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.