April 25, 2008

April 25, 2008

The RV park we are staying at is full of woodcarvers who are attending a convention here. Curious we stop at the local fairgrounds to nose around. The conventioneers are all involved in taking classes covering many facets of woodcarving from sculpting birds, animals, fish, and figures to faces, scenery, and hardware. It is amazing the variety. Aimee likes crafts but for some reason wood is not her medium so we head east out of Fredericksburg, TX.

After a few miles we stop at Wildseed Farms. It is supposed to be a wildflower farm but it seems to have grown into a local attraction selling much more. We browse thru the shops and then stroll thru the local fields. The few fields they have flowering are disappointing.

A little further down the road is the LBJ Ranch and state historical park. There we sign up for the mandatory guided tour and then wander thru the living history farm while waiting for the next tour. We watch a volunteer milk a cow and then demonstrate all the various things they did to milk to preserve it as a later food source. All stinky and nasty! I have seen and heard similar demonstrations and all they reinforce for me is how hard living on a farm in the old days used to be. Aimee and I wouldn’t have made it.

We board a tram for our tour of LBJs Ranch and Texas White House. Our tour guide has a European accent but he is a local. Much of this Texas Hill Country was settled by Germans and even though our narrator is fifth generation local he still spoke German at home growing up. But like most Texans he is also very proud of the Johnsons and his local area. Lyndon Johnson’s ranch at its largest was over 2800 acres and much of it was given to the national park service on his death. Apparently he got most of his money the old-fashioned way. Marrying it.

We spend the night at an RV park just east in the town of Johnson City, founded by some LBJ relatives. It is hot and the humidity is killing me and it is only April. I think we are going to have to scratch off that Hill Country ranch for retirement.