What a Difference 2 Weeks Make

In a recent blog entitled "Settling In" posted on June 30, I included a picture of our house just after the yard had been hydroseeded for Bermuda grass. I want to post that same picture again with another below it showing what the yard looks like 2 weeks later. You'll notice also that the drive is cleaner, as is the curb area. We have several houses under construction our here, including 2 to our immediate south and 1 across the street, so in the early picture, debris from their work was still in the street. I have since cleaned that up.



Just after seeding



After 2 weeks of intensive watering

The back yard is rather large, and it has some barren spots I'm working on. Donna and I got out yesterday and pulled weeds from the extreme back of the lot. There were some bull nettles we were cautious about and were careful to protect our hands and arms from. But another weed caught us off guard. We were less cautious about it and ended up with some discomfort on our arms and hands. Donna had welts, and my fingers swelled somewhat. I'm not familiar with the weed obviously, but will look it up later to determine what it was.
Because of the drought, lawn watering is restricted in San Angelo. You are allowed to water your lawn only once per week. Because we have a new house with a newly seeded lawn, we have an exemption for one month. At the end of that month, we then must cut back to one week. However, my yard should be established by then (July 28) and only 1 to 2 months of extreme heat remain after that. It should survive as the fall comes on.

All of West Texas is dry. The town of Llano has a supply of only 30 to 60 days of water available. Their only source of water is the Llano River, and it is drying up. Robert Lee, a small town just north of Angelo, also has a shrinking source of water. They use E. V. Spence Reservoir as their water source, and that lake level is down to only 1%. O.C. Fisher, the formerly large lake on the outskirts of Angelo, is also down to 1%. Twin Buttes, another lake on the outskirts of Angelo, is down to 11%, while O. H. Ivie is at 24%. Lake Nasworthy, where Donna and I stayed in our trailer while waiting for our house to be completed, is at 82%.

We need rain. We have a 2-year water supply remaining, and our restrictions are being tightened regularly and water rates are being increased in order to find and develop new water sources. We look forward to the coming of fall and cooler temperatures.

Still Settling In

One of these days, we'll be settled in the house. By and large, things are going well. Grass is now spread throughout the yard -- both front and back -- with a few splotches here and there that have not received good water from the sprinkler system. For the most part, though, the yard is coming along well.

We still have pictures to hang. That is not something I enjoy doing, but I am ready to get some pictures on the walls. At this point, we are simply waiting for a couple of more deliveries to be made so that we can get a true picture of space and appearance.

We have a Geek Squad consultant coming Tuesday to look at our house. We have audio wiring available in 3 rooms: living area, master bedroom, and patio. We want to be able to get music from various sources (stereo, computer, Internet, etc.) to all rooms. We are also looking at a new TV system with home theater in the living area. Until we set up this entertainment center, we probably will not hang pictures.

I continue to work on the garage. It is still half full, but we are able to park the truck in the garage, and we like that. I recently stripped Donna's hope chest and then put new stain on it. It has been in the garage since we moved in, but we are now able to bring it inside, and that will free up some garage space.

I picked up some storage cabinets at Lowe's this morning, and I will be setting those up soon. Many of the "loose" items cluttering the garage will be able to be stored in those cabinets. We also have a few items that we will take to our daughter soon. So, progress is being made.

As we become more settled in our new house, my attention will begin turning to San Angelo and how we occupy our time here. This is really a wonderul, active town, and I look forward to sharing it with my friends. We are also planning a trip in August to the Davis Mountains, the coolest place in Texas during the summer.

Good Eats -- Lowake Steak House, Lowake, Texas

For our anniversary, Donna wanted a steak. In West Texas, that usually means a trip to Lowake Steak House in the small community of Lowake a few miles south of Rowena, Texas, on FM 381.

Lowake Steak House is a legend in West Texas. John Zentner opened the restaurant in 1946 and operated it for several years before moving to San Angelo. Today, Lowake Steak House is run by another family, but Zentner's Daughter Steak House in San Angelo is still run my John Zentner's daughter, Betty.

This was our second trip to Lowake Steak House, which sits by itself at the edge of a field near the very small community of Lowake. The building is old, but it is full of character.

We ordered the KC Steak for 2, which is more food than we could eat. The meal comes with one visit to the salad bar, a baked potato, and Texas toast.

The steak was served on a single platter in the center of the table. The platter held 6 steaks, all about 1 inch thick and cooked to our order (medium for Donna and medium well for me). We could not eat all of the meat, so we asked for a doggy bag.

Settling In

We are settling in our new home.

Over the past week, we've made pretty good progress.

For the first few days, boxes were stacked everywhere, and the garage was completely full. Much that was in the garage was old furniture we really did not want to keep. I called a used furniture store, and the owner came out and we were able to reach a deal. We sold him our old sofa, 3-piece entertainment center, computer hutch, coffee table and 2 end tables, 2 night tables, 1 TV, and my riding mower. This freed up quite a bit of room in the garage.

The next day, I purchased 2 sheets of 4 x 8 plywood and began adding some flooring in the attic for storage. We then were able to move some items into the attic for storage. We still have quite a few items in the garage, but we are now able to park the pickup in the garage.

I went to a discount office furniture store downtown and found a nice used desk for the office as well as 3 new mohagany book shelves. I've spent the last couple of days setting up the office and unpacking books I've not seen in years. It's a delight to have all my books out again. I look forward to reading works I've not read since my college days.

The sprinkler system was completed Monday morning. That afternoon, the lawn people came and sprayed the yard (hydroseed). I began watering it Tuesday morning. We are looking forward to getting grass growing. Unfortunately, San Angelo and most of West Texas is in the midst of a severe drought, so once my yard gets established, I will only be able to water once a week, if that much. We had gutters installed on the house during construction, and I will purchase some rain barrels soon to catch water when it does eventually rain. That will help some; at least I'll be able to water plants.

Front of house; yard has just been hydroseeded

We still have some boxes stacked around, and I need to find a solution for my tools. I do not have a shop in the yard; I've not decided whether to purchase one or simply to use the other half of the garage.

But we are beginning to get back into our routines, so life is returning to normal.

Moved In

Just a brief update on our house.

We closed yesterday at 2:00 and immediately began moving in.

First, we packed up the trailer, left Spring Creek Marina and RV Park, and put the trailer in storage. Boat races are to be held at the lake this weekend, and we did not want to be around for that circus. It was time to leave.

We moved a few items in yesterday and spent our first night in our new house. After nearly 6 weeks of living in the trailer, it was nice to take a real shower (me) and a real bath (Donna).

Today, we began moving in earnest. I had secured a trailer for moving from our storage facility, and made 3 loads before just giving out. I have 1 load to get tomorrow -- maybe 2 -- and then we will be completely moved in. Of course, the place is a wreck and the garage is full, but we are in our home.

All utilities were on when we arrived. This morning, Suddenlink arrived to connect us to the Internet and provide cable TV. Haverty's brought our new living room furniture. Furniture Row brought our new bedroom furniture. And Best Buy delivered our new refrigerator. So, we are in pretty good shape.

Now comes the tedious part -- just going through all our boxes and deciding where things go, what to keep, and what to throw away.

But, we are home.

Forgive me if my postings are not as regular as the past few weeks, but we do have much to do.

The Good Things at Spring Creek

Not all is bad at Spring Creek -- it's mainly just the weekend hooligans that are bad. But there is much I enjoy about this little park.

There is lots of wildlife out here. During one early morning walk, we counted well over 20 deer.

Turkey and deer at Spring Creek

Deer and turkey often graze together, and we've seen large numbers of each, and we see them on a regular basis -- almost daily.

We've also enjoyed the lake during the week, especially early in the morning and late in the day.

Sunrise on Lake Nasworthy

Donna has really enjoyed the ease of fishing here. The boat slips in the picture above are about 50 yards from our trailer, so it is easy for her to take her pole and drop it in the lake at any time.

We were fortunate to find this park as there are not many areas in West Texas with this much shade. The shade has been very welcome for we've had many, many days over 100 degrees. In fact, we've had about 10 straight days, and we've broken high records twice so far. As I write this, the temperature is 106 degrees. We had 110 degrees one day.

So, the park has its good points. As with most of life, we take the good with the bad.

The Worst of Humanity

I've come to believe that you can find the worst in humanity at a public access lake. We see it weekend after weekend, and I'm thankful we only have one more weekend to survive here at Spring Creek before moving into our new house.

As I've mentioned before, the area is peaceful during the week, but beginning about noon on Fridays, the crowds descend on the lake. Spring Creek Marina and RV Park is privately owned and operated, but it is almost completely surrounded by public access areas.

Week after week, we witness the following:

• Litter left behind at campsites after people leave. A couple of weeks ago, we saw a vacated campsite that still contained a canopy that had been damaged by high winds (see picture below). Rather than take the damaged equipment when they left, the people chose to simply leave it behind for someone else to deal with.
  

  

  Canopy left behind by the worst of humanity

  
• Complete disregard for "quiet" hours. Nearly every RV park has posted quiet hours from 10 PM to 8 AM. Weekend after weekend, drunken park guests continue their festivities well beyond midnight. This past weekend, our neighbors brought along their 3 large dogs, which they left tied up outside their RV to park at every imaginable sound all night long.
• Boaters find it necessary to blast their music from their speaker systems, and some of the songs contain lyrics not suited for young ears. We often have to suspend conversations until some of these boaters get out of earshot. The boats I'm talking about are sometimes 200 yards or more away -- that's 2 football fields.
• This past weekend, a nearby neighbor parked his truck right in the roadway. The park manager had to request that he move it so that others could use the roadway.
• Two weekends ago, Donna and I survived a fiendish assassination attempt. Two teenage girls were riding a motorcycle through the park. Earlier in the evening, they had been stopped and ticketed by the police who patrol the area for riding the bike on a public roadway (obviously, the bike was not street legal). So, they then began riding strictly within the park. As they rounded the curve near our campsite, they lost control of the bike and ran through our campsite. Fortunately, we had been watching and listening for them, so we avoided injury. However, they literally ran over my chair and then crashed into our trailer. Donna then proceeded to beat them up. My poor chair now is decorated with tire marks on the back side -- I am not joking.
• People wear clothing that they should not wear. There are lots of people out there that really should not expose as much of their bodies as they do.

And I could go on and on, but you get my point.

I've really seen some of the worst of humanity here, and I'm disappointed. And such demonstrations, of course, are not limited to this place and these times. We all see these things when we venture onto the roadways, into Walmart, into restaurants, and other places. For me, though, I'm just being exposed to a constant viewing of the dregs, and I'm ready for a change.

Hurry up and finish my house!