Living in the Land of Boats...

It was a couple of decades ago when a friend of mine, his favorite candidate had lost an election, and he was positive that the world would descend into lawlessness. He looked around for shelter from the storm and saw that his old buddy Carl was getting all fat and sassy on the catfish he was catching and seemed to be pretty much living off the land. He was considering that option for himself but his worst fears did not come to pass, at least not in his world and he has not had to live off fresh caught catfish and he somehow missed the part about in a lawless world it's probably going to be more like the pioneers of old where wandering around in Indigenous people country trying to catch your supper might have consequences.  

On my retirement and the steady production of grandchildren by my children lead me to believe that there might be overcrowding consequences on these catfishing trips and that I might need a longer boat. Like my friend the worst fears did not come to pass because I was suddenly living off the land. It's the land where two of my kids have purchased boats in the last couple of months. 

Morgan, Ali, Parker and Cullen are the owners of this rig. This photo was made on a day when me and Morgan took a test cruise on Lake Conroe. After some negotiation he bought it and took it home. 

Looking around the dealership pontoons are pretty plush these days as opposed to the two bare bones catfishing rigs I have bought in my life. The fishing chairs in this one are more like a cozy astronaut seat for comfortable interstellar travel that a place to park your butt between trips to the livewell. Looking around the lot it would be possible to spend close to a half mil on a tri-toon with two 350hp motors, 150 gallon gas tank and jet off take. In other words it's peak pontoon right now for those interested.      

90 hp is going to be just fine as are the many other nice features.  

Morgan and Ali have had plans for a boat and have been busy prepping for it. Before purchase they built it's forever home or their property. 

I blogged about Katie, Peter, Wallace and Hamish's boat at this link. Since they live in Chicago it's now stored for the winter.

People ask me about the fishing all the time. I have not done so much this year since I split time on the boat and in the RV. Looks like I'll have to find time in this living off the land of boats life style to go with my kids and grandkids in their boats. 

I won't be buying anymore boats. I'll just be riding. 

 

Last night I had the fun of playing at the Stone Wall Rockers Fall Jamfest with the Brazos River Rats...

Last night I had the fun of playing at the Stone Wall Rockers Fall Jamfest with the Brazos River Rats. This is an event that's been held for at least 26 years that I can account for and it supports purchase of Thanksgiving Dinner for the Children's Hospital at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Tx. This is rumored to be the last benefit due to the advancing age of the participants and the effort of production but after the gig many Brazos River Rats were saying "oh there will be another one." I don't know but I was honored that I'm considered a Brazos River Rat since some members have been playing together for 49 years.     

Me and Chris Edwards with master of ceremonies Mark in the background. You can catch Chris and other local singer songwriters at the Liver Oak Listening Room Guy Clark Tribute on Nov. 5th at 3pm. It's always fun to be onstage with Chris and his shows are great.  

That's Travis Kitchens, musical mis-director and fearless leader and organizer of the Rats and Rockers.  on the other side of Mark and Shelia Lee on the far side the stage. Me and Cathy first met Travis in the early 1990s when we recorded a children's choir album as a benefit for church fundraising. We sold it on cassette which I hear is making a come back. I still have about 50 of them for you retro fans out there.    

Me and Bill Henley on drums. I think I first played a gig in public with Bill about 1984. 

T shirt design by Nate Kitchens with shirts by the Harknesses of Pineywoods Printing who are long time sponsors of the Jamfests. 

Doc Roland fine tunes his rig to take the stage. 

Guitars and Cunga drums mean business. 

That's the other other Mark on lead guitar. I played my resonator guitar in open tuning at this gig and I think my favorite parts of the night were when Mark played lead and I backed him up which is not always an easily feat in an open tuning when minor chords are involved. One of the hard and fast Brazos River Rat rules are that there are to be no rehearsals and no charts on stage. Just ooze into the beginning, the middle goes smooth and train wreck the end. You will be considered a member in good standing.  

Local sponsors and participants. 

The County Seat Cafe served a righteous hanging off the plate rib eye, jumbo baked potato and a salad. Pies auctioned off as a part of the fundraiser $100 to $300 and Cakes went for as much as $400.  

I don't know if there will be another jamfest like this but next year there will be a 50th anniversary Brazos River Rats Party. I'll try not to rehearse too much so I can remain a member in good standing. 

Thanks, Travis for putting this on and inviting me to play.  

 

I Have Good Neighbors, Sorta...

Out here on my little dead end road we are good neighbors. That means everyone kind of keeps to themselves in an unspoken agreement to mind their own business. My next-door neighbor, a hard working young man and his wife are some of those people with a travel trailer who go off to work only returning occasionally to mow the yard, take the boat to the lake and then do it all over again. There's another small house on the property that he seems to rent in a short term manner to women with children. They don't stay long and I don't know much about them other than learning first names to say hello. I can't imagine the rent being much and they seem to move on along, hopefully to bigger and better things. Right now there are two young women, a baby and Roscoe living next door. 

Roscoe is a Feist dog. He's not a full on outside dog and I can kind of imagine him usually in his Alpha male position of on the couch napping at most times. My boat garage abuts his territory and when he hears me doing my old man piddling in this structure he must cause a disturbance in the house that they can only remedy by putting him outdoors when on sighting me he proceeds to, in the words of my late father, "pile a good cussing" on the perceived threat. He also kicks dirt while doing all this barking which was probably a behavior evolved by this breed of dog over a millennium to make themselves look bigger than they were to the animals they were trained to hunt but in modern lay on the couch times it serves to uncover the feral cat landmines in the sandy yard dirt and the tasty candy buried there.           

The first few incidents of this behavior his master appeared and reined him in and apologized saying, "I don't know why he's acting like that." Another time, trying to analyze Roscoe's aggression she said, "he must really like you." Since then she no longer mediates and Roscoe's incursions sometimes reach my porch. I take that her declining interest means we are left to develop the relationship on our own. I have begun to fantasize about Roscoe captured in a landing net that hangs in the boat garage. There's actually two nets, a short handled one and one with a longer handle. I think I'm going to need the longer handle one.      

Of course there is that old silver lining that you find in most situations and I am a glass half full kind of guy. As long as I don't get bit, infected and lose a foot there will be declining amounts of cat candy in the yard. If someone asks I'll say, "Yeah, that Roscoe, he a good neighbor."  

 

Dead Trees in the Dirty Ground...

The effects of the drought continue to make themselves know around my property. I have been watching a cedar that seems to be half dead and a big pine out behind my outbuildings on the little wooded patch of my property just suddenly died this week.

Someone told me it takes a lot to kill a cedar. I guess this is a lot. There is actually another one closer to the house that is half dead but there are not too many limbs that could fall on something. This one could take out electricity. It's small enough that with the help of a son, a son in law or a brother in law we could at least shear all dead limbs. I think once I counted 19 cedars on my property. Some that make a sort of cedar cave that serves as a privacy shield for my back deck have had quite a few lower dead limbs for years. Occasionally I trim when I need materials for a wretchedly ethnic percussion instrument I've invented or a spear. A few are actually beginning to look like they could be walking sticks. 

Several years ago I lost an oak tree near the house and I had to employ professionals to take it down. They told me it was killed by a fungus and advised that anytime I cut a limb or knocked the bark off an oak to treat with hydrogen peroxide to prevent the fungus. That oak and these cedars all had roots disturbed several years ago during the installation of a new septic system and the fill in of the old one.          

Speaking of several years ago and professionals I had a big pine die close to the house. This was 25 or 30 years ago.  A friend said he had a neighbor that could cut it. I said OK and a drunk Cajun guy came over and laid it down as pretty as you please. I cut it up, piled and burnt myself and paid the drunk guy $50. We were both happy. The debris made a fire so big the other backyard trees exhibited signs of singeing for years.  

Here's a big pine behind an outbuilding which I have been letting return to the Earth for a few years. I'm not worried about that but it could go toward my tool barn which has been starting to lean so it might be a toss up which one lasts the longest.     

This pine is not in a easy place to work so I estimate it would be a pricy job to cut. There is another pine and I wish I could have documented the year it died but it's been standing quite awhile. Every time there is a big blow I go out to see if it fell and so far still standing. As large as the latest big pine is I suspect it might stand till after I'm gone. Old dead trees like this ensure a good woodpecker and owl population. There are probably a few critters that I never see also making a good living off the rotten wood.  

I might get my son the engineer to do calculations on direction and length of fall. He's good at that kind of stuff. Maybe I'll get someone to fell it and let it lay so it returns to the soil.  

 

U.S. Tico and The Man at Rockport Fulton Market Days...

 I've written about my old friend, Donald Setterbo, or as we called him in college Donnie "Mo-Honny" or as friends and family know him, "Papa Turtle" or as he is now known through the branding of his retirement business venture, U.S. Tico. I helped him this weekend in his booth at his hometown Rockport Fulton Market Days. 

I case you don't know "Tico" is a term for a native Costa Rician. Setterbo has been living in Quepos, Costa Rica for six years. He is U.S. Tico, a Tico at heart from the USA. Quepos is a tropical harbor town, surrounded by rain forest and famous for big game fishing. It's an easy place to fall in love with and identify yourself with the relaxed pace of living and the ecotourism that replaced the banana plantation economy. Do I need to mention that resident Americans and Europeans enjoy the cheap rents and cool breezes off the ocean?    

U.S. Tico got the idea for his brand one day while walking the harbor along Marina Pez Vela. He encountered a young Nicaraguan woman out to enjoy a stroll down the picturesque waterfront. The woman pushed a baby carriage and the chubby cheerful baby wore a hat that said, "No Soy Tico" or translated to English "I'm not Costa Rician." This set the wheels of creativity turning. Costa Rica is a beautiful, easy place to be. It also spends 6.9% of it's budget on education compared to a global average of 4.4%, is rated at a higher level of human development that other countries of similar income and scores as the worlds 23rd happiest place according to the World Happiness Report. Let's get together and talk sometime about why you don't want to be Tico.    

U.S. Tico goods are high quality. The prints and logos are created and drawn by humans, not AI machines. Hats and other items are embroidered.  At the Market Days U.S. Tico introduced his new line for Ticas, or for non Spanish speakers, the girls. 

Looking around the Market Days Fair grounds there were several hat booths. These are different. They  fit my big head. That's quality. 

Creativity runs in the Setterbo family. Click the link to check out his daughter Naedas's children's book, "Sloth Bunny Goes to School." U.S. Tico reviewed the book for me, "there's a lot of different levels..."

You can pick up Sloth Bunny on a hoodie. 

Of course in the short time span of one weekend's work U.S. Tico did not covert the whole USA to the Tico life. That's their loss, but he told his story, sold a few hats and talked to other local business owners interested in carrying the line in their shop. No one else is doing this. Why not make the sales pitch? Pura Vida is a Spanish term used in Costa Rica to describe the culture there. It means the pure life. Why not be Tico? Why not be Tica?    

Shop now, someone with that many nicknames is bound to have something going on.

U.S. Tico

 

Camping at Beavers Bend State Park, Ok...

We spent a very nice cool fall weekend with Morgan, Ali, Parker and Cullen along with their friends Chris and Jessica who live in Oklahoma camping at Beavers Bend State Park in Broken Bow. I'll remember this place next time I need to head north where the temperatures might be a little more tolerable and the water coming from under the dam and flowing downing the river is always cool.  

There's trout to catch in Beavers Bend. They are hatchery fish, the same as those where we camped in the Great Smoky Mountains this summer but I caught one and they are very tasty. Later on looking at the regulations we might have violated a few stuff like fly fishing only areas, barbless hooks required and so on but it seemed I was doing the same as other people I saw and I considered the trout I caught good size compared to some I saw on stringers. I used Trout Magnet spinners I bought in North Carloina and Magic Bait Eggs which I bought here in Lufkin but people in the camp next to us took a mixed string of bream and trout in worms.   

Lots to do in the park in addition to trails and fishing there is a train ride and horseback tours. The train whistle could easily be heard at camp and Cullen who is out of his mind over trains notified us each time it blew. 

Speaking of camp we were not timely enough with our reservation so we booked at an RV park for the RPod out side the state park and spent all day at the family camp. Not too bad a set up considering it was full hook ups and cheaper than the state park. Tent camping was in designated generous spaces in an open area and though others were near it did not seem crowded. The site was right along the river and there were some good RV sites water front also. Be aware that even camping you do need a parking permit. 

Besides the parking permit requirements Oklahoma seems a bit like Louisiana. You can do what you like as long as you are not hurting anyone. I don't know if they count killing or capturing big foot as hurting anyone.   

 

This Should Scare all the Bass Fishermen Just in Time for Halloween....

Want to scare a bunch of bass fisherman, which are famous for employing race around the lake from one end to the other fishing tactics? Tell them the Democrats are planning to make them switch to electric outboards. Yesterday I was in Conroe, Texas boat dealership (why I was there will be another blog post one day) and I saw a Torqeedo electric outboard. Torqeedo looks like a German company and I must say if you check the link to the website they are very interesting motors.    

These come in all sizes from small 1hp to 25hp, larger motors equal to 80hp gas and drives that would power tour boats like you might see on a Chicago River Architectural tour or an Austin Bat Cruise. They also have sail drives that push a 120' sail yacht charging the batteries by solar or a generator that charges from the motors prop spin while under wind power. 

Of course there will be some critics for the use of lithium batteries and such as more environmentally invasive than fossil fuels because of the messy job of mining but I think it's a wait and see game. We are not at peak electric outboard technology yet. As far as efficiency it looks like with the Deep Blue 50 RXL similar to an 80 hp gas you can run 0.8 of an hour or about 16-20 miles. I think I filled up my 60HP Evinrude on my pontoon boat in late June, hosted at least one ski trip, did not count the fishing trips and I bought about 10 gallons of gas in late September. That's pretty efficient but I don't really go far or fast and you lose that with the big gas motors. 

Looks like a 25HP electric might set you back $10,000. About six years ago I paid $7000 for a new 60HP. I have discovered I don't have to go as fast as I used too. I think this was the first summer in 40 years that I did not tube on Lake Sam Rayburn. I think I could have done it but it just seemed more fun to watch the grandkids do it.         

I see lots of changes happening in the world that indicate we are moving to a greener place. When regulations change and there are profits to be made capital money will move that way also. This is a foreign company and I think sometimes in the USA we tend to frame our beliefs to match a political or social picture instead of taking a global view. 

I think back in 2005 when we bought our pontoon boat (it's the second one we have had so It's still the "new boat") we traded in the old and drove out lake ready for $15,000.     

I looked at this boat yesterday priced at $404,000. Two 350 HP motors and a 150 gallon gas tank this price offers deep discounts. I think if I shake $400,000 at them they will take it. 

I am not sure exactly where I would go with a combined 700HP and 150 gallons of gas. I have certainty been out in the Gulf of Mexico, out of sight of land with a much smaller boat than this. I know nosing into the wind with big waves on our local lake can be tricky with a pontoon but I am not familiar with the hull performance of a tri toon.  

I'd like an electric outboard.  I think it would do just fine for my purposes. You do know that the older you will get you do slow down a bit and besides the Democrats haven't taken your guns yet so they won't make you do this. You will have to make up your own mind. 

 

The Ventura Guitar Story...

I bought my first guitar in about 1975 or so. It was a Kay acoustic. It cost maybe $50 bucks brand new and it was a horrible, unplayable, poorly intonated instrument. I was already a pretty good tuba player at the time but I knew nothing about guitars and would only realize the terrible quality of this instrument when I was eventually exposed to playable instruments. Kay had made pretty good guitars at one time but this was not that time and some years later I turned that guitar into a planter with an ivy growing out of it. It really was not good for that either.

Naturally, with such obstacles my guitar playing did not progress and interest waned. In fact overall musical interest had waned. I had dropped out of music at the college and at the time I did not own a tuba so for several years I had no instrument to play other that that awful Kay. 

 By 1980-82 my more studious friends were graduating from college. I was doing ok with a good blue collar Union factory job. We were all sitting around one summer afternoon, not a cell phone in sight living our best lives and watching a recent grad, Kent, pack his belongs on a motorbike as he set out into the world with a new degree, for a new life and for a job. These were the days when a motorbike was a mode of transportation and not a lifestyle choice. 

Space was limited and Kent was selling items he could not pack. He asked if anyone wanted his guitar for $40. This was the days before Venmo and I had $20 in my pocket, a princely sum at the time that was an adequate amount for all entertainment, all weekend. I told Kent I would pay $20. He declined. Because of Venmo I have since set a personal best of $7000 for an impulse buy and I have not regretted it. 

Kent resumed packing and after a period where I assumed the deal was off he came back and said I'll take the $20. I paid and he rode off on a tidily packed bike. At the time $20 would probably purchase 40 plus gallons of gas. I like to imagine that money took him a ways down the road.         

I guess in a way this guitar, a gut string Ventura Bruno Model 1582 took me down the road also. A friend had a similar guitar, the gut strings were easy on the fingers and we sat on the front porch of the old Lagoon House, a place where songwriters and rock stars such as Rodney Crowell and Glenn Frey were rumored to have polished their tunes during their tine in Nacogdoches. We polished nothing but drank beer while howling Neil Young songs at the moon. Pushing 80 years old Neil's voice is still an anodal howl but I promise when I cover Neil mine is worse.

All these years later I have some pretty good guitars including this garage sale Suzuki that Bill Cooney found. I am in a declutter mood and I thought unlike the Suzuki which I have actually played in public maybe I should get rid of the Ventura since it just hangs on the wall. 

A little internet research shows that the Ventura is a 1960s vintage and generally sells for several hundred dollars. My wife, who thinks I have too many guitars, convinced me that I have more history with this guitar than the Suzuki and if I'm getting rid of a guitar that should be the one and maybe one of the kids would want it for their kids. I am now thinking I should do a fix up job with new and better tuning keys, strings and a good polish.          

I'm not sure I know what kind of guitar kids want these days but looks like this one will be with me a bit longer. When I took this down from it's hanging place the guitar body was full of these plastic monkeys from some kind of game when you see how many monkeys you can link by their tails in a hanging formation. I don't know who done that but like any crime they say you should suspect family members first. 

After Kent took off on the bike I never saw or heard from him again. I don't recall his last name. I knew a couple of his cousins and it's possible I could find them on the internet but we weren't that close and they might ask why

 which would be good question. The Kay guitar planter eventually reverted to the earth from where it's parts came. I never got very good at Neil Young songs but I did know Double Date Debbie that Rodney Crowell sings about in the tune I linked and this guitar still hangs on my wall.  

 

Calumet River Cruise...

On our recent visit to Katie, Peter, Wallace and Hamish in Chicago we had and afternoon of cruising the Calumet River in their new to them boat.

We had originally set out for a Chicago River boat ramp just a few minutes from their house but it was closed due to a rowing race on the river that day so a few minutes more driving time put us on the Calumet River. The tow vehicle just barely in the photo there is one of those hybrid Chrysler mini vans that run about 30 miles on battery and switch over to gas for longer runs and heavier work. It did a fine job pulling this walk through windshield Cresterliner boat with a 75 HP Johnson.  Crestliner is an old boat company in operation since the late 1940s. 

The Calumet flows between Gary, In. and Chicago. I don't think it flows that same way it always has as there has been lots of manmade foolery with the river and the water itself has basically been unusable dating from the late 19th century due to the various human activity that has taken place along it's banks. I think there is a program to make the rivers in the area clean enough to swim in by 2035 but I don't know where they are on that. Just to go on record a little government regulation does make things better for all of use. 

 People do seem to bass fish this river just like they do down south and reportedly there are good populations of bream.  We launched at the yellow dot on the map and there is distance listed to various spots of interest. 

The 75 Johnson is much the same as the 1975 Evinrude outboard that was on my dad's old bass boat. While the 70 and 85 models were built for power this is built for speed. This 1983 model boat and motor has been very well maintained and runs like a top.  These old motors have a good sound that has been in my ears for most of my life. 

It won't be long until it's time to store this rig for the winter. A little different than the south when I am just now starting to look for good fishing which will probably last and be consistent till weather gets hot again. 

There will be some Canadian trips with this boat next summer. Hopefully I get invited again.