Brownwood, TX is now home to the farmer’s camper. We are being blessed by this beautiful camp and are on a new SOWER assignment for the month of March. This first week has not been normal. We left home on March 1 and overnighted in Blair, OK at a very nice city park with camper hookups. About midnight we received a call from our niece that her dad had made the transition home to heaven. This was not unexpected as we knew that he was struggling. Brother Jim was ten years older than the farmer. The farmer is the little brother of the family and now he is the only brother.

We quickly decided to get the camper moved to the campground where we could set up for the month of March and then take the pickup and head home for the funeral and family gatherings. We were grateful that we were only nine to ten hours from home. The celebration of his life was wonderful and we had a good time visiting with family. The farmer’s youngest sister really put fear in his heart though, when she told him that now he was the only brother to keep the three sisters in line. You could just see the concern on his face. However, his oldest sister informed him that he would NOT be bossing her around at all! She is the one that would dress him in little dresses when he was a baby.

Our first week at Heart of Texas was spent traveling. We arrived back Wednesday afternoon. On Thursday we went to work. The camp director asked me to help with Policy and Procedure Manuals in the office. I really enjoyed getting to do that kind of work again. The farmer worked on preparing a site for cement and made some forms.

There are two other couples working with us here. One couple stayed overnight at our place last May. We so enjoyed having a meal with them and getting acquainted and now we are delighted to get to work with them this month. They were brand new to SOWERS when they were at our house last May but now have several places of work under their belts.

The couple that are our leaders are a very nice couple and have worked here at Heart of Texas for several months. They are familiar with the camp and the wonderful staff here. It fills our hearts with joy to be able to work with such a special team in this place.

The men have several projects going on. They are remodeling one of the boys’ residence halls, putting cement at the zip-line, installing some plumbing and the list goes on. The ladies are cleaning and organizing.

Some youth groups were here this weekend raking, painting and moving bunk beds. They were a busy bunch. It almost got to 90 degrees here and they worked hard. In the afternoon I saw them with towels in hand head to the lake. They were on a dead run to plunge into that water. I don’t imagine the water was all that warm since the temperatures had been in the 50’s earlier this week. It was a delight to hear them work, laugh and play. They had a bonfire in the evening and the sounds of joy and laughter rang through the camp.

Insert pic of painting

Just up the road is a beautiful pecan grove. It is called Pecan Grove Farms and they have 1,150 acres of mature trees adjoining Lake Brownwood. They have other Pecan farms in other areas also. The trees here have not yet leafed but I’m hoping that by the end of March they might be getting close to blooming. Pecan groves fascinate me as my great uncle had a pecan grove on his farm in Oklahoma.

If planted in the correct location, you can expect nuts in eight to ten years. Be aware though that the crop yield is not the same every year. Pecan trees alternate with a heavy crop one year followed by a light year.

“What is paradise, but, a garden, an orchard of trees and herbs, full of pleasure and nothing there but delights.”
-William Lawson

That’s a recap of the first week in Brownwood, IN A NUTSHELL! Sorry, I just couldn’t resist the pun.