Moving the Caltech Tree

Guillermo and Jesse, our neighbor, moved the Mango and the Avocado tree one house down to Jesse's house.  Then Jesse is going to get a trailer and take those trees (and others he's already taken) to his house way on the south side of town.

Those trees were so tall, they barely cleared the wires in our yard.

Here are some pictures of Guillermo and Jesse, putting the Caltech tree into Jesse's truck.  Jesse is also taking this tree to his house to take care of it for us.

 

Also, look what was in our tree the other day!!!  A raccoon in broad daylight.

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to a wonderful husband, and the best dad our kids could have!!

We  went to a very nice Father's Day gathering at Kathy's house this afternoon.  We loaded up the truck with more plants to take to them also, so we drove the streets again slowly to their houses.   

We stopped by Linda's house first and planted 3 bananas in her back yard.  Then we washed up a little and headed over to Kathy's.  We unloaded the rest of the plants we took, and then enjoyed some GOOD brisket, fajitas, chicken and sausage with beans Kathy made, potato salad, avocado, salsa, and grilled corn. Thanks, Benjamin, for putting "that one" ear of corn on display.  ;-)  Then we had our choice of Lemon Meringue pie, or Apple pie, or coconut cake.  Everything was so delicious!!!!  We had a great time!!!

Samantha taking the picture

Guillermo taking the picture

Sad to lose these

This morning, we spent a lot of time in storage - Guillermo strategically stacking boxes like working on a puzzle.  We took the bed frame and several boxes today, and the way things look now in storage, well, I feel a little better that maybe everything we own WILL fit inside.  This evening we will dismantle the futon.
We took a walk to the creek this afternoon and were just hit by how beautiful the crape myrtles look lining the side of our field.  So, we just had to take some pictures.  It is so sad that all the hard work Guillermo did in planting those trees will be just a distant memory soon.  Maybe, just maybe, Bexar County will see the value in those trees and will try to save a few.  Check them out:

We can never decide which Crape Myrtle is the prettiest.  When we stand in front of the light pink one, we say, this is the most beautiful Crape Myrtle ever!  But when we move on to the dark purple Crape Myrtle, then we say that THIS is the most beautiful Crape Myrtle ever!  And so on.... It is so hard to decide!!!
What do YOU think?

On the floor now

Yesterday we took down our bed - originally Andrew's bed.  Now our mattress is on the floor and the bed frame is waiting to be taken to storage.  We've got about 35 days left here in this house!

Getting the bed ready to take to storage

Our bedroom now.  Lovely bed and dresser set, huh?

This is the state of our dining room now.

Talked with Rebeca and Fernando yesterday.  With Rebeca we talked about our plans in the Esteros del Ibera - and HOW we're going to get there!!  We are really hoping we can figure that out, because the Esteros seems like the Pantanal, and we sure did like being at the Pantanal.

With Fernando, we chatted on gmail - and he said some big thunderstorms had passed through there (Iowa City) and that he really needed to buy a desk (among other things)!  The only furniture he has where he is staying is a bed and a bedside table (and some appliances). 

Here go the big ones

Today we took the plants that everyone has been trying to buy from us to Linda and Kathy's houses.  These plants are not for sale, as we would like to give them to Rebeca one of these days.  But every garage sale, people would flock over to these plants and try to get us to sell them.  We eventually tagged those plants that are for Rebeca, and definitely NOT for sale, with a red ribbon.

We are grateful to Kathy and Linda for agreeing to babysit them for us (and for Rebeca).

Of course, the day was incredibly hot and humid, so just like for the garage sale, it was rough just to be outside.

Here we are on our way to take the streets all the way to the other side of town.  We had to stop at the end of our street already, because one of the plants had shifted.

First we stopped at Linda's house, where we dropped off some of the plants, and Guillermo transplanted a Naranjilla (the mean plant) into a bigger pot.

Linda holding the neighborhood cat.

Next it was on to Mom's house to drop off an air conditioner for her, which had been sitting up in the top of our garage for YEARS.  But first we stopped at Bill Miller, picked up some barbecue and that's what we had for lunch with her and Chris.  After lunch we tested out the air conditioner to also get the dust and dirt out of it, and then placed it into the shed.  Last stop was Kathy's house where we dropped off the rest of the plants.

Samantha and one of their dogs out in the back yard.  The yard looks really nice!!!!

Lunch with friends and 4th garage sale

We've been quite busy around here, but never too busy to enjoy lunch or dinner with friends.  On Friday, I met with Elrod friends for lunch at Salsalito's.  That is always fun!

Becky Mendez, Sharon Hyatt, Shirley Medghalchi, Judy Smith, Terry Burklow, and Betty Wagner.

Saturday, was a very busy day with our 4th garage sale.  And the day was very hot and humid.  So, it was rough.  Kathy, Linda, Mom, Chris and Skye joined us again and that always makes it more fun. 

After the garage sale, we drove around picking up the signs that had been placed out for the sale, and dropped off some of the stuff that didn't sell to Goodwill.  Then, that evening, we had dinner with Sergio and his family at Thai Pikul.  Excellent food, and a very nice evening.

Birthday Boy

Happy Birthday to Guillermo, yesterday!!

Forgot to "save the date" on the blog, so that's why his birthday wishes are appearing today.
Anyway, we had a wonderful dinner at Papouli's Greek Grill, and this is a picture of him sitting outside the restaurant.  He said, "get the picture over with so that I can enjoy the rest of the evening!"  And so, with the camera safely put away in its bag, we enjoyed a wonderful Greek dinner.

The Birthday Boy, as Rebeca would say.   :-)

Then we came home and did our daily evening stroll through the field to look at the creek out back.  We probably have less than 30 times do that now......

3rd and 4th houses to leave

Even though we were busy packing up some things in the truck to take to storage, we ended up driving up the street to stand around with the neighborhood and watch the next two houses being moved out. The draw for these two houses is that we knew they would be taken out to Bandera Road, and we thought that it would be interesting to see how they would get the houses past city hall, and how they would handle being out on Bandera Road.
These movers are really skilled at what they do, and every move seemed so precise. It was quite interesting, again, seeing how they handled every little obstacle that came up. When they got to Bandera Road, the police had closed off traffic on one side of the road from El Verde to Grissom, so that the houses could be moved easier. Once the house was on Bandera Rd, it moved incredibly quickly. It was amazing.

This is the third house to leave our neighborhood.

Approaching Bandera Road

Below is the fourth house to leave and here it is coming up El Verde Rd.

Approaching Bandera Road

I don't know where this guy was, but next thing I knew, he was coming out from underneath the house!!!

Going the wrong way on Bandera Road - but it's the easiest route.

All these homes are going to a lot where they will be made presentable again and then put up for sale.

A house being moved

This is the second house to be moved from our neighborhood. I missed the first one, which was moved last week. I just ran out to do a short errand, and by the time I got back, the house that was being moved that day was totally gone. I had really wanted to document the first house to leave.

But the house that was moved today was just 3 houses down from us, so it was easier to keep track of what was going on with this one. This house used to belong to the Weises, and they had the house moved onto this street many, many years ago. And now the house is being moved out again. It was very interesting watching them tackle this big job.

They had to lift the house up high to clear some posts.

 That is Kathy Campbell, following her house down the road.