Nearby WWII POW Camp...and Golf Course

Anyone who knows me well, understands that I am a history buff.  I should have a bumper sticker that says, "Danger!  I Brake Hard for Historical Markers".

There is an unusual area not far down the road from Riverside toward Huntsville called "Country Campus."  I have passed by the Country Campus many times through the years, never understanding its significance.  Since there were always cattle on the property, I assumed it was some sort of agricultural facility associated with Sam Houston State Univesity.

Several days ago I noticed a historical marker and stopped to read it.  Turns out that the area was originally a POW camp in World War II that housed German prisoners, mainly from the Rommel's Afrika Corps.  After the War it was donated to Sam Houston State.  Hence the name "Country Campus."

I also noticed a sign indicating that a golf course lay down a dirt road somewhere on the property.  Peculiar place for a golf course, but I was curious.  So yesterday I drove down the road to see what the golf course looks like.  

When I arrived there was a bearded guy who dressed like a construction worker sitting on a golf cart.  "Wanna play some golf?", he asked as I walked up. 

"No," I replied.  "Just looking around."

"Want me to take you on a tour of the course?", he continued.

"No, that's all right," I replied.  "You work here?"

"Yes," he said, "If you want, you can take the cart and look around the course."

So finally I agreed and took the cart around the 9 hole course.  It is pretty rough and not very challenging, which would be perfect for me.

As I was driving around, I noticed a very old, barrack-style building in an adjacent pasture.  It had to be one of the original barracks from the POW camp!  When I returned to the metal building that served as the club house, I asked about the building.  The attendant confirmend that it was one of the original barracks, but unfortunately it is not accessible to the public.  The property is now owned by a rancher, and one of these days I'm going to try to get permission to poke around the barracks building.

Oh, yes.  "What is the greens fee?" I asked.

"Six dollars," replied the attendant.

Sounds like my kind of golf course. 

Packages for Soldiers

As I mentioned in a previous post, I am volunteering at the H.E.A.R.T.S. Veterans Museum of Texas in Huntsville.  Several of the volunteers prepare packages of candy, cookies, and snacks for soldiers on duty and in military hospitals. Today Cec and I helped prepare 12o packages that were sent to Afghanistan, Iraq, and Walter Reed Army Hospital.  Cec is shown in the adjacent photo putting mailing labels on the packages.

The Roofing Begins

The carpenters began installing the roof this week. Completing the job will require 2-3 weeks. 

We chose metal for both aesthetic and energy reasons.  Although metal roofing now comes in numerous colors, we think colored metal makes a house look too much like a commercial building.  So instead we chose the unpainted variety because it provides more of an East Texas country home look reminiscent of farm houses built over 100 years ago.  We also plan to use limestone siding about 1/3 of the way up the walls all way around the house, and the combination of stone and metal roofing provides a Texas Hill Country look.

There is another reason Lee likes metal roofing.  Lee grew up in several old East Texas farm houses with corrugated metal roofs.  There is nothing quite like the sound of rain on a metal roof.  Sleep is never more pleasant than on a rainy night with rain clattering on the roof and thunder in the distance.  Although it will never happen on this roof, Lee remembers climbing to the peak of a metal roof on a barn and sliding down the roof on his feet.

Metal roofing also has energy benefits since unpainted metal reflects most of the energy from sunlight, reducing the heat load on the house.  The metal is being mounted on strips nailed to the decking.  That provides an additional 3/4" of insulating air space under the metal.  Combined with aluminum backing on the underside of the decking, the air space in the attic and R-24 insulation in the attic and R-14 in the walls, we are hoping that the house will be energy efficient. 

Color Confusion (cont.)

The painter brought the two paint samples today and applied them.  His first words when I arrived were, "I like the original colors better.  They blend in well with the surrounding."  Actually I had liked the original colors better the second time I saw them.

I called Cec to come down for a look, and we agreed that the best of the new colors made the windows disappear.  So we asked him to paint the over the trim color in curved sections above the windows with the original color and the best of the new colors.

Painting the curved sections above the windows in the original main color instead of the original trim color made a dramatic difference. The problem was not the color at all--it was the painting style.  It toned down the neon effect of the original trim style but did not make them disappear as did the new color.  The main color and the window color blended very well together.  The combination also looked better as the paint dried.  Our first choice was the best one after all!

Colors are very deceptive.  Here are several lessons we learned:

1.  Paint chips do not tell you much about how the paint will look when applied.

2.  It is a good idea to buy small samples and apply them on as large an area of the house or building material as possible.

3.  Wet paint looks different from dry paint.

4.  Colors can "grow" on you.

5.  Painting pattern or style can make a big difference.

6.  Think about the natural surroundings when picking exterior colors.

7.  Take samples of any color you like to Home Depot (and presumably any big paint store).  They can scan your sample with their computer and match it very closely.

Color Confusion

Selecting colors is one of the trickiest parts of building a new home.

Cec and I agonized for days over exterior colors until we realized that that beige-green with medium green trim on the barn worked well on our lot, which is dominated by tall pine trees.  One of our objectives has always been to make the house look like it belongs on the lot.

We made several trips to Home Depot to match the color and eventually bought a quart of the main color and a quart each of two potential trim colors.  The scanned our color samples with their computer and amazingly matched them almost exactly.  We brought them to the house and painted three pieces of Hardie plank siding (a natural looking siding made of fiber-filled concrete), which we placed by the house along with the trim stone (man-made Marble Falls stone for the Texas Hill Country look) we had selected.  The main color and one of the trims looked very good.  We also viewed the beside the galvanized roofing and some of the trees.

We gave the painter the colors and a few days later we saw the scene in the photo above.  Our hearts sank.  We though it looked awful, especially the small sections above the windows, which are a story in themselves.  We chose windows with arched tops to contrast with the sharp peaks of the roof.  However, it is very difficult to build a curved frame from Hardie plank as you can with wood.  So the carpenter built square frame.  The painter did not know how to paint them and filled the upper corners with the trim color.  That made the trim color look oppressive and the almond windows stand out like neon lights.

The next day we call the builder that we wanted a different color.  He said, "No big deal," and told us he'd have the painter out the next day to select a different color.  The painter had been ill with flu when we made the original selection, and he apologized that we had had to do it on our own. 

The painter came out and told us that he had not liked our colors when he started to apply them but that they had grown on him.  Nevertheless, he agreed that a different color would be better.   We selected a couple of main colors that better matched the windows, and he agreed to buy small samples and paint the windows again.

(To be continued in the next post)

Size 36 Waist!

Cec and I have been on the Weight Watchers diet for just over a year now.  The last time I weighed I had lost 59 pounds, but I suspect that I may have lost a few more in the past several days.  With my balance beam scales in storage, weighing is not as easy as it was before the move.  

The reason I think I may have lost a few more pounds is that I can now fit in pants with a 36" waist.  My old 38s were getting a bit sloppy, and Cec found me some 36" cargos on sale at Wally World yesterday.  They fit perfectly!

I can't say enough about the Weight Watchers diet program.  I was very skeptical when I started.  I had lost 10-12 pounds on the South Beach diet, but that was it.  I eventually gained most of it back.  Then I ran into a guy a work who had undergone a remarkable weight loss.  I asked him how he did it, and he replied "Weight Watchers."

The diet is low calorie, low fat, high fiber.  Weight Watcher diet we used (there are two) uses a points system.  The number of points is equal to calories/50+grams of fat/12-grams of fiber (up to 4 max)/5.  Based on my weight and age, I started with 34 points for the day.  With my weight loss I am down to 28 points per day.  I am permitted 35 extra points per week for special occasions, but you are not supposed to use it every week.

I can honestly say I have not been hungry as on other diets, and we have dessert almost every night.  Usually we have some sort of ice cream (low fat, or course) with fruit.  Every week or two, I have Mexican food with chips and salsa, barbecue, or fried catfish.  But next meal we go back on the diet and stay on it until the next splurge.

In my view you cannot eat out a lot and stay on the diet.  Only Subway and Applebees have food that are easy to incorporate into the WW diet.  You can find things at other restaurants, but you have to choose very carefully.  Cec likes to cook, and she finds recipes that she wants to cook and revamps them to use lower fat and calorie and higher fiber ingredients.

I can honestly say I have not eaten better than on the WW diet.  When you diet, you'd better like what you have to eat because that is what you will have to eat from now on.  You cannot diet, meet your weight loss goal, and then go back to cheeseburgers and lasagna on a regular basis.  

You also need to find something for snacks.  I like carrots, although you have to count points if you consume more than a few.  Dill pickle spears and low cal bread and butter sweet pickles are also good snacks.

If you are serious about overcoming "middle age spread," I unequivocally recommend the Weight Watchers diet.

 

Window View

Here is a view of the lake through the upstairs living room window taken from the balcony.  

In the distance you can see the Bethy Creek RV campground.  The campground was recently expanded to locate RVs on the water within clear view of our lot.  We were initially concerned, but we decided that the site was too good to give up. So we moved the house back from the water where the campground will be partially hidden when the leaves are on the trees.  Amazingly, moving the house back improved the view!  

We also decided that as motor home owners who camp amid other RVs at similar campgrounds, we could hardly complain.  It appears that the campground is well done and that the RVs on the water lots are in good condition.  The owner of the campground built a very large, expensive home on the other side of the campground, which provides additional comfort that the campground will not become an eyesore.   

And besides that, its a lake where things are more relaxed.  Gotta work on ridding myself of the big city way of thinking!

Speaking of Mud Daubers

In the previous post I mentioned the pests known a mud daubers, or "dirt dobbers" as they are commonly known in East Texas.  Mud daubers look very much like stinging paper wasps, but they are not aggressive and will not normally sting you.  I have never known of anyone to be stung by one.

They are mainly a nuisance because of the dried mud nests they built on porches and in accessible buildings.  Every year you have to knock them down with a stick and wash the remnants away with a power washer.

Mud daubers are especially bad near the lake, where they can easily find the mud required for their nests.  Some people install automatic foggers on their porches to ward them, and other pesky insects, away.  We opted not to do that because I do like the idea of constantly buying a supply of chemicals, and we did not have a place to hide the barrel required to hold them.

I understand that there is a chemical you can spray on the nests to kill the larvae.  Since the daubers that build the nests this year were larvae at the same location last year, there will be no daubers to return the year after the treatment.  Eventually a few new ones will wander into your building and start a new colony, but the treatment supposedly greatly reduces the problem.

Teasing My Builder

Shortly after installing the windows on the lake side of the house, the carpenters dropped a sheet of plywood and the wind blew it into the window with the results shown nearby.  The photo shows a piece of wood protruding through the broken glass, but that was a later addition.

Of course, I gave the builder, Philip Morrison (Morrison Bros. Construction, Trinity, TX), a hard time about it, but he swears that broken windows are a rare occurrence on his jobs.

I told Cec about a house I built in Houston in the 70's.  The carpenters installed the windows, and then promptly broke several of them.  That let in the mud daubers, who built a mud nest in a closet, before he windows were replaced.  Then the painters arrived and painted over the mud dauber nest!  Finally, the touch-up crew removed the nest and repainted the closet.

That's the difference between a large, mass construction builder and a custom builder like Philip, who builds only 3-4 houses at the same time.

Building is Messy

Building site are a mess.  Start with the yard where newly moved dirt becomes a quagmire when the rains come.  And it has been raining a lot in our area this year.  To get into the house, the builder lays board, cardboard, and plasting sheeting for stepping stones.  When those are not available, and even when they are to some extent, you wind up with mud on the floor of your automobile.  One of the first things we bought after arriving were cheap floor mats for the minivan.  I had already bought plastic floor pans for my Jeep.

Scattered around the ground are small pieces of every kind of material that goes into the house - boards, hardy plank siding, insulating board, roofing tar paper, etc.  Add to that stacks of materials that are yet to be used in the construction.  On cold days the wood slowly disappears as the workers build fires to stay warm.  The hardy plank stays because it won't burn -- it is molded from cement and fibers.

Inside the house the floor is covered with a combination of sawdust, wood chips and shaving, and mud tracked in from the yard.

A Friend Gets a Makeover

Monday night Cec and I attended a "reveal" for Cec's friend Terri Thompson Saylor.  Terri, who was one of Cec's videography students at the University of Nebraska at Omaha and is now runs the video department at Stephen F. Austin State University at Nacogdoches, Texas, was awarded the makeover by a Nacogdoches community group.  With the help of a gastric surgeon, dentist, makeup artist, hairdresser and trainer, Terri dropped over 90 pounds, rid herself of thick glasses and achieved a stunning new look.  The event was inspirational, and everyone is very proud of Terri's accomplishment.

Seen on the Side of the Road

We were driving around the Riverside area last week, and we ran across this old Jeep CJ-2 on the side of the road.  It is from the late 1940s or early 1950s.  My Jeep expert buddies in Michigan can probably tell the model year from the photo.

Brutal Texas Winters

For my friends in Michigan (and Minnesota), here is a photo me in our yard enduring the hardship of Texas winters.  As a Michigan buddy pointed out, ice fishing will be rough this year.

Texas Veterans Museum

Cec is a Weight Watchers lifetime member, and I accompanied her to several meetings at the tiny mall in Huntsville during our recent visits to Riverside.  Cec had been to the mall before and pointed out that it houses a small military museum.  So while she attended her meeting, I wandered down to the Texas Veterans Museum.  It turned out to be quite good, and I asked about volunteering.  History is one of my deepest interests, and I am particularly fascinated by World War II, which I refight night after night on the History and Military Channels.  They told me need vounteers and to "Come on down!"

Monday I visited them again, and I reiterated my interest in volunteering.  They invited me to visit the museum today and sit with one of their experienced volunteers to learn the ropes, which I did on the 10-2 shift.  

I head a great time time talking to the volunteers and staff.  I totally admire the WWII combat vets, and hero worship is not too strong a term.  Today I met a Navy vet whose aircraft carrier, the Wasp, was torpedoes in the Solomon Islands, and he spent 16 hours in the water!  Another was a gunner in a bomber who was shot down on his first mission over Germany.  Of course, he spent time in a Nazi prison camp.  I also met M. B. Etheredge,  known to everyone as "Colonel," who was a highly decorated soldier of WWII and a close colleague of Audie Murphy, the most decorated solider of WWII.

The museum has a State grant for a new building north of Huntsville near the Texas Prison Museum (features "Old Sparky," the infamous electric chair).  It will be built in conjunction with a civil defense shelter, and the veterans have volunteered to staff the shelter when it is in use.  Hurricane Rita created frightening chaos in this area, and the State is planning for the future.  The agreement with the vets seems like a win-win situation.

They asked me to come back next week.  I'll be there.

Riverside City Council

Last night Cec and I went to the Riverside City Council meeting to get acquainted with others in the community and let them know that we are interested in helping out on civic matters.The city secretary had encouraged us to attend, and we decided it would be a good idea. Unfortunately, we arrived at 7 P. M., but the meeting was at 6 P. M. and was just breaking up.  However, we did get to meet a council member, the volunteer fire chief and acting city secretary, who it turns out is our neighbor.

We got a short report on what happened.  A group wants to build either low income housing or a senior citizens' home within the city.  No one knows for sure which it is since it has been described both ways in correspondence with the Council.  The Council wisely postponed endorsement of the idea until more information is provided.

We also heard that the Texas Department of Transportation is studying a Texas Transportation Corridor/ IH 69 through East Texas, and one potential route passes through our area.  IH 69 is proposed to provide a commercial artery from Mexico, through the central U. S. and entering Canada near Detroit.  TXDOT is looking for Riverside area citizens to serve on an advisory committee, and the Council apparently did not have any volunteers.  I thought about it overnight, and today I stopped by city hall and volunteered for the position if a long term resident is not interested.  It sounds like a great way to meet a lot of interesting people and be involved in a momentous project.

Cec was invited to the meeting of the local chamber of commerce.  They say they need new blood and new ideas.  She may have a political career ahead of her.

Latest on Car Registrations

We now now have the Jeep Rubicon registered and plated, and we have the Chrysler minivan and 97 Wrangler  TJ registered and plates on hand.  Amazingly, Cec was able to obtain "CEC" personalized tags like she used to have in Nebraska, a feat she was unable to accomplish in Michigan.  I plan to get a ham plate, KY8T, for the Rubicon, but I did not have a copy of my ham license with me when I registered it.

Since Texas requires both front and back plates, our Michigan-bought vehicles are not readily equipped for a front license plate.  I had to drill out the front bumper (fortunately plastic) to install the front plate on the Rubicon.    It appears that more drilling will also be necesary on the minivan.  The 97 Wrangler has a steel bumper with a hitch receiver, which leaves no room for mounting a license plate and makes the drilling much tougher.  So today I ordered a receiver insert with license plate frame from J. C. Whitney.

The motor home is another matter.  The last time we went to the county clerk's office, we did not have a required weight certificate.  Texas registration fees are based on weight.  So I went to a farm chemical business at Trinity recommended by my builder and had it weighed after they assured me that the weight would be certified.  When we returned to the clerk's office there were two further problems.  First, the safety inspection station had omitted one digit from the VIN on the motor home inspection certificate, and they would not register it without a correction.  Second,  the weight was not certified as promised.

So back to the safety inspection station, and they filled out a new certificate without complaint.  Then back to the place with scales.  This time they told me contrary to their earlier assertion that they do not certify weights but that they'd never had any problem with it.  Problem is that they are in Trinity County, and I am registering in Walker County.  Different people, different standards.  Although I sometimes invoke my "yell and scream" warranty, I decided to let it drop since it only cost $5 and they were sincere about not having any problems in Trinity County.  So now I have to go to the Pilot truck stop at Huntsville to get a certified weight.  But now I have to unhook the rig and get it out of a muddy area.  We decided to let it ride until spring when we have to move the rig again.  When the house is complete, we can unload the rig and pay a lower registration fee.  It might be worth the wait.

I also stopped by the Walker County Appraisal District today to claim my homestead exemption.  For non-Texans a homestead exemption is a fixed amount that is deducted from the tax value of the property on which you reside.  They needed a photo ID, but the driver's license office confiscated by Michigan license.  All I had was a temporary paper license without a photo.  Fortunately, they accepted the photo on my Costco American Express card.  That card had gotten us out of a couple of fixes, including getting Cec on a Continental flight last year when she had temporarily misplaced her driver's license.

Plumbing and Electrical

The house continues to progress, although the changes are not dramatic.  The carpenters are installing Hardy plank and window trim on the second floor as well as the living room ceiling (a false ceiling to accommodate A/C ducts and more insulation.  The plumbers have pretty much finished installtion of inside plumbing.  The electrical crew should start in a day or two,  and the builder says our metal roofing has arrived.  

We decided to order an upgraded A/C unit so we could have Puron, the new refrigerant that will be mandated after 2010.  The old R-22 will be outlawed, and it will become increasingly expensive to service units using it.  The unit also has some bells and whistles that seem useful.  It was  close call, but my technogeek side prevalied over my frugal side.

Cec and I have been haunting Lowe's and Home Depot Stores looking at paint, light fixtures, stone, and bath fixtures to be ahead of the game.  We do not want the builder to tell use we need to pick out something by tomorrow and not have time to make a rational investigation and decision.  Believe me, shopping for home stuff is no more fun that shopping for anything else, but it has to be done.

Retirement Officially Begins!

 Yesterday was the first official day of my retirement.  I have been off work since before the Christmas break, but I was on holiday the last week of December and on vacation all of January.  

The highlight of the day was lunch at the Golden Corral in Huntsville with Cec, Cec's mom Joanne, and friends Jim and Flo.  Jim swore the fried catfish was the best in the area, and it certainly was good.  The desserts were especially good, and the chocolate cake with pudding on the bottom was outstanding. Lunch was off diet, of course, but we were back on the wagon at dinner. Lunch was followed by a trip to Wal-Mart.  

It has been an exciting retirement so far!

Progress and More Rain

Slowly the house is taking shape.  The roof is now completely covered with decking and tar paper and the windows are now in.  The metal roof is on order.  We met with the A/C contractor yesterday to plan ducting, and it will be installed next week.   We are meeting with the electrical contractor to finalize plans.

The major A/C choice still to be made is whether to select the standard high SEER (13) Bryant A/C unit or their top-of-the-line, high tech Evolution system.  The SEER rating is higher, but even the A/C guy says the money savings are not substantial and hard to obtain in practice.  The main benefits seem to be quieter operation due to use of multi-speed DC motors and better humidity control.  There is also an interface box available that permits control via Internet or telephone.

The A/C guy did tell us that we have a good, energy efficient design.  Energy savings was one reason we wanted wrap around porches and a metal roof.  Both are staples of pre-air conditioning East Texas folk architecture, and they are still valid in our energy limited, air conditioned era.

Perhaps the key issue in the decision is that the refrigerant used in the standard unit is being phased out and will not be available after the warranty expires in 5 years.  That would mean a new A/C unit if replacement of the refrigerant is required.  The difference in price is about $4000, and I am on the fence whether to upgrade. 

The builder asked us to pick out shower and bathtub fixtures so they could install the valves. He directed us to Home Depot in Huntsville, but their stock was pretty limited.  So we drove to Houston earlier in the week to visit Great Indoors, but that was pretty much a bust.  We stopped at Lowe's in Houston and found a good selection.  We went back yesterday to Lowe's in Conroe and bought all the fixtures.  Fortunately, we had a 10% discount coupon that we received when we changed our mailing address, and that saved over $100.  

We have decided on Austin stone (probably man made) for exterior accent since it works well with the metal roof to give the Hill Country look.  So while at Lowe's and Home Depot we picked out exterior paint colors that would work with the stone.  Home Depot let us take a pice of broken stone for use in matching window trim.

We visited the house last evening and discovered that one of the recently installed windows was broken.  The builder says that the carpenter dropped a sheet of plywood from the second floor and the wind caught it and cartwheeled it into the window.  I told Cec that this is par for the course in home construction.  In a house I built in Houston several years ago, the carpenters installed the windows and then accidentally smashed several of them.  Before the panes were replaced, mud daubers entered and built a nest in the corner of a closet.  Then the painters arrived and painted right over the mud dauber nest!  House construction is controlled chaos.

The rain has continued off and on.  We have one day of sunny weather that dries up the mud followed by a day of rain.  We had a full blown thunderstorm yesterday morning.  We were sleeping in the motor home, and it was great to wake up tot he sound of booming thunder and rain on the roof.  

The ground finally dried up enough that we were finally were able to park the RV back in its slot beside the mobile home.  It is fortunate that we did not get it back in earlier since we discovered that we have it weighed for registration.  We accomplished that a couple of days ago.  Now all that is required is a trip to Huntsville with plenty of money.

And our mailbox is up, and we are receiving mail.