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This has been posted before but some Dosers might not have seen it.

February 17, 2005
Prairie Chapel Ranch 2001 August 25 [just before 9/11]

President Gives Tour of Crawford Ranch
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/08/20010825-2.html

Excerpted Remarks by the President During Tour of the President's Ranch
Prarie Chapel Ranch, Crawford, Texas

Q Shouldn't you be doing that with an axe?
THE PRESIDENT: I've got my earplugs in.
Q Oh, lucky.
THE PRESIDENT: What?
Q I was just asking, shouldn't you be doing that with an axe?
THE PRESIDENT: No, that was Abraham Lincoln.
Q My mistake.
THE PRESIDENT: I'll tell you what we ought to do. What we're doing is, we're cleaning this out. We're making a trail from the top to come down, over here. Do you all want to walk in here? It's kind of neat in here. These cliffs are pretty unusual, from this perspective. And then -- this is a very long canyon. I'll take you down, if you want to see where the mouth of the canyon is, and the trail was cut up in here. And then I've got another canyon, right next door, if you'd like to see that, that we've improved. It will give you a flavor for the ranch.
But what we're trying to do is to make these really beautiful cutouts available for anybody who wants to walk up in here. I think you'll see that we make them pretty accessible without disturbing the natural beauty of the place. ...

THE PRESIDENT: Anyway, what will happen is, is that when the rainy season comes, this all gets damp in here, we'll fire up this pile of leaves and stuff, and burn it. This canyon -- you can see, behind you, all the erosion. This gets a lot of water coming through here. There's seven of these on the ranch, and when it rains, these all flow down toward the bottoms. Eventually, in this case, these canyons feed into the middle fork of the Bosque River. The guy from A&M we had out here, he spotted about 17 or 18 different variety of hardwood down below.
So what do you want to do?
Q Come down.
THE PRESIDENT: Come on down here, or do you want to start from the bottom and walk up? We'll start from the bottom and walk up. I've got room for five people. We'll get the scribblers, AP and Reuters.
Q Thank you.

* * * * *
THE PRESIDENT: -- just use the cedar that we cut. Used a crowbar to dig the hole. We'll put another one below, and then make sure the steps are -- I've got a little more work -- do you see those two -- those are dead right there. Those are ash. Do you see the two trees there, the dead trees? I'll cut them out.
And so basically, what we've been doing in here, is we've been cutting out the dead trees, the trees that have fallen down. And some undergrowth, just to open it up, so that when you sit out here for a picnic, you've got a pretty good view of this beautiful canyon.
Q Are you trying to make a hiking trail for people to use?
THE PRESIDENT: Yes.
Q Now would the doctor and the nurse both normally be here, or is it the chainsaw that brought them out?
THE PRESIDENT: No, they're with me -- like when I ran this morning, they were here. They go everywhere I go on the ranch.
Q Not that they don't trust you with a chainsaw, huh?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, they don't trust me with my running, either. (Laughter.)
Q Won't the rain erode the trail? How do you stop that?
THE PRESIDENT: Pardon me?
Q The rain, won't the water erode the trail? Do you have to keep redoing it?
THE PRESIDENT: No, actually we're not going to put it on the creek bottom. You'll see, there's a series of flats, as you come up the canyon. The canyon is not uniformly steep. And so there will be -- one side of the canyon will be steep, and the other side will be relatively flat. We've cut out a trail, mainly cedars. Cedars are a -- you know, some of the big stands of cedars are important, because they become nesting materials for things like the golden cheek warbler, although we don't have any on this property.
On the other hand, the little cedars, they crowd up on these beautiful hardwood, and they soak in a lot of water. I mean, they take 30 percent of the water, more or less, that is taken in by these trees, are taken in by cedar. And cedar is just a plague of a lot of places around Texas.
Q What did you mean when you said you burn it?
THE PRESIDENT: It means, we take a match --
Q I know that, but isn't there a risk of spreading fire?
THE PRESIDENT: No, in the rainy season, the wet season.
Q In the rainy season, I see.
THE PRESIDENT: Right now you can't burn because there's a burn ban. And obviously, we'll honor the burn ban.

* * * * *
THE PRESIDENT: The thing about this -- this is kind of a transition zone. And see how close the rock is to the surface here? This is basement rock. And as you come from the southwest part of the ranch, where you come in, this way, the soil obviously thins. And so it goes from pretty good hay country and crop country -- there's a corn field right next to our neighbor's pasture. The property is only good for grazing, and it's pretty thin at that. But because the rock is so close to the surface, it enabled -- there was a series of eroding activities that caused these canyons. And there's about three and a half miles of lowland. You drop off about 90 foot from here down to where we're going.
And so it's a whole other world that you -- the closest thing you can tell about this ranch, when you drive in here is -- you know that dip when you're coming in what they call Bluff Creek? Have you seen the cliffs --
Q When you bought this property, and you saw that land, did you decide that you wanted to turn those all into hiking trails?
THE PRESIDENT: Oh yes. Look, this place has got so much variety on it, and it is a unique piece of property for Texas. You'll see the trees down here. They're really big and magnificent trees. I mean, I fell in love with it the minute I saw it. But I also knew I was going to have to -- get to do a lot of work, not have to. I really like this. I like being out here. I like spending a lot of time outside.
Q Have you been doing this every day, working on this trail?
THE PRESIDENT: No, not every day. Like I didn't yesterday. The military folks didn't leave until about 5:00 p.m. yesterday.
Q You could have handed them a chainsaw, and asked them to help.
THE PRESIDENT: Exactly. Let me take you up to this one finished product first. I think you'll find this interesting.
Q How far away from your house?
THE PRESIDENT: We're about a mile -- this is the -- not necessarily as the crow flies, but this is the three mile marker on a rut of mine, right up here. But I -- you had to have gone in kind of a --
Q Meander around?
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, meander around a little bit.
This is the beginning of a very long pasture that -- I say long. It's two-thirds of a mile. But just to give you a feel for it. These cedar elms, interspersed with pecan and different types of oaks. You see the size of the cedar elms up there? And you can see that the pasture's been well maintained over time, and it goes for a long way. I think this is a --
Q So do you have livestock grazing out here?
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, we do, sure do. I don't own it, but the guy -- Ken Engelbrecht does. This is a burr oak -- this is a very rare -- not rare, it's just a beautiful oak tree, this thing right here, and it produces these magnificent burrs. This is a live oak here.
Q So the horticulturist has already been out here?
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, we had a -- Thursday. Two guys from A&M came out, and we had a really good visit. By the way, there was another pasture beyond there, that really is pretty.
This is what we call the cathedral. This is where -- hey, look, average campers. (Laughter.)
Q What do you know?
THE PRESIDENT: I'm interested in these trees. This place you learn to fall in love with trees.

* * * * *
THE PRESIDENT: I tell you -- this is the area we call the cathedral. ...
THE PRESIDENT: ... So I'd finished a long run one day. It was pretty wet, and I started walking up. And I heard this trickle, sound of running water. And it turns out this is a waterfall when it rains. And it pools -- the water pools right -- you're welcome to walk up there.
Anyway, be careful of poison ivy, if you have shorts on.
Q What about snakes?
THE PRESIDENT: You're okay for snakes. Avoid this plant right here. Like you. ...
Anyway, this fills up with water when it's raining. So this comes over here, trickles there, fills up water, so you've got a nice little pool. Eventually it fills up, and it starts moving down and it makes a nice little stream. I've seen fox in here, I've seen all kinds of birds. It's a wonderful spot to come up in here and just kind of think about the budget. (Laughter.) I mean --
Q I thought you'd rather think about that with the chainsaw.
THE PRESIDENT: That's exactly right. Very good, Patsy. I wish I'd thought of that.
There are seven canyons like this. You've seen two of them. This obviously is a more shallow canyon, but it's very dramatic when you get to the end. And then the one that you were seeing there, it's a wonderful picnic spot, because it's got a natural amphitheater to it. Then if you'd like, I can walk you up, to just give you a feel for what one of these long canyons is like. We've cut a little trail up in there. The walking's a little difficult, because we haven't had a chance to burn the piles that we've cut.
This is an amazing place in here.
Q So what do you do? You come out here, and --
THE PRESIDENT: I've come out here -- you know, I come out here some. And you know, you don't want to get out here from about right now until about 4 p.m., because --
Q It's so hot, yes.
THE PRESIDENT: It's like an oven.
Q So in the morning, you'll get up.
THE PRESIDENT: We'll get up early. Today the sunrise was magnificent.
Q So you'll come and watch the sunrise?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, we walked -- actually this morning I ran three-and-a-half miles, and walked. And then Laura and Condi Rice and two of our house guests, they walked four-and-a-half-miles. It was just magnificent. Started about 7 a.m. this morning.
I'll work out here until around noon. We've got three couples as house guests. Beth, the barber from Austin, is coming out. She'll want to see this place. So I'll give her a tour. I want to look good for the Little League World Series tomorrow. The Hall of Fame induction ceremony. ...
Q What were your stats?
THE PRESIDENT: You know, I'd better not give them to you, because somebody will dig them out and find that it wasn't accurate. I was a pretty good player. I was a catcher, on the Cubs, the Midland Cubs. As I said, I peaked in Little League.
Q Were you Hall of Fame quality?
THE PRESIDENT: Little League? Well, I qualified by the fact that I was the first President ever to play Little League baseball. I think that's -- you know, first guy to hit 60 home runs, first guy to actually put the uniform on. What the heck? What's the difference?

* * * * *
Q So how many hours a day are you out here?
THE PRESIDENT: About three. But I've had the full day already. I got up at 5:45 a.m., read all the stuff I needed to read, and then took off at about 7 a.m. with a little run, got back to the house about 7:45 a.m. and we had a CIA briefing for an hour, and a national security briefing. Both of them took an hour. Then we came down here and started working. And this will be it. Probably finish about 12:15 p.m. or so.
Q So you're so in your element here. Are you dreading going back to Washington?
THE PRESIDENT: No. Life is a series of contrasts. And I like it here a lot, I really do. And I am in my element here. We really like it. But I also like -- I wouldn't have run for President if I didn't like the challenge and the give and take and the sense of accomplishment. Plus, we like living in the White House. It's a nice place to live, as they say in Crawford.

Q I know, but I think when people see you out here, who haven't been to the ranch before -- a lot of us haven't -- now we sort of get it.
THE PRESIDENT: Get a feel for it, yes.
Q I mean, get why you guys come down here so much.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, it's our home, and we love it here. You know, I'll come back. ... I'll be at my desk on Friday, presuming they've got the White House -- the Oval Office refurbish[ed] completed.

* * * * *
Q Now, do you go hunting on the ranch?
THE PRESIDENT: I don't. I don't hunt deer. But I do hunt dove, and I have hunted dove. We don't have any quail. And I don't want to shoot the turkeys. I like turkeys. But we let people come and thin out the deer. A ranch can overpopulate with deer. All right, we're moving.
This is the mouth of the canyon, where you all were, up top.

* * * * *
THE PRESIDENT: ... Anyway, you can kind of get a feel. These little cleared out areas now, they'll be full of windflowers in the spring. And the greens will come out. This place was emerald green in the spring. I mean, it's hard to envision, and you probably think I'm exaggerating, but we had enough rain to really green this place up. It was spectacular.
And these canyons will be full of flowers. And some of these trees are flowering trees. The whole purpose is to make it accessible. ...
Q How long did it take you to clear this whole area out?
THE PRESIDENT: It took us about five days. We're not through yet, either. ...
You can see, like in here, these were all cedar, young cedars. Not only do they take the water away from these trees, but they made it impossible -- and these thorns grow up in them, and so it makes it kind of jungly.
This area here -- we're going to drive up in here, be able to drive these things up here. We'll clear it out and probably build a little bridge across here, big enough for a John Deere Gator.
We can keep going if you want. I mean, we've got a little ways to go. This will give you a feel for what it's like. It's up to you all.
Q Sure.
Q Yes, we'd like to.
THE PRESIDENT: Good with me.
THE PRESIDENT: The other thing is in the winter, a lot of times of the year, winter and early spring, you can imagine this is beautiful. And see these cliffs in here? So this is like you're in a bowl. This side is a little more gentle. This side's a little more steep, here. The base of the cliff -- the cliffs are really, beautiful, aren't they?
These are where the Indians came up. They would come up, the Tonkawa Indians would bring their horses up the middle fork of the Bosque, -- and they would run them up a canyon like this. And you can see where we were, at the end of the canyon. And it's a pretty sheltered area. If there's any water, there would be pools of water in there.
But this is where they supposedly ran their horses.
Q And this will all be a running creek in the spring?
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, when it rains. It's beautiful.
Q When do you expect -- I mean, what months does is start filling up?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, we don't know. I'll drive you out of here and show you one other part of the ranch. We've got a mile and a half of Rainey Creek. It's a much bigger creek. It's still got some pools of water in there.

* * * * *
THE PRESIDENT: All right, this is -- see where we are?
Q Is this coming up on the cathedral, on another angle? ... the idea is to be able to walk up from the bottom or get down from the top. It's a beautiful -- area. But this is also to make it easy for people to walk through here, it's kind of fun, I figure, a place for people -- if they want to get lost up here, they're welcome to do so. And I want these canyons to be accessible. There are a few others -- one of them's really hard to get to. I hiked up in there. I mean, it's really hard to get up in there. And I don't know if we can ever make that one really accessible.
The other one will be accessible only if we get in there with a chainsaw and spend a lot of time, because it's really overgrown. So we may leave one the way it is ...
Q Are you able to hike around here on your own, totally on your own?
THE PRESIDENT: No. I hike around up here. As you know, the ...military aide is within a certain distance of me at all times.
Q So even on your own property, you can't get lost?
THE PRESIDENT: Right. They stay -- the military aide, the doc and the nurse live on the property. And fortunately, they're such fine Americans, I don't mind hiking with them. ...
Q What is it you like about coming out here?
THE PRESIDENT: I like -- I mean, it is one of the few places where I can actually walk outside my front door and say, I think I'm going to go walk two hours. And although I'm not totally alone, I can walk wherever I want to walk. And I can't do that in Washington.
I guess I could, I could walk around the circle for -- I do run the circle. I like that. I love the nature. I love to get in the pickup truck with my dogs as the sun is setting, go look for game.
Q You're a pretty gregarious guy. I've seen you at many a ballgame.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes.

Q Some of your friends are surprised that you like to come out here basically in the middle of nowhere and just kind of be by yourself.
THE PRESIDENT: I guess they don't know what it's like to be the President. (Laughter.) I get plenty of quality time with a lot of really good people. Sometimes, it's important to just get away as well.

Plus, you know, one of the things we miss in Washington is our friends. And they're here. We've got the Weisses here, the Gannons are here, Pam Nelson is here. And we find it really relaxing to sit down on the porch with our buddies and just shoot the breeze. And, you know, it's amazing. You don't have to defend any policy you make. I mean, your friends are your friends. These people were friends of mine before I became President, they'll be friends of mine after I'm the President. And people just take you for what you are.
Q Do you do your own cooking here at the ranch?
THE PRESIDENT: Do I?
Q Yes.
THE PRESIDENT: I try not to. (Laughter.) I get really hungry after a day's work. Occasionally, I'll cook a burger or a steak. I'm not bad at it.
Q Otherwise, Mrs. Bush takes care of that?
THE PRESIDENT: Actually, we've got Sam, a fine cook. And that's one of the benefits of being the President, the cook comes with you. ...
And you've got the hay country, the black land prairie and you've got a transition zone. Really, a lot of live oaks and stuff. And then you come down into these canyons. And the middle fork of the Bosque runs a mile-and-a-half on our eastern boundary and Rainey Creek is a mile-and-a-half on the northern boundary. And they are really great when there's water in them. They're even great when there's no water in them. They're good for game, holding game. The game like to go down in the bottoms there and they'll drink and hang out and hide.

BARNEY NEWS
As I say, the other day, I came down here and Barney and I were -- Barney's legs are so short, a half-mile run for him is pretty much like five miles for a human. He makes it about a quarter-mile or so, then they put him in the Gator and he and I walk as he cools down. Thirty turkey came sprinting across the pasture down there and Barney took off after them.
Barney's big thing to do is to chase armadillo. And, you know, Laura has mulched our flower beds around the house and we water in the evening, so therefore the soil is very moist and armadillo love to dig the soil looking for bugs. And so I went out there the other day, and there was Barney buried in this hole, chasing an armadillo. Both of them were in this hole. At any rate, Barney -- finally got him out of there and the armadillo wouldn't move.
Q Seems like Spot would be the more outdoorsey-type dog.
THE PRESIDENT: Spot's a good runner. You know, Barney -- terriers are bred to go into holes and pull out varment. And Spotty chases birds. Spotty's a great water dog. I'll go fly fishing this afternoon in our lake -- I don't know if you saw the lake coming in. ...
But I'll go fishing and Spot will be out in the middle of the lake, either chasing the lure or chasing a grasshopper or chasing something. She loves the water. But she -- you know, for a 12-year-old dog, she's in incredible condition. But she -- about every other day, she'll run with me. And if she doesn't run with me, she'll either -- she'll walk with Laura and me.
So she's doing great. And she's a hunter. She's just having trouble seeing. She doesn't see as well as Barney does now.
Q So when they're at the White House, where do they run around? I mean, outside --
THE PRESIDENT: They run around the yard there. About 6:50 a.m. in the morning to 7:00 a.m., as I take them down, we'll walk around some and then Dale, the fine gardener, will come out. And Dale and the dogs are in love. And they will spend the day with Dale. And he'll hit the tennis ball to them or he'll walk around on the grounds and they'll run around. And then when it gets a little hot, they'll camp out in the gardener's office and then when I finish work or when Laura is ready, we'll go down and get them and bring them up to the Residence.
Q Do you still have the horses?
THE PRESIDENT: Yes.
Q Does anyone ride them?
THE PRESIDENT: No, they're too small yet. But we do have them. They're Kenneth Engelbrecht's. ...
Q Is this summer especially dry?
THE PRESIDENT: No. We got a half-inch. August is always dry. I mean, unless there's a hurricane, August is a dry month in Texas. And it's always hot; it's never not been hot. ...
Q And then will you spend December, you know, around Christmas --

THE PRESIDENT TELLS A REPORTER HE'S RUDE [Way to go!]

Q Sir, I don't want to be rude, but what does a ranch like this go for?
THE PRESIDENT: You know, first of all, it's not for sale. You couldn't pay me enough.
Q I believe that.
THE PRESIDENT: Other than that, that's relatively rude.
Q I apologize.
THE PRESIDENT: No, no.

Q Are you going to -- are you going to bring Mr. Putin up through the canyons?
THE PRESIDENT: I'd like to. If he wants to, you bet. He is a physical fitness person and I bet he'd like to get up and go for a long walk. ...

Q You've done some work out of here. Has it been more difficult to work out of here or --
THE PRESIDENT: No, it's just the same. ...

SHOCKING NEWS: BUSH WORKS BETTER IN CRAWFORD THAN DC!
Yesterday -- as a matter of fact, in some ways, this place is better for work. Yesterday, we spent -- well, they arrived at 10:00 a.m. It took a while to get the press conference. We got back here at about 11:30 a.m. and met until 5:15 p.m. I think they left. That's the longest meeting I've had in a long time, on a very important subject. And so it gave us a chance to sit back and relax. It was a much less hectic schedule.

CONDI AT THE RANCH
Therefore, we had a good chance to talk about a really important subject, which is our military strategies. And so in some ways, it lets -- this place allows for more in-depth discussions. Condi and I spend a lot of time just sitting around visiting about our foreign policy matters.
You know, Andy Card and I talked for a while yesterday. Josh is around. Karen Hughes was here. We spent a good deal of time with Karen talking about the fall and what we'll try to communicate in the fall. ...

Q When you have those business meetings, like the Joint Chiefs briefing, do you like to keep it separate from the living quarters on the ranch?
THE PRESIDENT: Actually, you know, what we call the governor's house, the place where you all came out during the -- that's where we went. Condi and Karen Hughes stayed there. And right across the street from that is a -- it's a nice looking government doublewide. (Laughter.) And that's where the mil aide, the nurse, the WHCA head, the doc, they stay.
The CIA briefings, I have on our porch, the end of our porch looking out over the lake. When Tenet came up, that's where we visited, out there.
You know, everybody wants to see the ranch, which I'm proud to show it off. So George Tenet and I -- yesterday, we piled in the new nominees for the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, the Vice Chairman and their wives and went right up the canyon.
Q They didn't do this hiking in those uniforms?
THE PRESIDENT: No, no, they didn't come up here. It was a quick tour.
Q The Marine would, though. (Laughter.)
THE PRESIDENT: But for large meetings and, you know, plus Laura had some guests and didn't want us traipsing around there. So it was a good idea to invite the wives. Laura thought of it. And I'm really glad she did. It was obviously a very sensitive decision on her part. They were thrilled to be here. As you can imagine, their husbands were nominated to be Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and they got to witness it. And, had she not caught it, they might not have been here. So it's good that she did. ...
Q Are you sad that you have to leave here in about a week and go back?
THE PRESIDENT: No, I'm not sad at all. ... I will miss Crawford, but I know I will be back here. And I think people have now got -- are beginning to realize that this is our home and I'm one of these guys that likes -- I'm a homebody. I like my home. I like my own bedroom. I like hanging out with my family and friends here.
But I also know I can do my job from here, and I look forward to getting back to Washington and getting to work. I'll be all charged up. I think I'll have the right perspective and, you know,

SHOCKING STATEMENT

coming out here makes you realize that Washington is a wonderful place but it's certainly not the center of all wisdom and knowledge. And there is a lot of wisdom in the folks of -- you know, in the minds and souls of the folks of Crawford, Texas, just like there are amongst some of the elite in Washington. ...
I've got a good team.
All right. Let's go.
Q Thank you. Thank you very much.
Q Thank you for having us out here.
THE PRESIDENT: I'm thrilled you got to see it. It will help you understand.

/ snip
Read the rest here:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/08/20010825-2.html