El Mesteno Ranch and Arboretum

Where my sidewalk ends and the red dirt begins:  the South Texas  Sand Sheet.  Texas Tortoises do the Texas two-step with Western Diamondbacks and Coyotes while Turkey Vultures and Crested Cara Caras circle above.  Their reptilian neighbors, the Indigo and Northern Cat Eye snakes, also call this place home.  
Just about everywhere you look and turn, flora is covered in unforgiving thorns, glochids, or prickles.   Aptly described as the Tamaulipan Thorn Forest, the sand sheet supports a diversity of both flora and fauna unique to the Coastal Sand Plain where it just meets the edge of the South Texas Brush Country.