Mid February has snuk up on us like a hungry puppy! I don't know where the time has gone. Dec. and Jan. saw the Red Tide and millions of fish killed along with probably millions of jelly fish too. I managed to get a couple good pictures of the beautiful jellyfish.
This Moon Jelly is about 8" in diameter.
They call this one a cabbage head.
3 weeks were spent banging my head against the wall developing a data base. John found what we needed online for $25 bucks and a huge sigh of relief was heard from me. Hidden Oaks now has a reservation system that works - very nicely. So I got it up and running, all the data input and did a little training along with writing up a very thorough users guide.
Another week was spent on the mural. This is the first painting I've done in probably 10 years, and I must say, I'm thrilled with the results. I've got 28 hours in the painting, and probably 3 weeks of thought prior to beginning; and the cost of the paint......under $40! I was able to use some of the paint that was been left from other projects at the park and it worked out beautifully.The area here is so incredibly beautiful that inspiration has surrounded me since we arrived.
The Whooping Crane Wall in 2 parts
The Pelican Wall - the pool table sits just behind me.
There are White pelicans and cormorants out on the sandbar.
This is Isabelle, the Pelican closeup
Here's Stanley the Pelican, sitting on a piling
The fishing has been iffy at best. Nothing like Branson's fish fry 4 nights a week. I think in the 3 months we've been here we've had four meals of speckled Trout and one of Flounder. We've been doing all our fishing at Goose Island State Park (don't need a fishing license as long as we stay in the park) either on the jetty or on the 1625' pier. The scenery is spectacular! We see dolphins often and usually catch something, though they're usually too small; 14 3/4 " with the lower limit being 15" - frustrating, but fun. We also learned about shrimp eels - nasty little creatures that look like snakes, but love to eat shrimp!
Larry and Lea Chrestman arrived mid January, and we've been enjoying their company alot. We'll all be here until April.
Along with the beauty, comes the little problems - little fleas, little - no wait, Texas sized mosquitoes and they are all overly abundant much to Sam's (our dog),the girls and my dismay. The water here is from a well, and it is caustic - eatting right through the male end of our hose, cloggin up 2 water pressure regulators and disintegrating the screen at the input spot on the rv. Chemically it's safe to drink, but it tastes terrible. Fortunately, the Exxon Station up on hwy 35 sells 5 gallons of fresh good tasting water for $1, so that works.
We've been to Goliad several times now. Goliad State Park is a beautiful place. John and I toured the old restored mission/museum and on a second trip Larry & Lea and John & I had lunch in the park and checked out the mission again. The second time was the 2nd Saturday of the month, which is the market day on the square in Goliad. What fun. Lea and I bought a big bag of Grapefruit for $5 and split it. Ooooo those were good grapefruit, and they lasted a long time (John and Larry don't eat grapefruit!) The history in Goliad is extensive and dark. The things that happened there were much worse than the Alamo. We went to the mass grave and several other spots in the area with history written so we don't forget. For more information on Goliad, click here
www.goliadcc.org/index.php/Goliad-TX.../goliad-tx-history.html I don't like writing about such awful events.
We've also been looking at rigs - we do need to find something a little bigger. Fell in love with a 32' Ever Green travel trailer that has an outside kitchen! Quite a bit bigger than want we want, and way more than we want to spend, but very very nice! We found the price of rigs down here is MUCH higher than those up north, so we won't be pulling a bigger rig back with us! Must be a Texas thing - everything is bigger in Texas!
Port Aransas is one of our favorite day trips and lunch at Moby Dicks - they have an incredible Mahi Mahi sandwich. The dolphin watching out there is wonderful too. Take the first left after you get off the ferry (I love riding the ferry!) and park by the marina. Then walk along the sea wall. They are wonderful to watch. We went to Charlies Pasture and Leonabelle Turnbulls birding center (There's a great overlook tower there and a BIG aligator, along with tons of water birds; the trail there is also short and easy) the Texas Marine Science Institute has lots of aquariums and information on local habitat and flora and fauna, Mustang Island State Park (No comparison with Goose Island State Park which is a mile from Hidden Oaks and on the inland waterway) is amidst the sand dunes and the big waves of the Gulf, we also went riding on the beach and just enjoying the beauty.
Doris Mader - the bird lady - came and did a great presentation here last month. She had a cara cara, great horned owl, screech owl and kestral with her. John got to hold the cara cara, and I got to hold the great horned owl. That was neat!
Our oldest daughter was here in January and we had a wonderful visit. The best in many years! Our youngest and her boyfriend are coming week after next for a week. We're looking forward to their visit too.
We took a little ride out to the the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge this past week. It's 38 miles driving and probably 5 miles via water from here. We planned on getting our National Parks pass as John turned 62 this past June. Never thought about taking cash, and of course, they don't take credit cards! We had enough with us to get into the refuge, but not enough for the pass. silly us, we just don't carry cash! One of these days we'll get the National park pass. Anyway, the day we went was very humid, and the mosquitoes about carried us away! We saw 6 aligators (5 of them were really big!) an armadillo and about 6 whooping cranes way out in the marsh. The drought this year has been very hard on the whoopers. There are no blue crab this year for them to feed on, and the park has been conducting controlled burns to force insects, etc. out for the whoopers to eat. The main road is where we saw all the wildlife - the auto tour loop seems to go on forever, and this time as well at the last time 98 years ago) that we took the loop, we didn't see much. Most critters don't like the sound of a diesel engine, me thinks! It's an interesting place, and the wildlife of this world needs more safe havens where they and their homes aren't being destroyed by mans insatiable greed. Sorry, that just sort of slipped out. :Z
Oh my, I realized (3/6) I missed talking about the most wonderful part of this place! When we got here, we did not plan to workamp, but a week later found us doing just that, and getting this campground organized and cleaned up. As part of that, I set up an activities calendar, and began sharing music, exercise and crafts with our campers. That had never been done here before and we weren't sure if it would go over. Looking back at the past 3 months, now that almost all the Winter Texans are gone, makes me very happy. In January, Barb and I shared our crocheting knowledge with Karen, and just before she left she showed me a beautiful afghan that she made while her husband was up at the clubhouse playing cribbage every night. Karen also shared her beading with me and we made a couple beautiful spiral braclets. I shared card weaving with everyone in mid- February, and some beautiful straps were made and the craft will be passed on to grandchildren and others when everyone gets home. John and I played folk music every Friday evening from 4-5 or so, and we always had a crowd and got to share a few of our CD's. I had two Dulcimer students, and they both came knowing nothing about music, and left as very capable and excited beginning mountain dulcimer players. Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 10 am found us doing Chi Gong (energy cultivation) in the back room. I had probably 12 different people at different times, but Mary and Nancy were there for just about every class. We also put on 3 pot lucks and a Super Bowl party which were all very successful - and delicious, and I was able to demonstrate our flour mill and solar oven. Being a part of our Winter Texans lives was the most wonderful part of our stay here! I find I really love doing Activities - much more than working in the office, or doing maintenance. It was neat when everyone came in daily to check on the mural progress, or ask a question about something that I could help them with. Everyone I touched, also touched me, and brought new friendships; I am grateful to all of them!
We tood A second trip to Aransas National Wildlife Refuge
www.fws.gov/southwest/refuges/texas/aransas with our daughter Krystal and her boyfriend Andrew (Kiff). We had a wonderful day. While we were hiking, John stayed behind and watched the cranes. The gators were roaring and he heard something behind him, so he turned around... to find himself 10 feet away from a huge gator that decided to cross the road to find out what all the roaring was about. He looked at it, it looked at him, he backed up and was about ready to climb the tall fence by the spotting scopes when it continued across the road. Poor John, he called Kiff (no answer) to have us come back with the camera not remembering that the phone had a camera on it. I think he almost had a heart attack! That's one gator John will never forget! John also got his National Parks Card, so we're ready for all those wonderful parks out west next year!
It was wonderful having Krystal and Kiff here for a week. We went dolphin watching out on Port Aransas, and got to see our first sea turtles (I didn't get pictures!) We had some cookouts and Krystal and I played music that we used to play at the Renaissance Fair! That was incredible. We laughed, fished and got too much sun. I'm grateful to Joyce at Hidden Oaks for the opportunity to bring my girls down for a visit.
