Refused to languish in town

I laid around the Alpine house most of the day, feeling drained and puny. Finally, decided that wasn't acceptable so late afternoon I headed to Terlingua Ranch to visit a birder friend there who said he had a Short-eared Owl at his place. That would be a lifer for me so I braved the elements. It was warmer than in Alpine and the wind had finally settled down. I think I saw the owl foraging about a third of a mile away. Could only locate with binoculars, but it was a large owl and the friend said the only one around was the Short-eared.

From there I went to CMO. In the morning I intend to tackle the plumbing problem in the lower dirt tank. And should I have any energy left over I hope to remove a large prickly pear that has to be sacrificed in order to expand the parking lot by 6 more feet. I know the parking area looks big on photos, but it's too small for a vehicle to turn around in.

As my avid followers know, I'm really intrigued by old historic area churches, and especially the one at Ruidosa. To see my previous posts regarding that, do a search of "Ruidosa" in the search window of this blog. Someone posted this remarkable photo on Facebook today. It appears to me to be the oldest photo of the Ruidosa church I've seen, and surely older than any other I've posted. I'm trying to get more info on this photo. The person that posted it said it was taken c.1906. That seems credible, except that records state the church was built in 1914.

Here's another I found online that was taken in the same time frame. They both have a ladder going up to the bell tower. First I had seen that.