Saturday, April 24, 2010

Texas Blue Bonnets and Rustling Green Wheat Waves

Take a lovely drive from Buffalo Gap, the first seat of Taylor County,
down Hwy 89 and you'll find....
Buffalo Gap Cemetery.....
Tom Perini's family built the lovely prayer chapel that sits amid masses of our
beloved Texas Blue Bonnets
An angel watches serenely as the fragrance of the blue ocean caress your senses and bring you
and exquisite peace..... and the assurance that this life is NOT the end.
This year... the green waves rustle softly in our late April breezes...
They offer hope of a great harvest of the soon to be golden wheat fields along Lemons Gap Road.
Come see us this Spring and get ready...
there's a feast for your senses in our little Jim Ned Valley!

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Jim Ned Chamber of Commerce Spring Banquet

The Homeplace of Tuscola again hosts the annual Spring JNChamber of Commerce Banquet.

Beautiful surroundings welcome a large group to enjoy the evening and celebrate the
recipients of this year's awards.
Impromptu musical entertainment and friendly mingling begin the night.
Fred Glover, president to the Chamber, along with Genny Abercrombie and Grace Broyles
do a wonderful job in presenting the plaques to the great 2010 award winners.
Col. Ehrie from the Abilene Industrial Foundation is the keynote speaker for the evening.
Then all the awards are presented.
Each school has a representative...
The Business of the year...
and our two yearly scholarship recipients....
It was a perfect night for great friends and fellowship in our
wonderful Jim Ned valley community.







..... as we say good night, we all know,
a good time was had by all!

T-ball and Little League 2010 begins!

Summer sports begin..... Dad's helping the little Jim Ned Indians T-ball
Moms, brothers, sisters, grandparents and friends all gather for the seasonal ritual
of the beginning of summer baseball....
As the evenings warm, the grass turns green and
the familiar crack of the bats can be heard right behind the high school gym.
How many years has this been done?
Learning the rules of the game,
Dads and boys.... and a few little ladies in pink batting helmets.
LOVE THIS SEASON!
LOVE OUR little INDIANS!

Friday, April 9, 2010

Hawks and wildflowers

Blue bonnet time again!!! After our winter rains (so abundant this year) we have these
beauties everywhere! Can't wait for the ones across from the BarBQue barn to bloom!
Take a bicycle trip down Lemons Gap Road... you'll have to stop to smell the flowers...
GRAPE JELLY FLOWERS that is!
These are just between Buffalo Gap and Lemons Gap.

.... and if you drive to the West... What a treat we will have in store all season long!
This lovely lady is allowing us a clear view of her nursery!
perhaps she doesn't appreciate being spied upon:)
but it will be fun to watching this magnificent Redtail Hawk bring up her babies...
I'm betting on a pair.
How bout you?
Nothing like the beautiful raptors in flight!

I'm thankful for a country life where this is what we are allowed to see EVERY DAY!
God's country... that's with what I'm thinking we've been blessed!

Easter Parades, baseball, and softball the JIM NED INDIAN WAY!... SPRING 2010 is here!

Spring is all about signing up for summer leagues...
talking it over coach to coach!
Hamburgers from Lucy's or Vickie's
... and the traditional RABIES CLINIC!!!! better get it done folks!
after our very very wet Winter, Rabies will certainly be an issue this year!
Whether you get your burgers at one of the local "joints", or at the game...
GO OUT AND SUPPORT OUR INDIANS!
Only in a place like our little JN Valley can you watch the game in the saddle!
Buffalo Gap 8th annual Easter Parade...
the girls made their Easter Bonnets and the boys made woven Easter baskets.
They entered to the memorable strains of "In Your Easter Bonnet"...
arm in arm, they were truly lovely ladies and gentlemen:)
Jim Ned entered 8 softball teams this year in the Abilene South League.
Way to go girls!
It doesn't matter what color shirt you may wear in the summer leagues...
You will always be JIM NED RED and BLUE... through and through!
Our girl's softball is doing quite well with a very young group of girls! Go INDIANS!

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Colt McCoy is a winner in our Jim Ned Valley hearts!

*The above picture was taken by the Abilene Reporter News when Colt played for Jim Ned High School*
**The following is from an e-mail about our local man and reveals the inspirational person that will no doubt encourage HEROES of all ages in the fact that God's plans are always bigger than man's... and even if it appears that things are not going your way, GOD IS THE ONE WHO makes the plans and designs our lives for HIS purposes....
COLT.... you make us proud!!! (even if some of us "bleed" maroon and white...:)**

Colt McCoy: a national champion
with or without the crystal trophy


By Dr. Scott Elliott / guest columnist

January 10, 2010 12:19 am

- "For I know the plans I have for you. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you hope and a future."
--JER. 29-11

With apologies to our understandably proud and jubilant Crimson Tide faithful, the University of Alabama, to me, wasn't the biggest winner in Thursday night's BCS national championship football game.
That distinction went to a young man from Tuscola, Texas, named Colt McCoy.
Colt McCoy! Are you crazy, you say?
Yes, Colt McCoy, the Longhorns' All-American quarterback who suffered an injury on the game's opening drive, knocking him out of the remainder of the contest. The same Colt McCoy who won more games as a starting quarterback than anyone in the history of NCAA Division I football.
Yet, you may ask, how in the world can you argue that Colt McCoy was the game's biggest winner? After all, he hardly even played.
In reply, I would reference the young man's post-game interview before millions upon millions of people who watched the nationally-televised matchup. The reporter asked McCoy, "How did you feel, watching the game from the sidelines?"
Smarting from a shoulder injury that numbed his cannon-like throwing arm after being hit by Alabama's Marcell Dareus, McCoy kind of gazed up in the night sky, cleared his throat a couple of times trying to fight back emotion, and couldn't really respond for five or six seconds. Finally, the recipient of the prestigious Maxwell Award acknowledged that "it was unfortunate that I didn't get to play" and that he "would have given everything I had to be out there with my teammates." He then congratulated Alabama and later called the Tide "a tremendous football team."
But what he said next was the real clincher. Still makes me a little misty-eyed. He told the interviewer, "I always give God the glory. I never question why things happen the way they do. I know God is in control of my life, and I also know, if nothing else, that I'm standing on the rock."
Now, folks, let's think about the profound nature of that response. Here's a kid who always seemed destined to play in that national championship game. My goodness, with a name like Colt McCoy, he was born to be the gunslinging quarterback of the fabled Burnt Orange. His entire experience playing junior high, high school, and college football had been vested toward Thursday night, Jan. 7, 2010, in Pasadena, California's Rose Bowl.
And he got to play one ill-fated series. One.
Now, the 6-2, 210-pound Heisman finalist completed over 70 percent of his passes and threw for 112 touchdowns and 13,253 yards in his storied college career. Just phenomenal. Those accomplishments aside, in his post-game interview, the Longhorn quarterback hurled the most important scoring pass of his life - a real "Hail, Mary," if there ever was one. Despite his obvious and deep disappointment, Colt McCoy came through like a true champion for his God, giving praise and thanks even in bitter defeat. Notwithstanding religion, he taught the nation a lesson in class and humility.
You know, as all of us progress through this life, we experience what some call "defining moments." It's those crossroads episodes that establish, for good or bad, whatever legacy we leave on this Earth. Most of us will never have a national television audience, like Colt McCoy, when our defining moments come, but I have a feeling, in God's eyes, that a street corner ministering to just one other human being might do.
Colt McCoy may never become a star in the National Football League, although I suspect he will. Nonetheless, in this age of professional athletes having well-publicized extra-marital affairs, brandishing guns in locker rooms, lying to grand juries, and using performance-enhancing drugs, Colt McCoy is a star on a stage far transcending any football field. No, he never got to hold that coveted crystal trophy, but Thursday night he made a resounding statement to the youth of America about what it really means to be a winner.
And I know God will continue to bless him for that.

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Steve Crouse