Road Update

Well as you can see the new culvert is being installed this week. They have also stock piled tons of gravel on the Kienbaum place to use on the road. Looks like some real progress. This photo is from my 1400 gate.

Ray

Atkins joins UTB-TSC men’s golf program

The Brownsville Herald

April 18, 2007 - 11:32PM

University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College head golf coach Bob Lucio, left, watches as Nate Atkins, right, signs a letter of intent to play golf for the Scorpions. Photo by: G. Daniel Lopez

Nate Atkins of Clifton High School signed a letter of intent Wednesday to play for the University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College men’s golf program.

Atkins, who has a tournament average of 75 this year at Clifton High, was a 2006 Class 2A State Tournament qualifier. He was medalist at the District 21-2A Tournament recently and qualified for the Region III-2A Tournament. He has placed in the top five at every tournament this year and won individual medalist honors twice.

“I like the school, and it seems like a real good environment,” said Atkins, who has played golf since he was three-years-old. “I’m looking forward to going to school and playing for the Scorpions.”

Atkins is a member of the Clifton High School Band, Student Council and Future Farmers of America.

The Scorpions carry five on the men’s team, but Scorpion head coach Bob Lucio plans to have eight next year.

“We’re excited about having (Atkins),” Lucio said. “He can contribute for us right away. He shows a lot of promise and is a great student in the classroom. His golf skills are excellent, and he has great physical skills on the golf course.”

JUST A FEW THOUGHTS!

Wow! Is this weather amazing? One day we have snow, then beautiful sunny and warm days, then cold and stormy again! And now it's as pretty as it gets! I just love this time of year! Welcome to Texas!!

It was nice having our daughter Staci, her husband David, and our grandchildren Christopher & Emma here for Easter.


Hey Mike and Sarah, we really enjoyed touring Mike's studio! Mike's art just gets better with every piece. We are proud of the painting we have, and we hope to have more of his work someday!

We also enjoyed hosting four Norwegian girls and found them to be a joy to have in our home. We would like to see them stay over one more night are at least wait until the afternoon to leave. They always want to experience the Texas country life and there is just not enough time to do anything when you get them home after 10:00 p.m. and have them in town to meet the bus by 8:00 a.m. the next morning.

We are happy that Karen's brother, Charles McLean, has moved to the neighborhood (CR 4165) and is the City Administrator for the City of Clifton. Please join us in welcoming him and his wife Ginger. Ginger will be retiring from teaching in the Richardson School District in May, and will be moving here at that time.

Marvin

Thanks, Ray!

Thanks for creating this site, Ray. You did a great job and the site looks good. Mike looked at the road preparation the other day and said it is looking good. We can't wait until the work is started and completed!!

All is well at the Irvin household (finally). I am pretty much recovered from my gall bladder surgery, Mike is doing great after getting his pacemaker, and we found my daughter another car after someone rear-ended her and the grandbaby and totaled their car. After all that, things should be looking pretty good.

Mike & I want to invite all neighbors to come see his art studio during the Art Studio & Gallery tour on April 14th from 10:00 to 3:00. Several artists' studios are open for touring - Mike's being one of them. Please come by if you have a chance - we are at 2485 FM 182. A map of studios is available at the Bosque Conservatory and several businesses in Clifton.

We hosted two Norwegian students from Bergen, Norway who are attending school in Minnesota. We have done this for several years and really enjoy them. We had two girls stay with us. It was interesting this year - one of our students has lived in Norway for 16 years (since she was 2) but is a British citizen. She speaks fluent Norwegian. The other girl was 1/2 Greek and 1/2 Norwegian. Of course, both girls also speak fluent English since they start learning English in the 3rd grade. These kids just love coming to Texas. They were so excited about riding in the back of the pickup of all things.

That's about it for our news. I look forward to seeing other posts and news from others.

Sara Irvin

little Rocky the Squirrel brings Rain

Hey neighbors. Someone needs to post some news other than me. Wasn't the rain great? We got 1.4 inches by the house. Gauge by pasture is broken.

I basically copied this from my Blog--
On Saturday we began the day again clearing and burning cedar. Today working on north side behind the house. I needed to clean up an area from some cedar I just quickly cut to use as a rake on the dirt (from the road work) which I spread along the bluff. While working here I drug out a large hollow live oak which fell in the recent ice/wind. Evidently there was a squirrels nest in it. A baby squirrel was lost and adopted Terry as her new momma. The baby squirrel followed Terry every where she went for more than an hour. It was very funny. Terry was finally able to 'shake' it and it finally went up a tree. The baby really started whistling so I guess it eventually found it's real momma .

Marvin helped me pick up a new Boer billy. Look for him when you drive by. He's a mature standard looking Boer billy. Not as athletic looking as Big Red, but tall, big horned and a good beard. He'll probably fill out more in a while.

A very beautiful day today. Hopefully we are out of the dust for awhile---

Ray

Earth, Wind & Fire

Last weekend was kind of exciting in the valley. If you recall Saturday was the extreme wind day. Caitlin looked out the window of my office and noticed big smoke coming from east of us. I couldn't really tell if it was on Gary Creek Ranch or Valhalla Ranch. With the wind as it was I called it in immediately. I just said about 3 miles west of Norse. The deputy was first out and gave a better location as on Valhalla. I guess they accessed it from FM219. I'm assuming a burn pile had restarted in the wind. Maybe someone has an update? Looked scary. It was good visiting with Al & Teddye when we went down to see what was happening. Later that day when the dust storm came in and with the lingering smoke, it made our little valley a nasty looking place for awhile.

Mentioning Valhalla Ranch. Doesn't it look great from the road? They did a lot of work there and it looks fantastic. Very nice improvements.

The new County Road widening looks good, especially in the curves. I guess I'll need to clean the fence row when they are finished paving. Right now anything that helps knock down the dust is welcome.

Saw another fox last night. This is a sly one. She'll be hard to get.

Ray

the UFO

Our first UFO? Terry saw it first driving back from Clifton about 8:15 p.m. and when she got home asked me to come out to look at the strange lights. They were relatively low and we had to move away from the trees to see. At this time it was west of us. It would move up and down in the same place and my first thought was that it had to be a helicopter. Only problem, no noise whatsoever. You can hear a helicopter from miles away. My first comment was that it was triangular in shape. I went back to the house and called our neighbor Vicki as I knew she would have a good view of it and it would be nice to have another eye witness. I asked her if it looked like a triangle. After talking to Vicki we got in the truck and drove west on 4195 for a better view. But the object came back over us to the east and was now over Gary mountain. We had to turn around and head back towards our place to see it. It was directly south of us from our house. No noise, just lights. This was now about 8:30 and our neighbor to the south heard the coyotes going wild.

I’m not saying I believe in UFO’s per se, but this was definitely an unidentified flying object to me. I couldn’t identify it.

When Caitlin got home we told her about it and the first thing she said was, “was it triangular?” “Must be the Texas Triangle UFO” Well I’ve never heard of such a thing so I googled it and sure enough there are numerous similar sightings. Even here in Bosque county.

CR 4195 PAVING PROJECT UPDATE!

I just spoke with Commissioner Jimmy Schmidt. As many of you have noticed the county has started work on our road!!! They are cleaning the ditches as a first step in the process to get it ready to pave. He said the work on CR 4145 has not yet been completed do to various delays. They currently have a vital piece of equipment in the shop being repaired, so they are using the down time to get started on our road. They will be pulling off 4195 to finish 4145 as soon as they get the piece of equipment back. It won't take long to finish their work on 4145, and he plans to move back onto our road upon completion.
Jimmy asked that we drive carefully and have patience as they will be working on our road for some time! He said "You will be seeing a lot of us in the near future!" Also, he asked that we let everyone on the road know what is going on. So, please pass this information on to our neighbors who do not have internet access!

Marvin Grelle

I'll try to learn to blog

Ok, I'll try to learn to blog... Ray, the "flying saucer in the western night sky" vanished soon after you called... Everyone keep getting those varmits and foxes and we'll get more chickens!

-- The Crockett's

Thanks to the "Big Guy"

Ray, this is a good idea. Will be posting some infomation and pictures soon. Need to learn how to use the site.

Glenn

Welcome Blog

Welcome to the new neighborhood blog! This should be a very useful tool. Good job Ray!

Marvin

Fox

I'll go first. Here is a photo taken Sunday morning of a fox out in front of the house. I took this from our front window about 10:30 a.m. On Saturday we had some hunters who were in a contest get one fox from my upper pasture. They hunted the Grelle place as well. That's three we've taken in the past few weeks. We probably need to cull more. I'm looking forward to more fresh eggs from the Crocketts.

Ray McDonald

New Blog

I had the idea of setting up a blog for us for a while. With the garbage service changing so often I thought now is the time. This blog is for all neighbors who wish to participate and will be or not be successful depending on who and how often it is used. Think of this as our own local newspaper with all of as as reporters. Post news that would interest any of us especially happenings in the country side. Personal news is fine as well, let's hear about the dogs, kids, grand-kids, or family. I recommend subscribing to the blog. That way you will get any new posts in your own email. We need to sign each post as any of us can post and it may be confusing if we don't. Those of you unfamiliar with blogs feel free to ask questions. Some of us can help.

Log in: GaryCreekRoad@yahoo.com (can be all lower case as well-I think)
Password: CR4195 (CR in capital letters)

Ray McDonld