Nature Tourism

Star Gazing / Astronomy

Guests are welcome to bring their telescopes or binoculars to Catnip Cabin or Cat's Cradle and set them up for star gazing. We are stargazer/astronomer friendly and have VERY dark skies. Our skies are as dark or darker than sites used by some of the area astronomy clubs. The Milky Way blazes spectacularly across our night skies and it would be hard to find a better place to take astro-photography short of a long trip out to West Texas. You can set up your equipment right outside your accommodation and not have to worry about getting it run over or stolen. Nor do you have to worry about cars shining their lights in your eyes, as is the case in public places. Electricity is available and flat graveled areas are on-site for you to set up on.

I am an amateur astronomer and I am going to build an observatory to house my monster telescope which is now on a tripod. I am lucky to own a 14" Schmidt-Casigrain Meade LX200 GPS with Ultra High Transmission Coating. If you don't already know, it is a top-of-the-line, state-of-the-art telescope .

If you would like a Star Party and have the opportunity to look through a 14" telescope, view our packages on the link above. Or, if you would like to bring your own telescope and enjoy our dark skies, you are welcome to do so. If you are interested in a Star Party for your child's birthday, for example, contact Hunter at 830-997-0888.

For a 48 hour seeing forecast, go to my Clear Sky Clock.

Bird Watching

We have numerous species of birds at our feeders and the painted bunting is often a regular visitor. We also feed humming birds and have quite a population, which is growing and comes back to us every year. We plan to add many more humming bird feeders as soon as a few other projects are completed. We eventually want to have a population which rivals the famous Hummer House in Christoval, Texas. Hummer House is known to be the home of probably the largest population of hummers in Texas.

We have recently planted quite a few native trees and shrubs to attract more birds, hummers, and butterflies. The plantings will provide a beautiful backdrop for wildlife photography and include big tooth maple, Mexican plum, red bud, escarpment cherry, persimmon, goldenball lead tree, kidneywood, eve's necklace, arroyo sweetwood, crepe myrtle, American beautyberry, and butterfly bush.

Speaking of butterflies, we are on a major flyway for many species of butterflies on their way to their wintering grounds in Mexico. The months of September and October bring waves of the fritters to our blooming fall plants.

This recent planting is the first phase of an aggressive program, in cooperation with The Texas Forest Service, designed to provide high quality habitat for all types of wildlife, as well as settings for wildlife photography, over our entire 29 acres.

We have been feeding large populations of deer and raccoons for over 12 years and they are used to having people sit on our breezeway for watching and photography. We are occasionally graced with the presence of several ten point bucks and rarely, a massive and magnificent thirteen pointer! The dry dog food we put out nightly regularly attracts skunks, and opossums as well.

Finally, we are developing a terraced garden with native plant species, including a large pond, complete with a natural looking waterfall. We hope to attract many species of dragonfly to the water feature

Wildlife Photography

We purchased our first portable hide recently and is available to our Bed & Breakfast guests free of charge upon request. Any other photographers or bird watchers wishing to take advantage of our acreage and hide/blind on a daily basis, kindly contact us at 830-997-0888 or email.

If you are allergic to cats and other animals, this is not the place for you