2021 Year In Review

This is the first year in the past 11 years that we have not done any volunteering.  Despite that, we stayed pretty busy this year.

January

In January we were still working on some upgrades on our new house. 

New water filtration system.

We put our HitchHiker up for sale.

We spent many amazing years in our HitchHiker.

(Green Lake Fish Hatchery, Ellsworth, Maine)

February

In February we had the heaviest snowfall in 30 years with single-digit temperatures!

We kept plenty of food out for the birds.

We put in a lot of time working in the yard. 

Grinding stumps.

March

We finally got our first Covid shot in March. 

 

I had knee surgery for a torn meniscus.

After all that snow last month we were noticing the driveway needed some upgrading. 

April

We got our 2^nd Covid shot right on time in April.

Mark ordered new kayaks.  His leaked and was replaced.  That one leaked also.  It was also replaced.  Third time’s a charm.  No more leaks!

We ordered a new travel trailer several weeks ago.  It arrived this month.  

We are still upgrading our new house. We decided to replace the flooring in the kitchen and dining area.  The existing flooring was new but was installed incorrectly.  

We went to Goose Island for our first trip in our new trailer.  The new kayaks went along too.

May

For Mark’s birthday we booked a cabin at the Utopia River Retreat on the beautiful Sabinal River.  The highlight of the trip was observing the Mexican Free-tailed Bats emerging from the Frio Bat Cave.

 

The sky was full of bats!

We had our second trip in the new trailer.  South Llano River State Park is a beautiful park in the Hill Country and only about 1 ½ hours from our house.

S. Llano River State Park

June

We had beautiful weather for taking the kayaks out on the Guadalupe River.

Mark plays disc golf about once a week. 

 July

We spent two weeks in Costa Rica for my birthday.  It was our 5^th trip and we went to some new areas.

King Vulture with Black Vultures

White-faced Capuchin 

Shining Honeycreeper

One of our favorite lodges is the Arenal Observatory Lodge.  We made sure to stay there on my birthday. 

Arenal Volcano

August

We took the trailer to Ruidoso, New Mexico.  We’ve been to this area many times and always enjoy the cool mountain air and the many hummingbirds. 

Our site.

September

September 28^th was the 1-year anniversary of our new house.  It is unbelievable that a year has already passed.  We have really enjoyed having a permanent home again.

We celebrated with a 2-week trip to Ecuador.  This was our 2nd trip to Ecuador. 

Yellow-throated Toucan

Glistening-green Tanager

Booted Racket-tail

October

Our October trip was to Davis Mountains State Park.  We’ve stayed here numerous times.  It’s a beautiful area.  

Not a lot of traffic!

November

Our November trip was to my favorite place in Texas - Goose Island State Park.  Because it was very windy, we were only able to go out in the kayaks one time.  But we went birding every day and ate at all our favorite restaurants.

December

December ending up being a relaxed month.  We got our first (and only) freeze on the 12^th.  It was a bright, sunny day so it wasn't freezing for long.

By Christmas day we were back into the low 80's.

Mark expanded my yarn barn and I did my best to fill it up!

We had a trip planned for December, but the birds did not cooperate!  If they ever show up where they are supposed to be, we’ll head on over to New Mexico.  Until then, there are a lot of areas close to our house for birding.

We participated in a Christmas bird count on December 28th.  Mark has gone on Christmas bird counts many times, but this was a first for me.  The count is for the number of species seen.

Beginning on Christmas Day 1900, ornithologist Frank M. Chapman, proposed a new holiday tradition - a "Christmas Bird Census" that would count birds during the holidays rather than hunt them.

Those original 27 Christmas Bird Counters tallied around 90 species on all the counts combined.

The 120th CBC took place from December 14, 2019, to January 5, 2020. That count occurred at 2,646 locations, with 81,601 volunteers in the US, Canada, Latin America, the Caribbean and Pacific Islands. Volunteers observed a total of 2,566 bird species.

I got a few new magnets this year -  

This year was quite an adjustment for us.  We had some major changes but we are enjoying our new way of life. 

We are filling up next year’s calendar.  We’ll be hitting some of our favorite places, but we also have several new trips planned. 

Stay tuned.  You might be surprised where we go!

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Gotta Love Free Shipping

When we moved into our house last year I was so excited to have a place for my yarn.  I thought I had a lot of yarn.  I was wrong! 

My first yarn barn.

With all the Black-Friday deals, I decided to order some new yarns. 

Even though we have a wonderful craft store near us, they don’t carry many different brands of yarn.

I have been crocheting afghans for Project Linus for 20 years. 

Project Linus is a non-profit organization that provides new handmade blankets to children in need.

This year I only donated 14 afghans. Most years I donate many more than that.  This was my reasoning to upgrade the yarn barn. 

Once I told Mark how much yarn I had ordered he immediately started calling around to find matching shelving for the yarn barn.  This wasn’t an easy tasks!  We ended up having to drive into San Antonio (1½ hours) for 2 boards and into Boerne (about an hour) for 2 boards.

The new shelving had to be cut-down a little.  Of course, Mark had to buy himself a new battery-powered saw to do the job properly.

The new shelving was quickly installed and I patiently waited for the UPS driver.

Finally, the big day arrived.

26 pounds of beautiful, colorful yarn.  And don't forget free shipping!

113 skeins of yarn.

I didn’t think I would have enough room even with my new shelving. 

I was wrong!

All new yarn.

Yarn I already had. 

I have room for more!

My Favorite Place

From the title of the blog it’s probably no surprise that we’re at Goose Island State Park in Rockport.  It’s my favorite Texas state park.  This is the 2^nd time we’ve been here this year.

It’s an easy four-hour drive from our house.  Unfortunately, like most parks these days, it’s hard to get reservations. 

Copano Bay Bridge   

We were lucky to get one of our favorite sites (#104) and pulled in about noon on a Sunday.  Although we really like this site, we have discovered that it's not easy to load and unload the kayaks.  The space is a little narrow.  We have other "favorite" sites and will try one of them next time.

Site #104

After unloading the trailer and the kayaks and getting everything set up, we headed into Rockport to our favorite Mexican food restaurant (Los Comales).  We eat here every time we stay at Goose Island.

A lot of this area was destroyed or heavily damaged by hurricane Harvey in August 2017.  One attraction that was destroyed was the Big Blue Crab in Veterans Park.

The first big blue crab was built in 1957 and sat on top of a restaurant until 1965 when the restaurant closed and the crab was moved to Navigation Park (now Veterans Park).  This first crab survived Hurricane Beulah in 1967 and Hurricane Celia in 1970 but was so deteriorated it had to be removed.

The second crab was installed in August 2012.  It didn’t survive Hurricane Harvey in 2017, a category 4 hurricane with 150 mph winds.  Three months after Harvey, fundraising began.

Big Blue Crab #3 arrived in Rockport July 2021.  It weighs 6000 pounds and is made of stainless steel and is powder coated. 

If you think the Big Blue Crab looks green, you are right.  The blue comes from the color of the legs, not the body.

It looks great.  There is still brickwork and landscaping to be done but I am glad to see the Big Blue Crab back where it belongs.

We headed back to Goose and spent the rest of the afternoon sitting outside and enjoying the nice weather.

Right before sunset we went for a walk and saw a few birds, including a Great Horned Owl. The White-tailed Deer are rutting (breeding) this time of year, and we saw several bucks.

Day 2:

According to the National Weather Service, today was going to be the only day without strong winds.  So, we loaded up the kayaks and headed to the Lighthouse Lakes Paddling Trail.  It was the very first Texas Paddling Trail and is a series of four loops ranging in length from 1.25 miles to 6.8 miles.

We were out for a couple of hours and went about three miles through black mangroves.  The birding was wonderful.  A lot of times birds don’t recognize a kayak as being a threat and you can paddle right by them without them flying off.

The Lighthouse Lakes Paddling Trail is actually a series of trails that wind through the Black Mangroves of Redfish Bay.  To assist with navigation there are a series of waypoints marked by signs. Sometimes the signs are used for other purposes as well. 

Brown Pelican on waypoint sign

We were going to go to our favorite seafood restaurant (Shempy’s) but they had posted their Winter hours on the door and were not open on Monday’s.  Instead, we headed to our second favorite Mexican food restaurant (Arandas Mexican Grill).  Unfortunately, it wasn’t very good today.  Maybe we need to try some new restaurants every once in a while!

After lunch we headed into the downtown area of Rockport. I wanted to look in a few of the souvenir shops. Now that we have a house bigger than a 5^th wheel, I’m free to buy a few things.  I didn’t get much but I did find a few treasures. 

We returned to the trailer late in the afternoon.  We took a short walk down to the bird feeders but the mosquitoes were pretty bad and the sun was going down fast.

It’s mid-November but we’re still getting into the low 80’s during the day and not cooling off much at night.

Day 3:

We were up and out early this morning.  For some reason we thought it would be light at 6 am.  It wasn’t, but by the time we drove to the ferry in Port Aransas and parked at the Leonabell Turnbull Birding Center, it was plenty light.

Driving onto the ferry. 

The Leonabell Turnbull Birding Center is a favorite place of ours and there were plenty of birds to be seen.

Off the birding deck.

Green-winged Teal male

Great Egret standing on the birding deck.

Black-necked Stilt  

White Ibis

American White Pelican

Roseate Spoonbill

We spent a few hours here then drove to a couple of other birding sites in Port Aransas. 

Forster's Tern

We saw hundreds of ducks flying, but never located these big groups down on the water. 

Northern Pintail flock 

Shempy's was open so we headed there for a late lunch (popcorn shrimp bait bucket for me, shrimp po-boy for Mark).  It was excellent, as usual.

We headed down to the 1000' long fishing pier in the evening to see what was being caught. The fishermen weren't having much luck, but we enjoyed watching the sunset. 

Copano Bay Causeway

Brown Pelican in the fading light

Day 4:

We birded around the area of the state park but the birding seems to be a little slow right now.  

Roseate Spoonbills

Marsh Wren

In a large field used to graze cattle, we did see Cattle Egrets demonstrating how they got their name. 

Cattle Egret on cow.

After a wonderful lunch at Butterchurn (buffet) in Aransas Pass, we drove around to do a little sightseeing. The construction in Rockport is off the charts!  It’s really heartbreaking to see this area being covered in houses, condos, and rv parks.  This certainly isn’t a sleepy little town by the sea any more. 

There are more than just birds in the waters.

American Alligator

You might remember the stacks of oyster shells that I posted a picture of in December 2020.  This place buys oysters right off the boats and shucks them.  A conveyer belt moves the shells out the back of the building.  In 2020 a gallon of oysters costs $71.  In 2021 the price has gone up to $76.  Not much of an increase considering the price of other things these days.

However, their shucked shell stack has increased greatly during the past year.

November 2020: 

November 2021: 

Day 5:

What a difference a day makes!  The weather turned very windy and a little cool and cloudy.

We wanted to go back to Leonabell Turnbull in Port Aransas.  On the drive to the ferry it sprinkled on and off.  We got on the ferry very early but the weather just wasn’t cooperating today. 

Off the birding deck.

Cattle Egret - not on a cow this time. 

We didn’t stay long.  I wanted to hit a few souvenir shops.  There are some interesting ones! 

Islander Shop

A couple of "salty dogs".

I did find a few things to purchase. 

Lunch was once again at Los Comales.  It was excellent.  I usually order a dish called Enchiladas Tarascas.  It is chicken enchiladas with a creamy mushroom sauce on top. Mark tries different dishes and they are always good.

We drove on back to Goose Island and started packing up for the trip home the next day.

Our next trip is coming soon.  We’ve got it planned and are ready to hit the road.  Stay tuned!

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