Steve(711) and Scott(504) and friends made a trip offshore a few days ago. Not a bad  haul I would say.

 Last year we assessed for and built 30 feet of bulkhead to keep the erosion from taking away our property. This year the erosion has been aggressive and it looks as if we will have to add a lot more soon or face the possibility of losing property that we would not be allowed to recover. The erosion along the HEB beach is pretty incredible. If you have not seen it in a while, you will just stand and stare and try to comprehend.

 The annual summer solstice brings high tides and high winds. Our property gets battered, but this year we were better prepared than ever.

 The new spillway that was assessed for and built performs its function and drains off the flood waters. Notice the waterfall back into the bay. Just as we had wanted.

Scott volunteered to check the depth of the river of overflow for me.

I didn't stay around at Ace after this car caught fire.  I posted earlier a picture with the smoke billowing out. We know the folks at Ace are the most helpful around and one of them sent me this picture of the car as it was being towed away. There is still a burned area on the curb.
Today we had a disabled car towed out of our parking area. I missed the opportunity to take a photo and post a picture in the display case with the caption, "Always display your Kontiki parking permit." Maybe next time!

 After the rain gave us a break today, the tree trimming crew came by to trim the tall palms because the winds had been far too great to attempt to do this for some time. Notice how quiet the fronds are when they started, even the lower trees.

 By the time they had moved over to the trees next to me, the winds had picked up. The trees were swaying as was the ladder. It made my knees weak watching him.

 By the time they had about finished this tree, gale force winds were again the case. Notice the fronds on both trees are "blowin' in the wind."

Now the fun began to clean up the mess. Notice how far from the trees the winds had blown the fronds.

We had our first real test of the spillway over the bulkhead today. We had over two inches of rain in a short amount of time. The spillway looked like a waterfall. There was some residual pooling of shallow water.  For the most part the spillway worked well, but it looks as if we need to add just a little more fill in the area of the pooling. Nothing washed out and the area around the fence and east bulkhead drained well.

While I was at Ace Hardware yesterday this vehicle in the picture caught fire. When I walked to the check out, everyone was looking out the front windows. About that time they announced they were evacuating the store and clearing out the parking area. I had just arrived at Ace after leaving the gym at Snap Fitness. I reasoned to myself that I should park away from the building to get even more exercise. I'm sure glad that I did park further away than I usually do. Flames were visible from under the hood and around the tire wells. The tires were what put out so much smoke. As I was leaving, the fire crews were arriving.

Latest Cedar Bayou Progress

Last Sunday morning was interesting. I went out to get my morning paper and I saw three sheriff's vehicles parked out front. It was early. Notice the long shadows. They had one person and custody and were looking for another.
The story was that early in the am two guys crawled over the pool fence to have a pot party. Either they could not get out or passed out, but one was asleep on the grass and one on a chaise. The first guest who saw them at first light thought they might be dead and called the sheriff.  They came right out. We had had a LARGE  group in a two bedroom condo in the 100 building. We counted six cars. Evidently, these guys were guests of the guests. They took one to book him and he made bail in a few hours. JR got here about 8 to unlock the pool gate. He found the paraphernalia and some cash, but no one claimed the cash. This shows that even with the best security, we can't keep everyone out, but law enforcement is quick to respond.

Our rental companies are starting to use the new parking tags. The new ones are a distinctive yellow so they can be identified as belonging on Phase I property. They are supposed to have a license number so that renters don't pass them around to slip in more cars than they admitted to having. Notice this one did not fill out the license number part. The tags also do not have anything on them to show the location. Renters had noted that when shopping downtown others would notice where they were staying and the condo number and could possibly use that for nefarious purposes. Now we need to get a set of the different color for our security personnel to issue to day guests. Some have figured out that they can just say they are visiting and then stay as long as they want and we would not know the difference. There is always someone trying to cheat the system.

The catch of the day went to Steve's(702) son who took this 24 inch red out of the mitigation site. He had seen a crab crawl up on the bait trap and captured it to use as bait. It didn't take 5 minutes and he had this red. Steve took his boat to his favorite spot in Copano Saturday morning and brought back six keeper trout. Scott went up to Mesquite and everywhere in between and brought back for keeper. At least that is better than it has been.

The annual Lone Star Legacy fishing  tournament was held this weekend.

The extra large pad for the dumpster made an excellent site for the skid-o-kans that were put in place for this weekend.

 Thirteen guides were used to accommodate the tournament. Boats were all over the place it seemed.

I didn't have to ask how the fishing was. Everything they cleaned washed up in the boat ramp today. Phase II is supposed to clean the ramp this month, but are short on personnel. They even tipped Jerry some cash to clean it for them last week. Scott cleaned the fish cleaning station. They had left that a mess just as they would at a public cleaning station.

Our two lift station pumps are humming along, but the old electric panel technology of the pump on one phase power was having problems. We tried to use the components of the panel that was removed to install the VFD device, but they would just not last long, read that as hours. Steve from  PEECO came out and installed a new panel with all new components. It's not to unlike the old Christmas tree lights where one would fail and the whole string would go out, but you never knew just which was the weak link. JR went ahead and ordered another complete panel so that when it goes out again we won't have to wait three weeks for one to arrive. Running on one pump is pretty precarious.

 The lumber for the gate on the fishing pier was delivered on Friday. Work is set to begin tomorrow.

 The gates were fitted today and electrical infrastructure installed. The gates will be sent to San Antonio for galvanizing. Final installation should be completed in the next two weeks.

The welder attached a leg and wheel to follow the track on the concrete. At the other end a wheel was installed that will roll on the track over the grass.

Mingo shows you don't have to go all over the bay for an oversized red.

Cedar Bayou through 6-1-14

Lynne and Butch have asked me to let folks know they will be selling their beautiful Sea Doos. If anyone is interested, please let me know.

2009 Sea Doo Pair With Trailer

GTI 130 (red) and GTI 130 SE (blue) -Like New -Run Perfectly -Low Hours-approx 45 hrs on GTI130 SE and 30 hrs on GTI130 (Batteries are currently being charged-once they are replaced, will update with current hours) -10’7” -130 hp -GTI 130 SE has ski rope hook, double mirrors, odometer, and back pull down step -Both have Sea Doo Cover -Double Trailer -We love them but need cash for hospital and doctor bills due to an accident $12,900

 Jerry caught his first shark this week. He was fishing next to the Fulton Public Pier. It measured in the mid thirties. Shark and Gafftop may be pretty much it until Cedar Bayou opens.

The winds gave us a break last weekend, but this weekend every day is forecast to have winds over 20 mph.

 Not many folks have seen the "over the top inside remodel of 101" It is now being rented for the first time. Click on some of the photos to see the interior in a larger scale. Pretty fantastic.
                                                          Check out condo 101