Solo Tandy Hills Hiking Observing The Tandy Hills Roadrunner Bonding With The Tandy Hills Trojan Horse & Other Mysteries

I am having one of those rare days where I feel as if someone has sucker punched me in the gut.

Which is a tad disturbing, because no one has sucker punched me in the gut.

It has been over 3 years since I've been metaphorically sucker punched in the gut.

Hiking the trails of the Tandy Hills Natural Sanatorium, today, put me in a less sucker punched frame of mind.

Speaking of sucker punches, this week's Fort Worth Weekly Best of 2011 issue made no mention of the Tandy Hills this year. Or the Prairie Fest. In years previous the Tandy Hills has been mentioned as the Best Place to Stand. And the Prairie Fest as Best Outdoor Festival, or something like that.

Today whilst I was hiking the Tandy trails I pondered why so few people avail themselves of the pleasure of Tandy Hills hiking. Fort Worth has a population of over 700,000. While it is true that over half of the population is over weight and thus not really drawn to hiking up a hill, that still leaves around 350,000 people able to do so.

I know of no other big city in America with a big, wild, natural zone so close to its downtown.

If something like the Tandy Hills existed a couple miles east of Seattle's downtown I can guarantee the hills would be alive with the sounds of people enjoying the natural world. During the hiking season in Washington's Cascades you can go to any of the dozens upon dozens of mountain hiking trails and find a lot of people hiking. And that's after driving a long distance to get to a trail head.

Even as I type, Washington's Maxine W. A. Milling is hiking with a group, over Cascade Pass, to Stehekin, to spend a few days at Courtney Ranch.

With there being so very few hiking type options in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex zone one would think the Tandy Hills would get a lot of visitors.

Before the novelty wore off, I'd drive to places like Turner Falls Park in Oklahoma and Dinosaur Valley State Park. And twice to Enchanted Rock State Park, just to have a semi-good place to go hiking.

And on another Tandy Hills note, I had myself a real cute encounter with the Tandy Hills Roadrunner today. As I was ascending Mount Tandy the Tandy Trojan Horse that I mentioned a couple days ago came into view. I then saw that the Tandy Hills Roadrunner was looking curiously at the Tandy Trojan Horse.

When the Tandy Hills Roadrunner saw me the speedy bird took off running over the hill.

There was no sign that any of last night's thunderstorm deluge dropped any water on the Tandy Hills. I wonder if the Tandy Hills Roadrunner is still drinking at Don Young's birdbath. I have never found the mysterious water barrel that Don Young and his cohorts installed in some hidden location on the Tandy Hills.

Don Young used to be Fort Worth's Best Watchdog. This year Don Young has been in the news a lot, doing a lot of Watchdogging. But, somehow Don Young was supplanted as the Best Watchdog in Fort Worth Weekly's Best of 2011 compilation, supplanted by Kevin Buchanan and the North Central Texas Communities Alliance.

Very perplexing.

Meth Whores Can Live In Peace At Fort Worth's Ozzie Rabbit Lodge

If I remember right I have previously mentioned that I'm a fan of the goofy ads I find in Fort Worth Weekly.

Fort Worth Weekly is a free tabloid that serves pretty much as Fort Worth's only legitimate newspaper.

Legitimate in the sense that Fort Worth Weekly actually does investigative journalism, acting as a much needed Fourth Estate in this ill-served, hard-hitting journalism-wise, parched part of the planet.

If I remember right, in addition to having previously mentioned being a fan of FW Weekly's goofy ads, I've also previously mentioned the Ozzie Rabbit Lodge.

This week's Ozzie Rabbit Lodge ad in the Best of 2011 Fort Worth Weekly edition lets us know that the Ozzie Rabbit Lodge is the only place Punks, Bikers, Hipsters, your Grandpa, Cowboys & Meth Whores can live in peace.

Meth Whores?

Elsie Hotpepper is definitely not a Meth Whore, but the Ozzie Rabbit Lodge is often the Elsie Hotpepper starting off location for a night of saloon hopping.

For those of you who don't know Fort Worth history, Ozzie Rabbit was the nickname of Lee Harvey Oswald, a nickname given to Lee Harvey by his fellow marines, before Lee Harvey left the marines to go be a communist in the Soviet Union.

For those of you who don't know American history, Lee Harvey Oswald is Fort Worth's most famous alleged assassin. He is alleged to have assassinated President John F. Kennedy, in Dallas, as the JFK motorcade passed through Dealey Plaza, way back on November 22, 1963.

Lee Harvey was then assassinated himself a couple days later by a guy named Jack Ruby.

About the same time John F. Kennedy was laid to rest in Arlington Cemetery (in Washington, D.C., not the Arlington Cemetery in Arlington, Texas) Lee Harvey Oswald was laid to rest in the Rose Hill Memorial Burial Park, a short distance from The Ozzie Rabbit Lodge.

Way back when Lee Harvey Oswald was allegedly aiming that rifle out of a 6th Floor Book Depository window I doubt it crossed his mind that almost a half century later he would be buried walking distance from a bar named after his nickname.

A Cold Front Arrives For The Last Day Of September & The First Day Of The State Fair Of Texas

As you can see in the picture the sun has begun its pre-dawn sky glowing process on this last day of September.

With today being Friday, September 30, over at Fair Park, in Dallas, the State Fair of Texas begins. That means I have til October 23 to make it over to Dallas for the state fair.

Had the State Fair of Texas opened yesterday it would have been one HOT first day of the state fair.

Yesterday we hit 100 for the 71st time in 2011, breaking the temperature record for September 29, which had been 99 degrees, set over a half century ago, in 1953. Yesterday was also the 4th latest 100 degree day. The latest it has ever reached 100 in this parched part of the planet was on October 3 of 1951.

Last night this parched part of the planet also had a thunderstorm. I saw a lot of lightning strikes and heard a lot of thunder rolling, but not much rain fell. Maybe more rain fell in other locations.

Last night's thunderstorm brought in a cold front, dropping the temperature last night. The lows for the next few days are scheduled to be in the 50s.

The sun is now providing sufficient illumination to allow me to find my way to the pool without needing a flashlight. So, I'm going swimming now.

Fort Worth Weekly's 2011 Best Free Spirit, Watchdog & Old Guy Was Not Me

Fort Worth Weekly Best Of 2011 Edition

While Elsie Hotpepper and I were foraging for Horse Apples today I got a call telling me I needed to get this week's Fort Worth Weekly, with it being the annual "Best Of" issue, as in "Best Of 2011."

I usually find this type thing a bloated ad magnet. That and I rarely know the person, place or thing the Reader's or Critic's choices choose.

So, I got this year's Best Of 2011 and thumbed through it, and just like I thought would be the case, most of the choices were unknown to me.

However, there were a few I recognized, particularly on a couple pages in the "People & Politics" section.

For instance, I have met the Critic's Choice for Free Spirit, Layla Caraway. Personally, I think Ms. Caraway is more of a Watchdog than a Free Spirit. I think Elsie Hotpepper should have gotten the Best Free Spirit of 2011 accolade.

Kevin Buchanan was the Reader's Choice for Watchdog. I may be remembering wrong, but wasn't Kevin Buchanan a big proponent of Fort Worth's failed Streetcar to Nowhere Plan? That doesn't seem very Watchdoggy to me. The Critic's Choice for Watchdog was North Central Texas Communities Alliance.

My view of NCTCA is the group has very good intentions. I don't know how successful the group's Watchdogging is. However, there is this other group I would have picked as the Best Watchdog of 2011 had I been the critic making a choice. I would have picked the Trinity River Improvement Partnership (TRIP).

TRIP was sort of recognized in the "Culture" section in the Locally Made Film category, where the Reader's Choice was the award winning TRIP documentary, Up a Creek. The Critic's Choice was a locally made film I've not heard of called Pioneer. Apparently Pioneer has also won awards.

Another of the few names I recognized was Clyde Picht. The Critic's Choice for "Old Guy." I manned a booth for awhile with Clyde Picht at this year's Prairie Fest. I liked him. But, I did not think of him as an Old Guy.

In the "People & Politics" section and the "Culture" section Durango Jones and the Durango Texas blog were picked as the Reader's & Critic's Choice by no one in any category. What a shocking omission.

Granny Grassroots' Harping Harp

Also left out of being the Best of Anything in 2011 was another person I met at this year's Prairie Fest, who co-manned a booth with me for much longer than Clyde Picht, that being the entity known as the Granny Grassroots.

Granny Grassroots, while not the Best of Anything in 2011, according to Fort Worth Weekly's Readers and Critics, did place a large ad in the FW Weekly Best of 2011 edition.

Methinks Granny Grassroots would also have been a good choice as Best Free Spirit of 2011.

Watch Granny Grassroots' video below and you'll see what I mean by free spirit. Who but a free spirit would haul her harp to the Trinity River to sing a song to the litter as it floats by?

Harvesting Horse Apples Today With Elsie Hotpepper At The Village Creek Osage Orange Tree Orchards

Getting Ready To Take A Bite Of A Horse Apple

A couple days ago I mentioned that the big green ball you see in the picture has perplexed me ever since I moved to Texas. I long ago had been told it was a "Horse Apple" but that was all I knew about it.

So, I asked if anyone could kindly alleviate me of my "Horse Apple" ignorance.

Alien Engineer and CatsPaw kindly did some ignorance alleviating by informing me that the Horse Apple comes from the Osage Orange tree, also known as Bois D'Arc. And that the wood of the tree was used by Plains Indians to make bows. And that cockroaches hate Horse Apples.

So, due to now knowing more details I was able to look up Osage Orange tree to have even more of my ignorance about this subject alleviated.

The fruit of the Osage Orange tree is filled with sticky white latex goo which smells slightly like oranges. Hence the name. However, the tree is not at all closely related to citrus trees. The fruit smells sort of edible, but, even though it is not poisonous in the kill you type of poisonous, eating it will most likely cause you to vomit.

Most trees bear fruit which is eaten, with the seeds being dispersed by whatever ate the fruit, thus expanding the orchard of any particular tree. However, no known animal is known to eat Horse Apples.

Gray Area Shows Historical Location Of Osage Orange

It is theorized that the Osage Orange tree may be a relic from the days of dinosaurs, with dinosaurs like giant ground sloths, mammoths and mastodons

A lot of dinosaurs roamed over Texas when those big reptiles ruled the earth. The dark gray area of the map shows the historic location of the Osage Orange tree in the Red River drainage zone of Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas.

In modern day America, and parts of Canada, the Osage Orange has widely naturalized.

In the American prairie states Osage Orange trees were often used as windbreaks, hence one of the other names the tree is known by, "Hedge Apple."

This is thanks in part to one of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Great Depression New Deal fight the Dust Bowl plans. The WPA (Works Progress Administration) project called the "Great Plains Shelterbelt", starting in 1934, by 1943 had planted 30,233 Shelterbelts with over 220 million trees.

The wood of the Osage Orange tree is very dense, heavy, close-grained, and appropriate to its name, colored yellow-orangish. The wood is highly valued for uses valuing strength that resists rotting. Like the aforementioned bows. Other uses are fence posts, tool handles and insulators.

Used as fuel, the Osage Orange wood has the highest BTU content of any wood, making it burn very hot for a very long time.

And just like CatsPaw so kindly informed me, Horse Apples are sometimes used to shoo away cockroaches. Other arthropods also have an apparent aversion to Horse Apples.

Today Elsie Hotpepper went walking with me on a Horse Apple hunting expedition through the Village Creek Natural Historical Area's Osage Orange tree orchards. I got myself a half dozen Horse Apples, like the beauty I took a picture of which you see above.

The Horse Apples are now strategically placed in my kitchen to make life a living hell for any cockroaches plotting a home invasion.

After A Good Night's Sleep The Next To Last Day Of September Dawns Early

In the picture we are looking through the bars of my patio prison cell at the ground 30 feet below on day 29 of September, the last Thursday of the 9th month of 2011.

Dawn has cracked with the sky heater currently heating the outer world in my location to 72 degrees, heading to a high of 95 today.

I don't think Mother Nature got the memo that Summer is over in this parched part of the planet.

Which means the water in my pool should be at a pleasant swimming temperature this morning. I will find out if that is true in about 5 minutes.

My Chesapeake Energy Neighborhood Tower Has Vanished For No Fracking Reason That I Know of

Chesapeake Flatbeds Clogging Boca Raton Boulevard

When I left my abode this morning I was surprised to see a lot of trucks pulling flatbed trailers, lined up along Boca Raton Boulevard, waiting to do something at my neighborhood Chesapeake Energy Barnett Shale Natural Gas Drilling Site.

When I returned, a couple hours later, I was surprised, when I drove up Bridgewood Street, to see that the Chesapeake drilling tower no longer towered over my neighborhood.

What is going on, I thought to myself?

Unlike my previous experience with a Chesapeake Energy drilling operation, this one has been quiet and has not generated a lot of dust. I've heard no squealing noises from drills doing their drilling.

I'd assumed the actual drilling had not yet started, even though I saw mechanical movement on the tower.

I wish I'd walked to the Loop 820 Frontage Road, open view, to take pictures of the HUMONGOUS operation when all the equipment and the tower were in place. Because it is all gone now. As you will see in the following two photos I took a few minutes ago.

In the picture above I am standing with Loop 820 behind me, on a rare Fort Worth sidewalk, looking west at the now almost empty Chesapeake Energy drilling site. Yesterday you would have seen an enormous structure where you now see empty space.

If the earth did get poked by Chesapeake Energy in this location, above, I believe we are looking at the point of earth entry. I've no idea what the blackish, oily looking fluid might be. I suspect petroleum related.

If Chesapeake Energy has finished poking its hole in this location, and I've no clue whether or not that has happened, I do know for certain that no fracking has taken place. No water trucks or water pipelines have been seen.

All the flatbed trailers created traffic problems, blocking lanes and forcing drivers, like me, to drive on the incoming lane to get past the flatbeds. A couple hard hats with "Slow" and "Stop" signs helped with the traffic flow. And a big street sweeper swept up some of the dirt. I probably would have not noticed that, if it weren't for the sign informing me to beware of the street being swept.

Another interesting thing. A few weeks ago I was appalled to see that the chain link fence that Chesapeake Energy had installed along its border with Boca Raton, had fallen over onto the sidewalk. This remained unfixed ever since. Until today. The chainlink fence is back up and sidewalk access to one of Fort Worth's few sidewalks has been restored.

I don't know why, but I've got a feeling there is something going on in my neighborhood that is not quite meeting my eye. I think I just mangled a cliche.

On Top Of Mount Tandy With A Blimp Aiming At Downtown Fort Worth & The Tandy Trojan Horse

I am operating on very little sleep. Thus my perceptions may be a bit tired.

I'd not been to the Tandy Hills in several days. I thought maybe some hill hiking would make me feel better.

As I drove to the top of Mount Tandy I saw what looked like a bloated slow motion missile taking aim at the stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth.

By the time I found a place to park on the Mount Tandy parking lot I realized the slow motion missile was a blimp.

I vaguely recollect reading somewhere that a blimp would be in the air in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex zone, offering very expensive rides to those willing to pay for such a thing.

As I walked down Mount Tandy I saw the blimp take a turn north before it ran in to the Fort Worth skyline. After awhile the blimp was a very distant white spot, heading, maybe, to Alliance Airport.

When I came to the trail junction, half way down Mount Tandy, I came upon the latest Tandy Hills Mystery. Or the latest Guerrilla Art installation.

Near the sign that says "FOOT TRAFFIC ONLY NO BIKES HORSES OR MOTORIZED VEHICLES" sat an object which potentially seemed to violate all three of those prohibitions.

The Tandy Hills Trojan Horse. On wheels.

Up Early The Last Wednesday Of September After A Night Of Extreme Insomnia

I'm looking through the bars of my patio prison cell at some extreme darkness on this last Wednesday morning of September of 2011.

It seems like the month of September started yesterday, yet, after today, there are only 2 more days left in the month.

Already I am hearing mention made on the radio of the "Upcoming Holidays."

My least favorite time of the year.

I saw yesterday that Wal-Mart is already purveying Halloween paraphernalia.

The early morning darkness perfectly matches my early morning dark mood.

I had my worst bout of insomnia in a long, long time, last night. I read in bed til past midnight, waiting for the sleep impulse to strike. I gave up on the wait and turned off the light. Sometime after 2 in the morning I fell asleep, apparently quickly going into nightmare mode, where I had a confrontation with a vicious house cat. In the nightmare I kicked a rock at the vicious house cat, but in reality I kicked the wall next to my bed.

Kicking the wall next to my bed had me back awake and tossing and turning for I don't know how long.

Eventually I did fall asleep, again, and then woke up and gave up and got up, before 6.

I think today is going to be a long long day.

I Am Not Going To Make Pie With Village Creek Natural Historic Area Horse Apples

I was not long into my Texas exile when I first came across lime green balls like you see in the picture.

I was long ago told these are called Horse Apples. They grow in a tree, like an apple. And then fall to the ground.

I saw this collection of ground bound Horse Apples today whilst walking in the Village Creek Historical Natural Area in Arlington.

If someone could properly identify the Horse Apples I would be appreciative of having my ignorance about this subject alleviated.