Maiden Voyage of the Ursula 2

Hooray! The Ursula 2 has launched and nothing broke so far! It's a miracle!

Last Friday, on Lee's first official day retired from Apple, I came home as early as I could, having already stocked up on food products from Costco, ready to head to Hermit's Rest Ranch. I hadn't been there in a while, so I was really looking forward to it. It would be a short trip, but at least some nature bonding for me.

Lee had been to the ranch more recently, because he and Ruben, our contractor/partner had installed the electrical box, only to find that the wires weren't actually hooked up. He got the Electrical Co-op to come out and fix that, but they made Ralph (ranch neighbor) irritated because they didn't know how to get into the property, having lost the combination to the lock. Anyway, we're sorry. But we are glad to have electricity!

The drive out to the ranch was not bad at all, and pulling the Ursula 2 is not hard on the truck, just on the gas mileage. We got to Cameron before dark, which made it much easier to set up. Also, a great help was the fact that Ralph had mowed us a path and a nice circle in the beautiful, tall green grass in the pasture (what a lovely sight!). So he can't be too mad at us.

Ursula 2 parked in the hay pasture

We ate salads and spent the rest of the evening organizing the stuff Lee’d quickly put in the cabinets while he was moving out of Ursula 1. There is a lot of storage, but it’s different, so I am still not quite good with how the kitchen is set up. We also made lists of all the things we needed to get to finish outfitting her, like towel racks, a toothbrush holder, and trash cans. Little things that the old RV had already had, since she was used.

And of course, we opened the ceremonial first bottle of wine and drank out of the nice new wine glasses I’d gotten at Costco. We only had stemless ones in the old RV, but Ursula 2 has a wine glass holder, so we had to have ones with stems!

Ceremonial first wine! Nice step stool, huh

We were wondering how the king sized bed with the Donald Trump Deluxe Pillow Top Mattress would sleep. (I like to say the whole thing.) And it was pretty good! I slept very well, though we hadn’t turned the propane on, so it got chilly in the night. I’m relieved to report the propane works just fine.

The awnings do, too. They have nice coordinating stripes on them. Snazzy. Also there are two settings, low and high. That’s nice, because on the low setting you can’t see much out the windows. But it would block morning or evening sun.

Stripey awnings

Saturday was, to put it simply, a very nice and restful day, with nothing earth-shattering happening. We need more of those! In the morning we goofed off and drank coffee. At one point I took off for a walk to see how the other side of the property was doing. I got to use my new stile to cross over into the woods. I felt special.

A stile with style!

We also have a nice new gate to get from Wild Type Ranch to ours. It’s quite handy for moving those cattle, I’m sure.

I wandered through the woods, which looked almost as pretty as Palmetto State Park in some places, then I sat and looked at the pond for a while. That was fun because as I approached I scared what appeared to be tiny frogs. As they jumped into the water, each one of them said, “Eep!” really loudly. It was so sweet!

There were a lot of turtles in the pond (and tadpoles for them to eat), including one very large one. It swam off very quickly, so I couldn’t tell if it was just a big regular turtle or a snapping turtle. I still can’t figure out how they all get into the ponds anyway.

My very own green, pretty woods. I am lucky.

Where are the frogs and turtles?

Scenic 5th wheel and willow--spring area is near the tree

I wandered off to see if the marshy area had water, and hooray, it did! The spring seems to be working again, and there was a reasonable amount of water flowing from it. Well, not flowing, more like seeping, but still that was nice, because there was no water in the creek on our side that I could see (Lee says there is water further back). I enjoyed looking at lots of flowers and weeds, and taking pictures of the Ursula 2 from scenic angles.

Evidence the spring has water

But, it was time to go buy supplies for the new 5^th wheel in the bustling metropolis of Temple, Texas, a mere 40 minutes away. It’s the same place we always go, but I am trying to make it interesting. We had a passable lunch at a Taco Cabana, then got all the wonderful things we needed at Target and Home Depot. We had all the stuff we needed for the Ursula 2—towel racks and everything!

Most important, from Lee’s point of view, was mounting brackets for the gigantic new sound bar he’d bought, because the sound system the Ursula 2 came with was just not good enough for him. Heck, you can’t have an RV with no holes in the giant television now, can we?

He did get it all finished, while I wandered around and took pictures of wildflowers, and even me in flowers. See, fun day, yes!

Lovely bluebonnets and vetch

Me in the flowers. That's what you do when there's no one to take the traditional Texas bluebonnet photo.

Eventually we ate more Costco delicacies, and then Sara came by to see the 5^th wheel in all its fanciness. She also came to chat, which was pleasant, since the last couple of times I’d seen her had not been chatting opportunities.

It was early to bed, because I had to sing at church in the morning…so that was it for the visit. Lee is back at the ole ranch today, with plans to perhaps make a trench for installing WATER for the trailer! Electricity AND water! Wow! We are moving right along in the ranch department!

We do have plans to head back at the end of the month…then we will head out to the big 90^th birthday celebration for Lee’s dad.  Then who knows what the summer will bring? Maybe a slightly more exciting trip, or more ranch improvements?

Welcome to Hermit's Retreat Ranch!

We are now the proud possessors of 52-ish acres of undeveloped property, now known as Hermit's Retreat Ranch. So far it has a culvert and "road" made by workers who have replaced old wooden electric poles with fancy metal ones (which are really high and less obtrusive) on the line that runs smack through most of the ranches in our area. Anyway, here Lee and Ralph shake hands to commemorate our closing

Tasmanian Ralph celebrates shedding some boggy land and a pasture from his lovely ranch.

Ursula will be spending most, if not all her time at Hermit's Retreat as soon as we build her a place to park. Of course, we first have to get water and electricity in (making progress on that) and the all-important heavy-duty septic system installed (among Ursula, our barn, and our distant-future house, we will have many bathrooms).

So, our US Memorial Day weekend activity, after a lovely wedding reception in Pflugerville (where there are actually people named Pfluger still), was to head out and do some ranching. This is going to be a SLOW process, I think. I drove our pickup truck behind Lee in Ursula. The long and winding way...

We got there right as the sun was setting, and had hoped to park by our pond/tank. But, there was construction equipment there, so instead we parked in the same spot as last time, by the Willow Pond. We were most disappointed to learn that the steaks we were going to eat for dinner were left at the house. Oops. We were much MORE disappointed, though, before we would even leave, when we saw this:

What's wrong with this picture?

Argh, one of Ursula's windows is shattered. At least it's safety glass, so it held together during the trip. We have many theories as to what happened. At first we thought it had been shot, but the hole doesn't go all the way through, and the security is SO tight around the RV storage place, it is unlikely. We also thought maybe a bird flew into the window, but there was no dead bird (could have been eaten, of course). A rock hitting it was another idea. We ruled that out at first, since no one can drive fast enough around there to throw rocks up, but it was also suggested that maybe the owners ran a weed-whacker and sent a rock flying. Could be. In any case, dang it, it's broken. It does make a nice background for a giant fly, though.

Disgusting Horsefly

Oh yeah, the rear a/c still doesn't work, and though we tried to get propane so we could cook, the Flying J truck stop's propane dispensary was closed. No cooking, again. On the bright side, the water pump decided to work after giving us a scare. Eh, we gave up and went to sleep.

Sunday morning, Lee had to work, so I went out and knitted and looked at the nature. I saw five distinct types of dragonflies/damselflies, at least, on the pond, plus turtles (a snapper!) and a bunch of scissortail birds in a mating frenzy. Here is the most beautiful thing I saw, in a photo later taken by Lee.

The loveliest dragonfly.

What a beautiful shade of violet these were, and hard to photograph, too, because I think this was the ONLY time we saw one rest. Here are two other really cool ones:

These at least sat still some.

This one looks like a tiger or zebra!

I love Lee's new gigantic camera lens! I wish I'd had it when I looked up, thinking Sara and Ralph's dogs were coming to visit. Then I noticed the "dog" had about ten little beings going "wee wee wee" behind it. That was no dog; it was a feral sow and piglets! I tried to get a picture. But the phone camera, combined with really high grass, reduced Mama Hog to a black dot.

Hog is in the center, directly above the green bush. Really.

I went back in Ursula after this...and then we decided that since it was Memorial Day, and people visit cemeteries to honor the dead and fallen heroes, we should do an activity. We went to the barn to get Hilda the utility vehicle and a weed whacker. Then we went over to Heinrich's grave and cleared the growth that had covered his tombstone since last year's drought cleared it so nicely. We didn't get very far, but it certainly amused the cattle. I took some pictures of the old gate and fence, which we hope to repair.

Lee is closely observed as he tries to get rid of some thistles.

The gate (broken tombstone behind it)

The gate came from Ohio! Wonder if it was installed much later than Heinrich's death in 1886?

Even though the string ran out on the weed whacker, we would have given up--it's hot again, though not as bad as last year yet. We took advantage of having a vehicle by driving over to Temple, Texas, and getting some food and supplies at Target. Wow, Target, just like in Austin or anywhere else. Of course, it being Sunday, most things were closed in Cameron.

We headed over to Wild Type Ranch HQ for dinner with Sara, Ralph and Kids of Sara. It was delicious beef (surprise) and some wonderful organic potatoes and other veggies. And wine. After dinner, Sara and I went out and sipped wine while the kids swam in the now-complete salt-water pool. While we were sipping, the men were apparently guzzling. I will omit the details, but the summary of the rest of the evening for Lee was, "Never try to keep up with Ralph." I got to drive Hilda back to Ursula in the dark, and work the gates in my flip flops. Fun.

Fast forwarding to Memorial Day Monday, I got up bright and early, and got dressed as best as I could. I headed over in the cool of the morning to go riding with Sara. I got to practice more horse skills on the ever-patient Pardner. He seemed to appreciate me dousing him with fly spray and brushing him, though. I got his halter on and stuff, but didn't put the saddle on. I am so short that I am not sure I will be able to do that without banging on the poor old guy. So, Sara calmed Aladdin down a bit then we all saddled up for an exciting walk about the grounds. Aladdin was feeling rather perky, so he got to back up every time he tried to be in charge. A lot of backing occurred. Pardner eventually went forward when I asked, and turned fine. It got better and better, and was quite fun in the end. I even like the cleaning up and putting things away part.

I sure hope at some point we can get Oscar over and work with him some, though I don't think I'd be riding him. And sorry there are no horse photos, but I don't think a person who hadn't ridden in a LONG time should be hauling out the camera, and Sara was quite occupied with Aladdin (he's the gray one).

After the ride, I went back to check on Lee, who was working without his glasses. I brought those, his phone, his rings, and his bathing suit he'd left last night back to him. Pretty soon after that Sara and the boys came to get me and we wandered all over the wooded area, deciding where to eventually put things. I took lots of photos of various things, like where we want to put a labyrinth...

Sara scopes out the labyrinth

...the cool old tree under which I'd like a bench...

Nice dead tree

...the view from the future bench...

Sara's Big Pond

...a bench that nature already put in a good spot...

See, it's a bench.

And the very similar view from it.

Hey, it's the same pond

..and a view I'd like to see from a bench at the high part of our area in the woods.

Nice view of our bottom land and hay meadow in the distance. You can also see the utility road

I never found exactly where I would want to put a meditation gazebo, but I am working on it.

Lee eventually joined us and we hiked along the stream that forms when it rains a lot--the drainage from our front area. There was even a spot that still had water and a LOT of frogs.

Water all gone!

By the end of that, I was extra well overheated, so we went back to Ursula, got rehydrated, and prepared to head home. We will be back soon!

Want to know more?

Here is a ton of info on Milam County, where the ranch is located. Also, look, a map showing you where it is in relation to Austin. You can tell there's no easy way to get there from our house.

Milam County, TX

Next, Ursula gets to go to the beach!

PS: We have had Ursula for a year now! HAPPY URSULA-VERSARY!