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.