Kontiki Condominiums: June 2011

Scott sent this report and even as I write this up, flounder are being caught behind 308 where the bulkhead meets the breakwater. I see five people there and they are staying busy hauling in the flounder. Barbara where are you?
Took some friends on a fishing adventure last weekend. We hired Nightstalker flounder guide for a Sunday evening flounder gigging trip. We left Goose Island at 9:00 pm and returned at 2:00 am with a limit of flounder for each of us. It was a great trip. If you have never done it, I highly recommend it. It is great for a family trip. The pic of the flounder on the board is a few fish shy because they started cleaning them before I could get a picture. We slept in a little the next morning. We went out at 10:00 am with six dozen croaker. Dropped anchor at several gas wells and ended up with 15 nice trout. Great fishing weekend.

When we went out Friday, I decided to fish some of the gas wells in Aransas Bay. I don't normally do this, but my friends really wanted to catch some trout. This well is the largest gas well structure in north Aransas Bay just south of Long Reef. We anchored there and tried for over an hour without any type of bite. We tried some other spots with no luck there either. Finally on the way in we tried a small well that is closest to our channel into the bay. Sure enough, the trout were there and we had traveled all over the place looking for them. Of course, by this time we were about out of bait and time. We did get a few keepers.

I took some friends out in the bay on Friday and now I have a problem with my boat. The water in our channel has become so shallow, my lower unit sometimes hits the bottom. It looks like this time the transom has split. The break can be seen in the center of the picture where the trim is bent. This allowed a leak into the hull and we were very lucky to get the boat on the trailer before it went all the way down. I had my doubts for a while.
I had a repairman come by today and he said $4,500 should take care of it. I have an insurance representative coming out this week, but if he allows that much I'm afraid they will just total the boat. We'll have to see what happens.

Larry Rabe is still trying to seal up all the window trim and replace rotted wood. This window in 712 was allowing some of the recent rain to reach the window area in the unit below. He's been working on these when the winds allow for almost six months. There are still a number to go.

I often mention the weekend crowds, but the middle of the week has not been that way. These pictures are from last Wednesday at the 300 and 700 buildings.

Don sent this update on their adventures. However, I did not know and was saddened to hear that Dick Martin passed away from a heart attack in May.

Larry, recently, Dee and I made a tour visiting several of our Winter Texas friends. We first stopped in Spirit Lake, Iowa and visited with Doris Martin. Doris says she will be at Kontiki again next winter. From there, we traveled to Greendale, Wisconsin (a suburb of Milwaukee), and spent a few days with Dick and Roberta Waddel. Dick got me out on Lake Michigan and helped me land 16 salmon over a period of three days. We then traveled to visit Joyce Humphreys in Hackensack, Minnesota. She lives on beautiful Woman Lake and her son owns a resort on the same lake. Our last stop was in Bismarck, North Dakota to see Chuck and Lila Krueger and Chuck gave us a tour of Bismark. The flooding there is heartbreaking. We ended up in North Platte, Nebraska for a family reunion. We had other friends we wanted to visit, but were just too pressed for time.

Steve(702)sent this picture of his success last Saturday in Copano. Steve always finds fish in Copano. I can tell by the background just where this place is. That doesn't mean that is where he caught the fish, but I think it does because he took me there one time.

Randy(308)sent this redfish report from last weekend too.

My cousin and his son, Charles and Josh Neumeyer had a good weekend catching reds.
They put in at Cove harbor and went out into Aransas Bay.
Took the Turtle Bayou cut back into Estes Flats. I have never done this.
Anchored the boat on the west side of Talley Island and wade fished for reds.
Caught 9 Saturday and 6 Sunday morning.
Had a third person Saturday and just themselves Sunday.
Josh is a licensed guide but lives in North Texas now.
He had been in the area in the past with his kayak and expected for find the reds there.
Threw plastics at them and orange was the hot color.

Our new dumpster containers arrived today. These are all one third larger than the old ones. We have always had overflow problems on Mondays and this should solve the problem. This last weekend was a mess because these were to have been delivered on last Saturday. We pretty much had a lot of trash blowing all over the place. The customer service representative at Allied was very helpful and gave us a clean up around the containers at no charge. Their representatives have to be the easiest people to work with that I have ever experienced. She even sent me an email yesterday to apologize for the inconvenience.

Dear Mr. Biggers,

Please accept my apology on behalf of Allied Waste Services/Republic Services for not being able to deliver the larger containers to Kontiki Condo's I, on Saturday June 17th or on Monday June 20th due to mechanical difficulties. Per our conversation today, our driver will service your containers tomorrow June 21 and clean up the area surrounding your containers due to the overloading and wind. We will get the larger containers delivered ASAP!!

Please contact me if you have any questions or concerns. I appreciate you patience on this matter.

Thank you,

Karen

Karen Taylor | Inside Sales Coordinator | Republic Services | PO Box 9236 Corpus Christi, TX 78469 | (: 361-698-5015 | Fax 361-883-2729 | *: ktaylor5@republicservices.com

Weekends with high occupancy always yield a few surprises. A couple of weekends ago I saw people tossing washers on the tennis court. I didn't go over to watch, but the next morning when I walked on the court I saw what the washers had done. Every miss of the board left a divot on the court surface. There were spots like this in front and behind each board. I got someone out for an estimate and he quoted $350 to fix these up. This time of year it is just a given that owners who profit from rentals are exacting some cost from owners who do not by the damage to the common elements.

Last week these people checked out of condo 212 at Phase II and came over here to wash their car and equipment on our lawn. They drove exactly over the the new sprinkler and line we had installed just three days earlier. So many think this is just one big resort and they have use of all the facilities no matter where they rent.

The guests in 608 had a really big party last weekend. As they partied they just chucked their trash over off the deck and onto the lawn.
This weekend only saw minor problems so far. About midnight I walked by the pool and there was the biggest pool party I have ever seen here. There were no less than 20 beer bottles arrayed around the pool. They were kind enough to pick them all up when reminded of the rules about bottles around the pool area. Last evening our security called Maria to report four vehicles without parking permits that came in for a one bedroom unit in the 400 building. Maria called them and they said those people were just coming by to use the bathroom. I think Maria threatened them with eviction if she found they were really putting that many people in one condo.
Last evening our security turned away fifteen vehicles who were trying to enter our property for various reasons. He heard some of the excuses that Pop says he hears all the time. They say,"When did this become private property"? or "I've fished here for years and no one ever objected." One car came by with a load of people and fishing gear and said, "I stayed here a few weeks ago and I just wanted to show my friends the pier."
Ultimately, the only solution that will ever work for us is to build or buy a condo on our property to oversee, manage, and rent. We did this fifteen years ago and it worked really well.

Pop retired from weekend duty last evening. He will continue to work weekdays. Pop enjoys working the gate on weekends. For so long we had interlopers who came in to use our pier, pool, and tennis court or just look around. His presence has made a big difference. He said Friday night he had eight vehicles start down our road and notice he was on duty. They stopped to backup and turn around to leave without even trying to tell him a story about why they had no parking permit.

Larry Rabe checks out a light I found beside an expressway in San Antonio. It must have fallen off a truck since it had a little road rash. It works well and is very bright. I don't see that we have much use for a light this size, but maybe some of the parts could be used for something. For a dumpster diver like me, I couldn't just pass it up.

The wind has been howling for nearly three months with very little reprieve. The wave action, not high tides, have eroded the HEB beach to the point that there is no beach. It's beginning to look like the Cliffs of Dover. I feel badly for those who bring their boats for the weekend and then find the winds too strong to allow much fishing or boating.

The wind was so strong on Friday that it blew in the sliding glass door on a 300 building condo. I remembered that when 205 replaced his doors a couple of weeks ago, Rockport Glass wanted the old doors. The owner called them and got a good price to bring back the used glass and replace the broken one. They came by today and did the job.

The Urgent Care Center opened in Rockport in January. At this point it is being underutilized. The PR person asked me to help get the word out that this in not just for urgent care. They take care of every kind of medical issue, even very minor ones. To read the information it may be necessary to click on the image to enlarge it.

Scott finally gets a few extra days at Kontiki and volunteers to help Larry Rabe work on a water leak on Friday morning. We thought we had escaped the damage usually caused by the erection on the large tent on the lawn. What appears to have happened is that a tent stake was driven into an irrigation line near the sprinkler head. It only leaked in the early am hours when that sector was being watered. By morning it had soaked back into the lawn and we did not notice until the area seemed to be particularly green.
Tomorrow there will be an owners' meeting to determine what type of roof will be installed to replace our hail damaged roof. Many owners have sent in proxies to voice their choice. It will be either composite, metal, or tile. My primary concern is that we find a way to cool the attic space to help keep down the temperature in the upstairs bedrooms.
Welcome to our newest owners. Blanche and Martin Dever have purchased condo 708 and plan to live there while they are having a house built.
The flounder run is showing signs of slowing down. Last weekend and for a few days afterward there were a lot of flounder caught and gigged. They were migrating into the bays and some made a wrong turn into our channel and ended up in the mitigation site. I have never seen so many large flounder caught in such a short period of time. We needed Barbara(the flounder lady) to help us control the flounder population. I waded into the bay before dawn on Sunday to take a look with my flounder light and there were flounder every few steps. At the first light of day, a commercial fisherman drove up in his truck pulling his flounder boat near our pier. He said he had exceeded his limit and had left some of his catch in a bucket on the HEB beach. He walked down and picked it up and sure enough, more flounder.

The addition to the crossbridge is nearing completion. Benches will be constructed and added. (I have to work on keeping my shadow out of the picture.)

I'm still having fun with this smartmetertexas stuff. This is my usage for the last month. Can you tell which days I was not here? At about 10 cents per KWH I can easily see my cost per day. I would think absentee owners could use this to see when their condo is being used.

Date Usage(kWh)
05/11/2011 42.468
05/12/2011 26.889
05/13/2011 17.421
05/14/2011 16.095
05/15/2011 3.018
05/16/2011 10.297
05/17/2011 29.206
05/18/2011 38.613
05/19/2011 56.022
05/20/2011 51.424
05/21/2011 56.166
05/22/2011 44.71
05/23/2011 43.021
05/24/2011 48.837
05/25/2011 45.317
05/26/2011 34.329
05/27/2011 56.774
05/28/2011 49.195
05/29/2011 36.457
05/31/2011 4.038
06/01/2011 3.749
06/02/2011 3.748
06/03/2011 32.211
06/04/2011 53.321
06/05/2011 41.919
06/06/2011 43.852
06/07/2011 54.377
06/08/2011 61.413

Pat and Sybil(602) got their mojo back with this catch of a dozen trout yesterday. The day before they worked hard to get only one trout.

Life is good at the Kontiki pool. Even with a flash from the camera the cat continued to doze.
Our board has given owners a list of "who to call" for services. These are people who have proven reliable for owners in the past. This testimonial that Jim(210) sent me verifies that there are some good vendors out there if you know who to call.
Wanted to recommend L & B Air conditioning that you had sent to us previously for anyone that is needing AC replacement or repairs. Called Lee Hunt on the phone and he went over to our condo to see what needed to be done. I had already known that my inside unit needed to be replaced for sure. Mr. Hunt said that the closet floor was rotten and that air was being drawn from outside the closet under the building. He said he would rebuild the floor and build a new platform for the outside unit with treated lumber and replace both units (inside & out) with a Ruud system for $3,200.00. He said he could get the job done the next morning. I had already called another place for a bid and they said they could replace my units for $4,800-$5,000 unless I wanted a really cheap unit that he could do for about $4,200. He didn't know about the carpentry work that would be necessary. Needless to say I was happy with Mr. Hunt's price and his extra work to complete the project. I felt very confident that he would get the job done right and gave him the job. All went well and unit 209 is ready for the summer heat. Jim (210)

Scott took his family out in the gulf on Saturday and they returned with their limit of Red Snapper. They had one good sized King Fish, but gave it to folks on another boat. Meg wanted to note that she caught the biggest fish of the day. She had to have help bringing it aboard, but she explained that it counts if you hook the fish.
Scott gave me two fillets that I took to Crab 'N and this is how that turned out.

Work continued on the irrigation project today. Here they are trenching between the 100 and 200 building. It looks as if they may complete the project by the end of the week.

Long Nguyen finished up the spillway work today. The concrete truck downloaded the mix into the bucket of the bobcat and then the bobcat transported it to the site.

The concrete was dumped into the work area and spread.

The final result looks about like this although the final touches were put in today.

The bulkhead repair work was done behind the 100 building.

Last weekend Carmen(704)told me how to monitor our electrical usage with the new smart meters. I didn't know that could be done. I've had fun with it this week. Just log on to www.smartmetertexas.com. You will need your condo ESI ID number and the meter number. These are on the monthly bill.
Set up your account and later log on to monitor the electrical usage. The usage is updated every fifteen minutes. This give some insight into the times of heavy usage as well as the impact of different temperature settings on the AC. When I'm in San Antonio with the condo hot water heater off and the AC off, I can see the cycling of the refrigerator. I guess the newness will wear off, but for now it is interesting to look at.

Scott and Larry Rabe spent several hours last weekend working on putting together the fishing platform in the marina. I was just sure someone would take a plunge and had my camera ready, but they were very careful and stayed dry.