Weekly Update Archive

Week Ending 07/22/2007

I was given permission by some really nice folks, Mr. and Mrs. McMurtry, out of Houston to stay on a South Texas hunting ranch that sits on 10,000 acres. It is 15 miles South of Hebbronville. I invited a lot of people but we had a very small showing. Some did not show up because, once again, they were afraid it was going to rain all weekend! WWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!! I haven’t hear that kind of crying since Weston was a baby.

The few and the brave who did show up had a great time. Our guests were Scott Lacina and his girlfriend, Louise, from Bandera, Brad Chambers (fellow Gray band collector) and his girlfriend, Alicia, and also Troy Wismar (also a fellow Graybander) and his son, Bryce, were in attendance. We had a great sit down dinner at the big banquet table, relaxed and talked Herps and then it was time for business! We all split up and went different directions. Some stayed on the ranch for a while, then went out onto 1017 and over to 359 and 2050. I was very disappointed with the snake sightings. I only saw one D.O.R. atrox and missed what we believed to be a large atrox coming out onto the road. This is all we would see. Others saw atrox, garters, longnose, and bull snakes. I thought the temperatures were great but I guess the snake GODS didn’t think so. We got in at 3:00 a.m. The older I get, the tougher it is to handle the late late nights!!

When I got up on Sunday morning, I found that Brad and Alicia had just left and Troy and his son were gone. Troy said he had work Sunday afternoon so his time was short. Kim the kids and I hung around and made sure everything was tidy and just the way we found it, if not better. The ranch roads are very extensive out there and GOD knows if you get really lost, you may be history. Unfortunately, we did not see any record breaking atrox either. What we did find, (or they found us rather) were two “illegal” aliens from Honduras making their way into the Untied States to help us out with spending more of our tax dollars. I did let them fill their water jugs and denied them food and sent them on their way. Later that evening when we were going out snake hunting, there they were three miles or so up 1017 heading toward Hebbronville. I guess the hunger got to them and they did not care about getting intercepted. I called the Sheriffs Dept. and they said they would dispatch a border patrolman out to the Kempner camp where we were staying. Of course they never showed. What a surprise, huh? When we reached the border checkpoint right outside of Hebbronville, I told the patrolman I had a job for them. He told me that DPS was going to be dispatched to pick them up after he got through with what he was doing. EXCUSE ME? HELLO???????????????????? Is this not their friggin job? Since most are Hispanic patrolmen, you got to wonder who the hells side are they on? This continues to blow my mind!! What a great country we live in. I can tell you if the leaders do not get serious about protecting our borders, the United States will cease to exist.

I’m outta here! I would like to say Happy Herping like I always do, but is it really happy herping with all the bullshi* that our “good buddy” Harvey Hilderbran has started. Again, that’s another issue entirely!

A Howell family group photo...don't get many of those since I'm usually behind the camera.