Spring has to be close

Even though it is cold here today and they are have ice and snow further north of here and cold weather almost all over the United States, Spring must be coming soon.  The Redbirds are out in force.  I have seen several of them the past few days but Redbirds don’t pose for pictures very well.

Wooly Mammoth

I walked down to Pebble Beach this morning after the sun came up and it got up to at least 45.  It was a nice walk with the sun out but kinda cool in the shade.  I looked around for Indian artifacts but didn’t find any today.  I did stumble across this large bone.

It was half way buried in the dirt causing it to be a different color.  I recall that last year some people from the San Antonio River Authority came down the river and said that they had discovered some Wooly Mammoth bones up on the cliffs on the other side of the river.  Maybe this is one of the bones that have washed down in the floods.  Anyhow I am calling it a Wooly Mammoth bone and since I found it, I can call it what I want to call it.

Pebble Beach

I walked down to Pebble Beach this morning to see what it looks like after the little flood we had last week.

This is how it looks directly to the right coming down the path.  As you can see, most of the gravel is gone or at least under water here.

This is taken looking directly in front as you walk down the path.  Most of the gravel is gone from here too.

To the left of the path is where most of the gravel has gone but it doesn’t seem to be as much overall as there once was there.

The other side of the river is really being washed away and you can see all the different color dirt starting to show as well as the big rock that have come down.  Maybe we will call that area the Grand Canyon because of the colors.

This picture was taking coming down the path which will give you a better idea of what the area looks like now.

Washing Machine

I am not sure when this all really started, maybe sometime this fall when the pecans started falling and the Squirrels started hoarding them for the winter.  At any rate, the story for me started on Saturday January 9th, 2010 when Margaret called me and said that Mom had called her and told her that she had water on the floor in the utility room.  My first thought was that a pipe had burst since we had had temperatures down in the 20s (F) (or           –6 (C) for my European and Thailand readers). 

Margaret told me that Darren was going over to check it out and that I was to stand by in case I was needed.  Darren went over and called me later telling me that he had found where the drain hose had been eaten up by some Squirrels.  He turned off the water and un-plugged the washer.  We decided that was good for the weekend and that I would go over on Monday when it was supposed to warm up and replace the hose.

How can something this cute be so bad????

Margaret and Jack went over on Sunday and took a drain hose and the hot and cold hoses so I could replace them on Monday.  I got over on Monday thinking this was going to be a easy fix.  I found out that nothing comes easy.

I replaced the hoses and pushed the machine back in place and ran a cycle.  Water came running out the bottom so I shut it off and pulled it out from the wall and disconnected the hoses and turned the machine over on its side to find where the water was coming from.  The cute little Squirrels had decided that since the drain hose tasted so good, they would eat another rubber hose.

This little hose was way up under the washer where I had to take the back off to get to it.  I wasn’t able to get the back totally off but I got it off enough to remove the hose.  Naturally I had to go to Sears to get the replacement hose and naturally they didn’t have it in stock.  They ordered it and shipped it to me and I got it in about three days which wasn’t to bad.

I went back to Mom’s and replaced the hose and then hooked up all the other hoses and pushed it back in place and ran a test cycle.  Once again water came running out on the floor so I shut it down again and pulled it away from the wall and disconnected all the hoses.  I put the machine on it side and got a flash light and tried to find out where the water was coming from.   Way far up under the washer, buried way far up under the washer was another rubber hose that the Squirrels had for dinner.

This time I had to remove the back from the washer in order to get to it.  Once I had it out, I thought that I might be able to go to a auto parts house and get a piece of hose to use but upon closer inspection, I found where the two ends were different sizes.  Just a little trick to make sure you have to get the replacement hose from Sears.

I went back to Sears and naturally they didn’t have it in stock and they would order it and ship it to me.  I am expecting it this week and hopefully will have Mom’s washing machine up and running soon.  Margaret has been picking up Mom’s laundry and doing it for her so at least Mom has clean clothes to wear in case anyone was wondering.

Jan. 10th, 2010

I just noticed that I put 2009 on my last post.  I guess it takes a little time to get used to writing the new year especially if you are retired and don’t pay much attention to what day it is much less the year.

It has been super cold the past two days with the temperatures dropping into the low 20s Fahrenheit or –7 Celsius and that is too cold for me to get out unless I really need something.

Mom called Margaret yesterday morning and said she had water on the floor of her utility room and garage.  We thought the worse, thinking she had a busted pipe with the cold weather.  Since Darren lives close, he went over to check it out.  He called me later and told me that some Squirrels had gotten into the utility room and had made a next under the washing machine and had eaten the drain hose and that was the cause of the water.  He turned off the water to the washing machine and I will go over on Monday and replace the hose and try to run the Squirrels out of there but I am not sure how I will do that yet.

Not much else going on except the Cowboys played a great game yesterday and hopefully they will continue their winning ways for a few more weeks.  It would nice to see them back in the Super Bowl.  I am predicting that the Cowboys will beat the Vikings next week and that either the Packers or the Cardinals will beat the Saints and then we will have the NFC Championship game at home and we will win and go on to win the Super Bowl against whoever wins the AFC.  Go Boys.

Jan. 6th, 2009

It has been cold and wet the past two days so I haven’t been out too much.  I thought it was going to be nice today when the sun came out for a few minutes but when I went out, it was misting rain so I came back inside.  I don’t know about you but I am tired of winter and am ready for spring to get here.

I have spent the past two days with the computer making slide shows of my trips and also adding pictures to my new digital photo frame that Mom gave me for Christmas.  I have also been converting some old VHS tapes to DVDs and converting some LPs to CDs for Kathy.

Not much else going on and the weather is expected to get colder the next few days so I guess I will be spending some more time inside.

Jan. 3rd, 2010

I walked down to Pebble Beach this morning since Jack had a couple of hunters that were wanting to shoot some pigs and they were down at Four Corners sitting in Darren’s blind.  I haven’t heard any shots so I don’t know if they saw any pigs or not.

Like I have talked about in previous post, Pebble Beach has really changed but that makes it good for finding Indian artifacts since all the stuff that was at the bottom is now laying on top.  I found the following things today:

Linda tells me that rocks like this one with a little cut out in them were used by Indians to hold paint or maybe to mix medicines.  Linda is my expert for Indian artifacts so it must be true.

This is a stone that they might have used as a knife or a scrapper.

This is a stone that fits naturally in your hand with a place for your fingers and thumb and might have been used as a hammer used to chip out other tools or arrowheads.

This looks like a stone that someone might have started to make either an arrowhead or maybe a spear and didn’t finish.  We have been told by several experts that Mother Nature will not make sharp edges on stones, only men make those.  The problem we now have is that men use machines to crush stones and sometimes the stones in up in the river and we aren’t sure if they were chipped by Indians of long ago or present day men using machines.

That is until you find something like this one and there is no doubt that it was made by Indians.

I also look for rocks to add to my rock collection.  I like rocks that are different and this one looked like a fossil rock when I first picked it up and there seems to be a few fossils embedded but I like it because the image in the center reminds me of a pixie fairy.  It looks better in person than it does in the picture.

New Years

New Years was rather quiet on the Heinesh Ranch.  Margaret and Jack had some classmates come out to their house for the New Year’s celebration.  Malford & Vivian Brehm and James and Barbara Merkel came out and spent a few days with them.  On Thursday I took them on my world famous Mission tour of the Missions in San Antonio.  We covered four of the five, leaving out the Alamo since everyone had seen it many times before.

I am sure that many of you will remember taking the tour and hopefully these pictures will bring back fond memories of your visit to San Antonio.  If you haven’t yet been on my Mission tour, call me the next time you are in San Antonio and we will see if we can arrange something.