Jump to content

Spaulding Smails

Legacy Members
  • Posts

    1082
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by Spaulding Smails

  1. Agreed. I didn't think about Cloudcroft at first, but that's a perfect choice for this type of trip.
  2. I second the Clearwater idea. Beaches. Decent restaurants. Bars. Most is within walking distance if you're central.
  3. Any suggestions for a quick daytime activity in Durango? Also need a good rec for a family dinner. We're headed to Telluride for Spring Break. Leaving Friday, staying Friday night in Santa Fe. Planning on getting to Durango by lunch. Spend Saturday there, then leave early Sunday to make it to Telluride when the mountain opens.
  4. I didn't think about the cold killing exotics. Haven't been to my place since the freeze, but headed up next Monday to check it out. Yikes.
  5. Same. I ordered 25 today. Friday, today, tomorrow and all of next week have been capping lines, fixing leaks, etc. Just need to get water to some people. Starting installs March 1 and we're booked through the month. Incredible.
  6. 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.
  7. 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...
  8. 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.
  9. 75% of the calls we're getting are related to either exterior tankless water heaters or uninsulated copper pipes in attics, specifically those that have blown-in insulation. Spray foam houses fared well and kept attic pipes above freezing temps.
  10. 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.
  11. Kids did this Monday night since we didn't have any power (still don't). It's a staple of ours every time we go skiing.
  12. 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.
  13. 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.
  14. $20K all-in for a whole-home Generac. Lots of higher end models available as well.
  15. 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.
  16. 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.
  17. 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.
  18. 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.
  19. 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.
  20. 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.
  21. @blacklab at least you were on the news. Saw your vehicle and the ensuing backup it caused courtesy of Fox 26 last night.
  22. 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.
  23. Cross-post with the sausage thread. Took my first stab with sausage. We had two whitetails from this season. In addition to ground and breakfast sausage, we did link, jalapeno cheddar and Italian. Lots of work, but turned out pretty good for our first try.
  24. 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.
  25. 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.
×
×
  • Create New...