Street Rumble

Motorcycle Club "Cossex?" 1, 2, 3, 4
Zion Church of God, West Odessa, Texas

Sunday's afternoon was enlivened by the sound of a hundred motorbikes on my normally quiet residential street. No fear — they were meeting at the church to drop off gifts for a Christmas Toy Drive!

Happy campers

"Cowboy Coffee"
Camping in Coke County on the Colorado River, Texas

Cowboy Coffee Recipe

Camping coffee pot
Water
Ground coffee
Camp fire
Stick

Fill coffee pot 2/3rds with water and number of scoops of ground coffee according to how you normally like your coffee, but add half again as much coffee because everyone needs extra strong brew after spending the night half sleeping and half awake, listening for sounds of Big Foot entering camp.

Put pot on embers close to fire. (Making a fire, especially with wet wood, is another recipe altogether.)

Wait for it to come to a rolling boil. Try to occupy your mind with something other than the itchy bites on your legs and why everyone else is still sleeping when it is already 4:30 am. Sheeze.

Take your stick and poke the embers a bit.

Look at the dark sky for stars. Seeing no stars, know it will likely rain again today.

Poke the embers some more.

With stick still in hand, rearrange the coffee pot so that the handles aren't closest to the fire.

At the first drop of rain, get the plastic camouflage poncho that is hanging on the tree. Sit back by the fire, poke the embers.

Scooch the coffee pot with the stick just a little bit closer to the fire.

As it starts to rain, don poncho. Sourly watch the coffee pot a while longer.

Put more wet wood on the fire.

Finally, when the coffee starts to boil, take the pot off the fire and add plain water until full.

Rustle through various containers around camp to find the coffee cups and hot pad. Make as much noise as possible.

With stick, tap the coffee pot three times. (This is my mother's secret part of the recipe. We follow it religiously.)

Using hot pad, pour coffee into your cup.

Sit back down next to the fire, in the dark, in the rain, in your poncho, at 5:00 in the morning, alone, drinking your coffee, and enjoy the great outdoors!

Seriously, we had a wonderful time. Rain and all.

Bones

Bones
Between Interstate 20 and north frontage road at the Ft. Stockton exit
Ector county, Texas

I figured it was possible that one day I'd run across something like this, with all the stomping around I do. But still, I didn't want to believe it was a human hand. It's hard, though, to come up with what else it might be, except an ape hand and that's even more unlikely.

On Sunday, Donna and I were out taking photos in a wide median off Interstate 20 just near the Fort Stockton exit, taking photos of the very dramatic soaptree yuccas that were in bloom there. When I came across this, it stopped in my tracks. I stood there for a while, in disbelief, but touched nothing. I called for Donna to come see. She had the same thought as I did, and also touched nothing.

When we got home, Donna called the Ector County Sheriff's office. She told them straight out that we found a human hand. They asked where and then connected her to the Ward County Sheriff's department. That sheriff went right out there. Once there, he called Donna to get directions to where the bones were exactly. On the phone to her, he found them. And he thought they were human, too. But it turns out that while that location is closer to the Ward County Sheriff's office, it is not in Ward County, it is in Ector. He said he was calling the Ector County Sheriff's office. Being the impatient (and nosey) types that we are, Donna called her daughter who is friends with a deputy in this county. He went out there and bagged up the bones. He, too, thought they were human. They have now been sent to a forensic lab.

Below is a closer photo of the bones. They are just a little smaller than my medium-sized female hand. There is a bit of desiccated flesh on it still -- the brown stuff -- although so dry it's hard to tell much more than that about it. I know nothing about how old it will turn out to be -- myself, I'm figuring it's a year old at least, possibly older. If it is a human hand, I'm hoping there is still DNA in that flesh. There were three other long bones (two of which you can see above) in that same area. Donna and I scouted around quite a bit there, but found nothing more. It's possible the hand could have come from anywhere, dragged there by an animal.

It's hard to say how I feel about finding this. It's exciting in a way -- I feel like Miss Marple. But, instantly I also think about the tragedy it might represent and it is much more sobering then.

Photo Essay: Darrel's Barber Shop

Darrel's Barber Shop
Main Street
Seminole, Texas (population 5,910)

Donna and I went to Seminole yesterday to pick up her repaired vehicle that had left her stranded earlier in the week. I'm glad I followed Photographer Rule # 1: Take your camera with you every where you go.

Lamesa Photo Essay # 1: The Plants

This is my photo essay of one of our Secondhand Lions Photo Safari. (What is Secondhand Lions? It's what we call ourselves: my best friend Donna, me, and now my brother Casey.)

We chose an area near Lamesa, Texas, roughly a half-way point between Donna in Lubbock and Odessa. An aerial trip via Google Earth showed it had lots of ponds, tanks, and small creeks. Unfortunately, what Google didn't reveal is that most of that property is private land. Still somehow we followed the winding, gravel Muleshoe Road and got a glimpse of paradise.

(Click any thumbnail for a larger picture.)

	Erect Dayflower, Commelina erecta -- it's always fun to see blue in nature. The Swedish botanist Linneaeus named this plant for the three Commeline brothers, Dutch botanists, two of whom were very productive in their field. The third brother published nothing and was relatively unknown. Linneaeus used the flower's three petals -- two showy and one inconspicuous -- to represent the traits of the three brothers.
	This is one of the many species of milkweed, but I couldn't find a way to identify exactly which one. And although it's a common species, and likes sandy soil and full sun, I don't see too much of it around home. So I'm always pleased when I see old lowly milkweeds. I think its flowers are really beautiful. (Remember the Green antelopehorn?)
	I like lichens. (Aw, that was too easy.) Actually I don't know much about lichens, so I did a quick search and found from this site that, "Structurally, lichens are among the most bizarre of all forms of life. That's because every lichen species is actually composed of two, possibly even three, distinct species of organisms. One species is a kind of fungus. Usually the other species is an alga, but sometimes it can be a photosynthesizing bacterium known as a cyanobacterium. Sometimes all three organisms are found in one lichen." Who knew!
	You are going to love this little gem. It's called a balsam gourd or snake apple, or scientifically a Ibervillea lindheimeri. It looks just like a watermelon. (I know what you are thinking, what is it with Debi and wild watermelons?) Only this one is small -- it's about the size of a jawbreaker. It's a vine that requires both a male and a female plant to produce fruit. I don't think it's edible in spite of its yummy appearance. When it ripens, it loses its watermelon stripes and turns all red.
	I don't know what to say about this beauty, a bush with delicate, bright berries and striking black bark. It's the first time I've seen it. I may have to ask one of our local experts, like Mr. Burr Williams at the nearby Midland Sibley Center. The berries ranged from yellow, to red, to black based on ripeness I'm guessing. I brought along this trip some little ziplock bags and came home with about 10 of the little black berries. And high hopes.

Well, I think that's enough for one posting, don't you? Stay tuned for more photos of the Lamesa trip as time permits. Coming up next: The Critters.