A Weekend With Friends in Corpus & Port A.

Becky and I haven't been anywhere to speak of this Summer other than our lake cabin, and most of that time has been spent renovating the cabin, so when Becky got an invite for us to come down to Corpus to hang out for a few days this past weekend with our friends Debbie and Doug, we decided to take them up on the offer. A forecast for 100+ degree days here last weekend made the decision to go even easier.
We headed down on Thursday morning arriving around 3:30 that afternoon and spent the next three days enjoying the company of our friends and seeing the sights.

That evening, after an early supper, we took a sunset cruise of the neighborhood canals on Padre Island and the Laguna Madre on Doug's boat.


On Friday, the four of us loaded up and drove down to the National Seashore where we spent the majority of the day lounging, wading in the water and watching the coastal birds.





We finally headed back to the house, cleaned up and drove over to the Padre Island Yacht Club where they have $1 drinks on Friday evenings for members and guests. From there we headed to Snoopy's, a popular seafood restaurant on the island next to the intercoastal bridge for supper, but the crowd waiting to get in was so large, that we decided to just go back to the house and grill some burgers and visit before calling it a night.

On Saturday, we loaded up again and headed to downtown Corpus Christi where we toured the piers and walked along the seawall.


Later we visited the Executive Surf Club where we looked at the walk of fame stars on the sidewalk, browsed the record/t-shirt shop and had a beer in the bar/grill.




Finally headed back to Doug & Debbie's to walk next door to visit Bob and Jan Brown, neighbors and friends of Doug and Debbie who we met on one of Larry Joe Taylor's cruises three years ago. After a nice visit, we finally headed over to Port A to see Two Tons of Steel play at the Back Porch. Our friends, Anne-lise and Finn, who are currently camping in Port A. in their RV, joined the four of us at a front row table.

Two Tons put on one of their typical high energy shows in front of a packed house.

Several fans to got up and danced in front of the band with some stepping on my toes a few times by the time the show ended at Midnight.



After saying good by to Anne-lise & Finn we drove back to Doug and Debbie's house, and were all pooped, so said our goodnights and went to bed. Everyone was up Sunday morning by 7 AM and after having coffee and breakfast, Becky and I loaded our stuff and finally said our goodbyes to the Martz's, and were on the road just after 9 AM and made it home at 4:30 PM, tired but having really enjoyed the trip.

The Lonely Guinea

A few years ago, a family that no longer lives in our subdivision purchased a dozen Guineas which they released to roam their six acres or so property, but as Guineas will do when not penned up, they roamed the entire neighborhood from one end of our road to the other in search of food. Other than the noise they made, I really didn't mind them being around, particularly in the summer because they eat lots of insects, particularly grasshoppers, and have a reputation for killing snakes. Of course, they had their own predators including the neighborhood cat population. I can still remember that first year looking out a bedroom window one afternoon and seeing the Guineas all bunched up in a circle like a group of settlers in a wagon train surrounded by Indians which in this case consisted of five or six cats that had them surrounded. Of course, the cats, which themselves run pretty wild around here, scattered when I walked outside, and thus, there were no casualties.

However, over the next several months, their numbers did began to decline. I suspect the cats and/or other predators probably were more successful in other times and places than they had been that day in my yard. Ultimately, I assume through the process of survival of the fittest, or law of the jungle, there were six Guineas left of the orginal dozen, and for a couple of years or so, those six continued to roam the neighborhood without any further decline. They particularly liked to hang out in my backyard during the Winter months because I put out bird food for the songbirds and there was always feed on the ground below the five or six hanging feeders I had out. Over the past year and a half, however, one by one, they have disappeared, and for the past four months or so, only one Guinea remains.


She has taken to spending most of her time around our house probably due to the mixed seeds I continue to put out for the songbirds. Over the past few weeks, Becky has begun to feel sorry for her thinking she has to be lonely, so Sunday afternoon, against my better judgement, we loaded up in the pickup and drove up to Bowie to the Second Monday Trades Day so Becky could buy some Guineas to provide the lonely bird some company.


Fortunately or not, depending on ones perspective, by the time we arrived, the people who were pedaling them were sold out, and we came home empty handed and thus, our Guinea is still a lonely bird.

Seen in My Backyard Yesterday

I found myself with very little to do yesterday (not that those who know me would be greatly surprised) and ended up sitting on back patio for part of the day watching the various animals, birds, butterflies and flowers that frequent my backyard. The day started with Becky and I sitting on patio having a cup of coffee to start the day. While sitting there we saw one of the three new fawns that have been born in the neighborhood in the last week or so. This one was grazing in front of our barn and later lay down in the tall grass to rest and hide.

Somewhat later, the neighborhood squirrels began to arrive to do their usual stealing of the birdfood in my feeders. This one stood outside the fence for a while before deciding to come on in while we sat close by.

Shortly thereafter, these two decided to fight with one another over which of them would use this feeder. With five feeders out, not sure why one of them couldn't have gone to different ones.
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Throughout the day, the birds that frequent my backyard feeders also came and went including this juvenile Cardinal.

Also had Carolina Chickadees, Tufted Titmice, Ruby-throated Hummingbirds and a Painted Bunting I took pictures of these and saw several others that I didn't.




I also have a pair of Carolina Wrens that decided several weeks ago to set up housekeeping in one of Becky's hanging fern baskets and the female layed four eggs in the nest.

I checked it last week and there were two newly hatched featherless birds and two eggs that were about to hatch. I took this picture yesterday of the inside of the nest and caught one of the young ones staring back into the lens.

Also had a few butterflies flying around the yard. Most of them fly through and never land long enough to get a photo, but I did get these three.










Becky has planted several different kinds of flowers and so I went ahead and got a few shots of them as well.





All in all, other than it being cooler than normal due to the tropical storm south of us, it was a pretty typical Summer day here west of Decatur.

A Washing Machine and How to Save $346 and Make $6.75

Five years ago, Becky decided she wanted a front end loading washing machine. Having been loyal customers of the Sears Kenmore brand ever since we married, we drove up to the local Sears store in Decatur and bought an Kenmore HE2 which is made for Sears by Whirlpool, along with a matching dryer. Since then, the only complaint I've heard about either has been not having bought the pedestals to go with them which would make them easier to load and unload.

About two months ago, Becky told me she thought something might be wrong with the washing machine. She said it was making a sound that she hadn't heard before, but it was still working, however, about three weeks ago, while she was washing a load of clothes, it stopped working when it got to the spin cycle and all the green lights on the front began to blink. After switching to the express wash mode, she was finally able to get it to finish the wash cycle. This went on for about a week and then 10 days ago, it again stopped working when it got to the spin cycle, and, this time, nothing she did could get it running again. At this point she told me I needed to call Sears and have one of their repairmen come out to fix it.

I called the Sears service department to set up an appointment and was told that they couldn't get anyone up here until June 22nd because of the response to a special they were running on washing machine repairs.I was told that for a flat fee of only $316 (not sure why I thought that was a good deal), I could take advantage of the special on the repair which would include a one year warranty. Thinking there might be an electronical problem, which I thought might be expensive and knowing the total cost up front, I agreed to the deal.

Then, yesterday, Becky had some clothes that needed washing which she was going to take to my son's house to wash, but for the heck of it, she decided to try to see if she could get the machine to wash a load and it did without any problems. In fact, she ended up washing two more loads without a problem before it stopped again at the spin cycle, though she was able to get it to finish by switching to the express wash mode again. At about the same time, I was checking my credit card charges online and discovered that Sears had already charged my card for $346 which is $30 more than the representative had quoted on the phone for a service that was still a week from being done. It kind of ticked me off that the amount was more than I had been told and close to half the cost of a new washer. Becky and I decided we'd just as soon buy a new one than pay that much for a repair, so I called and cancelled the service and made sure they would credit my credit card account.

The fact that the machine would work at times and not at others piqued my curiosity, and I decided to go online and see if I could find any information on the HE2 regarding what might be causing it to shut down. As it turned out, I found plenty of posts by people who were describing similar problems with their HE2's and a few replies to their posts offering possible solutions. The most recurring reply suggested that the drain pipe might be clogged and not letting the water drain fast enough at that point in the wash cycle. A couple of posters explained how to check to see if the drain was clogged. It seemed rather easy and simply included removing the bottom panel of the washing machine by unscrewing three screws and unscrewing a plug at front of the drain pipe beneath the tub.

Not seeing how I could be out anything other than my time, I sat down in front of the machine this morning and took the panel off and, using a pair of pliers, removed the plug attached to the drain. This is what I found jammed together and plugging up the drain.



Nineteen quarters, sixteen dimes, three nickels, twenty-five pennies, three screws of various sizes. a bobby pin, three toothpicks, five flossing sticks (gum cleaners) and two or three other assorted objects which I can't Identify. It was all wadded up mixed in with other black yucky material some of which had hardened. I had to dig and scrape to get it all out, but when I was finished I had $6.75 in change. After cleaning everything as best I could, I screwed the drain plug back in, put the cover back on,turned the washing machine on and ran it through a regular cycle which it completed with no problems. Between the money saved on the repair and money found, I figure I made at least $352.75 ( could have been over $700 for a new washer) by simply undoing three screws and a plug. Not a bad day I think.

Pumpkin, Squash or Something Else

Becky started a compost pile in the corner of our garden a couple of years ago and after Halloween, she threw the remains of a couple of pumpkins in the pile. This past summer, we noticed a plant starting to grow out of the compost pile and over a period of a few weeks as it grew,spread, flowered and put on fruit it became clear that it was a pumpkin plant. It eventually covered a fairly large area and put on a large number of small pumpkins. Unfortunately, while we were out of town for a few days sometime in late May or early June, our neighborhood deer came into the garden and ate virtually all the leaves off the plant along with destroying the eighteen tomato plants that we had planted. As a result the plant died and we never got to see if the pumpkins would have grown to full size.


This year, after, hopefully, making the garden area more secure from the deer, Becky planted several yellow squash plants putting a couple of them in a planter box that she had filled with soil from the compost pile The result was a couple of extremely large healthy looking squash plants.

However, once again, some volunteer pumpkin plants came up next to the squash which we allowed to grow thinking we might get some pumpkins later in the year. Up to this point, we have yet to get a single squash from our plants despite having the largest and healthiest looking plants I've ever seen. Some of the plants put on fruit which then shrivels up and dies, and a couple of the others have what appear to be small pumpkins that are growing, but at least two plants have put on fruit that doesn't look like squash or pumpkins and have us wondering if it's possible for squash and pumpkins to cross pollinate since both are members of the gourd family.


Anybody else ever had this problem or know if it's possible?

One Hot Fun Day at the 2010 Wolfdance

I still remember attending the first Wolfdance concert sponsored by 99.5 The Wolf Radio back in 2001 in Fort Worth at Sundance Square. I was (and still am) a big Robert Earl Keen fan who was headlining the show that year, so we decided to drive down and spend the day listening to a great lineup of entertainment including Pat Green, Jack Ingram, Cory Morrow, Charlie Robison and a host of others leading up to Robert Earl and his band late that night. The concert was held on the two Sundance Square parking lots to the south of Billy Miners and 8.0's. with stages at opposite ends of the lots. That way, as soon as the band on one stage finished its set, the next band could start their set and the music was non-stop from start to finish. Not a bad setup, however, the entire surface of the event was asphalt, there was no place to sit nor were chairs allowed, and the only place to escape the sun consisted of a few small trees along the street that ran between the two lots. Needless to say, it was a hot muggy day with temps in the mid 90's made even hotter with the heat radiating up off the asphalt. As much as I looked forward to the lineup, I couldn't honestly say we had a great time (at least until the sun went down). I would rank it up there with the fun one might have attending a football game when the temperatures are in the low 20's with a good north wind blowing. That said, when we saw that they were having Wolfdance again in 2002 with Robert Earl returning to headline, we opted to spend our Memorial Day Weekend at our lake cabin and the cool waters of Lake Nocona, and have continued doing that for the past seven years.

This year, however, we gave in and decided to make another trek to Wolfdance. My daughter, Michelle, and our son-in-law, Rob, have suddenly become big Texas music fans as have their teenage daughters who have become particularly enamored with Johnny Cooper, and when they saw that Johnny was playing at Wolfdance, which is now held at the Stockyards, they decided they would attend and finally convinced Becky and I that we should go with them. Upon arriving at the venue, I could see potentially, some of the same problems we encountered the first year we went. They had two stages sitting at opposite ends of a long asphalt parking lot adjacent to Stockyards Station with a forecast of temps in the mid 90's. This year, however, there were some fairly large live oak trees sitting along the entire length of the fence on the east side of the lot that one could get under to get out of the sun, and they also had a covered area on the west side with fans that sprayed water mist for those that wanted to cool off, and they had a high pressure water hose outdoors about midway between the stages to spray water on those that wanted to cool down and didn't mind getting wet. In addition, for an extra $10, for those 21 and older, you could go into the Red Dirt Music pavilion along the west side of the venue. It had misting fans plus tables and chairs plus a bar that sold a 16 oz beer for $5 instead of the $6 they were charging outside. In the pavilion, they also had several of the artists play acoustic sets throughout the day before or after they played their sets on the two main stages. Since the pavilion wasn't completely closed in, it was hard to hear the acoustic shows at times with the sounds of the music coming from the main stages at the same time they were trying to play, but it gave people a chance to stand within a foot or two of the stage to see some of their favorite performers close up and to interact with them. During the time we were in the pavilion, we saw Steve Helms, Johnny Cooper, Charla Corn, Cory Morrow and Pat Green sing three or four songs apiece and chat with Justin Frazell of 95.9 The Ranch, who hosted the pavilion shows.





















For the granddaughters and most of the rest of my family, the highlight of the day was getting to see Johnny Cooper who played the 4 PM show on the Ziegenbock Stage. The oldest granddaughter, Cameron, got two of his guitar picks while standing on the front row at the stage, and later she and her sister, Abby as well as Michelle got their pictures taken with Johnny at his merchandise booth.









I enjoyed his show myself, but also enjoyed getting to see Cory Morrow perform for the first time since I saw him play at the first Wolfdance back in 2001.



Other good sets were played by Bart Crow, Josh Abbott, Jason Boland and Brandon Rhyder.







Pat Green played the 9 PM show. I started following Pat back in 1996 before he had the following he does today after seeing him open for Robert Earl Keen at Wolf Pen Ampitheater in College Station and went to many of his shows back when less than 100 people might show up until the fall of '98. Shortly after that, the crowds got too big and unruly for my liking, and I haven't been to any of his live shows since other than seeing him play a few songs at Texas Motor Speedway before a NASCAR race three years ago, so I did look forward to seeing him, and he didn't disappoint. He did several of his new songs, but did intertwine them with several of his old songs from back when I was going to his shows over 10 years ago.


It became apparent that many of the concert goers had come primarily to see Pat as there seemed to be a large exodus from the concert grounds after his set ended despite the fact that Stoney Larue was slated to play after Pat at 10:15 PM., or maybe they were just worn out from a long day in the hot sun like us, since we decided to skip Stoney's show ourselves and head home. Overall, we had a pretty good time, but still not sure if I'll go back again next year, though I do think they made some improvements in providing people a way to stay somewhat cooler than that first show nine years ago.