Ron helped me put up our Purple Martin house today. Maybe I should say I helped him. I don't know why the house seems to get heavier every year when I try to put it up. I finally put a winch system on my houses in San Antonio so I can just crank them up and down. Ron had some left over red paint so this year our house is red and white. We had not had it up five minutes when a Purple Martin came by and landed on it to check it out. There were twelve sparrows on the tennis court fence waiting for the martin to leave so they could check it out. You can see in the picture the sparrows are moving in. Since the Purple Martins are the mosquito eaters, sparrows are not a good thing to have around to compete for nest space.
We are getting back to a ghost town here as most of the winter Texans have departed. There are three boats left here, mine, Scott's(702) and Gus's(203) and about ten cars. Some will leave tomorrow and some on Tuesday.
Rob has done some more repair on the decks and replaced the stairs on 501,502, and 503. Some of the deck work done three years ago was not done very well and had to be redone.
The lift station has been on the fritz. Rob and guys spent a lot of time on it week before last. It seems to be working now. They called the Honey Dipper out and I saw the truck here, but they already had it pumped down.
The rapidly changing tides have opened up the culvert drain under the entrance road. The water is rushing through and the wading birds are waiting for the bait fish to come out and jumping on them. I had not seen the drain open it at least three years. It takes a high tide followed by a rapidly dropping tide to create enough hydraulic pressure to open it.
Remodeling work has started on 303. I'm not sure 101 is finished, but the blinds are up. The workers in 508 say they will finish on Tuesday.
The old Duck Inn has been remodeled and opened as a furniture and apparel store. How is that for a combination. The Jokers nightclub, the old Silver Anchor restaurant, has closed it's doors.
The wind has kept most off the water. Bill said that Otis(604) had been under the weather for the last month, but went out with his brother last week and did really well. I believe they had six reds and fifteen trout with the biggest trout measuring twenty six inches. They got them at Spaulding reef.
The February financial statement arrived on Friday. I really don't see how anyone but an accountant can tell what it means. I do see that we still have $32,000 of the last loan that is not spent. That means about $150 a month of interest that we are paying. With $352,000 in current assets, this part of the loan could be repaid now and save us the interest. We budgeted well over the expected costs for the improvements and I doubt the $32,000 will be needed. I also noticed that in January, Johnson and Cate charged us an extra $600. What's up with that? I asked Karra in November if it would be possible for the property manager to annotate the monthly statement to reflect the reason for the major variations to any budget items. We had done that in previous years. She didn't, as I recall, give me an answer.
I'll include a picture of the sign that the concrete contractors put up to show who is doing the concrete work. This is just to identify the contractor. I hope that now that we are in the off season, the work will resume.

Below is an email I receiced from Marvin Kreuter. Marvin and Rita have come to Kontiki for a month in the spring and a month in fall for many years. I thought it was interesting and he said it was OK for me to post his experience he describes in this post.


Larry, I had an opportunity to fish last weekend with Guide, Tim Redden in the Rockport area. I started using Tim's services about 18 years ago, usually during our month long stays at Kontiki. You might remember that Tim also had a weekly fishing report in the local Rockport paper. He gave up guiding about 7 years ago, moved to Houston and got affiliated with a firm that sold construction materials to home building contractors. About 3 weeks ago I got a call from Tim saying he was back Guiding in Rockport since home building had come to a screeching halt.
We were invited to spend the Easter holidays at daughter and son-in-laws’ new home they had just completed in the Beach Walk 11 subdivision on Port Aransas so a fishing trip was inevitable. Tim had an opening, so Son-in-law Randy and I met him at Cove Harbor last Saturday and boarded his new boat. I use the term 'boat' loosely for in essence it is a motorized 23-foot surfboard. No sides and you stand 5 inches above the water. The name of this boat is 'Ibis' and it is made in San Antonio. It does have seats and can accommodate 4 passengers plus guide.
We started wading using plastics with no luck, drifted over shell for a while with a few keepers and then we entered a 'lake' located inside of St. Joe's through a narrow channel with water inches deep. The reason this boat is getting popular is that it can navigate in places where airboats normally travel.
Started using live shrimp and within a few hours had placed 13 Trout, 3 Black Drum. 1 Redfish and 1 Flounder in the ice chest. Returned many Rat Reds and Hardheads to the water. Only trouble we had was a Water Moccasin, swimming in the middle of the 'lake', took a fancy to our boat and start swimming towards us. He could have easily boarded the boat for we were standing only inches above the water and it would have been an unwelcome guest but a couple of swipes with the polling pole ended the snake’s travels. Had to cut our fishing trip somewhat short for we had reservations at the Venetian Hot Plate restaurant in Port Aransas to celebrate Rita's birthday. Promised not to tell her age but she's told me of spending time in a bomb shelter during WWII.
Will arrive at Kontiki next Tuesday and hope you will find some time to be at your Condo.
Marvin

Work continues on the motel. They are way behind schedule, but just keep going. Last weekend railings were prefabbed and painted and will likely be installed this week. The concrete work that I reported on last week was not actually a problem with the contractor. I now hear that the problem is related to property ownership. The next section of concrete was to go on the south entrance to the motel, but this is owned by Richy and he has it listed for sale. The property line goes just north of the tennis court fence. If the new buyer does something with this area, it would allow access to the motel only from the area south of the tennis court. The solution will probably be to take down the tennis court and oleanders and provide access directly from Fulton Beach Road. This would make sense since the new improved curb appeal of the motel is blocked by the bushes and tennis court.
Justin is in California to oversee the repair to his father's Denny's restaurent. In the interim, Rob is taking his place as property manager.
Bayfront Enterprises, Rob and Robbie's company, has purchased a pontoon boat to work on the finger piers and other posts in the marina.
Cyrena(501) says their unit is under contract. They never had to list it. Pack(307) has listed their place with Key Allegro for $279,000. Three other units have "For Sale" signs on them.
Contractors, Zack and Jeremy, are still working to remodel 508. They take breaks to fish and barbque, but keep working at a steady pace. They say they will likely finish later this week.
Representatives from the AEP came out last week to figure out just who should be paying for which security lights. That's good news.
Moyra, former owner of 206, is taking a tour of the middle east. She first went to Dubai and then to Jordan and other countries and planned a trip through the Suez Canal. She has more energy than I do.
The wind contines very strong this week and will last at least until the weekend. I'm anxious to get back out to fish since it looks like things are picking up. The oysters boats have rerigged to go for shrimp. I guess this means the oyster season will end before Parks and Wildlife lifts the ban. A worker at Casterline's told me the ban went into effect March 7 and they didn't hear about it for a week and had to throw away $4,000 worth of oysters. He said they had eaten some and no one had become sick. He thinks they over reacted.

Fishing was not too bad this weekend. Nearly everyone had some fish. This top photo shows two reds and a sheephead. They were caught on live shrimp near the shore at the point where the HEB property turns toward the causeway. The larger red was pushing the upper legal limit.
The second picture is of my older son, Richmond, with his two trout. The larger one was 18". I can't tell you the last time he caught even one. The trout that I cleaned were starting the spawning period. I put back one 14" trout that was, it appeared, ready to drop her eggs. The water temperature was 69 degrees.

My friend, Bret Ferguson and his family, caught these drum last Saturday at Aransas Pass. The Sheephead and Black Drum continue to be everywhere. Scott(702) went to the "pipe" for a short while last Saturday afternoon and caught three keeper trout on DOAs. The wind has since been too brisk to go out. Tomorrow is forecast to be a reasonable day for bay fishing. The winds has been gusting to over fifty miles an hour for the last two days. The spring tide has arrived and water was splashing high over the bulkhead.
Terminix came by on Monday. They have purchased the contract held by Bug Free for termites. They inspected our buildings and have also put in a bid for the interior pest control. Bedingfield presently holds that contract.
Alan(108) had a new sliding double pane glass door installed by Lowe's this weekend. It looks great.
I'm hearing that concrete work has stopped because of an underbid by the original contractor. There is an ad in the paper for a concrete contractor to finish the job.

While sales of condos here have been brisk, there is always speculation as to what the real market is. Pack(307) sent a link that lists the sales price for those units for which the price was disclosed.

http://www.navica2.net/displays/?n=392&i=40235&k=Us9lT
You may need to cut and paste this link into your browser if you want to look at it.

Christy did get back to me today and Sarah's baby did arrive on Monday the 10th.
I talked to Chuck(107) this week.  They are in California.  They will visit their place on Maui before going back to Alaska.  Chuck said the gas prices in California are about fifty cents a gallon more than Texas.
Don went out fishing on Wednesday.  He said they caught a lot of small trout at Lap Reef, but no keepers.  Dick Waddel(renting in 505) did catch one keeper in the marina, but after he had fileted the trout he looked away a second and the seagulls swooped in took off with his filet.  That has happened to me, but only once.  This time of year you have to guard your catch because the gulls are very hungry.
Becky DeBaun sent me a link to a friend's site who does rentals of condos in the area.
http://www.lucevacationrentals.com/
All oystering operations have been halted in the area since last week.  Some pathogens were detected in local shellfish populations.  It seems strange to look out and see no oyster boats circling on the reefs.
Keith(508) called this week.  He said that while doing their remodeling they found water damage in the wall studs. He has a good question as to whether or not this is a common element.  This also brings up the question about the dryer vents.  Many owners are having trouble with their dryers not drying very well.  The problem is the vents are snaked through the wall and out to the attic.  There is no way that I have found to remedy this by unclogging the vents.  Rob showed me how to install a 4inch PVC pipe into the attic that works well, but some worry that this is a fire hazard as well as being unsightly.  As more of these vents clog with age the board will have to make some kind of decision.
A rare shark washed up on Mustang Island this week and caused a media stir. It was a Thresher Shark as shown in the illustration.  They are characterized by their long caudal fin which is sometimes half their body length. The one here was just short of 10 feet.  Studies are being done to see what caused the shark's death and it will be mounted for display afterward.

I heard from Christy today. Her sister Sarah, former rental office manager, had her first baby this week.
Kenneth Luke Sawyer made his grand entrance into the world on Monday, March 11th at 11:01am. Weighing in at 7lbs 13oz and 21 1/2in long. This was the quote that Christy sent me and I'm not sure if she meant Monday the 10th or Tuesday the 11th. Either way, Happy Birthday Kenneth Luke!

These two drum might look like the same fish, but not so. These folks were staying in 605 and caught these last Wednesday on the causeway. The winter Texans are busy catching Sheephead off of our pier and having a great time. This is the time of year that Drum and Sheephead are the catch of the day. Don Gormley took a crew out to Half Moon and Long Reef this weekend looking for trout and didn't catch a keeper. John Mantel(staying in 102) has been fishing with friends in Copano behind the airport, not too far off the shore and have taken about ten trout and one red the last few days. Bill waded near the HEB beach and did no good at all yesterday. The tide is back to near normal and the high temperature will be near 90 degrees on Friday. This should portend an upturn in the trout bite.
I did see a Purple Martin sitting on top of a tennis court light yesterday. I'm sure he was looking for the houses to go up. Ron painted the only good house with some red paint to freshen it up, but it hasn't gone up yet. The other house is beyond repair. Several months ago I sent Justin an email asking to have a new one built, but he never answered. Joe Bugado built two for us several years ago. You may have seen him sitting beside his truck parked on highway 35 and selling his Purple Martin houses. He used plans that I drew up forty years ago to build ours.
Oysterfest was a big success. It didn't go well on the opening evening as the cold front blew in about an hour before the opening. The crowd on Saturday was unbelievable. Between spring break and Oysterfest, we have had a crowd here. I don't know of any condos that wanted a rental that didn't have one.
I went by today to meet the new office manager for Coastal Management. Candace left to work on her real estate license. The new manager is Arlene. They manage over 130 properties here in Rockport, including several here at Kontiki.
The workers on the concrete for the parking area at the motel have not been seen lately. I last saw them Monday a week ago, but not since. They may be waiting until the spring break rush is over before continuing.
Barbara Wagner, former owner of 101, had knee replacement surgery yesterday. Jim Sikes reports that everything went well and she is doing fine.

Saturday was indeed a good day for boating and fishing. Bill and John and I went out about noon. We tried Mock reef and there were a lot of small trout on the eastern part of the reef. My half ounce DOA did get some vindication after the turn of events that I wrote about last week. Bill and Don had rigged up quarter ounce DOA based on Don's success. However after I had three keepers in the cooler and they have only a few nibbles, they searched their tackle boxes for any half ounce types. Later we went to Half Moon and again found many almost keepers. Bill did box one keeper with a Gulp.
The Pilot newspaper did surprise me by running the picture and caption that I submitted of Don Gormley's catch like the one that I posted last week. I think this time of year trout catches are not too plentiful and they were glad to have a picture on someone with some trout to show.
Yesterday would have been a great day to be out on the water, but the tide was as low as I've seen this season and the there was not enough water in the ramp to float my boat. One boat did make it out this morning, but it was a short trip. He had not gone very far when he ran out of gas. He used his trolling motor to get back in, unhooked his trailer, went to get some more gas, put his boat back on the trailer, and called it a day. He had parked his boat in front of the motel last evening and it was full on gas. Some time during the night someone helped themselves to fifty gallons. This evening he is parked under the security light by 701. Maybe the security cameras did their job and the case will be solved. Yesterday was so fine I even saw Richy and Echo, his dog, soaking up some sun on the end of the pier behind his house.
Concrete work has not progressed this week. The crew came out and removed the forms Monday morning and then left. They have not returned. The Pilot is running an ad for remodeling contractors and laborers. They are to apply at Kontiki. I'm sure there is a lot of work to do and people here work on Rockport time.
Kinsel is working on a pier south of here and has been leaving his barge in the marina. With the low tide I thought he might have a problem getting in. I watched today and he did slow down at the shallow part where the breakwater gap was, but he did come on in. The barge is not that big.
I did get an email from Lynn Edwards today. She is spearheading the effort to reopen Cedar Bayou. She said that the GLO has approved the plan and now they can proceed with the Environmental Statement and resubmit for a permit to dredge. The work was to begin last July, but the wheels on government turn slowly and then Texas Parks and Wildlife had some reservations. I think the whole ecosystem is suffering while the pass is closed.
Rockport now has two car rental agencies. We had an Avis at the airport and how we have an Enterprise Rental at Larry's Paint and Body on Market.
There was a surprise in the Aransas County Sheriff's election yesterday. Mark Gilliam, the incumbent, lost. He had a really massive amount of advertising and even gave away free bar-b-que yesterday. He lost to Bill Mills by 2 to 1.
Oysterfest opens tomorrow so, of course, we have rain in the forecast and a cold front coming. For the first time they have a park and ride set up at the old Walmart. Parking is $2, but the ride is free.
Bradley Phair, former owner of 208, called yesterday. He said he got bored with retirement and has gone back to doing some work in real estate law. I told him that if he had not sold his condo, he would have had no problem with boredom here.

Welcome to our newest owners (508), Mr. and Mrs. Sanders of Corpus Christi. They spent last weekend here with their kids. He is a structural engineer and she is an interior designer/decorator. They are starting a big remodel on their place. I'm sure it will look great. The crew that has been working there this week has used their break time to do some fishing in the marina. I believe they caught three flounder on Wednesday alone. Several others have caught flounder recently.
Concrete work began this week. They are working in front of the motel and up to the tennis court. They will eventually come down our entrance road and make the curve at 701. They are putting the concrete on top of the asphalt. That should provide a decent base.
The winds have been up all week, but tomorrow looks like they may lay for a while.
Pat(602) put in at Cove Harbor on Thursday about 7:45 a.m. He said he went to Long Reef and down St. Jose past Mud Island into Big Bayou and behind Hog Island with only two small trout to show. He used live shrimp. Sheriff Sgt. Ronnie Crisp told me he used live shrimp to catch eight keepers in the Cove Harbor marina last Sunday. And people think you have to have a boat to really catch the fish. Randy(308) went to Estes Flats last Sunday, but said he had no luck.