With cooler weather beginning to creep in, I was reminded of an old country saying: “There’s a cold front coming—it’s time to butcher the hog.” Years ago, before freezers and modern refrigeration, families often waited for a good cold spell before processing a hog. The colder temperatures helped keep the meat safe while everyone worked together cutting pork, making sausage, rendering lard, curing bacon, and preparing hams for the months ahead. It was hard work, but it was also part of the rhythm of rural life, when families planned so much around the weather and the seasons.
That same change in the air also means deer season is not far away here in San Saba County. Archery season opens October 3, followed by the early youth-only hunt October 30 through November 1. The general white-tailed deer season opens November 7 and runs through January 3. San Saba County hunters may take up to five deer for the season, with no more than two bucks, and the late youth season runs January 4 through January 17. For many families, deer season is another long-standing fall tradition— part hunting, part food for the freezer, and part time spent together outdoors. Just like the old hog-killing days, it is one more reminder of how closely country life has always followed the seasons.
I also have a community member searching for some hard-to-find Richland Springs yearbooks, specifically the years 1952 through 1958, 1997, and 2000. If you have any of these tucked away in a closet, attic, storage box, or bookshelf—or know someone who might—please let me know. Old yearbooks hold so much of our community’s history, and we would love to help this person locate the missing years.
There is also a new Richland Springs Eye-Witness YouTube channel where you can catch Friday night games and keep up with things happening around Richland Springs. The channel also shares community history and other news connected to Richland Springs and the Elm Grove and Bowser areas.
Prayers are going up for rain across our dry, parched land. The pastures, tanks, and Rhonda Wyatt countryside are showing just how badly we need it, and I know many ranchers and farmers are watching the sky and the forecast closely. The good news is that things are looking a little more promising for the coming week, with better rain chances showing up across our area. We will keep praying that those clouds bring us the slow, soaking kind of rain that can really do some good— not just a quick shower that runs off. Our land could certainly use a good drink.
Have A Great Week!