Friday, April 1, 2022

No Foolin' With Horses Or Life Jugs Or Slotemakers On April Fool's Day


At my first abode, when I moved to Texas, the three horses you see me sitting with, above, were part of the household. The horse named Caution knew how to open the gate to the backyard. Caution would then lead the other two in for a visit. 

I forgot to mention that this morning, whilst looking for a Delicate Arch photo, I came upon the photos you see here.

I thought I remembered one of the horses getting in the pool, and it being a bit of a struggle to get the horse back on dry land. I have been informed that this is a false memory, likely the result of a nightmare.

My cat, Hortense, who made the move to Texas via flying, liked the horses. Hortense would purr, whilst holding her by a horse, and would reach out with a paw to pet the horse.

Moving on to Life Jugs...


The above photo was taken in Dinosaur Valley State Park.

Dinosaur Valley is one of my favorite Texas parks, with great hiking and mountain biking trails. The park has a swimming hole courtesy of the Paluxy River. I was slightly appalled when I saw the LIFE JUGS: THROW A DROWNING PERSON sign, with two jugs hanging from the sign.

Was this supposed to be a joke? Or are they serious. The swimming hole looked fun to swim in, except there were turtles enjoying it. You don't want to swim with turtles. I was chased by a big turtle whilst swimming in Lake Grapevine. If I remember right that turtle chased incident was the last time I got into a Texas lake.

Moving on to more signs...


Washington's Maxine sent me the above photo a couple months ago. She saw this in a store in Lynden

Slotemaker is Dutch for Jones.

The original Slotemaker farm is a short distance east of Lynden. For some reason the Slotemaker road signs get frequently stolen. One or two of my nephews engaged in this practice, with the purloined signs hanging on their bedroom walls.

Let me see if I can find a photo of the last time I was looking at the Slotemaker road sign.


That would be three of the youngest Slotemaker Jones, Ruby, Theo and David, standing under the Slotemaker Road sign whilst their favorite uncle takes a picture of them.

The above photo was taken August 12, 2017, almost five years ago. Hard to believe it was that long ago. In my memory it seems like yesterday.

That was one special, unforgettable day...

(If you click on the link the date on the blog post is August 14, that being the day the post was posted, but August 12 was the date the photo was taken)

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