Cows of Unusual Size

July 1 – 4, 2022

We needed a break. On a whim I checked the schedule at the Lindsay Ranch and, surprisingly, Mason Mountain Manor was available during Independence Day weekend. So, I sent in a request for those dates, and then we packed up and headed off for a few days of fun and relaxation in the Hill Country.

The Lindsay Ranch is one of our most favorite places. Mrs. Lindsay is a gracious host, and opens the ranch up to guests for exploration, relaxation, and rock hunting. Those are three of my favorite things, which is why it’s the perfect getaway spot.

It was very hot during our visit, though. We’re in the middle of a heat wave here in Texas. As a result, we didn’t do a lot of rock hunting; but we did explore a bit and spent a good deal of time just sitting and resting.

Mason Mountain Manor is located at the foot of Mason Mountain. Now, you true Mountain People may laugh at us Texans who call “hills” mountains, but we take what we can get around here. So, you will have to forgive us for revering our “land bumps” as mountains. They are special to us.

Anyway, one day during our visit we drove up to the top of Mason Mountain to enjoy the scenery. The Lindsays have cleared an area on the south side for family gatherings and have placed a memorial to family members who have passed. They recently erected a cross on the far end. It’s a beautiful spot with a view of much of the surrounding countryside.

The top of the mountain is about 100 feet above the front yard of the manor.

From here one can see most of the Lindsay Ranch, as well as neighboring ranches and the city of Mason in the distance. I imagine that this would be a great spot to camp out and stargaze.

There are a few roads that run around and on top of Mason Mountain. The road along the west side runs north from the Manor and meets with another road that runs up to the top of the mountain. From the top, one can turn either north or south to clearings that offer fantastic views (the southern clearing is the family memorial area). Continuing past the mountain path, the road leads to a real, working windmill. The windmill pumps water into an above-ground concrete tank.

The road continues north around the windmill and then turns west and heads up onto the mountain. The ascending portion of the road is very rocky and jagged, though, and even in my 4×4 truck I was hesitant to attempt it without first airing down the tires. Sunset was near, and I didn’t want to end up spending time refilling the tires in the dark or, worse, risk losing a tire on a hillside at the back of the property; so, we decided to attempt the climb on a future visit.

But we weren’t ready to stop exploring, yet. Like I mentioned earlier, the weather was hot. The evenings were more comfortable, though, so we wanted to take advantage of the slightly cooler temperatures and what light we had to look around some more.

Heading back south, we got back onto Lindsay Ranch Road, which runs by the Manor, and headed for a pasture on the east side of the mountain. This pasture is visible in the image above that looks toward U.S. 87.

Last year the Lindsays cleared the pasture, erasing part of a road that led to two popular rock hunting sites. They put in a new road that joined a remaining portion of original the road to one site. My hope was to find a remnant of the other road but, sadly, it is gone. It is still visible on Google satellite view as of this writing, though, so it is possible to retrace the route across the pasture in a 4×4.

Seeing that the road was gone, we decided to take a quick look at another road that runs along the eastern edge of Mason Mountain. That road is accessed from another road that loops from the new road we had just explored to Lindsay Ranch Road at a point near the Manor. As we were turning onto this road we came across a jackrabbit!

We watched the jackrabbit go about its business for quite some time. It didn’t seem to be bothered by our presence. When it moved off the path a bit, we continued along to see what there was to see.

A little way down “Jackrabbit Road” we turned at a junction onto the road that runs along the east side of Mason Mountain. The views here were quite beautiful with the sun setting behind the hills. I spotted a large clump of hedgehog cacti growing at the base of a dead mesquite tree. The tree, cacti, and sunset behind the hill made for a serene, surreal experience. Or perhaps it was just the effect of the heat.

The road ended at a hunting blind. We were presented with a spectacular view of the ridge, with a thunderstorm in the distance to the north. I told Kristi that this looked like a scene from The Lord of the Rings.

The sun was low, and it was getting very dark to the east, so we decided that it was time to head back to the Manor. We paused at the place where we saw the jackrabbit, in case we had the opportunity to see it again–it was gone. By that time the clouds in the north had grown a bit. It looked like a scene that might have inspired ancient myths about monsters and giants.

That evening Kristi made us a delicious dinner of pan-fried rib eyes, buttered squash and zucchini, and macaroni and cheese!

The next day we went back to the pasture and followed the route of the “erased” road. I watched the satellite view on the truck’s Google Maps display while carefully plotting a course around obstacles. We managed to find our way back to the rock hunting site at one of the granite outcroppings.

Kristi and I spent some time rock hunting in and near a wash but didn’t find anything spectacular. Most of the rock is degraded granite, with a few pieces of quartz. Perhaps if we had spent more time looking we might have found some interesting things, but the day was heating up fast.

Next, we drove down Jackrabbit Road to do some rock hunting at a spot beyond the junction where we had turned the previous evening. A short walk from the road I spied something that I haven’t seen in decades. Termites will build “mud tubes” around plants. This protects the termites from the elements while they eat away the plant material. There must be a sizeable colony in this location, as there is a large area with sticks and clumps of grass covered in these mud tubes.

Nearby was this heart-shaped prickly pear lobe. More termite tubes are visible in this image:

Jackrabbit Road ends at Lindsay Ranch Road, but the portion near the end is badly washed out. We stopped just short of that area where I noticed this interesting colony of fungus:

We went back to the Manor to clean up and get ready for a trip into town.

Now, you’re probably wondering, after reading my ramblings this far and looking at all of the pictures, why this post is titled “Cows of Unusual Size.” I’m getting to that. But first, we had to make a trip into town. And getting to town from the Manor takes a while. Along the way we saw some of Mrs. Lindsay’s sheep enjoying a cool spot under a tree while chewing their cud.

After our brief visit with the sheep, we drove into Mason for lunch at Nacho’s Cafe. The Tex-Mex there is pretty good. It’s not the best but consider the fact that Kristi and I live in a town with a population of about 42,000 that has no less than 30 Tex-Mex restaurants and food trucks–and that doesn’t include other restaurants, such as Chili’s, that have Tex-Mex as part of a larger selection. So, Nacho’s is worth a visit if you’re in Mason.

Now, back to the Cows of Unusual Size, or C.O.U.S. (pronounced “cows”).

On our previous visit, last year, we were out exploring near town when we happened upon a small ranch. This is certainly not an unusual thing to see in this area–or pretty much anywhere in Texas, for that matter. When I first laid eyes on the cows out in the pasture, though, something struck me as odd. These were not ordinary cows. These cows were HUGE. And not, “they’ve been fed really well” or “they’re some obviously special breed of larger-than-average cow.” Well, maybe the latter, but the whole scene was…I hate to use this word twice in one post…surreal.

It just didn’t make sense.

I didn’t say anything to Kristi, but when I looked at her a moment later, she said, “Those cows look really big.” It was then that I understood that I was not hallucinating or otherwise imagining the absurd scale of these bovines.

The whole incident was so shocking that neither of us thought at that moment to take any pictures. And to this day I do not know why we didn’t turn around and take some.

So, ever since then, whenever we see cows in a pasture (which is a lot because…you know…Texas) we say to one another, “Those are some regular-sized cows.” And we vowed that on our next visit to Mason we would revisit the same spot to either confirm our original observation or prove it wrong.

Well, on our first attempt, which was made the same day that we drove to the windmill and saw the jackrabbit, there were no cows to be seen.

But this day was different. There were three cows in the pasture, albeit far from the road, and they DID look huge!

Now, don’t jump ahead to the pictures just yet. Listen to me. Or at least read what I have to say. I fully accept that you are unlikely to agree with Kristi and me that these are Cows of Unusual Size. You may think, “They’re just normal cows. What’s the big deal?” Or you might think, “It’s a trick of perspective.” I agree that it might be perspective, but there are too many things in the scene that we saw for us to make that conclusion. You have to see this for yourself to appreciate it. Regardless, we know what we saw.

So, without further ado, here is our paltry proof of the existence of Cows of Unusual Size in Mason, Texas:

For comparison, these cows were chilling in the shade across the highway. These are Regular-sized Cows:

If anyone is traveling to Mason and wants to see the C.O.U.S. to determine for yourselves whether they are, in fact, of Unusual Size, then drop me a line and I will give you their precise location.

After our mind-blowing experience we ended up on Ranch Road 1871, which runs southwest of Mason. This road crosses the beautiful Llano River at a low-water crossing. A proper bridge is currently under construction.

Yes, the river really is that beautiful. If you ever visit Llano, Texas, I encourage you to go to Leonard Grenwelge County Park, located next to the Roy Inks Bridge on Ford Street (Hwy 16). It’s a fun place to visit and see the river up close. The bridge has a foot path. The old town square and county courthouse are within walking distance of the park to the south, and a railroad museum is located on the north side of the river next to the bridge. The bridge has a foot path.

Continuing a little further past the low-water crossing, there is a small scenic overlook of the bluffs along the river.

We continued down RR 1871 for a while before stopping and turning back. Our original plan was to follow a route that would bring us back to Mason on the north side of town, but, as I will explain later, we decided to alter our plans.

On our way back into town we stopped at a historical marker next to a replica of the Whorlie Well. This is the site where Deputy Sheriff John Whorlie was murdered by Scott Cooley during the early days of the Mason County “Hoodoo War.” Cooley blamed Whorlie for the death of his friend and adopted family member Tim Williamson. Whorlie had arrested Williamson for stealing cattle and was taking him to Mason to post bond when a mob ambushed them and killed Williamson. This was part of a larger and very complicated conflict over cattle rustling between groups of citizens in Mason County. The “Hoodoo War” is both a violent and fascinating episode in Texas history. If you would like to learn more about it, then I suggest purchasing a copy of Good Times, Clay Lindsay: A Good Man from Mason, Texas by Deloris Haley Lindsay. It is available on Kindle and in paperback from Amazon. Autographed copies may be purchased directly from Mrs. Lindsay. All proceeds for the book are donated to the Friends of the Mason County Courthouse rebuilding fund.

We were pretty tired after the day’s adventures, so we retired to the Manor, and spent most of the evening sitting on the porch watching the hummingbirds and other wildlife.

Most of our last day at the Lindsay Ranch was spent packing for the trip home. We got to have a nice visit with Mrs. Lindsay, which is always a highlight of our trips to the ranch.

But no trip to the Lindsay Ranch is entirely complete without a few sightings of the ranch’s mascot, Oreo the Longhorn. Oreo is one of the Lindsay’s pets. His job is to adorn the ranch with his presence, and pretty much nothing more as far as I can tell, which is perfectly fine.

What’s more Texas than that?

So, why did we turn around on RR 1871? I promised that I would explain.

On the way to Mason–in fact, for a while before our trip–we have noticed that the truck has been “riding rough.” At first, I thought it was just the roads. At highway speeds the truck would shudder a bit from time-to-time. I started noticing that it didn’t seem to shudder at the same points along the roadway. Kristi and I discussed it quite a bit on our way to the ranch, and while we were there, I did some research.

It turns out that our model of Chevrolet Colorado sometimes suffers from transmission issues that are caused by the gears being installed with tolerances that are too tight. The result is that the gears grind against one another and leave shavings in the transmission fluid. The symptomatic shuddering feels like going over rumble strips, and primarily occurs at highway speeds, especially when going uphill. GM’s recommended procedure for dealing with the issue is to perform a transmission flush, although owners of Colorados have reported that this is only a temporary fix.

It was during the RR 1871 drive that we decided that it was probably a good idea to head back to the ranch and not risk anything happening to the truck in that area. There wasn’t a lot of traffic there, mobile signal was weak, and the temperature was over 100F. I had found no reports of people being stranded by this problem, but I didn’t want us to be the first.

We got the truck home with no problems, other than the shuddering. As of this writing the truck is at a local dealership being worked on. The flush and any repairs should be covered under the manufacturer warranty.

So, adventures are on hold again for a little while.

That’s probably a good thing, though, with the current heat wave. Perhaps we might make some shorter trips and explore some of the nearby towns, though.

I hope you enjoyed this post. Despite being summer, we haven’t had a lot of opportunities to go on adventures. We are very glad that we got to visit the Lindsay Ranch again, and we thank you, Mrs. Lindsay, for your graciousness and hospitality!