Author: gacott

Pretty Amazing

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It’s really amazing how we have gotten this place that we are, not just physically but figuratively. The process really started when we decided to go to Harlingen for the month of November (2016) and see what we thought of the area. And the plan even got better when our great Friends Steve and Katie threw cation to the wind and decided to take their own trip and meet us down there as well. Pretty darn cool.

By the time Steve and Katie made it down there, pretty much mid-month I believe, we were knee deep in negations for our property.

Harlingen House

That’s the house there – actually on the right, 100% covered by trees and plants. The part on the left is the extension.

Although we hadn’t planned on it, we went back home, put our house up for sale, got an offer four days later and closed five business days later, for the asking price. Then we moved to Texas lock-stock and barrel.

On one had it seems so long ago, on the other, it hasn’t even been 2 months! Just nuts. So much work being done and so much more to do.

We have met some awesome people down here and I think in a lot of ways it’s really allowed us to make some personal changes as well. I do have to say, we really miss our friends and we hope we are able to stay connected, that’s all part of changing your life, isn’t it?

I was reading a Facebook post from one of our dear friends this morning, about her needing to make some changes. My message to all of you (and to ourselves) is DO IT!! It’s your life, you get just one. Create the life that you want for yourself! Make it amazing and EVERYTHING you want it to be. Only YOU have the power to do that for yourself.

And by the way, there hasn’t been a single minute where I have wished we had not done this. It’s been hard, a lot of work, we miss friends, comfort, real plumbing etc, :-), but man is this living life!!

And to all of our friends – come visit!

Night Out On The Town

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We went out and had a great night on the town last night. It’s always nice to spend some time with Cindy Martinez, she has really become a great friend. It’s always nice finding people who you mesh with. Here we are standing in front of one of the great Harlingen Murals.

Harlingen Murals

One of us did manage to get a bit of dancing in as we listened to Dan The Man Harryman perform!

Vivian Dancing

Some Food And Birds

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There are a lot of things going on and to do in the RGV, but without a doubt, food and birds are in the top 5. Yesterday while we were waiting for some large equipment to clear out we ran down to this little place: http://www.stefanosbrooklynpizza.com/ and had some lunch.

Chicken Parmigiana Sub

It was the Chicken Parmigiana Sub and are you kidding me?? Amazing!

But the real kicker around here as far as food is concerned are the tacos. breakfast, lunch, dinner and everything in between. Now for those of you in Colorado and I assume many other places North from here; as a side note, that’s just about everybody in the United States, all but the most Southern part of Florida. When I say tacos you’re probably thinking of something like THIS. But down here when you say taco they are talking about this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taco.

Also, there are really no burritos down here, just wrapped tacos. But the point is, they are EVERYWHERE and inexpensive and good!! So the taco is pretty much the meal that everybody is eating all of the time. Also, they sell them at gas stations – did I mention that?

On the the birds! Saw these fellas this morning and my walk around the property.

South Texas Parrots

Flocks of these fellas fly by all of the time, pretty cool. They’re calls on the other hand, not so cool. Sounds like somebody is being tortured, yeah, that bad. But South Texas is like the International highway for bird migration. We have just about every cool bird you could think of. Come on down and check it out!

You dirty rotten Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

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Yeah, not sure how that one has stuck in my brain after all of these years, probably the same way just about everything else seems to I guess. I think I originally heard it on the TV at one point, or the movies, and it stuck. One character or another called somebody else that, I thought it sounded cool and started using it myself.

But, like so many other things, it’s totally tangential to what made me think of it. Why I thought of it was because of these guys and gals here.

Black-bellied whistling ducks

They are Black-bellied whistling ducks! See the connection? Not much of one right? My mind at work.

These ducks are pretty darn interesting for a number of reasons, not the least of because they don’t quack – ever. They don’t really whistle either to be honest, more like a peep. I guess calling them the Black-bellied peeping duck was out of the question so whistling is what they landed on.

They are pretty cool though. They land in trees as well and actually do have a nice sound to them. They are here to greet us every morning now. Not a bad way to start the day!