This post is long overdue following my trip to Texas two weeks ago and Part 2 . Now I am well into lambing and need to move onto sheep photos, but I do want to finish the Texas trip—regular readers know that this blog serves as my scrapbook.

The day after our trip to the Capitol we drove to Purgatory Creek Natural Area near San Marcos and chose a trail to explore.

Josie and Alice came with us.

It is early to expect a lot of flowers, but the agarita was notable.

Back at the house, these are Katie’s goats. The three bigger goats are those that we delivered from here in 2021. The other white and brown goats are the kids born in 2022. The black one is a young buck that Kurtis just picked up the day before. Katie had ordered a marking harness to go with the buck and this is what happened overnight.

Kurtis is now the owner of a longhorn cow. She and her calf share the property with the goats.

Walking up the road with the kids. This is the edge of their property.

These cattle live up the hill and across the road.

Kirby pointed out fossils in the rocks along the road.

There aren’t many flowers yet, but this one stood out. Kirby was given a wildflower poster at the Capitol Visitor Center the day before and we identified the Huisache Daisy.

Sunset from the house.

We drove the kids to school the morning I had to leave and on the way back saw what I thought was an interesting phenomenon. This is a cactus growing out of a tree. Did a bird leave a cactus fruit there?

This photo seems out of place, but I took it at the Austin airport. I always enjoy seeing the displays they put up. This display had art from local schools. I took this photo because I thought that Katie might want to add this to her repertoire of craft ideas for the kids—a clever use of clothespins.

Circling to land at the Sacramento Airport, I had a view of the mountains that I see from our place to the west.