One reason for our trip to Texas was to deliver those goats, but the other was of course to visit with my daughter and her family (husband and grandkids).

The first morning we were there, after getting the goats settled, we went for a walk. Two friends had spent the night with the grandkids so we all went out. The view above is what it looks like when you turn out of Katie’s driveway. The property to the right in the photo is their across-the-road neighbor. The last time I visiting there were cattle in the field, but the property has sold since then.

The new owner has brought in “exotics” which I now know is fairly common in Texas. Katie tells me that this person used to work for someone who had what amounted to his own personal zoo and now he is following suit. Most of the animals were far off while we were there but I was able to get a few photos and later zoom in—zebras and wildebeest in this photo.

I had to ask Katie what some of these animals are. Here is an aoudad, an African animal related to wild goats. According to an on-line encyclopedia: “It is considered vulnerable to extinction in all its natural range, where only scattered, small populations survive. Introduced to the southwestern United States and northern Mexico for hunting purposes, it has established thriving populations there, where it outcompetes indigenous ungulates such as desert bighorn sheep. “

The addax is native to the Sahara Desert. Wikipedia says, “The addax is a critically endangered secies of antelope, as classified by the IUCN [International Union for Conservation of Nature]. Although extremely rare in its native habitat due to unregulated hunting, it is quite common in captivity.”

The springbok is another antelope and is the national animal of its native South Africa.

The kudu is a large antelope, also native to Africa.

Donkeys at another neighbor’s place wanted attention unlike the exotic wildlife.

Later that day we went to the Guadalupe River to do an easy walk and let the kids play in the water. The bald cypress are fascinating trees with huge woody growths at the base known as “knees”.

The Guadalupe River is dammed to create Canyon Lake.

There were plenty of rocks and bugs to keep the kids interested.

I am always looking for interesting plants. This is buttonbush, a plant I first identified a few year’s ago along Katie’s road.

This is a walk up the road the other direction from Katie’s driveway.

The kids like to play on these rocks.

That neighbor with the antelopes has other animals in the exotic category. I had to zoom in here and I didn’t get a better look to try and identify this animal. I don’t know what apes or monkeys these are but they are quite noisy at times. It is the oddest thing to be outside in the Texas hills and hear sounds that are reminiscent of being at the zoo.

I spent a couple of hours each afternoon watching the kids in the pool while Katie and Dan worked on the goat pen. I claim success at teaching Kirby to float with her face in the water. It was the best $100 Katie every spent when she got this pool for the kids from someone who was moving.

Imported mammals aren’t the only odd animals around. While the kids were playing in the pool I found this critter and later identified it as an Ironclad Beetle

I went with Katie when she had to run an errand, and we stopped to meet Kurtis at the Fischer Store. I remember stopping here before when it was open.