Terlingua Dreams

Terlingua Dreams
Governors Landing Campground - Lake Amistad - Del Rio, Texas

Saturday, June 29, 2013

Another record setting day

After watching the news today and seeing the incredible hot temperatures in Arizona, Nevada and California...I feel like a whiner mentioning that Del Rio had a record setting temperature of 108 degrees.  By comparison we had a mild day.

I am getting fed up with Weatherbug so I decided to download The Weather Channel app and see if I like it better.  I most certainly do...I get to see the temperature in Del Rio, Houston and Terlingua at the same time. Must say I was so surprised to see that Del Rio and Houston had higher temperatures than Terlingua!

I did not go outside until 8:30 p.m. to water the trees and plants.  I could not believe mother's neighbors were actually having a cook out this afternoon...to each his own, I guess :-(

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

Thursday, June 27, 2013

A Solar Cabin

Went to run several errands around town that included a stop at the P.O. Box, the recycling center, the bank,  Dairy Queen (for a mocha molatte), Walmart, the Derksen Buildings lot, and Stripes. Today I drove mom's mini-van.

The last couple of times I have been to the Derksen Buildings lot...they had sold out of almost all their inventory.  Today I noticed a new addition complete with solar panels, dish TV, air conditioning, a screen door and all windows outfitted with mini blinds.  There was also a truck parked to the side of it as if someone was living in it.









I thought it was pretty neat specially for Terlingua...though I doubt those solar panels could run an air conditioning all day.  Have no idea what it costs but I found it interesting nonetheless.

Gas went down .02 cents at our local Stripes.  $3.31 if you use a credit card...$3.19 if you use their store card.





Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.



UPDATE
*********************************************************************************


Just got off the telephone with Kyle Rentch of Derksen Buildings in Del Rio, Texas (830) 279-5867.  He said a cabin like this is going for $18,000.  It comes with four, 24 volt batteries that give him 17 hours of electricity. Those batteries are inside of the cabin.

This particular cabin is 12 x 28 with an 8 foot porch but it is specially built since the standard is a 6 foot porch.  The living quarters is 12 x 20 inside and this particular model has an inside bathroom though they do not usually build them with one.

He runs his air conditioner all day at 70 degrees and powers his TV, printer, computer and a coffee machine with his inverter from the solar panels.  How neat is that?  You can buy yourself a little cabin with less than it would cost you to buy a new car.

Told him I had featured him in my blog.  Though this is not the first time I do so as I find their buildings to be competitively priced and well built.

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Mesquite Pods / Purple Sage

The heat and the wind combined to make it a stay at home day.  However, tomorrow is trash day and since mother and I hardly generate enough to even fill up the trash container half ways...I knew I had to put on my big girl panties and tackle raking those darn mesquite pods!!!


They are everywhere and the winds have only served to shake the trees and allow more to fall.  If it wasn't for Cliff and friends who cut some pesky mesquites on the northern part of the property...I would really be crying in my milk.  Thank you guys!!!


I had a near accident when I dropped the camera.  I was trying to photograph Walter and the beautiful purple sage that has began to bloom after the recent rains.  Thought it was a goner but I finally managed to fix it...thus allowing the lens to go back into its compartment.



The horse flies were getting to him so he started shaking his head and ruined his photo op...but the sage is still quite pretty!


When I finished raking it was too dark to take a decent picture or for that matter bundle them up.  I guess that means I will have to get up early tomorrow morning and finish the job. :(

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.



Monday, June 24, 2013

A Day of Thank You's

Went back to bed after serving mother breakfast.  Was fast asleep when the phone rang.  It was the mechanic wondering if I was over the Spurs loss yet, lol!  Said he would be coming by later to start mother's mini-van.

Sure enough he fixed whatever was wrong and he did not even charge me...Thank You :)

Needed to go pick up mother's prescription so off I went in her now fixed mini-van.  When I was checking out a little girl came up and asked the clerk for something (I did not hear what) and he handed her two tickets.  In a meek voice she mumbled "thank you" and left.  I guess she felt that perhaps he had not heard her so she came back and thanked him again.  Children with good manners are so rare these days.  This little girl made my day!

Went to pick us up something to eat at Long John Silvers.  I must of looked pretty bad because the girl that took my ordered remarked "it must be pretty hot outside", I told her it was.  Without me asking she handed me a water cup and told me to get something to refresh myself.  How thoughtful...I thanked her kindly.

Today turned out to be an all around great day.  Thank you to all the readers out there in blogger land that take time from their busy schedules to read me.  I sincerely appreciate it :)

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

Sunday, June 23, 2013

Store Cards / Fire Ants

I have mentioned many times how silly I think it is for stores to force you to buy their store cards so you can save when filling up at the pump.  Walmart started it then everyone else followed. Being the budget conscious gal that I am...I had no choice but to cave in, and in the process save .12 cents per gallon.

Price without Stripes card

I bought my first card at HEB and there I was able to pay for it using my Discover card which is good because I never carry cash on me.  The mechanic told me to try and fill up at Chevron or Texaco since they sell better quality gas than HEB and Walmart.

Price with Stripes store card

So off I went to Stripes to purchase a store card but they only take cash or a check...grrrrrrrr!!!  Good thing my bank is close by.  At least now dad's old car is filled up.

Finally made it to Home Depot to buy more ammunition to try to contain the darn ants :-(


Ortho Fire Ant Killer is one of the best fire ant killers you can buy but it smells awful.  It had been a while since the last time I bought some but I certainly do not recall the container being HALF FULL!  If they are going to do that why don't they package it in a size appropriate container?  It makes the consumer feel like they got ripped off and it's not cheap either!!!

Three hours after I applied it and there is no movement :D

No movement here either :)

These are the pissy ant mounds, sprinkled a little
since I am going to try something else on these

Since the Spectracide Fire Ant granules are economical by comparison I am going to try them on the sugar and pissy ants mounds.  I did sprinkle some of the Ortho on some though but only because they are located where I usually set up my Kodiak Canvas tent ...I certainly do not want them going in there!

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

Friday, June 21, 2013

It still stings...

Even after twenty-four hours have passed since the Spurs loss to the Heat...it still stings :-(



I know this might seem trivial to some but this area of the world where I live is known as Spurs Nation.  I have followed them for years always hoping they would have a good season.  The dream then was just to make it to the semi-finals.


The NBA Finals was a special time in our household.  Dad and I would watch them every year rooting for the Celtics, the Lakers, The Bulls and all the elite teams who seemed to make repeat appearances year after year.

When we finally won our first championship it was 1999...a shorten season due to the NBA lockout...the Spurs were written off as a fluke.  My dad was very happy that his team finally made it, unfortunately he was ill by this time and never got to watch them play.

Since that time the Spurs have earned the respect of the league.  Win or lose I will always be a Spurs fan and I thank them for the great season we had this year.  It was quite a series and the best finals I have ever watched to date.

I commend the fans in San Antonio for showing the nation how to be graceful in defeat.  They were prepared for the victory parade that did not come and instead turned it into a...thank you for a great season celebration...as fans rode downtown honking horns, waving flags and jerseys of their favorite players.  If you did not know any better you would have thought the Spurs won.

Was watching it unfold on San Antonio KSAT12  the anchorman said he was sad for the loss but upon seeing the fan reaction, it made him feel better and proud that even in defeat, we do not let things get out of hand.

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Gardening

Up early to set out the trash.  Mother wanted me to plant the bougainvillea in the hole I dug up last week after the rains.  After we got that done we re-potted some plants.

The ant mounds have multiplied but I had no get up and go this morning to make it to Home Depot.  Anyway as many as there are...it is going to cost a bundle to not kill them...but at least minimize them since you can never really get rid of ants :-(

My EZ Eyes keyboard is wearing out and I have to pound on the letter P to get it to take but considering it did not cost that much, I guess I can't be too upset.  Heck, it is not like the millions they pay some basketball players only to blow a championship game...grrrrrrrrrr!!!

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Gas prices on the way up :-(

Early morning run to HEB to beat the heat...lol, how ironic...if you follow basketball you would understand what I am talking about!

Noticed the price of gas has begun its summer climb.  Dad's old car was the vehicle that needed the gas but I could not start it this morning and ended up flooding it!   Not wanting to take a chance on gas going up even more tomorrow used the HEB card I had purchased previously in order to save .12 cents per gallon and filled up the Toyota instead.



Ended up paying 3.35 less .12 cents = $3.23 a gallon

If you have ever read my blogger profile you know I am a diehard San Antonio Spurs fans.  I am highly pissed off about Game 6 of the NBA Finals.  We had it in the bag but could not step up to the plate. Questionable coaching decisions, a player way past his prime sub par performance and non calls by referee's just makes me want to barf!!!

Now it all comes down to a game 7 and I hope the players have it in them to pull it off and put this game behind them.  If you don't see me posting for a while...it will be because I am sulking!

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams....because I am going to be having Game 6 nightmares...grrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!

Saturday, June 15, 2013

Moats / Ants

It had been a while since we had any significant rain that really soaked the ground.  Took this opportunity to dig moats around some of the trees.


 
Could not go any deeper because of the roots

You may wonder why I did not remove the weeds?  Well, I forgot my Sally Hoe last time I went to Houston.  I am also hoping Walter will show up any day now and he needs to have something to graze on.  Probably the main reason though...I am lazy...:D



Did the same for the shrubs...or are they considered flower plants?



While it was still doable...dug a hole for another shrub Mom wants planted.



The ant invasion is in full swing.  Here I thought I had exterminated them but they are alive and well :-(

Fire Ants

Sugar Ants

These Pissy ant mounds are all over the property

The only decent size pecan tree is being devoured...each day there are less leaves on it...Grrrrrrrrrrrrr!


Same story for the pomegranate tree...


However...nothing seems to infest these pesky mesquites...full and lush as ever :-(




Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

Friday, June 14, 2013

A rainy day

Woke up to a rainy morning...actually woke up to the phone ringing, it was the mechanic wanting to know if it was raining here because he wanted to come check out the car.  He said "he thought he knew what was wrong with it"...I so wanted to say..."I don't want you to think what is wrong with it, I want you to KNOW it!"  But alas, I kept my mouth shut...finding a mechanic worth his salt is like looking for a needle in a hay stack.



I do not know if it was the weather but I was very sleepy today, even took a two hour nap.  Being the insomniac that I am...sleep is a wonderful gift.



Ants have eaten up this poor tree.  Hopefully the rains and the Fire Ant granules will help it thrive once more. Why can't they feast on those pesky mesquite trees?



Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

Thursday, June 13, 2013

Mechanic / Rain

No matter how many YouTube videos I watched there was no way I could possibly strip the cables going to the battery and install the new terminals.  So off I went to see how my poor mechanic was doing...you will recall last time I went...he was on his way to a doctor's appointment after having burnt his leg.

Still not up to par but was agreeable to come with me as he figured it would be an easy fix. Seems with my luck there is never a simple solution.  Even with a brand new battery the car did not want to start and it took him a while to get Mom's mini van going.

Took him back to his shop in said mini-van and I should have turned off and then re-started it...but I ignored my gut feeling...when will I learn???  Went to Home Depot to pick up more Fire Ant granules but when I turned it off it started sputtering and shaking...WTH!!!   I immediately turned it back on.  Decided I could put off buying the granules and came home.  It did the same thing when I turned it off here.  Ran inside to call him and nothing seemed to work until he told me to hit the accelerator...then it finally turned off :-(

Glad I timed it just right because after that the wind picked up and we got a pretty good storm from which we received .46" of liquid gold.  All my rain catchment receptacles got filled to the brim and even overflowed.  We are supposed to get more rain tonight and tomorrow but will have to pass on collecting it...what a shame!



Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Claire / Spurs Mania

Got up early so I could water the trees and plants and make an early morning run to town before the heat of the day set in.  I was going to drive dad's car but being the wimp that I am...I chose to go in the air conditioned car instead.

If memory serves me right (which due to my CRS, sometimes it does not) the last time I went by the Duck Pond was Friday.  Claire (the mare) was back at the same spot!  I will write about her in Walter's blog.  To go to his blog just click on the header picture or here http://mylittlewalter.blogspot.com/


HEB was full of customers wearing their Spurs jerseys and buying lots of beer for the viewing parties tonight.  I am happy to report that the Spurs redeemed themselves by blowing the Miami Heat in a worst fashion than they did us in Game 2 of the NBA finals.

Gasoline prices remain stable.



Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

Monday, June 10, 2013

I am over dozing on YouTube

For those that are new to my blog I will give you a little history of my ISP.  My first internet connection was through dial-up...MSN to be exact.  As soon as I could I graduated to DSL when I lived in Houston.  However, I had to keep my dial-up connection because in Del Rio we don't have much of anything and I needed it for when I spent time at my mother's.

I dropped my dial-up connection and upgraded to Cricket Broadband which was a POS and no better than dial-up.  Finally upgraded to Time Warner Cable.  I was never able to watch any videos or open up pages with a lot of stuff on them.  Just recently found a lot of interesting things on YouTube and was actually able to watch them!

I am in awe of all the useful things I can find there but had not ever been able to access.  So today I pretty much spent all day looking at videos.  Kind of helped me forget the horrible performance I had to witness last night in Game 2 of the NBA finals :(

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

Sunday, June 9, 2013

Here I thought I was only a bargain hunter

If you have been following me for a while, you know I love a good bargain.  If I happen upon one I jump on it and buy as many as I can.  I guess I got that from my mother, as a kid growing up in the 60's they did not have such things as the coupons we know of today.  HEB used to mail its customers a one page print out of various coupons but people were not into coupons at that time so our neighbor would give them to my mother.

I remember being able to buy a can of Campbell's tomato soup for .05 each limit 4 with that coupon. My mother, my cousin and I would separately go in with our coupon and buy them...dad would have no part in it...jajajaja!  We sure did have a lot of tomato soup at our house.

When I moved to the big city (Houston) coupons were all the rage, the good thing about that was that many stores doubled or triple them up to a certain amount and you could buy tons of stuff for practically nothing.

Does anyone remember Aurora toilet paper?  It was a very fancy toilet paper with flowers embossed on it and it came in many colors and patterns.  Krogers would put it on special for .69 or .79 cents a four pack and I would buy up tons of it and share it with my parents when I came home.  Same thing for paper towels and paper goods that were much cheaper to purchase in Houston.

My best friend always tells this story about the first time she came to my house...she said I opened up my pantry and proudly showed her all the cans I had...what stood out to her was all the ravioli ones.  She could not believe I had so many not just in the pantry but in boxes in my spare bedroom which was basically a large pantry in and of itself.

One of my co-worker was a Mormon and she would tell me that I would put her to shame.  She explained to me that in her religion they were supposed to have at least a year's worth of food to be prepared in case of an emergency and she didn't even have a month's worth.  Wonder whatever happened to Trudy?

I must say it did come in handy when hurricane Alice hit Houston back in the early 80's.  Everyone was running to the stores to buy up what they could...not me, I was prepared.  Even had a friend and his family come stay with me for a couple of days because they had no food, water or electricity at their house.

I have a van whom I affectionately call Terlita... she is my camping van and I always had her packed and ready to go with camping supplies, canned goods, water, beer, clothes, ammunition, my gun and a full tank.  Not because I feared a financial or social collapse but so I could be ready to go to the beach or to some other fun location at a moments notice.  Regrettably, Terlita is currently out of service.

If you are still reading at this point...you are wondering where I am going with this?  Well, after watching videos on YouTube on off grid living...I came upon some prepper videos and it hit home.  Here I thought I was only a bargain hunter...but I may be a prepper in disguise!  Who knew?

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.


Friday, June 7, 2013

Rain / Electronic Receipts / Fire Ants

Woke up to a cool, cloudy and rainy morning...it felt so much like...Spring!  We got .19" of rain and I managed to collect around 30 gallons in my rain catchment for dummies.  As you know it is comprised of various buckets, containers and trash cans.  I did say it was for dummies...didn't I?  :D

Did you know that you now have the option to receive electronic receipts of your purchases at Home Depot?  What a great idea, now I don't have to stuff them in shoe boxes and they will be a lot easier to find if need be.

Yesterday I managed to kill three large red ant fire ant mounds even though here in Del Rio they are not mounds but a hole in the ground where the darn things hoard their catch.  Today I found another one in the north part of the property and exterminated it as well.  Maybe now the trees will have a chance to thrive.

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Late blooming purple sage

A year ago in the latter part of May 2012 the purple sage in the area had some beautiful blooms http://terlinguadreams.blogspot.com/2012/05/sage-is-blooming.html   not so much this time around.  Only the sage by Walter's corral where I dump the water he refuses to drink has blooms of any significance this year.


The on going drought, lack of rain and red ants have taken their toll on the trees as well.  Mother has lost three pecan trees...even though I might have had a hand in that when I decided to prune them when I was not supposed to last year.  But Shhhhhhhhhhhhhh....let's keep that little secret to ourselves :-(


Got up at 7:00 a.m. to put out the trash and decided since I was already up might as well water the trees even though I watered them last night.   Yesterday (Tuesday) we got to 104 and today we reached 103 degrees so I wanted to make sure the trees, shrubs and plants had plenty of water.

Decided to make an early run to town before the heat of the day set in.  Tonight I watered the trees as well... as I might not be able to get to them...what with the NBA finals starting tomorrow.  GO SPURS GO!!!!!!

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.


Monday, June 3, 2013

Not the best of days

As I mentioned Friday when I took mother to get pre-registered at the hospital...I like to get this done before and not the day of, as there is always some computer glitch or problem that surfaces its ugly head.  Today was not the exception...they could not find her paperwork!  I was given a number instead and they would use that rather than her name.



I thought it was only my mother but I soon saw that they did this to all those that arrived.  Down computers again?  They just spent a bundle remodeling their facilities maybe they should of spent part of it on a new computer system?


Mother was scheduled for a CT and had to fast since 10:00 p.m. last night but she started at 8:00 p.m.   Her appointment was for 9:30 a.m. but of course she was not called until 10:45 a.m.  My mother is elderly and started feeling bad early this morning as she had to drink that white chalk like substance.  She was left to fast for 14 hours 45 minutes but it wasn't until we got home at noon that she was able to finally eat something. What is wrong with this picture?


They called her number and I went to the front desk and the technician asked me "why I had not given them the medications mother takes"...I told her "because you did not ask me"...to which she replied " Yes, I did"...I wanted to punch her because she was calling me a liar and where was she going to write it?  They did not have her paperwork!

As if that was not enough, earlier after I had dropped mother off in the front door I went to park the car.  Was making my way back to the hospital when I decided to stop and take a picture of the entrance.  That is when I noticed this well dressed lady with her fancy purse and laptop bag looking at me.  She purposely stopped and waited for me.

She asked me what news media I was with because she was not aware of anyone coming to take pictures.  I was going to have a cow if this woman told me that I could not take a picture of the outside of a PUBLIC hospital !!!

She was polite but very inquisitive and prying....you all know how I feel about prying strangers...GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!   I wanted so bad to tell her the article I was photographing for was going to appear in the Terlingua Dreams Times!  Was she perhaps the Public Relations Director for the hospital?  Who knows, who cares....she was a PIA!

So as you can see...it was not the best of days.

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.

Wander Wheels

A couple of weeks back Barney of Old Fat Man Adventures fame http://ofmadventures.blogspot.com  featured a cyclist couple that was making their way to Tierra del Fuego on his blog.

When he met them, they had already gone through Del Rio or I would have certainly made an effort to meet them.  They embarked on their trip on March 31, 2013 from Houston, Texas.

They are a young couple with a lot of dreams and determination...you have to have that to even contemplate making it to Tierra del Fuego...I have no doubt that they will accomplish their goal.  I love to read their daily posts and see all the challenges they had to overcome that day.

Their blog is filled with a lot of humor and they both have a very positive outlook on life.  I specially enjoy reading what they have found on the road on any given day.  From brand new with tags still attached Harley Davidson t-shirts, a dress, bottle of suntan lotion, new baby clothes...to just recently...boxes of ammunition just to name a few!

If you would like to check it out...this is a link to their blog http://www.wanderwheels.com/  once there click on Journal.

Good night.  May you all have Terlingua Dreams.