Welcome back, y'all, to the New House Blog. We are continuing to enjoy our Texas House, and to gradually shape and mold the little details as we see fit. In this Episode we will add some new things, subtract some old things, perform some minor repair work, and start a new edition of Back Yard Archaeology (BYA).
Addition One: The Hose Reel
At our California House we were able to use a ground-based
hose reel in front, and it worked great. At our Texas House, however, the hose bib location, and the lush vegetation, precludes the use of a ground-based hose reel in the front. So we decided to add a wall-mounted hose reel (some might call it a hose caddy).
We chose a location immediately above the hose bib, on the left-hand side of the garage, and we went to the local Lowes and purchased the appropriate hose reel. Next we went to the local Home Depot to purchase the appropriate mounting bolts and drill bit (which turned out to be a very small hole saw). Once home we marked out the mounting area with our handy chalk snap line.
The remaining holes were drilled, bolts and hose reel hardware were loosely installed, silicone was squeezed into the holes, and everything was tightened up. Next, the bright red, 100' hose was installed on the reel. Why red? Well, I was at Lowes, and while looking at the 100' hoses I was having a hard time deciding which grade of hose would be best, so I chose the contractor's grade, which turns out to the be heaviest and reddest.
Subtraction One: Old Elm
In the
previous Episode we mentioned some of our New House traditions. Another tradition we have is removing at least one mostly-dead tree from in front of our house. At our California House it was the mostly-dead
Thornless Honey Locust tree in the parking strip. At our Texas House it was a mostly-dead elm tree in our front yard.
This is the old Elm in question. And it's interesting how this came about. We had called a certain local tree service to inquire about removing a limb from a different (Oak) tree (more on that below), and we were waiting to hear back from them when Rosebrock Tree Services showed up unexpectedly on our front step. They were out canvasing the neighborhood, looking for business, and the timing was right, so we decided to use Rosebrock instead of the other service (which has still not gotten back to us). It seems that even here in Texas some services will just show up on our doorstep (so far we have not seen any door-to-door meat salesemen).
This old Elm tree was mostly dead, and potentially interfering with another tree's growth, so we decided to have it removed. Rosebrock Tree Service was on time and they were very professional.
Can you tell where the human(s) were edited out of this picture?
The tree continues to get smaller.
Almost done.
Done. We decided to keep a few pieces of the larger limbs for use as landscaping logs in our back yard, and possibly as firewood.
Addition Two: Entryway Plants
You may recall that our Texas House has two large planters by the front door. Said planters contained dead plants when we moved in, and after removing said dead plants we decided to add some live plants to said planters.
To the left-hand planter was added this T-Rex Aloe (aloe hybrid). Yes, that is its real name.
To the right-hand planter was added this Variegated Soft Agave (agave desmetiana variegata).
Here you can see both new plants in the entryway. They are both doing well so far.
Interlude: BYA
We had to close down the California Back Yard Archaeology site, but we continue with the project at our new Texas excavation site. Even though our Texas House is much younger than our California House, and only lived in by one family, we have been finding ancient artifacts - some, or all, of which seem to pre-date the previous owners, whom I shall refer to as the First Ones (because they were the first occupants of the house (not to be confused with the Old Ones, who were a completely separate people living in California)).
First up we have these two fine artifacts - the concrete slab and the segment of wire on said slab. The hand spade is there for size reference. Yes, folks, in our back yard is this random slab of concrete. As far as we know, our Texas House is the only house that has ever been on the property, so it's kind of a mystery why this chunk of cement is in our back yard. And where did the wire come from?
Also found in our back yard is this brick. It appears to be an ordinary house brick, but our house is not brick, nor are the neighbors' houses, as far as I know. Where did it come from? Why was a random brick in our back yard?
These old cans initially caused me some concern about wild parties held by strangers late at night on our property, but a closer inspection shows them to be very sun-bleached, and to pre-date the construction of our Texas House by several years (the dates printed on the cans range from 2003 to 2005, and our Texas House was built in 2010), so they seem to be ancient artifacts, and not recent party remnants. We're leaving the cans in situ for the time being, because they are a good marker for the border of our property.
Next up is this brightly-colored Top Flite Super Range golf ball, also found in our back yard. It's about 4/5 of a mile to the nearest golf course, so that must have been a world-record whack to get it all the way into our back yard (uphill, too).
A pattern of artifacts does seem to be emerging, but it is too early to discuss in more detail.
Addition Three: Euphorbia
Normally we don't go for the new-fangled, tacky grafted succulents and cactus, but when we saw this one we instantly loved it.
Meet our Euphorbia Lactea Crest Grafted (Euphorbia Lactea Cristata). You can see why we fell in love with this beauty. Look at all of that pretty purple foliage. And it's large enough that you can't really see the root stock onto which it was grafted. We found a prominent place for it in front of our Texas House. It seems to be thriving in its new home.
Subtraction Two: Old Oak Limb
There was a large, dead Oak Limb protruding almost into our deck/balcony area, and we decided early on to remove it. Initially I was planning to do the work, but due to the rough, sloping terrain, and my inexperience with large Oak Limbs, we decided to reach out to professionals to remove the offending Limb.
As you can see, this Oak Limb was perilously close to intruding upon our deck/porch. Being mostly dead, it was likely to fall on its own one day and possibly hit a deer.
It also would have provided a relatively easy path of escape should one of our little cats get out onto the deck/porch unsupervised.
Rosebrock Tree Service safely removed the old, dead Oak Limb the same day they removed the old, mostly dead Elm Tree.
Unrelated to Rosebrock Tree Service, or limb removal, check out this real, live cactus growing on the same Oak Tree. The most likely scenario is that a bird carried a cactus seed up into the tree and it sprouted there.
More PVC Repair
Our tradition of repairing/replacing broken or damaged PVC pipes continues.
This particular break (inside the black circle) was discovered while observing a waterspout shooting up from the front lawn in a place where there is no sprinkler, during a test run of our irrigation system. A little digging revealed the damaged pipe.
No, the camera did not add that curve to the PVC pipe - it actually curves, and it is very thin-walled. Both of these factors probably contributed to the breakage.
This repair was pretty simple - I simply cut out the damaged section and inserted a length of flexible PVC to accommodate the curve. As is tradition, I left some of the damaged PVC in the ground when I filled in the hole. So far there have been no other water spouts observed.
Local Wildlife
We finish up this Episode with some of the local wildlife.
The focus of this picture is the praying mantis, not the gnome-eating cat. Mantises are our friends, so we did not disturb this guy.
This is one of the many cicadas we have seen around our Texas House. They are usually dead within a couple of days of emerging from the ground. We are neutral regarding the cicadas, so we left this guy alone.
I had never before seen a lizard mid-molt, but that is what you are seeing here. We have several lizards, and A LOT of geckos, at our Texas House. Lizards and geckos are our friends, so we let them be.
Yes, this wildebeest is a local. No, he doesn't roam the neighborhood, and no, he's not in a zoo. Can you guess where he lives?
Bonus Final Photo
This colourful pole was photographed recently at the Oktoberfest celebration in Fredericksburg. What does it mean? Is it a tradition on Texas, or Germany? Are the various images significant somehow?
Now, where can I get me a pole like that for our front
bIsh
