HIGH POINTS FROM EL CAMINO REAL
CHRIS DAVIS elcaminoreal@consolidated.net
Romance is in the air along El Camino Real with Valentine's Day upon us. People are rushing to buy their favorite Valentine chocolate candy and flowers. School kids have been busy making their Valentine cards and getting ready for their Valentine parties at school. Valentine's Day was always especially exciting when we were in school. I don't think any of us were looking for a sweetheart in elementary school, but we always looked forward to some of those little heartshaped candies with writing on them that someone would drop in your very well-decorated Valentine box or sack. Then in high school they started giving carnations - a guy could do all right as long as they were giving candy, but when they started giving flowers, now that's when the real teasing started. I'm not much of a romantic, so the best you can hope for here is your four bits' worth of news.

Barbara Grogan is still recovering from the broken shoulder she received after a dive off of her porch a few weeks ago. She doesn't know whether she will have to have surgery or not. Let's keep her in our prayers and hope she doesn't have to go under the knife to get well. We are thinking about you, Barbara.

Larry Davis (left) and Billy Ray Johnson harvested three pigs in a trap set with ony a handful of corn. The men hope to feed a church group, Campers for Christ.

Lance Low has something to brag about this week. He won a big award at the San Antonio Livestock Show for his Beefmaster heifer. I guess it's a heifer - I don't know, it may be a bull. I just know Lance did really well and won a nice scholarship for his efforts. He would have probably preferred cash. Paying for college is what moms and dads are for. Lance has done really well this year at all the shows, so I guess he has a real showy Beefmaster. It's been teaching Lance a few things, too. Last year it taught him that you shouldn't unload cows in flip flops. One wrong step and bye bye toenail, hello pain. Congratulations, Lance! Call me when the steaks are on the grill!

Our son Garrett underwent surgery on Friday to have a hernia repaired that he got pole vaulting in high school last year. Being 18 he bounced back a lot quicker than I would have. After two or three chocolate pies and a day of sleep he was up and on the go again. We've sent him back to college and the only sign he left behind was a few dirty dishes and half empty glasses in his room. Most of our kids will be taking the TAKS (Texas Assessment of Skills) test next week and we need to do everything we can to make sure they are focused and prepared when they sit down at their desks. We need to try and keep confusion down to a minimum in our homes so the children will be well-rested and ready to go to work on the test.

If your house is like ours that is a near impossibility, but at least try to keep the noise levels to a dull roar. Fortunately football season is over, so the fights over who has the best team shouldn't enter into the fray. A good breakfast has been shown to increase our children's thinking skills. I think the school provides breakfast during testing, but you better make sure. Cocoa Puffs are not brain food, no matter what you may have heard. Bacon, eggs and biscuits - now that's brain food. All jokes aside, these tests are very important for our kids and for our school districts and every parent has to do their part to make sure our kids succeed. Whether you like the idea of the test or not, we've got it and we have to live by its results. Make sure your child is rested and ready to do well when they go to school next week.

The story of the three little pigs took a new twist last week. My dad, Larry Davis and Billy Ray Johnson had been huffing and puffing at the round table at the café for a couple of weeks about catching some wild hogs. They finally got their energy levels up enough to go and put out a trap. Daddy made the deal with Billy Ray in the café on how the work and hogs would be divided up. Billy Ray would furnish the trap, the corn, the labor, dress the hogs and cook the hogs. Daddy said that he would furnish the place to set the trap and also furnish an appetite after Billy Ray cooks the hogs.

After all the planning the great white hunters went to work setting the trap. Billy Ray wasn't about to waste any corn - that stuff costs money, so he only put out about 25 kernels to bait the trap. The next morning the hunters found three young pigs in their trap. After taking pictures of their prize catch, the pigs were off to Billy Ray's for processing. I talked to daddy and he seems to think that what they need is some magnifying glasses for the hogs. That is the only way they will be able to find that little sprinkling of corn that Billy Ray is throwing out.

Billy Ray and daddy are planning to feed the Campers for Christ hog meat when they go on their camping trip in a few months. With no more hogs than those two are catching they are going to need a " fishes and loaves miracle." I look for this pork production venture to be out of business in a very short time. If they put a bounty on feral hogs, don't expect to see this pair on the cover of Fortune Magazine.

The news has been a little slow around here the past few weeks. I'm hoping that warmer weather will get folks stirring and making news before too long.

I'll see ya next week! And remember, The footsteps of a child are most likely to be the ones his parents thought they covered up.