On May 5, Mexico will celebrate one of its most important patriotic holidays, known simply as Cinco de Mayo. It marks the victory of Mexico over France at the Battle of Puebla in 1862. It was an improbable victory against overwhelming odds. Above all, it is a day remembered for courage. This special day for Mexico is a day made possible by the daring and valor of a native Texan, Gen. Ignacio Zaragoza.

The Sheriff’s Office received 75 calls for service last week. As this report is being written there were 24 inmates with two being female in the Archer County Jail.

This past week we got a new supply of the two books I have written. The Lazy Man’s Garden and Touch the Earth both carry the same underlying theme. Water will shape the future of 21st Century landscaping. The thing that will drive this lack of fresh water availability has been and will be population. As the population continues to grow and rainfall does not our municipal water supplies will be forced to meet the needs of the population. Historically, the first place water gets restricted is called outdoor use and gardening in general makes up the bulk of outdoor usage. Just when our plants need the help most desperately our ability to deliver that help and is increasingly restricted. Many of us will not live long enough to see how the “end game” gets played out. However, our children and grandchildren most certainly will. These times will be looked back upon as the beginning of a new landscaping ethic and philosophy or as the time when much if not most of our precious water resources continued to be wasted for the sake of green lawns. We chose the former path and continue to reject the latter.

The Archer Public Library now offers Libby by OverDrive! Borrow e-books, audiobooks, and magazines to read on your phone or tablet using the Libby app by OverDrive. You can even send and read your borrowed e-books to your Kindle e-reader (U.S. only)! It’s free and easy to get started for new users and a streamlined experience for current OverDrive app users. Learn more at overdrive.com/apps/libby/.

Dr. Bridges is a Texas native, writer, and history professor.

The Sheriff’s Office received 87 calls for service last week. As this report is being written there were 23 inmates with three being female in the Archer County Jail.

You can pick up a rock. Any old rock from a creek bed or outcrop. Now try to find an exact match in size, color, having that little notch on one side. You can’t do it but you may get close if you spend enough time searching. One of the great wonders of Nature is how every thing and every creature is and has individual traits in spite of all the many things we hold in common. I draw correlations between plants and people every day to help folks understand plants better. Yet plants and people are not even close to being in the same biological categories as far as science is concerned. Still, we are both living creatures that have a life span, breathe air, and must have water, certain minerals, elements, etc., to stay alive. Every thing feeds on something else or the byproducts created by something. Plants eat dead stuff. Decomposing matter from all other things. That includes elements from decomposing rocks.

The Archer Public Library now offers Libby by OverDrive! Borrow e-books, audiobooks, and magazines to read on your phone or tablet using the Libby app by OverDrive. You can even send and read your borrowed e-books to your Kindle e-reader (U.S. only)! It’s free and easy to get started for new users and a streamlined experience for current OverDrive app users. Learn more at overdrive.com/apps/ libby/.

Dr. Bridges is a Texas native, writer, and history professor.

The Sheriff’s Office received 68 calls for service last week. As this report is being written there were 25 inmates with three being female in the Archer County Jail.