Gary Puckett and the Union Gap

 Remember the late 60's? Well, Jimmy surprised me with tickets and we went to see Gary Puckett last night. It was a fun evening with some great old songs and some fun stories were told.
His keyboard player, Jamie Hibold, also plays with W.C. Clark in Austin, when he's not playing with Gary.......My brother plays drums for WC Clark, too......so it was fun to meet him too.

Nikki and Shadow watch as the drains get dug!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spray Foam Insulation class

During the day, (the races were at night), we were enrolled in a very intense 8-9 hour a day class on the chemisty and usage of spray foam insulation. We plan on using it on our own home and the 17 more we plan to build. We've also learned about retrofitting existing houses. It seems that in a few years, fibreglass (like the pink stuff that comes in rolls)....is going to stop being made. This foam stuff will not only acheive the "R" value in 3 1/2" of foam, but will make the house "air impermeable"...thereby making it fire resistant, help with allergies, no drafts in the house and keep critters out!
It's expensive up front, but the savings in 3 years will more than pay for itself.Plus it's "green" and has Energy Star ratings, etc.....Pretty cool stuff!

Spring has sprung!

 

Spring has sprung! I am getting my flowers out to water, on my little flower cart!

More putting green pics!

You see who did most of the work, but I helped a little!

Shadow's cool!

 Shadow got some new shades the other day!

Nikki meets Thundersquirrel

This was just too cute!
I have a box just outside my window that I can put peanuts in......Nikki is at eye level, but the squirrel doesn't seem to mind!

Jimmy's Putting Green.....

At the entrance to the High Mesa subdivision is a beautiful waterfall with a giant bronze Elk.....directly across from the waterfall, Jimmy has decided to put a 3 hole putting green. MAN..... all the preparations!!! First you pack the ground, after it has been leveled, of course.Then you put a special gravel to fill in the hollow spots, then you have to put 6 inches of this special fill gravel, pack it and level it, then lay a special padding (so the ball will bounce right) gluing the seams,etc., lay the grass (2 different kinds) on top of that , glue the seams, use 7" galvanized spikes to nail it down, smooth it out, then 7 pounds per square foot of 2 kinds of special sand on top of the grass (spread amongst the grass). Absolutely insane! I'll post more pictures as it progresses.

Check out the flying 53 foot trailers! The weather channel reported 12 tornados in the DFW area. One tornado touched down about 2 blocks from my house in Kennedale!

Warm weekend!

 It was the first weekend of warm Spring weather, so we bought some sod and sodded my tiny little yard and Jimmybuilt me a planter box for my roses, etc!

Jimmy gets industrious!

Well.....the week end started off really pretty! Jimmy decided to do some painting, the deck, the fences, even my teacart!

Talk about "Blast from the past"! While in El Paso, I also got to see my Godparents son,(a surrogate big brother) named Marty Martin. He is a New York Playwrite and Quite successful and famous in his own right! He used to read to me when I was little and write mini-plays for me.

He currently also has several traveling museum exhibits. One is giant replicas of Prehistoric creatures, dinosaurs, etc., and one is of King Tut's treasures! He has written "Gertrude Stein, Gertrude Stein" with Pat Carroll, "Mystery at Harrowgate", he even has "Whitechapel" on Youtube- about Jack the Ripper. He has done radio interviews about the UFO Files- The Incident of "47 (in Roswell).......

an incredibly talented person, his piano playing was very influential in my learning to play. It was a wonderful visit and plan to get together again soon.

Joe Madrid and Me - 30 years later!

 

Joe Madrid was my daddy's right hand for as long as I can remember...he was instrumental in teaching me a lot of Spanish. . Well, the last time I saw him was at my Daddy's funeral, so when Jimmy and I went to El Paso, last week....it was a real treat to meet and have lunch with Joe..........He is 73 now!

House in Alto going up!

The new house is coming along, nicely.....the slabs get poured next week. Anyway, Jimmy suggested that I lift him up in the backhoe bucket so he could get some good pictures from above.....Check out my view!

We went up for Jimmy's last ski run of the season and got ski passes for next season. I don't ski, but love to ride the gondola up the mountain in the summer. Also good for 3 days at other resorts, next season.

Outside my window......

There is so much to watch......the different birds, the deer, today a dove!
Anyway, the woodpeckers are the most organized group of thugs I have ever seen. they work together and stalk the ONE lonesome squirrel. When he tries to get a picecone or nut, the woodpeckers dive-bomb him......so...I went online a bought him a squirrel house! Jimmy nailed it on the tree and ,once he found it, (it took a couple of days) he moved right in....it is now his sanctuary from the thugs!
I named him ThunderSquirrel because when he runs down to get a nut, he jumps heavily and you hear it!

Jimmy's burn pile!

After the snow and before the awful wind shows up this weekend, Jimmy decided to burn the trees we cleared from our lot, also there was a stand of about 8 diseased trees that we couldn't burn until it froze last week, but we wanted to get them so they wouldn't spread to the healthy trees.

The cinderblock going up.

Here is Jimmy's newest toy! I knew he couldn't stand it when he got rid of the Hummer. Once he saw our friends' Razr....Tracy and Jerry...when we went to Aztec, N.M. It's a very capable little vehicle and just scoots anywhere.

Tracy and Jerry Krogh!

It has been another dry year....no substantial rain since Dec. So the deer are very thirsty, we have to refill our water trough every day, they drink it down 6 inches!