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Two wildfires that burned more than 1 million acres in the Panhandle were caused by downed power lines, according to the Texas A&M Forest Service. Juan Rodriguez, with the service, told the Texas Standard that its law enforcement investigators had concluded their probe into the source of the Smokehouse Creek and Windy Deuce fires.

Wyatt Oakley retired from the fire department in Odessa, then became fire chief in Stamford and retired from that position. Once when he was fishing he caught a beautiful bass and decided to mount it himself. It won a prize at a taxidermy competition. Now he has Paint Creek Taxidermy in a building near downtown Stamford.

I’m not sure what it is about humans that causes such unpredictability in our behavior. Unlike sporting events that have the benefit of recent statistical data to help one predict a likely outcome between victors and losers, the outcome of jury deliberations and public elections is far less predictable. Teams are more predictable than groups of individuals, as a person is often full of decisive surprises.

What a beautiful morning we all woke up to this morning in Aspermont even though I am going to gripe, this time change just gets me all out sorts. I really don't mind either one of them, but just leave it alone. I feel for all of those boys and girls that have to catch that school bus in the dark, and all those mothers that are having to try to get them up in the dark and out to the bus. I hope the ones that voted for it many years ago have grandkids that is dealing them fits for voting for it!!!!! Oh! aren't the pastures pretty, all this rain we have been having in our area has brought out the little yellow flowers, and the pastures look like a yellow carpet, just out of this world beautiful. They are a sight to see, when we went to Jayton last week, I said 'Joe turn here and let's go by Peacock, so we can see all the pastures, they are so pretty. When Joe and I went to Abilene last week we met so many truck loads of hay going north, us Texans help each other I don't care what we need, neighbors help each other, and if we can help our neighbors up north in the Panhandle we help, It's good to live in a land where we help each other, and we all live in small towns and we help our neighbors here in our small towns. Just makes me so sad to go home to Rotan, I just remember Rotan when I was growing up, we had 4 grocery stores, two drug stores, 3 theaters, jewelry store, 2 variety stores, 3 dry good stores, furniture store, you could buy your cars and pickups at Rotan, and I'm sure someone is going to call me and say 'Carol you forgot,!!!!!!! That's okay then I know you are reading this column!!!!!!! I didn't get to paint as much as I wanted to last week, somebody came in my house and messed it up, so I had to clean house all week. I took off Wednesday and went to Rotan and had lunch with the Methodist Church friends, and as usual they had a wonderful meal for everyone. I visited with a bunch of my friends so glad to see all of them. While we were there we went out to the hospital and visited with a dear friend, isn't the hospital pretty. That was the first time I had been out there since they got moved into the new clinic, and of course you know me I noticed the landscape, it's so pretty. I have not been in the new clinic, we just went to see our dear friend, so glad they are taking good care of her, she's precious. We are blessed in Rotan and Aspermont, too, we have help when we need it. Joe is unwrapping his peach tree this morning, and I have flowers in the house we are putting out on the front porch, they are getting sick of the house. I will just have ot watch the temperature at night they can't stand the cold, and Joe is really wanting his peaches!!!!!! We are putting stuff in the holes that Buzz drilled in the old stump, to keep it from putting out, and finally killing it. I told Buzz he was going to cut it to the ground and said, 'That's okay Buzz I'll put a flower pot on it!!!!!' All of you have fun this week, Joe and I are going to.

On October 28, 1785, Thomas Jefferson wrote a famous letter to his friend James Madison. This is the letter in which Jefferson famously called small landholders “the most precious part of a state.”

We live stitch by stitch, when we're lucky. If you fixate on the big picture, the whole shebang, the overview, you miss the stitching. And maybe the stitching is crude, or it is unraveling, but if it were precise, we'd pretend that life was just fine and running like a Swiss watch. That's not helpful if, on the inside, our understanding is that life is more often a cuckoo clock with rusty gears.' ~ Anne Lamott, Stitches: A Handbook on Meaning, Hope, and Repair My husband and I are both what you might call “messy.” I wonder if the average person knows what the top of their kitchen table looks like or if it is just us? Are we the only ones with carpets that have not been vacuumed for a week and maybe are growing grass burrs?

A wildfire in the Texas Panhandle has consumed more than 1 million acres and as of Sunday was just 15% contained, according to the Texas A&M Forest Service. It is the largest wildfire in Texas history.

I’m a big fan of the Texas Almanac and get a copy every time a new edition comes out. I interviewed the editor of the publication years ago and was amazed at some of the things I learned, especially about a few Texas legends.

CORRUPTION AT ITS FINEST!! Fisher County Sheriff's Office Facebook Page must have something to hide or is this just more of SECRET SIMONS tactics because I have been so outspoken about the corruption within the department, and recently tagged them in a few Facebook posts of commissioners meetings and a comment that one their deputy’s wife made because she thought it her place to threaten me with “girl. You really don’t want me to share your details.