Lots of BLF'ers from Texas...

Greetings BLF. This is my first post even though i’ve lurked from a far. I’m from San Marcos, Texas and happy to finally join. I know the basics so far on flashlights, but no where close to where i want to one day be. Currently only have a small collection of 10 lights. Glad to have such wealth and knowledge here to grow our addiction.

Happy to be on board! :+1:

-TXG

Welcome Sir! 10 lights is a good start!!! TL

long time ago one of my first introductions with texas &cowboymovies :+1:

lt’s uplifting to read posts that show pride of homeplace. :+1: :beer:

I’m oddly honored that my silly little post regarding my observation of the apparent Hotspot of the flashlight world (who’d have expected TX to claim that crown?) encouraged you to switch from lurker to poster! Next step: contributor!

Welcome!

Being a Texan I guess I am required to check in. Representing Garland. :slight_smile:

Hi Michael,

I’m glad to see you around here in BLF!

From Rural Lindale. Weapon of choice is a sharp machete on the front porch, to keep the copperheads at bay (1st confirmed kill 1-1/2 weeks ago, slithering bastards). Flashlights are a survival tool here.

You just right down the road from me Etex. Big city of Lovelady here.

That was total sarcasm for those who don’t know the town…Population of about 600 here……lol

Hey Etex ! I only ask because East Texas is known to have huge cut ant populations… Any problems with cut ants in your area? They are killin us down south.

There was an ant bait available some years back that REALLY WORKED! (Volcano) but then all of a sudden the company could not get EPA approval. Sounds about right with anything to do with government right?…LOL

Just thought you East Texans might have come up with an alternative for these bastards cut ants that mow your shrubbery over night. Take Care fellow Texan…… :+1:

ETA: have only seen couple copperheads down here in my life time. And one coral snake when i was a kid in my own front yard of carpet grass.

I don’t know because I’ve never tried, but will a snake fluoresce under UV light the same way a scorpion will?

Cut Ants: I think those depend on the soil. For a couple of years, we lived on the other side of Henderson, where the dirt was extremely dry/fine/sandy. In addition to the hundreds of scorpions we had there(Hunting Scorpions with a UV light!), we did have a large nest of the ants on the edge of our property. They didn’t actually cause any issues and kept their activity to the adjacent woods. I’ve been told (don’t know if it’s true) that they will keep the fire ant population down; the fire ants are a MUCH bigger nuisance in this area.

Copperheads under UV: Nope. In fact, practically invisible.

Copperheads are all over in this area, but I see very few of them. Unless they are causing issues, or where they can hurt us or our pets, I’m happy to let them live to keep the vermin population down. Last week, with the first of the warm weather, I came home to find our cat playing with this little guy:

Not sure where he had found and killed the baby copperhead, but we didn’t find any others around the area.

I wasn’t familiar with cut ants, till mentioned here, but haven’t seen much of that damage. Definitely got fire ants, though. Soil is a red sandy type.

We have 10+ acres with 7 acres wooded. Lots of leaves for the copperheads to blend in with. Their nocturnal, see them mostly after sunset til midnight. All our dogs have been bitten, one big dog multiple times, but he is a vicious snake killing machine, grabs em and shakes them to pieces.

Recent light purchases have helped me spot ’em easier.

Pendleton is closest for me (if in fact it can still be called a town, Troy otherwise), and yes, fire ants are a major issue here as well. More likely to see a rattlesnake than a copperhead, plenty of rat snakes as well. Skunks are the big night time issue where a flashlight can keep you from wandering too close. These guys are aggressive! They’ll chase you down to spray you! I like enough throw to see em well in advance, enough flood to catch movement in the peripheral area as well. Spotted 3 in one night walking the trash down. Busy little critturs! The foxes stay back, but don’t necessarily run away. The coyotes are gone in a flash once they figure out it’s a human wielding the sun…

We used to have a lot of scorpions and horny toads, the fire ant population has pretty much wiped those out, along with the quail.

I do miss the quail. Even here in East Texas, I remember hearing the “Bob-White” all the time as a child. I haven’t heard any quail here in probably 25-30 years. Last year, we went on a classic car tour to Abilene and visited Fort Chadbourne: Fort Chadbourne - Wikipedia

It turned out to be a fascinating place to visit, and I highly recommend you stop if you are ever in the area.

While walking the fort grounds, I heard the first quail ever since my childhood and it was an awesome memory…

My childhood roughly coincided with the arrival of fire ants in the NE Texas area. I learned don’t jump in leaf piles, watch were you stand, etc. at an early age… :frowning:

Wow. I didn’t know the fire ants would run off the quail. For 20+ years, we have fed the birds and bunnies twice daily at our place. We have two covies of quail, 1 of about 20 Blues and the other about 16 Bob White. Until 4 years ago, up here on top of the caprock, we never had Bob White. I guess the drought drove them up here. At about 6 PM every day…rain, sleet, snow, sunshine, they appear like magic waiting for their evening treat. If I am busy and my shop door is open… the Blues will gather at the threshold looking inside. I’ll try to get a picture of that. We get the neighbor down the road to feed them when we are gone. Wouldn’t want that big Blue that is half the size of a full grown chicken to miss a meal!!! :wink: TL

Just wondering, y’all eat Frito Pie? Seems hereabouts it’s a base but not widely known in some other parts of the world. Man that was staple food during football games and basketball tournaments when I was a kid! Just had some Wolf Chili on hot dogs with Frito Pie on the side for lunch. Mmmmmmmm! :smiley:

Gotta mow, it’s 88º and Spring is springing up all over the place!

Who doesn’t eat Frito pie? It’s probably extremely NOT Texan of me but I don’t really care for chili. Unless it’s over a bowl of Fritos, with some shredded cheese over the top…

Having a chili cookoff? “I’ll bring the Fritos!” :stuck_out_tongue:

So when I had my first real exposure to non-Texan cultures, I learned that a lot (a majority, in my annecdotal experience) of people - non-Texan people - think that the “signature” food of Texas is chili!

Shock and horror!

Every Texan knows the answer is brisket. Yeah, chili cookoffs are fun and good chili is good (went to Chilifest annually while I was at TAMU), but brisket is life.

But yes, frito pie is good, we had it for dinner last week.

Brisket all the way, but I don’t stop there… :smiling_imp:

I’ve got a “small” propane smoker I use frequently. It would hold about three briskets, but the most I’ve ever cooked at once is two.

I always watch the sales at the Grocery store and get what I can find on sale.

Pork Roast, Ribs, Chicken Thighs, Turkey, etc… All in the smoker! It doesn’t matter what it is: Some Lawry’s on it, and in it goes:

Always goes over very well, whatever occasion I’m cooking for.

On the subject:
Another thing we have here in Texas is HEB grocery stores:

It is a Texas-based chain. They are much more popular further South and West, but I live close enough to Carthage, which has the most North-Eastern HEB I’m aware of. It’s a very small old-fashioned grocery store, but they have excellent products and selection, all while staying very competitively priced. I know it’s just a grocery store, but I get excited talking about it… We plan our weekly shopping trip around the weekly HEB sale flyer. Love their meats, steaks, pre-packaged fajita meat, store-brand sodas, produce, just about everything about the place. :heart_eyes: