Tricia Jumonville, EcoBroker®, ASP®

Labor Day means different things to different people. Officially, it is the day set aside to honor all of those who labor, without whose work we wouldn't have the society we do today. Everyone is supposed to relax from their labors (except the folks in the stores, presumably, for the Labor Day Sales), have a cookout, a picnic, go out on the lake, etc.

Labor Day, in Texas, also has become synonymous as well with the First Day of Dove Season, falling as it does on or near the first of September, opening day.

This morning I went out on the porch and heard the pop! pop! pop! of shotguns that will be a familiar sound between now and the end of the season. The dove population is high this year, we've been noticing, the drought not withstanding. Should be good hunting and good eating for those partaking in this annual ritual that goes back into the mists of time.

Some folks who move to the country without doing their homework and with no familiarity with these customs, their first September 1 panic at the popping sound of guns on adjoining properties. (This doesn't sound anything like the gunfire you hear in the movies or on television, by the way.) I usually advise that, if they're concerned about injury to themselves or their livestock as a result, that they first check the county records for the number of people (not actual hunters) who have been injured by gunshot wounds as a result of dove hunting in the country over the past, oh, 50 years or so. These are, after all, shotguns that are being used. Such research serves as reassurance. Likewise with the claim that their horses will panic at the sound of gunfire. Well, no, they won't, not unless YOU panic and they follow your lead. Mine don't even look up from the Very Important Business of Grazing, when dove hunting is going on in the pastures to the right and left of them. Neither do the cattle that are grazing in those pastures.

Even if you don't participate yourself, try to enjoy the sound, at dawn and dusk, of an historical country tradition - your neighbors hunting in a time-honored tradition.

During all of the hooplah and media coverage of Hurricane Gustav, I've been more than usually interested in every detail. My daughter Jess will be moving to the Cayman Islands for 3 months mid-September, and her friend Chad will be there as well (more about this in another blog). My son P.J., with his lady, Nicole, is supposed to be spending a 3 day weekend in mid-September in New Orleans. In addition, hurricanes in the Gulf can impact Central Texas, not only in weather, but in folks evacuating from coastal areas and needing shelter from the storm for them and their animals. Naturally, I followed Gustav's path and development with some concern.

To that end, I turned to my preferred internet weather information provider, wunderground. I had not realized before, since I generally use wunderground to track local storms, that it has its own set of blogs having to do with the weather. Over the past few days, I've been following Jeff Masters' blog predominantly - it's a great combination of technical information and down to earth, what-does-this-really-mean, plain English explanations of what's going on. Plus, he adds comments from folks who are on the ground in the impacted areas, which REALLY helps. It's a great resource.

He's got me hooked. When weather of a major import strikes again, you can be sure I'll be heading to wunderblogs, more than the mainstream media, to get the facts. Blogging strikes again!

With Gustav bearing down on the coast, and evacuations in progress, one of the major problems is finding stabling for those whose evacuees include their equine family members. A lot of arrangements are made on a one on one basis, or on equine lists at YahooGroups and such. However, the Horze Gazette has a wonderful resource, their Emergency Layup Directory, which lists facilities and individuals who have space for evacuated horses.

Please, spread the word on this one. It's terrifying to be running from a storm with horses, even worse to not know where you're going to be able to keep them until you can return home.

If you're able to take in extra horses in an emergency situation (which means, of course, being able to quarantine them in some fashion from your own), by all means let the Horse Gazette know. It's one way we can help those who are in harm's way.

We love to talk on here about the beauties of our communities, the parks, the businesses, the homes. We introduce you to the pretty side of where we live, and that's as it should be.

However, when moving into a community, there are some things that are not so pretty, that are more mundane, that need to be addresses.

One of these is garbaged. Just imagine what would happen if there was no one to deal with this issue!

We own the remnants of the old family farm in East Texas (my grandfather's parents bought it when he was 3 months old), and I've seen what can happen when people don't have anything to do with their garbage, or don't care to haul their own garbage to the dump and pay the small fee for doing so. It's not pretty. Imagine a pretty babbling brook, covered by a small bridge. Now, imagine that brook full of household garbage, including an old mattress, that someone stopped on the bridge and dumped because they didn't want to drive the few miles to the county dump. I've seen that, on our own land, by presumed neighbors who drove through and trashed our place.

This is a concern, especially when moving to the country from the city. I remember when we moved from Austin to our little ranch outside of Jarrell, I had no idea who would pick up the garbage and how that would be arranged. Fortunately, our agent was on top of things and provided us with this information.

In our area, Clawson Disposal is the answer. For about the cost we paid in the city, or a little bit less, they pick up garbage not only in Jarrell but in the surrounding countryside and in other communities. We can put out up to five cans full of garbage each week. In addition, I've put out a rusted out BBQ that was left here when we bought the place, old heaters, etc. - they take them away and deal with them for us, something that we had to wait for that one or two days a year to deal with in the city.

Locally owned and operated, they are active in the community, including providing dumpsters for the once a year day set up for folks to clean up their community and get rid of large garbage. They help with other community festivities and problems - they're part of our community.

Isn't this lovely blue trash can preferable to the photo above right?

Driving home, I heard "Houses in the Field", by John Gorka, on the radio,and I got to thinking about songs about house and home, and songs that mention house or home, and thought I'd make a list.

If I knew that a song had been recorded by multiple artists, I wrote in who wrote it rather than all of the performers. If it's predominantly associated with one artist, but written by someone else, I tried to find and note that, as well.

Houses in the Field, John Gorka

House of the Rising Sun, The Animals

Pink Houses, John Cougar Mellencamp

Little Boxes, Pete Seeger (written by Malvina Reynolds)

Home on the Range (written by Dr. Brewster Higley)

Our House, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young

Burning Down the House, Talking Heads

A House Is Not A Home (written by Luther Vandross)

When A House Is Not A Home, Willie Nelson (written by Roger Miller)

Step Inside This House, Lyle Lovett

The House Is Rockin’, Stevie Ray Vaughan

Home Sweet Home, Motley Crue

Country House, Blur

Houses on the Hill, Whiskeytown

Two of Us, Beatles

Green Green Grass of Home (written by Claude “Curly” Putnam, Jr.)

There have to be a lot more on, or mentioning, this topic, so dear to our hearts. If you know of any that are not on this brief list, please, mention them in the comments and I'll add them to the list above. I'd love to have a very comprehensive list. (I'm about to start working on a similar list about Horses In Song - will post that here when I have enough to get started with.)