Final Post

It's been a while.  I thought I should finish the story.

We put the house on the market and had some interest but no immediate offers.  We lowered the asking price and had a few more folks interested but still no offers.  The real estate folks thought we were asking the right amount, and the house showed wonderfully, but...

We got an offer in August and were in the process of countering when Hurricane Harvey struck.  The house had no flood damage because we had raised it high enough, but the 130 mph winds did damage that allowed rainwater to penetrate into the house and damage the sheetrock in places.  Also the ridge shingles on the roof were blown off.  Many more homes had much more damage.

We had a major fight with TWIA the quasi-state windstorm insurance agency, and were in the process of getting quotes for repairs when we got an "as is" offer.  It was lower than we hoped, but we were hoping for a reasonable insurance settlement.  We took the offer and then when the insurance finally settled we were not happy.  Didn't get what we had hoped/expected. 

But, we didn't have to deal with the contractors to make repairs and then put the house back on the market. 

House has new owners who have totally removed all the plants from the yard, replaced the roof with a new metal one, and repainted.

So this closes the book on the house on Mustang Island.  Mustang Island will be missed.

Time for a Change.

After much deliberation we've decided to sell our dream home.

It is officially on the market.

Use this link (http://www.whittenrealestate.com/listing1178.htm) to get to the listing.  There, enjoy the photos, and take a walk inside with the 3D tour.

We've decided to downsize.

Family hasn't really come to visit as we'd hoped and expected. Alese was overwhelmed with the yard and struggles finding plants happy to be in sand and salt.  And with grand kids at a distance (Massachusetts and New Zealand) we're going to be the ones traveling to see them for a while.

Oh yes, there's a new house in the works.  Smaller and on the continent as Alese says. OTB (over the bridge) as islanders say, but still in Corpus Christi.  Just a little further away from the beaches but across the street from a wetlands preserve.

There will be a new blog  beginning soon so you'll be able to follow the construction of it.

Nature Happenings.

Just a little bit of the goings-on on our part of the sand bar we live on.

The great blue heron is a tall bird, According to Sibley it is 54 inches long with a 6 foot wingspan and weighs about 6 pounds.  They are pretty and I've posted photos of them here before.

We've watched them hunting along the shoreline of our ponds and swales (when full of water).  And, we've watched as one swallowed a 15 inch snake.  All that seems to fit with the long bill and long slender neck.  We also watched as one swallowed a small furry critter.

We have doves in the yard, and the doves don't seem to be very wary birds.  They seem comfortable to be within a couple of yards of us when we're working in the yard.  They seem more willing to walk away a few steps than to fly away.  Twice recently we've observed great blue capture and swallow a dove.

Great blue's hunt in large part by standing statue still, observing, until there's something near enough to strike.  This past week there was a great blue patrolling our front yard -- which is fun because I can watch from my office window.  One afternoon the blue was playing statue for a long while, then started a stealthly, slow movement before it moved quickly to capture a dove.

It shook the dove, put it under water of the swale for a little while,  and then took it out of the water and shook it more. Finally it got the dove in position to take it head first into it's mouth.
 
The heron had a difficult time because all the shaking hadn't been enough to loosen up the wing so the dead dove's wings would fold back and fit into the mouth.  It seems while the heron can open their bills vertically quite large, they can't create a wide opening too.  You can see the dove's wing protruding from the side of the bill.

Time to start over.  Disgorge the dove. Shake it a lot more. Put it in the water to ensure it's very wet. (I assume that helps it slide down the throat.)  Of course the challenge always is picking up the bird with the bill so the dove is head first.  That accomplished, head in the air, the dove disappears into the blue's mouth,

It takes a few minutes for the bulge in the throat to work it's way down that long neck to the body, The blue just stands still waiting for that to happen.

 Meanwhile, today, out in the dunes there's a howling party going on.  Generally we don't hear the coyote pups yapping until evening, but today it was before 10 am.  Afterwards one of the coyote parents decided it was time for to relax, and so settled into a comfortable position watching out for opportunities. (I had the telephoto at full magnification for this shot.)

Washingtonia Robustas

 

Bird Watch New Years Day

You may know about the Christmas Bird Count, where folks pick a day around Christmas and count the different species they can find.   We didn't do that.  But for the past few days, we've been watching the bird action in our neighborhood. Next door (Port Royal) has two large ponds in their front. We of course have ponds on both sided of the house, as well as ponds across the street.

These photos are all taken through our windows from inside in the nice dry warm environment.

 There have been an assortment of birds ranging from gulls, and grackles, common moorhen, assorted ducks, cormorants, tricolored, little blue,and great blue heron,snowy and great egrets, bittern, white ibis, and roseate spoonbills.  The different species seem to have no problem co-existing, but sometimes there's a conflict between birds of the same species.

 We also have a kestrel that likes to hang out on the telephone wire or a-top of the light pole to watch for prey, but it and a hawk that has thus far defied identification, haven't been out and about much with the cold, rainy, and windy weather we've been experiencing.

Here, from left to right: great egret (back to camera), two roseat spoonbills, flock of ducks.

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.