December 29th, 2011
This is Passport to Texas
Life in rural 1850s Texas wasn’t the simple existence you might imagine. There wasn’t a grocery store or drive through fast food restaurant on every corner. Eating… was an exercise in long-range planning.
11—One part of being a farmer, not only is growing what you’re going to need to eat today, or tomorrow or the day after. But you’re projecting ahead, maybe six months or a year.
Barb King is a park interpreter at Barrington Living History Farm at Washington-on-the-Brazos. The farm belonged to Anson Jones, the last president of the Republic of Texas. Yet, being president didn’t mean Jones was on easy-street.
23—Even for this family, which is upper middle class, they’re still worried about survival on a more intimate basis than we are. You know, just even getting hot water is a chore, not only in hauling, but then you have to heat it up. So, all the daily chores that we have today, required and a lot more forethought—as well as just physical labor. Men, women and children—everybody was working towards family survival.
Dispatching livestock and then curing the meat for use throughout the year was a chore that rural Texas families performed during cold months, because they lacked mechanical refrigeration. Next month visitors to Barrington Living History Farm have an opportunity to witness parts of that process.
02—We get a lot of interest in this event.
And if you’re interested, we’ll have details tomorrow.
For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.
Posted in Historic Sites | Comments Off on Early Texas Farm Life
December 28th, 2011
This is Passport to Texas
You’ll have a chance beginning with the New Year to help support state parks when you register your vehicle at the DMV. Bryan Frazier explains.
60—Starting January first, people can donate five dollars or more to benefit state parks when they register their vehicle with the department of motor vehicles in Texas.
The form that they get and send back into their county tax office, they can just fill in the amount right the on the form. This is a new opportunity given to us by the Texas Legislature to help fill some gaps in our revenue situation.
Is there an amount that we’re looking to make up?
It’s about one point six million for each year that this fund needs to bring in order to meet what the legislature has given us to do.
Where on the form will you find the place to make the donation?
It’s down toward the bottom; it’s just a line item. The website is texasstateparks.org/help. And you can find out a little more about the program—the history of it. This is new this year set up by the Texas legislature as an opportunity for us to make some of our budget money for this operating biennium.
That’s our show for today…with funding provided by Chevrolet, supporting outdoor recreation in Texas; because there’s life to be done.
For Texas Parks and Wildlife I’m Cecilia Nasti.
Posted in State Parks | Comments Off on State Parks and Vehicle Registration
December 27th, 2011
This is Passport to Texas
For entities like Texas Parks and Wildlife magazine, it’s already the New Year. Editor Louie Bond tells us about some great reading to start your year off right.
It’s hard to believe it’s 2012 already, but we like to celebrate the New Year with some really great reads.
In January, it’s kind of cold—even in Texas—and people like to sit next to the fire and read a great story. And Russell Graves is providing one of the best this month. He’s what I like to call a triple threat. He makes great films, he takes incredible photography, and he’s such a lyrical writer. And this month he’s going to take a look at his part of the state—the Red River area—and talk about the history and the people and the culture of the red River.
And I think our readers will really love curling up by the fire with it.
Two other stories we’re going to feature from two of our other best writers…E. Dan Klepper shares a journey down in alligator country, and Kat Hunter will share her experiences participating in the E-Rock duathlon, which is a bike race and run up Enchanted Rock. So, when you’re ready to get out and start exercising this spring, you can take that as some great motivation.
Texas Parks and Wildlife magazine is on newsstands now.
That’s our show for today…we record the series at The Block House in Austin…Joel Block engineers our program…For Texas Parks and Wildlife I’m Cecilia Nasti.
Posted in TPW Mag | Comments Off on TPW Magazine January / February Preview
December 26th, 2011
This is Passport to Texas
We have something in common with early Texans.
06—Christmas and the month of December—in large part—was the time when Texans gathered.
Cynthia Brandimarte is program director for Texas historic sites. Unlike today when a short trip by car or plane will get us to our holiday destination, travel was difficult for early Texans.
09—And so when you traveled, you tended to stay. People had time at Christmas to do that—to travel and spend weeks.
Which makes the few days that most of us get off at Christmas seem like a rip off. And early Texans made good use of this block of time.
08—It was then that they celebrated not only Christmas, but other special events, and planned weddings for the month of December.
Since Texas was mostly rural in the 19th and early 20th Centuries, and there wasn’t a lot of farming that could happen in December…
15—It almost gave 19th Century and early 20th Century rural Texans an excuse not to work. And thus to play a bit more, and socialize a bit more, than they had time to do many other months of the year.
For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.
Posted in Historic Sites | Comments Off on Time off in 19th and Early 20th Century Texas
December 23rd, 2011
This is Passport to Texas
Texas game Wardens live in the communities they serve, and their success hinges on developing good relationships with residents. This month on the TPW TV Series, producer Ron Kabele introduces viewers to game warden Shawn Hervey. And in his case…good relationships begin at home.
Well, Shawn is a game warden up in Texarkana. And the thing that he’s really known for in the community is taking a lot of the local kids out hunting. And a lot of these kids, they’ve never been exposed to nature or they’ve never seen a deer, or they have no concept of what stewardship is.
If you teach a kid from the start the right way, you’re not going to have problems.
I was doing an interview with him, and his young son was there, and the thing that I remember was the son said something to Shawn and he said:
My Dad Inspires me.
It was just so out of the blue that he said that. And when you think about that, if a son thinks that, and is able to verbalize that, what is that game warden doing to the community? And that’s really what Shawn does—he inspires people.
This segment airs the week of December 25 on PBS stations in Texas. Check your local listings.
For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti
Posted in Game Wardens, TPWD TV | Comments Off on TPW TV Inspiring Family and Community
Passport to Texas is a 
Passport to Texas is made available by: