Probably not a good choice for a title as there is always something to write about. I just have to figure out what is of interest to others who take the time to read this blog. One thing that has surprised me is the number of readers that followed my other blog, https://pondblog2011.com which was a considerable number and well over a couple of thousand, have not bothered to switch over and read this one. I can’t believe that they were all Pond Enthusiasts as many of the blogs were about other things like Hiking, Photography and plain old everyday life. There was also a lot of poetry which I like to write when the mood strikes me.
It could be that like me, I add a “follow” or a “like” to many blogs because they have followed or liked mine. I usually do take the time to read them before adding a “follow” or a “like” just in case I seriously have problems with what is written or I strongly disagree with their approach. Generally though, most blogs that I come into contact with are interesting enough to read hence the follow.
Because of the lack of response from others, I recently decided to take a look at the list of three thousand or so blogs that I had added likes and follows to over the past ten years. It occurred to me that many of the names on this long list had not been blogging in a long time so I had to assume that for different reasons, they were no longer Bloggers. Consequently, I have taken them off that list and have narrowed it down to around a hundred. If none of them show up in the future with a like or comment on my blog or a blog of their own, then they will join the others in that Bloggers Graveyard up in the sky or wherever missing bloggers go when they no longer respond.
Like many of you out there, I am trying to clean up my mailbox because it has so much junk mail. If it is not something I am interested in, then I delete it after unsubscribing from that list. I am not interested in getting rid of my wrinkles as I consider them to be a mark of character nor do I need any magic pills to help my sex life as that has long gone out of the window or come to that, find another mate or life insurance and on and on. It’s amazing that as soon as I delete the ads after unsubscribing from their lists, within a week, they are back and filling my mailbox with more junk. The only ones I think I can control are the bloggers. I either take myself off their lists or them off of mine. Problem solved.
I suppose that really, the bottom line is, who do I write for? Certainly not to make any money as no one wants to buy my drivel. Most of my blogs are my own thoughts and musings unless I am writing about actual events like fish rescues hiking, a winters storm or Good Neighbors to name a few. My poetry is often prompted by a single line that pops into my head and then I go from there. Much of it is about my thoughts and feelings on any given day on any given subject, sometimes caused by the loss of a much loved pet or event or something similar. No, I write because it satisfies the artist within me. When I was much younger, I used to draw a bit and was pretty good at it but somehow, over the years, it has faded from my talents to be replaced by words which I use in place of a pencil or crayon.
I like to write. It satisfies something within me whether it be good and interesting or plain old drivel, I still have to get it out. Like most humans, I thrive on praise even though it sometimes embarrasses me if it is offered in person and the “Likes” are praise indeed. On the other hand, the lack of a “Like” is not the end of the world as life still goes on and I certainly don’t want a “Like” out of sympathy. If I haven’t earned it, so be it and that’s how it should be.
So, if you like any of my stuff, give me a like and a follow. If you don’t, no big deal as I am still going to write anyway.
As I have mentioned several times, I plan on spending more and more time in the Eagle at the Henley RV Park while awaiting the Estate Sale and then the final closing on my house. I have reached the point where I no longer need to be back checking on the Koi or the condition of the ponds following the fish rescues and subsequent repairs that I have made and can be away for much longer periods at a time.
While I was back this time, I also met with the Estate Sale company owner and we discussed what to do and where to go from here. We set a sale date of around mid May giving me plenty of time to collect the few remaining things that I plan on keeping. .The last time I was back last week, I collected a bunch more stuff to take with me to the Eagle and as I have mentioned before, there is not a lot of storage room anyway plus the additional weight is not a good thing. Most of what I have this time around are more of my small hand tools and wrenches that I am very reluctant to give up “just in case”. I did bring back another bird feeder pole and the feeders themselves to add to the one that I already have. Love watching the birds.
At last, pictures of trails 2021 style.
Yesterday, I took Sandy and Mikey to Riemer’s Ranch Park where I have done a lot of my walking in the past. I wanted to see how they handled something different than just walking on the road plus how walking two dogs on a single leash would work out on the trail. I had devised a way of hooking the leash handle to my belt leaving my hands free to take the occasional picture and needed to see if it worked. Normally, in the past, I have always used two walking poles for extra traction and stability while out on the trail and they have saved me more than once from a fall. This time though, I decided to leave them in the truck and try it without them. I brought my camera along as I always do but didn’t bring the backpack containing the spare camera and lenses.
Riemer’s Ranch is about a 30 minute drive from the Eagle. One thing I have noticed about this F250 truck is that the suspension is much “harder” and I can feel every bump in the road especially on the country back roads that are not very smooth anyway. Don’t notice it so much when I am towing but that is exactly what the truck was built for so I shouldn’t complain. I paid my $4.00 which incidentally has doubled in price since the last time I was there and chatted for a bit with the sweet young thing wearing a Travis County Park Ranger uniform. She was bright and cheerful and was a very welcoming start to our hike.
I opted for the second parking lot as I knew it had a steep road down to the river which would lead me onto the middle river trail. There are actually three trails that follow the Pedernales River for about 3 miles. One is on top of the gorge and is comprised of either concrete or crushed granite, the second is at the bottom and follows the same distance as the top and is a real trail but with much rougher terrain. The last is the lower trail which at times requires walking on the river bed, which incidentally, is very difficult as it it is mainly loose sand and rocks. We chose to take the middle trail and set off along it as the pictures show. It’s not difficult walking but does require keeping a careful eye out on where to place your feet. Sandy was in her element and her nose was working non stop at all of the different scents she discovered. For such a little dog, it is amazing just how much she can pee as she tries to mark everything. Michael, the little boy dog doesn’t have any of those traits and rarely marks anything and he and I both have also learned not to be in a direct line behind her after she has marked as she also does a little dance movement which involves scratching up huge amount of dirt and gravel.
Another view of the Pedernales showing how low the water is. This is actually the Lower Trail and is normally covered in water as a part of the river.
We made our way along the Lower Trail until we hit a spot that led down to the River Trail. Sandy, who was leading the way, decided that is where we should go so Mikey and I trudged along behind her trying hard not to trip or slip on the rough terrain. I guess I was the one doing the trying as Mikey didn’t have any problems. We headed out over the soft sand to where the river was flowing which incidentally, is the lowest I have ever seen it. Upon reaching the water, Sandy decided she needed to cool down and immediately flopped down in the water. When she had enough and it was time to move, she was covered in dirty brown sand and I had visions of a very dirty truck.
Sandy laying in the water
We eventually headed back to the main trail retracing our footsteps as we slowly made our way back to the truck. The climb back up the concrete hill was actually made much easier as Sandy was a real help in pulling me and Mikey back up. Probably the one and only time that I was glad she was pulling on her leash. Back at the truck, I took a while to brush off the worst of the sand from her which by now had dried and we all piled in and made our way home stopping at Starbucks in Dripping Springs for a latte. Perfect end to a great couple of hours.
We found a few wild flowers showing off their pretty faces.
This particular parking lot also leads to the main swimming area and is very popular for families and groups. There were families with kids, groups of young people and best of all young women in bikinis. We did not cover much in the way of distance around maybe a mile and a half but it was really an experiment to see just what we could do in the way of trail hiking. I think, in order for it to be more comfortable for all of us, we need more level trails like the ones within the park and not the lower ones that follow the river and are of a much rougher terrain. As there are plenty of them, we will return. All in all, a very enjoyable first hike.
Looking out of the window of my RV watching the birds flying so free squabbling and flapping and not singing a song afraid that the food will all be gone before they get their share of the seed in the feeders hanging from the tees of the units placed in the ground for the birds happily flying around.
I like to feed our feathered friends it gives me pleasure and to this end I hang the feeders within my view so I can watch for a moment or two mostly sparrows and finches somber and brown nothing flashy about them except they’re all clowns squabbling and scrambling to get at the seed for which there is plenty much more than they need.
It’s quiet and peaceful just sitting here giving me feelings of nothing but cheer with plenty of time for the rest of the day now what shall we do so as not to delay but reality rears it’s ugly head and back to the house I must go instead with plans made for the rest of the week deadlines and appointments I need to keep.
An eye appointment for tomorrow I must go continuing treatment for a minor woe with my vision improving getting better each day hoping this is the last time before driving away then on Wednesday I need to drive out of town back to Round Rock for my second round of the Covid-19 life saving vaccine keeping me safe to fulfil my dream.
From there I will drive back to Henly and spend time in the Eagle in my RV while I wait for the sale of furniture and stuff and selling the house for enough is enough of living in one place when I can travel around and see more of the country with limits unbound fulfilling my dream to travel this land with it’s richness and wonders and sites that are grand.
I will not have a great deal of time especially should my health decline and as a person of advancing years which is the very least of my fears in good health as far as I can tell with a brain that’s forgetful and slower than hell I plan to make the most of my worth of the time I have left on Nature’s Green Earth.
This is what I hope to see eventually or beautiful birds just like it. A Painted Bunting
I am sitting at the desk in the RV writing this, gazing out of the window at the many birds that have found the feeders that I have rescued from the “house” and placed on their stands in the ground behind the Eagle. The birds are very busy and provide an endless source of interest. So far, nothing exotic. Just sparrows and finches and such but even they are entertaining as they fight and squabble over the seed. Occasionally, a bigger bird comes along and pushes them out of the way but they return just as soon as the coast is clear. I have a couple more of these pole type hanging feeders back at the house which I will bring along to add to the variety for the birds.
For those of you following my blogs, you have been reading about the activities that have been going on in the garden as I prepared the ponds for the “fish rescues” that have both now happened, leaving the ponds active but lifeless fishwise for want of a better way to put it. Now, with that out of the way and the ponds back up and running, I can concentrate on what remains as I do not plan on doing anything more in the garden.
Living in an RV is very different than living in a “bricks and sticks” house in very many ways. First there are the obvious things like the difference in the square footage of my house at 1800 to my RV at 300. Being a Bachelor for the the past nearly 30 years with only dogs for company and no wife to pick up after me meant that I really didn’t need or use all of the space available. True, it wasn’t empty space and used mainly as a place to “keep” things that were either no longer immediately useful or “just in case” they might get needed in the future. Consequently, my house is filled with junk and the drawers and closets full of clothes that I no longer have a use for. Nowadays and pretty much most of the time, it is shorts and tee shirts although I did put on jeans when the freezing weather was here. Can’t remember the last time that I dressed up for anything and probably most of my “dress up clothes” no longer fit. Hell, as far as I am concerned, they can bury me in the same shorts and tee shirt preferably dirty and well worn from all of my activities along with my oldest and most scuffed up pair of hiking boots.
There are about 200 hundred books for others to enjoy. I wonder if anyone reads anymore?
I did go through all of the nearly 200 books that I have gathered over the years. Unfortunately, I have not cracked one open or read any of them for a long time with the advent of cell phones, computers and TV and so currently, they are all sitting on the bed in the spare room awaiting their fate. Such is the way of this modern world. The same is true of the many LP records and tapes that have not been listened to in years.
The workshop and storage shed are just the same as the house, places to store unwanted and unused “stuff” only of a more practical nature such as tools and spare parts for both ponds and house. As you can imagine, over the 35 years of living in this house and being very much a “do it yourselfer” plus of course the fact that I spent my entire life either in or associated with construction. I am trained as both a bricklayer and carpenter and can even weld a bit plus I used to operate heavy equipment whenever the opportunity arose. Back in the day when I lived in New York State, I drove tractor trailers in the wintertime, hauling a tanker trailer with 6500 gallons of heating oil to schools and such. I had my own construction company for 5 years, so it is no surprise that I have a lot of hand tools. Many are electric but in my later years, I opted to go with the Ryobi line of battery operated tools both for the convenience and also that most of my heavy construction days were over. Nearly all of the Ryobi tools are already in my RV along with many wrenches and such and will be my travelling companions just in case something needs repair. I even have an expandable ladder just so that I can blow off the slides before withdrawing them. The couple of Ryobi’s that I will sell are garden related which I do not see in my future. Oh yes, the other shed contains motorized garden equipment like lawn mowers and weed whackers and such many of which no longer work. The greenhouse come storage shed contains nothing but pond related repair pieces and parts. The Estate Sales people will have a field day as they try to sort through all of that stuff in those buildings as will the prospective buyers as they search for that certain something. One man’s junk and all of that…
Where I would rather be. Out on the trails.
I guess the point is, there is still a lot of work left to do before I can hand it over to my Realtor and spending time in the Eagle does tend to lessen the pain making it easier to transition from big to little. I also get to figure out just what I want to keep in the way of kitchen equipment for example. What pots and pans should I bring, What about the pressure cooker and the crockpot? Can I use them in the future and what about all of those dishes and cutlery? Way too much for just one man and two little dogs even if I could find the storage space. Currently, I am making do with a single piece of everything and it works just fine. One cup, one plate, one set of cutlery and one wine glass and on and on. Incidentally, all of these items are of some lightweight and unbreakable material as opposed to ceramic or china dishes and cups. I was going to bring all of the cutlery from the house with me but when I took a good look, I realized there are at least two full sets of the stuff so I opted for two pieces of each just in case I ever get a guest stop by. I don’t know how many in a setting but probably eight.
RV’ing is all about adaptability. How to make do with less and still have a very nice lifestyle. In a “bricks and sticks” house, generally speaking, space is not an issue or shouldn’t be. Neither are things like electricity, septic systems and water supply. These are all built into the home in a very standard way and all the owner does, at least most of the time, is pay for the cost of the services with the occasional repair thrown in here and there. Life is much different in an RV and the owner has to be very aware of such things as the black tank or the grey tank and when to empty them or even the water tank and when to fill it or what voltage to hook up to, 30 amp or 50 amp and many other things that are used and needed in the day to day working of an RV. Keeping an eye on the propane levels and then reinstalling the heavy tanks is quite a challenge. Not checking on if they are empty as there are electronic gadgets that can do that but lifting the filled tanks which in my case weigh over 40lbs, into their spot which is usually very cramped to begin with, can be frustrating.
Even the comparatively simple process of backing the rig into a narrow site and then levelling the rig can be very daunting especially if one is on their own. Yet, many people choose this way of life for various and different reasons as I have done. I am a newbie at this and the first to admit it. Many things I can do for myself but when I suffered the freeze damage a few weeks ago, I had to call in a specialist to make those repairs as I had no clue and what made things tick. Again, the difference between a regular house and an RV. To work on an RV, one also has to be a bit of a contortionist or at least much more flexible than I am nowadays. Now, back in the day…..
Even with the different challenges that an RV lifestyle presents, more and more people are choosing it as their way of life. If you were to ask them, they would all have many different and yet much of the same reasons for choosing this lifestyle. Circumstances might be different but the end result, still the same and I can’t wait to be a member of this particular tribe or group or is it a clan. Whatever.
The 5000 gallon pond by the deck. It has about 40 Goldfish in it.
As a follow up to the blog I wrote on March 7, referencing the shutting down and fish rescue of the 5000 gallon pond off the deck, I came home from Henly and the Eagle this past Monday knowing what I would find. Even as prepared as I thought I was, it still came as a shock to find two empty ponds devoid of plants and fish and drained to the very minimum of water. I took a long slow walk around the empty ponds until I reached the 5000 gallon pond off the deck to find that it was full and a couple of the waterfalls were working. I couldn’t immediately see the fish but I knew that it contained a few rescued Goldfish. I set to work on hooking back up the old pump that had cracked in the freeze and that I had welded to repair it but had not yet tested it. I had a bit of trouble with one of the hose connections but with a bit of ingenuity, worked it out and turned the pump on. Lo and behold it worked and I was very happy to see water coming down the waterfall. It did not have much pressure and was a bit intermittent in the flow so I figured that it was not pumping at full capacity.
That was all I attempted on Monday and on Tuesday morning, bright and early (for me), I started work on the Goldfish pond, cleaning out the mountain of leaves and debris, rearranging rocks and finally placing concrete blocks for the fish fountain to sit on as well as the pot for the single water lily. This is the only water lily left of all of those I have collected over the years. The big Koi are notorious for tearing up any lily plants in their ponds even to the extent of washing out the dirt and stones with their tails. That was all I was planning on returning to this pond. I reassembled the Fish Fountain and placed it on the concrete blocks and hooked up the filter units. At least, with no fish or turtles in the pond, I did not have to worry about dechlorinating the water.
I turned the water back on and watched for a bit as it slowly started to fill. I could tell that it was going to be a very slow process. Ever since the Great Freeze of 2021, the water has been much slower coming out of the faucet as though the city water pressure is not where it used to be. It really doesn’t matter as I have nothing but time and my only problem is my own impatience to get this done, the house sold and me on the road. I made note of the water meter reading curious as to just how much water this, the smallest of the three ponds, held and concluded that I had done enough work for one day.
The Goldfish pond
Wednesday saw me back out there bright and early (for me, that is) this time with my attention focused on the very large pond. Incidentally, the Goldfish pond was still filling as I had a timer on it that switches off after 2 hours before needing resetting and obviously, it reached its time limit after I went to bed. It took almost the rest of the day to put in almost 3000 gallons which topped it up.
The big pond needed a lot of debris cleaning of all of the leaves that had fallen into the pond. These had all accumulated on the small area of the bottom that was a little higher than the rest. Strange but maybe the pumps created the currents that caused this. With the bottom cleaned of all debris, I set about re-arranging the concrete blocks for the couple of plants that I planned on returning to the pond. This also included the Frog Fountain that is the centerpiece for this particular pond along with the aerators and pumps that drove this equipment. I planned on returning another container that had other pond plants in it but after trying several times, and found that it was way too heavy for me to manhandle on my own without doing myself a serious injury. I concluded that plant would not be returned back into the water. With everything set up the way I wanted, I turned on the city water to start the long slow process of refilling this pond. I knew from previous fills that it was going to take at least 5500 gallons but I checked the water meter and made a note of it and waited checking every two hours to turn the timer back on.
With the work completed inside the ponds and having nothing to do but wait for them to fill, I turned my attention to collecting the concrete blocks and bricks that were stacked around the walls of the ponds after the pond crew had removed them. The plan was to move them back to the outside storage area by the shed. That actually took a while as there were so many of them. Over the years, a lot of plants had been added to the ponds usually for the Koi to destroy and none of the blocks used for the plants to sit on had ever been removed. Hauling those 8x8x16 inch concrete blocks around brought back memories of when I used to lay them for a living in my much younger days. Funny, they didn’t seem to weigh as much back then…
On Thursday, I tackled the project that I had been putting off for a couple of years which was to remove the muck accumulated in the bog attached to this pond. This was designed to do just that, collect the dirt out of the pond water and it worked well as I shoveled out 3-4 inches of the foul smelling stuff. To do the job right, I should have broken down the bog removing all of the plants, the grid and the bags of Larva rock and cleaned and washed them all but as I was not really feeling up to this task, I chose the short way. Needless to say, I still managed to dig out 5 wheelbarrow loads of the dirt which in reality, was probably more fish poop than dirt and at least 10 years worth of the foul smelling stuff. I finished the day by cleaning up the debris from all of the ponds and dumping that close to the compost pile to be added onto the top at a later date. And of course, checking the water as the pond slowly refilled.
The reassembled 6000 gallon pond. The bog is on the left.
I had started a couple of the pumps, at least those that were in the water and also the one that fed water to the bog to get it up and running again. The only pump that I could not start yet was the one in the skimmer and for this, the water needed to be actually running into the unit as it required that the pond be full before starting this one. A couple of hours later, and we were ready to go with all of the pumps working and water flowing where it was supposed to. It actually looked very impressive even if there are no longer any Koi to admire.
On Friday, I went back to the 5000 gallon pond by the deck to try to figure out just what was wrong with the repaired pump I mentioned previously. I finally came to the conclusion that the pump mechanism had stopped pumping even though the motor was running just fine which did not really surprise me considering it’s age. I put it to one side and considered my options. I already had a 3600 gph pump that pumped the water into the two urns, one in the center of the pond and the other on the bank and after giving it some thought, I figured that I could use it to pump all three of the units. First, I had to make a quick trip to Lowes for some much needed pipe fittings. I have literally probably a hundred of various fittings that I have collected over the 30 or so years of Ponding ranging in all sizes from a half inch to 3 inches and purchased for other such repair projects. I never return unused material figuring that eventually, I will need it. This had often worked out to be very true but invariably, the part that I need is not in my collection so it’s back to the hardware stores for a replacement. The same is true for the many connotations of various plumbing that has happened over the years only to be discarded for a different design. I have a pile of such bits and pieces that I am always digging into in the hope of making something work for whatever project I happen to have going at any particular time. Its a bit like having a jigsaw puzzle of parts that requires some thinking and ingenuity to make them work.
A view from within the greenhouse where I have accumulated lots of parts over the years.The outside pile of useful parts from previous repairs and that get used whenever I can make them fit.
I worked on re-piping the Aquadyne filter to the existing plumbing and eventually had it all back in place and with much hope and trepidation, turned the pump back on. Everything worked just as I had hoped with water coming out of the Urn on the bank, the Urn in the middle and down the waterfall via the Aquadyne filter unit. Yeah, I thought, “It works” and just then, one of the glued fittings let go covering me with pond water. I turned everything off and went about the process of regluing the plastic pipe at this joint. I was drenched but happy in knowing that it should work as long as I gave the joint enough time to harden.
As it happened, one of my Hispanic walking friends stopped by with her Granddaughter and their little Shit Zhu puppy and I showed them around the garden and ponds and we chatted for a while. Then my Realtor stopped by to drop off some papers and I gave up work for that afternoon. I was planning on spending the weekend in the Eagle so their timing was just right. Besides, it would give the joint repair time to harden up before putting it under water pressure again. With only a few Goldfish in the pond off the deck, I felt much better about spending time away.
Incidentally, I discovered another broken pipe caused by the frost. This one was to the Automatic Water Leveler situated inside the skimmer box so while I was at it, I made a repair to this one at the same time. It had been turned off is why I had not noticed it before.
I figured that enough was enough and that we had a very busy week working on all of this stuff, pretty much accomplishing all that we had set out to do and we deserved a break. Not requiring any more of a reason than that, we, the dogs and I, packed the truck with more of the stuff that I would keep, some food that needed to be eaten and headed for Henly for the weekend hoping to spend the time writing, walking and generally doing nothing.
This has been a very busy week from my perspective with the first three days all tied up with different things. On Monday, I paid a visit to a skin doctor, not the one who I have seen forever who makes the initial examination and if she can treats, whatever she finds. No this one is a specialist in the Mohs procedure, whatever that is. All I know is that he very lightly injects the area to be treated and then I suppose, he starts cutting. Anyway, between him and about three different nurses, they worked on two different areas, both on my upper cheek and both very visible. I guess it doesn’t really matter too much regarding spoiling my good looks as they are long gone, disappearing into the sunset to be replaced by an old and wrinkled face that I have difficulty in recognizing some mornings.
Seriously though, too much Texas sun can play havoc with my skin and as I am out in it so much, I really should pay more attention and put on sunblock if I know that I am going to be out for any length of time. I have resorted to using skin cream that contains sunblock but I am not sure how efficient it is. Obviously not too much judging from my latest trip to the Dermatologist. I was a bit sore when the numbing wore off but nothing too bad. As a badge of honor, I now have two very large Band-Aids adorning my right cheek for all of the world to see. Incidentally, the process required a lot of waiting as they perform in house testing to see if all of the cancer has been removed and if not, they go back in and do more cutting. I was in there for almost three and a half hours.
Dell Diamond. Notice the size of the parking lot.
On Tuesday, I got my first Covid 19 shot. I had not bothered about it too much but the more I thought about it, I decided that rather than keep telling anyone that asks, “No not yet”, it was easier to go ahead and get it done. As no one had turned into a zombie that I had heard of, I figured the shot is safe. So I started looking in earnest and managed to locate a website that looked promising. I filled out all of my details adding with much pride, my age and sat back and waited. Two days later, I received a response telling me that I needed to be in Round Rock at the Dell Diamond at a certain time in a couple of days. Round Rock is in Williamson County but apparently, that doesn’t matter as I live in Travis County and also Hays County with the RV.
My appointment was for between 11:00 and 11:30 giving me time to drive there as Round Rock is a good hour away as long as there is not too much traffic on the Interstate. Luckily for me, it was comparatively light and I made good time arriving just at 11:00. The first problem I ran into was actually finding the location where the shots were given as the address was not that clear. I asked an older couple who happened to pull up alongside of me and they pointed out where I needed to go. Thanking them vert profusely, I made my way to the entrance to immediately be confronted by lines of orange cones which I assumed needed to be followed. This was confirmed by a young lady who was directing this traffic in this giant parking lot. I drove for what seemed like ages following the cones that twisted in all directions and sometimes doubling back on themselves with no rhyme or reason. Luckily, where there was a tricky intersection , there was a live person directing the traffic. By now, I had caught up to those in front and was boxed in by those behind as this endless stream of cars and trucks traversed in weird directions around the parking lot. Eventually, one of these people that were directing us, was stopping the line of cars and trucks and asking questions and when it was my turn, I discovered that he wanted to see my appointment paperwork and asked a few questions about if I had Covid and stuff like that. Satisfied with my responses, he marked on my windshield and sent me on my way following the car ahead of me. Before long, we had split and become two lines slowly creeping forward for what seemed like an eternity. Then, after being stopped for the final time, we were directed into one of at least ten different lanes and we could see the tents just in front of us. Slowly, very slowly, the cars inched forward until there was just one car in front of me. Many people were scurrying around all in a state of high activity as they asked questions, made notes and finally administered the Pfizer Covid shot while we sat in our vehicles. They made one guy get out but that was because he was such a big man, the nurse was having trouble administering to him in his car. Just as I thought we were all through, I was in for yet another surprise. We were directed to yet another area and a staff member with an iPad arranged for the follow up shot giving me a date and time. They also made us wait for fifteen minutes to make sure that no one was having any after effects from the shot.
Finally, I was cleared to go and make the long trip back home this time, in rush hour traffic. Altogether, it took an hour to get there, almost two hours for the shot and another hour to get home. Still, at least I am halfway there and next time, it won’t be so strange with the intricacies of following the yellow brick road or rather the orange lines of cones. My follow up date is in three weeks time.
The third day, Wednesday was spent at home cleaning the 5000 gallon pond and getting ready for the upcoming fish rescue.
The worst part of having a whole bunch of plans for the future is not getting instant gratification. Instead, one has to wait around for all of the bits and pieces to all fall into place which can be very time consuming. Generally, I am a very patient man sometimes to the extreme but as I grow older, I notice that I am nowhere near as patient as I used to be, maybe because time is slipping away much faster than in the days of my youth. Back then, a day took a week to pass but now a day is much shorter than even a day or so it seems.
Getting the house ready to put on the market has been a slow process from my perspective. My problem was not making up my mind what I wanted to do with the eighty or so Koi some of which are almost three feet long and the probably one hundred or so Goldfish. I diddled between keeping them and selling them along with the house and/or donating them to the Austin Pond Society Fish Rescue. After much more consideration, I decided that it was a big task to have someone else take care of them especially if they had no previous experience. I certainly did not want to see anything bad happen to the fish hence the decision to donate them. It actually felt like a load off my mind knowing that they will be going to good homes and will be well taken care of plus of course that I would no longer have to worry about them.
Having made that decision, the first of the rescues took place two weekends ago with the 5000 gallon pond off the deck. It contained around sixty Koi, twenty of which were very big and some were almost thirty years old. The other forty or so were last years babies which incidentally, was the biggest hatching ever. Usually there are no more than a half dozen or so. I say babies but some are already eight inches long. This pond also contained eight turtles ranging in size to two that were probably a foot long and the others, anything in between. These were transferred to the 6000 gallon pond where they will stay temporarily although I saw Clarence, the biggest of them all in the Goldfish pond yesterday. Goodness only knows how he got in there as the sides are about three or more feet high. Guess Clarence is a bit of a rock climber. The members of the Fish Rescue crew led by Jeannie and Stephen are very efficient and they took it upon themselves to also rescue about twenty baby goldfish from the pond that I am in the process of closing down. Just in time too as the Landscape contractor was busy filling in that particular pond.
Needless to say, it was with mixed emotions that I returned from staying in the Eagle while all of this was going on. I just did not have the heart to be there as it would have made me very sad. As it was, it was a bit disconcerting to return home to an empty and drained pond. At least I can clean it out and find the leak and get it ready for the next rescue. The plan is to pump the water from the 6000 gallon into the 5000 gallon which will help my water bill immensely and then to put a few goldfish in it along with the turtles for appearances sake.
Next up on the list on the on the 28th of this month is the 6000 gallon pond that has about twenty very large Koi in it. Most of these are going to Zilker Botanical Garden ponds to replace those they lost over the winter. Great to think they will visible to the general public and hopefully giving them as much pleasure as they have given me. There is also the Goldfish pond which is around 2000 gallons and as I said before, contains more than a hundred goldfish of all sizes. Some of these will go into the pond off the deck just to give the appearance of fish in the pond strictly for the visual effect. Goldfish are easier to take care of than the very large Koi and are considerably tougher.
All of this is taking time. I have been spending more and more of it in the Eagle at Henly and I watch as the RV’s pull in and then notice when they are gone. Some stay for a week or two, others are overnighters. Me, I am there until the house is sold which seems incredibly slow. There we go again the the patience thing that started the blog. Once the ponds are cleared, cleaned and refilled and the pumps running, I can concentrate on clearing out what little I will be taking with me. As it is, I have been moving stuff to the Eagle every time I go visit and as I have only so much storage space, probably will not be taking much more. The Eagle or another like it will be my final resting place so there is no sense in putting anything in storage.
The final act will be an Estate Sale and a final house clean up and hand it over to my Realtor. Can’t wait for that to happen.
When Sandy takes us walking every morning and evening, it gives us time take a look at which RV’s moved and the new ones that came in. Just lately, there seems to be quite a few of both kinds with it being a weekend. My neighbors on either side are more permanent, as I am and most of the RV’s in my row, 1 thru 6 fall into this category. Even the new section that has only just been completed is real busy and is almost full. These appear to be mostly of the larger kind of 35ft and up. Makes sense as the sites are very wide and easy to back into and very level.. Many are pull thru’s which most of us really like. Much less hassle and not as much of a test of an individuals driving skills.
There are quite a few kids around out early and playing with each other and riding their bikes. It is great to hear their cheerful, happy voices as they shout and fall out over whatever is bothering them at the time.. When we walk past some of the RV’s, we set the dogs that are inside off into a spasm of barking frustrated at the fact that another dog is encroaching on their territory and there is nothing they can do about it. If we pass other campers, it is usually with a smile and a pleasant word and always a “Good Morning” or “Hello”. When it comes to other dogs, Mikey is just fine always making sure that I am between him and the other dog. Sandy on the other hand, wants to tear the other dogs throat out and it is very embarrassing to hear her screech and bark at them. I am always full of apologies and sometimes, if their dog has reacted, the other people are too. This park as with most RV parks has very strict leash laws but doesn’t have a dog park area.
I have been doing some work around the RV. Not so much with the RV itself except for what Michael is doing on the water system but with installing some of the gadgets that I have bought these past few months and have not yet installed. The latest one is an indoor motion and sound driven camera that shows pictures of the inside of the living room on my phone. Pretty neat but it is so sensitive that it sends me a message at the slightest sound or movement. Probably will drive me nuts in the end as I can’t even take a deep breath or change position without it sending me a warning email. Incidentally, it shows me pictures on my phone from inside the RV when I am at my other house which is 25 miles away.
I have a couple of Doggo transmitters for the dogs which will let me know where they are in case they wander off. It could happen if something was to happen to me but the chances are slim unless I have a heart attack or something similar.. Still better to be prepared. Now all I got to do is figure out how to activate them. I probably have directions somewhere that I need to find. Ain’t technology great?
Not sure of it’s name, Smart Camera, Cloud Storage Camera?
I spent time trying to get the Roku sticks working on the TV but gave that up as a bad job and will wait until I bring in the TV’s from the house which are both HGTV and much newer. I probably have some other gadgets to install if I can find them. Getting organized is a big job and I just can’t wait to start going though and organizing my files many of which go back several years and contain a lot of obsolete and outdated material. Change that, I can wait…
Reading some other people’s blogs about their full time camping experiences gives me a lot of ideas. One of the things that seems to be true for most of them is not to worry too much about the RV getting untidy. Dirty, no as it takes no time to run a small vacuum or a simple brush and dustpan but that is different from untidy. With such a small space to worry about and limited storage, stuff is going to lay around. Depending on your point of view, it could even add character. By the way, installing this desk is the best thing I could have ever done and it was a stroke of genius on my part. Gotta give myself a pat on the back for that move. Incidentally, my house is untidy too and that was before I started getting ready to sell. The difference is that there is much more space to be untidy in and it it gets to be too much, one can always close the door to that untidy room. Can’t do that in my RV as basically except for the bathroom and bedroom, it is just one room.
It is almost 5:00 pm and it doesn’t look like Michael will make it back again today to install the new pump which is no big deal as the old one works sufficiently well to get by. I am on the freshwater supply tank and can refill that if I need to without creating any water leak problems. I do have a Dentists appointment for tomorrow at 10:00 am and am debating on going back to the house tonight. On the other hand, there is no real reason to do that as I could get up early and drive into town, dropping the dogs off on the way. Just got to remember to set the alarm tonight. I think I will bring back one of the house TV’s tomorrow and hook it up so that I can watch the soccer games on a big screen instead of my laptop. The end result will be the same as it is always a toss up if my teams win or lose…
Yesterday, I loaded up the dogs and we took a trip back to the house as I had a Dentists appointment at 10:00 am. I left the dogs at the house while the Dentist went about his work. This is a comparatively new Dentist for me, making a total of three since living in Texas for these past 46 years. The first, Dr Weber retired, the second Dr Day also retired for medical reasons and now I am on my third, Dr Gray. a comparatively young guy who will definitely outlive me. He did two fillings and they were absolutely painless and very quick. It took longer for the Novocain to wear off than the actual surgery and that wasn’t very long.
I took a look around when I was at the house to see if there was anything that needed my attention and did not find anything urgent. I checked the bedroom where I have stacked all of the books which number around 200. The bed was the only place that would hold them all. That and the little table. Looking through them, they are almost a history of my interests through my lifetime starting in 1977 when I moved to Texas as many of them are reference books on things like, Birdkeeping, Parrots, Lovebirds and other exotics, Building Ponds, Koi and Goldfish, Coaching football, English style, Photography and how to take better pictures, Photoshop, Hiking and good hiking trails and the newer ones are all about Writing. There are not any on Understanding Women, or How to be a Better Husband and I probably could have used a couple on that particular subject. Books are almost a thing of the past and unfortunately and I am as guilty as the next person in using my computer for just about everything. For reading entertainment, I listen to Audiobooks.
I walked outside to the very sad looking yard with still a lot of brown in it. There are signs of life with new buds shooting up from some of the plants and shrubs and the two remaining ponds looked in good shape. I cleaned the filters and decided there was not much more I could do. I do need to return next week and clean and refill the 5000 gallon pond so that the turtles have a home after their pond gets drained. That should only take a couple of days to complete this work. The Landscapers have finished and have done a very good job especially with cleaning up the side patio which by being exposed, has got to add some value to the property at least as a selling point.
I picked up a couple of things that I needed including the smaller TV to replace the Furrier in the RV and loaded in some other stuff. Of course, I forgot the most important thing in my hurry, that being the remote for the new TV. I swear I need to write everything down nowadays and have a list for just about everything, my memory is so bad. I discovered this when I was unloading back at the Eagle so we jumped back in the truck and made another return trip of about 40 miles. It only takes 30 minutes each way but that does amount to 3 gallons of diesel at almost $3.00 a gallon. Oh well.
Steps from Patio to the deck.
I spent time on setting up the TV from the house and much to my delight, It fired right up and the Roku stick that I purchased works perfectly. I can now watch the football matches from the English Premier League on Peacock in all of their glory. At the same time, I found a link to the Champions League. Two for the price of one. You can’t beat that.
The next day, Michael made it back with the new pump and spent a couple of hours replacing the old one and putting everything back together. Between us, we took out the old Furrier TV which I told him he could keep as eventually, I will bring the 42 inch from the house to replace it. Hopefully, all of the winter woes as far as the Eagle goes are behind us and we can return to some form of normality. I also installed an indoor camera which worked even when I was in Austin so if ever I leave the dogs behind, I can check on them. Ain’t science wonderful?
My previous blog described the fish rescue of all of the Koi in the 5000 gallon pond, which will be followed by the same thing happening in the 6000 gallon and Goldfish ponds on the 28th of this month. Some of those large Koi will be donated to Zilker Botanical Gardens here in Austin, Texas to replace the fish they lost. Nice to know that they will give much pleasure to a lot of people in the general public.
As it happens, when I got back to the Eagle, I discovered that there were several leaks in the plumbing resulting in us having to rough it and literally camp out for a couple of days. These leaks were partly caused by running out of propane during the recent freeze and losing heat. I don’t know but I get the feeling that even if I had been here, I might not have prevented it from happening as the freeze was that severe and RV plumbing is not built to withstand such temperatures. When the storm was at it’s highest, the roads were impassable and there was no way that I could even make the trip especially as my truck with the 4 wheel drive, was in the shop. . Not sure how my neighbors here in the Park fared and if any of them had any damage.
RV Parts Diagram – Photo Credit: RVPartsOutlet.com
My next door house neighbor, Michael, turns out, not only owns an RV but he works on them. He is also one of those that checked on me during the freeze and brought me food and water in case I needed it so I gave him a call for help. He very obligingly came out to the RV and began a systematic check to find the problem. The first was in the gooseneck faucet in the sink which was barely running. and was leaking water all over the wood floor. Now Michael is a very large older gentleman who is looking to retire from his business and yet, by laying on the floor, he managed contort himself and reach back in to where the gooseneck was situated. He had already decided that it was the cause of the problem. The next day, after a trip to Crestview for a new gooseneck, he came back and finished installing the unit. That cured that particular leak but as he had just left, I discovered that the toilet was running continuously and would not switch off. I called him and he turned around and came back to take a look. Again, it required parts which he got the next day and although I was not there having a Dentists appointment, went ahead and repaired that problem.
Silly me, thinking that all of our plumbing problems were a thing of the past. I went out yesterday and discovered water dripping from under the RV. With a little experimentation of turning off water and after filling the 20 gallon onboard water tank, I figured that as long as the water was shut off at the main, it would not leak and as I still had water in the freshwater tank, I could get by. All this meant was that I would have to keep an eye on the water levels in this tank and turn the hose on occasionally to top it up. Just like if I was boon docking. The onboard pump and the heater appear to be working just fine so there is water pressure and hot water. I called Michael and he said he would be out later today but as it is raining, maybe not. As it happens, he did show up just as it was getting dark and after taking a look underneath the RV and making a couple of adjustments to release some built up water, he moved back to check in the storage compartment where he had access to the pump. Turns out that pump was damaged by the frost after all and although still working, is leaking when under pressure. Michael left and promised he would be back tomorrow although with it being a Sunday, was not sure that Crestview would be open and have a new pump available.
A lot of this stuff I can do but RV plumbing is all new to me and I need time to learn the intricacies of the system. Watching Michael work is showing me where things are located and what to look for in the future although, I hope that it will not be necessary. That plus it is much harder to contort my body to reach the difficult places means that sometimes, I have to rely on others to make these repairs. All it takes is money and friends.
Sandy took Mikey and me for a walk this afternoon. This time, we explored one of the roads outside of the RV park and covered around a couple of miles. It’s pretty quiet out there and except for encountering one dog on the other side of the fenced in yard and two trucks that passed us in opposite directions. we had the road to ourselves. We walk around the park for the morning walk as that is just to let the dogs relieve themselves. Oher dog owners are out there all doing the same thing. Usually, I am half asleep and kinda stumble along as Sandy decides where we are going. I did notice that there has been a lot of trailer movement with a several empty campsites. The new section looks almost complete and is already accommodating RV’s, most of them pretty big. It’s been very windy here for the past few days with some quite powerful gusts, enough to rock the RV. I can understand how easy they can be to overturn in a real windstorm. So high and built so light and only a few points of contact with the ground. I spent some time messing around with the TV setup which is by Furrion. I think the actual TV is a bit outdated and is not an HGTV as it only gets a limited number of bloody awful channels even with the roof antennae. A lot of old Westerns and ancient comedies and a couple of Hispanic channels. As I am not conversant in the language, I can’t watch them either. I have a couple of Roku sticks but couldn’t get them to work nor could I get my computer to transmit to the big screen. I guess the TV is outdated technology and I need to bring at least one of the two modern ones from the house. Won’t need them there anymore anyway.
Not sure how I will handle it when we finally get on the road. Other than the hope of making it back to New York State to see my family, I have no real plans or desires. By the time I get on the road, it may be too late to make that trip as I definitely do not want to be anywhere North come wintertime. I could stay anywhere for a month or a couple of weeks or just a couple of days at the different and various campsites. A lot depends on what future plans I have in regards to travelling. I would prefer to not drive everyday and will just have to play things by ear. As that is still a a couple of month off, we’ll just have to wait and see.
Incidentally, today is one of those rainy and dismal grey days that make you want to curl up with the blankets over your head in a nice warm bed. Both me and the dogs.
From this, dead foliage and all showing the lowered water level.to this…How very sad.
Yesterday, was a very sad day for me, one of two that are planned, with the other yet to come in two weekends time.
As many of you that follow my blogs already know, a part of my plans for what remains of my very interesting life is to downsize and live in my RV full time. To achieve this, I am selling my “Bricks and Sticks” home of the past 35 years which I have discussed in previous blogs. After much thought and consideration and debating in my mind, I decided that it would probably be very difficult to find the right person in the new owner, to care for the fish in the 3 ponds. It is a big responsibility to undertake especially if that person does not have the experience or the interest and I would hate to think of the fish and turtles being neglected.
The alternative was to hold a “Fish Rescue” which actually involves members of the Austin Pond Society. I had arranged with Jeannie and Steven, the leaders of this wonderful group of volunteers, and they had contacted all of those that they knew would help with the rescue this past weekend and rehome the fish, some of which are enormous and both over 30 inches long and 25-30 years old. The rescuers are rewarded for their hard work by taking home the Koi to their own ponds. With the fish gone and the pumps and fountains running, the ponds would add an additional feature without the responsibility of the fish to a future buyer. It would also give me peace of mind wondering if the new owners really cared and were neglecting the fish’s welfare.
We chose the 5000 gallon pond closest to the deck as the first pond to rescue. All of the ponds are fitted with automatic water levelers which add water as needed to keep the ponds topped up as water vaporizes. I did not realize it but there is a leak in the liner in this pond which I discovered when I shut the water lines off due to the recent freeze. The water level dropped by about a foot before stabilizing. This gave them a head start on pumping out the remaining water to rescue the 25 or so very large Koi along 40 of last years babies, which are now over 8 inches long. Incidentally, this was the largest number of baby Koi that I have ever had at one time and could not have happened at a worse time. Usually, it is no more than a half dozen or even less. The wonders of Mother Nature at work. She must have known and had planned for the freezing winter that we have just had here in Texas with lots of replacements.
When it came time to recue the fish, I did not want to be a part of this activity as it would have made me sad and depressed. I collected the dogs and we went to Henly to stay in the Eagle on Friday evening planning on returning Sunday evening. When we got there, the first thing I discovered when I opened the door to the RV was water all over the floor. Turns out, there is a leak in the pipe leading to the sink or maybe the gooseneck faucet itself, probably caused by the recent frosts even though I had shut the water off and drained the system. This meant compromising on how we did things. For something that one takes for granted like having running water at the turn of a faucet, suddenly, it not being available meant having to think of different ways to do things like brushing teeth, making coffee and washing dishes to name a few. Almost like tent camping.
And then their was the toilet. With no water available, I had to resort to using one of the large 5 gallon water cans that I always carry just to flush. I still had water at the outdoor park standpipe which normally, I would have been hooked up to. Because of the freeze that you can read about hereand luckily for me, I had shut the water off at the spigot the last time I visited the park. By the way, 5 gallons of water is a lot heavier now than it was 20 years ago. Such are the joys of camping. The leak is in a difficult spot and the materials used are nothing I am familiar with so I ended up calling an RV repair company to do the work when they can fit me in. More on that later.
By coincidence and mainly because he was working at a neighbors house across the street and also because he came over to talk to me, I had arranged with that tree contractor to come over and do some clean up work after the winter storm. At the time, I didn’t realize that he wanted to start instantly or at least the next day which was the same day as the Rescue was scheduled. So, the Fish Rescue and yard cleanup were all happening at the same time. Luckily, they compromised and were able to work together without imposing on each others space but it did create a situation that required me to return back to the house which I had not intended to do before Sunday evening. When I arrived back, the Fish Rescue Volunteers had all gone and I was greeted by two empty ponds of both water and fish, a sad sight indeed but at the same time, a necessary one. After some negotiations with the contractor for some additional work and paying him for the work he had accomplished, I left and headed back to the Eagle to spend another Saturday night at Henly before returning on Sunday to spend the night at the house because I had an early appointment to get my truck fixed on Monday.
As you can imagine, for me, this is a very sad time with over 30 years of my life invested in the fish and the ponds which I built myself in the first 15 years. My interest in fish and ponding started shortly after my third and last wife moved on for greener pastures. Not sure if the fish were a replacement, not saying that she was cold blooded or that I just needed a new hobby to fill the time as suddenly, I had a lot of it on my hands. In truth, the actual designing and building which I did myself including using a jack hammer on the Texas rock, was really more pleasurable than the caring for the Koi and Goldfish. They still gave me a lot of enjoyment and it is an interesting hobby. There were many sad times when the big fish died for different and various reasons and I had to get them out. They all ended over the fence in the wood for other crittures to feed on. Then of course, the tussle with visits from several different Herons and Racoons and other wildlife over the years. Such is the way of Nature.
Without the ponds and the fish, I would never have discovered that I like to write when I started blogging more than ten years ago and the old site, https://pondblog2011.com/ is still available for viewing. The one major drawback with having the ponds and the fish was that unless I made other arrangements, I could never leave for more than a couple of overnight stays as someone had to check that the pumps were still running and to feed the fish twice a day. This did restrict any travel plans that I might have had in the past 20 years but luckily, my roving days are pretty much over and I am very content to stay home. I have plenty of other hobbies like photography and hiking and now RV’ing. My one regret is that I never got back to England to see my two sons.
Now I have decided that it is time to move on to a different interest in what remains of my life and is the reason for the RV and for selling my house. With the fish gone, I can move forward in finalizing whatever work still needs to be done, hold an estate sale and then put the house on the market. There is still a lot of work to do as I wade through all of the junk I have collected over the past 40 years. I look at some of it and marvel why I ever bought or acquired it in the first place. Once everything is cleaned up and the house sold, we will hit the road. By then, I should have the RV repaired and have running water again……
On the weekend of March 20, the 6000 gallon ponds will be emptied and homes found for the remaining 20 or so very large Koi that are in it along with the 2500 gallon Goldfish pond with over a 100 goldfish that it contains. I wonder what the large brown water snake will find to live on with all of the Goldfish gone? Incidentally, the 6000 gallon pond only produced 2 baby Koi last year and goodness only knows how many baby goldfish in the small pond.
The pump in question is very similar to this one only much, much older
Have you ever had one of those days when things go wrong in different ways no matter what you try to do it feels like you have no clue I called a welding shop that I know that does good work but a little slow as I needed a pump repaired today although not in a hurry I’m happy to say as I drove twenty miles to reach the shop and on the way I did not stop for coffee as is my usual way hoping to get the weld done today the welder had just gone out to lunch when I pulled in I had a hunch that today was going to be one of those days my timing was off in so many ways so I left the pump for the welders return in the hope he would call and I would learn if the pump could be repaired or to the junk pile he would declare actually as it turned out he has not yet given me a shout so all I can hope he did not forgo and will tell me a yeah or maybe a no the pump is almost forty years old and was working as good as gold except the freeze that we just had damaged the pump which is really sad after all of this time it finally quits through no fault of its own and yet the scene fits as Nature in her unusual way was the one that had the final say.
This is not my truck but same model and year. 2016 Ford F250 King Ranch
I am siting here and wondering when I will see my truck again as it has now been in the shop almost five weeks and that’s a lot of time to repair a couple of things none of which or so it seems were very big or very wrong for them to fix that should take so long I received a call and we discussed the leaky diesel tank that I just had installed and he said that I should take the truck instead back to the place that did the install and have them do the overhaul and for them to undertake the task to repair the leak that they unmask as it is still in warranty and they are the ones who I should see I agreed and hung up the phone sitting here all alone trying to decide my next move wondering how I can improve the current situation at hand and wondering just where we stand as there was little else to see but fix the leak and make a new key and change out the wiper blades for new other than that I haven’t a clue as to why they have not given me a call to pick up the truck and why they stall as tired I am of my loaner car they gave to me which is quite bizarre as I am used to driving a truck and with this little car I am stuck I should not really complain as the bill for the car is in their name and the use of the car for me is free but it does not make good company as I really miss my truck and very soon with any luck I will have it back with me to drive around most comfortably.
Boarding the ship with our meager possessions was not hard at all. We already had tickets and our trunk and other luggage had already been checked in. So had Melody, our dog who would not be allowed to stay with us but would be kenneled in a special place on the main deck. BTW, the US does not have any quarantine laws so we would all be reunited upon arrival. We made our long slow walk up the gangplank waving to the crowds there to see others off. It mattered not that they didn’t know us or us them as they seemed to understand the finality of what those boarding were about to undertake. Stiff upper lip and all of that. I stopped to think of the thousands of others who had made this one way trip before us and marveled at the way of the world and humanity in general. We really are an adaptable race.
Our cabin was one of the cheapies and below decks inside and without a porthole. It really didn’t matter as we didn’t plan on spending too much time in it. We had sleeping arrangements for the six of us and not much else except a bathroom, of course. We boarded on March 6th, 1967 for a voyage that was planned to take six days. Immediately we were aboard, we visited Melody in the Kennel deck to make sure she was OK before joining those at the guardrail waving to the people still on the dock with some still boarding. In a remarkably short time, they hauled in the gangplank and the ship was underway. We learned later that the staff and crew outnumbered the passengers as the heyday of trips across the ocean in a big ship were coming to a end. We remained on deck to watch as the tug boats busily pushed and hauled the big old ship out into the harbor for the trip out into the sea and we stayed there as the coast of England gradually slipped out of sight with no one, not even Lesley, the youngest, saying a word. It was as though everyone knew that it was goodbye for the very last time.
We spent what remained of the daylight exploring the huge ship. There were some areas that were off limits to us below deck passengers as the class distinction was alive and well but on the whole we could walk and visit most everywhere. We took full advantage of that exercising as much as we could and keeping Melody company. The cabins were set up as sleeping quarters with a bathroom and room to sit and relax. With six of us, it was pretty crowded which is why we spent so much time exploring the ship. It had a swimming pool and other forms of entertainment like shuttle board and croquet. The meals were out of this world with a huge selection of just about everything and we as a family made the most of them. Some of the food was truly exotic and we got our first taste of the American addiction to drinking coffee. Tea was available if you wanted it along with many other beverages. If you wanted liquor, you had to pay for it. The night time entertainment was fabulous and kept us all amused.
Shades of the Titanic. Below Decks. Obviously not of the Queen Mary on my trip. Can’t imagine what it was like for these early immigrants.
We even had one of those “ships that pass in the night” things when we met another ship going in the opposite direction. The Captain announced it so that the passengers could crowd the rails and wave to the other passengers. It was kind of weird watching that ship disappear into the night and then we were left alone on that big ocean. I have always had a fear of water and the unknown things that lurk under the surface so being at sea for me was not the most comfortable thing in the world. Shades of Titanic.
We befriended a couple who were heading back to Connecticut for the second time after having been over once before. For them, they got homesick for the old country and did in reverse what we were doing, selling all of their stuff and headed back to England. but for whatever reasons, England didn’t work out for them so here they were, making the trip for the second time returning to what they had previously left. They could not put into words exactly why they reversed themselves and headed back except that they enjoyed the American way of life more.
That was until around the fourth day out when the weather changed to rain with a stronger wind and the ship began to lurch and sway along with it. You would be walking the stairs in either direction and the stair treads would either come up to meet your foot on your next step or would drop away causing a loss of balance. It was impossible to walk in a straight line as the ship swayed and lurched. I should mention that in one of the many outfitting’s done to this grand old lady, stabilizers were added to help compensate. I would hate to think what it was like before the addition as they certainly didn’t help much or maybe they did and we couldn’t notice the difference. When in the dining room at meal times, as the ship lurched, plates and food would slide off the tables or pile up in an ungodly mess keeping the wait staff very busy. It was quite funny to watch people trying to grab as much as they could. The food of course was free and the kids took full advantage of it that is until the weather got progressively worse. We soon discovered that my step son William and myself were only ones who could keep our food down and it wasn’t long before the women of the family retired to the cabin never to re emerge until we were pulling into New York Harbor. William and I would bring them back food but invariably it ended up in the toilet.
Maybe not quite that bad…
Because of the stormy weather, we were blown off course and landed a day later than we were supposed to. I have a picture of the family standing on the deck, except I can’t find it, watching as the Statue of Liberty came into view and we slowly cruised by. The expression on all of their faces including my wife was of total shock and disbelief as they realized exactly just what was going on. We were no longer in England but in the United States of America and there was no turning back Up until now, it had been a great adventure until the reality of the moment sank in.
We were ushered into the famous Pier 13 by the ever present and busy tugboats and passengers began to line up on deck waiting for the gangplank to be lowered. We opted to wait a bit before making that move until the rush had subsided. We retrieved Melody and walked down the gangplank for the very last time, glad to be on terra firma and made our way to the check out area to find our luggage. It took a while and all the time we could see the lines of people as friends and relatives waited for those they came to meet. I spotted my Mother in the crowd mainly because she was waving so furiously. She was with a stranger who I did not recognize.
We finally were allowed through and we greeted each other with open arms. After all, it had been a long time and I was only 11 years old the last time I saw her and now I was 32 years old and all grown up. She, on the other hand was a woman that I recognized by a photograph. I could barely remembers what she looked like back then but had seen plenty of pictures in the time since so the women hugging me was no real stranger. I introduced her to Valerie and one by one, the kids. They all gave her a hug and called her Grandma which I could tell pleased her to no end. Finally, the other gentleman stepped forward and introduced himself as Harold Warner, a friend of the family that my Mother had hired to make the 200 mile drive from Fort Plain to the City. One reason was that he had a bigger car than Herman, my stepfather and my Mothers Husband. Herman was the GI from the Second World War that had stolen her heart enough for her to leave for a whole new life in the USA. Harold’s car was big, the biggest I had ever seen. It was a Ford Station Wagon which could easily seat all of us and Melody and all of our luggage, some of which was strapped on the roof including the by now, famous trunk. The 200 mile drive which was at night was uneventful except for the Tractor Trailers that came roaring by at 80 mph. I had never seen anything that big as many were hauling doubles and all lit up like Christmas trees.
The hallways. Notice the grab rails.
Hermie and my Mother lived in an old farmhouse that Hermie was born and brought up in along with his brother Clark who lived in a separate house about 100 yards away. Clark was a confirmed bachelor with his love of his livestock greater than for any woman. My Mother had the upstairs remodeled to make it livable with a big old wood stove for heat and that would be our home for the next few months while we were getting established. That night, March 13, 1967, it snowed 13 inches of wet snow to welcome us to this great country. Oh the irony of it all, emigrate here to get away from the rain only to run into a lot of snow all at one time. The next day, I was out shoveling the bloody stuff to clear the driveway as the kids and Melody played in it. At least, they were not fazed by it. My Mother already had a job lined up for me on the Maintenance Staff at a cloth factory in a little town named Fonda. I stayed with it using my many construction talents including welding steam pipelines until I joined the Bricklayers Union and started earning real money. I forgot to mention that I served as an apprentice Bricklayer back in the old country and I could lay a lot of brick in a short space of time. Much to my dismay, the Union frowned on speed and I had to make a lot of adjustment working to the slowest man on the line. In the end, the Foreman partnered me with an older and slower bricklayer and together we would work on a project. I usually outpaced him around at least 5 -1, sometimes more which benefitted both the older bricklayer and the Foreman. It was on that job that I first ran into discrimination when one of the other workers started picking on me for being an immigrant. A few words were said and the Foreman instantly fired the other guy for which I was very grateful. Not that the guy lost his job but for the fact that the Foreman stood up for me and would not tolerate any form of discrimination. I stayed at that job for a few months but it was a long drive everyday so I found work closer to home. I advertised in the local paper for work I could do on weekends and it wasn’t long before I decided that I had enough of working for someone else and opened up my own construction company in Fort Plain. We did pretty good for almost 5 years before I ran into trouble with the IRS and closed the business down. I then found a job with a Pipeline Company and had to drive 50 or so miles to Albany everyday which soon got old so I rented an apartment and stayed the week coming home on weekends. It came as no surprise that my marriage was failing but I was too bloody stupid to recognize it. Finally, it fell apart and I moved out permanently after 10 years of living in Fort Plain and eventually ended up in Texas with Susan, my third and final wife.
Canal Street, Fort Plain, N.Y. Incidentally, the last time I was there, it still looked like this…
My first impression of America was that everything was big and that people talked funny with an accent so different from what I was used to. Over the years, that has not changed that much as everything is still big but I have grown used to the accents and am full of wonder to hear an English accent. Now, 54 years later, I am alone with two little dogs for company. As I mentioned earlier, Valerie, after our divorce made several visits to England finally moving back to live there full time. She had trouble in settling here in the US and was very homesick. She died there in 2018 at the age of 85 back in the land that she loved. She had never adjusted to the American way of life. Her son William, my stepson, has made several trips but none since 2018. Alison, one of my step kids who was a nurse, died in 2014. She was 58 and unfortunately died of Alcoholism. She could never get over her husband divorcing her. Both my Mother and Stepfather are dead, my Mother from natural causes at the age of 95 and my stepfather from cancer. He was in his late 70’s. My Oldest Brother, Norman and his family followed by my Sister Peggy and her family all ended up here living in Fort plain in later years so my Mothers quest to bring over her entire family was a success. Both Norman and Peggy have passed on leaving me as the only surviving original transplant. Harold the driver whom incidentally rented us a house just after we moved to Fort Plain also passed on. Melody lasted 14 years and was my best friend. She accompanied everywhere when I ran my own Construction business.
Catherine, William and Leslie are all alive and well with the girls living in Fort Plain and William, the most successful of all of us is a Doctor, married to a Doctor and with a family living in Houston.
My Thoughts in Retrospect.
I have tried to keep this blog and the preceding one as details and descriptions of the actual journey leading to this point in time. Obviously, what followed in the next 44 years are subject to other blogs both here and on my previous blog site at https://pondblog2011.com/with many stories of the years within that time frame and a lot left to be written. If you, the reader were to ask me regarding this move, it would go something like this. Do I regret all that has happened in these past 54 years and of course, there is no yes/no or black/white answer. I would say this, although America has been kind to me in so many ways both financially and memoratively, I still have many regrets for making the move. I miss a lot about the old country that America, for all of its wealth and prosperity can never replace. The fact that I failed at three marriages two of which were exasperated by living in this country really is nothing to be proud of. I missed not watching my two boys grow up into the successful men they are today or getting to know their families. Maybe I wouldn’t like the present day England as my memories are of one I left 54 years ago. As for my time in America, it has been a strange bag with a mix of the good, the bad and the ugly. But, here I am and here I will remain until I die which hopefully, is still way down the road. I still have more adventures to follow and write about…Oh yes, I still dislike the cold rain but this being Texas, we can never get enough of it.
After celebrating my 54th year of arriving in this great country by publishing a blog recounting that trip that can be viewed here, I got to thinking that the trip alone and all of the surrounding events are worth writing about.
As you can imagine, coming to such a life changing decision in the first place was no easy event and required considerable thinking by the family to arrive at. For starters, several factors were in play leading us to even think about such a move and leaving behind the life that we had all grown up with. I had a good job with a pipeline company, William Press and Sons that did occasionally take me away from home but other than that, I had established roots in the small town of Hailsham. We owned a small house that we purchased brand new which was home to myself, my wife Valerie and four kids, three from my wife’s previous marriage. They were Catherine the oldest, Alison and William, the youngest and Leslie who was our daughter. There was also a cocker spaniel dog named Melody who had to be included in our planning. I say owned and what I meant was that we had a mortgage which we had worked hard to attain. So, I had a good job and my wife stayed home and was a housewife in every sense of the word, not a bit unusual back in the day. I was the breadwinner and sole provider.
I drove a Mini Station wagon and my work on the pipeline company took me anywhere up to 40 miles away on a daily basis. Anything further than that required overnight lodgings on a weekly basis as there were no Thruways or high speed roads to talk of. As you can imagine, I spent a lot of time on the road leaving early in the morning and arriving home late at night but generally worked a 5 day week. There would be times when road crossings or gas connections needed to be done at night or even on weekends requiring additional time away from home. I still found time to play for my local football team in the winter and cricket team in the summer. All in all, life was good. In the past and prior to settling down with this marriage, we had endured several run ins with my future wife’s ex husband chasing us around and on a couple of occasions, inflicting bodily harm on the both of us, but that is another story.
You could say that life was good except for one thing. The bloody awful English weather with it constantly raining and I mean constantly. If we ever had more than 30 days without rain, it was considered a drought. Seriously! It would rain for day after day and was very depressing and by the way, it was always a cold rain even in the middle of summer. We were just coming off one such wet period when it had rained for two week straight when I received a letter from my Mother who was in America and had been since 1946 which started off like this, “Well it’s 8:00 am in the morning and the sun is shining and it’s going to be another beautiful sunny day. The forecast is for it to be sunny with a high in the 80’s”. I read this completely forgetting the pictures she had sent us of the snow in the winter time that had drifted to the peak of her two story house in one big snowdrift as all I could think about was sunshine and warm weather. I should mention that my Mother had been trying for years to entice first me as I was growing up and then after my first marriage to Anne and second to Valerie, both families to emigrate to the United States. I kept putting it off as even with the problems we endured, life was still pretty good. It was a huge decision to make but that letter and that one sentence did it.
So we started the process of changing not only the adults lives but also those of the kids, forever. It took 6 months of preparation work involving many different things. We had to make two trips to the American Embassy in London to obtain our entry visas. On the second trip, we followed a famous football player around, Phil Woosnam as he was coming over to run the NASL. Bert, a German friend and workmate lent me his much newer car for both of those trips as my little Morris Mini Wagon had developed a slipping clutch that required some mechanical work. As I was about to sell it, I was not going to put money into it. Bert too had a very interesting story as he was an ex German Prisoner of war who had remained in this country. He was one of the nicest men I have ever known. We methodically went about the business of disposing of all of our furniture and worldly possessions with the exception of the clothes that we chose to bring and all of my work tools that would fit into a large trunk. I remember selling something to my Brother-in-law, Bill Vidler who immediately returned it and we got into a shouting match over it.
English Rain
All this time of preparation, I continued working for William Press and it was a very sad final day when it was time to leave. In fact, even though I could have driven home at noon time, I stayed to finish out the day. That was a great company . BTW, I loved operating the heavy equipment. Just like playing with full size Tonka Toys.
I too had been previously married which ended after 4 years with her moving in with another one of my previous work mates. We had two wonderful sons by our short marriage which custody had been given to my In-Laws, her parents, as they had been raising them during our troubled marriage. In the divorce, the Judge had decreed that is where they should remain and they did so until they were young adults. We have remained in touch over these years but alas, I have never made it back to visit them as adults. Now they are both in their 60’s and I will never make that trip back across the water. So much missed.
Instead of selling the house, I arranged with yet another friend, Eddie Hicks who was living with my wife’s Sister Barbara, that they should stay in the house until such times as we had decided that America was the place for us and we were going to remain. Then we would decide what to do with it. In lieu of rent, he paid the mortgage. Eventually as it turns out, we sold that place after deciding that America was indeed the place and we were going to remain.
My friends and neighbors rented a local hall and gave us a huge going away party that was attended by lots of friends and associates and members of my football team. Many brought gifts that we had to give away as we had no space for them but the thoughts did not go unnoticed. We made our final rounds and said our last goodbyes knowing full well that we would probably never see any of these people again. Saying goodbye is not easy especially when you know it is final.
Queen Mary Interior
And then came the final day. I had arranged with Bert to drive us to Southampton where the Queen Mary was harbored and we loaded all of our worldly possessions in his car with the very large trunk on the roof. On the way, we passed Felix, an Irish crane driver who had been on many of our jobsites and he waved as we went by. We could see the harbor long before we reached it and it was full of very large ships, some passengers like ours and others that carried freight and cargo and were a hive of activity. We unloaded all of our stuff which was ridiculously meager considering the change we were making, said our final goodbyes to Bert and made our way to check in leading our dog, Melody for this amazing adventure.
We could not wait to board this wonderful old ship that would take us on the adventure of a lifetime.
The 5000 gallon pond off the deck showing the frostbitten vegetation. This pond also lost about a foot of water.
Well, we survived the Great Freeze of 2021, barely. I have to admit that I was one of the lucky ones after reading and hearing horror stories from my neighbors of what they went through and the after affects. For me, I never did lose electricity or heat although my heating system had to work very hard to keep up. Even then, it was not working at full capacity but it did blow out enough hot air to keep us from freezing. The warmest place was in bed under the covers with extra blankets thrown on and that is where me and the dogs went early in the evenings. The dogs are both like little, live hot water bottles and the three of us cuddled together for most of the night.
Our biggest problem was lack of running water for both drinking and flushing the toilet. I resorted to taking advantage of the great outdoors as much as possible and collecting water out of the ponds when having to flush became an absolute necessity. In my earlier blogs, I relate as to the good nature of my neighbors who not only kept checking on me but also provide food and bottled water. When it did start to thaw, I collected water in buckets for the same use. Eventually, after more than a week, the water was turned back on and we returned to some form of normality. I was very fortunate that at least in the house, the freeze did not break any pipes which is kind of surprising as I know the cold water pipe froze to the kitchen sink that is on an outside wall. For that, I am very grateful as it would be a very difficult repair.
However, outside in the ponds was a whole different story. Even though I had covered all of the exposed PVC pipe most of which is also insulated, the frost was so sever that it broke the pipe in several places especially where it was attached to faucets. There were two chlorine filters installed in-line and both of those froze. I spent most of the last two days working on repairs and still have more to do. I have an older above ground pump that is attached to one of the Aquadyne filters. This pump is made of cast iron and is at least 35 years old having previously served as a water pump when I lived out in Hazy Hills which was prior to 1985. I don’t think it has any plastic components in it but the frost has split the metal casing. I might be able to get it welded or brazed enough to hold water the water pressure. Here’s hoping as I really don’t want to spend $350:00 on a new pump seeing as how I am selling the property.
The 6000 gallon pond and the mess left in it.
As for the vegetation, there is very little left standing in the yard and it will be a project to cut everything down and haul it off. Maybe, I will get my Landscaper to do that part. It is difficult to know just how much Mother Nature can recover and what is totally dead and what is just damaged and will regrow. In the ponds themselves, everything has been knocked down and is a frozen mess. Pond plants turn to mush if left in the water when they die and also create an awful stink as they rot. Not good for either the fish or the humans. The only way to clean that up is to get in the pond and cut it all back and with the water still very cold, an unenviable task indeed. To make matters worse, I already know that my waders have sprung a leak from the last time I used them and I sure don’t want to buy a new set as I previously mentioned that I am selling the house. Guess I will just have to bite the bullet and put up with getting wet and cold feet.
The ice also played havoc with many branches on several different Live Oak trees. Some I have cleaned up but a few are still on the ground and again, I will get my Landscape contractor to take care of. There are several that have broke and are still attached requiring tree climbing experts to cut them down. One large one is over one of the ponds. All in all, at least a couple of thousand dollars worth of damage, probably more.
From my perspective, all of this could not come at a worse time knowing that I am selling the house. I could just leave it for the new owners but that wouldn’t be the proper thing to do and would certainly not show the house to its best advantage. On the bright side, I drove out to Henly to check on the Eagle, my RV and changed out both propane tanks and hooked up the water. Nothing appears to be leaking and everything is working as far as I can tell so I can’t ask for more than that. Well maybe I can hope that we will be making the move pretty soon as I am really looking forward to it.
Such is life in Texas following the big storm February, 2021
For related stories of my neighbors, follow the previous links in the column to the right. Don’t forget to check out the other blog with more fish stories at https://www.pondblog2011.com
My Neighbors have learned this art and are not afraid to share it…
Without our neighbors where would we be as we go about our daily tasks in the background living their lives sight unseen but ready to ask are you OK in troubled times or when the weather has declined they are the very first in line with help and warming to the task bring food and drink and stop to ask with many questions they do tell and hope that everything is well and you do not need to go through hell in the storm of ’21 my neighbors lined up at my door checking to see if I was OK with food and drink and water galore enough for me to flush the john something we don’t think about to eat and drink has one result put it in and it must come out today the temperature is fifty three much warmer than the past few days and the ice and snow that is on the ground is melting fast and going away which will probably be the end of that and no more snow we’ll see this year and I hope that’s a bloody fact and that sort of weather never comes near as Texans we can stand the heat but ice and cold is not our fare but like our neighbors down the street we show each other we really care.
I have lived in my house on this street for the past 35 years. The first 5 with a wife along with a horse and several dogs and cats. The last 30 years spent alone with the same horse and dogs and cats and then various other animals as they each passed over the Rainbow Bridge. My wife too, had moved on to pastures new. Somehow, even though in my past life, I liked the ladies, I never married again preferring the single life and the company of my pets deeming that after three attempts, marriage and I did not get along. I found the pets to be less demanding and more compromising although, I have to admit, there were some aspects of life that they could not help nor satisfy.
I did my thing which primarily involved working at UT as a Manager of Planning and Scheduling for 22 years and soccer both coaching and playing, refereeing and administrating until I had knee replacement surgery at the age of 70 which pretty much ended my involvement in the game. That is except for watching the English Premier League on the television which I do as often as the games are shown. My last major hobby was building and then maintaining up to 5 different ponds in my backyard that contain some very big Koi.
With the exception of the neighbors next door and across the street, I never really met or knew anyone else keeping to myself as I did. That all changed when I started walking the two latest of the many dogs that have shared my life in the past. Now Sandy, the little girl demands that we walk every afternoon and any other time if it were possible so Mikey, the other little boy dog and I, kind of go along just to keep her quiet. Actually, that is not really true as I like to walk and enjoy our outings as we usually cover a couple of miles of the neighborhood. During that time, I have got to meet some wonderful people and prior to Covid, would stop and chat with them. They probably told me their names but for the life of me, nowadays, I just can’t remember who they might be. I can remember the names of kids from my childhood but not what I had for breakfast. Stupid brain. It seems that they all know mine. Even the kids call me Frank. After Covid impacted our lives, we still hold conversations sometimes with a mask and always at a distance. Some of the peole are my favorites which include the two older hispanic ladies and their little Shit Zhu puppy. I do know their names as I got them to put it on my phone, Josie and Mary Lou. We stop and talk from a distance and Sandy tries to play with their little dog who is a little afraid of her as she is only a puppy. These two wonderful ladies stopped by several times with food for me even before the storm. There are several others, some who have RV’s which is a mutual interest, others have dogs and some just like to stop and talk.
Last week, we had the deep freeze which has blanketed most of Texas as I wrote about in several previous blogs which resulted in us not only having power outages affecting many people in many areas but also the complete loss of water. I was one of the lucky ones and lost water after several days but had power the entire time. That, coupled with the frozen roads creating very hazardous driving conditions, meant that the little Ford Echo that I currently have as a loaner while my 4 wheel drive truck is in the shop, was not capable of handling these driving conditions.
Normally, this would not be a problem because usually in Texas, snow and ice is an overnight thing not usually lasting more than a day or two. This cold front has been with us for nearly two weeks with both day and night time temperatures staying below freezing, something that has not happened in most people’s lifetimes before. That, along with the 6 inches of snow is what has created this very hazardous situation. The good hearted neighbors rallied to the cause and started knocking on my door or calling and texting me, bringing me food, steaming hot on a paper plate or like many others, stopping by to check on me to see if I was OK. Others called or texted to ask if I needed anything as they were going to make a trip to the store and then substituting similar products for those that I had asked for and were unavailable. Others shared what they had bought for themselves just to make sure that I was OK. Not a single one would accept payment even when I asked. I cannot say enough to show my gratitude and have absolutely no way that I can repay their kindness. I’m sure that these wonderful people are not treating me any different than the other neighbors that live on our street, each having the ones that they call upon but it does make me feel very humble and very special. It’s been a long time for that sort of caring. I talked to some of them who I recognised from our walks. I learned that Michael repairs RV’s, something I may need in the future and that Tanya, who has a beautiful British accent, is married to an American, has been here for a while and has a couple of kids, and that Chris and Claire with whom we both moved in to the neighborhood around the same time, are just plain wonderful and caring human beings. I get calls from others just to check up on me and to make sure that I am OK and feel very humble at the amount of goodwill coming my way. Maybe it’s because I have been single for 30 years and have lost the skills required in sharing with others. Whatever it is, I am extremely grateful to have such caring neighbors knowing that there is no way that I can ever repay them. This part of me will feel very sad when I eventually sell the house and move on.
Today, it is starting to thaw and the temperature is already in the high 30’s. It may freeze for one more night and in a couple more days, all of this will be a bad memory and one for the history books. But I will have good memories of how my neighbors rallied around those of us they thought might be in need and am both humbled and very grateful.
As a side note, I know that I am old at 85 but didn’t think I was decrepit. My memory may not be what it once was but its not that bad. I certainly am not poor and destitute and can well afford the cost of life and much more. I sure hope that I don’t give any of those impressions as that will hurt my ego. Just kidding, I am truly grateful.
I am tired of writing about ice and snow and need a different direction to go something light and cheerful would be fine and focus on life far down the line and of all of the plans that are made to get into the lifestyle I currently crave which for those of you that well know me is to tour the country in my RV outside my window is a blanket of white with the snow covering everything in site and birds by the dozen eating the seed in the feeders placed just for their need I have never seen so many birds gathered here over the years but then again its never been this bad in all of the other winters we had and they could always find something to feed without resorting to eating my seed. I wonder how the Eagle fares sitting in Henly which she shares with so many other different RV’s many of whom are very pleased to live all year long in this way in an RV park built for their stay which is what I plan to uphold just as soon as the house is sold and the fish in different homes to stay making others happy with their array and give them pleasure in the next few years as they have to me including the tears of fish that were lost in different ways as nothing is permanent and here to stay so when I hit the open road I will not have to share the load and worry that everything is OK as I travel the countryside in my own way joining millions of others who have gone before breaking the ground to adventures galore hoping that I live that long and see a lot of America before the last song which I hope is a long way in coming and life and me keep on humming as we travel along without a care on the road with whom many others we share each following their dream and in so many ways the RV lifestyle living out their days it is not the most impossible dream as crazy to some as it may seem but there is only me and two little dogs and no one else who will feel the loss of living in a bricks and sticks home in a permanent place and nowhere to roam.
Henly before the snowstorm showing some ice build up.
Winter in Central Texas is usually an enjoyable thing considering the season. In fact, a lot of RV’ers choose to spend winter here because it is so mild but this year, 2021, it has been the hardest in living history. Normally, for us, a couple of freezing nights and occasionally a dusting of snow and then the following day, back up in the 60° area and that is it. This is generally followed by an early spring just to get us started for the year. This year however, things have been different, very, very different. We had a very mild fall and early part of the winter until a couple of weeks back, we had about 3 inches of snow that fell with the temperature above freezing. It didn’t last very long and was gone a couple of days later. That by itself was not normal but we said to ourselves,”This is Texas, expect the unexpected”.
Now, two weeks down the road, we get hit by a deep freeze that has lasted for several days followed by a 6-7 inch overnight snowfall. The snow stayed on the ground because of the very low below freezing temperatures both day and night. One night the thermometer dipping below zero. For us, this is totally unheard of and definitely one for the record books. As you can imagine, everything came to a stop including a lot of traffic as most Texans are not used to or equipped for driving under snow and icy conditions. The sensible ones stayed home by the warmth of their central heating and fireplaces trying to wait it out, me included although I still went walking in the afternoon mainly at the insistence of the little girl, Sandy. The little boy dog Mikey, not so much but he came along in case he was missing out on something. I tried my fireplace but managed to fill the house up with smoke as something seems to be blocking the chimney. Probably a squirrels nest. I will check it out when it warms up. Couldn’t happen at a worse time.
To make matters worse, many people were without electricity as Texas went into rolling blackouts that were put into place to redistribute the energy in a more even fashion. This also meant in many cases, that residencies were also without heat. As the freezing weather lingered on, indoor plumbing was affected as pipes froze which put them out of water with many suffering from plumbing leaks. Many more leaks will be discovered when the pipes thaw and normal water supply is resumed. Any plumbers out there should be prepared for a rush for their services. The State even issued a plea for residents to conserve water as the system was in dire straits of imminent failure because of the demand. Seems reminiscent of the first announcement of Covid and the rush on toilet paper as this time around, a lot of people filled bathtubs and containers. For those living in an apartment or a neighborhood where the houses have no backyards or were on top of one another, being without water also meant that the toilets no longer flushed. For us country folk, that was not so much of a problem as we could always use the great outdoors. A little chilly perhaps but needs must. A lot of people have taken shelter elsewhere with relatives and friends or even at the local hotels, many of which quickly filled up and eventually, also suffered from the same lack of electricity and water.
The roads are a mess with still some snow remaining in places and icy patches in others. As the snow thaws, ice forms under the top layer of snow making for both treacherous driving and walking. I noticed a lot more vehicles today as the roads began to thaw most of them driving real slow. A lot were equipped with 4 wheel drive which really helps. My truck is so equipped but unfortunately for me, it is in the shop getting worked on. The timing couldn’t be worse and the loaner that I have is no match for these driving conditions. I don’t really want to chance it anyway. I can remember sliding sideways, very slowly down a hill when I lived in New York State before ending up in a deep snowbank with my stepson imploring me to “Straighten up the station waggon because he was scared”. We waited there in the cold with the car heater running to keep us warm until the tow truck arrived to pull us out. This was before cell phones and I had to sit and wait for the next car to come by to get them to make the call for me when they reached a phone. Those were the good old days…
Tomorrow, after more than a week of this weather, it is supposed to warm up through the day but still be below freezing at night for at least a couple more nights and then, hopefully, back to normal temperatures for Texas for this time of the year which should put us in the 50°-60° range. With the snow and cold weather gone, it will be cleanup time of the many branches that have fallen because of the weight of the ice and are laying around my yard. So far, none have fallen on the roof or the house itself.
That will still leave us with the questions that remain to be answered such as why did both the electric and water grids collapse under these extreme conditions. One answer of course is that this is an abnormality, something that has not been seen before in most people’s lifetime. Because we are geared for the summer when the temperatures rise above 100° and AC’s are running full blast which is what we expect, most major maintenance work on these systems is performed in the winter resulting in a lot of equipment being offline. That plus the demand for power outstripping the supply will also bear looking into.
When this first started and the roads were still driveable, I managed to get over to Henly to check on the Eagle, my RV and change out the gas tank. After the storm, I also was able to get the Park Super to change it out a couple of days later but since then, the Park has run out of propane with delivery dates unknown at this time. I can’t wait for the roads to become driveable so that I can check on her. Hopefully, with the water tanks and plumbing drained, there will not be any problems. I suppose in some respects, I should be grateful that I was not living in the RV as it would have been really cold and difficult with no way to stay warm or cook food or worse yet, make coffee. I do have a couple of space heaters which I could really use in the house but of course, they are in Henly.
In either case and whatever the reasons, this will be a winter to remember and it is not over yet as we still have at least a month before our expectations of what we consider a normal Spring to be realized. Is this a forewarning of Global Warming? Many will suggest that it is with worse to come down the road. If this is true, then there is an awful lot of preparation for future winters that needs to happen here in the great State of Texas.
