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 ...

Back to Cuero, Texas

You may recall the museum display of some 2000 reamers, or "juicers" as we always called them---the kitchen device that you use to squeeze the juice from a half of an orange.. That display is enough to draw one to this museum, but we read more recently that the museum is the new owner of a vast collection of hand painted Japanese porcelain cups, saucers and tea pots. So, a trip to Cuero on the 25th of March, but first lunch now that we have arrived in Cuero about noon. We went to a place familiar to us, the Main Street Kaffee haus and bakery. The special for the day was either barbequed beef on a waffle or barbequed beef spaghetti. I advised the congenial order person behind the order counter that both sounded horrible. Dee made amends for me by saying that I was a traditionalist when it came to barbeque. I picked up on that and ordered a bbq beef sandwich. It was good. Here is the inside of the self order café. The café is owned by ...

Cat's nightly Vigilance

The Cat, aka Amber, has taken up a position at the front door side windows for the last few months. These side windows go all the way to the floor, so she can crouch there and look out at whatever happens outside. There has been a stray cat that wanders by on occasions and we often wonder if the stray cat is what she waits for each night. Not at all sure how a cat who has only seen her mother some years ago can recognize another cat out the window, but that is a whole other story. So, we happened to think that maybe the raccoon is her nightly visitor. So, last night we put the game camera on the front step, and sure enough, there it is. We wonder what the raccoon thinks when it sees the cat grinning through the glass pane?

NQ99HQ

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