Outdoors With Mat Taylor
Be thankful for all of the outdoors activities we enjoy

Former Soil Conservation Service employee and longtime writer Mat Taylor offers his outdoors column for Dispatch Record readers. He can be contacted at (254) 518-2262 or via email at mntaylor@agristar.net.

When someone says they participate in outdoor recreation or an outdoor activity, what do they mean? When I think of the outdoors, I think of going hunting or fishing, or maybe camping or wildlife watching. Anything done outside one's home or business, however, could be classified as an outdoor activity.

My wife, Nelda, and I enjoy an afternoon walk several times a week. We take various routes through our pasture, enjoying the cool breezes and seeing an occasional deer. Walking or jogging, especially in a rural area, is a healthy outdoor activity.

Even sitting on the grass in W.M. Brook Park feeding the ducks qualifies. Anything done in the fresh air and sunshine is good for the soul and body.

Last Sunday, Nelda and I participated in another form of outdoor activity. We are members of Kempner First Baptist Church, and our congregation held an outdoor worship service on property the church owns and which hopefully it will build a new church complex in the future.

A Sunday morning in mid- November is often welcomed with a frost or cold rain, but God must have been in favor of our outdoor service, as the weather was unseasonably warm with periods of sunshine and beautiful clouds. It was windy but not too bad.

More than 50 persons attended and heard a sermon from pastor Don Casper and special music from Duby Todd. All in all, everyone on the hill enjoyed the service, experienced worship in the outdoors and viewed some of God's amazing creation.

Speaking of the weather, Lampasas County is really getting dry. After receiving over 50 inches on my property during the first six months of the year, the rain spigot has almost been turned off. In the month of August only 0.3 inches fell. In September, historically one of the wettest months of the year, just 2.1 inches was measured, and for the last month and a half only 0.6 inches fell here.

The area has gone from flooding -- with all its problems, such as washed out roads and fences, and damaged homes -- to near drought conditions. On our ranch there is still a lot of vegetation on the ground but it has turned dry, and I now worry about a grass fire. I was happy to hear the county commissioners implemented an outdoor burn ban last week.

This time of year there normally is a good supply of winter grasses and forbs, but not this year. I recently visited with Derrick Wolters, TPWD wildlife biologist for Lampasas, Bell and Coryell counties. He said although the deer are still in good body condition, the lack of rain and winter food soon will have an effect. The shortage of green forage should help hunters harvest a deer as more are coming to corn feeders.

Wolters added that in his three counties, there have not been many deer brought in to processing plants, except for the first weekend. That is due to aboveaverage temperatures this season. Who wants to sit in a deer blind and sweat?

I have not even picked up my deer rifle, as I don't hunt deer when it is so warm. I probably will not kill one on our place this season, but if I get the urge, I will wait until it is cooler.

The cool front last Thursday cooled things off considerably and made it seem more like fall and hunting season.

Thursday is Thanksgiving. That is the day we should be thankful for all the blessings of living in the United States.

I particularly will give thanks that day for living in a country where I can hunt and fish, where I have the right to keep and bear arms, and where I can worship -- or not -- as I please.

Of course, I also am thankful for my family and friends, for the readers of this column, and especially for all the servicemen and women who are in foreign lands protecting our rights and freedoms.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone, and next week I will relate some Thanksgiving fishing and hunting stories.