GREENING OF EAST TEXAS - SV AIRSPEED VIDEOS - 2 CHAIRS

I had just gotten "BOB" back from the shop, repaired and serviced for the season. The bride wanted to go visit neighbors and I found the time to explore their far fields and take a few pics. The early morning sun was perfect for  capturing some of the natural beauty of these lands as the Texas rain and sun play March going into April. I often refer to these days as the greening of east Texas. 

I also had the opportunity to visit some of the damage on neighbor's hillside from the baby tornado of a few weeks back. The hillsides and morning sun were perfect for photography. The baby tornado has left its mark across big swaths of our large neighborhood giving reminder of how the best of times and the worst of times can, at times, be seen together.

Large piles of debris are burning as the wet weather and winds permit. This coming week is filled with rain showers and some thunderstorm activity and will also be helpful for me getting flats of green and red bell pepper plants in the ground.  There is magic associated for how quickly things grow here.

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FROM "CAPTAIN AIRSPEED" two weeks ago.

 

"Two days ago we left Ensenada Sun Bay on the southern cost of the island of Vieques. There's not a lot to do there. We picked up anchor and made the 50ish nautical mile transit to Culebra. The minute we hit the southeastern tip of the island and turned north, we raised the main and the Yankee and were immediately catapulted to nearly 10 knots. This boat loves 60 degrees of apparent wind like you cannot imagine. We anchored in relatively close quarters to too many other boats and the holding was suspect. We spent a calm night there and went ashore for dinner that way too mediocre to justify the price. We spent $160 for the four of us to essentially have comfort food and four bottles of water. 

We came back to the boat and the next morning decided we would leave for  Charlotte Amaile at St. Thomas USVI. I never could have imagined the conditions that were about to present themselves. We knew that some wind was coming but not this much and not this soon. We clocked 32 knots at 000 degrees AWA right on the nose. The seas were extremely confused and steep building to 8'.

This boat is like a piece of fine art. Every time you stare at it you see something new, revealing and amazing. Every time we put it to the test, it devours the test and shows us how absolutely capable it is. 

As we got closer to St. Thomas, the sea state settled and the wind laid down quite a bit. We were always within a mile or two of our buddy boat who has been a great friend and cruising buddy for the 5th season in a row now. We have become fast friends and have had a good time together. 

We slowed down some to wait for him to catch up as we were going to be navigating through a tricky and narrow cut. Once he caught up, we made our way through and anchored in a beautiful anchorage called Charlotte Amalie, which is the cruise ship terminal as well as the downtown of St. Thomas. 

The crossing across the virgin passage was formidable but safe and not uncomfortable aboard Airspeed, but other boats looked to be having quite a ride.

It is really beautiful out here and this boat is absolutely incredible. The new boat is 100 times the boat that the last one was, and I loved the last one."

 Quite a ride indeed.

I have been sharing the adventures of the family sailing on SV AIRSPEED for the past few seasons. In my heart, I would love to take up their offer to come join them for awhile, but it is too late for me. A fact of life. 

"Facts are Stubborn things" (John Adams)

and I have been fortunate enough to take times when I was younger to have adventures such as this. But knock off 15 years from this old mind and body, and some of these stories would be from the decks of SV Airspeed and the photos taken outward. Regardless, I do love this stuff to the "Nth" degree.

Sailing SV Airspeed is proof that we should all live dreams and adventures when we are young. I am a firm believer in the now. 

When you become my age, you can sit back, write stories, share photographs and share advice to younger folk having earned and learned some of the meanings of life along the way.

And to my good friends on SV Airspeed, write stories now, everyday. 

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2 CHAIRS

Finally power washed and ready for the bride and me to rock away time surveying our kingdom and soaking up the warmth of the days ahead. Neighbors driving by will stop, pull in the driveway, pull up a couple lawn chairs and we will talk an hour away about nothing!

 Thanks for the visit this week.

 

 
 

MIDDLE SCHOOL SHOP CLASS PROJECT - SV AIRSPEED - WARM WINDS IN EAST TEXAS - JIBBER JABBER

 8th grader's shop project earns top grade in class.

I have been dragging my feet getting up a post. No reason other than foot dragging.

While cleaning out email, I find this from Foxhat in New Hampshire. Proud grandmother posts her grandson's shop project he built for her. A very special basket for her kitchen (wipes). My bet is that this basket has a special spot in her kitchen forever. She will also share this with friends who visit, boasting "look at what my grandson built me." 

What I love about this project is the solid look and solid build. Simplicity in design and function. 

I can see that proud smile on your face "K." Get some cookies on the bake for his next trip to the farm. Like I even had to suggest that? 

My wife says this is "birth of a family heirloom." Agreed!!

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MIDNIGHT SAIL (SV Airspeed) sailing the midnight watch and to myself I sing; "I realized why twice you ran away."

 The mood bright enough to sail at night nearing Puerto Rico,

and the sun rises on calm seas. Moments like this, huh? Hope someone is writing a book here.

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WARM WINDS blow in east Texas,

and chainsaws sing in the early mornings and after lunch and a nap. Large burn piles rise from the empty fields around us. When weather permits, these vestiges, once picturesque and long friends of the lands, will be burnt and returned.  They will enrich the soil and a new circle of things growing will begin again. The recent "baby tornado" is still a ways from being cleaned up and other property damage repaired.

 

Our backyard and neighbor's back yard are very good examples, although small scale, of some of the tornado damage. 

The wife and I picked up limbs and small debris yesterday afternoon. Lots of work for seemingly little visual improvement. Then we sat down to take a break and "who knew" how cleaning up a few small limbs and some debris contributes to to the big picture?

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JIBBER JABBER

Officially Spring, frost chances are over I am told, daylight savings time and body time still at some odds. Baby flowers sprouting, onions growing and yard work progressing.

A road trip to Mineola Saturday to shop a wonderful nursery just west on highway 80. The bride filled her hand cart and we headed home. Wifey smiles and talking of how she is going to plant gate entrance flowers. Will share.

REACHER SEASON 3  movie night review.

I am not sure that sharing movie/TV series reviews requires anything more other than an opinion on what we like or what we do not like. 

We are fans of the REACHER series. Action-filled, bad guys, good guys and so forth. But season 3 lacks on every scale of measurement and opinion. The actors do not fit, interact or reflect who they are trying to be. No chemistry and the kissing and brief sex encounter could not be more fabricated. Wet mops would have been more interesting. 

The acting is force fed on all accounts. Simply said, nope, we do not like it "bigly." A gigantic let down over seasons one and two.

The final episode, and I concur with some of what others hint at, that this last episode needs a gigantic finish just to save the season. I have zero hopes.

Last night her and I opted to start season 1 over again and instantly fell back to enjoying REACHER. Alan Ritchson was more believable as an actor and kick ass character. All other actors in that season brought an "A" game to their characters.  The only things saving Season 3 this year are Season one and Season two.

Appreciate the visit this week.

F1 TORNADO - "THERE BUT FOR THE GRACE OF GOD" - JIBBER JABBER

Being in the touchdown path of an F1 Tornado was never on my bucket list.

We were watching the radar track the storm from Dallas towards us. Yellow, orange, red with a middle of ominous dark red color. That was the part of the storm we would eventually encounter and that was the part of the storm that worried me. 

There were also radar warning zones tracking on the leading edge of the storm showing "Tornado Watch" and Strong Thunderstorms."

We had lost power an hour earlier just prior to daybreak. Our home generator kicked on. We moved our basket of keys and important papers to the shelter and then we followed, bundled up with winter clothes over our "jammies." We pulled up two lawn chairs and watched. 

As the storm drew closer we moved into the shelter and I bolted the 4 bolts on the door. The shelter is made from hardened steel able to withstand penetration from a .308 hunting round. We watched through the carport, down the driveway and towards the front road that passes by our house.

The wife jokes that she used to gather with friends, a case of beer and chase tornado's when she was in college. She calls an F1 Tornado a "baby tornado." She has also told me several times that a tornado can be heard just a moment before it arrives. Sounds like a freight train, she says. And it does! How many times has my youthful narrative of playing with friends also included a case of beer?

I stepped to the side of our small window view so she could peak out too. The "freight train" did indeed sound and wall of weather moving through and over our home was just that. I have searched for words to help describe the inside of this skipping tornado through our neighborhood. I have experienced quite a few thunderstorms pass and a few microbursts in my years. But these were strong winds. A tornado, even this "baby one", was a compact wall of wind and debris. Wind and rain so tightly packed that it appeared to be a moving solid. It lasted for a long minute. There is no way, other than a miracle, that a human body could survive in the open in this type of weather event. 

I'll not forget this baby tornado and my wife will no long have to coax me into the shelter as future storms approach. I am still teachable. 

The radar showed the storm pass, the red touch down zone of the tornado and  our neighborhood was in the middle of that path. An F1 tornado causes extensive damage.

In pelting rain, folks emerged. One neighbor with his tractor. First words out of his mouth, "you alright?" We were. I had just made a walk around the house and confirmed we had been lucky. No trees on or threatening the home. Debris yes, but the home not damaged.

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My wife and I followed him in our side by side. I had thrown in my small chain saw just in case.

Folks in this small part of our neighborhood were out laying the ground work for repairing a local home so a neighbor could be back "dried in" by the end of the day. 

Just before sun set Tuesday, that home had a new metal roof replaced and a vertical wall repaired to original condition. The young man organizing these folks lived close by and was adamant that who ever needed any kind of help would be addressed him and his crew as needed.  He was also absolute in the fact that there would be no costs to anyone for anything!! Not open for discussion.

Neighbors who could not help with the reconstruction, fed the crews that day. Everyone worked. My wife and I had a few neighbors over for a warm lunch as they had no power. A little thing, but home made chicken soup and a sandwich were the least we could do.

My son, a lineman in NH, warned me over the phone to be careful of "widow makers" when outside cleaning up after a storm like this. He said the first 24 hours is the most dangerous time from falling debris hanging in trees. He was correct. I found this widow maker just outside our front fence.

Here the power company working was one of the many trees taking down the power lines. This is a good photo of trees that have taken down farmers' fencing too. This small passing tornado left a path of downed trees like the ones pictured above.

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CATS

I think both cats have a story to tell from the passage of this tornado. They were gone for 36 hours and we feared the worst. The cats have been gone before and have always returned. But this was their first tornado.

Shortly after midnight on Wednesday, they came to the bedroom window yelling they were home and "get up and feed us." Both none the worse for wear, skittish and weary, they ate and then ran back to whereever they must have weathered the storm. They were/are fine.

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JIBBER JABBER  

Storm damage and clean-up owned this past week and will into the next few months. There is costly damage to many folks homes and properties around us.

As I get older and speak to some of that here often, this past week proved some things in life to hold true over time. Using the small tractor and small trailer, I was out picking up debris. A big clean up task for us and I will pick at it a little at time. 

Turing around is one of the debris piles, I picked up a limb that could not be removed. It had wound itself around the axle and could only be remove by removing the tire. I had a workable clean-up routine going only to be sidelined by a little thing. Always seems to be a little thing that can shut down work in progress. Good news was that I had tools to get the job done, just shut down my project and flipped my switches turning on bad attitudes. 

Weather warming some this week. Planting wild flowers today and picking up more debris. We did find a leak over the stove vent on the roof, shutting down our kitchen stove and vent fan. Roof guy is promised to arrive this morning. Side by side needs more mechanical attention right at the time I need it the most. 

Not complaining, really! By the grace of God, we were spared big damage from the touchdown of a passing tornado.

Have a good week, appreciate the visit.
 

 

 

 

 

DIRT THERAPY - CINNAMON ANTS - LAP CAT - AIRSPEED UPDATE - JIBBER JABBER

With warmer weather and a little desire to get some kind of garden started, I found myself sitting on a homemade stool yesterday, playing in the dirt. Red onions planted to the right and the middle planter was being cleaned of weeds, new dirt added along with compost, food and a bag of potting mix.

My mother taught me long ago, along with my grandparents, the feel of good dirt. Texture, crumble, moisture, color and experience. Good dirt feels good and I am at a loss of a more in-depth explanation. Bad growing dirt feels bad; hard, no adhesion, no moisture and no color of nutrition. So, the middle bin above had just completed the transition to becoming "good dirt."

I found that sitting there running my hands and fingers through the dirt to be a simple pleasure. Quiet time with a satisfaction that this day and moment was officially starting my growing season. Although weeks late as far as the onions go, it was still a start. I had purchased the last two bundles of red onion sets the day before from a local nursery. 

The cardboard on the ground between these two beds had been a makeshift covering covering the right hand bin. When I removed it for planting the onions, there was not one weed in the bin. The bin to the left was full of weeds and needed a complete cleaning and re-make. Lessons I knew, just had not practiced. Bin #3 to the left a very good example of neglect.

CINNAMON DIRT

The three round bins in the garden this season will be wild flowers. Fun color and an invitation for more bugs, bees and insects that pollinate. Mostly, though, for less to take care of other than watering. 

This particular bin was full of red ants. They have been here for months and were in my sights all along. I cleaned out a layer of weeds and turned the ant hill over and over. Then a bottle of cinnamon seasoning was emptied on the dirt. Cinnamon is not poison to anything planted, but the ants hate it. They tend to move on. A little more cinnamon around the outside base today or soon.

Now I will add "good dirt" and prepare this bin for the bride to sprinkle in her mixture of wild flowers and then give all of this to God and Texas rain. 

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CAT SNUGGLE 

Quality days for my wife and me are time spent in the carport, sitting in lawn chairs after some yard work and soaking up the onset of the warm winds of spring and summer. A blue sky, a rising sun an inch or so each day along with new shadows. And the consistency of her cat.

Since she was a kitten, barely weened from her mother, my wife's cat has taken to her. Our two cats follow us around like dogs. Meowing advice or complaints and often pushing us to park ourselves so they, too, can find important cat moments of closeness. My cat is standoffish. But she is my cat. No lap time but rather a drop dead moment on the warm cement in front of our chairs. Her meow is quiet as if it is a necessary forced comment on these kinds of moments. But wife's cat seeks her lap and quickly puts a face to what relaxing should be. 

If my wife moves or adjusts herself for comfort, her cat has to comment. Eyes somewhat open, verbally pushing her for the perfection of her lap time. It works! 

All four of us enjoying the welcome warmth of seasons change and closeness of this family. 

And after all of these years here we have finally put out bird food. We fed the birds in New Hampshire and had to fight with the bears and squirrels. Not here, though. Birds of all sizes and shapes are starting to flit filling in voids to this picture. A good day.

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AIRSPEED BOAT #2

 

Our good and younger family friends are at a dock somewhere south of the Bahamas. A newer boat for them with more room.

I have had my sailing days in the beauty of the Pacific Northwest.  But being on boats and on the water has always set me at ease. And I knew this years ago that if I was going to want for this, it needed to be done then, not when I got older. I did not miss these kinds of adventures. They are good memories now. 

From the "Captain"

"We sailed 700 miles in 20 days, so we've been on the move a lot. We're hoping to start really soaking up the enjoyment. Unfortunately, I got food poisoning two nights ago which knocked me out all day yesterday. Late last night, our oldest son got very sick and his mother is not feeling well now. And, of course, our youngest son has a stomach made out of a cast iron boiler and he was and is completely fine."

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 JIBBER JABBER

Finally, a normal Sunday post, on time, on the schedule at least for this week.

Worldly things seem to be of less and less importance in the life of this blog. Maybe just a hiccup, but I am finding more and more that grabbing the little things along each day are more important. 

I am loving afternoon naps, but I have had a life time of practice. The noise here in the land of farms is quiet. Maybe a car passing, a tractor pulling a load of hay to a far off field of cattle or the chimes on the porch reporting break that quiet. 

My wife put a chuck roast in the crock-pot last night and we awoke to the smell of home cooking this morning. Breakfast consisted of fall-apart roast covered in fresh gravy. The first time in years, I have not had a fried egg for breakfast. Not having to cook a lot is also becoming more and more "a thing." Warming up leftovers is becoming a desired norm for us. Call me lazy.

Thanks for the visit this week. "Times they are a changin"