Dear neighbors,

Something happens the third week of August that no calendar quite catches. It's not that the heat breaks — it doesn't. It's not that school starts — that already happened. It's that the work changes. If you spent July watching your pastures and August watching your calves, sometime around now you start looking up at the pecan trees. The trees have been quietly doing their part all summer and now they're the ones that need watching. The land shifts gears; the people who work it shift gears; and the rest of us, if we're paying attention, notice the light coming in at a different angle in the afternoons.

This week's edition is about that turn.

The feature is a porch-length essay on what the harvest season actually demands — of the families out there getting ready for it, and by extension of the rest of us who get to eat what they grow. Not a portrait of one family. A portrait of what a working operation looks like right now, when the ledger is closing on summer and the ledger for fall is being pulled off the shelf. If you know a family this describes, forward it to them; they may recognize their August.

The porch itself is full this week. Fair season officially arrives — Heart of Texas Honky Tonk in Brady and the 138th Gillespie County Fair in Fredericksburg both open the same week, which is Hill Country dance-hall math working exactly the way it's supposed to. Before that, Saturday the twenty-second gives you Llano's whole square at once (Junk in the Trunk, Cars & Coffee, Spider-Man at the Lantex) and a state park ranger down in Junction talking geology at ten sharp. Pick your Saturday and do it well.

Two new things I want you to know about while the summer fruit is still worth eating: LoBoz in Eden just started a Sausage of the Week, and a home kitchen in Menard called Jays Candied Fruit is putting out chamoy pickles that will get you into trouble. Both are down in the middle of the paper. Both are worth the drive.

And the one that made the office happier than anything else all summer: Koda got adopted. We ran him twice; the third time isn't necessary. Home is home.

With warmth and a full pitcher,
Katie Milton Jordan, Editor

[email protected] | 325-475-4991

Events & Community

This week

Wilson Sharpening popup — Thu, Aug 20 · 10:00 AM–2:00 PM · Kneading Faith Sourdough, Mason. No appointment, from $5.

Blood Drive @ Lutie Watkins Methodist Church — Thu, Aug 20 · 1:00–6:00 PM · Llano. Walk-ins welcome; appointments through We Are Blood.

Community Blood Drive — Thu, Aug 20 · 1:00–6:00 PM · Marktplatz, Fredericksburg. South Texas Blood & Tissue.

Fredericksburg Farmers Market — Thu, Aug 20 · 4:00–7:00 PM · Marktplatz. Peaches wrapping up, tomatoes peaking.

Growing Fredericksburg Peaches — Master Gardener talk — Thu, Aug 20 · 5:30 PM · Llano County Library. Free.

Nick Dooley — Fri, Aug 21 · 7:00 PM · Joe's Bar, Llano.

"Spider-Man: Brand New Day" at the Odeon — Fri–Sun, Aug 21–23 & Thu, Aug 27 · 7:00 PM · Odeon Theater, Mason. $4, cash only.

"Spider-Man: Brand New Day" at the Lantex — Fri–Sun, Aug 21–23 · Lantex Theater, Llano. Fri & Sat 7:30 PM; Sun 2:00 PM matinee.

Junk in the Trunk — Sat, Aug 22 · 8:00 AM–noon · Llano Courthouse Square. Bring cash, come early.

Cars & Coffee (Courthouse Square) — Sat, Aug 22 · 8:00 AM–noon · Llano Courthouse Square.

"Respect the Rocks" — Park Ranger Talk — Sat, Aug 22 · 10:00–11:00 AM · South Llano River State Park, Junction. Free with park admission.

The Jody Proctor Band — Sat, Aug 22 · 7:00 PM · Joe's Bar, Llano.

Bingo Night at Murphy Creek Cellars — Tue, Aug 25 · 5:30 PM · Mason. Wine, bingo, prizes.

Puncherdome Ribbon Cutting — Wed, Aug 26 · 5:00 PM · Puncherdome (631 Fairgrounds Road), Mason. Public welcome — a ribbon cutting for the town's new football stadium, hosted by the Mason Chamber.

Worth planning ahead

Heart of Texas Honky Tonk Festival — Wed–Sat, Aug 26–29 · Brady Civic Center. Four nights of dance-hall royalty. $30/day.

138th Gillespie County Fair — Thu–Sun, Aug 27–30 · Gillespie County Fairgrounds, Fredericksburg. Oldest continuously running county fair in Texas. Racing, livestock, carnival, 42 (the Texas dominoes game) tournament, live music.

Gillespie County Fair Parade — Fri, Aug 28 · 10:00 AM · Main Street, Fredericksburg. Free, 200+ units, bring a lawn chair.

Gillespie County 4-H Leaders BBQ Lunch — Fri, Aug 28 · 11:00 AM–1:00 PM · Marktplatz, Fredericksburg. Scholarship fundraiser.

"Elijah Peel" at the Odeon — Fri–Mon, Aug 28–31 · 7:00 PM · Odeon Theater, Mason. $4, cash only.

Cars & Coffee (Historic Railyard) — Sat, Aug 29 · 9:00–11:00 AM · Historic Railyard District, Llano.

Fishing with a Ranger — Sat, Aug 29 · 9:00–10:00 AM · South Llano River State Park. Free kids' fishing lesson.

Binoculars 101 — Sat, Aug 29 · 2:30–3:30 PM · South Llano River State Park.

Family Free Day — Sat, Aug 29 · 10:00 AM–5:00 PM · Museum of Western Art, Kerrville.

Pari-mutuel Horse Racing (final weekend) — Sat–Sun, Aug 29–30 · Gillespie County Fairgrounds. Last two days of the season.

Iconic Film Series: "Ocean's Eleven" — Wed, Sept 2 · 7:00–9:00 PM · The Arcadia Live, Kerrville.

Llano Chamber Business After Hours & Ribbon Cutting — Wed, Sept 3 · 5:15 PM · Workforce Solutions Rural Capital, Llano. Open networking.

First Fridays — Fri, Sept 4 · 4:00–7:00 PM · Robert Clay Vineyards, Mason.

52nd World Championship BBQ Goat Cookoff — Fri–Sat, Sept 4–5 · Richards Park, Brady. Texas qualifier.

42nd Annual Doss VFD Fish Fry — Sat, Sept 5 · 4:30–7:00 PM · Doss Volunteer Fire Department. Live music by Off The Grid.

Farmers & Crafters Market on the Square — Sat, Sept 5 · 9:00 AM–1:00 PM · Llano.

Lake Buchanan Fish Fry — Sat, Sept 5 · 4:00–7:00 PM · Hill Country Hall, Kingsland.

Annual Kow Kick Arts Fair — Sat, Sept 5 · from noon · Schreiner Park, Junction.

Volunteer-led Star Party — Sat, Sept 5 · 8:45–9:45 PM · South Llano River State Park. Free astronomy program.

Hands-On Art Demo: Fused Glass with Jackie Cherico — Tue, Sept 8 · 10:00 AM–noon · Llano Fine Art Gallery.

38th Annual Mason Bank Golf Tournament — Sat, Sept 12 · 11:00 AM–5:00 PM · Comanche Creek Golf Course, Mason.

Karaoke Night at Spring Street Collective — Sat, Sept 12 · 6:00 PM · Mason.

Texas Hill Country Review (6 Local Singer-Songwriters) — Sat, Sept 12 · 7:00 PM · Odeon Theater, Mason.

🏛️ Community & School

Regional · LiftFund's flood-relief door is open. LiftFund's 2026 Texas Hill Country Flood Relief Program is taking applications from small businesses hit by July — financial assistance and technical support. Get in the queue.

Regional · The recovery fund is still open. The Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country's flood relief fund covers all ten counties.

Regional · Screwworm advisory continues. New World screwworm is still an active situation for livestock operators; movement restrictions cover parts of 20+ Texas counties from the Valley through the Hill Country. Terrell County was added as a new infested zone.

Regional · Burn ban check before you strike a match. Roughly 95 of 254 Texas counties are under a burn ban. Pull the Texas A&M Forest Service burn ban map.

Two new kitchens, one week

Something new in Eden this week

A small trailer parked in Eden is starting a Sausage of the Week this week — a different one every seven days, with no repeats until the ideas run out. The trailer is LoBoz, and the sausage is the newest thing on a menu that already rotates on purpose.

Most of what comes out of the trailer is made in the trailer: the BBQ, the sides, the baked goods, and even the sauces and seasonings. The frame stays the same week to week — Texas BBQ and fresh baking — and the specifics change with what's good and what they feel like cooking.

If Eden is on your route this week, worth a stop to see what's on the chalkboard.

Find them: LoBozfoodtrailer.com · Eden, TX

And a new chamoy business in Menard

Something new to know about Menard: a home kitchen there is putting out chamoy pickles, chamoy candy, and candied fruit — the sweet-sour-spicy border tradition, done in small batches with a wide range of flavors and toppings.

If you haven't had chamoy before: it's a Mexican-American sauce that turns pickles and fruit into something you'll remember. Bright red-orange, sticky, a little addicting. If you have had it, you already know why one summer batch turns into another.

The business is called Jays Candied Fruit, run by Jayla Arizola out of Menard. Orders go through her Facebook page. Worth trying while the summer fruit is still worth candying.

Find her: Jayla Arizola on Facebook · Menard, TX

Where things stand this week

The land is still holding locally, but the state ledger keeps tightening.

Six weeks past the July floods, Hill Country pastures are still green, rivers are back within banks, and the whitelist counties are still not in the D1+ column of the U.S. Drought Monitor. But the state total moved: this week's Aug 11 release puts Texas at about 28% in drought, up from around 25% two weeks ago, with the population inside drought areas up more than twenty percent week over week. Western Texas carries the worst of it; Extreme (D3) grew the most. Locally we're buffered; regionally the buffer is narrowing. Reservoirs stayed high, low-water crossings are open, and flood recovery in Kerr County is still very much underway — Team Rubicon is still doing free demolitions where houses can't be saved.

At the sale barn — divergent, so read carefully.

At San Angelo's Aug 13 cattle sale (833 head), calves and yearlings ran $2–6 lower, slaughter cows and bulls were weak to $2 lower, and replacement cows and pairs held steady on limited supply. Small stock did the opposite — the Aug 11 sheep and goat sale (4,820 head) was up across the board: wool lambs $10–15 higher, slaughter lambs $5–15 higher, kid goats $10–15 higher (reversing hard from last week's dip), ewes $5–15 higher. Remember AgriLife Extension's Aug 4 read that cattle prices "haven't hit the ceiling yet" — the multi-year run isn't over; the two-week local dip isn't the whole story. But don't run last week's playbook either.

For the ag community.

New World screwworm remains active — 45 U.S. detections since June, 5 still active (all in Texas), with Terrell County declared a new infested zone; movement restrictions now cover parts of 20+ counties from the Valley through the Hill Country. FDA authorized a horse wound-prevention drug (July 16), USDA committed $25M for an Arizona sterile-fly facility (late July), and the Douglas, Arizona port reopens to livestock trade on Aug 24 under a phased plan. Standing flood-hay warning still applies — don't feed hay that sat in standing water, even if the bale looks fine. On fire: burn-ban count keeps rising statewide, so pull the Forest Service map before you burn anything.

And one closer to home.

LiftFund's small-business flood-relief program is taking applications now. If you're an operator still working through the paperwork of July, the queue is short and the technical support is worth more than a lot of people realize.

The Third Week of August

Somewhere in the middle of August, a rancher's month stops being about calves and starts being about pecans. That isn't literally true for everyone — a lot of families don't run trees — but the shape of the change is universal enough to describe. July was survive-the-heat. Early August was market the calves you decided to market. The third week is when you look at the fall calendar and realize the ledger is closing on one thing and opening on another, and the work is not going to slow down for the transition. It's going to speed up.

The Hill Country runs on families that have been through this turn thirty or forty or a hundred times. That number matters. The old-timers know what August of a wet year does versus August of a dry one; they know which pastures will hold cattle through the fall shoulder and which ones need to rest; they know which pecan varieties throw a good crop after a wet summer and which get their leaves knocked around by scab. None of that knowledge is written down in a single place. It's held in one family's head, sometimes two — a father and a grown daughter, a grandfather and a grandson, a mother-in-law who worked the operation for fifty years and still walks the trees every morning before it gets hot.

What the season demands is a specific kind of attention. You're looking up more than usual. Pecan trees are quiet all summer; they're not quiet now. The nuts are filling out, the shucks are getting close to when they'll split, and whether you get a decent year or a mediocre one is being decided right now by things you cannot control (temperature, moisture, wasps) and a few things you can (irrigation, orchard floor management, the herbicide decision you either made in July or didn't). Fall harvest starts in October for most Hill Country orchards, later than a lot of the state, and the way the trees look the third week of August is a preview. If you have trees, you know what you're seeing when you walk them this week. If you don't, take the offered class — the Master Gardeners at the Llano Library are doing a peach talk Thursday, and a peach person and a pecan person understand a lot of the same weather.

What the season demands of the rest of us is smaller and mostly gratitude-shaped. The families running the ranches and the orchards and the farms in this region make choices in August that show up on your Thanksgiving table in November. When the pecan pie hits the table, somebody spent a July watching the water and an August watching the shucks and an October on a shaker rig from 6 a.m. to sundown. That work is invisible to most people. It doesn't have to be to us — we live here.

If you know a family that runs a multi-generational operation, this is the week to notice them. Not with a compliment — they are famously uncomfortable with compliments. With a stop. Buy something they grew, at the market or the feed store or the little handwritten sign at the end of the driveway. Ask what kind of year the trees are going to give them. Listen to the answer. If they say "hard to tell yet, ask me in three weeks," that is the honest answer, and they will remember that you asked.

The turn of the season is not a metaphor for something else. It is the actual thing the actual land is doing this week. The families who work with it are shifting gears whether you notice or not — but noticing is part of what makes this a region, and not just a set of towns with the same weather.

The land is shifting gears. So are they. See what you can do to shift with them.

2 Things Your Business Needs to Know This Week

1 · Cattle & Small Stock

Don't read the local dip as the whole story

Walt says:

The temptation this week is to react. Calves ran $2 to $6 lower at San Angelo on Aug 13, cows and bulls were weak to $2 lower, and that's on top of a two-week slide. If you sell in a panic, you sell on a valley. Hold the AgriLife Extension economist's Aug 4 read next to that: cattle prices haven't hit the ceiling yet — the multi-year picture through 2027 is still climbing on tight herd inventory. What the two-week local dip is telling you is a short-term signal in a long-term run, and short-term signals are for adjusting how you sell, not whether you sell. On the sheep and goat side, the story is the opposite direction and just as extreme: wool lambs $10–15 up, kid goats $10–15 up reversing last week's dip, ewes $5–15 up. If you run small stock and you've been sitting, this is a good week to price out where your specific grades and weights land. This week: re-price small stock against the Aug 11 sale, and don't dump cull cow inventory unless the operation actually needs the cash right now.

2 · Fall Harvest Setup

Set up now for what the fall harvest is going to demand

Nadine says:

If your operation touches the fall harvest at all — orchard, farm, cash-crop, or the businesses that feed the people who work them — the third week of August is the last quiet moment. In three weeks the labor calendar tightens, the fuel bill jumps, and the day gets shorter fast. Two moves worth making right now: (1) Look at your labor. If you're going to need extra hands in October, put the word out this week; every good hand in the region is going to be spoken for by mid-September and you don't want to be the one calling in the second wave. (2) Look at your working capital. If you're going to need a short line to bridge harvest expenses to harvest income, walk into your community bank now, not in October. The community bank underwriters (Texas Regional and its peers) will remember a rancher who came in early with a clear plan more warmly than one who arrived on Oct 15 with an emergency. This week: call the two hands whose names you already know, and email your banker with a one-paragraph "here's what my fall looks like — should we talk?" note. Both take ten minutes. Both compound.

Backing Student & Entrepreneurship Success

This year's Corporate Neighbors:

• Central Texas Electric Cooperative — member-owned power, Hill Country roots.
• Texas Regional Bank — community bank, Fredericksburg and Kerrville.
• Hill Country Telephone Cooperative — member-owned broadband and phone.
• Frontera Healthcare Network — healthcare across the Hill Country.

Want to join them?

Community-tier sponsorship starts at $250, and every level goes directly to student and entrepreneurship programming at Venture Fest. If you own a business here — small, mid, or big — and want to back the pitch night that's building the next round of Hill Country founders, we'd love to have you on the list.

Join this fantastic group of Corporate Neighbors backing student and entrepreneurship success at this year's Venture Fest. Email [email protected] for sponsorship packages and details.

Dear Hazel Mae & Fern

This week's topic: "My daughter wants to leave the ranch. I don't know what to say."

Hazel Mae says:

Sweetheart, put down the story about "the last" for a minute. Nothing about your daughter taking a job in Austin makes her the last of anything — it makes her a woman in her twenties trying on a life. She may come back. She may not. She may come back at forty-two after her grandfather has been gone ten years and the operation looks different and she finally understands what her parents were doing all those mornings before it got hot. You don't get to know which one it is yet. What you do get to do is tell her, plainly, that the land will still be here and she will still be welcome, and that you're proud of her for going toward the life she wants to see. Say the last part like you mean it, because you do. Don't say it in the same sentence as the ranch, or she'll hear only the ranch. Say it about her.

Fern says:

I'd add one practical thing: don't confuse the emotional conversation with the business conversation, and don't try to have them in the same sitting. The emotional conversation is what Hazel Mae just said — tell her you love her, tell her you're proud, tell her the door is open. The business conversation — succession planning, what happens to the operation in twenty years, what her siblings' or cousins' roles are, what the trust structure looks like — is a separate conversation, on a separate afternoon, ideally with a good rural attorney or estate planner in the room. If you mix them now, you'll pressure your daughter with a legacy question at the exact moment she's trying to say something small and true about wanting to try something else. Let the two conversations live in two different chairs.

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

What the Turn of the Season Teaches — Week of August 20, 2026

Notes from the porch swing: the light is different this week, and the ones who work the land already know it. What the third week of August asks isn't dramatic — it's specific. Look up. Notice the change in gear. Move with it, not against it. That's the whole horoscope.

Aries (Mar 21 – Apr 19)
You've been sprinting since June. This week the season itself is telling you the sprint is over and the long walk is starting. Slow down half a step and you'll cover more ground. Rams never win short races anyway; you win the ones that go on.

Taurus (Apr 20 – May 20)
Your season is close. Before it arrives, walk the field one more time — literal or metaphorical — and take note of what needs mending before the harvest hits. Bulls don't fix things in the middle of the run. Fix them now.

Gemini (May 21 – Jun 20)
Two conversations you've been avoiding are actually one conversation in disguise. This week, put them together on the same afternoon. The clarity you find will feel like weather changing. Talk once. Solve twice.

Cancer (Jun 21 – Jul 22)
You are somebody's soft landing. This week, ask who yours is — and then call them. The person who carries everyone else has to be carried too, and it doesn't happen if you don't say so.

Leo (Jul 23 – Aug 22)
Your birthday month is closing out. Don't spend the last week of it performing. Spend it receiving — a compliment, a slow dinner, a quiet Saturday. You gave a lot in July and August. Let August give something back to you before it hands the crown to Virgo.

Virgo (Aug 23 – Sep 22)
Your season is starting Saturday. Don't inherit August's exhaustion. Take one clean day this week — no lists, no fixing, no optimizing — and rest into your own turn. Your best work always comes from a Virgo who slept. Sleep.

Libra (Sep 23 – Oct 22)
The turn of the season is a decision made by weather, not by you — and that's a relief. Notice which of your problems this week are actually yours to solve and which are just waiting on time. Put the second pile down.

Scorpio (Oct 23 – Nov 21)
You see the undercurrent. This week, one of the people around you is pretending they're fine and you know they aren't. You don't have to fix it. You have to sit next to them and ask a plain question. The bravery of your sign is not intensity — it is willingness to notice.

Sagittarius (Nov 22 – Dec 21)
Fall is coming and you can smell it. This week, plan one adventure for October — not a big one, not a Grand Tour, one weekend. The horizon you always chase gets closer when you put a date on it.

Capricorn (Dec 22 – Jan 19)
The steady work you've been doing all summer is about to compound. Don't stop the moment the results start showing — that's when most people quit, and it's why most people don't have what you're about to have. Keep going.

Aquarius (Jan 20 – Feb 18)
You see how the whole system fits together. This week, someone will ask you to explain one small piece of it — a mentor moment, a five-minute conversation, a napkin sketch. Take it seriously. The way you draw the diagram will change how they think for years.

Pisces (Feb 19 – Mar 20)
The seasons feel personal to you and they always have. This week the shift is real; let yourself feel it fully. Then choose one thing to do with the feeling — a call, a walk, a written page. Feeling without action is where Pisces get stuck. You know this.

Until next week — notice the change of gears, and move with it, not against it.

Koda Went Home

Last week's Pet of the Week, Koda, has been adopted. The one-year-old Chihuahua mix who did not, we insisted, deserve to spend another Saturday waiting — is home. Thank you to everyone who shared his post, called Second Chance, and refused to let him age out of that kennel. This is how it's supposed to work.

Second Chance — Mason Animal Rescue always has more waiting on their person. If Koda's story got you thinking, that's the door: 325-347-6929 or [email protected].