Blanco Pickers

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On Friday we drove out to Blanco (it's an hour or so west of Austin past Dripping Springs, south of Johnson City, towards Fredricksburg and Luckenbach) to visit with our friends Wendy and Tammy who we know from our Galapagos Tour (2019). We've kept in touch over the years by email but haven't seen them since 2020 when we were last in Austin (pre-pandemic). They are a lovely couple, fun to be with and very energetic. I don't know how they have the strength.

There were a couple of reasons for the visit. First, they are building a home atop a hill in the rolling mesquite covered hill-country between Blanco and Johnson City. I like to think we have "friends in high places". It's an architected "California modern", still under construction, but, apart from landscaping, is really taking shape. They hope to be finished by summer time. The photo album has a panorama photo of their infinity pool with a view of the valley and country side beyond. I didn't take any other pictures  — I should have but didn't. 

They have 26 acres or so of scrub country in a gated community of similar hill top homes. One reason it's gated is for the "wild life". There are African gazelles and other exotics wandering about! It's gated and fenced to keep the critters in (and, I suppose, to keep the hoodlums out). 

The other interesting thing about this build is the fact that it's out in the country where the land is really harsh and unforgiving. That anything grows here, beyond the scrub brush, is a miracle. You'd be hard pressed to find any water if you were to drill a well. From their hill top you can see a dammed river in the valley below but it's not for them. Instead, they have a huge water tank (30,000 gallons) and collect all the rain water from the roofs of their home and nearby garage/gym. That also means they have their own water treatment system to filter the water and then UV sterilization. Wendy tells me the infinity pool will lose a thousand gallons a month to evaporation so who knows how well this will work in the hot dry summer months. We did have a torrential rainfall one day while in Austin, that would have helped.

They have their own infrastructure beyond the water supply to support living here. They had to trench in electricity, they have a large propane tank in ground and a propane fired generator should the electricity fail, and of course there's a septic system and weeping bed scratched out of the rocky hillside. The road up to their build is pretty steep and quite rough — it will be paved in due course.

There is an attached, but separate, guest quarters with two bedrooms, two baths, with showers glassed floor to ceiling so you can enjoy the view while soaping up. It's quite luxurious; our digs in Austin (and our home in St Marys) are very modest by comparison.

The second reason for the visit is the "Blanco Pickers' Circle". Every Friday night around 5:00 to 7:00 local players gather at the Lavender and Leather shop on the town square to play a few tunes. Tammy is one of those pickers and she was there to play a couple of tunes. During the warmer days, when the sun is out longer, they gather outside on the street at this store. At this time of year the sun is down by 6:00 so they are performing in the basement (back room) of the shop. The lady who runs the shop welcomes us and we end up with some souvenir T-shirts that Wendy and Tammy insist they will buy for us. We get a third for our friend Dianne back home who is also a picker and is watching our house.

Blanco is a small town of not quite 2,000 residents but there are quite a few of them at this event!  I count about 20 players, some on guitar, others on ukulele, several on percussion and tunes varied from originals, to covers (everyone sings along with "Angel from Montgomery") and even some Rap music but no Conjunto! One guy did a funny song about there not being any Reggae in Blanco. Another did a very clever country parody song about a Tennessee breakup where the fellow didn't miss his ex but sure did miss the double-wide and the satellite dish. That was another song you could join in on. It was quite a lively gathering.

Wendy and Tammy know everyone and everyone knows them. For a small backwater town it seems to have attracted more than it's fair share of lefties, liberals, libertines and democrats. For example, Wendy and Tammy are getting training to be Poll Workers for the coming election — they're not doing it for the money. I'm not going to repeat the stories that Wendy told us, but suffice to say there are some very interesting characters and some stories to tell. I think some of these characters have retreated here for the small town anonymity which I will honor.

After the pickin' we went across the town square to the Redbud for dinner. There was live music there as well! What an interesting town.