On LCRA, "Local" Eminent Domain, and Old Time Politicians

Unless you have not been paying attention to our Facebook site, which I could not blame you for lately, you know that we have found ourselves in what may shape into a battle of eminent domain with one of our Texas utilities, the Lower Colorado River Authority. This has been an eye opening experience for us and, without beating a dead horse, I would like to share my thoughts on what has transpired and what may transpire.

When I was a kid I learned about eminent domain. The city of Denton, where I grew up, condemned some land through a cemetery to make a small two lane road into a major boulevard. We kids, of course, were intrigued. What happened to those bodies that were buried in the right of way?

Since then, as a lawyer, I have dealt with eminent domain issues now and then. I was involved in high stakes litigation with a failed savings and loan, a would-be developer, and a bunch of guys who wore chains but no socks in the early 1990s over something called the Playa del Rio at the confluence of the Rio Grande River and the Gulf of Mexico. Our case was turned upside down when Ann Richards, then Governor of Texas, wrote a handwritten note to then VP Al Gore that led to the Federal Government taking the property and flipping the beaches to the State of Texas.

When we moved to the farm in Fredericksburg, we thought again some about eminent domain. The road that passes our house has become a short-cut from highway to highway. Would the county condemn part of our garden to widen the road, we wondered?

What we are faced with now was beyond our possible anticipations: a state utility, LCRA, threatens to surround our back 200 acres, and then bisect it, to deliver wind power (really?) to folks in Austin and San Antonio. They want to plant 165 lattice towers all over our farm.

Now, it has struck me. Isn't the public good that eminent domain is supposed to be used for supposed to be local? Aren't the folks who sacrifice also supposed to be at least theoretical beneficiaries of the taking? Is land supposed to be taken in one place purely for the benefit of other folks, far away, and with no common interests? This is not eminent domain as I first learned about it -- taking land in the local cemetery for widening a road. This is the kind of issue that has divided politics in another urban-rural state, New York, for years. My surprise is that it is happening in Texas. It shows what I have feared; that despite all of our "cowboy" inclinations and rhetoric, we have become a state in which rural interests are only there to be exploited by urban interests. This is not the Texas I know, and not one I want to live in.

So on to local County government. People in town that I respect say that the City and County are just down the street from one another and fifty years apart. At no time has that been more evident to me than today, at a meeting of our County Commissioners, the utility ("LCRA"), and the regulator (our state's Public Utility Commission). Our elected representatives were not informed on these issues, were old, stale, and no match for the shiny happy people sent by the utility and the regulator. What's worse, the members of the public who managed to find out about this meeting (which was deliberately "kept quiet") were much more informed than were our County reps. Now, I can understand why our County officials were not quite up to speed; they are arguing with the City about how much the City should be paid for lost trees that must be cut down for the airport here to resume night landing status. But, notwithstanding that, it was embarrassing to witness our County officials to be taken to task by the low level bureaucrats that the utility and the regulator sent to the meeting and the general public.

So here we are, informed citizens, left to our own devices in the biggest fight of our lives over thousands of citizen's land, while the County officials try to get up to speed in their spare time while arguing with the City over the price of trees. So inspiring. Maybe we would be better off if our local government would just get out of the way and let us talk to the powers that be. if you are just taking up space, get out of the way!

And that's the news from the Hill Country, where are the women are strong, the men are good looking, and the powers that be want to surround us with an industrial electrical farm.

February 2010 Newlsetter, Talk of the Farm

Our February newsletter, Talk of the Farm, is now out in cyberspace.

Here is the link: http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs054/1102894903317/archive/1102923601017.html.

Just copy and paste into your browser. And please subscribe if you enjoy it!

Tom

Winter/Spring Planting -- Seed and Plant Resources: Agarita Creek Farms, Farming and Farm-Stay Cabin Accommodations in Fredericksburg, Texas

Well, it is the season for seed catalogs in preparation for Spring. Several of our friends have asked us who we order from. This season we have Ordered from the following companies so far:

Seeds of Change, www.seedsofchange.com (assorted heirloom/organic vegetable seeds. We love their selection of summer and winter squashes particularly, as well as eggplant, radishes, and tomatillos. Great greens mixes as well.

Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, www.southernexposure.com. These folks have hard to find heirloom seeds from seed savers across the south. We find varieties of beans there that we find nowhere else, as well as heirloom summer and winter squashes.

Willhite Seed, www.willhiteseed.com. Another great source for salad greens and other vegetables. They are a Texas company, and there seeds seem particularly acclimated to our region. We do not grow many hybrids, but we do fall hard for some of their hybrid squashes.

Harris Seeds, www.harrisseeds.com. A larger seed house, used by lots of growers throughout the country. Like others, they have a vast collection of greens and greens mixes. Like Willhite, they have some great hybrid squashes that we continue to buy.

Peaceful Valley, www.groworganic.com. The Neiman-Marcus of seed stores. They have a great variety of fruit trees, and we have found that the trees arrive a little larger and in a little better condition than the other fruit tree providers we have purchased from. They also tend to be grafted on to root stock that does better in the South and West than that sold by suppliers further north. We planted ten new ones this winter. We shall see how they do.


Dixondale Farms, wwww.dixondalefarms.com. We used to buy onions all over the place, but we learned that a lot of them were coming from Dixondale Farms. In keeping with our philosophy, we now cut out the middleman and buy directly from Dixondale. Great selection.

Ronniger Potato Farms LLC, www.ronnigers.com. Ronnigers is to potatoes what Dixondale is to onions. From Colorado they supply a great many of the middlemen you can more easily find. They have a huge selection of heirloom colored tomatoes and fingerlings, and our farmer's market customers crave them. They are simply awesome.

Gourmet Garlic, www.gourmetgarlic.com. A Texas company that like Dixondale and Ronnigers produces much of what is sold to gardeners in the U.S. by others. A huge variety, and a very informative website, including strong recommendations about what to plant in each area of the country. Garlic is planted in the South in October and November, but be sure to remember them next year. We are growing ten different Southern garlics this season, and they have all come up and seem to be doing well.

A cautionary note. Most of the seed sellers you have heard of are not on this list for a reason. There is nothing wrong with them, we just have a strong bias that they have a strong Northeastern bias. The information in their catalogs, and most of the seeds they sell, are meant from gardeners in Zone 7 or North. We urge you to consider the smaller Southern and Western sources we have listed, among others. We hope this helps.

To find out what works for you, check the website of the ag extension office where you are. Texas A & M has pages on its website that recommend varieties for fruits and vegetables, as well as planting dates, for almost anything that you might want to plant (unless you tend to push the envelope just for fun, as I and some others like to do).

You may notice that there are no tomatoes or pepper sources listed. This is because we do not have a greenhouse yet (although that is only weeks away), and these seeds need to be started now in the winter. There are many great suppliers of heirloom tomato and pepper seeds out there, some of which are listed here. We have had success using starting seeds in June for fall tomatoes and peppers outdoors in a protected area (we use a side yard), gradually exposing them to more sun, and moving them to larger containers, as the seedlings mature. We plant fall tomato and pepper plants in late July or early August, and of course baby them until Labor Day. The effort is worth it. If you have gardened in Texas or the South for long, you know that the fall production exceeds that of the summer. There is simply less heat, humidity, and bugs. For Spring tomatoes and peppers, we by plants from others. In Houston, we recommend Another Place in Time. They generally have plants in late February or early March. With tomatoes, if you live in our part of the world you will find the small to medium size tomatoes do well here. The larger beefsteak tomatoes require too long to do well here -- they are trying to ripen in the worst of our summer heat. An exception is the Russian tomatoes and Cherokee Purple. The most prolific tomato we grow is Yellow Pear. We grow only open pollinated and indeterminate tomatoes. In milder summers, we are able to cut them back, bury a few branches, and cut them away from the main plant to form separate plants for the fall. This worked well in 2007, when we had plenty of rain; not so well in 2008 and 2009 when we were in drought.

We try to answer all questions that come our way, to the best of our ability. When we have questions we go to the books or to the Texas Organic Farmer's and Gardener's Association. We are linked to TOFGA through our Facebook site. There annual meeting is the last weekend in January in San Marcos. Their workshop, for all levels of gardeners, is March 11 and 12. We will be there, and encourage those of you in Texas to join TOFGA and to come out as well. They are also doing a series of visits to farms who are getting it right, with the first such visit being to a farm in Brenham from 11 to 2 on January 16, in conjunction with Slow Food Austin. All of this information is on TOFGA's website and Facebook page.

Happy planting, and we hope to see you soon.


Tom
Agarita Creek Farms
Fredericksburg, Texas
http://www.agaritacreek.com/

January 2010 Newsletter -- "The Talk of the Farm" from Agarita Creek Farms, Fredericksburg, Texas

Our January 2010 Newsletter, "The Talk of the Farm" is out. You can access it through the following link. Happy reading. Hopefully I will be able to figure out how to link it directly to the blog by the next issue.

Thanks for your support,


Tom

Winter Specials at Agarita Creek Farms -- Fredericksburg, Texas

With the cold weather comes hot savings for guests of the farm. For any stay at Agarita Creek Farms through February 28, 2010 we will be running two specials, which can be combined. We are offering weekend stays for weekday rates. You will be able to rent the Behrends cabin for only $175 per night, weekend or weekday, and the Brautigam cabin for only $195 for night. The rates have already been changed on the reservations page on our website. So come to our beautiful Texas Hill Country and stay whenever you want, and pay our lowest, off peak, rates.


In addition, we are offering a third night free with any paid two night stay. This offer can be combined with our weekday rates for weekend stays promotion to save you even more money. As a result, a three day stay at the Braeutigam cabin will be only $390 ($130 per night); a three day stay at the Behrends cabin will be only $350 ($116.67 per night). This is a deal that simply cannot be beat.


In March, with Spring Break and the wildflower season (which will be fabulous because of all of the fall and winter rain), the specials will end and the rates will go back up. But even then there is a way to save. Fans of the Farm on Facebook always save 10 percent off standard rates. So, if you are planning a trip later in the year make sure that you have become a fan of the Farm on Facebook.


Bev and I are always happy to hear from you. If you have any questions for us, be sure to drop us a line.




Bev and Tom Carnes

Agarita Creek Farms
Fredericksburg, Texas
830.896.9140

beverly@agaritacreek.com

http://www.agaritacreek.com/

Happy Holidays from Agarita Creek Farm, Bev and Tom

Make a Smilebox greeting

Holiday Reflections from Agarita Creek Farms and Beverly and Tom Carnes

As we reflect on the opportunities that we have encountered through the challenges of the past year, and as we hope for a better and brighter new year, we are struck that everyone is facing challenges. Everyone has their struggles, and this year has been extremely challenging for most everyone.




As we embarked on this lifestyle change in 2008, before the economy collapsed, we were hopeful. We were moving to a place we wanted to move, for a lifestyle change we really wanted. As to the economics, we had good jobs and practices, good credit, a great house for sale in a great location, and the ability to sell additional land at the farm if we needed too. Our assumption were that all of these things would hold, and that everything would work out fine.


Then the assumptions upon which we had based our plans began to become unraveled. Hurricane Ike ravaged our Houston house just before it went on the market. Then the economy, and the real estate market collapsed. Suddenly, we found ourselves unable to sell the house, and had to hold it. With the economic collapse, people tightened their belts, and did not travel as much, so the assumptions we had about occupancy of our tourist cabins also did not pan out, even though they were very conservative. Bev has her job, and I have my practice, but the practice, albeit it busy, has to struggle with collection issues from our clients like never before -- as everyone else feels the economic pressure that we feel. This is but one story; ours. As we said at the beginning there are as many stories as there are people.


And so, as Dolly Parton would say, it is a hard candy Christmas or, to borrow another phrase, these are the "salad days." And as difficult as that is, we can and should find joy in the midst of all of this uncertainty this holiday season.


For us, we have one another, our farm, our animals. We get to live where we choose, and do what we choose. Surely we can rent that house, if we cannot quickly sell it. Surely we can cut back, here and there, and get back on top of our finances. As we look ahead to the New Year, we are probably all thinking of ways that we can retake control over our lives. I know that we are.


But maybe we can set some of that aside, just for a week or so, and thank God for what we still have, rather than stew so much about what we are going to do because of what we no longer have. At bottom, the Christmas season is not really about fancy, expensive presents, fancy parties, and luxury. It is a time to be with people we love, and to tell them that we love them. It is a time to reflect on miracles -- not only the miracle of miracles that is the reason for the holiday in the first instance, but the miracles that still happen every day, right here, where each of us live. There is no more humble beginning that the story of a boy king born in a stable to unwed parents. Out of what must have seemed like a mess can world and life changing miracles. Of of our own current difficulties can come miracles as well, internally and externally.


As we go through this season we will cling to one another, try to keep the other's chin up, enjoy the presence of family, and generally do a lot of trying to make our own fun. We are farmers and ranchers so we will be well feed, from what we grow and raise. We will take joy in sharing our abundance, the only abundance we have right now, with others that we know and some who we do not know. We will do simply things, like doing chores together and perhaps making soap or canning something. We will focus on the things that matter most, and only the things we can control. We cannot fix the economy, even for ourselves, over a Christmas holiday. That should and will have to wait for another day. Not now; it is Christmas.


May the peace of the Lord and the true spirit of Christmas infect your heart this season, so that you experience these things in such abundance that you cannot help but share them. Show a stranger some kindness. Help someone in need. Be good to those around you. Spread around what you have, don't worry about what you don't have. Through kindness and compassion you, and all of us, can all make a difference, and make someone else's load just a little lighter. Giving is certainly selfless, but also provides great returns. It is when we give, especially of ourselves, that we experience the greatest joy.


What comes next? Well, none of us know. Will it get easier in the coming year, or will it stay the same or get even harder? We certainly cannot say. We hope that things will get better and easier for all of us. But, at the same time, we are grateful for the life lessons that have been literally forced on us during the past year. We have been forced to do with less, to struggle more, and to cherish the real things we have that the economy cannot sweep away. We hold dear our friends, our family, and the simple joys of everyday life. We hope that in your adversity, you have found the same reflection and, through reflection, peace and a new joy. If you have not done so yet, that is what we wish for you this holiday season. If you have found it, we hope that it sustains you and you continue to find it in abundance this holiday and throughout the new year.


God bless each of you this holiday season,



Bev and Tom