Tarantu-Kong

I've posted pics of tarantulas around our property before, but this guy was big enough to eat most of those others. Over four inches long from toe to toe. He was hanging around a wet spot on our front porch, I guess getting a drink. After this photo opp he climbed up the house wall and seemed to be trying to get into the house through a window, which Ann captured on video available here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NV_IVpCKD30

Spring Time in October

The dramatic end to our drought in the hill country has really fooled all the plants. Everything has turned green, and flowers are blooming like it's April. So we decided to go along with the game and do some Spring gardening. We went to nearby Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center and got some native grasses to test out in the backyard. If they survive (anything but a sure thing based on my experience) we'll plant some more next year.

Getting a Handle on Things

Handles on kitchen cabinets may not be too exciting to anyone reading this. But after living without them for 10 months I'm downright fired up. Reaching in to try and pry out a drawer or door with no pulls is interesting once, then completely annoying every time after that. So courtesy of my Internet shopping experience which produced these pulls for half the cost of the identical item at Home Depot, we are finally starting to get a handle on things in the kitchen. Lookout master bath cabinets, you are next.

De-watered Watering Hole now Re-Watered

Not long ago I took this photo of Alex standing in our mini-pond, which is normally somewhere between a puddle and a wide spot in our creek. In the nine years I've been watching the pond it had never gone dry. Until this year with the great drought of '09, which set all kinds of records.

Looking around Wimberley, things look better but with lots of dead stuff and bare dirt still around. And officially the drought can't be considered to be over until the aquifer is back to normal levels. As the graph below shows, another ten feet and we'll be there!

Probably Deep Thoughts in There

My brother Russell and I moved this deck down the hill to overlook our tiny Wimberley pond more than four years ago. I still remember the looks Ann was giving us as we dragged/pushed/rolled the 250 pound deck sections down the hill. She was new to Wimberley then and probably trying to figure out if she'd be able to tell the EMT's or Morgue folks how to get to property. So the look Ann has on her face in this picture, while not one of wild enthusiasm, is considerably brighter.