peas.

January 19, 2007: What is next West of the Pecos in Sheffield, Texas. It looks as if the next big winter event took place north around Lubbock and into N. Mexico.  The snow here was gone yesterday and it has been damp but above freezing today. I am making sourdough bread. Access that page here. Sourdough Bread at Texas Eating.

January 16, 2007: Snow is falling in Sheffield and has been coming down since around 9:30 am. I have taken the afternoon off to appreciate it.  Martha says the last time she saw so much snow here was April 1996 when it snowed 5 inches and half the lamb crop was lost. What a day in Texas.

January 14, 2007: The weather is very interesting at the moment in Sheffield, Texas. Moisture is moving in from the south and it has been foggy at about 300 feet above us all day. The temperature will drop to about 27º F tonight and all that moisture will freeze. You might ask, "What's so great about a little frozen fog in the Big Bend region west of the Pecos?" . The answer is, that when the frozen fog thaws the moisture will run off slowly and provide for our spring bloom in West Texas. The collards I planted on the 2nd will not make it.

Our border collie dogs love this weather and have been playing like mad all day. They are dirty with the moisture and debris in our back yard. The rufus crowned sparrows are raiding the bird feeder.

January 13, 2007: Cloudy and cold in the Big Bend and snow is expected in the higher elevations with scattered freezing  rain. We are back on the road again!

January 5, 2007: News Big Bend National Park: new super indent! Click Big Bend National Park News! Clear and warm in Sheffield Texas.

January 2, 2007, Sheffield Texas

A couple of weeks have passed since our last post. It is bright, dry, and crisp here with temperatures in the fifties and down to or near freezing at night. Back to work tomorrow at the old booty camp! We still have a lot of which to be thankful. Today I planted radishes and collard greens. Spice is still in heat.

December 17, 2006, Sheffield Texas

We are celebrating in West Texas! It is Sunday December 17th and cloudy and 55º in Sheffield. It is 3rd Sunday at Mother Holme's Baptist Church meaning we will be chowing down to some good Baptist potluck after services. Deer season will be wrapping up soon meaning that the populations of Pecos, Crockett, and Terrell counties will be radically reduced as the deer hunters return to Houston, Austin, Dallas, and other parts of Texas and other states.  The annual Audubon Big Bend Bird Count was completed this past week and weekend and results will be available from our West of the Pecos page as soon as I obtain the counts.


Debbie and I plan to buy a digital camera next month so look for more original digital images of all parts of the state. We are also planning a spring visit to the Big Bend National Park to collect images of the spring bloom and spring bird migration. We hope to attend a number of festivals and cook-offs in 2007 and do in depth pieces on each with images. Having traveled twice through East Texas on the way to Mississippi and Arkansas in 2006 we were again struck with the diversity and contrast between the east and the west. We are planning a piece on the Piney Woods area and will be traveling to Crockett, Nacagdoches, Tyler and other areas in these pursuits.

If you like this site and want to contribute there are a number of ways to contact us. You can go to the feedback forum page or use the responder on our home page. You can also email us at webmaster@seeyouintexas.com. Like you, we have a number of email addresses but that one is best at present. We are especially soliciting personal pieces on Texas (your visits or thoughts and experiences) and any ideas about topics you would like to see.

We also appreciate you shopping with our affiliate advertisers. Many of you are also our partners in one or more traffic exchanges, Free Click Thru Club, Online Business Alliance and our other projects. We take this means to thank you for working in our down lines and for your contribution to our success. Thanks again. You have agreed to receive these newsletters.   If you change your mind, just send us an email and we will take you off our lists.

Nothing says thanks better than a gift of food. Debbie has been baking pecan pies and delivering them to our friends around here. If you were here we would feed you, but you are wherever you are. The best thing we can do is link you to our food page containing some really good cold weather recipes like Texas Red Chili and a special holiday recipe for Sausage Apple Holiday Dressing. Try one of these and let us know what you think!

Again, thanks and have a great Christmas and New Year 2007.

Mike and Debbie Grimmett
Sheffield, Texas