NQ99HQ

At NQ99HQ, one will find that we jump around from one topic to another.  That should make it interesting and it does archive our most valuable stories. Upcoming is Bud's Great Western Trip.  It is a recount as best we can piece together of  my dad's trip "out west" in 1929 with two of his buddies. There will even be some photos. You can now find that trip on nq99hq.wordpress.com. Also in the lineup will  be a story on the handmaking of cookie cutters and great holiday cookies made from these cutters. Check back.

Here at NQ99HQ we see a lot of songbirds---too many species to mention right here, so I will stick with wildlife sightings which are more unusual.  So far this year, unusual sightings have been a gray fox and her cubs, a western diamond back rattlesnake, two coveys of quail, a fair number of red-tailed hawks and owls and a few deer.  Feral hogs and coyotes are around, but we don't see much of them because they are night runners.  One should take note of the quail as this is the second year we have had nesting bob-white quail.  They have not nested in this area for some time until last year. It has been dry here for the last few years, which helps to keep the fireants down in the ground and it is known that fireants are a big problem for ground nesting birds. So, on to the fox. The gray fox showed up with her two pups just about dusk, and just at the time that the wrens were getting their fledglings out of the nest.  I thought the coincidence of the two events was rather notewor

Whoa... Long time no post, so we had best get with it. In the last 5  (has it been that long?) years, the mooooove has been completed, a larger area fenced off around the place so the longhorns are no longer looking in the front windows---they are a curious lot. Its taken a few years to get all things ironed out with regard to this newly constructed home.  Nothing fancy, but surely solidly built to last forever. Collecting rainwater is the way to go in dry, central Texas.  In this rural area, one has to either drill a water well (950 feet down into the Trinity Aquifer) or collect rainwater.  There are no other choices.  NQ99HQ depends on rainwater entirely.  Here, with no planted lawn and minimal gardens, the rainwater storage of some 22000 gallons is sufficient. One inch of rain yields about 3000 gallons.  The most significant problem is watching collected rainwater overflow the tank to the ground.  Here is a good article on the ins and outs of rainwater collection written by a pro