{Echo} Week 25 - Homestead

" Sugarcane on the Prairie"

I have a good friend named Agnes.  You may remember her from the Marburger Farm post.  She is a most talented lady who owns a business called Wilde Weedze.  Agnes  grows  a beautiful assortment of flowers, ornamental grasses, trees, and more.......all located in and around her home.   She is also an antiques dealer, who has a great space in Nothing Ordinary Antiques & Oddities, in Bellville, Texas.

She and her husband Michael own a 72 acre farm on the Katy Prairie.  The property, which at that time was about 1,100 acres, was purchased by Michael's great-grandfather H.F. Granau.  Later Michael's grandmother, Lottie Strauss, inherited the property, then passing a portion of it down to Michael.  Agnes & Michael now own 72 acres of the original property, and have lived there for 25 years.  They raise healthy fat Texas cattle,  but during the 1970s, like much of the Prairie, rice was raised in most of this area, 
as well as corn in the 1990s.

This part of Texas is also part of my life, as I too live on the Prairie, just much closer to Houston, in the small growing larger, town of Katy.  The unincorporated parcels of the Prairie, continues to be home to all things that the Katy Prairie Conservancy is trying to save, which includes native quail, dove, deer, and of course, geese (in season).

In autumn, just after the huge rice crops have been harvested, the Katy Prairie become the site of one of the most incredible natural spectacles in North America, as thousands, then millions of migratory birds arrive~especially waterfowl.  For most of them, the Katy Prairie is a winter home until March, when they return to nesting in the upper Midwest and Canada.  Others use the Prairie as a staging area on their way south, or may choose to remain here for the entire year.

"Lacecap Hydrangea" 

Be sure and check out Susan & Chrysti's diptych for this echo prompt, and look for more pictures from the group here. 

I must say......this was one of my favorite prompts to date!