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Destination makes the journey worth it

I went backpacking with a friend one time. I borrowed a hard core backpack from a coworker, shopped for weeks for water filtering devices, bought small lightweight cookware, chose freeze dried food, did the whole thing like I was climbing Everest. We actually did climb a mountain, we went way up steep inclines like we were goats. It was hard. This trip is probably on my shortlist of the hardest physical things I’ve ever done it was also the worst 3 or 4 days of my life.

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Wild birds can carry avian influenza

Recently, the National Veterinary Services Laboratories (NVSL) confi rmed the presence of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in a backyard poultry flock in Dallas County. As expected by disease experts, HPAI is again circulating amongst wild birds in Texas as fall migration has begun for waterbirds and waterfowl. Earlier this year, HPAI was discovered in a bald eagle and a horned owl in Texas.

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Fall then and now

While studying to become a Texas Master Naturalist several years ago, I remember asking our arborist (tree expert) exactly why the leaves of some trees (deciduous or broad leaf trees) change colors in the fall; shorter days resulting in less sunlight was the easy answer. Regardless why the leaves change colors, my spirits always pick up a bit in early fall when I see those elm leaves begin to turn yellow and later, and then a few weeks later the hickories and sweetgum add their golden and red hues to the fall woods.

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Applicants sought for city board positions

Midlothian residents who want to get involved on city boards and commissions are invited to apply for appointment to current volunteer openings. Applicants are not guaranteed an appointment, but all applications will be considered equally based on objective criteria, such as being a resident of the city for at least six months, a qualified voter, and having previous volunteer leadership experience.

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Young conservatives grow weary of GOP infighting

HOUSTON — U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw wants a new Reagan revolution — a return to the 1980s-era Republican Party pillars of small government, low taxes and less welfare that he says have been crowded out by infighting in recent years. The yearning for an earlier era was made clear by the Delorean that was parked next to the stage of the third annual Crenshaw Youth Summit at the Hilton Hotel in downtown Houston this weekend, at which Crenshaw called on a few hundred young conservatives to cease toxic party squabbles and unite to preserve the vision outlined by Reagan decades ago.

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