Musings

Imagination

Children don’t usually have many early childhood memories, and memories become fewer the earlier the age. Except for one, my memories earlier than 4 are about books, my parents reading to me, and the wonderful illustrations and words that captured my imagination. In fact, many of the books I remember are still in print, illustrated the same, and still evoke 60 years later delight.  That certainly supports research showing the lasting impact of habits developed by age 3.

East Fort Bend is fortunate to be a pioneer in a literacy program that targets children under 5.  Now that Rotary International is nearing its goal to irradiate polio worldwide, they have chosen two worthy areas, literacy and pure water, to make the world a better place.

Rather than dictate or develop programs, Rotary chooses to partner with existing programs and let its member groups choose their interests. So the East Fort Bend Oyster Creek and Sunrise 59 Rotaries are sponsoring the Dolly Parton Imagination Library that mails an age appropriate book each month to each child. 

This program requires that any child in a Zip Code sponsored who applies be provided books. Oyster Creek piloted the program in Stafford, but it was too good for just one area so they expanded to Missouri City and Fresno. Sunrise 59 Rotary sponsors zip code 77053 which is Houston area in Fort Bend.

Local Rotarian Ivan Butterfield is a passionate champion for this program. He is so excited by what he sees and hears from parents and educators that he founded the Butterfield Educational Foundation, a 501(c)(3). His vision is to have Rotary sponsored programs in all of Texas.

Research shows that children who have reading skills prior to entering school have a 20% better chance of being successful. Reading together creates better family relationships. Lessons from books develop character, good students.

The part I love is the imagination, and Dolly Parton knows something personally about imagination. Being a poor child the imagination reading gave her fueled her discipline for success. It’s not surprising that the first book in the program is “The Little Engine that Could.” They are age appropriate after that.

The books belong to the child and the only questions asked are Parent or guardians Name, child’s name and birthday, and address.  The only thing that could rule a child out is not being in a sponsored ZIP code.

So far ZIPS covered in Fort Bend are 77477, 77459, 77489, 77545, and 77053. As Mr. Butterfield said, “Many parents tell us they could not afford to buy a book a month and how important ownership and being able to repeat the story is to a young child.” As children grow older, they can share and read their books with friends and siblings.

You can sign up confidentially online by going to http://imaginationlibrary.com/ . If you don’t have a computer, our public libraries do for the public to use. There is no cost to parent, guardian or child.

Imagine what a difference having children better prepared could make in the Fort Bend schools?  I was so impressed by the things Dolly Parton Foundation have thought through as well as the cost effectiveness of the program, mailing and all -- $28 per child per year. It impressed Rotary International to support the program. If you would like to invest in our future and support more Fort Bend kids and parents in this program, contact Ivan Butterfield at 281 431-2254.

Illustrated from Musings column in the 10/26/2011 Fort Bend Independent.

 

More . . .

In 1999 the American Academy of Pediatrics issued a Policy Statement on  media and TV watching. The bottom line is that for children 2 and under, TV had no educational value. The same children whose parents used TV as a substitute for interaction such as reading to them and talking had fewer words in their vocabulary. Moreover, these children were more likely to have concentration difficulties and more limited attention spans.

Reading to children forms bonds, habits and creates children who pay better attention.

Ensuring children have books readily available for parents is an investment in more productive lifelong habits, better citizens. Just like studies showed Headstart kids stayed in school, graduated, and went on to college, this program targets the formative years before Headstart.

Imagine developing more little engines that could . . .

I think I can . . . I think I can.

We need more positive prophesies in our schools. Contact Ivan Butterfield at 281 431-2254 about speaking to your group or school or helping with this important project.

Rain Harvesting

Frankly, in the region we live, too much water had been the emphasis . . . and it’s always been feast or famine where water was concerned everywhere in Texas. Today, capturing run off pays dramatic results. More and more, particularly in the Texas Hill Country and west, central and the panhandle, all varieties of rain harvesting are being deployed. Permeable parking lots now capture rain below them. All capture reduces flooding. The photo above on the left, shows water level in Kiamesha Weir (near Crow Valley) several days after our second rain this fall. The water level is even with the bulk head. Please click on image to enlarge it.

What really piqued my interest was the recent storm water diversion into Thunderbird Lake, a lake on the El Dorado Golf Course. It had totally dried up. Truthfully, with the lake being dried and cracked, I was pleasantly surprised how much water our two recent rains captured. From the first rain much water was lost to being absorbed in the ground, but still left enough water it had not evaporated 2 weeks later during high temps. Our last rain really paid dividends compared with the first one as well as being a larger, more general rain. Thunderbird Lake pictured above on the right (behind homes on Lakeview Drive) only recently had a storm water diversion system constructed by the Quail Valley Municipal Utilities District). With two moderate rains, this lake that had totally dried and the ground cracked is now supporting water fowl again.

I especially wanted to compare Thunderbird with Kiamesha Weir, which has been a storm water diversion project years old. Kiamesha had gotten very low, but had never completely dried up. Just from our last moderate rain, I’m happy to report that Kiamesha Weir is now up to the wooden bulkheads and Thunderbird is half way up. Water fowl have replaced vultures at Thunderbird. On the left above, Thunderbird Lake has not reached the bulkhead, but has not had the benefit of storm water diversion until the last two rains as has Kiamesha Weir which was very low, but never totally dried because it has had storm water diversion.

My cousins in Menard capture run off from their roof for two tanks, 1000 and 1500 gallons respectively. In normal years they have plenty of water for their large vegetable garden all spring, summer and fall. It has been so dry in Menard; they have been carrying out bath water to water their foundation. Their tanks did provide until late August, but finally dried up from use and evaporation.

They don’t have a sophisticated system. In fact, my cousins and rain capture expert Billy Kniffen of Texas A&M laugh and refer to their system as the “white trash level.” Now don’t get all politically correct and write . . . it’s a joke.  Long story short, their 3 inch rain overflowed the 1000 gallon tank and filled the 1500 just from roof run off. They have installed two more 300 gallon tanks. Dan Feather of Menard, TX. waters his vegetable garden from a rain capture system. Even in this dry portion of Texas, his tanks normally supply enough rain spring through fall for a large vegetable garden. Due to extreme drought conditions in Texas, the tanks ran dry in August, but filled totally from a 3 inch. rain.

Many of these systems are quite invisible. In the urban and suburban areas with deed restrictions many capture systems lie below patios using aquablocks for harvesting and save enough water to run lawn and garden irrigation systems tied to them by pumps. And tax incentives do exist with up to 14 LEEDS points. But rain barrels work as well. You can rig up a trash can for as low as $12.00 for your own white trash system. Papershell in Richmond had a class and workshop on doing so in August. The Feathers' goats keep the brush "mowed." This area is fenced off from the vegetable garden. It shows the arid area surrounding the vegetable garden.

Billy Kniffen of A&M really walks the talk. He moved to an area where there is no city water and well water was not high quality. He completely runs his household including drinking and a greenhouse on harvesting rain runoff. His greenhouse captures roof water into an underground facility. Since water gains or loses temperature less quickly than air, this water storage helps moderate greenhouse temps. He uses grey water from baths and laundry for a drip irrigation system for outside cottage gardens. Read more about Billy's rain harvesting systems and his self-sufficient home.

With water bills now starting to reflect the value of water, these systems look a lot more viable even in our area.

Illustrated from Musings column in the 10/19/2011 Fort Bend Independent.

More .  .  .

For more technical information about Billy Kniffen's work, including costs, figuring capacity and needs as well as see some extremely interesting pictures, please press this link.

I first became interested in Rain Harvesting for urban and suburban areas from a talk Matt Boring provided for the Quail Valley Garden Club in 2009. If you would like to read more about how water features and rain harvesting might fit into a suburban landscape, press here.

LEED, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is an internationally-recognized green building certification system. Developed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) in March 2000, LEED provides building owners and operators with a framework for identifying and implementing practical and measurable green building design, construction, operations and maintenance solutions.

LEED promotes sustainable building and development practices through a suite of rating systems read more 

Stories related to this column about lakes in Quail Valley and the City of Missouri City.

Progress on building the water diversion system. Missouri City partners with Quail Valley Municipal District and builds water diversion system (among other areas of progress).

The next two stories provide background of Missouri City buying and taking over the lakes on the Quail Valley subdivision. As of this date some residents on and near Thunderbird Lake are negotiating with Missouri City to dig a water well to supply additional fresh water to Thunderbird Lake at the resident's own expense.

Missouri City's responsibility for and response to lakes going dry. 

Background on Missouri City buying the Quail Valley Golf Club.

 

 

Winborne's Garden

Sondra and Mickey Winborne have an outstanding garden. As in all great designs, the front garden welcomes and draws visitors to the entry.

Featured on the 2009 Quail Valley Backyard Tour, Sondra and Mickey Winborne of 3102 Oak Leaf Court off East Creek Club, Missouri City home is worth driving by every season to see what’s the latest in color and texture to add to an interesting backdrop of scrubs, palms and vines. With a varied palette of perennials and annuals including purple Angelonia, pink and orange Profusion Zinnias, red, white and pink Vincas, roses, and Pentas, this garden bursts with interest that is indeed beckoning.

The back gardens on the over-sized cul-de-sac are indeed lovely as well. Pictures from the Quail Valley Garden Club Backyard Tour in 2009.

Mickey & Sondra pictured below in their full outdoor kitchen.

QV Garden Club members (l to r) Patty McKeever, Barbara Thompson, Janice Scanlan, Arvada Simcoe, Marilyn Ellis, Nancy Lindsay and Lane Pierson pose by the gazebo in the photo below.

 

Recreation Center Dedication & Sweet Celebration

The dedication of the Missouri City Recreation Center was well attended by the public and officials with national and local tennis representatives from Austin and North Houston.

Mayor, City Council and Parks Board were also represented and several members of the Missouri City community expressed they were excited for the center which in addition to 12 tennis courts will have a gymnasium, exercise room and 3 multi-purpose rooms that include audio visual equipment.

The Parks Department also showed their excitement with a "2nd" ground breaking.

 

Refreshments were served and center plans signed by attendees . . . all look forward to this becoming a center for recreation and a magnet for group community meetings where people either bring or cater their own refreshments if they so desire. It will likely be more attractive to smaller groups or those wanting a more informal atmosphere.

While the Missouri City Community Center at the Golf Club started a couple of weeks ago is designed for larger events and will have a grill for dining as well as other facilities to support the thriving golfing operation, it will appeal to groups that have banquets, luncheons, weddings, and likely more formal events. The Missouri City Golf operation has had a large number of tournaments this fall and is buzzing with activities. The tall red and white banners the U of H Alumni used during their golfing event were particularly impressive.

After the Ceremony, a community Sweet Celebration . . .

One of the recommendations of the Texas Parkway Cartwright study, were that revitalizing the Recreation Center would encourage business re-development on Cartwright, and re-vitalization is indeed happening. Businesses on Cartwright have already begun to spruce up in anticipation of more people coming into the neighborhood. See more photos.

In addition to its live entertainment on Thrusday evening, Sorelle Italian Deli started a Community Show and Sell for home growers,crafters, and makers as well as community groups selling or promoting something after the dedication. Vendors who attended were pleased by the event and plan to come back. One vendor had to get more food items from home as she "sold out."

What was nice about the event is you could chat, browse, have a coffee, gelato, others sweets or a full meal inside the deli. It was a nice way to get Saturday "going" casually in the neighborhood--and with fresh growers and crafters, you never know what to expect. The Quail Valley Garden Club gave away fresh herbs as well as took pre-orders for caladium bulbs.

And there was a drawing with grand prize a Houston Texans flag, earrings and fresh preserves.

Community Show & Sell will be held on the 1st and 3rd Saturdays  (and October 22) each month from 10 am to 1 pm under the wide cover outside the Sorelle Italian Deli. Just look for Lady Lasagna at 2601 Cartwright, Suite E (at Cypress Point).

There is no charge to vendors, but you must sign up to show. Contact Sorelle owner Bennie Gonzalez at 281 208-9999 to be a vendor . . . or download a flier for the event.  Download Community Show & Sell

 

Cemetery Ridge

I knew my immediate families were pioneers in Oklahoma being homesteaders before 1907 statehood as early as 1899 and had put down permanent roots with homes and multiple farming operations by 1904. What has interested me is the family’s role in settling Texas. And by that I mean founding communities, churches and schools. I know the migration path of one line of the family back to the 1600s, but am coming along slower on the others. The photo above and to the left is a welded, homemade gravestone of I.T. Briscoe in the Hess Cemetery. Born in 1865 in Parker County Texas, he died in 1914. Please click on images to enlarge them.

The Briscoe part of my family has been in Texas since 1845. This is only becoming real to me in the past year. I had to first explore the family’s roots in Oklahoma. That journey takes us to Cemetery Ridge and the Hess Cemetery. No, you won’t find it on most maps. It’s an unincorporated farming community. It also for a period was part of Greer County, Texas. That’s another story.

I’m sure at one point or another I visited Hess some 20 miles from where I grew up . . . but I have no memory of it. And nothing prepared me for its grandeur and the imposing ridge and mesa it occupies. The pictures on findagrave.com don’t prepare you as it looks like normal flat land, but I did know that we had at least 42 ancestors in the Hess Cemetery before we entered.

Never being ones to waste farm land, the Hess cemetery is located on a mesa-- those flat “table top” mountains prevalent in the Southwest US. Wow, the colors of the steep ridge of pinks and reds. It was really beautiful to stand on the ridge and look onto the farmland and Wichita Mountains in the distance.

 This is the land of the Apache, Comanche and Kiowa Indians—Plains Indians. The far southwestern corner of Oklahoma was their land that was opened to white settlers with preserves for open hunting and fishing during the land runs and various lotteries in Oklahoma.  My father had memories (and pictures still exist) of Comanche Chief Quanah Parker, in full headdress, leading the Frederick, Oklahoma, band on Sunday afternoons 100 years ago. And yes, my great grandparents were married in Parker County Texas, where Quanah Parker’s mother, Cynthia lived, before my great grandparents homesteaded near Hess. So all these threads intrigue and addict to learn more.

So Uncle Loyd, cousin Cindy, her 14 year old granddaughter Abigail, and I had quite an adventure going to Hess, ancestor hunting and just getting the immediate family lines straight. Abigail got to be quite a grave finder. Getting the family lines straight, cataloging pictures and telling stories kept us late into the night when we weren’t playing checkers. On the right above, gravestone of Minnie Alice and William J. Atkison in Frederick, Ok. Cemetery with their children's names on back of stone. If you look carefully you'll see a reflection of Janice Scanlan taking the photo as well as their Great,Great Granddaughther Abigail.

Getting a picture of the North Fork of the Red River that my grandmother, Minnie Alice Briscoe Holden Atkison, forded in 1904 to move to a new homestead after living in a dugout on Great Uncle Andy’s homestead at Hess showed the gumption pioneers possessed. Despite the drought, the river had a good bit of water, plenty of quicksand and steep banks.

Last Sunday at the Dew House Photo Contest, there was a 1931 picture of Mason Briscoe with the Dews in their permanent collection.  I had known about the Briscoe Cemetery in Fort Bend, but that photo put seeing if there’s a connection higher on my bucket list that doesn’t seem to end. 

North Fork Red River with its steep banks, water and quicksand (darker sand). My grandmother forded this river in a buggy in January 1904. She had a 3 week old infant and a 2 and a 4 year old with her for this 20 mile journey. My grandfather and his brother had taken the cattle the previous day and had a warm fire waiting in the new home he had built. They "proved" the land and purchased it in 1911.

Illustrated from Musings column in the 10/12/2011 Fort Bend Independent.

Sweet Celebrations

October is always a month of many events . . . and lots of fun things to enjoy. My goodness, the Texans are winning and the weather is beautiful! The Missouri Police Officers Association just had their annual golf tournament, but you can still donate to help with their worthy efforts to keep us safe.

Now pink competes with orange in October for Breast Cancer Awareness month. There are many events  including the Oct 27, 8^th Annual Pink Ladies Golf Tournament, this year at Quail Valley Golf Club. You can play, sponsor or dedicate a flag to honor or memorialize a loved one. Contact Barbara Rozell at 281 980-2244. And look for merchants like Casa Ole that have specials that contribute to the cause as well.

 
For years, Sonic at Texas Parkway and Cartwright has set a standard of what this area could look like!
Now what gets exciting are two events for East Fort Benders and me personally, because the years it has taken to get them to this point. And we’re getting to see some of the “overflow” from them as well.

 
The sidewalk and improvements on Texas Parkway as well as the new Recreation Center on Cartwright are creating private sector investment. New businesses on Texas Parkway as well as the update to the Foodarama shopping center at Cartwright and Texas Parkway are the latest for my “drive by camera shootings.” The center has a whole new look and is bustling with shoppers.   Add the existing businesses that have always landscaped kept up appearances, we have new promise and optimism for East Enders.

What’s near and dear to my heart is seeing Cypress Point and Cartwright “revitalize.” On October 8^th at 10 the new Missouri City Recreation Center will be dedicated. Besides 12 tennis courts, it will have 3 multi-purpose rooms, audio visual equipment, a gymnasium and a place for all ages to gather and have fun.

To accompany the Festivities, Sorelle Deli across Cypress Point will have an outdoor “Sweet Celebration” with cookies, gelato, chocolate covered strawberries, and sidewalk surprises including crafts, herbs .  .  . just to provide a flavor of what’s to come with the center revitalizing across from the Recreation Center.  The area is shaded with a nice breeze.

 Awnings are nearing completion so the wide walkway with its breeze and cover will indeed be a fun place for the Sweet Celebration that includes free cookies, gelato, chocolate covered strawberries and other surprises. There will also be drawings (you need not be present to win) with the Grand Prize being a full size Houston Texan Flag to fly.

Shane Mize and Larry Foos of Missouri City Parks have many plans for making the Recreation Center a happening place, and Paul Wierzbicki has protected 8 trees to keep safe during construction.

The eyesore the tennis center has become will be replaced with a multipurpose building we can be proud to enjoy for years to come and serve all ages and multiple interests.

The second event is at the Dew House and on Sunday, Oct 9 from 1 to 4. It’s a kind of event that has been missing in Missouri City. The First Annual Photo Contest will give us snapshots  each year of what was important in Fort Bend to people from ages 5 to whatever and a sense of more community tied to our past.

John and I helped shovel out the Dew House after it was moved and reroofed. The transformation that has taken place is amazing as well as the people who volunteered, fund raised and nurtured this project in a many years effort to preserve our past.  The winners that have been kept secret until the event. Come see who will have their entries in the calendar at Kitty Hollow Park at 9555 Highway 6 South just east of Sienna in Missouri City. There will be teeshirts, notecards and photos for sale as well as discounts for pre-ordering calendars. To see pictures of the Dew House, as well as get detailed directions, press here.

Come to these sweet celebrations of what people in Missouri City are doing to make a better community in all of Fort Bend.

 

 

As you can see, in the background, the old tennis center pavillion is being dismantled to make way for the new center.

 Illustrated from Musings column in the 10/5/2011 Fort Bend Independent.