Hiking the Tandy Hills, Communing with Mother Nature & Trespassing on Chesapeake Energy

It got down to 41 degrees last night here in chilly Fort Worth. Right now, coming up on 4 in the afternoon we are in the 60s in this frigid zone. With it being so cold I thought this was a good day to go hiking in the Tandy Hills.

Fall has fallen hard in the past couple weeks, bringing color to the trees covering the Tandy Hills. When I first saw the Tandy Hills, years ago, I did not realize there were trails all over it. I'd been asked to go there for a Sierra Club hike. I drove up and saw all these old hippies and I thought they were nuts to go hiking out in that prairie grass. I figured it had to be infested with rattlesnakes and other vermin. I drove on.

It would be years til I would discover how hilly the Tandy Hills are and all the miles of well worn trails. I have yet to see a single snake slithering anywhere on the Tandy Hills. I haven't even seen an armadillo there. I have seen a lot of squirrels. But they are everywhere.

After I was done hunting for rattlesnakes I decided to go check on Mother Nature. My longtime reader may remember me mentioning the piece of art known as Mother Nature that some anonymous nature lover had placed on Scott Avenue near the entrance to where Chesapeake Energy has deeply scarred the Tandy Hills.

When I found Mother Nature it appeared that Mother Nature had blown her over. It did get rather windy yesterday. Mother Nature has had some things added to her since I last saw her. Someone had added "I Know" above her head. I don't think that was there the last time I saw her.

When I was done looking at Mother Nature I got back in my vehicle and decided I didn't see the little "NO TRESPASSING" sign attached to the gate at the entry to the Chesapeake Energy Tandy Hills Barnett Shale natural gas drilling site.

I was surprised to see the driveway to a house right by the gate. Those unlucky people are in for some really noisy nights and an awful lot of dust.

It appears this stage of the operation is still in site preparation mode. I saw bulldozers and other pieces of equipment and one wrecked car. I did not see any humans directly, but I assume that that was what was operating the moving equipment.

I'll check in on Mother Nature again in a week or two to see how she is doing.