Memorial Day Tomorrow

A beautiful Memorial Day weekend in Houston... a day to remember what is important, to honor the service of others, and to consider how to become a more effective force in the battle of  keeping all of our liberties.

As today's pictures show, the Norchester subdivision and our front yard are both "dressed" for the occasion and the backyard is ready for guests and BBQ tomorrow. Many thanks to the master gardener who constantly fights our battles of "unwanted weeds and necessary water."

A "thank you" to the Cypress Creek Band for their excellent holiday curbside flag program.  And congrats to eldest grandson Aaron Walker for achieving the leadership position as one of its 3 Drum Majors.

 

This is the end of the patio fishpond which we enjoy daily from the family room. 

Back to Normal - Almost

Monday, May 13, 2013

 
We are almost back to normal after our water “incident”.  Fridge is fixed. All is dry.  New pad and carpet stretching has been ordered.. and … Carol has indeed scored new hardwood flooring for her sewing/computer room.  All to be completed some time next week. 

I just posted an interesting article to our other Blog.. the one we have maintained for our Matzke Park Garden for years… http://matzkebutterflygarden.blogspot.com/

It describes the great new 100 acre woods preserve that is just 4 blocks from our house.

 

You might want to check that blog post out… it is today’s date.

Welcome Home

Wednesday, May 8, 2013.    It has been a couple of days, and I finally have the time and energy to update you on what we have been dealing with.   We got home Monday, after our great week, and found the small line to the ice maker in our refrigerator had sprung a leak sometime in the previous 7 days.  The water went under the walls to soak about ¼ of the sewing room, 1/3 of the family room, a small corner of Dad’s office and the walls in the pantry closet.  Right… just what we need to deal with after a 5 hour drive back home.  It also shorted out our telephone land line. 

Of course it was easy to shut off the water at the wall.  (I had turned off the ice maker before we left).  We immediately started sucking water out of the carpets with our very excellent rug shampooer.  We pulled the carpet loose from the tack strips and cut out the wet pad.  We pulled the carpet up over various supports to let air under it and placed fans all around.  I turned the AC down to 71 degrees to dehumidify.   The worst part of course, was moving the heavy bookcases, big TV, DVR, DVD, and amplifier cases, wires, etc.. off the rug.  Thanks to Tim for his timely response and help.   I then had some very fine bourbon.  We moved the HighDef DVR to the bedroom TV and hit the sack to the sound of the AC and 7 fans.  (our own plus Lowes) 

On Tues morning we called ServePro to come out to use their equipment to see how bad the walls were wet.  Turns out.. not too much… They did knock out the kick plate under the book cabinet in the family room which is just on the other side of the wall from the fridge.  It was wet.. as were the baseboards.. but since the interior walls are not insulated, the water hadn’t done much damage.   They thought we had done fine with the quick response.  Charge was $133.   He estimated about $1300 for their service of fans and dehumidifiers for 3 days or so..  etc.. but he suggested we could do it ourselves.  So… it is now just a matter of letting things dry out.. Then replace the pad and re-stretch the carpet.  They will come out to estimate that tomorrow. 

Today Sears came out to repair the fridge… he had seen it many times… the same problem.  The hard plastic line is fastened to the back of the fridge with a metal clamp.  That point gets flexed any time the fridge is moved. It had just split a bit.  (Only 4 years old).   The guy said it was just a very bad design.  He cut out the split part and repaired with a coupling… Total charge $129.  He also refastened the line in a better way.  

So as Carrie used to say… "this isn’t a problem… a problem is when you can’t walk."  We are thankful.  It could be much worse and Carol may get new flooring in the sewing room out of the deal instead of her carpet.

By the way… I had another session with the audiologist.. she continues to find ways to improve my implant. Things will never be “normal”but I am encouraged with the slow improvement. 

Last Day This Outing

Sunday May 5, 2013  .... Our last day, this time out, at Buckhorn Lake RV.   Another beautiful day.  The whole week has been great.  We only ran the AC one day out of the 7.   We stayed at the site today, read, walked, and cooked some hamburgers.  Totally pleasant.  We head home in the morning.

Today's Accomplishment

This says it all.  Our accomplishment for the day.  Bright and sunny.  It was 37 degrees this morning at 6:30 and 80 by noon... a great day

Pow.. Wham.. Bam ! To the Bat Cave Robin (Updated)

Friday, May 3, 2013 Day 5 of our week at Buckhorn Lake RV park near Kerrville TX

 

This lady is on her way to observe “the emergence” at the Bat Cave, but more on that later.

 But first:   Temperature got down to about 47 Thurs night. As usual, our small electric heater is just fine for keeping us warm.  Bright and sunny this Friday morning, still a bit windy.  Temperature was 55 this morning at 10:00 AM…    

We started our day with a nice drive through the hills around Kerrville TX.  There are some really beautiful homes/estates with spectacular views.   From the valley, one crosses Goat Creek which is shown here on the right.

 

We encountered deer in the various fields and yards a number of times and this was at about 11:00 AM.

As an afterthought… Kerrville is home to JAMES AVERY  which is one of the major employers in the area.  We have visited thier factory on previous trips.  They make fine silver jewelry sold in their specialty shops around Texas and the iNet.  Carol and the daughters all have a number of pieces.

We had a pleasant afternoon around the Coffee Bean and then headed out to Old Tunnel wildlife area to observe the evening emergence of its colony of over a million bats streaming out of the tunnel.  During the summer, each female has one pup and the total rises to 3 million.

 

This is TX state park that is quite small, just the land around this old tunnel. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The first picture is looking down at the viewing area.  the tunnel cannot be seen from above.. it is down to the left.  A 1/2 mile steep trail leads down to the base of the valley.

 
This was very interesting.   It is one of the smaller colonies in Texas and they feed on the moths of several migrating agricultural pests (that would otherwise be corn borers and such in the Midwest. This kind do not eat mosquitoes. The bats feed from 500 to 10,000 feet (confirmed with hot air baloons and cameras) and consume over 200 Tons of these little moths a night. It sounds unlikely, but that is what the Texas naturalists who watch this preserve say.  Midwest crops would be a disaster without them. These bats are smaller than your hand.

They come out around sunset and it takes over 45 minutes for the tunnel to empty. The “emergence” as they call it is quite spectacular, but difficult to see due to the fading light. 

 

Here are two pictures I tried to take.   In my pictures you can see what looks like smoke swirls in the air. These are clouds of bats as the spiral up to gain altitude after emerging in a constant stream.. less then 25 feet to the left of where the viewers sit quietly on wooden benches.   Our viewing area was lower down than the one in the first picture.. right by the edge of the tunnel.

 

 

 

We got back to the RV at about 9:30 PM.  A good day.

A Day on the Trail

Thurs May 2, 2013.. Trip day 4 of 8

Well, sort of… on the trail in the warm car.   Overcast this AM and cold… 47.  Same the rest of today.. high in mid 50’s.  Windy.  Today was a day to stay inside.. so we did.. inside the car most of the day and took the dogs with us.   We mapped out an interesting route.. from Kerrville .. to outside of Ingram.… Medina Hwy to Medina… Hwy 16 to Bandera… Bandera Hwy to Camp Verde.. then back to Kerrville.

 

We started by checking out a RV park that looked really good on the iNet.  http://johnsoncreekrvresort.com/   And it is as good as it looks.  (didn’t think to take pictures).  It is on the edge of an active pecan grove and most of the cement sites are in rather full shade… This is where we would choose next time we come to this area.

 

Then on to Medina, “the Apple Capital of TX”.  Population 515 as of 2000 census.  (May not have bothered in 2010)… The drive down is through some surprisingly steep hills and twisty roads.  Great country… lots of hardwoods, very green, hay fields and horse ranches.

 

This was a fun drive.  We stopped in Madina to have coffee and some cookies at the  Apple Core

 

 

 

 

 

 

From there, the road to Bandera  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bandera,_Texas    “The Cowboy Capital of Texas”. This is a thriving metropolis compared to Medina but looks much larger and more modern, although only about 3 times in size.  We stopped at a place described in Southern Living Magazine called Gunslinger Dry Goods. This was full of high-end western ware, jewelry, and such..We asked who bought all this stuff. The young woman there in tall boots said the area has 5 or 6 large dude ranches and they have a good return customer business on the iNet. http://www.gunslingerofbandera.com/

 

A surprise stop on the road from Bandera was a wide spot in the road called Camp Verde.   http://quantumtour.com/entity/campverde/      This link offers a very short visual tour and some interesting facts if you scroll down just a bit below the video.

 

We had an excellent lunch in the restaurant there and Carol had some shopping in the general store.   Just across the parking area is a fine large grove of old black walnut trees on the banks of a small river.

 

This was a pre-civil war US Army camp and the stop was the spot of the original general store set up for the camp.  In 1854 the Army initiated an experiment using camels for supply transport and “other military purposes??”  The first shipment of 33 from Egypt arrived via naval supply ship in April of 1856, accompanied by four “native drivers.” More came a year later.  In 1861 the Fort was captured by the Confederacy and when recaptured by the Union in 1865 there were more than 100 camels there.  Although they passed every test of their ability - carrying heavier loads and traveling longer distances than mules and horses, the experiment ended in 1869 when the War Dept. needed funds for reconstruction after the war.

We got back to Camp 5CB’s about 3:00 PM in time to help our neighbor raise a stubborn jack. They had been here for 2 ½ months.  The guy suddenly took worse with a heart problem and the woman’s brother was recruited to drive their 40 ft Class A and 2 dogs back to Wisconsin.  His first trip in a big RV so should be interesting for him.

Big Rigs

Wed May 1, 2013

Overcast this AM and cool. Sunny and mid 80s in afternoon.  Stayed at the site today, all day. Carol struggled with learning Windows 8 and IE 10 on her new laptop, and I was no help at all.  We even have a how-to book.   Time… I guess. 

On our walk around the park this morning I thought would be interesting to get some pictures of the big rigs… not Class A, but 5th wheel.  There is a rally of the New Horizons RV Owners here and these are really something. The website is HERE    Most are 40 to 42 feet long, pulled by something big and diesel that can haul the heavy weight. A number also have a “smart car” that can drive up and sit sidewise behind the cab.  Most of the RVs have three sets of wheels under them.  They are custom made in Junction City KS.  All of the folks we have spoken to are full-timing… no other home; but most have legal residence in Sioux Falls SD.  That is where they get their licenses; have their mail forwarded etc…  Fun to look at but I don’t envy paying for fuel. And it wouldn't make it into our driveway.

 

Here are 11 pictures: