Ursula Leaves the State, Day 2: Saturday, November 17

We awoke and set out early, only to discover that neither the headlights nor the turn signals were working. Great. We knew what the rest of the day would be spent on—RV repairs! But first, we had to journey through scenic El Paso and make it to Las Cruces, our first holiday destination.

Our little squirrel is intimidated by El Paso

Hooray, we finally got out of Texas!

That involved a lot of traffic and a bit of a scare when the cell phones welcomed us to Mexico—guess we were closer to Mexican towers than US ones for a bit! There were lots of signs of our new border security—many new checkpoints that all vehicles had to go through.

After some challenging construction ups and downs, we found the Las Cruces Enterprise car rental place, where we picked up a bland silver Chevy Malibu, to be our touring vehicle—a car is much less harrowing on mountains, and with a car we could leave Ursula all set up at each stop. I had been sure to rent a full sized vehicle to make it easier for Lee to get in and out, with his bad knees, but this car was still hard on him. Oh well.

Before the Malibu got covered in dust from various scenic locales

Once we had the Malibu, it was time to find our first RV Park. I had made reservations at a KOA campground that had nice photos on its website. And since we were on vacation I splurged and got the deluxe campsite. One look at the site, and we were pretty sure we wanted to stay three nights rather than two.

The campsite at KOA, with nice covered patio and pine trees

Patio with Ursula re-parking

The view was a striking panorama of Las Cruces below the hill we were on, and the mountains beyond it. And next to us the long-term folks had set up really nice bird feeders, so we could sit on the patio and decide whether to look at birds or mountains.

This cool feeder is just a huge lump of bird seed.

Warblers and house finches in action. Not sure what that top bird is up to.

We also had some nice pine trees and very pretty landscaping. It also had a gas grill, which would have been nice if we had a chance to cook.

Trail view from the KOA RV park

These crystals were in one of the landscaping rocks

Once we got set up, we called my closest friend from grad school, Steve H., and he came up to see the site and discuss our plans. We chatted while Lee called a mobile RV repair guy that the KOA folks recommended. 

View from campsite

Scenic Steve-n-Suna

Steve and I sorta tried to go to lunch, then decided it was too confusing, and he went on back home to get ready for the evening. The RV guy was really nice and competent. He determined our problem was that our three smaller batteries had gotten too old and dried out. Oops, must add water to batteries. He and Lee went off and got batteries. Wow, did Ursula’s slides work better with fresh batteries! The bedroom slide went all the way out, and we could use the drawers! Repair Guy also determined that the power issues must have blown a fuse and messed up the lights. The headlights came back, but unfortunately, we could never find the fuse for the blinkers. They looked all over the danged RV, too. Very frustrating! We will have to get that fixed when we get home.

The view from the RV park at night

We thought that the propane issue was fixed, because we were able to light the stove. HA. The heater did not make any warmth that night! Good thing it was one of the warmer nights of the trip.

But at least this round of repairs would get us through the trip, and we could start having fun. Steve had gotten us tickets to the New Mexico State University production of Rocky Horror Picture Show, where he was playing piano in the band. 

Rocky Horror Time!

He came and picked us up, and we were joined by his spouse, Guy, and his rather delicate cousin, L. The show was NOT to her taste, and I am still not sure why he encouraged her to go—but then he was always one for encouraging me to test my own limits (we have been friends 32 years, so a lot of testing to do). In any case, the show was a real hoot, and the rest of us just loved it. Some of the acting was a bit uneven, and the lead character had some pitch issues that drove me nuts (the curse of the pitch-focused singer, I guess—I am sure they were all better than me at singing and dancing at the same time. And of parading around mostly naked! The near-naked doctor and the tiny perfectly formed gymnast Rocky were most enjoyable! (Here is where I sheepishly admit that, despite having a roommate who went weekly in college, I had never seen the movie or play before.) Other than sound/microphone issues, the production was really good. 

Thus began the fun part of the trip! We were pretty dead when we got home, since we were still on Central Time, so we went to bed, resolving to get portable heaters in the morning

Lesson Learned (later): Sometimes the repair dude doesn't know everything. We did eventually find the propane switch. Still no clue about the blinkers.

Ursula Leaves the State, Day 1: Friday, November 16

While it is true that we hadn’t taken Ursula out in a few months, I think we made up for it this past week.

Lee and I finally went on a real vacation and RV road trip not involving a funeral or wedding! We had decided to re-visit New Mexico, which we had enjoyed on a much shorter trip in a rented RV in 2010—we used that trip to decide to get Ursula. I am writing this on the way home. To avoid long posts I will break the trip up by days.

Our plan was to leave Austin as soon as I (Suna) could get off work. That got delayed a bit, but eventually I got in. The, I had to take pictures of the progress on our back yard renovation.

Back yard awaiting a new fence

Had to.

Due to his stuff, which included issues with the lovely new subwoofer and a recalcitrant generator, (there were a few issues with our patio remodel to look at, too), Lee was just getting to the grocery store as I was getting home, so I went along with him. I got all the food loaded while Lee did the necessary, as they say in India (in this case it means he took a shower).

At least we were confident in the engine, since that had just been checked. Gosh, if only they had remembered to turn the propane back on when they were done!

Anyway, we played with the neighbor kids a bit, talked to our kids, etc., and finally got out a bit before sunset. Lee decides to take 29 out to eventually hit I-10. That is always a bit of a harrowing drive after dark, even more so in a huge RV. Luckily the deer were otherwise occupied and we miraculously did not kill the cute raccoon family that was crossing the road.

We drove and drove through the night until we finally found a rest area near Balmorhea (we think), wherever that is, and we stopped there. We could not put out the slides. All sorts of light blinking and sputtering occurred when we tried, so we decided to deal with it tomorrow and just zonked out. We realized at some point that the heater was NOT heating. And it got pretty cold! Hooray for blankets.

Lessons Learned: Just because you had the oil changed and engine serviced, it does not mean everything is hunky dory. Ursula has a near-infinite supply of systems that can go wrong!

Sunrise from the rest area in West Texas

Where Has She Been?

Wondering where Ursula has been lately? Well, she was in the shop a LONG time, but now has a fancy new air conditioner in the rear of the cabin, a fixed closet door, and a nice new TV antenna.

Suna spent three weeks in Canada, and had to leave Ursula at home then. She saw bright lights and lovely scenery.

That is the CN Tower in Toronto, as seen from Suna's hotel room.

And yes, this is the Canadian side of Niagara Falls. Pretty!

Once Suna got back, thousands of church/music events and other interruptions prevented going much of anywhere in October, though Ursula did rumble back to the farm when Lee's dad had his most recent procedure. He now has them every couple of months. They clean him out, give him some chemo, and send him home.

In good news there, Oscar will now let Suna pet him and feed him delicious grass. Lee's dad works with him a lot.

Still World's Cutest Donkey. Only bigger and friendlier.

Not to leave Ursula out, here is an interior shot from Suna's new iPhone, featuring Cowgirl Suna ready to go out partying in Kenedy, Texas.

Suna in Ursula, via Instagram

The good news about this trip is that there were no major malfunctions, just a bit of frustration trying to get the TV up and running. It's ready to go now, though Lee has a plan to put a "sound bar" in it for lovelier sound.

That will be good, because Ursula has her first lengthy trip coming up. And she will even get to leave the state! Stay tuned for Ursula's visit to the desert!

Ursula Has MORE Repair Time

As you know, Ursula has a broken window and one malfunctioning air conditioning unit. So, she sat in our neighborhood last week (I am glad the person directly across the street from where we parked her was mostly out of town) and our plan was to take her to get fixed on Saturday, with plenty of time for our other errands.

But, of course the RV Deities had other plans. I drove on out to the scenic (not) RV Outlet Mall, where we got her, to wait for Lee, who was going to the dump station to empty her bilge water or whatever you call it. Black water, that's it. Poop-n-pee. I was wandering around looking at fancy Fifth Wheel Trailers when the bad news came. All the Corps of Engineers parks' sewage dump stations were closed because they had too high levels of something or another. Oops. So, Lee found a KOA Kampground (I think they banned the letter "c" or something), and headed off that way. I was glad I brought my knitting.

I chatted with various staff people and customers, and knitted a lot. Eventually, Lee actually WAS able to accomplish his mission, though at a much higher cost than at a Corps park! We sure can't wait until the ranch has a sewage system with a special outlet, just for Ursula.

We found out the A/C unit is covered by our extended warranty. Yay. The window is not, but we figured that. Everyone I talked to had experienced the evils of rocks or birds hitting windows. The next bit of bad news was that there is a two week wait to even get her looked at. Well. Swell. At least we can take her out of the waiting area to go to the beach if she isn't finished by then. But we might be a tad warm. Luckily there are breezes at the beach.

We are also getting the sliding doors in the closets and the bedroom fixed, and a couple of other small things. Yes, I do know the meaning of the term "money pit," but we do enjoy having her around!

I will post updates when available!

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!

Ursula Stayed Home

Ursula stayed home this weekend while I went to visit Dad on the Saturday after his 89^th birthday. While it’s not really on topic for his blog, you can find more pictures and my account at The Hermitage.

Getting Closer to Being Legit Ranchers

Ursula lumbered out of her parking spot rather late on Friday, since I stopped by a nice spot and had a drink with some of the work ladies, then had to get some groceries. That meant we didn't make it to Wild Type Ranch until it was quite dark. Nonetheless, I got the new lock on the ranch gate to open (Sara and Ralph have moved to their new house, so it's not the main entrance anymore), and we trundled along a nicely mowed path to our parking spot in front of Willow Pond (which I have named thus because it has so many dead river willows and a couple of living ones). Everything went well with setup except the back air conditioner refused to turn on. Maybe it doesn't like running on the generator. That was all fine, because it was nice outside, so we opened the windows, the better to hear the howling wind and generator sound. Lee found a washcloth to cover the extremely annoying bright green light that glows when the generator's running.

We awoke early, since the sun was up and the wind plowing through Ursula. I took my coffee over to check out the pond, and my brand-new summer cowboy hat flew into the water. Conveniently, there was a large stick nearby, so I fished it back out. I think it's fine.

Here's Ursula, framed by thistles growing on the dam for the pond. 

 You will probably see a lot of this spot in the future. We are pretty sure our future house will be about 40 yards back and to the right of Ursula. Barn will be to her left. She is parked on what will be the property line to our little ranch, which we have found out is 51.57 acres.

Thistles were everywhere, and lots of thistle seed was flying around in the big winds.

 We spent much of Saturday morning walking around the property, marking tentative building sites for the barn and house, and seeing how the wet areas look at a more typical time. I will spare you all the photos of ditches. Because there was a wind advisory, not a lot of birds were out. But there were many, many kinds of butterflies and a whole bunch of different caterpillars!

Here's what I think is  Monarch caterpillar. Someone will correct me if I am not right.

 We walked over to the ranch barn to fetch Hilda the utility vehicle. Of course, the curious bovine residents of the property, who had just been moved off our pasture so we could park, wanted to know what we were up to. I really like that they all have names on their ear tags, so I can address them properly. On the other hand, then I know who I am eating.

Welcome party

 We got Hilda and drove over to see what was going on at the new house. It was the big day the swimming pool was getting filled. Quite exciting. We went back to the barn and got stakes for marking things, then drove Hilda all over the place.

OK, one ditch picture.

 This willow did not die at all in the drought, since it is near the spring. We need to make sure whatever new pond we make doesn't drown it. In the picture above, the road is to the left and the pasture where the buildings will be is to the right. Woods are straight ahead. In the woods are a few of these lovely, yet sorta weedy cactus.

Right now is the lovely part of the year when the prickly pear cactus bloom. 

Prickly pear blossom.

 You don't want your whole field full of these, but a few are nice to have. Some day I will try to make jelly or cook the new leaves like they do in Mexico. But they really ARE prickly. We drove Hilda to every one of the survey markers.

A marker. This is the one marking the intersection of pasture and woods, and which part will be ours and which stays part of Wild Type Ranch.

This is the marker at the far other end of the property, a bit more than a half mile away.

 It's a long way from one end of the place to the other. It's much wider than it is deep. But I am just happy there's pasture, meadow, woods, and hay!

Woman sitting in her field. I hid my hair from the wind, though the hat kept blowing off.

 The hay meadow has lots and lots of plant diversity, as you can see here.

I mostly wanted a photo of a man outstanding in his field. Technically, I think that's some of each of our hay fields. Check out the wind damage to Lee's hair. 

 Once we had checked the boundaries, we went and looked at the ponds. The one below is my favorite, the one that looks most like a real lake. We came here last week to help Sara see if there were any fish in Walker's Creek or any of the ponds. Nope.

What's that black dot in the center right? Yep, turtle.

This time we had better luck. Still no fish sightings, but I saw two turtles in the lower pond, and some beetles in the water.

This is our pond. Tiny but lovely. 

Little pond and Hilda

You can see that "our" pond is not very big. However, it also had two turtles in it, plus a whole bunch of tadpoles. It looks so much better with water in it! There are some trees that have died around it--think these might turn into lumber or something later--the two in the top picture look like they were once very nice trees. The drought did a LOT of trees in, even in this meadow, which is pretty darned damp right now, with all sorts of interesting wetland areas, little streams and fun stuff to explore.

Where I shall place a hammock.

These are two nice living cedar elm trees, and I think it would be just perfect to put a hammock there. Ralph says he has seen evidence that there may have been one there before.

We'd hoped to do some labyrinth planning (me and Sara), but she and her kids were on a new house organizational kick, so we didn't. After all our surveying, Lee and I rested, I knitted, and I took more pictures.

I think perhaps this river willow's been down a while. There is a pretty large cactus growing in it!

Eventually, we went back to the new house and watched the pool fill with water, then went off to feed the chickens and check for eggs. They are laying like crazy now! I even managed to drive Hilda all by myself. I am a rancher now, yep. I got lots of lessons in egg cleaning from Sara's son, which was very educational.

We all went out to eat in Cameron's finest Mexican restaurant (and the one closest to the ranch site). We came back and fed the fish in the pond/tank that they'd had stocked. You could see lots of fishie evidence there, plus a good number of turtles. It sure will be fun for them to look at that action from their house, and to go fishing when the fish grow! After that, we talked over wine, making plans and analyzing life's important events. Sara's son asked her if we were going to be "real neighbors," like eat meals together and do craft activities. We assured him we would be! We have the land survey back, and are now just waiting for some water survey to get done before we can finally be genuine ranch property owners.

We now have two potential ranch names:

• Hermit's Rest Ranch: This is because Lee has been "The Hermit" for many years. It's his favorite tarot card, and we ARE getting this property so we can go hide from all the ickiness in the world right now.
• Walker's Bend Ranch: This is because Walker's Creek runs through the property (it was also the name of a former settlement where we are), and our part includes a bend in the creek, mainly because  I want to explore and mess around there.

I guess I need to do a Facebook poll or mull it over more. I like different things about each name. And I like these better than just our names or initials--more cryptic.

Here's more on Walker's Creek, from the sign at Walker's Creek Cemetery just down the road.

This old cemetery is nicely kept, and just down the road from the ranch.

Declan took this picture mainly to get the butterfly.

Here's the history of the area where our ranch property is located.

This morning we were up early for us, because I was supposed to sing "The Rainbow Connection" at church. Did you know that once you learn all the words to that song it will NOT go away? Yes, it's still playing in my head. On our way out, I had Lee turn left at the wrong place, and we went down a really pretty road, but not one that leads to Cedar Park, Texas, where Live Oak UU Church happens to be. It took quite a few miles until we found a suitable-looking road to turn around in, and THAT road ended up being a very narrow dirt road that dead-ended at a gated entrance...but there was enough space to turn Ursula around. The GPS was helpfully suggesting we turn at all sorts of "county roads" that actually were entrances to fields, or nothing at all.

Because of the adventure (it actually was pretty fun), we couldn't drop Ursula off and take my car. Lee dropped me off at the side of the road, and I got in just in the nick of time to sing in the offertory. Whew. Luckily our old soprano had showed up to church to see her son play at the end of the service, so I had a backup person. Whew. In good news, though, I missed the opening hymn, which is my least favorite but a big favorite of the minister who was preaching today. When our ministers go on their separate journeys at the end of the month, I will miss many things about them, but not having to sing "Inch by inch, row by row, gonna watch my garden grow."

Well, that's it for this blog. Stay tuned for more next week, as I believe another visit with Oscar the Donkey is in order.