Dear neighbors,

You've seen the kid at the market table. Cardboard sign, cash box, a sales pitch that wobbles until the third customer buys. Every town on this page has one, and this week's paper is about what that kid grows into when we pay attention. Also about what leaves town when we don't.

The Venture Fest is on my mind because student registration opened this week. One October evening, the Odeon stage in Mason, students from all over these hills pitching real ideas to real judges. You know the what by now. The fair question, the one sitting under all my carrying-on, is why a newsletter keeps banging the drum for a school-night pitch contest.

Because our towns don't shrink out of spite. They shrink because a seventeen-year-old can't yet picture a life being built here, and by the time she can, she's signed a lease in Austin. Show her at twelve that her idea stands up on a real stage, in front of the banker and the shop owner and a room full of clapping neighbors, and you've changed the math she does at seventeen. The feature lays out the whole case. I'll just say I believe it to my boots.

If there's a young person in your life with an idea and a little nerve, the registration form takes about five minutes, and the link sits right in the feature. Seats are first come, first served, and reservations close August 28.

The rest of the porch is full this week too: rodeo in Junction, Katie Shore on the Odeon stage, a free movie night, and the Gillespie County Fair to close out the month. And Koda is still waiting on his person, which I refuse to accept.

With love and steady hands,
Katie Milton Jordan, Editor
[email protected] | 325-475-4991

Storytime – Pre-K | Thu, Aug 6, 10 a.m. | Llano Library, 102 E Haynie St, Llano.

Llano River Golf Course Thursday Night Scramble | Thu, Aug 6, 5:30 p.m. | Llano River Golf Course, Llano.

First Fridays | Fri, Aug 7, 4–7 p.m. | Robert Clay Vineyards, Mason. A casual first-Friday evening of wine and good company.

Ranching & Technology Program | Fri, Aug 7, 8 a.m.–2 p.m. | Lyssy & Eckel, 105 E Young St, Llano.

"Pressure" at the Odeon | Fri–Mon, Aug 7–10, 7 p.m. | Odeon Theater, Mason. The D-Day gamble on the big screen; $4, cash only.

Mark Scott (live music) | Fri, Aug 7, 7 p.m. | Joe's Bar, 107 W Main, Llano.

Volunteer-led Star Party | Sat, Aug 8, 9:15 p.m. | South Llano River State Park, Junction. Dark-sky viewing with the park's volunteers.

Matt Hilton & Joe Forlini (live music) | Sat, Aug 8, 7 p.m. | Joe's Bar, Llano.

Preschooler Adventure Land | Mon, Aug 10, 9 a.m. | Llano Library, Llano.

Bingo Night at Murphy Creek Cellars | Tue, Aug 11, 5:30 p.m. | Murphy Creek Cellars, Mason. Wine, bingo, and prizes.

Chris Knight, with Rich O'Toole | Fri, Aug 14, doors 6:30 p.m. (show 8) | The Arcadia Live, Kerrville. One of America's flintiest songwriters on the Arcadia stage.

Summer Classic Pro Rodeo & Parade | Fri–Sat, Aug 14–15 | Hill Country Fairgrounds, Junction. Rodeo both nights at 7 (gates 6); the parade rolls down Main on Saturday at 10 a.m.

Farmers & Crafters Market on the Square | Sat, Aug 15, 9 a.m.–1 p.m. | Llano Courthouse Square.

Fort Mason Golf Association Annual Fundraiser | Sat, Aug 15 (scramble 1 p.m., dinner 6) | Fort Mason Golf Course, Mason.

Analog Film Photography — Opening Reception | Sat, Aug 15, 6:30–8 p.m. | Llano Fine Art Gallery, 503 Bessemer, Llano.

Katie Shore at the Odeon | Sat, Aug 15, 7 p.m. (doors 6:15) | Odeon Theater, Mason. $25 advance / $30 door — the Asleep at the Wheel fiddler on Mason's grand old stage.

FREE Classic Movie Night: "Raiders of the Lost Ark" | Wed, Aug 19, 7 p.m. | Odeon Theater, Mason. Free admission — come in costume if the spirit moves you.

Blood Drive @ Lutie Watkins Methodist Church | Thu, Aug 20, 1–6 p.m. | Lutie Watkins Methodist Church, Llano. Sponsored by Llano Cowboy Church.

Junk in the Trunk | Sat, Aug 22, 8 a.m.–noon | Llano Courthouse Square.

Llano Chamber Business After Hours & 40th Anniversary | Tue, Aug 25, 5:15 p.m. | Llano Smiles Dental Center. Everyone welcome.

Heart of Texas Honky Tonk | Wed–Sat, Aug 26–29 | Brady Civic Center, Brady. A week of dance-hall legends — Justin Trevino, Jake Hooker & the Outsiders, Jody Nix, and more.

Q3 Chamber Mixer | Thu, Aug 27, 4:30–6 p.m. | Parr Vineyard & Cellars, Mason.

138th Gillespie County Fair | Thu–Sun, Aug 27–30 | Gillespie County Fairgrounds, Fredericksburg. The oldest continuously running county fair in Texas — parade down Main Friday at 10 a.m., pari-mutuel racing over the weekend.

Cars & Coffee | Sat, Aug 29, 9–11 a.m. | Historic Railyard District, Llano.

Where things stand this week.

The land keeps recovering. A month past the floods, the long dry spell has eased. Statewide drought sits near 22%, down from roughly a third of the state in early July, and the water is put away: Lake Buchanan reached 99.4% full and Lake Travis 100% this past week, with the rivers settling back toward normal. The relief is real and so was the cost; this page carries both. Practical note: a few low-water crossings are just reopening, so give any flooded crossing a wide berth and check before you travel.

At the sale barn. Two markets pulling opposite ways. At San Angelo's July 30 cattle sale, calves sold another $5–10 lower, the second straight week down, with heavy calves off as much as $15. Slaughter cows went the other direction, firming $2 higher on strong demand ($146–164/cwt, tops to $177). Small stock kept climbing: at the July 28 sheep and goat sale, slaughter lambs and kid goats each ran $10–15 higher again, with kids mostly $3.56–3.79 a pound.

For the ag community. New World screwworm is now confirmed in 70 Texas counties. Stay current on precautions and keep your county AgriLife office on speed dial. Pasture mealybug is still cutting into forage. The flood-hay warning stands: bales that sat in standing water can grow mold and mycotoxins, so don't feed them even if they look fine. On fire: Mason County is under a burn ban this week; Llano County's has been lifted. Confirm your own county before you strike a match.

And one for the future. The feature this week argues that the kid with the good idea is a market indicator too. In a region deciding what it rebuilds toward, she might be the leading one.

📖 FEATURED STORY

Registration for the fall Venture Fest opened this week. Before you file that under school news, run the numbers with us: a pitch contest for kids may be the strongest economic-development program a rural county can get, and this one doesn't cost the county a dime.

Rural Texas keeps its own books, and there's one line item nobody reads out loud at commissioners court: the young people who go. Not the ones who leave for school and circle back. The ones who leave after graduation and put down roots somewhere with an interstate, taking along the business they'd have opened on the square, the payroll they'd have signed here, and the kids they'd have raised on the same courthouse lawn that raised them.

No slogan fixes that. What fixes it, one kid at a time, is proof, delivered early and close to home, that a good idea can stand up right here. Supplying that proof is the whole business of the Hill Country Venture Fest.

Students from every small town within about ninety miles — grades 3 through 12, public school, private, homeschool, 4-H, FFA — take the Odeon stage in Mason and pitch a real idea to real judges. Entry is free. Attending is free. And it is not a tech contest: past pitches have covered livestock, lemonade, lawn care, and yes, some software. The festival was named the 2025 Texas Venture Fest of the Year this spring and honored at the State Capitol. This is Year Four, the festival has grown each year, and it now sits inside a statewide network of more than fifteen city festivals.

Ask any rancher about raising up what you'll one day depend on. You keep the good heifer. You plant the pecan tree you won't sit under for twenty years. You take on the apprentice who's all thumbs in June because he'll be worth his wage by fall. A pitch night works the same soil. The fourteen-year-old learning to price a job this October is the one signing a commercial lease on the square in 2036 and hiring two neighbors in 2038.

There's a dollars case too. Money a local business earns tends to get spent again locally, at the feed store, the cafe, the bank. Money a kid earns in Dallas stays in Dallas. Teach a hundred students a year that starting something is a thing people do here, and a county quietly grows its own tax base. Economists call it building local entrepreneurial capacity. You can just call it keeping our own.

When a nervous kid finishes her pitch at the Odeon, the judges looking back at her are the banker who may someday read her loan application, the shop owner who might give her a first job, the rancher who remembers starting from nothing. She walks off that stage into the same room she'll build her life in. A metro incubator can offer capital and coworking space. It cannot offer four hundred people who know her grandmother. That advantage belongs to rural Texas outright, and the Venture Fest is built on it.

If a young person in your life has an idea and a little nerve, register them now:

The full rundown — how the evening works, reserving a seat, sponsor and judge slots for businesses — lives at hillcountryventurefest.com:

One caution on timing: the Odeon is a small house, seats go first come, first served, and reservations close August 28.

Register a kid, reserve a seat, or put your business's name behind the night. October 1 will come fast.

Numbers first. Counties across Texas pay economic-development consultants real money to answer one question: how do we keep our young people? You can buy a better answer for the price of one October evening. Sponsor the Venture Fest, sit as a judge, or register a promising kid, and your business gets remembered by the exact people who'll be choosing where to bank, buy, and build in ten years. Goodwill earned that young outlasts any ad you'll ever run. This week: register a young person at https://forms.gle/fQNzeZBCWaikbByf9, and if you run a business, claim a sponsor or judge slot at hillcountryventurefest.com before reservations close Aug 28.

Cattle and small stock parted ways again this week, so don't run last month's playbook. Calves sold another $5 to $10 lower at San Angelo, second week down, heavy calves off as much as $15, so the "hold 'em and sell 'em heavy" plan needs a hard look. Slaughter cows firmed up and demand's strong, so cull cows are moving well. Sheep and goats stayed hot, lambs and kids each $10 to $15 higher again; if you run small stock, that window's still open, so know what your animals are worth before they hit the trailer. Two standing warnings: don't feed hay that sat in floodwater, and Mason County's under a burn ban this week even though Llano's lifted. This week: re-price your small stock against last week's sale, walk your hay, and check your own county's burn status before you drag a chain.

This week's topic: "Is it foolish to want my kid to stay?"

Honey, wanting your girl close isn't selfish, it's just love with an address. But don't hang the whole thing on her staying or going, because that's a trap that'll break your heart either way. The real gift is making sure she knows this place is a choice, not a consolation prize. Too many bright kids leave because nobody ever showed them you could build something real right here. So show her. Take her to the Venture Fest this fall. Introduce her to the woman who runs the feed store and the fellow who started a welding shop out of his daddy's barn. Let her see, with her own eyes, that ambition and a hometown aren't opposites. Then whatever she picks, she picks it free, and free is the only way she'll ever come home glad.

Name the fear first: you're afraid that being proud of her requires losing her. It doesn't. Rural families got sold the idea that success has a zip code, and the premise is wrong. Success is work that matters, done among people who know your name, and a person can build that here as surely as anywhere. So aim past "stay." Aim for equipped. Give her the skills and the confidence to make it anywhere, and home becomes a live option instead of a fallback. The kids who leave carrying a toolkit are the ones who come back at thirty to raise their own. Hold her loosely, and hand her the tools.

Got a question for Hazel Mae & Fern? Send it in — we'll put the kettle on. [email protected]

Notes from the porch swing: fair season is on us — rodeo in Junction, the Honky Tonk in Brady, the big one in Fredericksburg to close the month. What the old hands know about entry forms, prize tomatoes, and midway nerve. Here's yours.

Aries (Mar 21 – Apr 19)
You want the ribbon and you want it today, but fair season belongs to whoever filled out the entry form back in June. This week, do the unglamorous early paperwork on something you want this fall. Future you collects the prize and thanks you quietly.

Taurus (Apr 20 – May 20)
The prize tomato doesn't hurry, and neither do you. Somebody this week will call your steadiness slow. Let them. Between now and the fair, daily water beats the last-minute miracle in every category that matters, and you know that better than anyone in the county.

Gemini (May 21 – Jun 20)
You could talk to every soul on the midway and remember all their names. Use it: somebody you know is looking for exactly what somebody else you know is selling. Make the introduction this week and take no credit. Word gets around anyway.

Cancer (Jun 21 – Jul 22)
You're the one who brings the folding chairs, the sunscreen, and the extra sandwiches, and nobody notices until they need them. This week, let somebody take care of you for a change. Sit in the shade you're always carrying for everyone else.

Leo (Jul 23 – Aug 22)
Your birthday month, your midway. But the acts folks remember aren't the loudest; they're the ones that made the crowd feel like the show. This week, put your shine on somebody else's moment and watch what comes back to you doubled.

Virgo (Aug 23 – Sep 22)
The judges use a checklist, and you could have written it. This week, run that eye over your own work before anyone else sees it, then stop at one pass. Perfect is a moving target. Entered is a ribbon you can actually win.

Libra (Sep 23 – Oct 22)
Every fair needs a judge people trust, and that's you, fair-minded to a fault. This week, someone will push you to pick a side before you're ready. Take your time in the tasting. A verdict worth trusting is worth waiting on.

Scorpio (Oct 23 – Nov 21)
You keep your recipe secret, and fair enough, that's how blue ribbons stay won. But this week, share one ingredient with someone coming up behind you. The mystery survives, and the friendship you get for it outlasts the ribbon by decades.

Sagittarius (Nov 22 – Dec 21)
The midway was built for you: every game, every ride, one funnel cake too many. This week, bring along somebody who never goes. Half your luck has always been plain enthusiasm, and it's catching. Go spend it on a homebody.

Capricorn (Dec 22 – Jan 19)
You've won enough ribbons to know exactly which shelf they sit on. This week, remember why you entered the first one. Do a piece of work for the joy of doing it right, no scoreboard, no ledger. That's the version of you people bet on.

Aquarius (Jan 20 – Feb 18)
Every fair has one entry nobody saw coming, and the judges talk about it for years. That's your lane. This week, submit the odd idea as-is instead of sanding it down to normal. Categories exist to be outgrown, and somebody has to go first.

Pisces (Feb 19 – Mar 20)
You can tell which kid at the livestock show is about to cry before they can. That radar is needed this week: somebody near you is wearing a brave face over a real worry. Ask twice. The second ask is the one that works.

Until next week — enter early, water daily, and if you win the ribbon, wear it lightly.

📧 Email: [email protected]
📞 Phone: 325-347-6929
🏥 Rescue: Second Chance – Mason Animal Rescue

We can't believe cute little Koda hasn't found his forever home yet. He's watched the rest of his crew get adopted one by one, and this good boy deserves the same happy ending.

Koda is a one-year-old Chihuahua mix with a friendly, outgoing personality. He loves a good walk, a lap to snuggle in, and a couch to hold down while you work through your Netflix queue. He does well with other dogs, and he's up to date on all his vet work, so he's ready to go the day you are.

Want to come play with him? Call Second Chance at 325-347-6929 or email [email protected] to schedule a playdate. Fair warning: playdates with Koda have a way of turning into adoptions.

Photo by Suzanne Demaree

If this edition moved you even a little — forward it to a parent of a bright kid, or to a business owner who'd make a great judge this fall.

📬 [email protected] | 325-475-4991

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Editor's note: All listings verified and current for the August 6, 2026 edition of The Townie. Some river-park programs may still shift during recovery — call ahead. The Hill Country Venture Fest's media partner is The Townie; everything else is our own.