Neighbors in the News, and the First Real Cool Front

A Little League marker in Llano, a new party barn in Brady, an unbeaten Mason team, and a crisp Saturday made for getting out.

Letter from the Editor

Dear neighbors,

Every small town has a corkboard somewhere. The feed store, the post office, the back wall of the café. It fills up with index cards and flyers: a blood drive, a cemetery tour, a youth baking contest, somebody's grand opening. None of it makes the evening news, and most of it is gone in two weeks, covered by the next round of thumbtacks.

This week's Townie is that corkboard, saved.

Venture Fest is behind us, and the quiet after a big week has its own good feeling. Fall is settling in alongside it. Today runs warm one more time, near 87, and then the first real front of the season comes through overnight. Friday turns windy and cool. Saturday should be sunny and around 71, with a low in the upper 40s right behind it. If you've been waiting on jacket weather, it's here.

So we spent this issue on the small news. A historical marker in Llano for the man who started the town's Little League. A Brady family opening the party barn they spent five years building. Volunteers in Mason getting ready to walk folks through the town's oldest burial ground. Mason County 4-H planning a blood drive. A Puncher football team that hasn't lost yet. You'll find all of it in the feature, and most of it on the calendar too.

The paper has an everyday job, and this is it: noticing who showed up, writing down what they did, and pinning it where the neighbors can see.

If something on your town's corkboard deserves a spot here, tell us about it through our new Share with The Townie form. It takes a few minutes, and a link to the flyer is plenty.

Dig out the jacket for Saturday. We'll see you out there.

With love,

Katie Milton Jordan, Editor

[email protected]

🌾 Fresh off the Porch

📅 This Week (Oct 15–21)

🗓️ Coming Up

🏡 Around Town

Save the date: Christmas on the Square in Mason. The Mason County Chamber of Commerce presents Light Up Our Town: A Hometown Christmas on Saturday, Nov. 28, from 2 to 8 p.m. Plans include a tree lighting, a Christmas market, a parade of lights, late-night shopping, camel rides, a mini golf course, a Christmas movie, horse-drawn carriages and craft stations.

Hispanic Heritage Month wraps up today, Oct. 15. Hispanic families have helped build these towns for generations, on the ranches, in the kitchens, behind the counters and in the Friday-night bleachers. It's a good week to tell a neighbor whose roots run that deep that you're glad they're here.

🌡️ Hill Country Briefing

Weather. One more warm day, then fall shows up for real. Today runs mostly sunny with a high near 87. A cold front arrives overnight with a 20% chance of showers after 1 a.m., and the wind swings around to the north-northeast. Friday is the windy day: a high near 73, north winds of 20 to 25 mph and gusts to 35. Saturday comes in mostly sunny around 71 with a low near 49, the coolest night so far this fall. Sunday warms to 77. The Weather Service notes the models have struggled with this front's timing and strength, so the exact numbers could shift a few degrees.

River and fire. The Llano River near Mason was running at 354 cubic feet per second on Oct. 13, easing down from the early-October rise and still about double its late-September flow. The San Saba at Menard is running low. The Highland Lakes look healthy: Lake Buchanan was 95.9% full and Lake LBJ 97.4% as of Oct. 1. Mason County lifted its burn ban on Oct. 2. Llano County entered a burn ban this week, and Kimble County's ban remains in place. With dry fuel and Friday's gusts, check with your county before any outdoor burning, and tie down the porch decorations.

Drought picture. Mason County sits at 0% drought on the latest Drought Monitor (Oct. 6), and the Hill Country as a whole shows only abnormally dry to moderate conditions. The year has been a wet one: January through September ranked among the 15 wettest such stretches on record for the county, even though September itself was one of the driest. Statewide, about 82% of Texas is in some level of drought.

Agriculture & Livestock. Lambs and kid goats led the sale barn again. At Producers Livestock/Cargile's Oct. 6 sheep and goat sale (4,044 head), slaughter lambs ran $20 to $30 per hundredweight higher, kid goats firm to $15 higher, and slaughter ewes $3 to $5 higher. Cattle were softer at the heavy end at the Oct. 8 sale (1,015 head): light and medium calves held near steady, heavy calves and bull yearlings slipped $3 to $5, and slaughter cows and bulls dropped another $3 to $5. Pecan harvest is getting started across the country, and the 2026 Texas crop forecast still points to the biggest crop in three years.

Market Snapshot. Cattle, Oct. 8, per hundredweight: steers 400 to 600 pounds, $310 to $460, mostly $330 to $380; heifers 400 to 600 pounds, $280 to $410, mostly $310 to $350; slaughter cows, $110 to $125, top yielding to $132; slaughter bulls, $155 to $175, top yielding to $191. Sheep and goats, Oct. 6, per pound: slaughter lambs, $2.80 to $4.00; kid goats, mostly $3.39 to $3.98; slaughter ewes, mostly $1.30 to $1.54. Wool and mohair, federal rates for Oct. 14–20: ungraded wool repays at about 25 cents a pound; mohair at $7.85 a pound, steady with last week. Hay, Oct. 2 USDA report: good Bermuda round bales in the South Texas region around $75, with demand holding strong.

Tourism Pulse. Deer season is the next thing that fills the motels and the café booths. Archery season is open now, the youth-only weekend runs Oct. 30 through Nov. 1, and the general season opens Saturday, Nov. 7. The Edwards Plateau carries the largest deer herd in Texas, and the state expects a slightly above-average season. Between now and then, the calendar stays full: a cool-weather weekend of dances, markets and park programs, then Fredericksburg's Food & Wine Festival and a run of Halloween events to close out the month.

🪶 Featured Story

Who Made the News This Fall

There's a kind of news that never needs a press release. It travels by flyer and bulletin board, by a photo somebody posts on a Saturday evening with a dozen neighbors squinting into the sun behind a red ribbon. What follows is a handful of it, gathered from the public pages of the towns we cover, in no particular order of importance, because none of it ranks.

A marker for the first pitch · Llano

On Oct. 2, about 30 people gathered at the Llano County Historical Museum to dedicate a marker honoring C.E. Brown, who founded Llano Little League and served as superintendent of Llano County Schools. Hill Country Focus reported that the marker was Gary Harlan's idea, and that the afternoon closed out an effort he had been talking about for 20 years. Brown's daughter, Frances (Brown) Duey, was there. So was Llano Mayor Laura Almond, along with Dr. Kenneth Land, Fred Cook, LaNell McKinney and Tony Guidroz.

Twenty years is a long time to keep one idea warm. Most towns have somebody like that, carrying a small project around in a coat pocket while everyone else forgets it exists, bringing it up at the right meeting, again and again, until the day it finally gets done. Every kid who has stood in a batter's box in Llano owes a few of those summer evenings to Brown. Now there's something permanent that says so.

Unbeaten so far · Mason

The Mason Punchers opened District 7-2A Division I play last Friday with a 51-0 win over Bangs, and they're still perfect on the season. Hill Country Focus laid out what's riding on this fall: Mason has won 15 straight district championships, and a title this year would make it 16, in a new district, against teams the Punchers don't usually see in league play. Coach Wade Griffin's team spent its bye week adding a few new wrinkles. So far the wrinkles are working.

If you can't be at the field this Friday against San Saba, the Odeon Theater shows the game live on the big screen. It's free, with donations welcome. Doors open at 6, and kickoff is at 7. It's hard to think of a more Mason way to spend a windy October night than watching the Punchers with a room full of neighbors in a 98-year-old theater.

One good set · Llano

Some wins never show up in the standings. On Oct. 6, the Llano Lady Jackets took the first game of their volleyball match against Blanco, 26-24. They lost the match in four, and they're still chasing their first District 25-3A win. Coach Claire Head told Hill Country Focus that first game "determined a lot for us as far as confidence." Sophomore Renner Lilie, who can play every position on the floor, barely left the court.

A young team that takes a set from a tough opponent carries that into the next match. Ask anybody who's coached.

Five years for a barn · Brady

Brady has a new place to throw a party. On Saturday, Oct. 10, Fair Weather Farm held the official grand opening of its new Party Barn during the farm's annual Pumpkin Fest. Brady Today called the barn a five-year labor of love for owners Kim and Haden Keyser. The ribbon-cutting photo shows a crowd packed in behind the ribbon, a row of kids up front, and more than a few teal Fair Weather Farm shirts.

In a town that runs on birthdays, reunions and showers, a new room to gather in is real news. If you're curious about the barn, or whether Pumpkin Fest has more weekends left, reach out to the farm before you head over.

The town's oldest neighbors · Mason

Mason's first burial ground sits about a mile north of the courthouse on US 87. The Texas Historical Commission marker at Crosby Cemetery traces it back to the 1850s, when it served the people of Mason and the neighboring settlement of Koocksville. The oldest documented burial is Kate Lemburg, who died in 1856. Thomas Milligan, Mason County's first sheriff, rests there too. The Crosby family bought the surrounding land in 1866, and the name has stuck ever since.

This Sunday at 6 p.m., the Mason County Historical Commission is supplying the stories for a free tour, with donations going to the Crosby Cemetery Association. The flyer asks what a knife fight, a famous artist and a saloon keeper have in common. We don't know the answer yet, which is a pretty good reason to go. Volunteers keep places like this mowed, mapped and remembered, and an hour in the cool evening air is a fine way to thank them.

A drop at a time · Mason

Mason County 4-H is planning a one-day blood drive for Wednesday, Nov. 18, at the M. Beven Eckert Memorial Library. The flyer's cheerful mascot says, "One drop can be a lifeline." We'll share the hours as soon as they're posted. Young people who organize a drive like this learn early how a town looks after itself: somebody you'll never meet gets what they need because a neighbor rolled up a sleeve.

The 100th · Fredericksburg and Luckenbach

Over in Gillespie County, Fredericksburg and Luckenbach are throwing a free party this Saturday billed as the 100th Music Friendly Texas Community Celebration, with the Texas Music Office's name on the flyer. Two-step lessons start at 6, Kathryn Legendre plays at 7, and Theo Lawrence takes the stage at 8:30. The flyer lists both towns without naming a stage, so check the location before you go. A free night of dancing on the first cool Saturday of the season is hard to beat.

Supper and a baking contest · Menard

The Boys & Girls Club of Menard brings back Taste of Menard on Saturday, Oct. 24, from 6 to 8 p.m. at the club, 213 E. San Saba St., and the club has announced a youth baking contest for the evening. If there's a young baker in your kitchen, this is their stage.

The everyday job

None of this will trend. A man spent 20 years nudging a marker into place. A family finished a barn. A sophomore played every spot on the floor. A team kept a streak alive. A few volunteers learned the names on old headstones well enough to say them out loud on a Sunday evening. A 4-H club picked a date and booked a room.

That's most of what happens in a small town in any given week, and it's most of what holds one together. The work rarely comes with a headline. It comes with a flyer taped to a door, a post on a page with forty followers, a photo with a ribbon in it.

So here's the ask, the same one in the letter. When you see good news like this on your town's corkboard, tell us through the Share with The Townie form, or email a photo of the flyer to [email protected]. We'll do the pinning.

💼 2 Things Your Business Needs to Know This Week

1. Read last December's receipts now

Walt says: The slow stretch between now and Thanksgiving is when you find out what December is going to cost you. Pull last year's November and December sales. Look at what sold out, what sat on the shelf, and which Saturday you were short a pair of hands. Order the things that sold while your suppliers still have them, and mark down the dust collectors before the holiday crowd ever sees them.

Same goes for hours. If you're changing them for the holidays, put the new hours on the door, the Google listing and the Facebook page this month. Folks plan their shopping earlier than you think, and they plan around whatever they found online.

This week: print last year's top 20 sellers from November and December and place one reorder.

2. Get your shop on the town's holiday calendar

Nadine says: Mason's Christmas on the Square lands on Saturday, Nov. 28, from 2 to 8 p.m. That's also Small Business Saturday. The chamber is planning a tree lighting, a parade of lights, a Christmas market and late-night shopping, which adds up to six hours of foot traffic somebody else is organizing for you. Decide now what you'll do with it. Stay open late. Run one special for the day. Team up with the shop next door so a customer who walks into one hears about the other.

If you're outside Mason, the same move works. Find your town's biggest holiday shopping date, put it on the calendar today, and plan backward from it. Your chamber can usually tell you how to get listed.

This week: find your town's biggest holiday shopping date, put it on your calendar, and call your chamber about joining in.

The Townie Business Circle is where we go deeper on the ordinary decisions that keep local businesses sturdy.

🌿 Dear Hazel Mae & Fern

This week's topic: "How do I bring my garden back after a long, hot summer?"

Dear Hazel Mae & Fern,

My garden gave up somewhere around August. The tomatoes quit, the squash bugs won, and the beds have been sitting there looking tired ever since. My neighbor says fall is the best time to plant around here, which sounds backwards to me. Is it too late to start something, and what should go in the ground now?

Signed, Tired Beds in Brady

Hazel Mae says:

Well, your neighbor's right, and you can tell her I said so. Start by pulling those spent tomato vines and anything the squash bugs claimed. Bag that mess up for the trash so the bugs don't spend the winter in your compost pile. Work two or three inches of good compost into the beds, and then plant.

October is prime time around here for lettuce, spinach, kale, collards, radishes, carrots and turnips. Tuck some garlic cloves in this month too. The herbs that sulk all July, like cilantro, dill and parsley, love a cool fall. Want color by the porch steps? Pansies and snapdragons will carry you clear through Christmas.

Water deep and not too often. We've gone more than a week without rain, and Friday's wind will dry the top of those beds out faster than you'd guess.

Fern says:

Fall planting only sounds backwards until you look at it from the plant's side. The air is cooling off, but the soil is still holding summer's warmth, and roots love that combination. Whatever you put in now spends the winter quietly building a root system, so when the heat comes back next summer it already knows where to find water.

That's why fall suits trees, shrubs and perennials too, not only the vegetable bed. If you've been meaning to add some natives, this is your window. Turk's cap and the salvias settle in beautifully when they go in now. And if you'd like bluebonnets in the spring, scatter the seed this month or next on bare ground with good sun, then press it in with the sole of your shoe.

Leave the fallen leaves in the garden paths. By spring they'll be soil.

Got a question for Hazel Mae & Fern? Send it in: [email protected]

🧭 Jacket Weather and Small Headlines: Horoscope for the Week of October 15, 2026

Notes from the porch swing: the first cool front blows through, and the week's best news turns out to be the small kind.

Aries (Mar 21 – Apr 19)

You'd rather make headlines than read them. This week, read them. Somebody in your town did something quietly good, and you're the one with the energy to go tell them it mattered. Do it in person if you can, and say their name when you do.

Taurus (Apr 20 – May 20)

The front comes through tonight, and you'll be the first to dig out the flannel. Make soup while you're at it, and make enough for the neighbor whose porch light is always on. Some news gets delivered in a pot, still warm, with the lid taped on.

Gemini (May 21 – Jun 20)

You hear everything first. This week, pass along only the good stuff: the new barn, the marker, the kid who played every position. Gossip travels fast enough on its own. Let the kind news take the lead for once, over the fence and on the phone.

Cancer (Jun 21 – Jul 22)

You've got an old photo or two that somebody's family has never seen. Dig them out this week. Plenty of history lives in museums and on markers, and plenty more is sitting in a shoebox in your hall closet, waiting on somebody to ask.

Leo (Jul 23 – Aug 22)

Friday night belongs to the Punchers and whoever's sitting beside you at the Odeon. Cheer loud. Then on Saturday, let somebody else tell the story of the game over coffee. You'll enjoy hearing your good time told back to you, a little bigger than it was.

Virgo (Aug 23 – Sep 22)

Somebody's flyer has the wrong date on it, and you've already noticed. Tell them kindly and quickly. Small towns run on volunteers doing their best with a borrowed printer, and a gentle correction, offered early, is a gift. Then help hang the new ones.

Libra (Sep 23 – Oct 22)

The last full week of your season, and the weather finally matches your mood: cool, balanced, easy. Spend Saturday outside. A market, a trail, a dance hall floor. Pick one, go early, and let the rest of the list wait until Monday.

Scorpio (Oct 23 – Nov 21)

Your season starts next week, and you're already curious about the stories the old-timers never finished telling. Sunday's cemetery tour has your name on it. Bring a jacket and your best questions. The quiet ones in the back row usually know the most.

Sagittarius (Nov 22 – Dec 21)

Wind's up Friday, so save the long drive for Saturday, when the sky clears. Pick a town you usually pass through and actually stop. Read the corkboard by the door. You'll leave with three plans you didn't have and a pie you didn't need.

Capricorn (Dec 22 – Jan 19)

You've been carrying one small project for years, the kind nobody else remembers. Take one real step on it this week. A phone call, a form, a word at the right meeting. Twenty years of patience still needs a Tuesday to finish on.

Aquarius (Jan 20 – Feb 18)

You love a big idea, but this week's best one is small: give blood, sign up to help, bring a dish. The 4-H blood drive comes in November. Put it on the calendar now so future you can't wriggle out of it, and bring a friend.

Pisces (Feb 19 – Mar 20)

The cool air makes you sentimental, and that's fine. Write down one story about your town that only you know. Keep it somewhere safe, or better yet, send it to us. Somebody ought to be pinning your news up too, right next to everyone else's.

Until next week: dig out the jacket, read the corkboard, and send us the flyer.

🐾 Pet of the Week: Roo

Meet Roo! If you've been hoping for a sweet little pup, look no further. Roo is a terrier mix, about 2 years old, and she's all dressed up for Halloween in her photo this week. She was found meandering around Mason and picked up, and she's now caught up on her vet work and ready to bring more laughter into your home.

Roo is a fun companion girl who likes to do just about anything her people do: hanging out at home, running happy circles in the yard, or stretching out in the grass on a beautiful fall day. She's super lovable, walks well on a leash and enjoys a ride in the car.

If Roo Were Human…

I'm the friend who says yes to the hardware store run before you've finished asking. I don't need to know where we're going. I'll ride shotgun with the window down and act like the feed store is the best place we've ever been, because with you, it probably is.

I'm good at the in-between hours, too. Laundry, dishes, the slow part of a Sunday afternoon. I'll be right there on the rug, keeping you company. I was out on my own for a while. I'd rather not be anymore. Pick me, and I'll give you something to laugh about every single day.

Meet Roo: Call 325-347-6929, email [email protected], or visit Second Chance Mason to learn more.

Photo by Suzanne Demaree

See y'all next week!

Bundle up Friday night and get outside Saturday.

Have something for The Townie? A local business worth knowing, an event coming up, or a neighbor with a story to tell? We'd love to hear about it.

📬 [email protected]

🌸 Know someone who would love The Townie? Send them to thetownie.ai to subscribe.

Editor's note: Event times and details come from public calendars, organizer flyers and the hosts themselves; where sources disagree, the listing says so. Weather, river and market figures come from the National Weather Service, USGS, the U.S. Drought Monitor, USDA and Producers Livestock/Cargile, current as of this edition's writing. Check with each host before you go.