Catching Up After a Long Lapse

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 professional: www.jclonline.com/residential-rainwater-collection-systems.aspx

Hard to believe, but collecting rainwater for whole house use is not permitted in two states!

NQ99HQ sits on about 50 acres and we have our share of wildlife. More on that later.

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Aermotor Windmill Lives

The Aermotor windmill is probably the oldest iconic windmill In the United States today. We bought one that was very old at a seller's booth at the Round Top antique market. This was back in the late 1900s. So that makes it 20 years ago or so. We first erected this windmill In Fulshear in the backyard. We had to get Architectural Control Committee approval to do this. Because some of our neighbors may have some bad experiences with a neighboring windmill, we had to assure them that we would not let the brake slide and provide that nasty shrieking noise. Other than that, there was no objection to looking at a windmill. W e erected the windmill in Fulshear. It was quite a chore for us as we had no idea where all the parts fit together and how they were arranged. For example, we learned that the sail wheel with its struts is built with the same concept as a bicycle wheel with its spokes. After much head scratching and consulting the internet we had it to ...

A Wimberley Spoofie

Of all the choice restaurants and cafes in the area for lunch, the likes of Dairy Queen, Whataburger, and others, we often choose to have lunch at the Quik Cafe. Now, the Quik Cafe is no ordinary cafe, because here you can not only have lunch at a real table, but can also buy all sorts of things that you don't need, but best of all, you can get your car fueled up with Exxon gasoline. When we have guests in town, we take them to the Quik Cafe; well, maybe not for lunch but certainly for a coke or two. The Quik Cafe's gasoline pumps are always in full use with cars and trucks filling up because the price is competitive with unbranded gasoline and is always 20 cents less than that of the other major brands in this small town. When we have lunch in the cafe section of the store, we always opt for the chicken tenders. Often times, we can strike up a chat with some one of the more colorful characters who make Wimberley their home. One time we ev...

Market Forces in the Everyday

The world has been busy at the production of "stuff"---too busy in fact. This is taught to us everyday for those of us who are trying to divest ourselves of our "stuff", which has been collected over many years and now has to go---not sure to where, but has to go. Of course, all of this is too good to junk, but not good enough for a high end auction. In between are the large number of other outlets like donation to charity, yard sale, gifting, etc. But, the question always arises: What is this thing worth? The answer is important to most, because if this "thing" is worth a lot, its a candidate for selling. If not, then its a giveaway or charitable donation. The reality is that most of what is treasured is worth very little, all do to the phenomenon of over production. Like, who needs another cookbook? As a case in point, we assisted yesterday with the semiannual FOL book sale. On the front door, the first day of the sale we posted the sign: ALL ...

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