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POWER TALK
LETTERS
The Thrill of Discovery
Your article in September (“A Failed French Foothold”) was much appreciated. We had the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to volunteer on the La Belle excavation project.
We devoted most of our weekends over four months traveling to and from Palacios to be a part of history. Most of our time was spent water-screening bucket after bucket of Matagorda Bay mud-silted artifacts. How thrilling it was to realize that we were the first to touch these objects in more than 310 years!
One day, we uncovered olive seed pits and fish bones— remains of a meal someone had enjoyed on the ship.
Our favorite artifacts were the two small wooden buttons covered in two different-size crochet threads still bearing the thread that had attached them to a garment.
Mike and Karen Fulghum, Lakehills
Bandera Electric Cooperative
Cliburn Was Engaging
Your article on Van Cliburn in the October 2007 issue brought back many memories for me. I met Van the day he returned from the piano competition in Moscow. We were both living in Kilgore and attended the same church where his mother, Rildia Bee, was my Sunday School teacher.
Van was a soft-spoken, engaging, down-to-earth young man. I visited their unassuming little frame home several times.
Catherine Tschirhart, Hondo
GOING GREEN IN FREDERICKSBURG
Going green is not only possible, it is rapidly becoming a necessity.
That’s the message heard by hundreds of people who attended the Eighth Annual Renewable Energy Roundup and Green Living Fair in Fredericksburg at the end of September. The roundup, which included a series of seminars on energy-efficient building, renewable electricity resources, organic food and gardening, and alternative vehicle power, also included scores of vendors and exhibitors demonstrating and selling the latest in wind and solar electricity systems, sustainable building materials and other “green living” products.
Climate change, increasing global population and growing energy demands, coupled with the Earth’s finite resources, prompted many of the presenters to warn that soon we could see supplies dwindle and prices increase.
In the realm of electricity production and reducing energy demand, emphasis was given both to rediscovering methods used for hundreds of years, such as building to take advantage of natural heating and cooling, and to modern technologies, including improved wind generator designs and photovoltaic arrays.
One presenter showed how, using off-the-shelf plumbing products and a black plastic storage tank, homeowners could relatively easily build a system to collect and store rain runoff from their roofs to use for landscape irrigation. Others talked about using solar energy to power water heaters.
Attendees of one session received an important message in the face of some sobering problems: How to sustain hope for the future. The answer included having faith in human resilience and seeking spiritual guidance, whatever form it takes.
POWER TIP
Save Energy, Save Money
Two recent reports suggest that many of Texas’ growing electric power needs could be met by energy efficiency measures and renewable energy sources rather than by building new power plants.
The studies by the Washington-based American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy argued that most of the savings could be achieved at the local level by municipalities either adopting stricter building codes or encouraging homeowners to invest in energy-efficient structures. The reports were produced on behalf of Environmental Defense.
If typical new homes were just 15 percent more energy efficient than they are currently, the reports concluded, homeowners in the Houston/Galveston and Dallas/Fort Worth metropolitan areas could save $360 a year on electric bills.
HAPPENINGS
The Nacogdoches Nine Flags Festival offers a three-week-long holiday extravaganza starting November 16 in one of the most historic and picturesque towns in Texas. The festivities culminate December 7 and 8. On Friday, visit Millard’s Crossing Historic Village for a 19th Century Old Fashioned Christmas. During Saturday’s Tour of Homes, which benefits Historic Nacogdoches, you can see the president’s home at Stephen F. Austin State University and other beautifully decorated mansions. For more information, call 1-888-653-3788 or go to www.nineflagsfestival.com.
CORYELL COUNTY COURTHOUSE BRIDGES PAST AND PRESENT
Builder Tom Lovell left his stamp on the still-functioning Coryell County Courthouse when he constructed it in 1897. His signature symbol, an owl, marks the building’s east entrance even today. The courthouse was constructed of limestone and sandstone precut into precisely sized blocks at a nearby quarry and then brought into town by horse-drawn wagons. Architect W.C. Dodson designed the building in Beaux-Arts style with some Romanesque details. The courthouse is a National Register Property.
—From The Courthouses of Texas, Texas A&M University Press, second edition, 2007
MY OH MY, AIN’T WE GOT PIE
With cool weather here, it’s time to check out the Nutty Brown Café’s Frito Pie.
This marvel of real beef, real cheese and real Fritos is just too big for the traditional bag. This dinner plate-sized Texas concoction wins over even delicate Texans with a yearning for heart-healthy veggie fare. Few can resist the dish’s savory, dusky chili flavor. Just right—not too hot for the kiddoes but not too bland for the rest of us.
Nary a bean graces this Texas-true dish. But you can get your vegetables by ordering your pie with a liberal sprinkling of fresh onions. And you are set—maybe for two or three meals. The only point of contention when Texas Co-op Power editors checked out the dish was what one considers to be the golden mean of chili to Frito.
Served by Pedernales Electric Cooperative, the Nutty Brown Café is located at 12225 W. Highway 290 between Austin and Dripping Springs. Call (512) 301-4648 or visit online at www.nuttybrown.com.
CHILLY TEXAS
Sure, we get some Blue Northers, but to liken a town in Nueces County to Santa’s home is stretching things ...
North Pole
Nueces County
Rio Frio
Real County
Coldspring
San Jacinto County
Winters
Runnels County
Snow Hill
Titus County
Frost
Navarro County
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