Texas Hardwood Hunting

Yesterday we drove an hour and a half west of Denton to acreage owned by a friend of ours who Suzanne plays bridge with.  She is the fifth generation to own the ranch with two siblings.  From what I saw, the 100+ acres contain four cows and a good number of operating oil wells.  The place is called Rattlesnake Ranch and the hill that rises above the road and cabin is Rattlesnake Mountain.  Her great-grandfather was going to call it Fossil Hill because of the many sedimentary rocks that contain Permian sea-floor fossils, but decided that Rattlesnake Mountain would be less inviting to unwanted visitors.

We were invited out so that I could collect dead mesquite and oak logs to make lumber out of for shop projects.  Most of the property is covered with woods and rocks - many quite large (both trees and rocks).  There are a good number of dead trees, as there generally is in a mature stand of trees.  Some recently dead and still solid; some long fallen over and rotting.  Her boyfriend (she is widowed) got out the chain saw and cut up the logs that I thought would be useful and I loaded them into the Expedition.

After loading enough logs to keep me occupied for years to come, we had lunch under mature oaks surrounding the cabin, picked up some fossil rocks and headed home with our treasures..