Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Answering a question

I am finding posting comments on blogs to be somewhat of a trial.  Some are easy and straight forward, but some aren't.  Mine should be easy, but I was in a bit of a hurry.  It wasn't.  Also with my macular degeneration, small cataracts, and glaucoma my vision is compromised.  I don't see light colors well.

Anyway, that being said, I want to answer Pudge's question - and perhaps some of yours too.  We inherited property in the Texas Hill Country.  It has been in the family since 1845, and with the exception of one family it is still all in the family.

The country is rough.  It is semi-arid.  We are in a transition ecologically from the hill country to the desert.  So we have lots of prickly pear and other assorted cacti.  We have a member of the legume (pea) family that is called cat claw, and for good reason.  It is mostly thorns, and once it catches you it is hard to get out of.  It will literally tear your clothing.  We have lots of snakes - including the Western Diamondback Rattle Snake.  Knock on wood - haven't seen and killed any on our property, but those around us have both - lots of both.  And we have lots of bugs.  Many, many of those sting.

So when I was thinking about naming the place, I came up with Stings, Sticks, or Bites because that is what almost everything there does one of those three things.  When I write about it, the name becomes SSB.  G doesn't think that is a good name or even abbreviation, but I like it.

For years, I worried a little about someone hacking me here, and getting information I didn't particularly want just hanging about out there.  I would use anything but names.  I still use G for my husband.  It's just easy.  But I am beginning to use names.  I don't know why I was so secretive, but there is very little privacy these days (yeah - like G's credit card has been hacked twice in a year).

To give you an idea of where the SSB is, I could make it really clear - if you are from the Hill Country.  Our mailing address is Doss, but the community we belong to is Hilda.  For most, this is meaningless.  To give you a bigger location, we are between Fredericksburg and San Angelo. Almost right in the middle, but to the south off dirt (mud and rock right now) roads.  The largest city around is San Antonio, but that is about 2 hours away, as is Austin.

So that my friends is my home away from home.  At the end of the earth (only one person beyond us on the main road), surrounded by things that sting, stick, or bite!

No comments: