After King William

We had a  great show last Saturday at King William, the end of San Antonio's Fiesta. In fact, we were so busy, I didn't take any pictures. A light rain came along at about 5:00 pm. That actually worked out ok as far as getting the crowd to finish buying and start to head on home or to get their seats for the night parade.
HOWEVER... our booth was under some trees, so the tent became wet and dirty and we had to pack it away like that. This meant on Sunday instead of getting to rest up, we had to clean the tent. Unpacking and packing it back up was bad enough on Saturday. Then we had to do it all over again so we could wash it on Sunday.

                                         While we were at it, we washed all of the curtains.

                                                 Here I am scrubbing the tent top.

                                             Oh yeah, and we relocated squirrel number seven.

Between Shows

We are very busy getting ready for the King William Show this coming weekend. But... we have been doing a few other things too.

We moved squirrel number six so he could join his relatives at the new squirrel resort a couple of miles away.

We have been keeping an eye on our two little deer herds. We have both a white tail group and an Axis group. Here is a picture of the Axis group dining during the afternoon down below the house.

I have also been keeping track via photo of the agave at our gate this is about to bloom. Believe it or not, in all the time we have lived here (since 1982) this is the first agave to bloom on our property.
Here is how tall the bloom is as of yesterday.

                            The cactus, transplanted from the New Mexico desert, also bloomed.

And, lest you think all we do is work on bells; here is the first of the harvest from my garden. Small, but more to come!

Ok.... back to work!

Whew!!

                               The Woodlands Waterway show is done and it was GREAT.

The weather was perfect. Loading and unloading went very, very well.  This is one of the best run shows we participate in. We saw repeat customers who have become friends over the years of this show. We saw old friends who we have done art shows with for a long time; long enough to watch their kids grow up and become adults!

                 Here are Chip and Debra DuPont booths at the far end of the show from us.

                                                                       Deb's work.

Chip's work.

                           Two great people, as are most art show folks. Here is a link to their website:
                                                              http://dupontstudio.com

This is a picture of the townhouse complex across the waterway from the art show. On an earlier entry, I posted a picture of one of our bells on one of the patios. I managed a picture of another bell that has been there for a few years.

Now, we are home getting orders finished up from this show and getting ready for the King William show on the last weekend of Fiesta in San Antonio.

By the way... we are now up to 4 in the squirrel relocation program. One more was relocated to the creek area on Tuesday. We have seen another one but it has avoided the trap so far.

Gettting Ready for The Woodlands Waterway Festival

Ah... we were going to be so well prepared. And actually we did pretty well, just had a few interruptions.
First, because we ran out of bells last year... on Saturday, we thought of a way to have more bells with us but yet still not have to haul the big trailer over here. Last Sunday, we loaded my poor little car down with bells and drove over to The Woodlands and stored that load into a storage facility.
So, back home, we are ready to get crackin on Monday with no interruptions. However, the contituation of the squirrel relocation program gives us some pause when we catch squirrel #2

And just so you feel ok about this relocation effort, here is a picture of the Joshua Creek area not terribly far from where we live, which is now the new squirrel habitat.

The water is actually running in the creek now and their are lots of oak trees to the left of this shot, which is where the little squirrel took off for.

So... we worked all week with plans to leave for Houston by noon on Thurs. But, mother nature delayed us a little on Thurs morning when I went out to check the Have-a-Heart trap again for another squirrel, only to find something a little bigger in the trap.

A grey fox. We weren't sure about the "release" thing for this little guy, since we know they sometimes carry rabies. So we called the county animal control person, who showed up promptly, made a visual assessment and determined he/she looked healthy and offered to release the little guy elsewhere. We had to spend some time pondering the solution (valuable bell making time!).

 But since we no longer have any outdoor animals to worry that they might be prey for the fox, we just released him right there. After a good growl at us, he/she took off for the lower pasture and we went back to getting ready for the show. 

How Many Squirrels Does It Take To Stop a Truck?

Remember the earlier posting about the big white truck used to bring your bells to you at the show?? And how some cute, little furry creatures DESTROYED all the wiring in its engine when they built their gigantic nest under the hood?
Well, the truck is back from the shop, ready to travel to Houston next weekend... and we have started a squirrel relocation program.Most folks have advised us to start the squirrel eradication program, but we wanted to be humane.

Squirrel #1 left on Friday and went to the Little Joshua Creek area to live.

Now don't worry about this little guy. He seemed quite happy upon release and headed down to the creek (probably to catch up with the racoon we released down their last year).

New Thought on Bells as Wedding Gifts

Over the years we have had customers buy a bell and explain that this was not their first bell. When we try to help them chose a bell to "go with" their others, they explain that this is really a replacement bell for one or more bells lost in a divorce.

 Recently, we had a customer buy such a bell because he has now lost his second bell in a divorce. He has been divorced twice and lost custody of the bell each time. Hmmm. This caused us to think that we need to create something to help out in these situations. So, we are thinking perhaps we need to create a document that the purchaser of a bell as a wedding gift can give to the receiving couple... like a Pre-Nup???

 

Now, what would make this easier for the future divorcing couple, is for the gift giver to give TWO bells as a wedding gift so that if a divorce occurs, the couple can at least split up the two bells.

 

Just a thought. You know, we just want to be helpful.

 

We head to the Woodlands Waterway show in mid April. Hope to see all Houston area folks there.