Blogs from Nacogdoches, Texas, United States, North America

Today I attended a Beto O'Rourke rally, running for Governor of the State of Texas, at Cowboy Jacks Saloon in downtown Nacogdoches. Beto was attending rally events elsewhere in East Texas. Beto's wife Amy was the speaker at the rally. Like Beto, Amy O'Rourke is a very intelligent caring honest person. Amy spoke to us and answered questions from the attendees. Texas desperately needs Beto to finally start taking Texas into the 21st century; and securing voting rights for all Texans, including minorities. Another major issue is Beto O'Rourke will restore the God given rights to all females in Texas. Beto cares about Mother Earth, and wants a better world for our children and for future generations. Commentary: The current governor of Texas is Ab-butt who has done nothing for Texans in eight years, except for ... read more

I found on the internet reasonably priced trail rides at the Roselake Ranch and made an appointment for today. The ranch is in the NE corner of Nacogdoches County near the small historic town of Garrison. The lady, an experienced rodeo barrel racer, gave me a good safety orientation including verbal and physical commands, and my body positioning for uphills and downhills. I was the only paid rider and had a custom enjoyable ride. At a difficult uphill section I lost my hat. After the ride that nice lady went back and got my cowboy hat for me. This was a good day for me! This is a multi purpose ranch with horses, cows, pigs, and even emus. They had very small horses for childrens rides, and other events and rides for children for the Christmas ... read more

I am no real astronomer, but on the internet I saw that over a five day period the moon would be alligned with Saturn, Jupiter. Venus, and Mercury. (No chance I could shoot Mercury.) I could only tell the planets by their relative position with the sunset and the rising moon, as per the internet information. With my simple camera I could not shoot Saturn with its dim light though it was visible to the eye. I pointed my camera to the SSW for my pics by the pine forest. To the SW was the past sunset with Venus clearly visible. I used my zoom to get the almost half moon with Jupiter to the right. (My pic looks like a full moon, but that was due to the limits of my camera.) Venus was off ... read more

It was hot and humid here, but that is life in Nacogdoches. Since all Texas festivals were canceled last year due to Covid, this years Blueberry was larger then normal. Parking was hard to find so I parked at a business that had an "open" sign. Nearby was the Old Nacogdoches University Building (chartered by the Republic of Texas). I saw an old friend and we had a nice chat about East Texas history. They had a piano downstairs that was played by Chico Marx when the Marks Brothers performed at the Nacogdoches Oprah House in the 1920s. Upstairs they had old photographs and other artifacts from the US Civil War. During the US Civil War the Old University Building served as a hospital. I finished a nice tour of the Old Nacogdoches University Building then ... read more

I received a notice on local weather man that we might get some snow; with thousands of homes West of Tyler, Texas that lost power. This was a rare snow event for my neck of the woods in Nacogdoches County. This was about two degrees C, above the freezing point of water. It was fun having my winter wonderland with photo opps. The snow came down wet and heavy, sticking like glue to my conifer trees. Later I had fun shooting night pics of the snow. Then I saw over fifty of my planted conifers bent over touching the ground with their tops. I acted by giving my affected trees a good shake to free them from the weight, and they rose up again. I only lost one tree that snapped from the snow. This would ... read more