• coffee life,  coffee shops

    Grit Newspaper

    May 3, 2022

    This morning during my journaling time I began to list the jobs I have had in my life. I found it an interesting exercise into the past and recommend it just for the fun. One of the jobs I had for a short time was selling the Grit newspaper while I was in grade school. This paper required me to buy the paper and then have to sell them to make a profit. Hated it! I was not the salesman. Too much of the introvert to knock on doors. The recollection of those days invited me to look up Grit and see if it was even in print and read its history. Here is a link to the history from the company website. I found the information below from Wikipedia on Dietrick Lamade and his philosophy for the paper. We could sure use that philosophy today! Anyway it was a nice trip down memory lane for me.

    Grit displayed news and features aimed at rural America, and climbed to a weekly circulation of 100,000 by 1900, following an editorial policy outlined by Dietrick Lamade during a banquet for Grit’s employees:

    Always keep Grit from being pessimistic. Avoid printing those things which distort the minds of readers or make them feel at odds with the world. Avoid showing the wrong side of things, or making people feel discontented. Do nothing that will encourage fear, worry, or temptation… Wherever possible, suggest peace and good will toward men. Give our readers courage and strength for their daily tasks. Put happy thoughts, cheer, and contentment into their hearts.

    We have overcast skies and a temperature of 36 degrees at 6:00 am. We may see rain later this evening. Let’s hope so!

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  • animals,  Avian,  clouds,  landscape,  natural areas,  poetry,  Soapstone Prairie Natural Area,  writing/reading

    Experiencing Nature’s Touch

    May 22, 2021

    Storm clouds were on the eastern horizon enticing me to head out of town to find open areas for an image or two. Before I knew it I was on a course heading north to the Soapstone Natural Area. I did get a few cloud images but I also was gifted with a few unexpected images of this beautiful landscape and a few bison images.

    This natural area is the biggest one the City of Fort Collins maintains. It is 48 square miles of wide open vistas, nearly pristine grasslands, miles of trails and cultural resources. The trails are a mix for hiking, biking and horses. Thankfully they have restricted access to some areas to keep them free of man’s destructive tendencies. During excavations in the 1930s by the Smithsonian and Colorado Museum of Natural History they conclusively dated human habitation in in this area to at least 10,000 years. You can go online and find many stories about the early homesteaders, mostly ranchers and sheepherders, in this area as well as the American Indians.

    In November of 2015 they introduced a herd of bison on over 1,000 acres of pasture land which is inaccessible to the public. However, the main entrance road, Rawhide Flats Road, and Cheyenne Rim Trail, follow along the edge of this pasture which gives an opportunity to observe them and even get a few photographs, if they are close enough. I find these animals so intriguing.

    And of course this area is a haven for my favorite bird the meadowlark. It is also a place for many other birds, such as red-tailed hawks. The Fort Collins Audubon has a bird checklist that’s two pages long. You will find coyotes, fox, rabbits, prairie dogs, deer, antelope, and elk and of course a few snakes. I don’t go there often enough and it is always an uplifting experience for my soul when I go. It’s nice to come home with a few images but just spending time there, listening to the silence, transforms me in some wonderful way. Experiencing nature’s touch.

    ominous storm clouds in the east
    rain, hail and wind hidden within
    we watch in silence, the hawk and I

    ms
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  • architecture,  Documentary/Street,  lifestyles

    Sunset Schoolhouse

    February 8, 2016
    Sunset School
    Sunset Schoolhouse

    The roots of my family, after immigrating to the the states, is in the Texas and Oklahoma panhandle. I still have family farming and ranching in the area. I visited a year and a half ago for a family reunion and was able to see and hear a bit more of the areas history. While down there last weekend for a funeral my cousin Daryle took my sister and I on a heritage tour of the Darrouzett, Texas area. This small community is located along State Highway 15 in northern Lipscomb County. It is at the junction of Plummer and Kiowa creeks. Upon completion of the rail line in 1919–20, settlers and businesses moved south from the Sunset community in Oklahoma to be near the railroad. By 1920, when it was incorporated, Darrouzett had various businesses, two churches, a school, a post office, and a population of 425. In 1984 Darrouzett reported twelve businesses and a population of 444. In 1990 its population was 343, and in 2000 it was 303.

    There was mass migration to this area after the Civil War. This area held promises of rich grass, rich soil and a place for new life: Texas Panhandle. Bound by a lawless area to the north known as “No Man’s Land,” what was to become known as Lipscomb County must have appeared both beautiful and formidable at the same time.

    The early settlers in this part of Texas found everything needed to establish a home, running water, tall grass, wild turkey, prairie chickens, wild plums and grapes and the bountiful buffalo sod for building. This future Lipscomb County was bisected by Wolf Creek and laced with its tributaries and offered many pleasant groves of cottonwood and willows as a relief to the vast expanses of buffalo grass. This area where Plummer and Kiowa creeks merged, was to soon become a favorite picnic area for the settlers in outlying areas and some years later, the site of Darrouzett.

    My mother’s early childhood was in the Sunset community. She attended this one room schoolhouse as did her three siblings. She later moved to Laverne, Oklahoma, where she graduated. My dad was raised 13 miles east of here in another small community called Follett, Texas.

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