In a surprise turn of events, we found out that Hermits’ Rest Enterprises, our Cameron branch, was named Business of the Month by the Cameron, Texas Chamber of Commerce. It’s not up on their website yet, but when it is, you’ll find it here. I’ve always been impressed by the group in Cameron, because they make a big effort to support each other and to spread the word about hard-working businesses in the area. We were very happy to hear about the honor, and you know we were pleased, because we stood out in blazing heat for what seemed like forever to get our picture taken for the newsletter, website, and newspaper. Continue reading
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The Award-Winning Lee Bruns

Lee and Marie Christopher, one of our most frequent blog commenters, with their awards. You can see why they are friends; they both love their hats.
We were pleasantly surprised last night when the Cameron Chamber of Commerce started giving out awards of excellence, and suddenly they called out Lee’s name! We’d just been clapping our heads off for our friend Marie Christopher, who was singled out for her work at the library, so it was all exciting!
It was wonderful to have Lee’s work with fixing up houses and making the community better acknowledged. It never hurts to be recognized! All in all, it was a great event, and the Chamber really did an outstanding job of making sure people who work hard for Cameron are celebrated. All the honorees really deserved to be in the spotlight! Plus, we all got to eat delicious 44 Farms burgers and listen to a wonderful talk by the host of the longest running independent television show in the US, Bob Phillips of the Texas Country Reporter. Continue reading
Hermann says please like and share!Adventures in Ribbon Cutting
We’re really grateful to the Cameron Chamber of Commerce for welcoming us so warmly to Cameron. They hosted a ribbon cutting ceremony to bring publicity to our little business and help us meet other business owners, government workers, and neighbors. We held the ceremony last Friday and could not have been more pleased and surprised to see the large turnout!
Mandi and I had decorated the office house up in a patriotic “USA” theme, since it’s close to Labor Day, and Mandi devised an All-American theme of snacks including fries in cups of catsup (real cute), home-made macaroni and cheese, mini corn dogs, red-white-and-blue ice cream (I contributed that, thanks to Blue Bell), chocolate chip cookies, and cheese with US flag toothpicks. We’re leaving the outside stuff up for Labor Day.
Between our publicity and the great work Melanie Reed and her team at the Chamber has done, we managed to bring in a lot of nice, friendly folks. Of course our upstairs neighbors at Andress & 3 were there, plus Jeremy and Courtney from the Bling Box, Rose from KMIL The Ranch radio station, Richard Crowe and Glen Laurence (our wonderful bankers from Buckholts State Bank), Monica and Bobby Schiller from the Milam County Community Theater (of which we are a sponsor), Lindsey Vaculin and the team from the Cameron Herald, Gene and Rene Goecke of Carquest Auto Parts and many of Lee’s new friends from the Rotary Club, a couple of bonus county officials, and George, an interested neighbor who’d been following our Facebook adventures. Whew! Continue reading
Hermann says please like and share!Ribbon Cutting and Open House Tomorrow
One of the benefits of joining the Chamber of Commerce in Cameron, Texas is that they sponsor a really nice ribbon cutting to celebrate each new business that becomes a member. Tomorrow (August 18, 2017) at 4:00 p.m. is our ceremony, and we’re looking forward to looking all fancy in our red shirts and smiling for some photos (and even if he doesn’t look like it, Lee will be smiling). We would be pleased to see any of our friends there! We already know some of them are coming.
We have bought lots of very festive Americana decorations for the office, and will have some fun “America” themed refreshments, all invented by our creativity guru, Mandi. It’s amazing what she can do with common comfort foods. There’s even going to be my personal favorite flavor of red, white, and blue ice cream.
Hermann says please like and share!Is Your Water Running?
Like sands through boards of the deck out back, so are the utility woes of our lives. To update everything done thus far in our ongoing utility woes.
- The electricity was knocked out by a bad storm and the line had to be replaced.
- The water line was incorrectly marked and was hit by the electric company and had to be replaced.
- The Internet cable was pulled down by the plumbing company and had to be replaced.
- The Andress offices upstairs are hotter than a cat on a tin roof.

We have them there fancy indoor lights!
The electric company brought out a portable meter, and when they could get back in, they replaced the damaged electrical line underground. In doing so, they hit our water line and the plumber got our water running again. When they left, the arm of the backhoe pulled down the internet line. The Internet company came out Monday evening and replaced that cable and raised it up some so it is not in such danger of being hit. I saw Larry bring in a window unit yesterday for one of the upstairs offices. The Plumber asked Lee to let him know how much the cost of repairing the internet is, so that is a really nice gesture of him, and we certainly appreciate having a contact of such quality and integrity in our files of people we need.

We are back online and all fancy again
So as of Tuesday, June 20th 2017, The electricity is fixed, the water line is fixed, the Internet is fixed, there is at least some cool air blowing upstairs, and we have a new yard guy who made some good progress on our lawns here at the office and the surrounding three properties attached to it. He should be able to finish this evening. As I type, my oldest son is working on some outside projects here at the office that will make our deck out back nicer, the shed will hold the extra stuff that it should hold, and by the end of the week, we should have a couple – few flower beds to go to work in. Yay, progress!
Other News

My oldest son, Seth. I might be just a little overly proud of him. Maybe. Or a whole lot actually.
I also spoke to Lee this morning about coordinating a ribbon cutting with the Chamber of Commerce here in Cameron, so watch for those details to come! We would sure love for everyone to make it out. Who knows what all goodies we will have available! Also don’t forget we will have a bake sale coming up to benefit the Feeders of the Lambs program here in Cameron sometime over the summer as well. If you would like to help out in some way, or make a much needed and appreciated donation, please let us know by using the “Contact Us” tab and we would be happy to fill you in on the particulars.

Our Core Values. We are accomplishing them, and that would make any Hermit happy!
Yes, we’ve got lots and lots to stay plenty busy with! New projects to continue the growth of this wonderful business, and more opportunities to do the most good that we can and also to have fun everyday!
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