LOCAL ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE EDITION JUNE 2008 WINDSWINDS of CHANGECHANGE Kathy Lusk Tracks Wind from Canada to Mexico PLUS A Good Day for Flying Steel Farmers’ Bounty Hit the Road: Corpus Christi to the King Ranch BACKYARD BUILDING KITS A permanent storage solution in your backyard! Size shown: 12' x 21' x 8' 26-gauge roof and wall Sizes available include: Easy construction – Trim package and • • sheets with 30-year 6'x9'x7' 9'x12'x7' just bolt it together door included • • limited paint warranty 12' x 15' x 7' 12' x 21' x 8' • 18' x 21' x 8' CHOOSE FROM OVER 30 COLORS!* Available at 27 convenient locations! 877-2-MUELLER www.MuellerInc.com Please check local building codes before ordering your Mueller building. *Colors may vary in printed material. Most popular colors are shown above. June 2008 VOLUME 64 NUMBER 12 FEATURES 6 Winds of Change By Eileen Mattei Photos by Woody Welch Meet Kathy Lusk, one of the first wind power scouts in West Texas. 12 A Good Day for Flying Steel By Kaye Northcott Photos by Woody Welch Nolan and Taylor counties are the Saudi Arabia of wind power. 6 FAVORITES Footnotes By Judy Alter The Rise of a Baking Empire 25 Recipe Roundup Farmers’ Bounty 26 Focus on Texas Courthouses 35 Around Texas Local Events Listings 36 Hit the Road By Camille Wheeler Corpus Christi to the King Ranch 38 25 26 35 12 TEXAS ELECTRIC COOPERATIVES BOARD OF DIRECTORS: Greg Jones, Chair, Rusk; Ray Beavers, Vice Chair, Cleburne; Darren Schauer, Secretary-Treasurer, Gonzales; James Calhoun, Franklin; Steve Louder, Hereford; Gary Nietsche, La Grange; William “Buff” Whitten, Eldorado PRESIDENT/CEO: Mike Williams, Austin Texas Co-op Power is published by your STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS ADVISORY COMMITTEE: Roland Witt, Chair, Coleman; Bill Harbin, Vice Chair, Floydada; Roy Griffin, Edna; Kim Hooper, Bluegrove; Steve Young, Hamil ton; Robert A. Loth III, Fredericksburg; Melody Pinnell, Crockett electric cooperative to enhance the qual- COMMUNICATIONS STAFF: Martin Bevins, Sales Director; Carol Moczygemba, Executive Editor; Kaye Northcott, Editor; ity of life of its member-customers in an Suzi Sands, Art Director; Karen Nejtek, Production Manager; Andy Doughty, Production Designer; Sandra Forston, Communications Assistant; Melissa Grischkowsky, Communications Coordinator; Kevin Hargis, Copy Editor; Shannon Oelrich, educational and entertaining format. Food Editor; Dacia Rivers, Field Editor; Camille Wheeler, Staff Writer COVER PHOTO by Woody Welch June 2008 TEXAS CO-OP POWER 3 your back is turned! It creates a sterile monoculture thwarting letters all efforts at habitat creation. MAGGIE LIVINGS Volunteer, Lady Bird Johnson LOCAL ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE EDITION MARCH 2008 Wildflower Center, Loyal Valley LILT AND TUNA FISH, UGH WILDTexas Backyards Gone I, too, have fond memories of those Toni or Lilt home perma- nents (“A Permanent Memory,” April 2008) but Mom didn’t PLUS make stew on those days. My Bamboo Cooking with Soda Pop younger brother to this day will Hit the Road: Fort Davis to Alpine not eat tuna fish sandwiches because he said on entering the MESQUITE WORSE house on “permanent” days he THAN BAMBOO knew from the smell it would be Author Clay Coppedge incor- tuna fish for supper. Of course, I rectly states (March 2008) don’t remember that, but the that bamboo once served as school pictures are a reminder a windbreak along the River of the fuzzy hair! Styx—a claim that those of ROSIE YAW us intimately knowledgeable Pedernales Electric Cooperative about the River Styx know is incorrect. The windbreaks MANY HATS OFF along the River Styx are com- Hats off to Tim Gearn, who posed of South Texas’ own is featured in “Hereford’s mesquite trees, which are Backyard Ferris Wheel” surely much more of a horror (February 2008), and his com- than the lovely bamboo plant. passion for us folks of another It is fitting and appropriate that era and anyone who desires a mesquite wood’s most useful simpler, slower pace of life. purpose is its embers, which I don’t mind being 90 feet flavor Texas barbecue, perhaps high; it’s those 70-foot drops of an ethereal lesson to all. roller coasters and splash- GUY MATTHEWS water log rides that give me San Patricio Electric Cooperative heart palpitations. Hats off also to the “Country STICK WITH NATIVE PLANTS Doctors” (February 2008), but, “Texas Backyards Gone Wild” most of all, to Texas Co-op (March 2008) was an excel- Power articles recognizing ded- HOW DOES YOUR GARBAGE GROW? lent inspiration for folks who icated employees. I reported an are rethinking traditional land- outage at 2:30 a.m. one night, WAY TOO FAST! scaping and moving toward and by 3:30 a.m. a very nice In 2006, Americans produced 251 million tons of munici- habitat creation with the use employee from San Bernard pal solid waste prior to recycling, according to the of native plants. Electric Cooperative called, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). That works out Unfortunately, when I telling me service was restored, to about 4 1/2 pounds a day for every man, woman and turned the page and saw the everything was A-OK and to child in the country. Fortunately, 82 million tons of that article on “Bamboo: The Good, have a good night’s rest. material was recycled or composted that year. the Bad and the Ugly”—all I HELEN T. ROGERS The EPA estimates that materials recycled in 2006 could see was the ugly. This San Bernard Electric Cooperative include: was certainly a disappointing AUTO BATTERIES 99 percent TIRES 34.9 percent article to follow “Gone Wild.” STEEL CANS PLASTIC HDPE MILK AND Bamboo, like the Nandina, or We want to hear from our readers. Send 62.9 percent letters to: Editor, Texas Co-op Power, 2550 YARD TRIMMINGS 62 percent WATER BOTTLES 31 percent Heavenly Bamboo, a native of S. IH-35, Austin, TX 78704, e-mail us at PAPER AND PAPERBOARD PLASTIC SOFT DRINK China and Japan, (Nandina [email protected], or submit online at www.texascooppower.com. Please include 51.6 percent BOTTLES 30.9 percent domestica) is non-native, ter- the name of your town and electric co-op. ALUMINUM BEER AND SOFT GLASS CONTAINERS ribly invasive, and will choke Letters may be edited for clarity and length and are printed as space allows. Read addi- DRINK CANS 45.1 percent 25.3 percent out our native vegetation while tional letters at www.texascooppower.com. 4 TEXAS CO-OP POWER June 2008 HAPPENINGS August 27 is the 100th anniversary of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s birth, and the LBJ National Historical Park is having many fun events this summer. We recommend watch- WHO KNEW? ing “MOVIES UNDER THE STARS” at the LBJ Ranch airplane hangar. LBJ con- The Governor’s Division of verted the hangar into a theater where he frequently projected first-run movies for friends Emergency Management is and neighbors. headquartered in a bunker 26 Those bygone movie fests will be re- feet below the Department of created on a professional screen. The parks Public Safety headquarters staff has been careful to select movies it building in Austin. The 12,000- knows LBJ watched at the ranch. Free for square-foot bunker was built in your viewing pleasure will be “True Grit” 1964 and carved into the area’s on June 21, “Oliver” on July 26 and limestone and caliche soil. “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” on Plumbing and lighting fixtures August 9. Bring the kids, chairs or blan- were mounted with shock- kets and a picnic basket. Come around absorbing springs to protect 6 p.m. The movies start at dark. them from breakage. In 1992, For a full list of what’s planned, go to renovations doubled the size of www.nps.gov/lyjo. the shelter, which is equipped with kitchen and decontamina- tion facilities, and added MILE-HIGH ACCOMMODATIONS IN FORT DAVIS upgrades such as state-of-the- art computer equipment and The Hotel Limpia, which sits next to the town square in Fort Davis, once boasted that, at a communication systems. In mile above sea level, it was the highest hotel in Texas. It was built in 1912 by the Union case of emergency, workers Trading Company to accommodate ranching families who came to town for supplies as would be protected behind well as tourists, who continue to visit the 31-room inn. 10,000-pound entrance doors. Today the hotel is run by Joe Duncan and The bunker provides protection his wife, Lanna. In addition to the main build- from radioactive fallout and ing, constructed out of locally quarried pink can resist the structural granite, the Hotel Limpia offers accommoda- effects of a 20-megaton blast tions in two annexes and in several historic within 5 miles. homes nearby. It features spacious porches with rocking chairs perfect for kicking back and enjoying the mountain air. — From Historic Hotels of Texas: A Traveler’s Guide, Texas Co-op Power (USPS 540-560) is pub- Texas A&M University Press, first edition, 2007 lished monthly by Texas Electric Cooperatives (TEC). Periodical Postage Paid at Austin, TX, and at additional offices. TEC is the statewide association representing 74 electric coopera- tives. Texas Co-op Power’s website is www PERFECT HARMONY .texascooppower.com. Call (512) 454-0311 or Austin’s South by Southwest Music e-mail [email protected]. It used to be that if you wanted to Festival. In May, they were booked Subscription price is $3.84 per year for individ- ual members of subscribing cooperatives. If you hear the Quebe Sisters Band, you’d to represent Justin Boots at Warren are not a member of a subscribing cooperative, have to go to the Fort Worth area.