Bugs Uncropped

Bye!

Final on One Seven

Green Groan Growl

            And how green are you? Trucks with more than eighteen wheels transport the blades for each wind turbine, each turbine needing three. Carbon emissions from the trucks pollute the air. Massive and permanent concrete foundations hold each turbine. Gravel roads extend for miles from one turbine to the other.

Take this test: How Green Am I?

1. I love these trucks they look gorgeous. Yes (Ten points) No (Zero points).
2. I love to build things destroying grasslands and other natural environments, particularly if the construction requires massive amounts of rubber tires on highways, diesel pollutants from truck engines, huge concrete blocks that remain on the land until the Big Bang proves itself more than a theory, and kills birds and bats. Yes (Ten points.) No (Zero points.)
3. I love wind energy because my electric bills decrease a little bit. Yes (Ten points.) No (Zero points.)

Scoring: Zero points: You are a different color, whatever color, white, black, yellow, red, but not green. Ten to thirty points: You ARE green!

Dropping Off and Picking Up, Airplanes that is

           Task: Fly one airplane to the mechanic shop, return in another. I tagged along with MyMrMallory as he flew Tom's plane to Bone's and Jim's aircraft shop; then return to Kickapoo Airport in my Scissortail.

Shepard Air Force Base tower control gave us a seven-mile straight approach to 33 Center, which I show at extreme right of the photo. A T-38 lands on the wide runway, 33 Left, as I snap this shot. The fighter looks like a tiny speck just off the taxi way.

We held short at 33 L for this fella to land. 

Sometimes they wave as they boom past us along the taxi ways.

 

Landing the Scissortail on 35 at Kickapoo Airport with the skyline of Wichita Falls in the background seems a welcome sight every time I arrive there. 

Just as soon as MyMrMallory hopped out of my airplane, he hopped in the Jet Ranger, his third aircraft of the day. Gotta be fun. 

Victor pulls planes in and out of hangars for most of the day. 

Render Me Speechless, Will Ya?

What to Eat

Eat veggies. Roots. Shoots. Green. Purple. Red. 

Season with herbs from all over the world.

And some cheeses will benefit you, too, such as mozzarella. Moooo!

Ranches Cooking and Singing

         The Ranch Roundup, a thirty-year old fundraising effort by the North Texas Rehabilitation Center, includes almost, if not all, activities performed during the daily life of a ranch. Cowboys and other members of the ranches compete in the arena, in photography and other arts, and  . . .  cooking.

Some folks stand around in boots and spurs . . .

. . . or in boots and shorts.

In the background, a tarp protects the chuck wagon, while the cook watches his meal.

I decided that I, too, need boots, particularly jaunty boots. 

Dutch ovens sit in a row.

Taste test. 

Saddle straps fasten the barrel to the wagon.

Clint hopped underneath the tent, borrowed a fiddle, and sang, "Take Me Back to Oklahoma." (Hey!)

A handsome dog waited patiently for some of that good cooking . . . and for his master to untangle the leash. 

To and From Foxtrot Fourteen

I tagged along with MyMrMallory today, or rather, he tagged along with me to Marble Falls, serving as PIC (Pilot in Command). I sat in the right seat taking pictures of runways along the way.

Foxtrot 13 runway. See the amazing image Frances took here: FEK Photography

Graham (KRPH) Airport Runway 21.

Around Possum Kingdom Lake we spotted several airports, including a grass runway.

We flew over the private runway (19) at Quahadi Ranch. 

       Along the way we saw a few wind turbines. Guys, these turbines pollute our country air and damage our grasslands because they require specialized eighteen-wheelers to transport their massive parts to their location, roads to reach them, and more trucks to drive to them to maintain them. Think about that when you want of feel proud of your greeness. Plus, not only do the turbines kill birds and bats, they hurl chunks of ice at homes and people. In the meantime, when you are thinking green and feeling proud to subscribe to a wind turbine energy company, I, a country dweller, thank you a lot for making me choke in the fumes of the trucks. 

Burnett Airport (BMQ) near Marble Falls, TX.

An Air Evacuation Helicopter landed at Burnett to re-fuel. He landed so nimbly and confidently that I know think of him as the crotch-rocket of helicopter pilots. Wheelees? Sure! 

Runway 01 at Burnett and summer clouds that meant a bumpy flight returning to F14, bouncing from one thermal to another. But that's a part of flying during the summer season.

Tom Danaher Airport.

Wichita Valley Airport. (This photo would look less blurry if we hadn't bounced around so much in the thermals, but still, it shows the airport as it looks from the air.)

Propellers in the Background

"Bone" and Chris in their hangar.

Fred's airplane.

Bone watches a plane stopping in front of him. (Phew!)

Prelims at the Den of Sinners

       I begin my studies for the photography in a book about the stained glass windows at one of the local sinners' dens. I hope to discover and show the allusions in the Bible, and with any luck, meditations on the images by the head honcho there, who is a brilliant man; then I will bundle it up in a gorgeous-looking book to donate to them. The book might raise a little bit of money for them, but of more importance to me, it might educate the sinners who attend there, including some of the regular players in the weekly production who, one would think, would know, on what the images in the stained glass windows represent -- further than, duh, somethin' from, like, the Bible. ("Pretty, aren't they? I hadn't noticed until you pointed them out to me.") 

       It is my hope that the book will provide information about the windows and why they are there for the glory of God. If some do not understand what not to do in spite of Jesus Christ itemizing it in ten points, and the priest drumming it in to them every Sunday, surely they might understand the pictures? If they can't read, and if they can't hear, could they, would they . . . SEE? And if not, how dare they allow that fine fellow, Jesus of Nazareth, to die for nought? As the head honcho asked in his sermon this morning: "How serious are you about your faith?" And would deeper knowledge -- any knowledge at all -- about the windows serve as an inspiration to check on one's faith and relationship with God? 

Farms

Corn crop circles, each one mile in diameter.

Fifty wind turbines.