West Texas, Part II

Sunday we drove across the ranch to visit family and back home again afterwards, about 6 hours on the road.  It's a great way to see the country!

Star Mountain, across the creek and the highway from the house, changes its wardrobe many times a day.

It looks good from every angle, too--this time from over on the Jeff Ranch.

One of the best parts about passing through the Jeff Ranch is being able to see the remuda that often roams loose there.  This visit the remuda was not in evidence, but both times we drove through, a pair of horses came over our way.  We nicknamed this guy "Road Hog Rodney" because both times he saw us coming, he walked across the road and stopped in front of us, forcing us to halt.  Then he just stood there and looked askance at us as if to say, "Where's my food?"

All we could do was sit and wait until Rodney decided we were hopeless and moved out of our way!
We definitely didn't want to get off the road to go around him because that brush is mesquite and cat claw, both full of thorns that will puncture a tire.

A little farther along we came to Kara's Cave, our name for an old Indian cave in the bluffs along the road.  Native Americans apparently camped in the area because we once found a hollowed grinding stone nearby.  This time there we found several chips of "worked" flint along with a few broken arrowheads and thumb scrapers.

We've been taking family photos in front of the cave since Kara was a baby, sort of a family time line.

Most range cattle are wild and run when they see a vehicle, although a few will stand and watch us along as we don't get too close.  This young gal, though, was unusually curious.  She tasted the mirror--and even my hand when I stuck it out the window.  It was nice to get a "cow fix," as I was missing mine!

These cattle are mostly Red Brangus, although the bulls are Herefords, so you see some white here and there.

In the Indian Springs Pasture there's an old stone corral, built long ago by Native Americans.  It's still standing 4-5 feet high in some places.  Wide at the bottom and tapering toward the top, it made a good spot for Jenny and Jean-Marc to get a photo.

The building in the distance is a hunter's "cabin," actually nice enough to live in permanently!  We were still about 20 minutes from ranch headquarters and a nice Sunday lunch, so we didn't stop to explore.

On the way back, however, we detoured to show Jean-Marc the actual Indian Springs.  While the others went off to see the spring I stayed and got some more "cow fix."  That little guy might look huggable, but good luck getting close!  This was the closest mama let me get--and that was with my telephoto lens.

I love the dignity of this big old boss cow.  Everyone else hung back and let her size up the intruder.

These little barrel cacti are easy to miss if you don't keep a sharp lookout.

Since I'm an inveterate rock collector, I often have my eyes on the ground, although these babies get to stay right where they are!  Many years ago I did get Herb to dig up a barrel cactus for me, but they just don't do well out of their native environment.

As we got close to home in mid-afternoon, Star Mountain was decked out in rain gear, the way we love to see it!

We made it home just in time to watch the storm roll in.

And just in time for Kara to avoid having her coat of dust turn to mud!  This is one of the hazards of riding in an open Jeep, but you can see that she didn't mind.

This was one of the strangest storms we've ever seen in all the time we've spent at Limpia.  In complete and total silence, that cloud of fog and rain moved across Star Mountain until it was obliterated.

Jenny and I prefer to watch storms from the vantage point of the rock wall as long as there's no lightning, but everyone else enjoys their comfy seats on the west porch with cold drinks at hand.  To quote Brad Paisley, "it doesn't get better than this."