News and updates about Texas A&M AgriLife COLLEGE STATION – Two Texas Nutrient Management Certification Short Courses will be held in August and hosted by the Texas AgriLife Extension Service, according to Dr. Sam Feagley, AgriLife Extension state soil environmental specialist and program coordinator. The first conference will be Aug. 14-17 in the College Station Conference Center, 1300 George Bush Drive, College [...] More Info...  

COLLEGE STATION – The 26th annual O.D. Butler Field Day is scheduled from 9 a.m. – 2:30 p.m. May 18 at Camp Cooley Ranch, 4297 Camp Cooley Ranch Road, in Franklin.  Registration is $30 and will be on site from 8-9 a.m. The fee includes lunch and materials. The program begins at 9 a.m.  The [...] More Info...  

COLLEGE STATION — The Texas A&M Institute of Renewable Natural Resources recently received the Texas AgriLife Extension Service’s 2012 Superior Service Award in the team category for its Military Sustainability Program. Team members are Brian Hays, AgriLife Extension program specialist; Roel Lopez, the institute’s associate director; and Todd Snelgrove, AgriLife Extension program specialist; Bill Ross, [...] More Info...  

Articles in and around South Texas including San Antonio real estate trends. Focus on San Antonio and South Texas area events, festivals, places, food, cooking, happenings, even some Texas history and folklore. Collaborative thoughts and observation Happy Mothers Day! Hi Mom, Happy Mother's Day! Sorry, I am unable to be with you today, but I will see you soon. Happy Mother's Day to all the Mothers Everywhere! I love you! I hope all Mothers have a great day! God could not be everywhere and therefore he made mothers. - Jewish Proverb The sweetest sounds to mortals givenAre heard in Mother, Home, and Heaven.~William Goldsmith Brown M-O-T-H-E-R"M" is for the million things she gave me,"O" means only that she's growing old,"T" is for the tears she shed to save me,"H" is for her heart of purest gold;"E" is for her eyes, with love-light shining,"R" means right, and right she'll always be,Put them all together, they spell "MOTHER,"A word that means the world to me. More Info...  

Iowa Farmland Auctioneer, Farmland Prices and Auction Results Ever wonder what Warren Buffet thinks about farmland as an investment compared to gold?  I caught this piece from CNBC and turns out he thinks the same thing I do. Related Posts on DreamDirt TV: Should Your Next Investment Be Farmland? Iowa Farmland Rental Rates 2012 Survey Results Fields Of Dreams From Rock Center with [...] More Info...  

Exploring Buda, Texas-Just 45 Minutes North of San Antonio by Celia Hayes We didn't spend all of last weekend watching the wienerdogs run; the Buda City park where that event took place was pleasingly located right next to old down-town Buda, so when we had enough of wandering around between pavilions, we walked along the three or four blocks that constitute Buda ... and looked around. It's one of those sweet, small towns which retain enough of their original late 19th century buildings to be quite charming, even if those buildings mostly run along one side of the street ... because the railway runs alongside the other. Buda's town founding fathers set aside a 150-foot wide reserve of land between Main Street and the International and Great Northern railway line. The International and Great Northern may have been the reason for being in the first place, and the trains still rumble through on a regular basis. Originally, the town was named Du Pre, but on discovering that there was another town with the same name, everyone agreed to call it Buda. Some sources say the name came from a local mispronunciation of Spanish for 'widow', since the Carrington House hotel and restaurant was the major landmark in town and a number of respectable widows worked there as cooks. Then again, it might have been homage to refugees from the failed Hungarian revolt in the mid-1800s, who settled thereabout. Time was when the trains would stop in Buda, passengers would detrain, hurry across Main Street and have a quick meal in the Carrington House dining room. The Carrington is still here – a splendid Texas-Victorian pile with a metal roof and wide porches and galleries on two floors, but it is not a hotel any more. It's now office space and an antique store. There are several more antique stores along Main, a florist shop where a corner gas station used to be, a number of pleasant-looking restaurants and bistros and the Wildflour Cakery & Boutique, set up in a brand new-built-to-look old building. (Note: the Mexican Vanilla Cupcakes are to die for!) Some of the older buildings seem to go on nearly forever – and everyone knows when the trains come through. I think I would get used to it, eventually, and I always loved to hear the sound of a distant train at night, but I think that you need to be about half a mile away for the nostalgic effect to work. One of the shop owners told me of some buildings across the railroad tracks – also new-built-to-look-old, which were supposed to have stores and offices on the ground floor and residential lofts above ... but alas, the prospective tenants found the noise of trains rumbling past at all hours, a few yards away, just a little too much. I was assured, however, that the newer housing developments in Buda are far enough from the rail line that the romantic effect is achieved, rather than the earsplitting one. I was tempted to no end by one of the antique places, and shelf after shelf of National Geographic magazines from the 1930s and 1940s. When I was a kid, one of our neighbors had a whole collection of them, and I thought they were fascinating. Not the articles so much, but the advertisements, especially the wartime issues. Maybe I will go back and buy a few for old time's sake. Or at least, for some of the Wildflour Cakery's cupcakes. More Info...  

A Dog-Friendly List of San Antonio Condos for Sale Check out my new San Antonio dog-friendly Condo list. by Randy Watson Hi, my name is Randy Watson and I am a self-confessed dog lover. I am also a real estate agent with Mission Realty, in San Antonio. Texans love their dogs and cats... and here in San Antonio we are no exception. Dogs and cats are loved everywhere, except it gets a little tricky when it comes to buying real estate that accepts your pets. Especially when looking to buy: condominiums, townhomes and villas; since each may have its own rules and regulations regarding pets. Single family homes have fewer, if no restrictions regarding pets. (A word of caution, some HOA's, even towns/cities may have dog restrictions.) Moving to a new area, whether across town or across the country is stressful enough, especially, if you have pets. It can be frustrating to fall in love with the perfect home, only to learn that your fur-baby is too big or weighs over the condo complex limit. As a lifelong dog owner, I enjoy helping buyers and sellers who have pets with all their real estate needs. (I don't want you to think we're just limited to dogs and cats... if you have other animals, we can help with them too. Not many condos allow Longhorns, though... How about a nice farm or ranch for sale? ) My team of agents and I can help you find a dog friendly condo community that will welcome you and your dogs. #call-now-condos# Many condominiums for sale in San Antonio allow pets, but, even so, it may not be exact the right condo for you and your furry friend. I happen to think that dogs need to have lots of green space. Just because the Condo board rules allow pets, doesn't mean that is the right place for you and your dog. A condo that is a building in the middle of a parking lot with little to no grass or trees, doesn't have a lot to offer for your dog, unless there are some nature trails or they are next to a park. Some condos allow pets, but what they really mean is that they don't really want pets. So you find out the rule is you must carry your dog through the lobby. (That's pure craziness.) Or they only allow cats or non-shedding dogs under 12lbs. Don't get frustrated, there are many San Antonio pet-friendly condos complexes that not only allow big dogs, but maybe allow 2 or 3 dogs, too. Me and my hound, Milo (actually he's an Australian Shepherd) are hunting down San Antonio condos for sale that not only allow pets, but welcome them with pet-centered amenities such as dog runs, dog wash tubs, and poop-bag dispensers near the potty areas. Maybe the condo complex has a nice dog park or trails nearby. We'll check it out and see if we get the 2 paws up from my dog, Milo. I've started creating a list of San Antonio dog-friendly condos for sale. It is by far, not a complete list and I'll add to it as I find out more. If you happen to live in or know about a San Antonio dog-friendly condo please let me and Milo know and we will add your condo to our list.  #call-us# Put us to work to find you a San Antonio condo for sale that fits you, your pets and your lifestyle. We are condo specialists, we specialize in Medical Center condos for sale, Alamo Heights condos, New Braunfels condos or downtown San Antonio condos for sale.  Call Team Randy Watson at 210-319-4960 to help find you a San Antonio Dog-Friendly Condo.   More Info...  

The 2012 Farmland Rental Rates is now out for the state of Iowa.  Complied using a survey method by the Iowa State University this document provides some great information and helps both land owners and producers get an idea of what the rental market is doing.  With attention in the national news its escaped few [...] More Info...  

The Running of the Wiener Dogs in Buda, Texas by Celia Hayes Let me say up front that we're still a little unsure of how to pronounce 'Buda' – although most of the people that we met there last weekend pronounced it 'B-yu-dah', which is fair enough. For those unfamiliar with the geography of South Texas, it is a once fairly independent and separate little community about an hour's drive north of San Antonio on IH-35, and close enough to Austin that it and the similar little community of Kyle are more or less bedroom slippers to Austin, as Boerne and Bulverde are now bedroom slippers to San Antonio. We decided to go to support a friend who has a dachshund and who had a vendor booth for his bird feeders and ornamental lanterns, and because the mental vision of galloping wiener dogs was too much cuteness to resist. It seems to have begun as a sort of adjunct to a Lion's Club hotdog roast fund-raiser, and then someone suggested the notion of racing dachshunds as an attention-getting device. The whole thing took off from there, and now Buda has fully embraced the image of being the Wiener Dog Racing Capital of Texas – well, anything is better than slipping into dull suburban anonymity. The Wiener Dog Races in Buda a have just had their fifteenth run, so I can pretty much say it is now a well-established tradition – as being a very well organized one. The event itself takes place in a city park in the older part of town, and in order to keep the traffic and parking situation from getting totally out of hand, the Lions' Club very cleverly set up the parking lot in a huge empty field behind the equally huge Cabela's outlet, just off the highway, and shuttled people to and fro in school-buses, which seemed to come every five minutes or so. Getting to the festival itself was practically painless, although I did feel for those people who were juggling folding chairs, kid-strollers and a dog or two on leashes. Did I mention that this was a totally dog-friendly event? Why, certainly it was. Although only dachshunds or mostly-dachshunds can run as contestants in the races, other dogs were totally welcome into the venue itself, and even into many of the shops open on Main Street. I think about a third of the people there had dogs with them, my daughter says no, more like half ... but as there were as many attendees who had multiple dogs, so it probably came out pretty much like. And if you didn't arrive with a dog, there were opportunities offered by various dachshund rescue associations to leave with one, if you were so inclined. Dachshunds are jolly little dogs, friendly for the most part – and they made a fine show in the first heats, too. None of them lost interest half-way down the track, although some owners of fine racing wiener dog stock tell us that the racing is something that they really have to be in the mood for doing. A lot of the vendors had dog and dog-related items; stuffed sock dogs, metal art featuring wiener-dogs, jewelry ... and dog treats, of all kinds. The two creators of OohLaLa Gourmet Dog Treats even went so far as to tell us that their dog treat cookies were so wholesome and good that they could even be eaten by humans. There was one thing that we did notice, though ... the whole of that afternoon in Buda, we didn't see a single cat. I wonder why? More Info...  

Its time again for my monthly update, I may be a few days late but its been extremely busy with planting and all that goes along with being a land salesman and auctioneer.  April brought about some of the biggest changes and accomplishments for DreamDirt and DreamDirt TV yet, we continue to move forward with [...] More Info...  

PRESS RELEASE: VLB now offering $417,000 for home purchases, $100,000 for land Benefits for Texas veterans continue to grow with unanimous vote by board VLB now offering $417,000 for home purchases, $100,000 for land Benefits for Texas veterans continue to grow with unanimous vote by board   FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 26, 2012 AUSTIN - Texas veterans can now take advantage of the VLB's low-interest rate loans to borrow as much as $417,000 to buy a home and $100,000 to buy land. The Texas Veterans Land Board voted unanimously today to increase the home and land loan limits in the latest expansion of benefits under the leadership of Chairman Jerry Patterson. "Texas veterans have more than earned this increased VLB benefit," Patterson said. "Increasing these loan limits gives Texas veterans additional purchasing power to buy the home of their dreams or a find a little piece of Texas to call their own." Since taking office in 2003, Patterson has raised the amount Texas veterans may borrow for a home from $150,000 up to $417,000. Buying land throughout the VLB has gotten easier, too. Under Patterson's direction, the VLB has reduced the minimum acreage that could be bought with a VLB land loan from five acres to one acre, making it easier for veterans to buy lots closer to urban areas. A Texas veteran can simultaneously have a VLB land loan, a VLB home loan and a VLB home improvement loan. The Texas Veterans Land Board was created in 1946 to help veterans returning from World War II buy land for agricultural purposes. The program has changed over the years as land prices rose sharply and VLB land loan amounts have increased from the original $7,500. "No other state can match what the VLB offers: low-cost home, land and home improvement loans; skilled nursing facilities and cemeteries - all exclusively for Texas veterans or their spouses," Patterson said. "And all of our programs are self-funding, which is good news for Texas taxpayers." For more information on Texas Veterans Land Board home, land and home improvement loans, Texas State Veterans Homes, or Texas State Veterans Cemeteries, call 1-800-252-VETS (1-800-252-8387), or visit the Veterans Land Board Web site at www.texasveterans.com. More Info...