SONG CHALLENGE WINNER!

The Song Challenge:   Digging herself in deeper and deeper -- Yep, it's your one and only Giver-uupper of the Golden Cow Chips, back from the 'moving' wars and ready to test your little gray cells once again!! I'll just take this opportunity to let all you wonderful Challenge!rs know how much I've missed you -- and I hope we won't ever be parted for so long again . . . This Challenge! will be sorta personal, if y'all don't mind too much ;-) . . . I do think, however, that it will test your collective imagination and rhyming capabilities satisfactorily . . . Here's a picture of the new homestead, perched appropriately on a high sandstone hill in the Post Oak Savannah of Texas (the East Cross Timbers, to be exact). Please note the sandstone wall on the left . . . behind that wall is a curious little patch of broken stones, buried in a sandy clay loam, quite different from the rest of the grounds (you can't 'dig' here -- there's one inch of dirt, then rock, then THICK wet (not damp) clay).  I've been digging and breaking rocks with my trusty spade and pickaxe for two weeks now, and I still haven't reached the bottom of this strange plot of earth. However, I have discovered a few interesting things buried under the first layer of dirt and rock . . . your Challenge! is to write a song about what I found buried beneath the red-tipped photinias, honeysuckle and asian jasmine . . . let your minds run wild and let your collective freak flags fly, my dear Challenge!rs and GO FOT IT!  Hugs and snogs to each and every one of you -- and two kisses on each of your cheeks (hahaha) -- Áine (songtress, chef, chief bottle washer and now Mad Gardener)


Stories of Texas by Lin in Kansas

Lin's Comments:  I apologize for being maudlin, folks, but I do love my home state. Aine, best wishes for the new home!

It wasn't all that long ago
The government sent back East
Offering sections of land to plow and sow—
A homestead claim in Texas.

Adventurers, gunmen, gamblers and rakes
Heard the rumors blowin' on the wind.
Land-poor families pulled up stakes—
And they all headed west to Texas.

Ranchers fought to carve out a life
From that hard-rock wilderness.
And every day brought storm and strife—
But they stayed on in Texas.

Tornadoes, gullywashers, cattle stampedes,
Drought, and flood, and snow—
The land tested them and made them bleed
In the East Cross Timbers of Texas.

Now another family lives on the old homestead,
But the values and dreams are the same.
Someone new digs a flower bed
Under the oaks in Texas.

An arrowhead, a piece of glass
Turned purple from years in the sun
Raked up by a lissome Irish lass
Raised in the heart of Texas.

A leather strap, a frayed old rope
A rusted rowel from a spur—
Symbols of bravery and of hope,
Just part of the song of Texas...

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