InterActive Theater in The Heights & Gonzales' "Come and Take It"

The STORY of the LONE STAR STATE

Tuesday, October 1, 2013  & Thursday, October 10, 2013

Home School Happenings occur the first Tuesday of each show run.  The performance starts at 11:15am and the cost of anyone attending this performance is $6.00.  That is a large reduction of our usual $10.00 ticket price for individuals.
http://www.interact ivetheater. org/ticketsinfo/ home-schoo- happenings
Box Office at (713) 862-7112 




                                        "Come and Take It" Festival in Gonzales, Texas
And for those families teaching Texas history this year, Gonzales, TX hosts it's annual "Come and Take It" festival the first weekend in October. They have a parade, and downtown fair, and a battle reenactment of the first shots fired for Texas Independence. Here is the info from their website:

For information, call 888-672-1095
Celebrate “Come & Take It!” with us! The dates for the Come & Take It Festival are Oct. 4, 5 & 6, 2013. The Come & Take It Festival celebrates the firing of the first shot of the Texas revolution on Oct. 2, 1835, which took place near Gonzales. Come & help us celebrate history with the firing of the first shot!

The town of Gonzales was established by Empresario Green DeWitt in 1825, two and one-half miles east of the confluence of the San Marcos and Guadalupe Rivers. It was the westernmost Anglo settlement until the close of the Texas Revolution and was named in honor of Don Rafael Gonzales, provisional governor of Coahuila, Mexico and Texas. The town was laid out in the shape of a cross, with seven squares. During the colonial period of 1825 to 1835, there were many problems with Comanche and Tonkawa Indians, but Gonzales flourished. It was a thriving capital of the De Witt colony by 1833.

In 1831 the Mexican government loaned the citizens of Gonzales a six-pound cannon as protection against the Indians. In September of 1835, as political unrest grew, Mexican officials at San Antonio de Bexar demanded the cannon be returned.

A corporal with five soldiers and an oxcart were first sent by Col. Ugartechea, Bexar military commander, to Gonzales. The corporal carried a request that the small reinforced cannon, a bronze six-pounder, be returned to the Mexican Army. Andrew Ponton refused to relinquish it, stalling for time, and the little cannon was buried in George W. Davis’ peach orchard, near the Guadalupe River.
Next came Lieutenant Castaneda and 150 mounted soldiers to “take” the cannon. When the soldiers appeared on the west bank of the Guadalupe River, there were only 18 men in Gonzales, but these ‘Old Eighteen’ stood at the river in defiance, denied the Mexicans a crossing by hiding the ferry and sent out a call for volunteers to assist them.

As the soldiers scouted the river for a place to cross, they moved upriver a short distance, near the present-day community of Cost and camped for the night. There, in the early-morning hours of Oct. 2, 1835, the colonists crossed the river with their cannon, surprising the troops and waving their hastily fashioned flag, which proclaimed “Come and Take It.”

Almost immediately the cannon fired, killing one of Castenada’s men and scattering the rest, forcing them to retreat to San Antonio de Bexar. Thus was fired the shot that set off the struggle for Texas independence from Mexico. When the smoke cleared, the Mexican troops had taken off. The Texas Revolution had begun.

Gonzales became known as “The Lexington of Texas”, where the first shot was fired, and where the first Texas Army of Volunteers gathered. A few months after the first shot, men and boys from the region would gather in Gonzales, sending the only reinforcements ever received at the Alamo.
Each October, on the first full weekend of October, the citizens of Gonzales gather to celebrate their Texas heritage in a three-day festival called “Come & Take It.”

Franciscan Poor Clares of Brenham, Texas and Their Miniature Horses

Not yet 40 years old, the Brenham monastery is full of grace. The sisters don’t just believe in God, they consistently ask for divine intervention. 

"Withers” God sendest, the Franciscan Poor Clares of Brenham, Texas, “goest”—even to pitch manure. Their primary means of support: breeding and selling miniature horses.
Founded in 1981, Monastery Miniature Horses is a natural business for the contemplatives. The order’s patron, St. Clare, was a spiritual protégé of St. Francis of Assisi.
The sisters, who have an ardent following, have names for the horses. Among them are Pinto Bean, Cherry Ice and Easter Lily. “They’re our friends,” the sisters say.


 “Miniature horses are like potato chips or peanuts,” the late Sister Bernadette once told a reporter. “You can’t stop with one.” Internationally known, Monastery Miniature Horses sells to private breeders and concerns (a zoo in Spain owns two) as well as families. Prices begin at $500 for a pet-quality miniature to $2,000 for breeding stock.
The abbess is known to deal, particularly with families. “I’ll make all kinds of trades and sometimes money never changes hands,” she says. “I even got a donkey in the process.”
Much too small except for the youngest children to ride, the miniatures are big on horseplay, especially during spring tours. “I’ve had them jerk my veil off and run away with it,” laughs the abbess.
Workmen, too, are frequent objects of their winsome affection.
“They’re running off with my tools,” they complain, or “They hid my jacket.” During a Christian Lifestyle Magazine TV interview, the playful horses unplugged the film crew’s equipment. Then they started unloading the crew’s truck. “If they weren’t into one thing, it was another,” quips the abbess. In good-natured Christmas fun, the sisters traditionally deck the horses in antlers and bells.

COME & VISIT!

The monastery grounds are open daily from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., except on Christmas Day and during Holy Week. Hershey, a chocolate lab, an African pygmy goat named Shenanigan, Lil Dude the donkey and some fainting goats (they really do faint) also call the monastery home.
Inspired by St. Francis, the sisters make and sell ceramic Nativity scenes in the Art Barn. St. Francis is credited with portraying the first Nativity, a live re-enactment in a cave near Greccio, Italy.
Lighting the way, the chapel’s modernistic stained-glass windows of St. Clare and St. Francis glow in the afternoon sun. A reliquary, holding relics of both of the saints, is located on the altar. A book is provided for writing out prayer requests.
The Monastery of St. Clare is nine miles east of Brenham on Texas Highway 105. Guided tours are available for groups of 15 or more; reservations are required. For further information, contact the sisters at the Monastery of St. Clare, 9280 Highway 105, Brenham, TX 77833, telephone (409) 836-9652.

 THE HISTORY

FLEEING CUBA WITH DIVINE ASSISTANCE 

The Brenham monastery is full of grace. The sisters don’t just believe in God, they consistently ask for divine intervention. Nobody knows that better than the monastery’s founders, the Poor Clares of Cuba.
In 1960, Fidel Castro’s guerrillas invaded the Poor Clares’ Havana house. The revolutionaries demanded the nuns’ money, devoured their food and desecrated the compound.
Meanwhile in New Orleans, American Poor Clares were praying—and plotting a God-offensive. Inspired, “they hatched up something about a meeting that all Poor Clares had to attend,” grins the Brenham abbess and monastery spokeswoman, Sister Angela Chandler.
Thankfully, the Communists bought into what was a complete lie. Packing two duffel bags each, nearly all 30 sisters hopped cattle ferries for freedom. The sisters left behind watched and hoped. Maybe they would be able to regain control of their compound.
“You’ll harm the sisters over my dead body,” a gardener threatened the guerrillas. His chivalry was prophetic; the gardener was found dangling from a monastery archway the next day. The remaining sisters abandoned the monastery and headed for the United States.
Temporarily residing at the New Orleans convent, the refugee nuns contemplated founding a new monastery in largely Spanish-speaking Corpus Christi, Texas. The sisters asked for God’s assistance.
The bishop of the Corpus Christi Diocese also prayed. When he was in Italy to see the pope, the bishop had stopped at the tomb of St. Clare in Assisi and pleaded to have Poor Clares in his diocese. When he arrived home, the bishop found a letter from the sisters requesting admittance.
The nuns relocated to Corpus Christi in 1961 and began building their monastery. Another series of events took the sisters to another monastery and a new calling—Monastery Miniature Horses.
'Door of the Dead'
Centuries before the Poor Clares of horse fame, St. Clare was born into Assisi nobility. She was trained and expected to marry well. One day, however, teenage Clare heard St. Francis preaching in the town square.
“She had this longing in her heart and Francis’ words connected with that,” says the abbess. Accompanied by a relative, Clare often met Francis in the woods to discuss the gospel. Forsaking all on Palm Sunday night in 1212, Clare left home through the door of the dead—a door used only to remove a dead body.
“Francis cut off her hair, clothed her in his habit,” the abbess chronicles. Afraid her family was in pursuit, the friar hid Clare in a Benedictine monastery. A rescue attempt fizzled when Clare’s family saw her newly shorn hair.
When Clare’s sister, Agnes, left home, it was a different story. “Some of her uncles grabbed Agnes,” the abbess continues. “They were going to take her out by force.”
While Clare was praying, Agnes grew so heavy that not even her strong-willed uncles could lift her. Agnes, the heavyweight for God, stayed. Sometime later, the sisters’ widowed mother joined them at San Damiano, just outside Assisi.
It was there in 1206 that “Francis had predicted poor ladies would come and live,” says the abbess, “and their light would shine throughout the world.”
The New Land
“The Poor Clares had a hard time getting started” in the New World, the abbess says. Arriving in 1875, the two Italian nuns and real-life sisters, Mothers Maddalena Bentivoglio and Costanza Bentivoglio, traveled from place to place. The rugged frontiersmen wanted nurses and teachers, not contemplatives.
“The American ethic was, if you’re not out working and doing something, you’re useless,” the abbess explains. “Contemplatives just weren’t understood here like in the European countries.”
Persistence and prayer won out, and in 1878 the sisters opened their first house in Omaha, Nebraska. The second house, the New Orleans monastery, began in 1885. The largest contemplative order worldwide, today the Poor Clares number over 18,000.
Called to vows of poverty, chastity, obedience and enclosure (a cloistered life), the Poor Clares are given exclusively to God in prayer. The Divine Office calls the sisters to pray many times a day.
“We are the official pray-ers of the Church,” the abbess says. “It’s our mission...uniting ourselves to God in prayer.”
The sisters’ monastic life-style is a curious thing. Where some people see “extreme penance, extremely extreme penance,” the Poor Clares see freedom.
Retiring A Debt
In Corpus Christi, the sisters faced a new dilemma: how to retire their monastery debt. Even with baking altar bread and firing sister-made ceramics, funds were short. Enter Sister Bernadette Muller’s “wild kingdom.”
A New Orleans Poor Clare, Sister Bernadette had moved with the Cuban nuns. With a flair for the untried, she also possessed a big-as-God faith.
“I can very easily imagine Sister Bernadette saying, ‘Let’s raise birds,’” the abbess says. And the nuns did, shipping parrots, parakeets, cockatiels, lovebirds and finches to pet stores nationwide.
“I think if it flew, they raised it,” chuckles the abbess.
Their Bird-care Impresses a Baptist
Call it fate, call it divine circumstance, but without the nuns, Sister Angela may not have been abbess today.
“I was not, and my family was and is not, Catholic. We were Baptists,” Sister Angela says.
Sister Angela’s father was a civil-service jet-engine mechanic who raised parakeets to supplement the family income. When one military base closed, the family relocated to the next base. Eventually, the Chandlers moved to Corpus Christi.
“Saturday was bird-buying day,” Sister Angela reminisces. “People came with their little cages of birds, and one person at a time, Sister Bernadette would count out the birds, make sure they were healthy, put the birds back into the cages and then buy them.”
Before long, Sister Bernadette had enlisted Angela’s father as the monastery’s part-time handyman. One day, Sister Bernadette’s plan changed. She gave up birds and began raising monastery cats: long-haired Persians and Himalayans.
Angela's Conversion
Since the monastery was short of help, teenage Angela joined the rehabilitation crew. Bird cages were cleaned, painted and converted to cat cages—and Baptist Angela converted to Catholic Angela.
“I worked up there so much,” Sister Angela says, “that I didn’t have a social life anymore. The sisters were my friends.” To understand the sisters and their faith, Angela began reading, and Sister Bernadette began sowing seeds of faith.
One day Angela asked Sister Bernadette how to become a Catholic. She received no response. “She doesn’t know that I’m just curious, that I have no intentions of becoming a Catholic,” Sister Angela says. A week later she asked again.
This time Sister Bernadette took the inquiry seriously and initiated talks with the chaplain. Meanwhile, two postulants, who had been inviting Angela to adoration, handed the future abbess a prayer book inscribed, “Laura entered on January 1. Esther entered on February 2. Your entrance date should be March 3!”
“It’s mid-February,” the abbess gasps, “and I wasn’t even Catholic.”
Studying the dates, the chaplain said, “March 3 is Ash Wednesday. You can’t enter on that day. You need to enter on a day of rejoicing. How about the Sunday before—February 29, 1976?”
Agonizing over God’s will, 19-year-old Angela walked the streets of Corpus Christi in pouring rain. “I was still very much clinging to my Baptist faith, yet at the same time I was being drawn to the Blessed Sacrament,” she says.
“Faith became something more personal,” the abbess continues. “It was letting God control my life, to the extent that if I pray and want to do God’s will, he won’t let me do something that would harm my soul.”
Angela entered the Church one Sunday—and the monastery and full-time cat production the next. It was perfect until a Monastery Cats customer, a pet store in Florida, asked to inspect the registered cattery, then bought out the sister’s business kit and caboodle. Their monastery debt retired, the nuns soon realized they needed another source for sustaining income.
It Takes Two Horses
Monastery pet, Sister Bernadette thought when she first answered the ads for miniature horses in 1981. Many sisters, including Sister Bernadette, were getting up in years and couldn’t physically handle larger horses.
“Three thousand dollars!” Sister Bernadette exclaimed as she hung up. “Horsefeathers!” she suddenly realized. “Why were we raising birds and cats when you can get $3,000 for a horse?” She called the owner back.
“We can’t afford $3,000, but if you’d like to donate a horse...,” the cowgirl nun appealed.
“Sure,” the lady said. “We’ll donate a little horse to the little sisters.”
A mare on the way, Sister Bernadette was already envisioning a full-scale operation. But she first confided in a trusted friend and business adviser.

“Sister,” he admonished, “you can’t raise horses with just one. It takes at least two!” He then donated a little stallion.
Countdown, a chestnut stallion, and Ginger, a pinto mare, stepped out of their TWA crates and into the sisters’ hearts. Another 18 show horses soon arrived, and the sisters had their first foal, Melody, on March 27, 1982.
A New Home
Another change was in the offing. Would the monastery be bought out?
Located near an abandoned U.S. Navy airfield, all was tranquil when the monastery was built in the early 1960’s. A few years later, however, the Navy reactivated the field.
“We learned to talk in phrases,” Sister Angela says. “On a good, sunny day, I clocked Navy planes going over every 20 seconds. The planes were so noisy that we would instinctively duck, waiting for them to fly in the front door and out the back.”
The Navy eventually bought up all land within certain flight parameters.
Since many elderly sisters were suffering from arthritis, the monastery left hurricane-prone and humidity-soaked Corpus Christi and went inland to the rolling hills of historic Washington County.
On 98 acres, Sisters Bernadette and Angela oversaw construction of a guest house, cross-shaped monastery and chapel. Before the other sisters arrived Easter Week of 1986, Monastery Miniature Horses had its first curiosity seekers from the local Chamber of Commerce.
“Excuse me! We don’t do tours!” Sister Angela tried to explain. Tourists came anyway, and they continue to have upward of 25,000 visitors annually.
Even 'Swedish' Horses
Tiny replicas of their Arabian, quarter- and draft-horse cousins, miniatures were virtually unheard of 20 years ago. Monastery legend has it they were once playthings for young children of the palace, and in the mid-1800’s miniature steeds reputedly pulled Empress Eugenie, wife of Napoleon III, around Paris.
But like most fads, the winsome “toys” were almost forgotten. Intrigued by the little fellows, ingenious horsemen, through generations of selective breeding, began “miniaturizing” the large knights-and-armor horses of the Middle Ages.
Officially recognizing the miniature as a breed, the American Miniature Horse Association was formed in 1978. The requirements included that, measured from the withers to the ground, miniatures must be 34 inches or less. Because miniatures evolved from many breeds, variations in color and build are striking.
“You have Appaloosa coloring, you have paint coloring,” says Abbess Sister Angela. “Some will be more refined, look more like Arabians. Some will be stockier, like your draft-horse or quarter-horse types. There are all body styles, all colors.” There’s even a “Swedish horse”—blonde-haired and blue-eyed.
Averaging 20 pounds at birth, miniatures stand less than 20 inches when born. “Usually they give birth at night, preferably during a thunderstorm,” the abbess explains, noting storms keep coyotes at bay. Occasionally, a “show horse” will lie down and give birth in front of tourists.
Christening the Monastery Miniature Horses isn’t easy. The sisters often try to coin a name by combining parents’ names. “But when you do the same breeding year after year, it gets hard,” the abbess says.
Now totally monastery-run, the operation isn’t about to founder. The sisters know the pedigrees and personalities of all 70 horses. Monastery Miniature Horses boasts several progeny at 26 inches, down from the industry’s earlier average of 33 inches.
As kind-hearted as the sisters are, there are no free oats at the monastery. If a horse isn’t producing, it’s out to pasture—someone else’s pasture. But Countdown and Ginger will always call it home.
Horse Trades and Escapades
“Miniature horses are like potato chips or peanuts,” the late Sister Bernadette once told a reporter. “You can’t stop with one.” Internationally known, Monastery Miniature Horses sells to private breeders and concerns (a zoo in Spain owns two) as well as families. Prices begin at $500 for a pet-quality miniature to $2,000 for breeding stock.
The abbess is known to deal, particularly with families. “I’ll make all kinds of trades and sometimes money never changes hands,” she says. “I even got a donkey in the process.”
Much too small except for the youngest children to ride, the miniatures are big on horseplay, especially during spring tours. “I’ve had them jerk my veil off and run away with it,” laughs the abbess.
Workmen, too, are frequent objects of their winsome affection.
“They’re running off with my tools,” they complain, or “They hid my jacket.” During a Christian Lifestyle Magazine TV interview, the playful horses unplugged the film crew’s equipment. Then they started unloading the crew’s truck. “If they weren’t into one thing, it was another,” quips the abbess. In good-natured Christmas fun, the sisters traditionally deck the horses in antlers and bells.
A Chance to Evangelize
Life at the Brenham monastery does have its serious side. The sisters do answer a call to mission. Unlike other monasteries, the Poor Clares’ missionary work comes directly to them.
“Many who see the horses would never think of visiting a monastery because they’re not Catholic,” the abbess says. “We’re able to tell them why we’re here, what we’re doing, why we raise the horses, but more importantly, about our prayer life.”
For one Lutheran group, the chapel talk was a spiritual balm of reconciliation. Motioning to St. Francis, a teary-eyed woman told the abbess, “You are so lucky to have this heritage, this tradition.”
“It’s your history, too,” the abbess responded. “This goes back before the Protestant Reformation, way before the Church was split.”
With Baptist groups, the abbess talks from the heart—and from experience. “Invariably, guides will warn people that I was a Baptist. You can tell they’re afraid for my soul.”
Explaining Catholic beliefs in a Baptist mentality, Sister Angela dispels popular myths, particularly the one that Catholics worship saints.
“They [the saints] shed their blood for Christ. They were crucified, drawn and quartered or burned at the stake. The statues, relics or holy cards are just reminders, just like the photos in your wallets are reminders of your family.”
Praying to the saints is another common area of misunderstanding. “You believe in the mystical body of Christ, right?” asks Sister Angela. “If we can pray for one another now, can’t those who have already gone on to God pray for us, too? Their prayers should be a bit more powerful than ours.”
Put that way, the Baptists agree that it makes sense to ask the saints’ intercession.
“Although the worship is expressed so differently, the basic beliefs are there,” Sister Angela says of the Baptist faith. “I believe everything I did as a Baptist, but my beliefs have deepened so much more now.” 
 
Home now to eight sisters, including four elderly Cuban sisters who survived Castro’s takeover, the Brenham Monastery of St. Clare is looking for an increase in vocations.
The sisters will no doubt be successful in achieving that goal. It is their enterprising nature and the horse sense they have picked up along the way that will continue to lead them to new pastures. 


SOURCE: http://www.americancatholic.org/Messenger/Feb2000/feature1.asp#F7 

Ice Cream Field Trip

A VISIT TO THE BLUE BELL CREAMERIES

The Blue Bell Creameries market their product as "the best ice cream in the country," and as any of their loyal customers will tell you, that's not just hype.
They make Blue Bell Ice Cream, which is ranked as the third best-selling ice cream brand in the United States. An amazing statistic, considering that Blue Bell is only sold in the southeastern states,  a mere 17% portion of the country.

Blue Bell Creameries was founded in Brenham, Texas, a small town located 90 miles southwest of the Texas capital of Austin and about 70 miles west of Houston. This is their original home, where they started out selling butter in 1907. They began making ice cream in 1911.  Still family-owned and operated, they are one of the few companies who still let the public come in and tour their production facilities.
The countryside view, on a fresh spring Texas day, looks just like the Blue Bell ads with the fields of cows, bluebonnets and Indian paintbrushes as far as the eye can see.
They're building a new focal point on the front of the company property to mark the celebration of their 100th anniversary.  In front of the Welcome Center is a shiny black Ford refrigerated truck from the 1930's. The refrigerated truck enabled Blue Bell to start marketing their ice cream a bit farther than the local Brenham area back in 1936.

Inside the Welcome Center is a main room with large, blown-up black and white pictures of the Blue Bell Creamery of the past. Other items from the past are displayed around the room. They're similar to the ones on the postcard shown here.  A Simplex Time Recorder is hanging on the wall. It was used by early employees to record their work time. An old metal ice cream snack mold sits upon a table. In a small display case near the cash register are some examples of early Blue Bell packaging.
Off to one side of the main room is The Country Store and Ice Cream Parlor. The ice cream parlor serves a variety of ice cream flavors to visitors and customers. The gift shop has many items, some marked with the Blue Bell logos. Tee shirts that say I Heart Blue Bell and I Get Cranky without my Blue Bell line one wall. Small items such as magnets, cookbooks and mouse pads in the shape of a half-gallon of Blue Bell Ice Cream are for sale. On the wall are framed newspaper articles about the company. It's bright, clean, and a great place to stop for an ice cream any time.
The plant operates in full production mode from March 1 to September 30, and although they operate year round, not as much ice cream is made during the fall and winter months.

Each tour takes only 45 people and there are several scheduled each day. Groups over 15 must have a reservation, and for everyone else it's first come, first served.
The tour begins with a short movie in a small auditorium, also off the main room. Forty-five seats are available in theatre style seating for the short, yet entertaining, seven-minute film on the history of Blue Bell. The tour guide on this particular tour was Texas friendly and seemed as content as the cows that their brand is known for. After the film, the group takes a walk up through the production facilities.

Along the hallways that lead to the enclosed, air-conditioned catwalk that spans the production room are vintage Blue Bell advertisements, awards and historic photos. One passes the employee break room, which has an open glass window. There you can see the freezer full of of ice cream snacks which gives credence to the company motto "We eat all we can and sell the rest."

The production room is well-lit and filled with stainless steel equipment that is manufactured in Germany to company specifications. The fresh milk is brought in every morning from local farms and piped into the large containers where the ice cream mix is added and the milk is pasteurized and homogenized. This side of the room is also where flavorings are added.
They make certain products on certain days. On the day of this tour they are producing Pistachio Almond flavor, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough and ice cream sandwiches.

The other side of the huge room holds the rest of the view of the automated processes. There's the station where the all the goodies are added. We can see large quantities of chopped almonds and small pieces of cookie dough being added to the vats. A machine spits out cartons and lids, where a spout fills each half-gallon container with the bright green confection, spinning the container around automatically so that it fills properly and without air. Immediately after filling and the lid is placed, four or five of the containers are put into a cardboard sleeve which is immediately turned upside down so that it seals nicely. Then the sleeves head down a conveyor belt to the Blast Freezer, which, the tour guide explains, maintains a temperature of 100 degrees below zero.

The Ice Cream Sandwich Machine is a marvel itself, considering that they used to be made and wrapped by hand. You can see the employees stacking the chocolate cookies into a slot, where it makes it way down to the small blocks of ice cream. Later, the machine wraps each individual snack in paper wrappers and a box is filled with the completed snack.

The tour guide also explains that each employee down there changes jobs every twenty minutes. This is to relieve boredom from the repetitious nature of these jobs and also ensures that every employee knows how to do every job. There's a lab located elsewhere in the building, where the employees taste and analyze the products for quality control.

Another amazing fact is revealed: Blue Bell doesn't pay for shelf space in the supermarkets. Almost unheard of. That tells you something about the degree of loyalty from their customers.
Blue Bell Ice Cream is different from most other ice cream in that the company makes sure that only Blue Bell employees handle the product from the beginning of production all the way down to delivery to the stores. They feel that this method, ensures that the product maintains the high quality and necessary temperature controls all the way through the process.

Another room we visit, with a closer view of the Ice Cream Sandwich Machine, also holds a small locomotive created by local Brenham artists that will be auctioned off for charity later in the year. There's an example of a horse-drawn buggy that was used for deliveries in the beginning, before the advent of the trucks and refrigerated trucks. There's also a small machine, appearing so very small compared to the larger equipment used today, that was used to make only a few gallons at a time.
The tour ends in the Ice Cream Parlor, where every guest is offered a dish of the Blue Bell flavor of their choice. In the summer, when the tours are more crowded, the ice cream for the tour goers is given out in a lobby area of the main plant building and guests are ushered outside to to enjoy their treats, but during slower times, it's enjoyed indoors.  Each tour lasts approximately 45 minutes.  Of course, it takes a while longer to savor your ice cream.

The plant employees about 800 people, many of whom started at Blue Bell in high school and continued throughout their adult life. Perhaps one incentive for contented employment is that employees are encouraged to eat all the ice cream they want.

It's a refreshing look at a small company that's successful because of the care that they put into their product. They expand slowly and meticulously, choosing quality over quantity. And judging by the demand for their product, it's a plan that's obviously working .

You can visit the Blue Bell website to find out about new flavors, which of their rotating flavors are available during which months and more information about each flavor.

Blue Bell opened a plant in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma in 1992 and in 1996 they purchased a manufacturing facility in Sylacauga, Alabama. Tours of these facilities are also available, although on an appointment basis only.

Tour Information: The Blue Bell tours are available on weekdays only.  Call or visit their website for more detailed information. Phone: (800) 327-8135

Texas A&M's Vet School Open House

http://www.cvm. tamu.edu/ openhouse/ index.shtml

The date for this year's Texas A&M's Vet School Open House is scheduled for Saturday, March 27, 2010, from 9 AM to 4 PM.

Texas A&M's Vet School Open House is a wonderful opportunity for you and your family to visit the school and learn more about what we do and what we have to offer. Portions of the Small Animal Clinic as well as the Large Animal Clinic are open for the public to walk through.

Come chat with some of veterinary medicine's top clinicians, ask questions about the admissions process for vet school, pet live animals in the petting zoo, see exotic reptiles, watch a live surgery, or even perform your own Teddy Bear surgery! These are just a few of the many exhibits that we will have this year! We welcome children, teens, and adults of all ages to our annual open house.

This event is free to the public, so be sure and mark your calendars!

Field Trips HOUSTON and Surrounding Areas

San Jacinto Monument & Museum http://www.sanjacinto-museum.org/

HuntsvilleMuseum of Fine Arts http://www.mfah.org/home.asp

The Menil http://menil.org/

Miller Outdoor Theater http://www.milleroutdoortheatre.com/

Museum of Natural Science http://www.hmns.org/

Galveston

San Antonio

Missions