Deer herd
By Doug | October 25, 2008
Now that we have been in our new house for about 9 months the deer seem to treat our yard just like any other in the neighborhood - it’s a place to get something to eat. A few days ago I was having my coffee and we noticed a herd of deer that leisurely stroled through our yard, crossed the street and began feasting on our neighbor’s flowerbed.
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Abilene
By Pat | October 25, 2008
We just went on a short trip to Abilene (TX). Our 2-night stay at the Elegante Suites, as well as tickets to Abilene attractions, was paid for by a AAA contest. We didn’t think Abilene would be very exciting, but getting away is always nice. There was no interstate highway to get us there directly, so we took off on state and farm highways. It was a very nice drive–certainly little traffic in our way. As it turns out, Abilene has some nice historical attractions. One is called Buffalo Gap–a small town on the site of a gap that buffalo traveled in pioneer days. There was an old courthouse, built in 1880, as well as other old buildings and cabins. This is a picture of the old courthouse.
There is another historical attraction called Frontier Texas. It chronicles the history of the area using holographs, sounds, and images that make the history come alive. Children would be very impressed. We also visited a museum honoring the 12th Armored Division that fought in World War II and were prepared at a large army camp in Abilene called Fort Barkley. Who knew that Abilene had anything besides 3 Christian Colleges!
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Love Bugs #2
By Pat | September 27, 2008
As quickly as they came, so quickly the love bugs have disappeared. We are so glad. Every day I had to sweep up dead ones from the floor beside the windows–inside the house. When I would go out on the back porch, I felt like I was in one of those horror movies where insects swarm all over you. I would have to sweep off the door and brush them off myself before I came in. I had thought all the rain and wind from the hurricane would drive them away, but it didn’t. But now they are gone–until next year, I guess.
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Hurricane Ike
By Pat | September 21, 2008
Though we are 100 miles from the Galveston coast, our town suffered greatly from Hurricane Ike. The eye went directly over us and knocked out our electrical power for 5 days. We had a small generator that we were able to hook up to the freezer and the refrigerator. We have a gas cooktop, so we were able to cook almost anything we wanted. We had hot water, and a cool front came in and kept us from suffering without our air condtioning. In fact, we had our windows open the next day because it was still so cool. We had no damage, only a lot of tree debris in our yard. Some of the damage in our subdivision was quite bad. One woman died in her bed from a massive tree falling on her house. We had quite a few light poles down or broken which is why we were without power for so long. But people further south have had it much worse. We are very thankful to have been so safe and untouched.
Areas less than 20 feet in elevation along the coast comprise most of the severe damage. The news media focuses on the worst damage and most of the photos in the news will be from the coastal areas such as Galveston and Freeport, Texas. Houston is 50 or 60 feet in elevation and we are at 300 feet. The damage in our area is directly related to the wind pushing trees down as you can see from the photos.
You can see photos of the damage in our area by clicking on the link to the right entitled “Hurricane Ike”.
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Love Bugs
By Pat | September 11, 2008
We are being inundated by love bugs here. (I don’t know if that is the real name; that’s what we call them here in Texas.) They are crawling all over the porch column, hanging out by the door so that they can stick to our bodies. They must not have a long life span because there are dead ones lying around everywhere. I even find dead ones inside on the floor. Maybe Huricane Ike will blow and wash they away.
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More on the Baby Deer
By Pat | September 9, 2008
Here is a close-up of the baby deer from yesterday. They stayed there several hours. Later they and two doe were wandering around the back yard. The song from the movie “Oliver” kept going through my mind: “Consider Yourself at Home, consider yourself part of the family…”
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Babys in the yard
By Doug | September 8, 2008
I walked outside toward these two fawns that were resting in our grass. As soon as they saw me one of them stood up so I took the photo and went back into the house. They are welcome to sleep in our yard.
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Hummingbirds
By Doug | September 2, 2008
I put up two Hummingbird feeders and it didn’t take long for the Humming birds to find them. I placed one under the soffet of the back porch in view of Pat’s desk in the rear bedroom. She can see the bird feeder from her chair as she sits and works on her computer. The other feeder is located under the soffet of the front porch where I often have my coffee in the mornings. The photo is a view of one of the birds at the feeder on the front porch.
These little guys are amazing. One seems to have taken over the feeder and guards it constantly. He (or she) will always be near by and will chase any other Hummingbird away if one approaches. I have had a couple incidents on the front porch when I thought they were going to hit me when one was chasing the other away. I don’t know where they put all the nectar that I put in the feeder. They can now empty one of these feeders in just 24 hours.
Try clicking on the photo - it will enlarge and you can see the Hummingbird easier.
Topics: House | 1 Comment »
Addendum to Things I Like
By Pat | August 27, 2008
I forgot to add this to the list of things I like about my town: I can always get a close parking place at J. C. Penny here.
Topics: Family | 1 Comment »
Things I Like About My Town
By Pat | August 23, 2008
We have been living in our new town for about 8 months now. Everyone said I would “love it” here. Adjusting to a move is not easy, especially leaving a city that has been home for most of my life, and I have had some gripes about some of the inconvveniences here. (and the deer destroying my shrubs) Anyway, there are some things that I have become grateful for just this week. I went to 2 different doctors this week and had a mamogram. All 3 of those offices were no more than 12 minutes away! Now that is something to like! The added bonus is that I liked both of these doctors, and am glad to have them available to me. We are even more pleased about our builder, Superior Homes, now. Doug found a few things that needed to be fixed in the house, and it didn’t even take a week for them to send out someone to fix things. Now that is service!
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