We must confess, we have been a bit negligent about updating the blog, but we really have been BUSY, and doing much more than watching raccoons! There are a lot of photos in this post, so I'm making them small so the page will load a bit faster - click on any you want to see larger.

The big project has been replacing the foundation skirting. My but that sounds quick and simple in print..... not so much when you are on the business end of the hammer. There were a lot of hings that had to be done to prepare for the skirting.

First was the trenching across the back, then lining with drain pipe, covering with plastic and gravel.

The next phase was deconstructing the deck. We wanted to save as much of the lumber as possible to use in other projects, so we tried to do it as neatly as possible.

Then came removing the old skirting, patching any damage to the siding, and then mounting the new metal skirting.

Here are the two of us, hard at work, and sporting the fashionable and highly effective DIY wear essential when cutting metal. Note the ear and face protection - flying sparks aren't fun!

It was in the 90's most of the days we were working on the project, of course the weather cooled off as soon as we were finished! The skirting is all in place now, and Steve's finishing up the access doors. The new deck will be our project for next year as we're ready to shift into RV mode.

In mid-April Steve's parents visited us. We stopped at Patsy's Cafe for dinner after picking them up at the airport. The place has a lot of "character", and good food too!

A few days later we all drove up to Sweetwater and Snyder for their family reunions. It was a nice trip, and good to see all the cousins, aunts and uncles.  It's roughly 300 miles from here to Sweetwater, and there's a lot of scenery in between. The area around Sweetwater is thickly planted with wind turbines (windmills) which contrast starkly with the old stone buildings and the abandoned areas of what was once a booming oil town. We took a drive around Sweetwater Lake, and to Bud and Daphna's delight the old stone building where they used to go to dances is still standing. It was known as the Rock Inn, and it sounds like it was THE place to be on a Friday night!

We've also managed to tuck in a few other projects along the way. In February we put in a small raised bed garden. Now, we've finished harvesting the peas and are happily munching on zucchini, herbs, green onions and the like. There are a lot of tomatoes set on, so we're looking forward to a fried green tomato supper soon, and then some ripe ones! The skirting project necessitated moving a fairly large crepe myrtle, which turned out to have three separate roots, so they've been moved to the back and with the help of a timer they'll get a little water occasionally during the summer so they should settle in nicely.  This has been (and will probably continue to be) an extremely dry year so we aren't branching out into any flowers or other ornamentals at this point.

At the end of April we celebrated Willie Nelson's birthday along with his family and a bazillion other "friends" at a concert held in The Backyard.  Wreathed in an herbal haze, under slightly cloudy skies, the program opened with the group called Folk Uke, made up of  Arlo Gutheri's daugher Cathy, and Willie Nelson's daughter, Amy. They are hilarious, but a bit risque. You can find several of their performances on youtube. Cathy's young daughter joined the group for this performance, since this was a "family" birthday party!

 The next act was Paula Nelson, another of Willie's daughters, performing with her band Guilty Pleasures.

Then Willie himself launched into a nearly non-stop run of many of our favorites. He's 78 this year, and still outperforms many younger musicians.


It was definitely a full program, and a really nice evening to be outside. Skot and Kendra went with us and it was great fun! The Backyard is a nice facility, with plenty of beer and food vendors. Several of the oak trees were left standing when they cleared the land for the seating areas so there's a bit of shade. We had chairs, but there's a lot of general seating on the grass too. You just can't beat an outdoor concert on a balmy Texas evening.

We've done a little work on the RV, preparatory to the summer trip, and there'll be a separate post about that.  We've also spent a lot of time engineering around the squirrels. We really like feeding the birds, and we knock off work every afternoon around 3 o'clock so we can sit and watch them (and the squirrels) at the feeders.
I don't mind sharing a bit with the squirrels, but as the dry weather has drug on and the young squirrels get older and have bigger appetites they've gotten hungrier and more athletic. So-called squirrel-proof feeders, and techniques for keeping them out of the feeders that worked early in the spring are a complete failure now, so "re-engineering" is a constant task. This young fellow launched himself from a very slender branch that was so far away he was virtually flying when he finally landed on the feeder. The cure for this was to prune his launch pad, but he'll find another way I'm sure.

Male rose breasted grosbeak

We have been lucky to catch some migrating species at the feeder lately.
The Baltimore oriole didn't stay long enough for us to get a picture, but the rose breasted grosbeak couple seem to have moved in.
They are a little bossy, and have been pushing other birds out of the feeder, but they're so pretty we're putting up with it for now.

Male painted bunting

The painted buntings must have had a nest here last year, as we have several pair now. The males, with their red tummy and blue and green backs, look like small parrots. The blue is so dark that they all but disappear when in the shade, but when they turn so you can see the breast or the sun hits that lime green patch on the back they really glow

Female painted bunting.

The ladies are a pale yellow green and disappear in the spring green foliage of the trees. They're rather bashful, at least at first. They like the dense scrubby brush at the edges of our yard, and quickly disappear if startled. This one is perching on the squirrel feeder, looking down at the cardinals grazing below.

 With no rain there's a real shortage of wildflowers, which has really hit the hummingbird population. We put out a three nectar feeders and the first night a raccoon managed to decimate two of them. I rebuilt one and replaced the other with a homemade version, and now I bring them in every night and put them out first thing in the morning. They've really been popular, and we've seen many more hummingbirds that we ever did before.

The birds all enjoy the food we provide, but with stage two water restrictions already in place, water is going to be the really critical commodity this summer. To help out our furred and feathered friends Steve rigged up the air conditioner condensation drain to fill a basin so there should be a little available there all summer. Even when the temp inside the house is set fairly high, the high humidity here results in enough condensation to provide for the wildlife.  This hot, dry spring has been hard on wildflowers, but the cactus love it. We're surrounded by blooming cactus patches, and I just love these brilliant oranges blossoms.

Orange prickly pear cactus