Musings

A purple fence

If you wonder why Republican and Democratic ideologies have become so predictable and seemingly more important than American interests, you’re not alone.

So I started thinking about the kinds of things that make those who tell us how to live crazy.  

I came up with the purple fence. Yes, if you are wild about deed restrictions, you likely are ready to stop reading.

Now I’m not saying that deed restrictions are all bad, but they can really get out of hand and promote a sameness that is cookie cutter to the max—or just stifling.

 It’s against this type of sameness that people are retreating to their backyards to express individuality, whimsy and fun. So I’m enjoying my mental pictures of several of the inspiring examples I’ve seen of creating beauty in back gardens throughout Fort Bend.

Color is one of the areas for this individuality. And bold colors . . . including painted fences.

Two vivid examples of bold color were seen this spring on different backyard tours. One was the purple fence (which actually was Gentian Violet and Burnt Orange . . . dry brushed into the inside of the backyard fence). Wow, did it set off the greens and the flowers of the garden and put the most interesting backdrop to the garden. It also made the display of objects on the fence pop with interest.

  It brings new meaning to purple mountain majesties . . . we all can’t rely on Mother Nature for a backdrop of beauty.

And then the turquoise patio with of Joseph’s Coat of colored tile and crafts.

Another garden used splashes of many colors. Whether it was the backyard swing brushed with blues and purples to look like a pair of faded jeans, the multiple colored patio furniture or the colored shapes growing from a bed of rock that set off a path and created sculpture that only was limited by the imagination—to a lattice space divider.

  Or a fence might have an interesting message . . . to set off a patio area, while plants divided the garden from the creek behind from climbing roses to a bounty of butterfly and bird attracting flowers and plants. The bright green “potting” table was just another fun surprise.  Fun, personality, and pizzazz.

A garden I admire on morning walks, has a terrific west sun problem on the patio, as well as an undefined space from the golf course. The teal lattice, chamois shutters and the bright chairs create a pleasing sitting area to enjoy the bold flowers —the shutters modulate the harsh, west sun.

 

Maybe your taste is Texana so try a picnic table painted with a Lone Star flag motif. Another way to bring new life and memories to an old family table . . . or a new one for that matter.

Or perhaps the color and texture of plants brings a pleasing variety of different plants . . . oh no, there goes the 3-shrub variety rule so tyrannically enforced by some homeowner associations in front gardens.

All in all we have so many creative people bringing life and beauty to Fort Bend.

If you’re weary of the news, bickering and mayhem, I hope these photographs have removed a little of that weight by making you smile!

Please don't hesitate to nominate a place that brings interest to our lives!

Click on the photos to enlarge them and enjoy more of the detail!

Illustrated from Musings column in the 7/27/2011 Fort Bend Independent.

Sins of omission

Because of Missouri City decisions not to re-pipe portions of the irrigation system that supported some (or all?) of the lakes on the golf course, we find ourselves with lakes that can no longer receive effluent water that have done so for years. This decision was likely to avoid TCEQ permitting.

Sunday I spoke with two homeowners who are likely typical of residents on the oxbow lake on El Dorado Course #7. They are professionals who both worked. They have lived in their home since 1987, are retired and have a comfortable living from saving and being careful with their money. They invest in their home and created a beautiful  garden to enjoy the golf/lake view. Moderate in their views, when I asked if they expected that “restoring the golf course” meant the lakes and irrigation system that supported them, they answered, “We assumed so.”

I’d say they are typical of most people who voted for the bond issue. We trusted the word restore meant restore.  At the worst during the Renaissance regime, the lake was down 4 feet. Homeowners paid the electricity and Renaissance pumped in the effluent water.

When the city rebuilt the old irrigation system, it chose not to restore the piping that carried effluent water to certain lakes, maybe all. So we have lakes becoming mud pits . . . and lakes that were 6 feet at high areas, now with 8 inches of water, and a replay of the 2009 dying wildlife on the old Executive 9.

The city merely “omitted” telling us about it. We are constantly in new discovery.

The most concerning situation is the El Dorado course number 8 which is really three golf “islands” surrounded by water, or used to be. It is 16.43 surface acres. Due to the “oxbow” shape of the lake, 109 homes directly sit on “waterfront” that is now a mud pit. Conservatively it directly impacts the value of 250 homes.  That’s around $6-7M of residential real estate. The lake at Cartwright and 1092 is drying (it was enlarged). That impacts 11,000 homes.

That’s a lot of property value to ignore when we have bond funds to correct this situation before realtors once again fear bringing prospects to Quail Valley. But we would have to re-think our priorities and bond spending. Not a pleasant choice.

From the city’s study, we should consider two of the 5 options. I only have estimates for the oxbow lake:

 1) Restore the clay liner so effluent water from the course irrigation system can be used. The estimated cost is $875,000. That would prevent the lake from drying during drought conditions.

 2) Divert water from the city’s existing storm sewer system that would keep fresh water in the lake so bacteria levels would only be higher during drought. The city’s estimated cost of this is $336,000.

Total $1.2 to $1.3M, not cheap.

The lake may never be 6 feet deep again except during extreme rains, but it would not have golfers standing at the edge of the “golf islands” shaking their heads in disgust. We invested a lot of money in a golf course to ignore this situation.

Advertising only goes so far. My opinion is we don’t want to try and sell the mud pit as a new golf hazard in championship play.     

Illustrated from Musings column in the 7/20/2011 Fort Bend Independent.

 . . . More stuff including Missouri City "study" on issue . . .

From a distance, the water level may not look too bad, until you scroll to the picture of the Great White Egret fishing. Great whites stand 4 feet high. They are big birds. This bird is not at the edge of the water, but standing in the middle of the lake, where it is 6 feet of water when full! That means the lake is down almost 5.5 feet. If you look at where the water is on the bird's legs,  there is about 6 to 8 inches of water left.  Not much in this heat.  You can already see the fish and turtles starting to suffer, but fishing is good for the birds.

While this is aesthetically unpleasant and downright heart breaking if you love wildlife, homeowners on Kiamesha Weir off Glenn Lakes (where there is a bigger lake more subject to wind and waves) told a distressing story of property damage and erosion. One widow spent a considerable sum two years ago to replace her bulkhead, as did other homeowners. Because the lake is so low, when there are waves, they splash up behind the bulkheads resulting in erosion behind the bulkhead and portions of their yards and gardens collapsing into the lake bed.

Will she re-invest in repairs or let her property erode away?

Many of us assumed too much about promises made. I doubt that as much trust will be afforded the city officials who pushed these initiatives--considering both the golf and trash "omisions."

Many of us have wondered how Meadows Place can build a new lake, get TCEQ permitting, and have it filled and going, while Missouri City can only provide reports of "why we can't."

In the attached report, Missouri City expeditiously provided, the city says it is not feasible to work on what I consider an oversight in planning and weighing where to invest funds. While we can't take back decisions on golf course rennovation spending, we can look at our improvements spending now. Do we need to re-prioritize where bond money is invested?

The City seems determined to move on in this report. However, at City Council Meeting this past Monday was re-considering the divert water from storm sewers option that the report admits only helps during times of rain but allows recreation. That's why I recommend both approaches.  Press the following link to download Missouri City's response and analysis.

Download April 2011 QV Water Level Background

Will and Support

In 1994 Missouri City taxpayers voted city bonds to spend money on parks, trails, kids’ baseball and the like. Phase I/ Buffalo Run Park, improvements of the baseball fields at Community and StaMo Parks, and part of the Oyster Creek Trail are some of the initiatives of benefit to a cross section of taxpayers.

By 2008, MC had only expended 8 million of the bonds from 1994, and still had 9.5M earmarked for defined, planned parks projects. Those funds were diverted from Parks and Recreation (supposedly for one year) to have the money to remove a bad steward of open space -- Renaissance Golf Course.  Not mowing, letting lakes go dry, and making threats to do worse were the reasons.

The 2008 Quail Valley Park bond issue included restoring El Dorado golf course as well as irrigation and minor improvements to La Quinta course. All of a sudden, we were building a championship level course at double the price. Many people felt the new lakes and bunkers were overkill, but were delighted to get the grass mowed and progress begun on reclaiming the community. That includes me.

 While hiking, biking and “park” issues seemed to take a back seat, most tried to just go with the flow. But when the old Executive 9 that was to be a park space, started to look as bad as when Renaissance owned it with the lakes going dry and grass not being mowed, protests emerged. How dying wildlife, mud pits in people’s back yards and high grass increased property values was of real concern to many Missouri City residents who bought the assertion that 11,000 homes values were adversely impacted by the conditions in Quail Valley and passed the 2008 park bond issue.

Despite building and enlarging lakes on El Dorado course, today we have some lakes on the golf course with sufficient levels of water, but the drought supposedly impacting others, conveniently mainly only seen by homeowners and golfers. How does this condition improve our golf or property reputations, much less our belief in the City’s stewardship? I can’t imagine that golfers enjoy seeing mud pits any more than homeowners do. Why did we build more lakes if we’re not taking care of existing ones that impact people’s property?

Taxpayers have shown the will to tax themselves to improve property values. However, will the support continue?

Should we work out these lake and environmental stewardship issues before we launch into more capital improvements? These are not the “fun” issues in any park system. What has changed that we can no longer use effluent water to fill the lakes? What do we need to do to handle change if that has occurred?

The effluent water that irrigates and feeds these lakes is being released into Oyster Creek. Some capacity exists. Are there increased power costs to pump or health department fees to permit adding effluent part of the hold up? Par 3 residents were able to work out a fee structure with Renaissance when their lakes dried. I contributed to that effort to spare wildlife and keep our community beautiful.  Could homeowners contribute if increased costs are the issue?

The city needs to be more proactive with these environmental stewardship issues and find a reasonable solution that truly lives up to her promise of improving property values.

That’s my opinion, what's yours?

Illustrated from Musings column in Fort Bend Independent  07/13/2011 edition by Janice Scanlan.

. . . More contrasting pictures taken on 7/13/2011 . . .

   

The picture on the right was taken on the Executive 9 in 06/27/2009 when protests about the lakes and not mowing or edging the grass occured. The city is now working on recontouring these areas. Initially plans indicated a re-circulating brook.

Some say now the City is going more for a wetlands with marsh grass such as on number 14 El Dorado.

Our point is the City needs to be more solution focused. Some areas have had mud and dry pits longer than June 2009. We are not asking the City to use treated, drinkable water; but continue to use effuent waste water, drought or no drought, that will continue to be produced.

Please click on to the pictures to enlarge them.

Big

If you read “Lonesome Dove” by Larry McMurtry or watched the mini-series adaptation of it, you’re familiar with the characters who formed the first full service cattle drives including the chuck wagon, scouting,  guiding  and moving.

The main characters of “Lonesome Dove” were inspired by Charles Goodnight, Oliver Loving and Bose Ikard of Weatherford, Texas.  These men were big in every way.  Pioneers. Brave.  Tough, but not mean—they were generous of spirit, but did not demure of doing something tough when it was required. They didn’t throw it off to someone else.  They had a code of right and wrong—and you did “right” even when it was personally hard.

Thanks to the Fort Bend library, I listened as I drove to Oklahoma recently to McMurtry’s first book “Horseman, Pass By” on audio disk.  You may remember it as the movie “Hud.” So I not only found the abandoned cemetery of some of my ancestors in Weatherford, but also discovered many connections of how this entire part of the country fits together in my family’s past.  

Goodnight, Loving and Ikard made big footprints on Weatherford, Texas.  It was rodeo week and the memory of these men is prominently featured in town history and establishments.

About mid-way between Weatherford and my home town in Oklahoma is McMurtry’s home town, Archer City, Texas. I always enjoy seeing how many more buildings McMurtry has taken over for his antiquarian book business . . . it’s now four, with number four being on the same block as The Royal—the movie theater in “The Last Picture Show. “

The Royal is no more than a front now like on a movie set. Most of the building has collapsed, and it’s painted red, white and blue.

“The Last Picture Show” played in Archer City, July 1, courtesy of Texas Monthly and Alamo Drafthouse Movie Theaters. According to the Wichita Falls Times Record, McMurtry spoke about the book and film.  John and I attended the movie shortly after we moved to Houston in the early 70’s. He had never seen me so emotional at a movie. I was re-naming the characters as individuals I knew-- many of them moving through life much like the tumbleweeds blowing down the desolate, cold streets in winter. Lonely, no purpose.  

McMurtry has thankfully captured many of the stories about the West I heard as a child and made them live through memorable characters.

As I was driving west out of Archer City, “Horseman, Pass By” is nearing the end, with protagonist Homer Bannon’s funeral. It speaks of the big sky and the big horsemen that made the West  including Charles Goodnight, their code disappearing to the likes of Hud and the unscrupulous.

And there before me was the cloudless big sky stretching as far as I could see in this stark and unforgiving country. It was 110 with little shade, dry as a bone.

I felt very small, insignificant, and soft compared with the accomplishments settling this “wild territory” that was home land to the Kiowa, Apache and Comanche Indians. Toward the end of his life, Charles Goodnight saved one of the last herds of buffalo, which slaughtered indiscriminately for sport alone, had gone from millions and sustaining a way of life, to almost extinct.

Like I said, Charles Goodnight was a big man in many ways.

Illustrated from Musings column in Fort Bend Independent  07/06/2011 edition by Janice Scanlan.

. . . More stuff . . . .

Who's the Western Artist who created the "iron work mural" in the picture above? I don't know, but the work is the left "rail" on the entry to The Iron Trail, a retail store in Archer City pictured to the left. They had stepped out or I would have gone inside.

 

And here's the "right railing panel.

PS. I listened to McMurtry's "All My Friends Are Going to be Strangers" on the way home. But don't be a stranger, let me know what you think.

 

Please click on pictures if you wish to enlarge the view.