Winter in South Texas

Tres Colinas on the road less graveled



 

 

Blizzard conditions at the barn. 

 

With Christmas and New Years behind us we have optimistically moved into 2014.  After last winter in Knoxville, I was looking forward to "wintering" in South Texas.  I had heard that I should expect a few mornings in the 30's and the occasional light frost but should also expect days in the 70's.  Not exactly. We've had a lot more 30's and very few 70's.  We had our first Knoxville friends drop in for a visit.  David and Nancy-shown left in the picture with Pam-were visiting their son and daughter-in-law in Austin and drove over to spend the day with us.  They lived in Texas for many years and were used to the quickly changing weather. As you can tell from their coats it was chilly but nothing like what was to come in a couple of weeks.  We had a good visit and got them a chicken fried steak fix at the Longhorn Steakhouse in Bryan. 




They got out just in time.  The polar vortex that gripped most of the country hit us a week or so after they left.    While we are acclimated to  high temperatures, anything near the other end of the thermometer results in a lot of complaining in these parts.  When the temperature hit 9 degrees it was the equivalent of a four-fold rip in the ectoplasmic continuum.  This was the result of a "blue norther" that came through and actually stayed almost a week.  We didn't make it to the grocery store but I am confident the Lone Star beer and salsa chips (Texas equivalent of milk and white bread) shelves were empty.  We had more of an ice storm than snow accumulation but you can see the devastation in the pictures to the left and below.  Thankfully, two days later the temperature was back in the 60's allowing life to return to normal.  I can only imagine how much worse it would have been without global warming.

 

Hungry children left SOS messages in the snow



 

This warmer weather gave me the opportunity to do some tree planting.  I headed to a nursery near Independence, TX and bought a trailer full of fruit trees and shrubs.  Maybe I should send this picture to President Obama as an example of what "shovel ready work" actually looks like.  Here's what I bought:  three fig trees (Brown Turkey, Celeste & LSU Gold); four peach trees (Sam Houston, TexPrince, FloridaKing & Earligrande); two pear trees (Moonglo & Shinko); one Sugar Cane Jujube; two Fuyu persimmon trees; three apple trees (Dorsett Golden, Anna & Einsheimer); one Gold Kist Apricot; two Burgundy plum trees; one Wonderful pomegranate; one All-in-one Almond tree; thirteen blueberry bushes (Climax, Tifblue & Premier); nine thornless blackberries bushes (Natchez); six Heritage raspberry bushes;  two American elderberry bushes and three muscadines (Black Beauty, Black Noble & Black Old Fashioned) .  I managed to get them all in the ground in a day and slept pretty well that night dreaming of cobblers, jelly and wine.

 

 

 Work on the house has continued at a consistent pace with the roof, doors and windows installed (the front door is temporary so the house can be closed to the elements-hogs, dogs and cats, mostly).  The walls have been insulated and all of the plumbing and electrical is roughed in.  As you can see in the pictures below, the sheet rock and the stone have been delivered and are ready for installation. 

 

 

Meanwhile, back on the farm

 

 

 

We bought a bull to keep the cows entertained (one is ours
and the other belongs to Pam's brother-not sure which is which).



 

I bought some fish for the tank (bluegill, crappie, catfish and fathead minnows) to provide some amusement and maybe some food for the table.  As it is a new tank I needed to provide some structure to give some of the fish a little protection (the fathead minnows are basically food for the other fish) from each other and the local blue heron that flies over.  Here I am on my pontoon boat dragging some cedar trees out to sink in the center of the tank.  That's the first time I've used that boat in several years.  I used to take it to the Clinch River and float with the current as I fished for trout.  It's basically a lawn chair mounted on two air-filled pontoons.  Since we moved to Texas, it's been far less nobly utilized, spending most of the time in the barn providing the cats a comfortable place to sleep during the day.  Matt the cat hissed at me when I shooed him off it that morning. 









Hot biscuits straight from the Dutch Oven

I built a fire in the fire pit and used some of the coals to bake some biscuits in the Dutch Oven.  I felt a little like Gus McRae when they turned out well (I used the Tupelo Honey biscuit recipe which results in a crunchy outside and fluffy inside).  They were as good as they look with a pat of butter and some jelly.

There was a spectacular sunset that night

We sat by the fire that night and as you can see Matt had forgiven me for disturbing his nap earlier in the day.  He was mesmerized by the fire until it waned to smoldering coals.  He curled up and went to sleep soaking up some of the heat.  We called it a day about ten.