Poll Closing.

The "Mandatory Spay/Neuter, Good or Bad?" poll is now closed. Readers voted 84% to 16% (19 votes), that these laws are a bad idea. That's probably within a few points or two of the general population's views. I wonder if our legislators know. Someone should tell them.

It was actually worse than that.. because, remember, that Margaret voted "yes" by accident.. probably because I made the answers "no/yes" instead of the anticipated "yes/no". I learned my lesson... hope Margaret did, too. Wonder who the other "yes" votes were? Must'a come here by accident.LOL

Grindhouse.

If the TV trailers aren't enough to make you want to see Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez's homage to exploitation movies of the 50's and 60's, then this review should do it. We were crackin' up!

WARNING: Mature readers only... no kids!

Bubba.

This is Bubba. Bubba lives across the road from Endgate Ranch, with a couple of girlfriends. Bubba and his girlfriends have a job to do, and they take it seriously. Their job is to guard a couple hundred sheep, lambs, goats and kids from the likes of me and other, more dangerous predators.

Since you all seem to like games so much, we're going to play another:

When I first spotted one of Bubba's girlfriends the other day, she was flying across the field towards the fence by the road I was driving up.. at a rate of speed that defied her size. Not surprising, as my reading up on this breed tells me that they were probably bred from a Mastiff like breed and a "native sighthound". That's a hint, folks. Anyway, he's very handsome, and actually quite friendly- as long as you don't have nefarious designs on his charges.

Sighthound-free Content.

We're wrapping up a little over a week at Endgate Ranch in Ferris, TX. We decided to forego the race meet up in Oklahoma, which was promising to be sparsely attended, and stayed here to shoot something other than speeding sighthounds. This is a nice change of pace for us, and lets us get to see other breeds work, like the Briard, above, and the German Shepherd Dog, below. These folks rarely have an opportunity to have their dogs photographed, so we look at it as offering a valuable (for both parties!) service.

As usual, we also ate out a fair amount. Two places to recommend if you're ever in Ferris, (and since Endgate Ranch is the locale for Lone Star Whippet Club, Afghan Hound Club of Dallas, and Gazehounds In Texas lure coursing trials, I'm certain many of you will find yourselves here.)Right in downtown Ferris is the Fiesta Cafe. Very good, and imaginative Mexican and Tex/Mex food. Last week we went to "Fajita Wednesday"... probably as full as you'll ever get on $6.15. I had the combination fajita plate, with chicken and steak. It was sizzling, so it was good. Today I had the Combination Enchiladas-- four, count'em four enchiladas: chicken, "meat", potato, and spinach. I think the next time we're here, I'm going all spinach. It was very, very good. And it was fresh, not frozen or canned spinach.

Sunday night we went to the Rockett Cafe. In Rockett. Texas. There are some names in this state. Specialty of the house is CFS. (Anybody who knows "home cookin'" knows that's not "cystic fibrosis society", but rather Chicken Fried Steak.) Good coating, meat tender, gravy perfectly seasoned, with a huge baked potato. And a cold Shiner Bock to wash it all down.

Speaking of alcohol: Not in Ferris. Rockett is also dry, but The Rockett Cafe is a "club", so liquor is served to members. I've never been in Rockett before in my life, but I was already a member! Thanks to my Unicard, which I purchased some years back in some other dry, podunk Texas ville'. Better have one if you're coming to Texas, because over half the geographic area of this second largest state... is dry. (Of course, much of that "half" is unoccupied as well, but that's another post.)

We'll be leaving tomorrow, going south to Livingston, TX to Rainbow's End RV Park- the home park of the Escapees RV Club that we're members of. I may drive down to Gulf Greyhound Park south of Houston this weekend to shoot some greyhounds racing, at the request of one of this blog's readers. That will be new, too.

It's lambing season at Endgate, so how could I not close with an image of unbelieveable cuddly cuteness:
They're so much fun to watch... just like puppies.

"Longdogs With Pedigrees?"

Some people in the Southwest, (particularly those who regularly get beaten by them), consider the Galgo Espanol as just another "longdog" (or sighthound cross). I don't know where they get these outlandish ideas!


That's right; one of these is a Galgo, and one isn't. Have fun.

Changes.

Fighting blog burnout, I decided to play with the appearance of the blog; (Margaret said the sidebar was looking "cluttered".) Moved some links down to what is now known as the "Blogroll/Links" area, and repositioned the counter and tipjar.. Yes! the TipJar is still here! For what it's worth. Also removed the Backwards Bush clock until we get closer to a more optimistic count... later in the year. It will be back!

I'll be deactivating the current poll, so if you know folks who haven't voted, send them on over. The next one will be in the sidebar, and might be more frivolous.

Look for a couple brief restaurant reviews coming up, and a report on the little GCA AKC trial yesterday. Also, maybe a picture of what we do when we're not shooting sighthounds, mountains, or birds.

Plinked a couple of geocaches earlier today in the cemetary down the hill from the ranch. That was fun, and took all of about 20 minutes.

More coming!

Pic of the Week

We took this last weekend at the Lone Star Whippet Club trial in Ferris, TX. You only wish your animals were this well trained, and behaved. I know we do.

We're hanging around for the Greyhound Club of America AKC trial, which is being held in conjunction with the club's southern specialty, then we'll probably go up to Boswell, OK for a NOTRA this weekend. That will put an end to our "Southern Strategy", as we'll begin the long, torturous swing back to the north, going first, to the AKC trials in Wichita, and then to ASFA trials in Belvidere, Illinois. Hope Spring will be following us.

Looming just ahead, of course, is Randir's big moment at the Scottish Deerhound Club of America's national specialty. Margaret's designing a special Shot On Site T-Shirt for the show ring. There will be no sneak previews... but we'll post it up here after the specialty.