About Williamson County, TX

I've mentioned from time to time that my husband and I are active in Travis County Search and Rescue. You can read more about them at tcsar.org We are called out when there is a need for specially trained individuals to search for missing people whether it is on land, or in water. Many of the members have trained dogs that deploy as air scent dogs or in sad situations, cadaver dogs.

We decided to search for a dog of our own and we think we have her. Her name is Stryker and she is a one year old Dutch Shepherd. That is an offshoot of the German Shepherd Breed. Stryker's primary function will be to train for search and rescue operations, and her secondary function will be as our pet. She is a very strong little lady and she has chewed through 6 indestructible toys and one tennis shoe of mine. Meet Stryker, Isn't she beautiful?

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HAPPY THANKSGIVING..........Here is a recipe I thought you might like for the holidays. It's my husband's favorite and he passed it on to me.


Ingredients:

1 whole turkey

1 large lemon, cut into halves
salt and pepper to taste
butter or olive oil, whichever you prefer
Heat oven to 350 degrees

Rub butter or oil over the skin of the turkey until it is completely coated.
Sprinkle with salt and pepper and any other seasonings you prefer.

Take a knife and gently separate the skin from the breast meat;
Slide lemon halves under the skin with the peel side up, one on
each side. This way the juice from the lemon will release into the breasts
Cover and bake for 30-45 minutes. Remove cover and continue

to roast until juices run clear, basting every 15-20 minutes

If you've followed these steps correctly, your turkey should

look like the one in the picture below. I wonder why he likes this recipe so much?

Bon Appetit!

My office is in Cedar Park, Texas and I live just outside the city in Leander, Texas. Cedar Park is a popular place to live, work, go to school or raise a family. It is located just 17 miles from the heart of downtown Austin, Cedar Park offers all the amenities of a major metropolitan area but is far enough away to offer a relaxed life style. One of the advantages of living in Cedar Park and central Texas is that there is just so much to do and so much to enjoy. The community schools are part of the "recognized" Leander Independent School District. Approximately 58,000 people live in Cedar Park which is located in Williamson County. Cedar Park and Williamson Counties are one of the fastest growing areas in Texas.

One of the things we did when we first moved here was to ride the Austin Steam Train. It is located just down the street on Route 1431. It was an escape from the 21st Century and we got to experience what it must have been like riding the railroad in the 1930's. You can visit their website at www.austinsteamtrain.org

For those of you who don't know me, I love following the weather. The climate of the Austin area brought me here. I was told that there were 4 seasons here and they were Summer, Feels like Summer, Almost Summer and Christmas.

Climate and Environment

Austin is located on the Colorado River where the stream crosses the Balcones escarpment, separating the Texas Hill Country from the Blackland Praires to the east. Within the City of Austin, elevations range from 400 to 1,000 feet above sea level. The climate is classified as “humid subtropical” meaning it gets pretty hot here in the summers. Mild weather prevails during most of the winter. When it gets around freezing strange things happen here in Austin. Schools close, businesses' open late, and people generally don't know how to drive on ice. The cold snaps are short and don't last for more than a day or two. We've been in drought situation for a few years now, and there are still water restrictions in place. This means that you can only water your lawn on one or two days a week.

Local up-to-date weather reports online: Leander Weather is maintained by me! I have a Davis Weather Station that transmits into the house and through the magic of the internet and software called Virtual Weather Station, I have a website up about weather in my back yard. So far the dog has not tried to eat it.

http://www.LeanderWeather.com
www.news8austin.com/content/weather
www.fox7.com
www.kvue.com
www.keyetv.com/weather
www.kxan.com
www.weather.com

On the Community Impact Newspaper for Leander, there was a front page article entitled "Changes in TOD zoning to allow more flexibility in land use." Since I didn't understand what TOD meant I went to the city's website and found the following information:

What is the Transit Oriented Development (TOD)….