The Rocking Chair Ranch

The Rocking Chair Ranch.  After having visited this 100 acre ranch in the Hill Country of Texas, I think an appropriate rename would be The Rockin' Ranch because Jack and Linda are Rock Stars!  You'll be reading how "isolated" and "beautifully rugged" the ranch is, and it is!  But that didn't slow Linda down in the kitchen at all.  She has got to be one of the best cooks ever.  I really believe (and I do believe in reincarnation) that she was a restauranteur in her former life.  At the ranch, just as on the island, she cooks as if unexpected company was going to drop it.  and by unexpected company - I mean like an enitre COMPANY from the Army.
Here's a view of The Rocking Chair Ranch House from the road leading to it.  Actually the picture below is essentially the view of the house their "next door" neighbors have.

Yes, there is a house there - look for the white spec pretty much in the center of the picture.  See it?  From where the camera is, it's only about another mile.  And for the record, it's hardly a "spec".  The house is probably about 20' by 80' (not counting the porches and was transported to its perch from Del Rio, TX (~40 miles away) in one piece. 

The last few miles that house travelled have to be experienced to fully appreciate.  Here's the vehicle Jack and Linda have at The Ranch to navigate within the larger Bobcat Hollow Fossil Creek Ranch.  I didn't get a picture of it, but Jack also has a 6 wheel drive ATV which he uses within the confines of their place. 

The Ranch is at an elevation of approximately 2100' with the tallest hills in the area at about 2700'.  I have been to some very beautifully isolated areas' and The Ranch fits that description quite well.  On the way in you pass many rocky hills such as this one - cave and all.

When I say beautifully isolated, I mean exactly that.  The picture below is one of the views from their front porch.  The "road" you see is the driveway of one of their closest neighbors.  As dusk turns to darkness, the very faint lights of Del Rio can be seen looking in this direction

Jack and Linda built a wildlife feeder in their back yard - well, actually, it's their front yard.  You can see just the corner of it in the picture above.  The feeder attracts all manner of wildlife.  In the few days Becky and I were there we watched as many as 15 deer at one time, including an enormous 8 point buck, foxes, turkey, racoons, a skunk, of course squirrels and the one species we didn't see, but were "ready for" - Ferel Hogs.  Linda sent an email to Becky with some beautiful pictures of deer at the feeding station but for whatever the reason I cannot get them to post in my blog.   So just use your imagination for goodness sakes - can you see them now?  Yes, I know - they are beautiful.

Ready for.... here's what I mean by that.  Jack keeps a 30-30 on the back porch should a wild pig happen into the crosshairs of the scope on his rifle.  I did have a great picture of Becky steadying the rifle on her shoulder for me but she must have gotten to Kodak EZ Share and deleted it before I had a chance to include it. 

Another animal which the locals consider  "varmits" are the racoons in the area.  Now it's time for you to use your imagination again but this time all you have to do is follow the bouncing... err... the footprints to see one or two of them.

The weather was absolutely fantastic while we were there and sitting on that porch was absolutely my favorite activity.  Before the sun, during the sun, after the sun just sitting there drinking coffee, water, a brew or just drinking in the absolute silence, the rugged landscape in all directions - long sentence or not - all of it is breathtaking.  The bonus was the wildlife that would wonder silently into the feeder.   

I mean... think about it!  How would you like to have a "get away" place at the end of the driveway in the picture below?   And the porch above?  Sitting on the porch reminded me of when Becky and I were in Maine, I kiddingly referred to my two part time jobs... sitting and watching to make sure the tide went out and sitting and watching to make sure the tide came back in.  And on that porch, sometimes I sat and thought, and sometimes I just sat.

Speaking of sitting around... here are "The Boys" happily lounging inside during the only fairly hot day during our visit. They are "Harley and Merlin". Harley looks as though it is time to give up and go to sleep.

On one of "road hunting" trips in the Jeep we passed a wildlife well that the ranch owners in the area had drilled.  There are a number of these wind driven pump wells in the area which are critical to the wildlife during the mostly arid times of the year.

To be a bit more clear on these Road Hunting Trips, we jump in the Jeep with our handguns (so happened Jack and I both had 357 magnums) and drive the ranch roads looking for Ferel Hogs NOT the deer in the area.  As luck would have it, although the area is overrun with hogs, not a one showed themself.  It was a great experience none the less.

Near last but certainly far from least.... whatever new location I find myself in, I always gaze at the night skies to locate Polaris.  The North Star is a welcome friend of the night sky that helps me orient myself.  And looking in that general direction I was taken back a bit by the hazy, or "milky" view of the Galaxy.   Well, not the entire Milky Way of course, but regions of it.  I don't know how many of you have actually seen the galaxy, but I am here to tell you, if it doesn't give you a sense of isolation, you need to look a little closer.  At that time of night looking Northward I was actually seeing the spiral arm that good ole Earth is in and as I scanned towards the West, the "milk" was the furthest spiral arm out from the center of the galaxy.

Becky and I have retired to a very quiet, peaceful life, filled with the United States out our windows.  We've met some really great folks along the way, before and during.  Jack and Linda are counted in the "of the very best" category.  We could never repay them for their generosity and their friendship is very special to us.  Love ya guys! 

Deep in the Heart...

Becky and I landed in South Texas right at the 1st of November and will be preparing to leave on the 1st of December - it was a very quick month!  Before I forget... Happy Thanksgiving everyone... even our Canadian friends we've met here in South Texas.

So...South Texas....  if you've never been, what image of landscape comes to mind when you hear "South Texas"?   Flat lands, Prairies, The Bad Lands, Mexico, Cacti, Clay, Desserts or is it Deserts - never did learn the spelling of that word.  That word - meaning a really hot place with a rattlesnake behind every rock no trees no water - ya know - the stomping grounds of John Wayne, Roy Rodgers, Kit Carson, The Lone Ranger Hi Ho Hi Ho its off to work... oops, wrong jingle, and Gabby Hayes.

Speaking of John Wayne... I saw a Western on TV the other day.  Rock Hudson was in it and his role was that of an outlaw.  I'm surprised he wasn't wearing pedal pushers  instead of cowboy chaps.  I wonder if he had to run off stage to gargle after having stolen a kiss from the the Sheriff's captive daughter.  What the hell brought this up I'll never know but I wrote it under no particular duress so I will leave it where it is!

Where the heck was I?  Ahhh... South Texas!  Actually this part of South Texas is on the Gulf of Mexico with all the bays, "back lakes", rivers, deltas, and all the SEAFOOD they hold.  Like the oysters shown below.  There are so many oysters available that seafood mongers won't sell you a few dozen - you have to buy a burlap bag full of ''em - roughly 10 to 12 dozen.  As a side note, you can get a bag of them for about $27.00 - do the math folks, that's about 19 cents apiece.   

I was in the mood for oysters last week - that's when I found out that I couldn't buy 3 dozen.  I elected to pass on the peck (I'm sure "peck" isn't the proper unit of measurement for a bag of oysters but I think it's a pretty cool word) because I really wasn't in the mood for a shucking party.  Honestly...can you follow my "writing style"?  I try to avoid reading what I've written because it gives me a headache - it's like watching one of those movies where they bounce around between "present day", "4 days ago", "2 years into the future", "12 years ago"..... Gawd I hate that!  Maybe this is why my posts are so disjointed.  C'est La Vive - there goes the Canadian influence of this RV park.

OK OK... the oysters.  I was out wade fishing in a stretch of bay waters I had never fished before.  Wade fishing... I hope you don't think I was out fishing FOR wades.  Never heard of anyone fishing for them - they're just too damn tough.  I was out in water up to my butt which isn't all that deep if you know me.  Anyways I was using "live finger mullet" for bait - here we go again, a finger mullet is not a fish that looks like a finger.  Rather it indicates the size of the mullet - oddly the length of a finger and do not even start thinking which finger!   I won't go there.

After an hour of butt deep wading, and no tugs on my line, I got into an area with a sharp rocky bottom.  The water was pretty darn clear and I could see the "rocks" and picked one up.  Sure enough a OYSTER.  There were hundreds of them just laying there on the bottom.  I put my rod up on shore and let the bait do it's own thing while I went back out with a canvas bag and in 10 minutes filled it with 36 oysters.

As soon as I got home I opened one up and slurped it down.  Other than being bay water warm, it was very, VERY tasty.  I continued to rinse off the remaining oysters and put them in the fridge to get icy cold.  Last night I shucked half of them for supper - I just don't know how it could be any fresher than that and although there we slightly smaller than you might buy at a fish mongers', they were no less tasty, briny or juicy.

Now then, if you allowed your eyes to look at the picture below you might be confused.  NO!  The creatures in my hands are not South Texas Oysters... they are Blue Crab, cousins to Chesapeake Bay Crabs.  Actually, they are the same animal only instead of living in Chesapeake Bay, these guys lived in "Red fish Bay" in South Texas.

Blue Crap's are the second reason I love the Corpus Christi area of South Texas.  You can set crab traps (similar to lobster traps) out in the bays and back lakes areas as I did when we were living here full time or, you can buy them.  Buying them is a whole lot easier - these were about $1.50 each and were the largest Blue Crab I have ever seen.  If you have ever eaten this particular species of crab, you know it is a lot of work and if the crabs and on the small side, the work required to break into them increases exponentially.  I claim "writer's licence" - just as a poet would have "poetic licence".  Exponentially is certainly NOT the proper description but why not exaggerate.  I have writer's licence to do so.

Suffice to say these guys are unbelievably tasty - just douse them with Old Bay and steam them till they turn red, and then a little bit more.  Crack, crush, rip, tear em open and dip in white vinegar, open a bottle of your favorite ale and you are "good to go".  By the way.... you WILL end up with "paper (IE crab) cuts" on the fingers of one hand or the other so open each crab up with the same hand - if you get cuts on the fingers of both hands and you start dipping into the white vinegar - next time you  want to eat Blue Crab, you'll most like go to the super market and buy them already shelled and in one of those plastic tubs.  By the way, once you've had them fresh steamed, you'll never settle for one of those tubs of crab again.

And yes... I noticed the typo in the second paragraph above referring to them as "Blue Craps" - shit happens.  No pun intended!

Sacchetti's Sacchetti!

Well.... here's one I simply could not ignore.   But first, for those of you that don't know me by my [real] name... I am John Sacchetti.  And the picture immediately below is of Sacchetti & sausage.  The spelling and pronunciation of my name, and my meal at Olive Garden are both identical. 

Through the years I have introduced myself to a number of folks that, try as they may, could never quite get the pronunciation right and so I would revert to phonetics to help them through their bumbling tongues.  A few days ago we set the RV up in "The Palms" RV park in Aransas Pass, Texas - by the way, it's a really nice park, but that's another story.  I was introducing myself to my new next door neighbor and he thought out loud... sacchetti..... Sacchetti!  Like the pasta dish at Olive Garden?  With a name like Sacchetti I got accustomed to a plethora of Italian jokes - NOW, after 65 years I am  hearing laughter without the punchline. 

The picture above is of five Sacchettis';  Becky Sacchetti, Sandra Ann (and only I am allowed to call her Sammy) Sacchetti, Sacchetti & Shrimp, Sacchetti & Sausage and just plain ole Sacchetti!  Fact is, the Sacchetti is quite similar to regular ravioli, perhaps a bit less pasta, and a bit more cheese.  And true to its "roots", Sacchetti is shaped appropriately.

The name Sacchetti (and pardon my interpretation) is a derivation of the Italian word for "sack", or "sacco".  Earlier last century, the one before and who knows how many prior to that, the Sacchettis' were sack (bag) makers in the old country.  Just for the heck of it, I tested it on freetranslation.com.  The translation from Sacchetti (Italian) to English was bags.  The reverse translation from Sacchetti (English) to Italian was sack.

So just when you thought it was safe to go out to Olive Garden for a relaxing meal.... you'll see me on the menu - and like Mikey use to say... "try it, you'll like it!".