Blooming Yucca

We have 2 yuccas in our front yard. One of them is in bloom. I've always loved yuccas in bloom. There is a roadside park just north of Ozona, Texas (where we lived during much of the 1990s) on Highway 163. The park has several yucca plants, which always produced some of the most beautiful blooms. I always enjoyed that sight when we passed the park.

Blooming Yucca in our front yard

There are a few buds near the top that have not bloomed yet. The other yucca has yet to bloom, though it has about the same number of buds. Interesting why they are not blooming at the same time. I've treated them exactly the same -- when I water one, I water the other, for example. Soon, they will be completely established and I'll stop watering them except during extreme dry spells. But for now, I do water them regularly, as well as the agave, the sage bushes, and the other plants we have (which I do not know what they are).

I spent yesterday morning working on the 3 raised beds in my side yard. I had already built the frames (see "Instant Yard" for previous pictures), but I had yet to fill them. So yesterday, I put down a thick layer of newspapers to block the weeds. Over time, the newspapers will decompose and improve the soil in the process. On top of the newspapers, I placed several cubic feet of sphagnum peat moss, followed by several cubic feet of garden soil, then mixed them together. I will follow the same process with the beds surrounding the house, but I've run out of newspapers for right now.

Raised beds ready for planting

The beds are now ready for planting. Donna will fill one with basil. Once she harvests that crop, she will make pesto and freeze it. We'll be able to eat her pesto all winter, and boy, she makes the best!

We had almost an inch of rain here last week, spread over 3 days. The nitrogen in the rain really did help the  new grass. Compare the grass in the picture above with the grass in the picture below, which was taken immediately after putting the sod down. You can see that the above picture is greener, and the lines of the sod squares are beginning to blend into the grass. If we could only get more rain.

Raised beds just after sod had been put down

Currently, we are only allowed to water twice per week, and that will soon be reduced to once per week. I'm hoping that my sod is getting established enough that it will be able to withstand the summer heat, which is fast approaching. We have several days with the high approaching 100 predicted for this week.

Daytripper

I first heard the term "day tripper" long ago. The Beatles released a single entitled "Day Tripper" in the mid 1960s as the B side of "We Can Work It Out". Both songs did very well on the charts.

During my time abroad in the 1980s, I worked with a number of Brits and heard them used the term often. It is used, of course, to refer to someone who takes a trip in a single day. I've always liked the phrase; it has a certain lyric quality to it.

About 10 or more years ago, I joined a website called "Wild Texas". The site draws people who are interested in exploring the Texas outdoors. In addition to the information provided, there was a very active forum, and people discussed camping, hiking, and other outdoor activities. When I joined, I used the moniker of "Daytripper." I've not used the site much in the last few years and don't know how active it is today, but if you go back far enough in the archives, you will find some posts by me, aka Daytripper.

While on the subject, another website I once used to get information about hiking in Texas is Texas Hiking. For some reason, when I joined that forum I did not use the Daytripper username; rather, I simply joined as "kcameron". It's a good site, and provides very specific information about hiking the trails of Texas. If you like hiking in Texas, it is the place to visit.

Anyway, I've always liked the name Day Tripper. So when I came across a listing a couple of years ago for The Daytripper on our local PBS channel (KERA from Dallas), it was only natural for me to check it out.
The show, currently in its 4th season, is hosted by Chet Garner, who travels around Texas with his crew. Each half hour show records a single day trip to a Texas location. It usually consists of 2 or 3 stops at museums, recreation venues, or other places of interest, as well as 1 or 2 food stops.

I enjoy the show. Chet Garner is a bit wacky, but that makes it a fun show. It's obvious the man enjoys his work, and he wants his viewers to enjoy the show as well. And the show does a good job. It earned a Lone Star Emmy Award for Outstanding Achievement in Magazine Program – Series, for its Marfa, TX episode.

If you are looking for a trip in Texas, visit the website (linked above) and click on the "Daytrips" button. You can pick from any of the locations and then watch the episode.

Enjoy our great state, and perhaps I'll see you down the road.

Goodbye, Rocky

Donna and I said goodbye to a good friend yesterday. We sold our Rockwood ("Rocky") travel trailer.

We really enjoyed our trailer, and it was difficult to let it go. It took us to a lot of exciting places, and it provided us with a security blanket of sorts. If we ever lost our home for some reason, we always had Rocky to fall back on.

But Rocky was also a temptation to us, begging us to give up our brick and mortar home and live like gypsies. We enjoyed doing that for a time, but we really need to concentrate on settling in one place for a while.

Then there are the economic issues of keeping a travel trailer to consider. Since we now live in a patio home, we have no place to keep a trailer, so we would have to store it. That fee, combined with insurance, is a regular outpay month after month whether you use the trailer or not.

And Rocky is old enough now that problems were beginning to crop up. Some of the problems are minimal, such as window blinds needing to be restrung, while others are larger and more costly. And keeping a trailer in a storage facility makes it hard to perform maintenance, such as washing and making repairs.

Now that we no longer have the trailer to tow, we will soon downsize our vehicle from our Tundra to a smaller, more fuel efficient vehicle, perhaps a Toyota RAV4 or a Ford Escape. The truck is useful, no doubt, but it does guzzle the gas and it is rather bulky to drive around in tight spots.

Some people think that traveling is cheaper with an RV. When the total cost of ownership is taken into consideration, as well as increased fuel costs and nightly site fees, you can really stay just as economically in hotels with a lot less hassle. I have kept records of all of our travels in our trailer, including mileage, nightly site rental fees, and fuel costs, and we averaged just about $40 per night in the trailer when all costs were taken into consideration. When you add in the initial cost of the RV and the tow vehicle (if one is necessary), then that nightly fee jumps up considerably.

So, we will continue traveling, but we'll use hotels and other accommodations. I'm not going to say that we will never have an RV again, but for now, I'm happy to travel faster and lighter.

Adjusting to Our New Lives

We are slowly getting settled in our new home. The yard is coming along nicely. Pictures are gradually getting hung. Things are being arranged.

It's nice to wake up in a comfortable home each day. It's nice to have room. It's nice to have comfortable furniture. It's nice to be warm when those unrelenting cold fronts continue to howl through, dropping May temperatures to the low 30s at night. Will winter ever leave?

But yet, there's a little part of me that wishes we were still in our RV.

There's something about the RV lifestyle that I really like; don't get me wrong, there's plenty that I don't like. I have to admit, though, that I am already getting a bit bored in our new home; every day is basically the same. That's something I'll have to adjust to. In the trailer, we really never got bored, at least, not for long.

In most of our travels, we usually stayed in most places for no more than a week. On a few occasions, we may have stayed up to 2 weeks. Only once did we stay in one place for a month. At the end of that month, we were really ready to move on. And that is the nice thing about living in an RV. You go someplace, like Santa Fe, and plop down for a while. After you've seen everything you want to see there, you hook up and move on down the road to the next interesting place and start all over again. Yeah, that's kind of nice, and it's going to take me a while to get over that.

We're happy in our new home, though, and we hope to stay here for a while. You never know when we might get that itch again. When we do, be looking for us down the road.

Instant Yard

Last Friday, Donna and I spent the day laying sod in our side/back yard. We went from a dirt yard to a full lawn in a matter of hours.

We ordered Celebration bermuda grass from a local nursery. I ordered 2 palettes, which was enough to cover 900 square feet of lawn. I needed just a bit more, but this will have to do. I do have a few gaps in the back area, but the grass should spread and fill in over time.

Celebration is supposed to be one of the more drought-resistant strains of bermuda grass. It is also supposed to perform well in either full sun or in partial sun. The area just off our patio will probably only get 2-3 hours of sun each day, so I hope it will do well in that area.

Below are some before and after pictures of the yard.

Side yard looking towards the alley (south).

What a difference grass makes! I left a 2 foot wide area along the house for an herb bed.

Back part of the yard. The frames are for raised beds. I wanted to get them placed before putting in the grass. Each bed is 6 feet by 4 feet.

I'll need to get a mower soon.

From the back looking towards the patio and front.

Again, the grass really makes a big difference. The side area will not get much sun. I left another border at the back of the house for beds.

Our front yard is a desert landscape. I hope to find a palo verde or other desert type tree to plant in the front, probably next winter. I'll add a few more desert plants, like red sage, perhaps ocotillo, chollo, etc.

As I was writing the above, a short rain storm moved over, enough to wet the pavement. Hopefully, we will get more tonight and my grass will get some of the nutrients rain provides. Unfortunately, almost anytime it rains in West Texas, it seems that there is a good chance for hail and high winds. Baseball sized hail was reported to have fallen north of Abilene just a few minutes ago, and a violent storm moved through El Dorado, just south of here, about 2 hours ago. It would be nice to get a good drenching rain without the violent side-affects.

Places to Go

Do you have a bucket list? I suppose I do; at least, I have a list of all the places I want to see while I still wander this planet. I've never really considered it a bucket list, but I suppose that is what it truly is. My bucket list is probably quite long, and includes places from all over the country: Mount Rushmore, the giant sequoias of California, New England in the fall, Canyon de Chelly, and many, many others.

In the last couple of days, I've added a new destination to my list, the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum in Dallas on the campus of SMU. The opening and dedication of the library has been in the news the past few days, and it was attended by all living members of the "Presidents' Club".

About 3 years or so ago, Donna and I visited the George H. Bush Presidential Library and Museum on the campus of Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. I've visited the LBJ Presidential Library in Austin on the campus of the University of Texas on several occasions. Since Arkansas is not too far away, I hope to visit William J. Clinton Presidential Library and Museum in Little Rock, Arkansas, one of these days.

I enjoy these presidential libraries. They really give insight into their respective administrations. The newest library will, I'm sure, be especially interesting as regards items relating to the terrorist bombings of September 11, 2001.

Old Man Winter is Still Here

Old Man Winter just refuses to leave this year. This is the second time in as many weeks that a cold front has pushed through the area, dropping night time lows into the 30s. For this area for this time of year, that is cold. But as I write this early this morning, the temp is 58, and the high today is expected to reach nearly 70. Tomorrow, normal temps return, with highs in 80s.

In our house, we really don't notice the cold spells, but if we were still in the travel trailer, we would certainly be feeling the cold. If it is 39 degrees outside, it is just a little over that in the trailer, unless you keep the furnace set high, and that really uses lots of propane. So, I'm glad to be in a real brick and mortar house with strong insulation values.

I have ordered sod for our back yard, and it is due to arrive tomorrow. I've ordered a brand known as Celebration Bermudagrass. This grass is touted to be drought tolerant, and that is what we need in San Angelo. I've prepped my yard and am ready to start laying the sod. If you are free on Friday, come on over and lend a hand.