Roofing Being Done Everywhere!!

John and I have been keeping pretty busy over these last several weeks.  Our weather has turned quite warm, but the nights cool down very nicely.  The Winter Texans are starting to pull out and head north--Jim and Kathy are leaving tomorrow and several other couples have already left.  I think just about everyone will be gone by the first week of April.  We are tentatively heading out April 3rd as I called today and got an appointment with pain management for the 7th of the month.  It doesn't seem possible the Tuesday night potluck dinners and Saturday breakfasts are coming to an end with only a couple left this season.  The winter has gone by very quickly.

Last Saturday was the second annual H.O.P.E. tournament and John and I teamed up with Jim H. and Gina F.  Much to our surprise, we were the winners of the second flight.  Our play wasn't too great until the last six holes where we made four birdies in a row which gave us a score of 5 under par.

The fort is extremely busy with roofing crews and glass installers running all over the place.  We had met with the insurance adjuster, signed a contract with a roofing contractor, and this Sunday our new metal roof was installed.  The contractor called Saturday night and told us he generally doesn't work on Sunday, but there are so many people needing a new roof, they are working seven days a week.  The crew that did our house was great--very professional and fast.  Our new roof was done in seven hours and John and I are extremely pleased with their work.  John is busy now painting our new shutters, scrubbing up the screens and the outside of the house.  He also needs to do some paint touch-up and re-stain the deck where the hail stones rubbed off the deck finish.

 Our nice new metal roof.  Notice satellite dish hanging down

side of house.  Without TV for a week until Direct TV

comes next Monday to set it back up on side of house.

Since the roof was being done on Sunday, after church and lunch at Burger and Shake, John and I took a golf cart ride with Gene, Jeanne, Chuck, Lois, and Marvin and Penny (Lois and Chuck's daughter and son-in-law visiting from Indiana).  We drove down to the red bridge and along the creek before coming back to our place for some visiting.

  Yesterday afternoon a group of us drove to Eagle Pass where we visited a pecan farm and learned quite a bit about growing pecans and enjoyed delicious pecan cake and ice cold tea.  The farm also raises goats for milking and to sell for meat.

 This morning John and I were up early for our walk and then headed off to play nine holes before the day got too hot.  The afternoon was spent doing laundry and continuing with repair work.  Instead of attending the potluck this evening, we were invited to supper with Chuck and Lois, Marvin and Penny, and Gene and Jeanne.  Chuck cooked chicken legs on the grill and Penny made a wonderful potato salad.  The meal was topped off with Jeanne's famous coconut cream dessert.  A little before 7 p.m. we headed over to the RV kitchen for cards.  John and I were both winners this evening. 

Insect Trouble and Fort Clark Days

Last week our weather turned quite warm so we decided it was time to get the air conditioner uncovered and ready to run.  After removing the cover, cleaning the filter, and plugging it in, John pushed the power button.  All we could hear was a slight hum--the fan wasn't able to rotate.  John looked through the back grill and found that an insect had built a mud nest on the fan.  After taking the front off the AC, scraping the fan, and re-assembling everything, we had cool air.

This weekend was the annual Fort Clark Days.  Following breakfast at the RV park, John and I headed off the explore the festival.  We enjoyed the many different historical displays and visiting with the exhibitors.  After walking around for an hour or so, we met up with a few friends for lunch.  

 Today was our usual Sunday routine of church, lunch at Burger and Shake, and then a round of golf.  This evening we met up with Chuck, Lois, Gene, and Jeanne to play a marble card game.  We are expecting to get our new roof on this week and hope it'll get done before we get any rain. 

 

Spring Is Here

February just flew by and now it's the first week of March.  It doesn't seem possible that in a little over five weeks we'll be heading home to Minnesota.   As I have posted before, our weeks have been filled with many activities and pretty much followed the same routine.  Since the weather has been so nice, John and I have been golfing just about everyday.  With the crash of our laptop and purchase of a new one, I have been busy learning the Windows 10 operating system and getting software reinstalled and operating.  I finally purchased new and updated photo software and can now place photos onto the blog.

Last Monday evening our area experienced a severe hail storm with hail the size of golf balls and larger.  We were without power for about 10 hours and were glad when daylight arrived.  Most of our neighbors were outside bright and early to assess what damage had been done.  With hail that size, it was a foregone conclusion that every roof was totaled along with broken windows and damaged vehicles. The RV park took a major hit with every vehicle having broken windows and body damage along with damage to motor homes and campers.  We called our insurance company and was told a claims adjuster would be out this week.  Well, the adjuster came yesterday and declared our roof a total loss and made note of our broken shutters, dented grill, broken porch chair, and several other items.  We have already made contact with a roofer and our new one should be started next week.  We were very fortunate that our windows and vehicle escaped any damage.  

 Golf ball sized hail

 Example of some of the larger pieces of hail

 Hail driven right through cactus by deck

Wildflowers beginning to bloom on our lawn