May 2023 Liberty Hill Independent Monthly

FEATURES

8 | SWEET DELIVERY

Local UPS driver brings more than packages

10 | WORKS OF ART

Locals share hobbies, talents, creative forms of art

14 | COVERING THE CLASSICS

Beatles cover band to headline Whimsy & Wonder

17 | REAL ESTATE MARKET RETURNING TO NORMALCY

Historic highs have leveled off locally

20 | TAKE A DAY TRIP TO THE NORTH SHORE

Soak in the relaxed way of life and breathtaking views

23 | BIG CITY DINING IN SMALL-TOWN TEXAS

The Standard on Vaughan offers a rare culinary experience

24 | A HEALTHY DOSE OF THE BEST MEDICINE

Whiskey Barrel Pub brings Comedy Night to Liberty Hill

31 | SPORTS

What’s new in Panther so ball, baseball and track

DEPARTMENTS

7 | BIZ BRIEFS

See the businesses planned or opening soon in Liberty Hill

18 | WORSHIP GUIDE

Find a church home for your family

18 | LOOKING BACK

Loraine Williams was among the ‘ignored heroes’ of WWII

36 | LOCAL EVENTS

Local entertainment on tap for May

CONTENTS

ABOUT OUR COVER

The beloved Whimsy & Wonder, Liberty Hill’s annual interactive art and music festival is May 20. The event transforms Main Street into a magical place featuring street performers, artisan vendors, live

LIBERTY

HILL

INDEPENDENT MONTHLY

A Publication of Texas Independent News Corp.

PUBLISHER | Shelly Wilkison ADVERTISING SALES | Stacy Coale GRAPHIC DESIGN | Katie McLaughlin

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS | Rachel Madison, Scott Akanewich, James Wear, Shelly Wilkison

www.LHIndependent.com

The information in this publication was compiled with great care to assure the accuracy of editorial content and advertising copy. Liberty Hill Independent Monthly and its parent company assume no liability for the accuracy of the information reported to us herein, and the opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher. For advertising rates and information, or to obtain additional copies, call (512) 778-5577 or send email to news@LHIndependent.com. This publication is truly a collaborative e ort of experienced journalists, a professional design team, advertising specialists and many others passionate about sharing the story of Liberty Hill, Texas. Copyright©2023 Texas Independent News Corp./Liberty Hill Independent. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the publisher. Contact Us: (512) 778-5577 News@LHIndependent.com Liberty Hill Independent, PO Box 1235, Liberty Hill, TX 78642

PHOTO

BIZ BRIEFS:

What’s New?

Latest business openings and what’s coming soon to Liberty Hill

FOOD & BEVERAGE

OTHER NOTABLE PROJECTS

• Wendy’s, 13001 Hwy. 29

• Popeye’s, 13001 Hwy. 29

• Panda Express, 13055 Hwy. 29

RETAIL

OTHER NOTABLE PROJECTS

• Goodwill, 110 Bronco Blvd.

• Texas Central Vapor & Alternatives, 12701 Hwy. 29

• Bertram Convenience Store, CR 269 & Hwy. 29, Bertram

SERVICES

Moonshine Yoga

15100 Hwy. 29

Casa Garcia’s

19380 Ronald Reagan Blvd.

Casa Garcia’s, an Austin-area Mexican restaurant and cantina, will begin constructing an 8,000-square-foot restaurant this spring at Bar W Marketplace. The restaurant serves everything from traditional Mexican dishes like tacos and enchiladas to breakfast all day, every day.

True Texas Tacos

19380 Ronald Reagan Blvd.

True Texas Tacos restaurant was opened by H-E-B inside its convenience store and gas station in April. The restaurant has more than a dozen breakfast and specialty tacos on its menu, as well as a salsa bar.

Glenny Bee Boutique

Location TBD, Liberty Hill

Glenny Bee Boutique recently announced it will be opening a brick-and-mortar store in Liberty Hill. Previously, the boutique sold its products at area markets, online and at Main Street Marketplace.

Tomahawk Targets

370 CR 277, Liberty Hill

Tomahawk Targets, formerly based in Leander, has moved to Liberty Hill. The company manufactures free-standing axe throwing targets for residential use, and o ers axe-throwing trailer rentals.

Moonshine Yoga recently leased 1,400 square feet of space at Panther Plaza. The locally-owned yoga studio will open in fall 2023 and o er yoga classes for all levels, including aerial yoga, power vinyasa and more.

Liberty Hill School of Music

3608 RR 1869

Liberty Hill resident Stacey Gomez recently opened the Liberty Hill School of Music in the building that previously housed the Anchored by Hope bookstore. The studio o ers a variety of music lessons, including piano, guitar, voice and more.

OTHER NOTABLE PROJECTS

• Brakes Plus, 12336 Hwy. 29

• Lifestyle Barber, 1017 Loop 332

• Podium Body Works, 939 N. Hwy. 183

• Little Smiles Pediatric Dentistry, 13900 Hwy. 29

• Hali’s Hair, 21 CR 200

• 29 Massage, 13002 Hwy. 29

• Eckermann Engineering, 921 Loop 332

• Gerald Nunn Electric, 410 N. Patterson Ave., Florence

ON THE MOVE

Whiskey Barrel Sports Pub/ The Food Dood

1004 Loop 332

Whiskey Barrel Sports Pub and The Food Dood food truck recently announced a collaboration that will allow customers to walk freely from the pub to Willy’s Backyard, plus The Food Dood will be serving up its most popular dishes.

D&D Marine Outdoor Store

525 Hwy. 29, Bertram D&D Marine recently announced it would be closing its doors at the end of April.

Mojo Co ee

13977 Hwy. 29

In mid-April, Mojo Co ee announced the opening of its walk-up window for customers to place orders on the patio.

Elena’s Mexican Restaurant 14801 Hwy. 29

Elena’s is up for sale at $1.75 million. The 2,293-square-foot building was built in 1979 and sits on 0.95 acres.

A sweet delivery

Liberty Hill UPS driver brings more than packages

BY RACHEL MADISON STAFF WRITER

“Do you know what time it is?”

That’s the first thing UPS driver Frank Luscher will ask when he sees you, and while you may answer him with the actual time of day, he’s really just looking for an opening to tell you: “It’s chocolate time!”

From his signature brown UPS uniform he pulls out a sweet treat, usually a Godiva chocolate, and deliver that right along with the packages you’ve been waiting on for your business or residence. And if you’re of the animal variety, replace that chocolate with a dog biscuit, a carrot or even a sliced apple— depending on species.

Luscher grew up in western New York, in a farming area that Liberty Hill reminds him of. After high school, he served in the U.S. Marine Corps for nearly five years. After that, he returned to New York to help run the family business -- an epoxy coating factory

in Niagara Falls. After selling the family business, Luscher spent about 15 years running his own business in the electronics industry.

“That’s how I got into the ‘chocolate time’ thing,” he said. “It’s a great ice breaker. I’d done it before up in New York. It’s a great way to meet new people.”

Luscher moved to Texas about 10 years ago and started working for an Austin-based electronics company. That’s also when he got a part-time gig working for UPS. However, that part-time role quickly turned into a full-time job after Luscher learned how lucrative a career as a UPS driver could be. On top of that, he learned that he had a knack for delivering packages, quickly moving up in seniority within the company.

Previously, his route was in Cedar Park, but for the last two years, he has had a Liberty Hill route, which is just how he likes it. He is one of four drivers who cover the Liberty Hill area, but his sweet deliveries make him stand out.

Luscher explained that he used to pass out Dove chocolates when he made his deliveries, but after learning the chocolates were made with GMOs, he switched to Godiva instead.

“You can walk into an office, and everyone will be unhappy and scowling, but if you give them a chocolate, it just breaks the ice and makes them smile,” he said. “It’s really just about loving one another and treating people how you want to be treated.”

On a typical day, Luscher starts his morning at the UPS distribution center in Round Rock, where he picks up his truck full of packages for Liberty Hill businesses and residents. Next he drives to Liberty Hill, where he will drop off packages with a time commitment first, followed by those that take up a lot of space in his truck.

After that, he heads to Liberty Hill proper, where he delivers packages to the area schools, city offices and downtown businesses.

“I like to do the downtown area because I know they need their packages and need to take care of business first,” he said. “After

Frank Luscher is popular with the dogs of Liberty Hill, who know to come to his truck for a treat when he makes a delivery to their owner. Here, Ollie the dog begs Luscher for a treat. COURTESY PHOTO

UPS driver Frank Luscher loves his delivery and pick up route in Liberty Hill. He’s known for bringing treats to human customers and their animals, too.

PHOTO BY RACHEL MADISON

that, I deliver to all the residents out in the country. All the fun starts when I get out to the country -- that’s when you see the real Liberty Hill, Texas.”

While delivering in rural Liberty Hill can be time consuming, it’s Luscher’s favorite part of the day.

“The last two miles of CR 287 is just a bumpy dirt road and my truck ra les all the way down it, but when the nearby horses hear me coming they start walking to the fence because they know it’s the carrot wagon,” Luscher said, adding that every morning before work, he cuts up about two pounds of carrots and apples to feed to the horses, donkeys and zebras he sees along his route.

There’s one donkey in High River Ranch Estates that gives an ear-spli ing “heehaw” when he sees Luscher drive around the corner, because he can’t wait to get his carrot and apple. At another ranch, one horse that used to be scared to come up to Luscher now comes running through the brush in his pasture, bucking his hind legs and whinnying in excitement for his carrot and apple treats.

“We log our breaks, and we get a full hour every day, so I add up my carrot stops along the way,” he said. “Stopping for a meal is a

rare treat. A lot of days I’ll just eat a protein bar while I’m driving around. My breaks are used to feed all my buddies out there.”

Luscher is also a popular visitor among the dogs of Liberty Hill.

“The dogs know my truck as the treat wagon,” he said. “I buy all my dog treats from Tomlinson’s, because I want to give the dogs a be er grade of treats.”

Around 3 p.m., Luscher finishes his deliveries and starts his package pickups for the day, stopping by DigiTex and The UPS Store before heading back to Round Rock to drop everything off.

And the next day? He gets to do it all over again. As long as Luscher works for UPS, he plans on keeping the Liberty Hill route.

When it’s time for him to retire, Luscher plans on buying land in the Liberty Hill area because not only does it remind him of where he grew up, he also considers himself a part of the community now.

“They say home is where your heart is, so even though I don’t live here yet, it’s where my heart is,” he said.

(Right) Frank Luscher cuts up carrots and apples for animals along his UPS route every morning. Luscher often takes selfies with his favorite animals on his route, like Charlie the horse. COURTESY PHOTO

Works of art

Locals share unique hobbies, talents and creative forms of art

STORY & PHOTOS

BY RACHEL MADISON STAFF WRITER

What is the definition of art? To many, it might be a painting or a drawing or a sculpture, but art isn’t always so linear. Sometimes, art can be created from the most surprising items, like mason jars and old plates or cotton candy and sprinkles.

The Liberty Hill area has always been known as an artsy town, thanks to the International Sculpture Symposium held downtown in 1976. For decades, artists have flocked to Liberty Hill for its small-town way of life, inspiring vistas and art-forward community.

Check out these local artists, who are creating works of art with unique mediums and creative visions.

J Bird Designs

Janet Coursey has always had an affinity

for birds and art. A couple of years ago, she put the two together in a creative way.

“I was in a craft store a few years ago and saw someone was doing these garden totems out of old plates and vases, sort of like yard art,” she said. “I thought it was really cool and wanted to make one, but I made mine a bird bath.”

Coursey started out by making herself a couple of bird baths for her own yard, and then she tried her hand at creating a couple of bird feeders and hummingbird feeders, too. Using plates, bowls, vases and other dishes, Mason jars and her eye for color, she stacked plates in various ways until the feeders looked right.

“The kids would walk in and be like, ‘Mom’s gluing plates together again,” Coursey said. “But it’s really turned into something cool.”

From there, Coursey did a lot of her own research and development—spending hours sorting through nuts and bolts in the

hardware section of Winkley’s—to find just want she needed to be able to drill through the plates and jars to create a sturdy base for her feeders and baths.

She also frequents area thrift stores, like Operation Liberty Hill and the Bertram Friends of the Library to find unique dishes for her art pieces.

“You never know what you’re going to find, so I can’t predict what I’m going to make,” she said. “I keep a pretty good stock of plates in my garage so I can try to have all the colors on hand, but if I’m out and about, I’m always looking for more.”

Over the last couple of years, Coursey has started selling her bird baths and feeders at area markets in places like Liberty Hill, Burnet, Mason and Spicewood. She will also be at Whimsy & Wonder this month, and has a few pieces for sale at Main Street Marketplace.

In addition to her bird feeders and baths, Coursey also makes a line of bird seed and “tweet butter” that can be spread on branches for seeds to stick to.

Coursey makes each of her feeders and baths by hand, and every single work of art is unique, because of the products she uses to create them.

“I never know what a piece is going to look like until I start stacking plates and dishes and deciding what goes best together,” she said. “Making these for people and knowing

they have them in their yard just makes my heart happy. I always take a lot of customer pics, because I love seeing my customers with their new [pieces].”

www.facebook.com/jbirddesignstx

Ember Elaine Modern Handlettering and Design

Ember Sherman has always been creative, but she didn’t do much with that natural talent until she was in her late 20s. She started painting and scrapbooking, and then about eight years ago, picked up hand lettering.

“I’ve always been fascinated with people’s handwriting, and I love to keep anything of my grandma’s or great-grandma’s that they’ve written,” she said. “I even have a tattoo [on my arm] with my mom’s handwriting.”

This fascination prompted Sherman to start watching videos of people who did different forms of hand lettering, and then she started trying it out herself. Every day for at least an hour, she’d practice writing the alphabet over and over in a hand lettering style until it started to look how she wanted it to look.

About a year into it, Sherman started teaching others how to do what she was doing via social media, and people started asking her to do different projects for them, like a wedding sign or a chalkboard for their kitchen. She moved on to writing quotes on

Ashley Patton, owner of Cotton Candy Cowgirls, has taken cotton candy to the next level by offering customers unique flavors and toppings and creating cakes out of layers and layers of the sticky-sweet substance.

Ember Sherman has been doing calligraphy and hand lettering for years. She creates beautifully scripted words on everything from canvases to wine bottles.

canvas and then designing ornaments.

“I was starting to gain more confidence, and I wanted to try starting my own business, but it was January 2020, and Covid was about to hit,” she said. “I didn’t le er most of 2020 because nobody was ordering anything. I didn’t start again until July 2021.”

For a short time, Sherman worked for a company based out of Boston doing hand le ering and calligraphy, but in fall of 2022, she decided to branch out completely on her own.

Since then, she’s started doing “live calligraphy” where she will hand le er different objects people purchase right in front of them. She is also teaching calligraphy lessons again, and enjoys selling her work.

“I love that words are important to peo-

ple. I didn’t realize how important they were until people started having me write their favorite verse or quote on something,” she said. “Initially it was just a creative outlet for me, but I realized how meaningful it was. It is surreal to me that my work is hanging in people’s houses.”

Sherman can do calligraphy on almost anything, from wine bo les to canvases, and she can use almost anything to write with, too, like paint, chalk, markers, pens and pencils. She is even adept at the traditional pointed pen calligraphy that uses liquid dipping ink.

www.facebook.com/emberelaine

Co on Candy Cowgirls

Co on Candy is o en associated with carnivals and kids’ sticky fingers, but in Ashley Pa on’s case, it’s so much more than that.

Pa on, who owns Co on Candy Cowgirls, bought the business just under two years ago and hit the ground running to learn everything she could about the art of co on candy.

“My mom’s two best friends actually started the business, but they were looking to sell it and my mom asked me if I would buy their business,” Pa on said. “As soon as I saw their set up, all the ideas started forming. They came to one farmers market and showed me how to spin, so a er that I basically had to sink or swim.”

Pa on quickly learned that selling co on candy isn’t hard—where there are kids, there are customers—but she wanted to do more than just sell the sweet treat. She first came up with the idea of changing the shape of the co on candy on the cone so that it could easily hold a variety of unique toppings.

“I wanted to make it more fun and more bang for your buck, so I came up with toppings to add,” she said. “We can do Pop Rocks, sprinkles, Nerds and marshmallows. When you go to an ice cream shop you get toppings, so why not co on candy?”

In addition to toppings, Pa on has also started to create unique art with her co on candy, in the form of layer cakes. To create the cakes, Pa on spins up to five cones of co on candy per flavor and uses a plastic cake tin to mold the co on candy, creating layer a er layer until the tin is full.

“The cakes can feed up to 20 people, and they are very dense,” Pa on added. “Every cake comes with toppings that you put on a er you take it out of the mold. I have played with a lot of different toppings like freeze dried candies, Fruity Pebbles, cookie crumbs and popcorn.”

To make things even more creative, Patton also spins co on candy in over 40 different flavors. The traditional pink and blue colors are still the most popular, she said, but she can do flavors like pickle, jalapeno, bacon, root beer and gummy bear.

“Co on candy can bring adults back to childhood because it’s a whimsical and cute treat,” she said. “I wanted to have tons of options for both adults and kids.”

Pa on a ends a lot of local festivals, including the upcoming Whimsy & Wonder festival, and spins co on candy at many school and neighborhood events across Liberty Hill. She is also ge ing into spinning co on candy for weddings, baby showers and the like.

“I’m ge ing out of going to farmers markets and doing more private events and parties,” she said.

The best part of Pa on’s co on candy creations is all the unique customizations she can do, she said, from party favors and packaged tubs of co on candy to fresh cones and layer cakes, she’s found a whimsical way to make co on candy more than just a delicious treat.

www.co oncandycowgirls. com

(Above and below) Janet Coursey loves birds, which is why it was a natural fit for her to start upcycling old dishes to create bird baths and bird feeders and each piece she makes is original.

Cotton Candy Cowgirls produces cakes made of cotton candy that can feed up to 20 people.

Covering the classics

Beatles cover band to headline Whimsy & Wonder

BY SCOTT AKANEWICH STAFF WRITER

Seven bands will take the stage at this year’s Whimsy & Wonder festival in downtown Liberty Hill on May 20, but only one will transport attendees back through the decades to a time when a revolutionary new kind of music hopped across the pond and took America by storm.

The Lonely Hearts Club is a Beatles cover band that has merged their musicianship with a love for the magical melodies the lads from Liverpool brought with them across the Atlantic five decades ago and will feature as the headline act during the annual event.

According to lead vocalist and bassist Jeremy Fowler, the band isn’t just your garden-variety cover quartet.

“We decided we were going to do this professionally and do it well,” said Fowler. “We’ve had this particular iteration of the band for about two years.”

Along with Fowler, the band features guitarist Anthony Sanders, keyboardist Will Patterson and drummer Grahame O’Shea in competing the Fab Four lineup.

Interestingly enough, O’Shea actually hails from England and despite the fact the band doesn’t add vintage outfits or British accents to its stage presentation, Fowler said the stick wielder will sometimes still catch people off-guard.

“We played on ‘Up Late Austin,’ which is on a public access channel,” he said. “The host of the show was talking to Grahame all night thinking his accent wasn’t real.”

Before joining the band, O’Shea made a living playing in bands on cruise ships, but once the global pandemic temporarily shut that industry down in 2020, he and his wife –a Dallas native – decided to put their anchor down in Austin.

“We have a joke,” said Fowler. “‘Here’s a guy from the U.K. who moved all the way to Texas just to play in a Beatles cover band.’”

The Lonely Hearts Club has three vocalists, said Fowler.

(Harrison) tunes.”

Whimsy & Wonder won’t be the band’s first Liberty Hill appearance, as it also played at one of the City’s summer concert series last year and an area of town Fowler is quite familiar with, he said.

“We love playing in Liberty Hill,” said Fowler. “I have a friend that actually lives right next to the water tower site and I also used to work at a buddy’s business nearby where we restored hybrid batteries – I call it the ‘Prius farm.’”

Fowler – originally from Houston and now a South Austin resident – came upon his nostalgic musical calling after frequent visits to a local haunt hooked him up with another musician of like-minded interests.

“I used to go to a place in Austin called Camp EZ, which was basically a place like ‘Alice in Wonderland’ where a lot of hippies would hang out,” he said. “Every month, they would have a pot luck and I would go and sing Beatles songs. I met a guy there who liked to do the same thing and we said, ‘Hey,

why don’t we actually do a Beatles show?’ So, we started doing it once a year.”

These days, the quartet plays over 200 shows per year individually as members of other bands and together. They’re professionals of the highest order that take pride in

presenting a proper representation of such legendary music, said Fowler.

“We make it a point,” he said. “To play this music and focus on just being good musicians – no outfits or fake accents.”

“I’ll sing 99 percent of the Paul (McCartney) stuff,” he said. “While Anthony will sing the John (Lennon) songs and Will the George The Lonely Hearts Club is a Beatles cover band that will

headline the annual Whimsy & Wonder festival in downtown Liberty Hill on May 20. COURTESY PHOTO

Members of The Lonely Hearts Club recreate The Beatles’ iconic “Abbey Road” album cover in front of Sam’s Burger Joint in San Antonio. COURTESY PHOTO

Real estate market returning to normalcy

Historic highs have leveled o locally

BY SCOTT AKANEWICH STAFF WRITER

Two years ago, the Central Texas real estate market experienced a period that was unprecedented in the boom that occurred, resulting in home values soaring along with the number of buyers that were flooding the marketplace.

“Everything took off when we didn’t expect it to happen,” said Shane White, owner of RE/MAX Town & Country Real Estate in Liberty Hill. “Prices were the highest I’ve seen in 25 years in the business. Also, interest rates were historically low.”

However, these days the market is returning to more normal levels of activity, he said.

“We’re back to the point where we’re seeing a balanced supply of available homes compared to the number of buyers,” said White. “Interest rates are going back up and that prices some people out of the market.”

In March, the median home price in the Liberty Hill Independent School District was $486,000 – down 11.6 percent from the previous year – with the average sales transaction requiring 160 days to close.

In the 78642 zip code, the median price was $475,000, while across Williamson County, the number was at $425,000.

White said the market has finally begun to stabilize once again.

“I don’t foresee a lot of increase at this point,” he said. “If prices do go up again, it will be gradual.”

According to Amy Gandy of AGandy & Company, each spring brings another round of reasons for either buying or selling.

“Once the new county tax assessments are done for the year, sometimes people get scared because things are less affordable as we’ve experienced higher rates recently,” said Gandy. “So, potential buyers will decide to stay put.”

Gandy said at one point a couple of years ago, there might have been a dozen or so homes on the market in Liberty Hill at a given time, compared to over 500 now, which results in lower prices.

“It’s really a buyer’s market right now,” she said. “Sellers aren’t ge ing 120 percent of their asking price like they were back then.”

For Vanessa Nunez of EXP Realty, constantly studying market trends allows her to be on the cu ing edge of what’s going to happen next.

“You have to be ahead of the growth,” said Nunez. “Looking at what’s happening as

In March 2023, the median price for a home in Liberty Hill was $486,000 – down 11.6 percent from the previous year – with numbers across Williamson County experiencing a similar decline. COURTESY GRAPHICS

Williams was among the ‘Ignored Heroes’ of WWII

BY JAMES WEAR COLUMNIST

Recently I learned of the passing of Loraine Williams, who I met along with her husband Carl more than 30 years ago. The couple were not only active members of the Liberty Hill VFW Post, but took a great interest in many other community activities, and are generally credited with launching what’s known as the “Over the Hill Gang” in Liberty Hill.

What I didn’t know about Loraine was that she was among those who worked in the top-secret Manhattan Project back during the second world war, and I must confess, I didn’t know much about the Manhattan Project until a little more than five years ago when a longtime friend of mine, Richard Cook, published a book entitled Ignored Heroes of World War II, The Manhattan Project Workers of Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

Richard and I became friends back in 1985, when I joined the staff of the Burnet Bulletin. It was during my tenure at the Bulletin that I began actively covering events in Liberty Hill, which at the time was pretty much limited to school-related activities as Liberty Hill was still many years away from incorporation.

Loraine and her sister became part of the Manhattan Project when their father moved their family to Oak Ridge in 1943. During her time in Oak Ridge, Loraine corresponded with a young soldier named Carl, who came to Tennessee after the war ended. The couple married in 1945.

Loraine was one of more than 75,000 persons involved with the Manhattan Project,

which was dedicated to creating enriched uranium for use in a nuclear bomb. According to Richard’s research, it was a top secret project that operated around the clock for three years.

“The outcome of World War II would be decided by thousands of Americans making something the size of a volleyball,” wrote Richard in his introduction.

Loraine’s obituary noted that she worked in Plant Y-12. In his book, Richard notes that “Y-12 was a ‘batch’ process. Uranium was placed in a calutron and the process ran until it was out of sample. The machine was stopped, the refined samples were collected, and a new batch was added. This was done thousands of times during 1944 and 1945.”

Few veterans remain living that fought in World War II, and generally the war has become a distant memory. But those old enough to remember those times may well recall how deadly the effort to stop Hitler and the Japanese actually was. “The loss of American life during World War II would equal a 9/11 attack every five days for three and half years,” Richard notes in his introduction.

Richard learned during his research for his book that the Department of War condemned 59,000 acres of Tennessee farmland to build the complex on. “In a matter of weeks over 400 families were evicted from land their relatives had farmed for generations,” he wrote.

According to Richard, the majority of

WORSHIP GUIDE

ANDICE BAPTIST CHURCH

6570 FM 970, Florence

(254) 793-2557 | www.andicebc.org

PASTORS

Derrick Norris, Senior Pastor Matt Koehler, Associate Pastor of Students & Families SERVICES

Sunday Bible Study 9:45am

Sunday Worship 11am

Wednesday AWANA 6:30pm

CROSS TRACKS CHURCH

101 Church St., Liberty Hill

(512) 515-0070

www.crosstrackschurchumc.org

PASTOR Michele Lott

SERVICES

Sunday School 9am

Sunday Worship 10am

Sun. Online Facebook.com/cross trackschurch/

Manhattan Project were

“Young women, recently graduated from high school, left their rural homes for the first time. Some had never been more than 50 miles from home. Quite a few were raised in farm houses without electricity or running water,” noted Richard, adding that, “Decades later they would admit it was the greatest adventure of their lives.”

Richard discovered the United States government, believing secrecy was incredibly important because of the belief that if Hitler were to learn of America’s plan he would expedite his own attempts to develop a nuclear weapon, went to great lengths to keep the project under wraps. “Individuals who talked too much about their work simply disappeared from the secret colony,” he wrote.

In writing his book, Richard quoted from

HOLY ANNUNCIATION

ORTHODOX CHURCH

5205 CR 236, Liberty Hill (512) 782-9940

www.annunciationtx.com

PASTOR Bp. Irineos Placek SERVICES

Vespers Sat. 6:30pm

Divine Liturgy Sun. 10am

LIFE SPRINGS

CHRISTIAN CHURCH

15611 W State Hwy 29, Liberty Hill (512) 633-6074

www.lifespringschristianchurch.org

PASTOR

Dr. William Brannan SERVICES

Sunday Worship 10am

Online youtube.com/c/LifeSprings

MISSION LIBERTY HILL

LUTHERAN CHURCH

(LCMS Affiliated)

15725 W State Hwy 29, #7

Liberty Hill (512) 778-9310

www.missionlibertyhill.com

PASTOR

Rev. Mike Cofer

more than 100 oral histories. Some of those who took part in the project had mixed feelings, including one individual identified as Louise Keaton, who recalled, “You know, I’ve thought about it a lot. I try. I thought I did what they told me to do. And it did help the war. In later years, I have wondered if it was the right thing.

“But it had to be…I know it was bad all the Japanese were killed and all that but I think we would have lost so many more Americans had we not built it and then Germany, you know, was ready.

“And I’ve tried to look at it that way. And I’ve asked God to forgive me if I did something wrong.”

Persons interested in purchasing a copy of Richard’s book should visit ignoredheroes. com on the web.

SERVICES

Sunday Bible Study 9am

Sunday Church Worship 10am

Sunday Online 10am

missionlibertyhill.com/onlineworship/

ROCKPOINTE CHURCH

LIBERTY HILL

170 CR 214, Liberty Hill (512) 259-8872

www.rockpointechurch.com

PASTOR

Darin Ramsey, Campus Pastor SERVICES

Sunday Worship 9:30am

(Above left) Loraine Williams was among Liberty Hill’s most active citizens. As a young woman during the second World War, she was among those who worked at the top-secret Manhattan Project with the goal to develop a nuclear bomb before Nazi Germany did. As history tells us, Williams and her co-workers were successful. (Above) This photograph, taken in 1945 of a young woman (identity unknown) working at the government’s top-secret Manhattan Project in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, became known as “Wendy the Welder” and served as an inspiration to thousands of young women whose efforts led to the successful creation of an atomic bomb. This photo, and many more from the project, may be found in Richard Cook’s book, Ignored Heroes of World War II. (Courtesy Photos) workers in the

women.

Take a day trip to Lake Travis’ North Shore

Soak in the relaxed way of life and breathtaking views

STORY & PHOTOS

BY RACHEL MADISON STAFF WRITER

The North Shore of Lake Travis in Travis County is known for its natural beauty, outdoor recreational activities and relaxed way of life.

Only 40 minutes from Liberty Hill, it’s the perfect place to spend a day without having to travel far—plus, there’s plenty of local places to enjoy a delicious meal, shop for unique finds and take in breathtaking views.

Arkansas Bend Park

One of the best places to check out the beauty of the North Shore is at Arkansas Bend Park (a $5 fee to enter the park is required).

The park is a tranquil oasis that offers stunning views of the lake, rugged hiking trails, and abundant wildlife. One of the main attractions of Arkansas Bend Park is its expansive 300-acre nature preserve.

The preserve is home to a diverse range of plant and animal life, including several endangered and threatened species.

During our visit, we saw several species of lizards and heard a lot of different birds singing their tunes.

Visitors can explore the preserve on foot

via the many hiking trails that wind through the park. In addition to hiking, Arkansas Bend Park offers plenty of opportunities for water-based activities including swimming, boating and fishing.

The park has several boat ramps and dock facilities, making it easy for visitors to launch their boats and spend a day on the lake. Anglers can try their luck at catching bass, catfish and a variety of other fish species that inhabit the waters of Lake Travis.

For those who prefer to stay on land, Arkansas Bend Park has several picnic areas and open spaces where visitors can relax and enjoy a picnic lunch or a game of Frisbee (the park does also have a disc golf course). If you have children, find a picnic table near the playground, which is quite impressive and expansive and earned a vote of 10 out of 10 from my kids.

The best part about Arkansas Bend Park is its remote location—the lack of crowds made our visit serene and tranquil—where we could spend as much time as we wanted exploring the natural surroundings without encountering many other people.

Learn more here: parks.traviscountytx. gov/parks/arkansas-bend.

Lake Travis

Driving through the small towns on the

north side of Lake Travis like Lago Vista and Jonestown will have you feeling like you’re in a lakeside resort community—and for all intents and purposes, you really are. Water-based activities are king at North Shore. Visitors can enjoy a wide range of activities including boating, kayaking and swimming.

Boating is one of the most popular pastimes in the area, thanks to sections of Lake Travis like Devil’s Cove that provide great swimming spots for hot summer days. If you don’t have a boat, that’s okay. The North Shore is full of boat rental companies that will rent boats to you, and some, like Liquid Thrillz out of Point Venture, will deliver the boat to the dock of your choice.

If boating isn’t your thing, try stand-up paddleboarding or kayaking. Viking Ship Kayak Rentals is a mobile company that services the North Shore. The company will deliver and pick up all the equipment, and even teach you how to use it if it’s your first time on a kayak or stand-up paddleboard. Learn more here: liquidthrillz.com and www.vikingshipkayakrentals.com.

Lone Star Helicopters

Steven and Jennifer Bush are the brains behind Lone Star Helicopters, which is the perfect way to see the beauty of Lake Travis from a new perspective. The couple started

their business in 2014 training pilots and offering brokerage services, but about a year ago, launched the tour side of the business.

Since then, customers have been able to get a bird’s eye view of Lake Travis and the surrounding areas by booking tours with Lone Star.

Steven Bush said tours can basically be catered to whatever customers want to see, but most people enjoy flying over the Hill Country lakes, including Mansfield Dam. Others enjoy seeing Austin from above and learning where celebrities have homes or where historical events occurred.

“I’m a huge history buff, so I’ll point out different points of interest and talk about the history of the area as we fly over,” he said. “If we go over downtown Austin, I’ll show you downtown, the University of Texas, Pennybacker Bridge, Mount Bonnell, The Domain and the new Q2 stadium. It’s a great way to see all of Austin. Flying through downtown is pretty breathtaking.”

The Bushes said the tours are suitable for young kids, the elderly and everyone in between. The helicopters can hold up to three people, along with the pilot.

“If you want something exciting or fun to do to get the lay of the land and see everything that Austin and the North Shore of Lake Travis has to offer, then this is a pretty

The North Shore of Lake Travis is known for its breathtaking views of the lake from cities like Lago Vista and Point Venture.

Steven and Jennifer Bush own Lone Star Helicopters, a Lago Vista-based company that will give people tours of the Hill County lakes as well as downtown Austin.

amazing way to do it,” Steven Bush said. “It’s really the next level of adventure.”

Learn more at www.lonestarheli.com.

Dining/Shopping

The North Shore has a variety of restaurants with menus catering to different tastes and preferences, along with a variety of small shops and businesses offering unique pro-ducts and services.

Personal restaurant favorites include the Lucky Rabbit in Jonestown and Captain Pete’s Boathouse in Point Venture.

At the Lucky Rabbit, eat outside if you can. An electric backyard, including a 1950s school bus that has been upcycled into the patio bar, is worth checking out. The food and drinks are equally worth it.

For an appetizer, I’d go with the chips and lone star green chili queso, and for a meal, choose the chipotle chicken Caesar salad.

Naturally, all the drinks on the menu have a nod to rabbits, bunnies and the like, and every single one I’ve tried is flavorful and delicious in its own way.

If you happen to stop by Lucky Rabbit later in the day, live music will be taking place on stage, which is a great way to stay entertained during a tasty meal.

Captain Pete’s Boathouse is a floating restaurant, which in and of itself makes it a place worth visiting.

Add to that the giant catfish that live underneath the restaurant waiting for scraps of your meal, and you’ve got a place that kids (and their parents) will find extremely cool.

The menu is well rounded, with salads, burgers and hot dogs on board, and everything is delicious, making it easy to please everyone in the family.

Shopping in the North Shore can be a lot of fun, if you know where to look.

If you need a sweet treat a er visiting a restaurant, check out Candy Bar ATX, which is a full-service candy store that most children’s dreams are made of.

Candy Bar also serves gourmet ice creams, fruit smoothies and shaved ice.

Other shops worth checking out include The Wild Navy, a women’s clothing boutique, and tARTbyTARA, a store that specializes in apothic home and bath items, meditation candles and crystal décor pieces.

Learn more here: www.luckyrabbitbar.com; www.captainpetesboathouse.com; thecandybaratx.com; thewildnavy.com; and tartbytara.com.

At Arkansas Bend Park, an expansive playground for kids is just one of the highlights. The park also has several hiking trails, picnic areas and beautiful views of Lake Travis.

The North Shore of Lake Travis is a popular area for boating, swimming, fishing and other water-related activities.

One of the best dishes at Lucky Rabbit is the chips and lone star green chili queso, but everything on the menu is worth a try.

Big city dining in small-town Texas

The Standard on Vaughan offers a rare culinary experience

BY RACHEL MADISON STAFF WRITER

BERTRAM -- When you walk into The Standard on Vaughan restaurant in downtown Bertram, you immediately forget you’re in a town smaller than Liberty Hill. But then you’ll probably see at least one person you know sitting at the bar or dining with their family, and you’ll remember where you really are—and be impressed.

The Standard, which celebrated its grand opening just last month, has been a longterm labor of love for locals Kimberly Polasek and Emily Ann Jones. Jones, who also

owns The Globe Theatre with her husband, JesseLee Jones, knew she wanted to open a restaurant in downtown Bertram after she purchased the theater from her brother.

“My husband and I are in the music and entertainment industry,” said Jones, who is a musician and singer, as is her husband, who performs under the stage name Brazilbilly. “My brother owned The Globe before us, and when he asked us to take it over, I told my husband we’d do it right. I knew we needed food, but we didn’t have a place for it, and it kind of snowballed from there.”

That’s how the idea for the restaurant came to be, but Jones couldn’t do it alone. She recruited her childhood friend, Polasek, who has years of experience in the food and hospitality industry. The first thing the pair did was purchase a food truck to park next to The Globe, which they named Bacon Me Crazy and open on concert nights and for other special events to feed hungry showgoers. While that project gave them the much-needed ability to serve food during events, Jones and Polasek weren’t satisfied. They wanted more. They wanted to provide Bertram with a place the community could be proud of.

“We wanted to provide somewhere for locals and visitors to go and have a fine dining experience,” Jones said. “Maybe they can’t afford to travel or they can’t drive into Austin for a nice dinner. We want to be the local fine dining place to go.”

Jones, who grew up in the Bertram area, has purchased several buildings in downtown Bertram, one of which now houses The Standard, with the intention of rebuilding the downtown area one business at a time. The building was originally constructed in the early 1900s and has served as a post office, a bank and a café in the past.

The partners worked on opening The Standard for nearly two years before it happened, thanks to postponements from Covid, supply chain issues and permitting delays. But now that the restaurant is open, they’re ready to make a mark on Bertram.

“Back in the day, Bertram was the first real hopping place outside of Austin because of the railroad,” Jones said. “At one point this was a place where people wanted to move to and bring their families. With The Standard we truly want to set the stan-

dard for downtown Bertram. This is finer fare and high-end steaks. This is just the tip of the iceberg and is truly a labor of love for the City of Bertram. I see huge potential for the rest of downtown.”

The restaurant is open Wednesday through Saturday with bar service from 3 to 10 p.m. and dinner service from 5 to 9 p.m. In the near future, the partners hope to also offer breakfast during the week, brunch on the weekends and a special happy hour menu, as well as special theme nights that correspond with events happening at The Globe.

Dining at The Standard is truly an experience, Polasek said, because everything on the menu is processed as little as possible.

“Everything is fresh,” she said. “We don’t use pre-made mixes for our drinks and we make our own rubs for our meats. We also try to source as much as we can locally, even if that means it’s more expensive, because we want the best.”

Jones said the menu at The Standard has a bit of an Italian and Latin flair, thanks to her and her husband’s heritage. Popular menu items include the grilled ribeye and the salmon fillet, as well as the deviled eggs, bruschetta and Maryland style jumbo lump crab cakes.

“We know we are way ahead of where Bertram is at dining wise, but we’re doing it on purpose,” Jones said. “We want to be the trendsetters and set the standard. We really think there are a lot of people who want a finer fare that have moved to this area.”

Besides the food and drinks, the atmosphere at The Standard is equally impressive. Jones calls the ambiance there “rustic

meets art deco,” -- a perfect description. A large elk (named Elk Capone by Jones) is the conversation piece behind the bar, while the main dining room features original brick walls, high ceilings, and large windows that let in plenty of natural light.

“Our biggest goal here is to give people something different—something they can’t go get down the street,” Jones said. “We want The Standard to provide people with an experience—a memory they will remember—not just another place to eat food.”

For more information on The Standard on Vaughan and to make reservations, visit thestandardonvaughan.com.

From left, Kimberly Polasek, JesseLee Jones and Emily Ann Jones are the owners of The Standard on Vaughan. Their goal is to provide a unique and exciting dining experience in small-town Bertram. COURTESY PHOTO

The Standard on Vaughan offers a wide range of menu items. Popular starters include the deviled eggs and bruschetta.

PHOTO BY RACHEL MADISON

A large variety of cocktails, beers and wines are on the drink menu at The Standard on Vaughan, including the ever-popular margarita.

PHOTO BY RACHEL MADISON

Healthy dose of the best medicine

Whiskey Barrel Pub brings ‘Comedy Night’ to Liberty Hill

BY SCOTT AKANEWICH STAFF WRITER

If indeed, laughter is the best medicine, Whiskey Barrel Sports Pub in downtown Liberty Hill is now serving up just what the doctor ordered in the the form of a healthy prescription with its new “Comedy Night,” a monthly showcase of local laughmasters.

According to co-owner Don Pucke , he was looking to offer entertainment that isn’t necessarily readily available locally without having to hit the road.

“We were looking for a place to go to a comedy show,” said Pucke , of himself and wife and co-owner Heather. “Pre y much the closest place to find one was all the way in Austin.”

Now, the couple need go no farther than their own establishment for some side-spli ing stage antics and the cozy confines of the pub provide a proper venue, said Heather Pucke .

“We wanted to do something different and we have the perfect place for it,” she said. “It’s really an intimate se ing where people can be up close and interact with the comedians.”

So far, the show has been a smash success, said Don.

“Usually, it sells out in a couple days,” he said. “We give access first to our VIPs –which you can sign up for on our website – a er that, there’s usually only about 10 tickets le .”

The Pucke s would like to host the show in Willy’s Backyard, the outdoor area out be-

hind the pub in order to seat more patrons for the shows, but a zoning regulation currently presents a conundrum for doing so.

“Our liquor license only allows us to serve beer and wine outside, but no liquor,” said Don. “Otherwise, we could fit a lot more people.”

Still, though, Don said something might be lost by staging the laughfest outside.

“I think that’s what makes it special,” he said. “Inside, the audience is practically right on top of the comedians, which would be lost if we had it outside. Both the performers and the guests feed off each other.”

Comedy aficionados should expect to make an entire evening of the event, said Don.

“We’ll clear the bar at 5:30 for an 8 p.m. show,” he said. “So, that way the people here for the show can come early and have dinner beforehand.”

Even a er the show, there are still additional social opportunities – including with those who were telling the jokes.

“A lot of times, a few of the comedians will stick around a er the show and mingle,” said Don. “Which is something you’re not gong to get at a big club in Austin.”

Heather said she and Don take pride in the fact they’re offering Liberty Hill residents an entertainment option that is unique in their own backyard.

“People now have the opportunity to experience something like this without having to travel,” she said. “It’s close to home.”

Make no mistake, the Whiskey Barrel is a sports pub in name, but while it’s a fine

place to take in a game, the Pucke s wanted to create an atmosphere that is more than just that, said Don.

“We didn’t want it to be a place where you walk in and all you see are football helmets where it’s right in your face,” he said. “So, we created a country-themed bar that has a rural feel to it.”

These days, there are plenty of laughs to be had also.

“We’re bringing quality comedians here to Liberty Hill,” said Don. “So far, it’s been very well-received.”

Real estate

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 17

far as road pa erns and being ahead of the program.”

As Liberty Hill has continued to grow in recent years, Nunez said those who took her advice leading up to the growth have benefited from the boom, while those who didn’t – not exactly.

“All the people who didn’t listen to me back from 2013 to 2018 regret it,” she said. “Which is why I always cultivate my clients to be knowledgeable in the marketplace themselves.”

Upcoming Events at Whiskey Barrel Sports Pub

May 20

Brian Andrews, 2 p.m. Boot Rock Boys, 7 p.m.

“Beat the House Trivia”

Gandy added although prospective buyers may not be able to afford their ideal home at the current time, an option to buy a lesser property and eventually upgrade can be a solid strategy.

“You don’t have to buy your dream house right out of the gate,” she said. “You can build up equity, then by your second or third house, you can afford what you really want. Sometimes the best thing to do is be patient and save money.”

Whiskey Barrel Sports Pub has recently added “Comedy Night” to its list of entertainment options and is the only local establishment to o er such shows. COURTESY PHOTO

Dr. Dale Williams

Whimsy & Wonder May 20 in Liberty Hill

BY RACHEL MADISON STAFF WRITER

Downtown Liberty Hill will transform into a whimsical and wonderful place for thousands of people to enjoy on May 20 from 6 to 10 p.m. and it promises to bring even more wonderment than in years past.

There will be live music on nearly every corner along Main Street, but the headliner for the evening is The Lonely Hearts Club (see page 14), a Beatles tribute band. That’s why it was only fi ing for the whole festival to have a subtle Beatles theme all throughout, said Katie Amsler, director of community engagement and communications for the City of Liberty Hill.

“People can count the number of Beatles things they see,” she added. “We might have balloon art that has a Beatles theme, or a stilt walker that is reminiscent of a Beatles character, or maybe people will spot Yoko Ono walking around.”

As in past years, live artist demonstrations will also be a major part of the festival. Returning favorites, like the dirty car artist and ice sculptor will be back, as

well as painters, chalk artists, a po er and a caricature artist, for a total of 15 different artists creating their work right in front of festivalgoers’ eyes.

The headlining artist this year, Dylan Sadiq, hails from New Jersey and goes by the moniker of The College Cuber. Sadiq creates unique mosaics from Rubik’s Cubes.

“He can solve the Rubik’s Cubes in about 10 seconds, and he’s going to let the audience help him create his mosaic by le ing them place the cubes where they need to go,” Amsler said. “His piece of art will be Beatles themed as well.”

In addition to the live music and art, 43 vendors, including food and alcohol vendors, will also be part of the festival. Behind the Stubblefield Visitors Center will be the “Thirsty Lounge” where a endees can purchase beverages from the Thirsty Penguin and the Thirsty Mule. The Hoppy Hydrant will also be at Veterans Park selling beer. Parker’s, Hell or Highwater and the Whiskey Barrel Pub will also be open during the festival serving special menu items.

A Children’s Imagination Garden will give kids the opportunity to get artsy, too.

Amsler said there will be an affirmation bracelet making station, a vintage guitar booth, a lantern making station and a hula hoop station. There will also be a drum circle and a face painter for kids.

Amsler said the ultimate goal with Whimsy & Wonder is to give a endees something incredible to see no ma er where they are looking. Unique characters will be seen wandering throughout the festival, and downtown buildings will be “yarn bombed” with colorful yarn. At 8 p.m., Amsler said a special surprise for the crowd will take place on Main Street between the Stubblefield Visitors Center and City Hall.

“Everyone needs to be on alert around 8 p.m. because it’s going to be a fun surprise,” she added.

Amsler projects the festival will bring in about 3,000 people—similar to last year’s numbers. Entrance to the event is free, as is parking.

Pedicabs will be running in both directions on Main Street to transport a endees from parking lots to the festival. Parking is available at Liberty Hill Elementary, Cross Tracks Church, Fellowship Church, One

Chapel, Lions Foundation Park and the LHISD Administration Office. The Lions Club will collect canned food and cash donations for Operation Liberty Hill in front of Parker’s during the festival. Visit www.experiencelhtx.com for more information.

Festival goers should expect the unexpected at Whimsy & Wonder. This year, 15 live artists will be creating art across downtown. KENDRA COFER

PHOTO

School, softball and pigs

Lady Panthers senior twins similar, different

BY SCOTT AKANEWICH SPORTS EDITOR

Emma and Lyssa Petru have been sharing things for as long as they can remember.

After all, as identical twins, the Liberty Hill senior sisters have spent most of their lives in the same place at the same time.

Not the least of which has been on a softball field for the past eight years as they’ve worked their way up through the youth ranks and are now pillars of a Lady Panthers varsity squad that has experienced a renaissance this season.

In fact, the Petrus sometimes find themselves only 40 feet away from each other when Lyssa is in the circle pitching to Emma behind the plate.

At times like these, it certainly comes in handy to know your batterymate – which is a bit easier when it’s your twin sibling, said Emma Petru.

“As a catcher, having a good relationship with your pitcher is important,” she said. “If

you’re expecting one pitch and get another, it can be frustrating.”

According to Lyssa Petru, she sister embraces the advice of her sister/catcher – but only under particular conditions.

“During a game, I can get frustrated and can’t always fix what’s wrong by myself,” said Lyssa. “But during practice, I like to figure it out on my own – I don’t know why that is. We have a rule, though – we never fight on the field.”

Besides, only one of the two is going to win the battle of pitch selection, she said.

“I throw what I want when I want,” said Lyssa. “I’ll just keep shaking her off.”

Diamond origins

When the duo began playing softball, Emma said each ended up in those positions by happenstance.

“At our first practice, our coach asked who wanted to be a pitcher and Lyssa raised her hand,” she said. “Then I raised my hand to be a catcher. Neither one of us even knew what those were and what we were volun-

teering for. But, we always had someone to play catch with.”

Not all of the Petrus’ duties on the diamond involve pitching and catching,

though, as Lyssa and Emma will often man opposite corners of the infield at first and third base, respectively, although there is a

Taking it to the next level

Panthers senior hones pair of crafts

BY SCOTT AKANEWICH SPORTS EDITOR

Kade Neuenschwander is like many of his fellow baseball players in applying eye black to his face before games – an age-old tradition of the sport that serves the purpose of keeping glare away when facing down fastballs at the plate or tracking defensive plays in the field.

However, rather than simply adding the shiny, dark substance in a straight horizontal line, the Liberty Hill senior paints a pair of crosses – one under each eye – which then carries a two-fold purpose, he said.

“Being a Christian is a big part of my life,” said Neuenschwander. “Doing that helps to remind me to not get too caught up in each game because there’s always a bigger

picture.”

According to Neuenschwander, he’s always had God in his heart, but has recently taken his devoutness to a different level with the help of teammates.

“My faith has always been there,” said Neuenschwander. “But, in the previous few years, it’s really been strengthened because of some of the people around me. We’ve had some really good leaders on this team and we even started a Bible study.”

But, Neuenschwander has taken his message to another level this season with the music he selected to stroll to the plate to at home games – “God’s Gonna Cut You Down” by Johnny Cash – although he said he was simply dusting off a ditty he had used in the past.

Lyssa Petru (#5) and twin sister Emma (#13) have been sharing a softball field from their beginnings in the youth ranks all the way up to Liberty Hill’s varsity squad. PHOTO BY ALEX RUBIO

Liberty Hill senior Kade Neuenschwander (#10) applies a pair of crosses with eye black to keep himself properly grounded when on the field. PHOTO BY ALEX RUBIO

So ball

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 31

distinct difference at the plate, as Lyssa bats from the le side, while Emma swings from the right.

But, even that has a story.

“I’m a natural righty,” said Lyssa, who pitches from the right side. “I had a coach once that wanted me to be a slap hi er from the le side, so I tried it out, but could never really get the whole slapping thing down. So, finally he just told me to be a power hi er, but I kept hi ing le y.”

Earlier this season, when starting pitchers Ashleigh Heiderscheit and Reese Albrecht were out injured, Lyssa stepped into the void le by the pair of senior hurlers until their return, including Liberty Hill’s opening two contests of the district schedule, both of which resulted in complete-game victories over Cedar Park and Rouse.

“It was a challenge I was definitely up for,” she said. “Even though I never expected for two of our three starters to be injured. But, I just knew I had to do it for my team because they have my back.”

Barnyard banter

When the Petrus need some time away from the game, they immerse themselves in another activity that has been a lifelong endeavor.

“We raise and show pigs,” said Emma. “I have three older brothers who were all into FFA (Future Farmers of America). It’s a big time commitment, but also an escape.”

Including when it’s time to clean the six pens the Petrus house their hogs in – although that is usually a point of contention between the two, said Lyssa.

“We always argue over who’s going to dump the wheelbarrow into the manure pile,” she said. “We usually take turns a er each two pens, but that means someone has to do it twice and the other person only once.”

Certainly there’s a sensible solution, then?

“You would think we could just alternate – whoever dumped twice last time only does it once,” said Lyssa. “But, no. Once we’re done and back again, it’s like we start

all over again.”

Although the sisters are teammates on the so ball field, that dynamic shi s to a more competitive nature when the time comes to pit their pigs against each other at shows, she said.

“We’re very competitive and I want to win,” said Lyssa. “I think it’s probably because we each have our own set of pigs and it’s a lot of responsibility.”

Identical, but different

Emma said one of the biggest misconceptions people have about her and Lyssa are they aren’t each their own individual.

“People will refer to us all the time as ‘the Petrus’ of ‘the twins,’” she said. “They tend to consider you as one person.”

Well, that’s certainly not the case.

In fact, look no further then the siblings’ bedrooms at home for evidence of individuality.

“Lyssa’s very neat,” said Emma. “But, my room is always a mess.”

Earlier on in their lives when the sisters shared a bedroom, then, one might think it was half-organized, half-disaster zone. But, not the case, said Emma.

“Oh, no,” she said. “Lyssa would clean the entire room including my side because it would bug her if it was messy.”

Both Petrus plan to a end Texas A&M University next year to study forensic investigative sciences and another commonality will be neither one of them will pursue their so ball careers any further – the result of some not-so-pleasant happenings while playing select ball.

“I know we’re both good enough to play at the next level,” said Lyssa. “But, the whole recruiting process didn’t go so well for us – it was super-draining. So, I prayed a lot

about it because it made me fall out of love with the game.”

However, now with the decision made and in the rear-view mirror, the Petrus have been able to once again find joy on the field as their time on the diamond wears down, she said.

“A lot of us seniors have been wanting to make the playoffs – that’s what’s driven this team,” said Lyssa. “This season has allowed me to fall back in love with so ball again because it’s fun to win.”

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Emma Petru (#13) has been known to lead verbally whether at bat or in the field for the Lady Panthers.

PHOTO BY ALEX RUBIO

Baseball

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 31

“I used that song my sophomore season,” said Neuenschwander. “Switched back to it this year without really thinking about it too much.”

Cra sman on two fronts

Entering last season, Neuenschwander had primarily played third base in high school, but down the stretch of the season when injuries hit the Panthers’ pitching staff, he was required to climb the hill with ball in hand.

In all, the right-hander appeared in 11 games, including five starts while compiling a 4-2 record and a 4.89 earned-run average with 21 strikeouts in 24 1/3 innings.

Most notable, though, was the fact three of those victories came in district contests, which helped propel the Purple-and-Gold to a playoff appearance.

This season, Neuenschwander has been a starter right out of the gate when he’s not positioned at the hot corner and with three games le in the regular season already had a 6-2 mark with a much-improved 1.01 ERA to go with 73 strikeouts in 48 1/3 innings.

Included in that run was a stretch of four league games in which he picked up the victory in each from March 31 to April 14.

Much of the credit for Neuenschwander’s success this season goes to senior catcher Carson Riley, who has been his ba erymate for some time now, he said.

“Carson and I have really good chemistry – we’ve been friends for a long time,” said Neuenschwander. “I know what pitches he’s going to call and I trust him. So, even if he calls for something maybe I don’t want to throw, we’ll usually go with it.”

Neuenschwander a ributes his uptick in velocity – which has dramatically boosted his strikeout rate – to coaching he’s go en, but Liberty Hill head coach Brandon Creek knows there’s definitely more to the equation that just instruction, he said.

“Kade is just as hard a working kid as there is,” said Creek. “He always has a focus – even in practice – and always knows what he wants to accomplish out on the field.”

Having both Neuenschwander and junior Blaze Milam on the mound now provides Creek with a pair of aces to play in the poker game that takes place on the diamond – a hand he is happy to have been dealt, he said.

“As a coach, it gives you a lot of confidence to be able to hand the ball to either one,” said Creek. “Because you know they’ll always give you a chance to win the game.”

Going way back

Despite the fact this season marks Creek’s first as Panthers dugout boss, the coach was already quite familiar with Neuenschwander, he said.

“I’ve known Kade since he was nine years old when (son) Brandon and him were teammates,” said Creek. “I’m blessed because I knew a lot of our players already from having seen them in summer ball, so I’ve seen how he constantly works at his cra and wants the ball. Kade’s going to give you everything he has.”

Creek added the fact Neuenschwander debuted on Liberty Hill’s varsity squad as a sophomore provided him with invaluable knowledge he’s used moving forward.

“Kade got to play with and against older guys at a younger age,” he said. “Which has allowed him to grow up a lot and really understand how mental a game baseball is.”

As a result, Neuenschwander has the uncanny ability to compartmentalize what unfolds on the field – good or bad, said Creek.

“Always has the same demeanor about him,” he said. “By looking at him, you wouldn’t know if he was 4-for-4 or 0-for-4 because he’s always the same.”

Neuenschwander said the time he’s spent with the Panthers’ varsity has indeed made

him a more polished player – not only physically, but mentally.

“I’ve definitely grown physically since then – I wasn’t really filled out as a sophomore,” he said. “But, it’s also a lot of experience. Back then, I’d get nervous before every game and feel it in my stomach. But, I’ve played in a lot of big games since then, so now I’m less nervous – it’s more of an excitement.”

Mound man

Neuenschwander will continue his baseball career next season at Blinn College, where he will continue to play third and pitch – as opposed to choosing one or the other, as many college players do upon arriving at that level.

“The coach there is really good and the

team has a lot of potential,” said Neuenschwander, whose dream Division I destinations are Texas A&M or Vanderbilt. “I’m glad I got that decision out of the way early. Once I decided, I could focus on my senior season of high school.”

Neuenschwander’s arsenal of pitches now includes a slider, which he added to the fastball, curve and change-up he already had in his armory.

“A lot of it is because my mechanics have improved from work I put in last summer and in the fall,” he said. “I’ve had some good coaches helping me.

“I’ve go en a lot of strikeouts this season and I do have more velocity,” he said. “But, I’m not necessarily trying to strike people out.”

Panthers senior teammates Brandon Creek and Kade Neuenschwander also played together in the youth ranks. COURTESY PHOTO

Tearing up the track SPORTS

Panthers duo combines experience, enthusiasm in excelling

BY SCOTT AKANEWICH SPORTS EDITOR

A pair of Panthers – one male, one female, one experienced, one an event rookie.

But, both excelling in their respective races this season as Liberty Hill’s track team headed down the home stretch of its season.

Senior Ryan McCarn and junior Lexi Tucker have each had successful campaigns in competing for the Purple-and-Gold this year, but each has their own unique story of how they arrived at their current signposts.

McCarn has run all four years as a member of both the Panthers’ track and cross country squads and has needed to overcome more than a few figurative hurdles along the way to becoming the current Liberty Hill school record holder in both the 1600 and 3200 meters.

Tucker, on the other hand, is clearing barriers of a literal sense these days as she has competed in the 300-meter hurdles this year following a switch from the middle distances after running the 400 and 800 her freshman and sophomore seasons.

For McCarn, it’s simply been a matter of staying healthy over the course of the past few years after his high-school career got off to an injury-plagued start.

“The big thing for me has been maturing physically and building strength in my body,”

he said. “I feel like I’ve gained much better fitness.”

Although the pair of Panthers records is a source of pride for McCarn, he said one of them was a bit unexpected.

“In the 1600, I felt that was always something I could do,” said McCarn. “But, I was surprised by how I did in the 3200 because I was able to beat some people in that race I hadn’t before.”

Indeed, McCarn beat everyone in the field of 26 in the finals at the Lions Relays in Leander on Feb. 18 in a time of 9:42.19, both a new personal best and a Liberty Hill record.

All that on the heels of another school-record and personal-best performance of 4:28.75 in the 1600 at the Southlake Carroll Distance Festival on March 18.

In addition to better performances on race day, McCarn’s improved health and fitness levels have allowed him to increase the amount of work he puts into training in between events – which is where races are really won and lost.

“I have a lot more volume now in how much I can train,” he said, of his early-morning regimen. “About 50 miles per week – sometimes more, sometimes less depending on how my body is feeling.”

The last point McCarn made is another reflection of the maturation of his mental game compared to when he was a young runner just trying to break into the high-school ranks, he said. “I’m still doing a lot more now than I was then,” said McCarn. “But, I just take better care of myself

overall, which is part of being more mature.”

While McCarn has been a distance runner all along, Tucker has undergone the transition from being a middle-distance competitor to one that now specializes strictly in the hurdles – a switch that was made in the best interests of the team entering this season, she said.

“Our team was struggling in the hurdles because we were missing some people with injuries,” said Tucker. “I got dropped into something new, but I’ve taken it and put my own spin on it.”

Once the change was made, Tucker took her new opportunity and well, ran with it, not to mention having to adjust to jumping over hurdles on the way to the finish line.

“For me, it was a new beginning,” she said. “Which made me work harder because when I do something I want to be good at it.”

According to Tucker, adding hurdles to the equation presents a much greater degree of difficulty that one would expect – and an aspect of her new event she continues to challenge herself to overcome.

“Running is hard enough, as it is,” said Tucker. “But, hurdles takes it to a whole different level – it takes a strong mindset to put it all together.”

But, Tucker isn’t alone in pursuit of her new track vocation, as teammate and sophomore Laila Wenzel has joined her after also moving over from the middle distances, as well as assistance from assistant coach and former Liberty Hill hurdler Bethany McCleod, who have both provided insight and knowledge.

“Probably the biggest challenge for me is knowing you’re going to get over that hurdle 100 percent of the time,” said Tucker. “It’s very dangerous and I knew that going in.”

Despite the fact she hadn’t yet fallen during a race, the possibility of not successfully clearing a hurdle is always lurking, she said.

“I’ve clipped a few so far,” said Tucker. “But, I’m mentally ready if it does happen.”

Something Tucker never had to concern herself with previously when the only hurdles she had to clear on the track were the ones every athlete deals with in their own mind and although she sometimes yearns for the days of sprinting without barriers, she is also philosophic concerning her new athletic lot in life.

“I do miss running the 400 a lot,” she said. “But, I pride myself in my faith and selflessness is a big part of that. Things in life don’t always work out like you want and you have to adjust. Everything happens for a reason.”

In fact, Tucker has scripture written on the inside of her track spikes as a reminder of the spiritual journey her new event provides as a metaphor in her life.

“My favorite Bible verse is Philippians 4:67,” she said. “Which says ‘Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.’ So, it’s all part of the plan.”

Senior Ryan McCarn set a pair of school records this season in the 1600 and 3200 meters after overcoming injury problems earlier in his Panthers career. PHOTO BY JB SLIMP

Lexi Tucker switched from the middle distance sprints to the 300-meter hurdles this season and has embraced her new athletic vocation. PHOTO BY JB SLIMP

TJ

LOCAL EVENTS

May

May 6

LIBERTY HILL POP-UP MARKET

Cross Tracks Church

101 Church St., Liberty Hill

9 a.m. - 2 p.m.

MATT LESEUR

Liberty Tavern

3000 RR 1869, Liberty Hill

7-10 p.m. 512-548-6503/libertytavern.co

May 12

BEAT THE HOUSE TRIVIA

Whiskey Barrel Pub

1004 Loop 332, Liberty Hill

7 p.m. 512-548-6151 whiskeybarrelpub.com

ORLANDO’S GARAGE TUNES

Main Street Social 1651 Loop 332, Liberty Hill

6-9:30 p.m. mainstreetsocial.com

May 13 & 14

RON ROSS MEMORIAL

PRCA STEER ROPING

Harvest Ranch Arena

8355 RR 1869, Liberty Hill

10 a.m. - 7:30 p.m.

Admission $20 for 13+ yrs. old, $10 for 4-12 yrs. old, FREE for 0-3 yrs. old libertyhillfairandrodeo.com

May 19

FRIDAY NIGHT LIVE WITH PREACHERS ON THE RADIO

Agape BBQ

3610 RM 1869, Liberty Hill

6:30-9 p.m.

512-548-6230/agapebbq.com

May 20

WHIMSY & WONDER

Downtown Liberty Hill Main Street

6 - 10 p.m.

Liberty Hill’s interactive art and music festival features live music, art demonstrations, food and wine and children’s Imagination Garden. For more information visit experiencelhtx.com/whimsyandwonder/

BRIAN ANDREWS

Whiskey Barrel Pub

1004 Loop 332, Liberty Hill

2 p.m.

512-548-6151 whiskeybarrelpub.com

May 18, 19 & 20

LIBERTY HILL FAIR & RODEO

Harvest Ranch Arena

8355 RR 1869, Liberty Hill

10 a.m. - 7:30 p.m.

Admission $20 for 13+ yrs. old, $10 for 4-12 yrs. old, FREE for 0-3 yrs. old libertyhillfairandrodeo.com

May 26

DARRELL SCOTT WITH SETH WALKER Globe Theater

132 W. Vaughn St., Bertram

8 p.m.

Tickets $25-35 globetheatertx.com

May 27

TIMELESS

Liberty Tavern

3000 RM 1869, Liberty Hill

7-10 p.m. 512-548-6503/libertytavern.com

Darrell Scott

Whimsy & Wonder

(Photo by Kendra Cofer)

Liberty Hill Fair & Rodeo

Shane T. White Clyde Davis Connie Fuller Ginger Floyd Debby Norman