Back to work

Today was my first official day on this volunteer assignment at Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge. Even though I have volunteered here two times in the past, quite a bit has changed due to hurricane Ike's arrival in the fall of 2008.

The building on the right, with half of it blown away, was the Visitor's Information Center (VIS) the last time I was here. The temporary VIS, on the left, is a 10'X12' shed where I will work once a week greeting and informing the public. Besides demolishing most buildings, Ike also eliminated about 90% of the alligator population. There are no bullfrogs any longer in the pond behind the VIS. Shoveler Pond, on the auto drive loop has very little birdlife on it. In the past, it was teeming with waterfowl, turtles, gators, and other wildlife.

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After stopping in at the VIS to visit with Collin, another volunteer, I decided to drive all the roads in this part of the refuge to familiarize myself with what changes have taken place so I can be knowledgeable when I work the VIS tomorrow afternoon. Before and after my drive, Collin brought me up to speed on operating the VIS so I'll be comfortable tomorrow.

Since I'm back on a National Wildlife Refuge, you know I'm going to have more bird pictures to post. ;-) This is a tri-colored heron. Too bad he wasn't on my side of the fence

I drove down to the Bolivar Bay boat launch and found this cooperative Willet.

Willets are abundant on the refuge.

Two kinds of vultures occur here; this is a turkey vulture.

I snapped a fleeting photo of a female Cooper's hawk approaching one of the overlooks. There were also plenty of great blue herons, great egrets, killdeer, and snowy egrets around, but they weren't in the mood to pose. There are definitely less birds around than in the past, but I shall endeavor to seek them out for you.

Here's a quiz for you. What kind of sparrow do you think this is? If you guess the right answer, you just could win another diamond willow walking stick! I'll post the results at a later date. It's been about 9 months since I've run a quiz, so I thought it was about time.

The temps last night got down into the 20's, so my hose was frozen when I got up this morning. I switched over to the fresh water tank so I could brush my teeth, etc. Hopefully, I'm safe for the next week or so with the temps. The snowfall here yesterday, which quickly melted away, was the earliest snowfall on record for the Houston area. At this rate, I'm thinking my propane supply won't last through my ten weeks here. :(

Thanks for stopping by....talk to you later, Judy

A catch up day

I had hoped to get some pictures today, but it just wasn't to be. I really needed to catch up on chores around the motorhome, and do grocery shopping.

I headed for Beaumont, Texas, around 10:00. It's about 50 miles from here. It's really a toss up whether to go to Beaumont or Bayside (in the other direction). I like Beaumont, and was surprised that after two years, I remembered where my favorite stores are.

HEB (here everything's better) is a grocery chain in Texas that always seems to have an excellent selection of items. Finding a corned beef brisket in Texas isn't easy since this is the home of BBQ'ed brisket, but I felt confident I could find what I was looking for. I was correct. Although I only had a selection of two briskets to choose from, at least I found one. Whenever I'm at a refuge that has a volunteer building with a kitchen, I buy a corned beef to prepare. Boiling a corned beef in the motorhome is out of the question. That's too much moisture in the air inside for three hours! St. Patrick's day is the last time I was able to cook one. I'm looking forward to a favorite meal in the near future.

Once I got back to the RV, Emma needed some outside time, and I needed to fill the new two gallon water jug that I found at Walmart this morning. A larger reverse osmosis tank is supposed to be installed soon. That will certainly be an improvement. As it stands now, it takes at least ten minutes to fill a two gallon jug. That's with no one having filled a container since yesterday. I'm not sure how long it takes to produce another two gallons of good water, but a larger system will surely help. Three of the rigs here have occupants that are on the fire crew and they are in training at Aransas NWR this week. When they return, there will be seven rigs trying to get drinking water each day. That could take some time.

After we went back inside, it was time to try to tackle all the dried mud and pebbles that we had tracked in the last two days. My vacuum had to work overtime, but I got most of it up. I had planned to replace a set of rugs that I purchased back in 2005. There are five of them. Two on the entrance steps, one at the top of the stairs, one long one down the hallway, and one in the bathroom so my tootsies don't get cold in the middle of the night. :) They are rubber backed, and after four years of hard use, need to be replaced. They all match, and I purchased them from Camping World. Since there is a Camping World on the west side of Houston, I was going to put in a new set while I was here at Anahuac. Well, I think I'll still buy the new set, but after seeing the results of the mud, I surely won't put them down until I leave here. I'm glad I waited. These worn rugs can last another two months, and then I won't have to try to clean them anymore. That mud turns cement-like when it dries!

Ha Ha! Here's a news flash from the six o'clock news in Houston: The school district is going to keep the heat on overnight so students will be comfortable in the morning! For you folks up north, can you imagine a school not having the heat on overnight at this time of the year? What a hoot! With the threat of a couple of inches of snow, people here are getting all in a dither.

Fun times for the next couple of days....

Thanks for stopping by....talk to you later, Judy

Oh baby it's cold outside...

People in Houston are excited with the possibility of snow on Friday. To them I say "Bah Humbug!" I came south to avoid snow. ;) Boy am I happy, though, that I arrived yesterday. The winds today have been more than blustery. It sure feels like the wind chill is below freezing. I questioned Stephanie, the volunteer coordinator, today about this since she had promised me warm temperatures if I would come to volunteer. She had the audacity to insinuate that it was my fault for bringing the bad weather with me. Well, let me tell you that I am used to that. Many people have commented that they like me, but really hate to see me come in person because inevitably bad weather follows. Hey, I'm beginning to feel like Charlie Brown's friend Pigpen that has a cloud following him. ;)

I had my re-orientation to the refuge today. If the wind dies down tomorrow, I'll get some pictures of the new volunteer community building and the interim visitor's center. Looks like I'll be doing salinity checks, bird surveys, and visitor's center work besides helping to organize the education programs. I'm happy to have a variety of things to do.

I was assigned a refuge vehicle today so I can start checking out the birds soon. Tomorrow I have to go to town to buy a water jug. The only drinkable water is in the community building. It is a reverse osmosis system and presently, you can only get two gallons of water at a time. I'm thinking a two gallon jug will do. The water at the sites is OK for showers and dishes, but not for drinking. This is really not a big deal to me. I just need to get a new jug because my last one, that I used here before, finally bit the dust last week.

Since I have a full tank of propane, I'm going to give the furnace a good work out for the next three days or so. I hate being cold. I'll deal with possibly having to get it filled before I leave later.

Thanks for stopping by....talk to you later, Judy

I made it!

After waiting until 9:00 for the campground office to open, I was able to get the propane tank filled and hit the road for Anahuac. I drove about 50 miles down I-10 before pulling into a gas station for a fill up. I took on about 55 gallons. Filling up the motorhome usually takes about twenty minutes, and today was no exception.

Then I was back on the road and headed through Houston. There was some construction, but all in all the trip went smoothly until the last 20 or so miles. Then the winds picked up. First, they were head on, and then once I exited at Winnie, TX, they were blasting me from the driver's side. It was pretty white knuckle time the last 45 minutes.

It was apparent when I arrived at the volunteer sites that this area has received plenty of rain recently. There were standing puddles of water, and the two sites I had to choose from were very muddy. These two new RV sites are located right where the former volunteer building was located before hurricane Ike. They have only finished setting up these sites in the last few weeks. It's obvious no one has used them yet, as the gravel hasn't been packed down and clumps of mud and gravel stick to your shoes as you walk around. Yuck!!! I tracked in more mud and gravel onto my rugs just setting up than this rig has ever seen.

On the bright side, I was able to quickly set up the DISH in between rain showers. The forecast for the next week includes the possibility of plenty of rain, so I just may move to a paved site that will become available this coming weekend. I think I might really get fed up with so much mud for ten weeks. ;) We'll see what happens.

I'll meet with Stephanie, the volunteer coordinator, tomorrow afternoon to see what my schedule will be for the next two months. I'm happy to get back to doing something. Two and a half months off was enough.

Thanks for stopping by....talk to you later, Judy

The storm caught up to me

Well, last night, the storm front caught up with me. The winds were rocking the rig during the night, and had not abated by morning. So, I'm sure you can guess what I did....paid for another night. The temps never got above 50 today, and it rained off and on. There is supposed to be more rain tomorrow.

If the winds are fairly calm in the morning, I will head out after stopping next to the office to get the propane tank filled. Looks like I'm going to need the heat for the rest of the week.

The cooler temps fill Emma with more exuberance than normal (as if she needed any more energy...LOL). Taking her for a walk is kind of like trying to control the wind!

Other than those walks (?), it was an inside day today filled with TV and messing on the computer. I actually enjoyed the down time after covering 700 miles in two days. ;) Oh yes, one of my readers asked if I would increase the font size on the blog. I have done that, I think. Hope bigger letters helps.

Thanks for stopping by....talk to you later, Judy

Oil Wells, Wind Farms, and Roadkill Heaven

When you drive your rig 386 miles in a day with no one to talk to, it gives you plenty of time to talk to yourself. ;) What a road trip it was today! I started out from Fort Stockton, TX, and headed east on I-10. I've been trying to find a good word to describe western Texas...desolate?, seemingly uninhabited by humans?, starkly scenic with buttes and mesas?. Probably, all of those things apply. It seems that man has found a way to take advantage of this landscape by drilling below for oil and grasping the power of the wind above ground. I saw lots of oil wells pumping away and numerous wind farms with turbines plying the air.

As I got closer to San Antonio, I entered the "Texas Hill Country". Some steep grades, marvelous fall colors from atop the hills, and increased traffic were surrounding me. Since Emma was in her traveling crate, she didn't seem to appreciate my comments on the passing scenery.

A common factor to the changing terrains was the abundance of roadkill. Mangled deer were abundant enough throughout the trip to remind me of I-90 in Wisconsin. There were also raccoons, a few skunks, and an armadillo (now I really know I'm in Texas). It wasn't until my second trip to Texas that I saw a live armadillo.

The passing traffic, that left me in their dust, seemed to be dominated by deer hunters. I saw many buck racks in the backs of pickups going by. Each pickup also had several coolers on board. I'm sure these were packed with the butchered deer. That was quite unlike driving the roads in Minnesota and Wisconsin at this time of year. Hunters there just drape the deer over their pickups as they motor on down the road. Because of the warm temps in Texas, hunters must butcher their kills right away and transport the parts in coolers.

As I merged back onto I-10 after a stretch break for both Emma and me, I ended up right in the middle of the other four ladies (Maxine, Connie, Jo, and the fourth lady) from LoW-Hi. I waved and tooted as I moved around them, but don't know if they recognized me.

Eventually, I ended up at River Bend RV Park in Luling, TX, about 50 miles east of San Antonio. I had put the park's address in my GPS and it led me right to a cow pasture! Luckily, I had studied the map and knew that my destination was about five miles down the road. The cost for this Passport America Park is $12.50/night. I have full hookups and even ran into the resident goat, Sam, who has figured out how to get out of his pen to partake of the greener grass on the other side of the fence. ;)

Rain is forecast for tonight, but as long as it's not severe, I'll head out in the morning. I think it's under 250 miles to Anahuac NWR from here, so I should be able to get through Houston and settle in tomorrow. Since it will be my third time volunteering there, it should feel like arriving home.

Thanks for stopping by....talk to you later, Judy

A perfect travel day

I was on the road by 7:30 this morning and heading east. It was mostly cloudy with no wind. The clouds helped keep the bright sun out of my eyes all morning. Having no wind made the 337 mile drive comfortable and the traffic through El Paso was pretty light. I wish I could be that lucky when I go through San Antonio and Houston.

I'm trying to keep ahead of an approaching storm from the west. I'm glad I left today and didn't wait until tomorrow.

Four other ladies from the LoW-Hi RV Ranch left today also. They are traveling together in their four rigs to the Rio Grande Valley. They were more ambitious this morning than I, and left almost an hour before me. When I stopped for lunch just past Van Horn, TX, at one of the few rest areas, lo and behold I found them all having a picnic lunch as I took Emma for a walk. Emma was excited to see her two canine friends from the park. They will be staying at the local Walmart tonight. I don't do Walmarts, so I am set up in a Passport America Park (Parkview RV Park) with full hookups and cable for $12.

This park is pretty much like camping in a fairground lot, but I don't need any more than that for my overnight stay. There was some excitement a little earlier as a large group of young people invaded the bathroom/shower building. My guess is that they are not staying at the park, as two police patrol cars showed up a short time later. The group had already left, but the police spent quite a bit of time speaking with the owner and inspecting the building.

It's about 500 miles to get to Houston from here, so I'll be busy tonight figuring out one more place to stay before I get to Anahuac NWR. I need to find a park that sells propane so I can fill up the tank and be ready for my stay at Anahuac. I hope the wind Gods are with me again tomorrow.... ;)

Thanks for stopping by....talk to you later, Judy