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Spaulding Smails

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Posts posted by Spaulding Smails

  1. 4 hours ago, Gatorubet said:


    Question: Any issues with natural gas output during this? IOW, would a standby gen be just a decoration that does not work due to decreased gas flow? I assume you would hook it up to a big ass propane tank.

    I'm on propane.  You always run the risk of no fuel or low pressure.  Especially when reliant on NG as opposed to your own propane tank.

  2. We've had power for a grand total of 12 hours since Monday @ 3 AM.  Down for most of the day Monday, back Tuesday AM with rolling blackouts, then out since some time early Wed AM.  PEC claims there's something wrong with a distribution line and a "part is on order".  That's after their automated systems said we'd have power back in "45 - 90 min" before it went to "unavailable" status.  Now, we're on a boil water notice.  Thank goodness we're homebodies and self-sufficient with a big propane tank, a gas range and a big fireplace.  I guess I should've pulled the trigger on that whole home generator this summer...

    • Rage+1 1
  3. Just now, TwiceHorn said:

    In Austin, right?  Didn't think it was warm enough for shit to start busting, but I guess it is.

    It's ~30 in Dallas and my roof isn't dripping yet, but it's kind of sunny, so I guess any shit is going to reveal itself soon.

    Yes.  Austin.  We received 19 incoming leads yesterday for plumbing issues.  And, we're not even a plumbing company.  We JUST got our plumbing license last week, and I have ONE plumber on staff, so we're prioritizing existing customers.  Temps got above freezing yesterday for a bit, and issues started arising.

    I'm hearing the big plumbing companies are telling folks mid to late March before they can even come out to look at a leak.  This is going to dwarf Hurricane Harvey from an insurance claim standpoint.  Lots of these issues are NOT minor.  We have five in queue that will potentially be $100K+ due to the damages sustained.

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  4. 26 minutes ago, Biff Tannen said:

    This is something I have realized this week: how lucky I am to be married to a woman that loves to cook.  We could survive on whatever we have in the house and freezer for probably a month.  The hoarding of food from store shelves prior to and during this week long episode has been telling. 

    Same.  Other than fresh veggies and no oven, we haven't missed a beat.  Since the power went out Monday, we've had big breakfast tacos, a variety of grilled panini sandiwches, chili, chicken tortilla soup and grilled venison backstrap with cheese grits and broccoli.  I feel bad for people that rely on take-out and restaurants during these types of events.

  5. 7 hours ago, troph said:

    What line of business are you in? I think I’m supposed to know. Anyway we had it as an afterthought but will at a minimum wire it ready with a spot to put the genny. Question will be “as if the power hadn’t gone out” or more of a survival mode.  Not yet sure.  Not a big fan of throwing down crazy money when what we really need is just basic creature comforts and major appliances. I’m sure we will decide in the next 2-3 months. I’m guessing you can set it up for either or?  Full house for routine outages and critical systems for times like these?  Also looks like they have their own tanks but can you have them draw direct from a large underground tank? Surely you can.  I should ask my lady but she’s watching TV and hates when I interrupt her. 

    The load center panel addition is cheap during construction.  Do that for sure.  I think I recall you saying you're building on LT.  If you're on propane, go with the largest tank possible.  If natural gas, just try to bring all your utilities together in the same area if possible.  If you have the gas / propane line ready and the load center panel set up, it's almost a plug and play for the whole-house generator at a later date.  It was on my to-do list this summer, and I just didn't get around to it.

    I own a construction and maintenance company in Austin.  We just added electrical services in the fall.  I hired a master plumber two weeks ago.  Just got our plumbing license last week.  I just don't have field operations set up yet, unfortunately.  Cuz there's gonna be just a bit of plumbing business in the next few weeks / months.

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  6. 1 minute ago, troph said:

    Could do less if you focused on core systems.  Fridge and heat with some light and electric plugs. Avoid kitchen appliances, microwaves, limit zones on HVAC, rely on wood burning heat.

    Correct.  You can also install a load center panel and just wire in a portable generator to focus on core items.  Much cheaper if your primary concern is fridge, etc. and you already have a gas powered generator.

    There are several other options for longer duration that are more commercial / industrial in nature.  We're seeing lots of demand for those recently, and that demand just went off the charts this week.

    • Like 1
  7. 5 minutes ago, Godzillatron said:


    Wind generation very small impact. Mostly natural gas plants that weren’t ready for cold weather and froze up combined with just in time delivery of feed supply that couldn’t be supplied because well heads and pipelines froze.

    I'm hearing the exact same thing from someone in the industry.  Lots of blame being thrown around about lack of preparedness as a result of budget cuts, deferred maintenance / upgrades, etc.  

  8. Forgot one more thing that's getting whacked.  My greenhouse.  I had two electric heaters running in there.  They were barely keeping up.  It was 35 when the power went out.  25 when I checked again at 7 AM this morning after the power went out.  I'm anticipating losing all 12 of my citrus plants.  All pretty big and pretty old and produce a ton of fruit.

  9. 1 hour ago, Skipper said:

    We haven't been hit with a blackout yet but I'm anticipating needing to do this.   Of course I have zero idea where the drains on the pool equipment are or what they look like as I've never dealt with it. About to start googling.

    Shoot me a PM if you want me to walk you through it.  There's a total of six things I had to drain for my system.  Both pumps, chlorinator, filter, UV filter and backflow.

  10. Power went out in Dripping Springs at 2:30.  I went out and drained all the pool equipment.  Power came back on at 3:30.  I put all the plugs pack in, and started up the freeze mode on the pool.  Power went out again at 5:30.  I figured it was another rolling blackout.  Still no power at 6:30, so I went out to drain the equipment again.  Frozen solid.  Now the hot tub has a solid layer of ice, and the pool is icing up.  

    No power since 5:30.  Down to 58 in the house.  At least we have a big fireplace in the living room and a cord of seasoned firewood outside.

    Ran water in several faucets starting last night, but not all.  Two bathroom sinks on the north wall have no water.  I guess I should've run them all, but they were fine until the power went out.  

    Chickens lost their heat lamps.  I tarped the coop and added extra hay yesterday.  They're huddled up, but I have to go change their water every six hours or so because it's frozen by then.

    I'm anticipating lots of busted pipes and broken pool equipment.  Our entire state was woefully prepared for this type of weather.

    • Hook 'Em 3
  11. I've commented on it before, but having a few hundred acres now is awesome for taking friends, family, and filling the freezer.  I went almost a decade with no lease / no land.  I was invited on a few doe hunts here and there, but that was sporadic at best.

    Having a low-fence / small property has only made me want something bigger and better.  I'm a long ways away from being able to afford something bigger that I can control the herd with.  So, I'm leaning towards scratching my itch for some true hunting via an elk hunt or some sort of low-fence hunting experience.  Probably won't pull that off this year, but already looking to do something in 2022.

  12. 10 hours ago, fattyflattie said:

    Holy shit, oof. 
     

    First company I worked for out of college, we had a 10k acre lease in Laredo. Long term lease, O&G when money was flowing.  They built all kinds of little casitas and a big lodge even though it was a leased place. They had a ranch manager that we paid north of 150k/yr. His son worked for us too for some ridiculous amount of money.  Anyhow, it was a gravy job. Identify a few 150-ish deer a year for the clients, make sure the CEOs kid gets a nice buck, and make sure the chef had plenty of steaks; everyone was happy.  Over the years we weren’t seeing the kind of deer you’d expect out of a managed place of that size.   They caught him selling trophy hunts during the week. I guess a few hundred grand wasn’t enough. 

    Wow.  That's about as bad as it gets.  Talk about looking a gift horse in the mouth.

    I was on the same lease in Live Oak County from 10+ years on my own.  15+ in total.  I inherited my dad's spot when I was in my early 20s.  5 guns.  1100 acres.  Low fence.  We didn't feed protein, but we tried out best to manage the herd.  And we did a TON to improve the property.  We were constantly working on the old cabin that we stayed in.  Fixed a ton of fences.  Mowed senderos.  Hell, I rented a dozer one year and cleared a bunch of brush and mesquite for him.  We were allotted one trophy buck each.  But, we never shot more than two total in a year.  We started to see better deer and shot a few in the low 160 range.  We'd see the same deer and started to do a good job of targeting / managing the right ones.  We had seen this one really nice mainframe 10 with distinctive split brow tines.  We aged him at 6.5.  He was a regular at one particular location.  Then, he vanished.  And this was pre-rut by a wide margin.  It was around 2005, so I went and bought my first game camera.  Set it up near the feeder of that blind to see if I could catch him on camera.  Instead, I caught two hunters dragging a bullshit 3-yo 8-pt to their truck.

    Who knows how long that landowner had been running day hunts.  We had a handshake contract with him, so there was no recourse.  But, what a shitty thing to do.  Out of our blinds and under our feeders.  Needless to say, that was the last year we hunted there.  

    • Rage+1 3
  13. I was on the fence this morning about shutting down our field workers this morning (I'm in Austin) ... until I watched that video.  We already had a dozen or so trucks out and about, but we made the call to shut everything down and ground the fleet.  I had several guys complaining and saying the roads were fine, but it's not worth the risk / liability.  Commercial vehicle insurance is already bad enough.  TJH and his counterparts would have a field day.

    • Hook 'Em 1
  14. I've completely abandoned Keurig myself.  Not sure if it's subliminal or what, but I can taste the plastic.  Even in the refillable K-cups. 

    I understand the pour-over / French press and fresh ground bean fans.  I agree.  It's fantastic.  But, I'm also more than fine with a standard drip style coffee maker 9 days out of 10.  I can pre-load it the night before.  Set the timer, and have it ready as I walk out the door in the morning.  That's as good as I can hope for on a standard weekday.  That's our go-to during the week.

    I have a French press that I use when backpacking and a stovetop I use when camping.  Both are great for what they are.  I guess I just don't appreciate it enough or have enough time most mornings to justify anything more than that.

    • Hook 'Em 2
  15. 2 hours ago, C-Man said:

    You're probably thinking of the very final days of 1984. My grandfather took me deer hunting at his lease in San Diego, TX then and it was perhaps the coldest I've ever been, I think. We had a tin-covered "house" with dirt floors. The only heat was a wood-burning stove inside. I remember sleeping one night in every shred of clothing I had with me, including my boots, right next to the fire. We listened to the Horns get their shit packed in by Chuck Long and Iowa in the Freedom Bowl on the radio. My grandad was an aggy -- and loved it. We didn't see any deer. Miserable trip.

    My dad took me hunting that week as well.  I was 5.  We went to our neighbor's lease in Lampasas.  I remember my dad making a makeshift sterno heater for the blind from a roll of toilet paper, rubbing alcohol and a coffee can.  He shot a buck that weekend, and I distinctly remember him cracking open a beer when he started skinning it, and the beer being frozen solid by the time he had it quartered.  That's probably one of my earliest memories.  It was stupid cold for Texas that weekend.  

    • Like 1
  16. Made our first run at sausage this weekend.  We shot two whitetail doe this fall.  Ended up with 35 lb of deboned venison.  We tried a bunch of different spices / seasonings, but landed on a few that worked really well.  Lots of work over the weekend, and we'll definitely improve the process and get help next time.  Cold smoked all the link for 4 hrs.  We went 50/50 venison / pork for everything except the hamburger.  We did a few of those with 20% bacon for burger patties.  The final tally was 10 lb hamburger, 15 lb breakfast sausage, 20 lb regular link, 15 lb jalapeno cheese link, and 7 lb Italian.  

    IMG_4741.jpeg

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  17. We spent a week in the Upper Keys a few years back.  Had a blast.  We stayed at Playa Largo (Marriott property).  Pretty nice.  Good pool.  Good beach.  Good restaurant on site.

    I second Robbie's and Loralei.  Both lots of fun, but a bit touristy.  

    Hobo's Cafe in Key Largo had great food.  Loved the hogfish.  

    Green Turtle Inn on Islamorada was some of the best breakfast I've ever had.  

    We had fun in a big rain storm at the Tiki Bar.  Typical bar experience.

    DM if you want a good inland fishing guide.  We went with a guy that was top notch out of Tavernier.  Super professional and put us on the fish.  

  18. 2 hours ago, Johnny Sack said:

    Ours is pipe.  And we built rails where you can take it off the scale/skinning rack, winch it up on a hook with rollers, and roll it right into the walk in cooler (which has rails inside and a little door at the top where the rails are to open when you are moving in and out).  I will have to take a pic.  One of our ranch hands built it.

    That's a dream setup.  Sounds like Granzin's in New Braunfels.  We have a decent setup.  I welded up an A-frame with two gambrels each on cable winches.  And, I snagged an 8x8 walk-in cooler off one of our restaurant jobs that is ugly, but runs like a champ with a smaller A-frame inside of it.  The only pain in the ass is getting a skinned deer from big A-frame to the cooler without dragging it on the ground.  Not too bad with a whitetail doe, but it's really tough with an axis buck.  Before next season, I think I'm going to break down and buy a big poly cart to just wheel them in there.

  19. 23 hours ago, Pato del Muerto said:

    Are you going to try to wet them down to form a freeze blanket?

    I've done that before with limited success.  From what I've seen, as long as you have buds and not actual blooms, they're a little more freeze tolerant.  Hoping that's the case this year.  What really kills is a late freeze after blooms are out.

  20. 22 hours ago, Post Oak said:

    What kind? Are you gonna be able to do anything to save them?

    Peach, plum and pear.  They're too big to cover.  My citrus trees are in pots, so I move them into the greenhouse for the winter.  Not much I can do other than let mother nature take her course.

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