A Look at the 3rd Floor

It was cloudy when I took this, but the other day, with bright sunshine the image washed out.  While not perfect, because I did not mount the iPad on a tripod and keep it centered -- way hard to do with this tool -- it gives you a pretty good view of the 3rd floor.

You can zoom and turn the image to see the full 360 view.   Enjoy.

Outside Changes

 A little hard to see, but a couple of weeks ago we had a bit of rain and a rainbow started at the end of the street

After a long wait, there's now a shower stall built around the outside shower.   Alese loves it and uses it most every day.

And, now, out in the back yard, waiting for electricity, water, and a screen so we cah get the the hot tub is the just poured concrete pad.

Q5000 Departs Through Ship Channel

Just what is Q5000?

Saw it this morning departing from Kiewit, so went down to Roberts Point Park to watch her go by.

Q5000 has been in Ingleside getting some sprucing up I assume.

According to the brochure, Q5000 is a well intervention vehicle.

It was moving through the channel at about 3 knots and not on it's own power.  The drawing in the brochure looks like there might be wheels on the bottom of the pontoons.

Q

 In the background of the middle photo is a well platform that's been brought in and shut down.  (It's sitting on the bottom in the dockage.)  Given the price of oil these days the drilling and refinery folks have been cutting back on expenses and say they don't need to be doing a lot of exploration.   Q5000 can decommission wells, and maybe that's where she's headed.

Palms, Agave, Yucca, and Cacti, Oh My.

 Remember the progression;  first we were just sitting on a pile of sand, then added some, and added some more.  But it still looked like a pile of sand.




Now we have changed the look of the front.  It is hard to see all the plants in these photos.

But there are now a lot of plants.  You'll have to wait for Alese to do more detail on her blog (Mustang Islander).  There are 23 palms across the front of the house and another 20 or so along the West and back (North) property lines.  There are no large palms; yet.  Our tallest are just under 3 feet tall.  

We have different varieties, but until they get some height we won't know what exactly what we have. We did buy 6 Mediterranean Fan Palms, and we have Mexican Fans, but other than the Mediterraneans,  the rest are the result of Alese growing plants from seed, or rescuing babies before a lawn mower got to them.   

There are over 100 agave plants -- most are only a couple of inches tall. The plumeria is almost 6 feet tall though and in flower. Alese will probably tell the stories about those, the yuccas, and the cactus on her blog.

We Have a Garage!

You may have noticed that we have garage doors on the house,  and looking back there was generally a car parked in the driveway outside those doors.  This weekend we worked on boxes still in the garage.  We unpacked a few boxes and shifted some things into their "final" storage spaces.  As a result we now have a fully functional two-car garage.

This makes a big difference in our lives.  First, the cars are now out of the afternoon Sun, and that makes getting into the car in the afternoon much more comfortable.  The car is no longer a sauna.  
Second; there is can be salt moisture that drifts in from the Gulf overnight and coats everything. When that moisture evaporates it leaves dirty windows and  windshields.  Now, we can clean our windshields and expect then to stay that way for more than a day.

One of the observations I made as a result of  living both in North Carolina and in Texas is the large number of folks who use their garage for storage, and park the car in the driveway. I don't remember that being the case in Yankee country. Houses here seldom have a basement, and if there is an attic it is generally way to hot to use for storage.  

We built this house with plenty of storage space and one reason was so we'd be able to park the cars in the garage.  That goal has been accomplished.

See the new Post at Mustang Islander Blog

See the new post at the Mustang Islander Blog

Big Sky!

One of the things I had missed, living the past few decades in various very tree-d locations, was a good view of the sky.  Alese had always wanted trees, but she gave in to me on this location and we have great views of the Gulf and wildlife, and the sky.

Last Friday a front came in from the North and dropped some rain near-by, but only about 5 drops on us.  The views of the sky,which would have been impossible in our other houses were great. It was easy to walk out on the various porches and watch the clouds move by.

The Contrast!

Do you remember the 24 loads of sand delivered to the yard?  That was because we'd been a river bank not a yard.  

And, because we had to wait to for the water table to drop, the land to dry and get firm, and another 12 loads of sand delivered we started our own  efforts to shift sand.  So, the neat piles, especially around the house looked like something had been eating them.

Yesterday everything changed!  Roland and his John Deer came and took all those mounds of sand and smoothed them out.  There's a relatively flat front yard, which Alese has plans for.  Hay, plants, and longer "creek beds."

We have creek beds -- those drainage trenches filled with gravel (see the second photo),  And we have gutters -- the trenches that border the driveway.  All to direct water, when it comes,

More Inside Detail

We had  the builder put a shelf high along two walls in the garage, but have determined it wasn't enough.  This week I installed two wire shelves. The shelves over the windows hold most of the various Christmas decorations, The end of the other shelf, with the green bag (that's the tree) has the rest.  A bit more work and we'll have most of the boxes (with the exception of my tools) up off the garage floor.




Speaking of shelves, we've added to the items on the shelf in the living room.  The scythe in the corner, is an antique.  My father had it, but he got it from someone else -- but I'm not sure who. Instead of using that to clear the grasses and plants I purchased a gas trimmer/brush cutter this week.






We've also been hanging some artwork.  I like this particular photo because it gives an indication of how some of the art is viewed.  But the photo below provides a better look at the watercolor done by a friend.  It's a very nice piece and makes an impression when one gets up to the second floor.

On the landing between the 2nd and 3rd floors is a print from the New Bedford Whaling Museum.  It's a spectacular print and obviously can be seen from both floors.

Corpus Has Already Had the Wettest Year on Record!

 It's not just tropical storms that bring us water. We've had some serious rain last month. The swale -- that trough in front of the house has been full for a long time.  There's no rain in the immediate future, and the water has finally almost retreated back to the lakes.

We only got 24 of the 30 loads of sand delivered weeks ago because the truck driver didn't want to risk getting stuck in the softer sand.  So, we've been moving some sand around by hand, and Alese has been planting in areas other than where the sand will eventually end up.  She's also been building some "creek beds" to channel rain run-off.

There's been some action inside too.  We've hung some of the art we've had packed since leaving Austin.  We're now waiting on special pieces that are being framed .  We've also finally gotten
mirrors installed.

Quick story about the mirror over my vanity.  It has 4 holes cut into it.  2 for lights, and the other two for outlets and the light switch.  That means very specific measuring and cutting.  Twice the mirror folks did the measurements/cutting wrong -- turned vertical to horizontal.  Then the mirror being delivered, was blown off the truck by TS Bill.  Finally have the mirror in place,just waiting for the mirrored switch plate that had to be special ordered.

We enjoy watching the Sun set over Corpus Christi Bay, and do that from the Kitchen porch regularly.

This past weekend we had great views of fireworks.  The Naval Air Station did fireworks on Thursday evening, then Ingleside did theirs Friday night.  On the Fourth, we watched arial fireworks from Padre Island, downtown Corpus, Port Aransas, Aransas Pass,and our neighbor, Port Royal.  All while on the Observatory deck.  Alese's daughter and boyfriend joined us and became our first overnight guests. So the Bunk House has been christened.

Mustang Islander blog post

Alese has her own blog and posts occasionally.   Her last post starts

Life has changed dramatically. In this rambling text, I share a few of the details about building our yard, which is one of the many changes in the daily routine. I'm more obsessed with doing than reporting, so much of this already seems ancient.

You can read the rest of the post at: http://mustangislander.blogspot.com/2015/06/life-has-changed-dramatically.html

Focus Shift: From Inside, to Outside

 Alese is now working to design the yard/gardens and get plants in the ground.  These are plants we thought would be planted last November.  They are finding it difficult, with the wind, salt, and sand.

The circle Alese is working on -- that's a baby palm she's putting in, has the arms aligned to the compass points, with South closes to her but.

We had a Great Blue Heron hanging out on the top porch for a few days, but she didn't stay.

After the flooding a few weeks ago we opted to get more sand to build up the yard, and so some 24 loads of sand were delivered.   There are another 6 as part of the delivery, but the drivers felt the area where we wanted the sand was too soft for delivery that day.  

So we are waiting for it to dry up some....   But, Tropical Storm Bill had other ideas, and while we prepared for wind and rain -- the severe wind didn't materialize, but we did get 6 inches of rain which has turned some of the hills of sand into islands of sand.

But the water has stopped flowing across the driveway and if we don't get any more rain, might have a dry swale by the end of next week -- hopefully.

We Are In!

We have moved!

Our address is 134 Mustang Island Estates Drive, Port Aransas, Texas 78373-4927

Pre-Move

It was a busy week before we moved. We had some days with multiple subcontractors trying to get their things done around other subs doing their own work. Enough got done so we could move in on Friday.

The Move

Friday morning it rained, but stopped before the movers arrived. That keeps our record in tact for always raining when we move. The best part was that All My Sons Movers in Corpus Christi were outstanding. Best service and care ever. They used more shrink wrap than has ever been used in any of our moves.

And, the folks with the fork lift arrived early and were amazing to watch.  As it turned out the fork lift crew worked very well with the movers.  And, one of the fork lift guys rode the furniture up to be sure nothing was lost. 

The garage is full of boxes, but furniture is in place and the boxes are slowly being emptied.   Not everything is done.  We have a punch list and we still have our active bird sanctuary in front of the house.  But, at least for the week the rain has stopped, so water isn't flowing across the driveway.

There are more stories, but they'll wait a bit.  Here's a preview;  

• We just appealed the appraisal on the house.  Always appeal!  
• Red-eared sliders live in our ponds.  What have they been doing?
• There's more to come on the exterior.

As promised here's some of the bird breeds shown in an earlier post:  Laughing Gull (adult breeding),  Black Skimmer (adult breeding), Great Blue Heron, Snowy Egret, (adult breeding) 

Inside and Out

We've been at the house every day now for two weeks meeting with subcontractors and helping them find the little things that need to be finished up.  Alese has a color-coded extensive punch list sorted by sub, or by location which-ever is more appropriate at the time.

From my office the view is of the stairs and sometimes someone sitting there.

There was good sale on roses a week ago, and since they are special to me we had to get five.  They were the first plants we set in the ground, and we had to talk with them and encourage them as the "ground breaking" plants to do well.

Then, because I'd gotten the first plants in Alese had to bring some of her babies (plants she's been nurturing ever since we started building) to get them in the ground.





Then we had the big plant move on Memorial Day.  Alese has been collecting seeds, taking cuttings, and liberating some of her favorite plants, She claims to have over 800 different plants.  Most are small -- some in red solo cups.   We rented a 17 foot U-Haul and made two trips.  We were helped loading and unloading by our next door neighbor on Furman.  It was quite the experience.  Here's the view inside the second load.

Our toads still seem to be hoping around happily.  They don't seem to be growing quickly, so this may be their size.  This time I thought it would be better to have Alese hold one to get a sense of their size.

And, one last note for those of you who read to the end...  We are finally moving into the the house Friday May 29!

Office Improvements

Here's Alese at her desk.   The addition to the right is another IKEA product.(31 steps in 20 pages of  instructions)  4-drawer unit with a bottom file drawer.   Note the casters so it can be moved around.

And the other office, Desk by IKEA, There's a 4-drawer unit in the corner, behind the chair. Though the chair isn't IKEA it had to be assembled.  The day-bed, an IKEA product. (37 steps in 28 pages.  Can you guess which had the better instructions?)  

A matching day-bed will go in Alese's office next week. 

Another Bird Quiz

From Sesame Street...  which of these things is not like the others?

The Way We Felt Last Week.

Today's Peanuts expressed pretty closely what happened to out sand last week with over 8 inches of rain in a few hours and more heavy, wind-blown rain the following day.  Our lake in front of the house is back and we've got a number of erosion gullies in the sand.

There was a tornado warning and a small one touched down West of Corpus, and this was what we watches as the cell approached us.

Pop Quiz. Bird Identifcation

Here are photos of three different birds we've had visit us.   One photo is more definitive for identification of each bird.

 So, can you name them?  No, actually we don't have names for them and probably won't name them.  We know what kind of birds these are.   If you can identify them feel free to comment.  If you don't know, you'll have to wait for the answers....   Another post sometime in the future.