Features

 From their first planting in the year 2000, Rick and Madelyn Naber have been able to depend on friends, neighbors on the north shore of Lake Travis and wine aficionados to dig into the soil and harvesting of grapes at Flat Creek Estates.

On Saturday, Aug. 27, as in years before, those scores of supporters were treated to the annual Harvest Dinner. Many of the scores of volunteers who helped harvest the crops in July and August enjoyed a chuck-wagon barbecue prepared by Larry Sawyer of Llano and the tunes of Guitar Tex and the Traveling Trio.

The Nabers had purchased the land off Singleton Bend Road in 1998. "The Grand Planting," as they have come to call it, in 2000 saw 6,000 vines installed by 60 hard-working volunteers in just six hours. Since 2006 the "Harvest Team" of volunteers have joined  the Flat Creek crew to bring in the harvest.

The owners of Spicewood Vineyards in Burnet County, Yates, are set to open their newest premium winery in Hye in September.

Led by owner, Ron Yates, along with the award-winning winery team from Spicewood, the new winery will make high quality wine in proximity to several other wineries on the Wine Road 290.

“We’re incredibly proud of what we’ve achieved at Spicewood Vineyard since purchasing the winery almost a decade ago,” said owner, Ron Yates. “We’ve learned a lot from our success at Spicewood, and will use that experience to create this new, namesake winery with a different focus.

Since the Affordable Care Act became law, health care prices have risen at the lowest rate in 50 years, and premiums for the 150 million Americans with employer-sponsored insurance have grown at some of the slowest rates on record.

On Wednesday, Aug. 24, a new U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) announced an analysis that found HealthCare.gov consumers would continue to have affordable coverage options, even if all Marketplace final health insurance premium rates were to increase by double digits next year.

In a hypothetical scenario where all rates increase by 50 percent, the vast majority of Texas consumers (80 percent) would be able to purchase coverage for less than $75 per month, according to the HHS report. All Marketplace premiums will be finalized and public in October.

By Glynis Crawford Smith
The Highlander

By Mark Goodson

Highlander Sports Editor

Lue Angell sat under the shade tree in a her flip flops Friday morning, reflecting on 29 years of living in the country on the north shores of Lake Travis.

Angell and her family lost everything they owned Thursday night when their house burned to the ground, leading the community to begin online fundraising.

“It started just right outside the door,’’ said Rick Angell, who built everything on site at the 3-acre Lake Lot on Bonnie Lane in Smithwick. “It took no time for the fire to spread.’’

The fire engulfed the main house, a 2,800 square foot structure, in less than 10 minutes.

No one was injured in the fire. Rick Angell was the only one at the house when it started.

Fire departments from Marble Falls, Spicewood, Granite Shoals, North Lake Travis and Bertram responded.

By Rachel Cohn
HLN Correspondent
On Sept. 28, 1998, a little-known pair of games called Pokémon Red and Blue were released in the United States after seeing commercial success in their home country of Japan. And from there, the game series took the U.S. by storm, from currency for school children of the late 1990s as a card game to a popular, long running cartoon spawning 19 movies. One could be forgiven for not thinking Pokémon could be caught in the real world.
On July 6, 2016 — two years after a Google April Fool’s Joke based on the same concept — Pokémon Go released on Apple Store and Google Play to worldwide success. In this GPS-based mobile game, players create their own trainer avatars and pick from a choice of three Pokémon: Charmander, Bulbasaur and Squirtle.

Writing a series of whodunits was the last thing on the mind of bestselling historical romance author Adrienne deWolfe until her computer crashed – and got stolen from the repair shop.
“I was struggling to write my first fantasy when my hard drive blew up,” deWolfe recalled. “The night before the meltdown, I actually had a dream that the manuscript would never get published. Does that make me psychic?”
DeWolfe works by day as a sales rep for Gumdrop Books and counts among her clients Burnet Junior High and Herman Brown Free Library.
While deWolfe can joke now about the computer debacle, she said the loss of a manuscript is every writer’s worst nightmare.
“There must have been some higher plan for me, because my publisher contacted me two days later, asking me to write a Western romance. From the ashes of that lost fantasy rose my favorite heroine: a fiery-haired, gun-slinging ex-bawd with a Pinkerton badge.”

BY CHRISTI BERTELSON
BURNET BULLETIN

BY CHRISTI BERTELSON
HIGHLAND LAKES NEWSPAPERS

BY CHRISTI BERTELSON
HIGHLAND LAKES NEWSPAPERS