Wednesday, February 15, 2006
Open Range, Texas
As if having a child throwing up for 5 days (yes--today we are doing better!!) wasn't bad enough, we ended up with some visitors.These two:
I've taken to calling them hamburger and steak. Actually, hamburger is kinda pretty:
This is Steak and Hamburger
Originally uploaded by amyeetx.
Texas has an open range law, dating from the 1800s, for livestock. That means that unless a local county or portion of county changes the law by election, the landowner is responsible for keeping animals off their land, not the other way around. Our county hasn't changed anything. So, in the case of these two beasts, if the owner has a broken fence and doesn't fix it, he or she is not responsible for the damage the animals do once they get out. The landowner is responsible for fencing in their property to keep the animals out. Check out the legal code (from Texas Cattle Raisers):
Now, what do we do with them? I was all for sending them to the slaughter house and having a big neighborhood party, but that won't work with the open range law. We called the sheriff, who did a report and has to try to find the owners. If they can't, they hold the animals for 90 days (fed and housed by the sherriff's department) and then auction them off. You know, Texas is another country. Really.
Oh-you want to know about the olympic knitting? Here you go:
"The Texas Supreme Court is very clear on this subject. In their 1999 decision on Gibbs v. Jackson, the Court ruled that a livestock owner has no duty to fence his livestock unless such a duty is created by statute."
Um. Well we have fences around the entire property with the exception of the entrance and the heavily wooded front. These two decided to just walk in the driveway. My neighbor knocked on the door last night to say that these two were peeking in her back window, scared the beejesus out of her, and ran toward our barn. Another neighbor arrived and we all ran the cattle into our horse paddock.Now, what do we do with them? I was all for sending them to the slaughter house and having a big neighborhood party, but that won't work with the open range law. We called the sheriff, who did a report and has to try to find the owners. If they can't, they hold the animals for 90 days (fed and housed by the sherriff's department) and then auction them off. You know, Texas is another country. Really.
Oh-you want to know about the olympic knitting? Here you go:
Closeup of Voyage
Originally uploaded by amyeetx.
Voyage
Originally uploaded by amyeetx.
I haven't made a lot of progress, but I like the denim and the pattern. I find the chart easy to follow, but curse Rowan for going for the trendy blue color in the chart. Why couldn't they use a plain white box, rather than blue, for knit on RS/Purl on WS? It wouldn't look as pretty, but I could read it without squinting!!
