Category Archives: Mini-Rancho

No trick or treating for us

Posted on October 31, 2019 | Comments Off on No trick or treating for us

At least we haven’t planned on it. Haven’t bought any candy at all. Though I’m sure some young children live in the Neely’s Canyon condos, we don’t expect them to show up tonight.

Trick or treaters were diminishing each year at Rancho Roly Poly, from little ones in store-bought costumes in the early years to teenagers often with no costume, just a hand out.

We could discourage them by cutting off the porch light. Here we can’t control the front door light, which cuts on and off only in response to motion or the lack of it.

Comments Off on No trick or treating for us

Posted in History, Mini-Rancho, Rancho Roly Poly

Tagged ,

Prince of the Canyon

Posted on October 30, 2019 | Comments Off on Prince of the Canyon

A stud muffin of Neely’s Canyon’s white-tailed deer, come to see about our feeding of carrots and peanuts to his herd. He grew the big, trophy horns thanks to the ‘no  hunting’ law in the Austin city neighborhood which overlooks the city- and county-managed Balcones Canyonlands Preserve.

Comments Off on Prince of the Canyon

Posted in Mini-Rancho, Neely's Canyon

Tagged , ,

An all-LED household

Posted on October 26, 2019 | Comments Off on An all-LED household

Since my brother-in-law told me the new retirement home he and my sister had built in Virginia has all-LED lights and “you probably couldn’t get incandescent in new construction even if you asked for it,” I’m moving to all LED at the mini-rancho.

Then I discovered I need specially-rated bulbs for enclosed fixtures such as globes on ceiling fans. Found I could order them from Amazon, however. So we’re becoming an all-LED household. Hope they last as long as advertised, considering they cost almost nine dollars apiece.

UPDATE: Two years later, finally changed out the fluorescents in the kitchen for LEDs. Very bright light, very white. Pricey but done.

Comments Off on An all-LED household

Posted in Mini-Rancho

Tagged

Another scorpion

Posted on October 25, 2019 | 2 comments

Spotted him, a red one, in the hall, moving slowly if at all. Smashed him with my shoe and deposited the remains over the porch rail into the wet pre-dawn darkness.

Rabbi Google says the cold weather makes them sluggish. Time for a re-treat from Bugmaster or another pest company. More spray, that’s the ticket. The best one available.

UPDATE:  It’s been almost three two weeks since Bugmaster sprayed for scorpions, doing the light fixtures for any coming in from the crawl space. I’m going with ABC Pest Control for a change, if for no other reason, since Bugmaster didn’t rid us of them.

MORE: Nah. Sticking with Bugmaster because they’re re-treating for free and keeping at it.

2 Comments

Posted in Mini-Rancho, Texana, Weather

Tagged ,

His excellancy returns

Posted on October 19, 2019 | 2 comments

Sennacherib, that is, a rare reader and commenter, looking remarkably chipper for being several thousand years old. He had visited the old Rancho earlier and he wanted to see the new mini-rancho. Liked it, or seemed to, mini as it is.

As usual he told us a lot of tales of when Austin was young, not so long ago actually, about seventy years. Turned out his Austin father owned a masonry company and Barbara Ellen’s father was a mason. But they soon figured out that bit of synchronicity went nowhere as BE’s dad worked for other companies but not that one.

Alas, his highness was unable to answer the high dollar question: Who is/was the Neely of Neely’s Canyon? As in Neely’s Canyon Condominiums. Google has nothing. It’s still a mystery. Surely it was not some developer’s name as the condos were built thirty-nine years ago by Larry Peel. Might have been any landowning Neely of the late 1800s, his excellancy surmised, a time when just about every piece of terrain in this part of Texas acquired a name.

2 Comments

Posted in Blogosphere, History, Mini-Rancho, Texana

Tagged ,

Next: Doors

Posted on October 15, 2019 | Comments Off on Next: Doors

Changing the chipped white hollow core (boring) interior doors to 6-panel unfinished red oak solid core slab doors.

Nine of them. With clear varnish painted or sprayed and gold knobs, three of them locking. Going to take some professional carpentry to finish this project.

UPDATE: Let there be light! An electrician retrofitted three hallway can lights with white LEDs and for the first time it looks bright in the passage to the living room. Doors probably be installed next week.

Comments Off on Next: Doors

Posted in Mini-Rancho

Tagged

New water heater adventure

Posted on October 14, 2019 | Comments Off on New water heater adventure

The replacement begins about five today. Will the cutoff valve break or hold? If it breaks can the leak be capped? If it doesn’t should we replace it later or stick with its thirty-year-old self? Questions questions. Shall see.

UPDATE: The valve didn’t break but only leaked while the transfer was going on and then hooked up safely. Should be replaced but not immediately. So the adventure was short-lived and not adventurous.

Comments Off on New water heater adventure

Posted in Mini-Rancho

Tagged