by Phil Houseal | May 23, 2019 | All Articles, Events, Food, History, Music, People of the Hill Country, Venue
May 22, 2019–I first came to the Texas Hill Country in 1978. Yet I’d never visited Castell. Last weekend, I fixed that. The Castell General Store–which is essentially Castell–was celebrating its Testicle Festival. As auspicious an event as any for finding out...
by Phil Houseal | Mar 14, 2019 | All Articles, Events, History, Music, People of the Hill Country
Mar 13, 2019–Robert Hardy “Bake” Turner has spent his life around larger-than-life characters in the worlds of professional football and country music. He is larger than life himself. Turner, as true football fans know, was a wide receiver out of Alpine, Texas, who...
by Phil Houseal | Jan 23, 2019 | All Articles, Events, Food, History, Music, People of the Hill Country, Philosophy
Jan 23, 2018–Over the next couple of weekends, legions of adventurous spirits will arrive in the Hill Country to interact as knights, jesters, maidens, and other denizens of Middle Age European villages at the Kerrville Renaissance Festival. What makes our neighbors...
by Phil Houseal | Dec 20, 2018 | All Articles, History, People of the Hill Country, Venue
Dec 19, 2018–I know it’s Christmas. But here’s a tale of Easter. My wife and daughter have opened a shop that happens to be housed in a historic Fredericksburg home known as Easter Haus. I was curious about the provenance of the white building on Auguste Street. So I...
by Phil Houseal | Dec 13, 2018 | All Articles, History, People of the Hill Country, Philosophy
Dec 13, 2018 “Go outside and get the stink blown off of you.” This is the greatest piece of advice I’ve ever gotten. And it came from my mom. There is a rich vein of ore to be mined in this one simple sentence. At the basic level it means “get out from underfoot.” Mom...
by Phil Houseal | Nov 21, 2018 | All Articles, Events, History, Music, Philosophy, Venue
“America is the most Christmas-loving country in the history of the world.” An audacious statement by Michael Martin Murphey, but one he can back up. After all, he’s been performing his Cowboy Christmas Show for 25 years, and the singer/songwriter is bringing it to...
