What's New in the Neighborhood - June, 2002

Snake in the Neighborhood

We found this snake lying across our front door the other day. Beautiful, eh? Not poisonous, we think, but a little scary just the same. We tried to look it up in our snake book, but it's a herpatology text book and so detailed that we have a hard time finding anything. If you know what kind of snake it is, please tell us.

The Garden Flourishes

Planted in a 50-50 mixture of a purchased "Thunder Garden" mixture and fluffy composted horse poop from our friends' Jill & Eddie's horses, our tomatoes went wild. Here's what it looks like today. The fence, in case you were wondering how tall them tomaters in the back are, is 7' tall.

Big Construction Doin's

Up the road, our new neighbors whom we've not yet met, have just built a budgetless (they spent gazillions), 14,000 sq. ft. "weekend cottage". It's got 5 'thick walls containing some rocks bigger than my van, perfectly cut to fit without mortar by 150 Mexican genius masons. We've toured the house at 3 stages of construction (we know the construction manager) but now can't get past the armed guards. Saturday they will host a huge wedding for their daughter. They tried to get Harry Connick Jr. but his $150,000 asking price was a bit too steep even for them.

More Big Construction

Ron Howard is building The alamo and the rest of 1836 San Antonio on Eugene Reimers Ranch about a mile away from us. Yup, there's going to be yet another Alamo movie. And at the end, they are supposedly going to burn the whole town down. No, we can't get near this one either. This picture is shot from about as close as we can get.

Here's our Construction Project

We're putting in some rockwork and planters around the cistern. Please don't be too critical now, it's my first attempt at doing mortered rock. The planter you can see will go up about another foot higher.

And Here's the Family

Zac has found an interesting little rock (they all are to him). The beach is littered with evidence of our presence. Don't worry, it returns to its pristine condition shortly.

Swiftly Comes Annie

She is speeding down the river in the Kayak I got her for her birthday. Of course, then we had to get me one too. Mine is green. They are both Perception Sparkys. She calls hers Sparky, so I had to name mine Spunky. The two boats are having an affair.

She's a Happy Girl

And why shouldn't she be? She's been wanting a kayak for some time now. These weigh just 38 pounds so she can handle it by herself. Cool, huh?

And the Obligatory Happy Family Self-Timer Portrait

Per regulations, the photographer squeezing his head in anyplace he can. Reed did not just return from a hike. He was wearing his pack, ready to head up the hill, when we made him sit for this picture.