South of Onion Creek in Austin, Texas stands the city’s highest point – Pilot Knob. It is the core of an extinct volcano that formed underwater 80 million years ago.

East of McKinney Falls and near the Edward’s Aquifer – this is where my family is from.

Pictured above in the 1980s is my maternal grandfather, Talferd Gabriel Collins, on his farm in Pilot Knob. This land, still in our family today, has been in continuous agricultural operation for over 100 years.