CATCHING UP AND READY FOR ROCKPORT!!

 Posting today to catch up on a few things and to let you know we will be in Rockport for the art show (that is, if the weather stays ok and Beryl doesn't come for a visit.

We have recently both survived Covid (not a bad case for either of us) and a few other health issues, graduated the eldest grandson from high school ( in Virginia), felled many, many trees on our property that died from either a canker disease and/or Oak Wilt AND put in a water catchment system to combat the lack of water here in the Texas Hill Country!

This is just one of the many trees we had to take down. This one died quickly from that Canker disease. VERY SAD!!!

We are only 52% full at this point, but fingers crossed we can get enough rain to fill it!

So...... hopefully we will be at the Rockport Art Fest - July 6 and 7!!! 

We have been busy making bells and sails for our customers. We will be in our normal booth space along the fence line near the museum.  We hope to see you there but if weather or other circumstances prohibit you/us from getting there, just go to the website to order.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS IN 2023

 
Merry Christmas from the Little House.

We hope this newsletter finds everyone doing well and getting ready for a peaceful holiday season. 

Your bellmakers have survived the awful heat and drought of the summer.  Finally, we have cooler weather and some rain - not enough though.  We will be working to put in a water catchment system this winter.  Water is becoming scarce up here in the hill country. 

We did some traveling this year - went north and east in our RV in the early summer. Went as far north and NY and Maine. Actually, we crossed the border into Canada when we went to Niagara Falls.  This is the harbor in Friendship, Maine where one of our friends are lucky enough to live. 

In October, we volunteered again at the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta.  Lots of fun but also lots of hard work!  

                My favorite balloon!! It actually has a horn just like a real VW bus!

We have added pottery making to our things to spend money on .... HA! We now have a wheel, a kiln and lots of clay.  We hope to include a little keepsake for customers in their bell boxes this year. 

Now we are back in the shop and ready for Christmas orders. The first box with the outer red tape just went out yesterday. 

We wish you all only the best. Have fun, be responsible, vote and take care you yourselves. 

ROCKPORT AGAIN !!!

 I just heard a rumor that it is at least five degrees cooler at the coast right now than it is in San Antonio.  So Rockport, here we come!

Here is the link so you can look for the dates, times and ticket prices.  Wear cool clothes, sunblock and a hat and come see us. 

https://www.rockportartcenter.com/artfest

SPRING 2023

Windsongs has had a good spring.  The weather has been pretty good.  We've had enough rain that Judy's veggie garden looks great.  We put in a new "hugelkultur" bed. So far, we harvested tomatoes, zucchini and squash!! The new bed has potato and bean plants PLUS two pineapple plants started from pineapple tops saved from store bought pineapples over a year ago. 

These are zucchini and squash plants in the old hugelkultur bed.

                                                                                                 Tomato plants all in pots.

                                                                         

The King William Art Festival turned out to be a good show despite a HUGE rainstorm on Friday night and an increase in the admission fee.  People still came to the show, stopped by the booth to visit or buy a bell.

We roped in our Boerne grandson, Julien, to help us set up on Friday night. We rewarded him with a trip to the Alamo Cafe on the way home!

The parade was a hit, as usual. This is just one picture of the tons that I took.

So Judy took a pottery class this year which then prompted us to buy a wheel and a kiln.  While throwing pots on the wheel hasn't been as easy as Judy thought it might be, both Philip and Judy created some ceramic Texas stars. These were given out to anyone who bought a bell at the King William show. Just a way of saying thank you to our customers. 

FALL UPDATE!!

Well, we had a busy summer and fall.  

We (and the rest of our neighbors) ran out of water this summer. No rain, too many people and too many wells and tanks being constructed.  We had to drill deeper and put in some new pipe.  We have added some more collection barrels to the property but probably need to add some serious collection equipment for the future. 

It looks nice and tidy now.  It was a royal mess while the big trucks were here for three days! But that wonderful cool hill country water is flowing freely now. 

We took a trip to Cozumel in August. Didn't scuba dive but we did snorkel with the whale sharks.  These creatures are unbelievably huge when you are next to them in the water!!

Finally, our really big trip was the 9 days we spent at the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta in October.  We have always wanted to go. This year we volunteered in exchange for free camping.  It was great even though it rained frequently and some events were cancelled.  On the two days prior to the start of the Fiesta, we worked on constructing the arches that covered the entrance gates. That was very hard work. OSHA would have been dismayed at us being on scaffolds and ladders with no safety equipment, training, etc! 

In return for our volunteer work, we were able to camp for free.  It was camping in a parking lot with no facilities.  We we parked extremely close to where the fireworks were located.  They were stupendous!

I can't say enough about the balloons and the many nice people we met.  The balloon pilots and their crews were friendly and loved to talk about their balloons.  These are just a few of the millions of pictures we both took!

                    This one actually had a cute little VW horn that honked just like the real VW buses.  

                                 Until you stand under these, you have no idea how really big they are.  

Now, back to real life.....

  We participated in the Huffines Art show in Arlington in October.  Then we took a quick trip up to VA to see the youngest daughter and her family.  Thanksgiving was held here at home with our oldest and her family.  Now... we are busy getting ready for Christmas orders!!

 HERE WE COME!!!!!!!

 ROCKPORT ART FESTIVAL 

This is the 2022 Art Show Poster 

The show is July 2 &3 (right around the corner). We are busy making bells and loading up the truck. It looks like the weather may be wet and not as hot as hell.  But then, this is Texas, so who knows what Mother Nature will bring. 

We will be in our usual spot, so be sure to stop by. If you need a large bell (5 or 6 dot), call or email Philip and let him know.  Although we will bring several of each anyway, if we know you want one, we will set it aside for you. 

Here's the link for you to find information about hours, parking, ticket prices.

https://www.rockportartcenter.com/artfest

 WELL........   

                 things could have been worse.  But for a week, things seemed pretty dire.  No rain in ages, too many people moving in the area building houses, barns, swimming pools and ponds finally caused the eventuality we knew was coming.  Wells began to run dry up here on our little hill two weeks ago and we were no exception. This is happening all over our county.  We had to BUY a truck load of water to put into our tank to see us through the week while we waiting for the wonderful, overworked well companies to rescue us.  

Our county entered stage 3 drought conditions. We began all our personal conservation strategies.  Short showers, saving shower/dishwashing water, saving water from the dehumidifier and the air conditioner and buying HEB drinking water. Only our trees get watered by hand in early morning or evening.  There are six people who live on this property and everyone did their best to conserve.   

We now have a new and deeper well. The well companies here are so very backed up with constant calls from desperate land owners.  These are wonderful men and women who worked in the 95 + degree heat for several days.  We now have several new storage containers on the property too.  We only have one roof with a gutter, but will be adding more.  We are continuing those conservation strategies mentioned above because I guess we are afraid our new, deeper well might still not be enough to counter this situation long term.  

Being without water is scary. 

Two different well companies worked with us, plus we had advice from the Cow Creek Conservation organization.

..... and there it is, new and pumping 

                                 Spring has sprung..... 

and we are on our way to the King William Fair on the last weekend of Fiesta!!

Mermaid society entry in 2019 parade!

Join us on April 9 downtown San Antonio for the King William Fair. Dress up, wear you biggest hat, dress up the kids and dogs and come on down. 

         We will be in booth W202 on Washington St near the corner of Turner.  

.....and the season progresses!

 Lots of bells going out the door this first half of the month. 

Welded and waiting to be cleaned.

Wrapped and labeled...

Such organization - boxes put together with that cheery red tape and waiting for their bells.

A little bit of Christmas decoration to brighten our day. 

Our wonderful UPS driver comes every afternoon at 4:00. Sheila's internal clock is attuned to his visits. She starts pacing and watching at least by 2:00. 

I'm posting this on Friday, Dec 18th. Philip is sending out a "last call" email tonight just to let customers know we can still send bells within Texas and neighboring states and get them to their destination before Christmas.  

And the Holiday Season Begins!

 We broke out the red tape yesterday. These are the first four boxes to go out for Christmas!

We made a MAJOR change this year to the business and started using SQUARE to process payments. While it was interesting to receive all those letters with checks as payments and heartwarming  to receive personal notes, it seemed like going to the post office less during the Time of Covid was probably wise. I miss seeing all of the different stamps. I tried to save them over the years (not in an organized fashion, but in a large wooden box). Who knows what I will do with them.

ANYWAY..... Philip does still like talking to customers on the phone though, so don't hesitate to call him if you have a question or just want to chat. 

THANKSGIVING TAMALE CONTROVERSY

 So what's a holiday family meal without a little controversy? Well this year the discussion was about the tamales. 

The long standing purchase of tamales for the entire extended Dewey family (including the branch that currently resides in VA) is to dine on tamales from Delicious tamales. 

We have always driven all the way into downtown San Antonio and purchased several dozen at Thanksgiving and Christmas. We have packed them in our luggage and taken them on an airplane to VA more than once. They indeed live up to their name. 

This year, however, a new company has come to town. Delia's Tamales, has an outstanding reputation from folks who grew up in the valley and therefore grew up with these tamales. Needless to say, they were thrilled when Delia's "opened shop" in San Antonio.

Now, I have NEVER eaten a tamale I didn't like. We ate tamales from Delia's this year and by tonight (Saturday), only a few are left out of the four dozen we purchased. So, obviously, everyone liked them.

 Makes me hungry just to look at this picture. 

 

ALMOST THANKSGIVING 2020

 Everything is different this year.... for all of us. 

We do have a turkey and a ham and all the other foods for traditional Thanksgiving meal. 

Another family tradition is to have Mexican food on Thanksgiving eve. We are prepared for that one too, except for purchasing the tamales on Wednesday morning. 

The difference this year will be that both meals will be eaten outside in front of the house so that we can include the part of our family that lives next door

These will be our newest additions to this year's celebration.

                                                  More about these little terrors later!

 It's a grey, cool and damp morning outside. Good day for computer work. However, we do have orders to get out to customers, so we will be out in the shop in a little while! This was Philip, yesterday working in shorts.  A little too cool for that today! 

                                       

August 2020

 Perhaps you've seen this? Felt this way? I am thinking of ordering this shirt. Think that will work? 

It's September now. August flew by, but a lot of things happened here. We both got sick, thought we might have Covid, got tested.... were negative. School started here in Boerne. Our oldest daughter had to go back to teaching. One kiddo went with her; the other one sits in our house every day and does his work as an E-Learner. 

We had one really good rain but everything is now brown. Wells are starting to either run dry or pump out nasty looking water. Too many people in the Hill Country now.

Bells are doing ok. People still need gifts. We touch base with our fellow artists periodically. Everyone is worried about everyone else. Some art shows are trying a virtual show. We haven't participated in any of those. As it stands right now - no shows for us for the remainder of 2020. 

Philip is reworking some of the areas in the bell shop. I'll take pictures and post them soon. 

TOO BUSY TO POST??

Well, we have been busy - just with lots of things not related to bells!

However, first, let me say the bell shop is still open. We are shipping bells to customers who need birthday, retirement and graduation gifts. We still had folks who needed bells for Mother's and Father's day as well.  We have had a few customers who mask up and drive out to the shop also.  

We have missed doing the shows. Six to be exact - were cancelled.  But we are all in this together. Our wonderful "family"of fellow artists have called and emailed each other to keep up with how everyone is doing. 

So.... like most of you, we have gone NOWHERE!!  I have learned to use the HEB online grocery  pickup ordering. I have learned how to "e-deposit" a check. AND... we got a kitten. Hmmm. That was not planned, but he is a cutie. Sheila (the dog you have seen in earlier posts) is still adjusting. 

We named him Dr. Fauci (or just Fauci for short). We are trying to train him to open the mail. 

                                                He is a handsome boy. Pretty coloring. 

We are doing lots of landscape work. Trying to fight off the deer and armadillo that are eating everything in sight or digging up the ground looking for food. I'm gardening and baking bread (that's a wonder because I hate to cook.)

Like everyone else, we watch a lot of Netflix/Amazon Prime, read, do puzzles and work on the computer. We will keep plugging along, wearing our masks, social distancing and having homemade margaritas!

Stay safe everyone. 

NEW TIMES - Hanging in there.

                                                We may look different, but we are still here!

We hope everyone is doing well. Having to go through something like this while living in the country at least gives us the opportunity to get outside! We know we are missing so many past customers and not getting to meet new ones because of the show cancellations. This was going to be our year to come back to The Woodlands!! Oh well.

We have been shipping bells to people who order online. We know that birthdays, Mother's Day and other gift needs still exist, so we will hurry to meet any deadlines someone might have.

I have been making masks for family and friends.

Philip has been organizing a family pickleball game several times each week.

The grandson has been learning to do some windchime "piece work"....

...... and to clean off the acorns and leaves from the top of the bell shop. 

Like everyone else, we are reading, browsing the web, working on puzzles, working in the yard and watching lots of TV. 

Keep us posted (make comments below or send us emails) and let us know how you are all doing. Send me pictures of you and your bells and I will post them if you like. 

We care about everyone in the large Windsongs family! Hope to start seeing everyone again soon.