Well, friends, to be clear up front tonight, I don't have my five items today. I did learn and practice some simple things today, so if you're interested, stay tuned in. Tomorrow is Garage Cleaning Day, where I anticipate finding enough donatable fodder for the next three weeks. So don't worry, I haven't fallen off the band wagon; we were just completely occupied today.
Katie has been itching for an excursion out into the countryside, to explore and surround herself in new invirons, so we set out for a day trip to experience some East Texas culture. Of course, planning to spend a whole day out and about calls for some careful planning when you have a nine month old. So, a few minutes before her morning nap, we managed to set out, grab some Chick Fil A breakfast, and head for the woods while Avonlea slept in the car. We travelled to the Davy Crockett National Forest, which is completely amazing to a flatlander like myself, spending the majority of my life in the flat, expansive brownness that is Abilene, TX. We drove up to a little spot that has a few memories for us, the Neches Bluff Overlook, which is on one end of the twenty-one mile Four C's hiking trail we conquered a few years back with some good friends. Spring has sprung, there are buds on trees and green pine cones growing, and the forest is flushed with white and purple blossoms. Stunning! Well, much more stunning than the few pics we took show. You'll just have to trust me.
Simplicity lesson #1 = If you pray for patience, don't expect God to give you patience; expect annoying experiences to come your way that you can practice being patient. If you pray for help in simplicity, don't expect to wake up the next morning and be simple; expect situations to come up that require looking through a lens of simplicity to appreciate, like hearing "nature's call" in, well, nature, and spending a little time in a composting toilet with single-ply gubbamint toilet paper to, ahem, rectify the situation. If my mind had not already been set on simplicity, I might be prone to complain. As it stands, though, I could easily think of several situations that would have been much less desirable, like no toilet paper, or an armful of maple leaves, or no clean cozy concrete shanty to retreat to, etc. Today, I was very thankful for the simple luxury of fixed, nonspinning single ply toilet tissue. Amen.
From there, we went to the Caddoan Mounds State Historic Site. I've heard about these mounds from Katie, who grew up a few years in Lufkin, but I had no idea how OLD this historic area was! Apparently, the mounds were used for several hundred years, from around 300-1100 AD!
The walk around this site was just perfect for a day like today: high around 70 with a cool breeze blowing (both of these factors being rarities in East Texas, we're finding...)! Avonlea enjoyed the cool breezes in her face, and Katie and I had some really nice discussion about the use of the area, what it might have been like for the peoples that inhabited these meadows, and especially the significance of the mounds in this ancient society. Evidently, the village covered quite a large clearing. The "elite" members of the tribe would live in small areas surrounding the mounds, which served different purposes but definately housed the remains of previous leaders and their families. At times, when a ruler would die, other family members and/or servants would be killed and buried along with them as they became the top layer of the mound. The people would burn the temple or religious structure that stood on top of the mound, carry 30-40 lb baskets of dirt to cover the remains of the burnt building or buried elite, and on top of the layers of their ancestors would build a new temple with a new regime in power. We found it fascinating to think of the religeous implications and metaphors of this mound-building practice, to elevate your people over time to a higher place, literally standing on the shoulders of your forefathers, and one day you would be destined to become another layer in the foundation of your people. Somehow it felt very Old Testament to me. Don't ask me to explain that ;-)
Simplicity lesson #2 = No matter how fast you think your life will end without an IPOD, laptop, air conditioning, McDonalds, or a car, lots and lots of people lived their entire lives without ever even conceiving of these concepts, much less experiencing anything close to them. An ancient Caddoan never ate a cheeseburger, and their society prospered for a millenium. So watch your verbage; you don't "need" a new XYZ to match your new whatchamacallit...you want it. There's a difference. Do you understand, Brazos? "I think I do, yes!" Well, OK, then.
We ran into Alto for a (not so very) quick bite at DQ, then turned back around and headed to Mission Tejas, one of the very first Spanish missions in Texas (1690-93). Avonlea took another little nap, and after getting a bite to eat herself, we decided to all head over to a picturesque pond and feed the minnows and perch, oops, I mean "brim." That's what folks out here call bluegills.
Did I mention that today was ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS?!?!?! I couldn't stop blabbering about how nice the breeze felt with just a hint of smoke floating on it mixing with the pines. This combination of smells takes me back to my years of Wilderness Trek, climbing mountains in Colorado with my youth group. Good times.
Simplicity lesson #3 God is air conditioning the Great Outdoors this week. Get out in it, and be thankful! Learn to appreciate the little things, like amazing outdoor temperatures and other treats to the senses. It'll be memories like today that get me through the oppressiveness of summers out here.
We poked around in some historic buildings, or reproductions of them anyway, and climbed back in the ole' CRV. On a whim, I mentioned that I might like to mosey out to the Grapeland Drive-Thru Safari, since it seemed like the thing to do on a day like today, hitting the outdoorsy attractions and all. Katie said she was always up for an adventure, Avonlea was already passed out in the car seat again, so here we go!
On the way we tried to visit every historic marker we passed, and we learned some very interesting and mostly sad history of interactions between settlers and Indian tribes. What a richly historic region we live in now, but not without its bloody moments.
We arrived at the Drive-Thru Safari, paid the man, and entered a 56 acre high fenced petting zoo of sorts. I was like a kid in a candy store, watching all the exotic deer species mill about almost like domesticated cattle. It's pretty crazy to see peacocks, potbellied pigs, zebras, Axis and Sika deer, blackbuck antelope, buffalo, longhorns, Aoudad sheep and Scottish Highland cows all mish-mashed together like a fruit salad, but all staying well away from a small pond with a fence around it, containing an unspecified number of alligators!
Audad sheep in front, a Sika doe on the left, several Axis does and a few Zebra in the background.
Blackbuck Antelope, very cool looking!
Not a baby moose, but a Fallow deer. I love the way their antlers look!
A few pigs, a few more deer, and a couple of peacocks, one of them an albino.
My personal favorite, Axis deer. Much bigger than whitetails, these guys look like Bambi their whole lives, bucks and does alike. They are the finest tasting venison money can buy, very close to beef with little to no recognizable gamey taste. I took a doe a year or so ago, and we'll be grilling some for supper tomorrow night. I LOVE how these guys' antlers look, so regal and majestic!
An interesting fact about Axis deer if you care to know: Unlike Whitetail, who rut or mate in the fall or early winter, then shed their antlers in the early spring to regrow them through the summer and early fall, Axis deer don't follow a set annual routine. Axis mate several times a year, can drop their antlers at any given time, and therefore when you see an Axis buck he could easily be hard-horned or in velvet, like these fellas, or only have a couple of knobs on his head freshly shed of antlers. I am fascinated by these animals that are rapidly spreading through south, central, and west Texas free ranging. They're actually natives of India, but they're doing quite well in Texas (and Hawaii, incidentally. Go figure!)
We made our pass through the Safari with camera ablazing, and then met up with Katie's sister and her husband out at my inlaws' tract of land a few miles south of Grapeland, with a roaring fire and a starry sky, to char some cheddar wursts and crunch some Cheetos and end this day full of simple pleasures. As you might guess, I'm pooped, so to bed I go in preparation for a long, productive day of garage organization and merciless eradication of JIDUA.
(Junk I don't use anymore)
Peace!
