Homestead « Dusty Jones

Tuesday November 17th, 2009

2010 Report on the Plum Creek HOA Fiscal Activities

By year-end 2010 the Plum Creek HOA will have 1424 homes. The reported revenues for this statement are $783,354 which includes $5,304 in early payment discounts ($20 off if you pay for the whole year in full).

The largest HOA expense is the category of Landscape Maintenance costing just over $177,000 per year. Second place goes to the live in management man (we are unclear of his necessity). He costs us just under $132,000 per year. There is an additional $41,262 in the category of administration.

Next up is the pool, with multiple teenage lifeguards who do little more than faun over their coworkers and talk with their friends, I expected the pool operation to be the largest expense. Instead it slides into third place at just under $109,000.

The most surprising expense is for telephone service. $6,864 per year, or $572 per month, I wonder who are we calling. Perhaps we should look for some bundled long distance savings.

It costs us $2,640 dollars a year for communication ($220 a month). Those newsletters and notice signs really add up.

Homeowner activities (the Easter Egg Hunt, BBQ Cook Offs, etc.) are $33,519. A measly 4.2% return on the assessments.

Luckily our current assessment rate will not be increasing next year.

Monday April 30th, 2007

Ceiling Repair

We had an exciting adventure in drywall repair today. View in slide-show and mouse over the photos for the full details.

Wednesday November 15th, 2006

Ms. Natasha Spots

July 17, 1995 – November 14, 2006

Friday June 16th, 2006

Pneumonia

The good thing about an online repository of my life is the search box up in the corner.

I can use that little box, sometime next year, to remember that Hailey had a fever last Saturday. I can use that little box to remember that Brianna took her to after hours on Sunday and that she had pneumonia for the third time in her three years of life. I can use that little box to remember that she had a fever for most of the week and by Thursday was feeling better, and by Friday had returned to school.

Friday May 12th, 2006

No Tubes, No Wires, No Hospitals

Katie is finally at home. She sleeps a lot. We have her downstairs with us, but you would never know it. Every three hours she wakes up and we feed her. Then she goes back to sleep.

Hailey got to see Katie for the first time today. She was very excited. Brianna went to get Hailey at school. It was nap time and her teacher was having a hard time getting Hailey to wake up. Hailey does not like to wake up. Brianna whispered, “guess who’s home?” Hailey jumped up ready to go. She wouldn’t take off her shoes for nap time. She wanted to be ready to go. Hailey has been doing soft touches on her baby every since. She alternates between calling her baby and sister.

Hailey is our hand-washing police. We put her in charge of making sure every visitor that comes to see Katie washes their hands. She is doing a terrific job.

Katie’s doctor told us that she was happy for us and very few parents act as excited about taking their child home as Brianna did. Yesterday, when the doctor told Brianna, on the phone, that we could possible take Katie home today. Brianna was quiet. The doctor said, hello, are you there? Brianna stopped crying and said, I love you; this is the best Mother’s Day present ever.

Thursday April 20th, 2006

Birthday Hat

I bought some Tinkerbell party hats for Jessica’s birthday. Hailey had fun wearing them.

Photoset at Flickr

Boots

A while back we bought Hailey some yard/garden plastic boots. They were pink so why not. When we go outside to work in the yard or garage, Hailey will find her boots and put them on.

Tuesday July 26th, 2005

Dual Zone A/C

Visited Caraway today. Talked with the neighbor across the street and took some photos of the house. Hailey loved playing on the neighbor’s giant play scape.

The builder called to schedule our initial final walk through and schedule a closing date. We are within three weeks of moving. Brianna’s moms didn’t have a good experience with their movers so I will reschedule with the big mammal movers.

They installed the kitchen backslash and bathroom tiles today. I have photos in the Caraway set on
flickr. This dual AC unit is unexpected, I was told the AC unit would be a singular unit capable of two zones.

Friday May 6th, 2005

Sing It!

Last night while trying to get Hailey to go to sleep she told me to sing the bumblebee song. I told her I didn’t know what that was so I couldn’t sing it. Hailey decided to sing it to me. She started, I’m bringing home a baby bumblebee, and then stopped.

Your hands! My hands? Your hands, she said cupping hers together. Oh, I said, you want me to do my hands like yours? Yes, she started singing again, I’m bringing home a baby bumblebee, won’t my mommy be so proud of me.

She stopped, clapped, and said yeah. She looked at me and said, “Clap!” So I clapped and said yeah. We then repeated singing the bumblebee song for the next hour, or so it seems.

Thursday April 21st, 2005

Even The Dog Listens

Hailey’s powers are mind numbing. She has managed to teach the dog to obey her. She took an ice-cube out of her cup, Natasha loves ice-cubes, Hailey doesn’t, and ordered Natasha to “Sit down.” Natasha put her head down and then, sat. She even lifted up her paw in the shake hands position.

Hailey made Natasha sit three or four times before finally giving her the ice-cube.

Thursday March 17th, 2005

Our House

Yesterday a Realtor called to say that someone wanted to view our house between six and eight. I rushed home after work and cleaned up so it would be presentable. I put Natasha outside turned on some lights and went with Brianna and Hailey to have diner at Chuy’s with Brianna’s Moms.

When we came home, we couldn’t tell if anybody had been there. Hopefully this will be the first of many visitors and somebody will buy the place.

Thursday February 17th, 2005

Plum Creek

Brianna announced that we may be getting a new house so I guess it is OK to post pictures.

See the Plum Creek set.

Thursday December 2nd, 2004

Family Pictures of Roscoe

The day before the funeral, I was conscribed into service as the scanner operator. I scanned a few family photographs for the picture montage. Using the wonders of a satellite internet connection, I copied them to the dustyjones.com server so I could share them with you. With time, we may get them organized better.

See the Roscoe Conoley set.

Friday November 26th, 2004

Roscoe’s Obituary

Meredith wrote an obituary for Roscoe that occupied 1/6th of the obituary page in the paper.

Roscoe Ronald Conoley Jan. 17, 1925 – Nov. 22, 2004

Roscoe Conoley, age 79, died at his home Monday November 22 after an extended illness.

Roscoe was born on January 17, 1925, in rural Milam County to Francis R. Conoley and Cordelia M. (Beard) Conoley. He was the fifth child of what would be six born to the Conoleys. At the time of his birth and until the last son was born, Roscoe was thought to be the late Conoley child and was nicknamed “Baby” by the family and this is how he would be known from then on.

He was preceded in death by his parents, one sister Nell, two brothers Alexander (Alec) Hamilton and Eugene (Ken) Kenyon, and one son Ronald (Ronnie) Craig Conoley.

He is survived by his wife of 57 years Gladys (Marie) Conoley, three children, son Francis (Frank) Michael Conoley, his wife Pat and daughter Shannon of Mulberry, Florida, daughter Sanna L. Conoley, her partner Elizabeth of Thorndale, Texas, her son Eric Burke and daughter Brianna (Burke) Jones of Austin, Texas, a son Meredith Conoley, his wife Lisa and daughters Jill and Amy of Round Rock, Texas.

He is also survived by his brother, Rufus K. Conoley, his wife Nadine of Houston, and brother Ralph M. Conoley and his wife Helen of Silver Springs, Maryland. The legacy of Roscoe will live on through seven grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

Born from the Great Depression in tough rural conditions, Roscoe was taught the early lessons of hard work, honesty, and determination by his parents and siblings. Though times were tough the family was fortunate to have a unique blend of toughness and good natured spirit to get through the hard times by building a treasure chest of stories work and play to share with the later generations.

As a member of what would become “The Greatest Generation,” Roscoe headed the call of his counter in 1944 and joined the Allied troops in Europe as part of the 101st Cannon Company in France and Germany. Roscoe received the Purple Heart for wounds received during battle in France in 1945.

After the war Roscoe returned to Texas and enrolled at The University of Texas in Austin where he graduated in 1950 with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Mathematics. It was during this time that he met his wife-to-be, Marie Young, on a blind date. This blind date carried on to marriage on August 30, 1947. The next 57 years were full of joy and challenges and passed all too fast.

Roscoe and Marie returned to Thorndale in 1950 to be closer to Roscoe’s aging parents. Roscoe served as the Rural Letter Mail Carrier for the Thorndale area for 31 years. During this time he was also a bookkeeper of C.A. Forbes and Co.

Roscoe believed in serving the community for the greater good. Never was this more demonstrated than in his efforts with other community leaders to lead the desegregation of the Thorndale school district that culminated in the building of a new High School Complex in 1966. This was a very difficult time for the Community but Roscoe worked with many others to bring this transition through in a peaceful manner not seen elsewhere. Thorndale ISD and the community at large became a model for others to follow.

Upon retirement from the U.S. Postal Service in 1989 Roscoe continued his community involvement by accepting the position of City Manager for Thorndale. Following his belief that good health starts by taking care of “what comes in and goes out” he developed and administered projects to provide a modern sewage treatment facility for Thorndale and secured water rights and improvements to the water transportation network to ensure a long-lasting safe water supply. Roscoe retired from the City of Thorndale in 2000.

Though Roscoe believed in hard work, and you would often find him behind a push mower taking care of his two acre yard, he equally enjoyed having fun and the company of friends and family. He leaves behind a tremendous volume of stories, anecdotes, and sayings that he shared with all who had the great fortune to know him. He loved spending his free time with friends, family, and especially his grandchildren. His local golfing group will sorely miss the times spent on the gold course followed by enjoying Roscoe’s favorite pastime – having a cold beer after a hot round of golf.

The family would like to express their sincere and heartfelt thanks to everyone who stopped by, called, wrote letters, and provided so much comfort and love during this very difficult time. We would extend a special thank you to a group of incredibly caring and wonderful folks at Lone Star Hospice, especially Carol and Jan.

A memorial service conducted by the Rev. Don Elrod will be held a Condar Funeral Home in Taylor, Texas at 2:00 p.m., Saturday November 27th, Honorary pallbearers, Ricky Melde, Floyd Zuehlke Jr., Robert Lindermann, Ted Westerman II, Wynn D. Scruggs, W. E. “Bill” Burke III, Joel Wilkerson. A celebration of Roscoe’s life will follow at the Thorndale Senior Center. In lieu of flowers, Roscoe requested donations to Thorndale Cares, Lone Start Hospice, or the charity of your choice.

Monday November 22nd, 2004

Roscoe Conoley 1925-2004

The sky is gray, cold, damp, and wet. It has been raining for hours. The roads are flooded, the fields are muddy, and the tank is overflowing. We pulled up to the house and see the black hearse in the driveway. Inside two men strugle as they try to move Roscoe from the bed. Brianna rushes by to give him a kiss on the forehead and to tell him goodbye one last time. He is just two months shy of 80 years old.

Just 271 days ago, it was February and everything was going well. Hailey was learning to walk and was recovering from the respiratory problems she had in December and January. On the 25th we learned some very bad news. There was something in Roscoe’s lung. It could be Tuberculoses or a tumor. Roscoe, given the choice between Tuberculoses and lung cancer, hoped for lung cancer.

He was our emergency baby sitter. Whenever Hailey was sick and couldn’t go to daycare, we could make a call, at any hour, and Roscoe would be on his way. He had been watching Hailey and didn’t want to be responsible for giving his great granddaughter Tuberculoses.

Hailey didn’t get Tuberculoses. Roscoe didn’t have it to give it to her. He had lung cancer. Brianna took the news hard. I had to go and pick her up at work that day.

Roscoe was a very active man. He worked in his garden and mowed his enormous yard, with a traditional walk behind lawnmower, each week of the summer until this last one. I tried it only once. It was too much work for me. I had to use the tractor to be as efficient. As the cancer spread, he could no longer be active. He couldn’t pick up Hailey, he couldn’t stand, even sitting became painful.

Hailey loved this man. When she sees someone with gray hair she says papa. When she sees his house she screams papa and wants to go inside. I hope that as she grows older she remembers him and how much he cared for her.

The two men put Roscoe’s body onto the stretcher and push it out the front door. They are hampered as they try to get out the door. They struggle to get around the corner. Once outside, they fight with the muddy ground before finally getting into the hearse.

Godspeed Roscoe we love and will miss you.

Wednesday October 13th, 2004

Garbage Disposals

Garbage disposals are nasty. If they jam, you can be sure they will jam when full of bits of food that you didn’t want. Normally when you need to ‘fix’ a garbage disposal, you only need to free whatever is jamming the rotor. This is often accomplished using the handle of a broom. The idea is to move the rotor with the broom handle and free whatever was obstructing the motion.

If you own the Whirlpool GC2000 that has been jammed by the ingestion of a small aquarium rock, the broom handle method may not work. In that situation you may use a 9/16 inch socket on an extension to turn the rotor. This is a better method than the broom handle because your torque is applied directly to the rotor. Be careful not to over-torque the ratchet or you may destroy the pipe that connects the garbage disposal to the sink drain. In some installations this is all that counteracts the torque you will apply to the rotor.

Do not fear a broken pipe. A 12 inch version can be purchased at Lowe’s for the paltry sum of $2.10. The drive is short and uneventful, but if the only reason you are at home is because your daughter had a fever and a cold, your daughter may not enjoy the ride. In fact, your daughter may not enjoy your lack of attention while you try to unmount, unjam, and reattach the garbage disposal while playing with her. Your sick daughter, if you have one, may want to play in the nasty bits of food you dumped into the garbage can or the plumber’s putty that you had in the garage.

I don’t know this from experience or anything, I was just thinking what if.

Friday March 19th, 2004

Not So Much

Brianna and I took Thursday and Friday off. We wanted to complete the yard work.

Our plan was to buy the supplies and get most of the work done before the weekend. Instead, we ended up running errands most of the day. The pets went to the vet, this required separate cars since Natasha would make an appetizer of Gizmo. My car was dropped off twice, once for tires and once for a state inspection. We went by Lowes and bought plants, we still need more mulch.

While waiting for my car to get its inspection, we stopped by Toys R Us and bought Hailey a “SwingAlong(TM) Castle.” We had to select by looking at the box and guessing the maximum size that would fit in Brianna’s car. I think this is as big a box that can ever go back there. The box claimed twenty minute assembly, I think it took us about half an hour. Hailey really loves climbing on this thing. For her it is always over, not around.

Monday March 15th, 2004

Toil, and More Toil

Friday morning, four cubic yards of dirt are delivered to my driveway. I drove home for lunch and put plastic sheeting on the dirt so I could have topsoil and not mud.

On Friday night we met my parents in South Austin for some Chinese buffet. Our main mission was to borrow my dad’s truck in exchange for Hailey so we could get some yard work done.

Hailey enjoyed the Chinese place but not for the food. There was so much going on around her that she couldn’t concentrate on food. First, there was a man behind us in a cowboy hat. Hailey couldn’t stop staring at him and his family. Then, the waiter brought Hailey a helium filled balloon that she played with until she knocked over my mom’s tea glass. Hailey was brave enough to try a California roll but she didn’t like the rice.

Once we had the truck Brianna and I made our first of at least four trips to the home improvement warehouse. On our first night we bought: gloves, landscape edging, six bags of mulch, air conditioning filters, trash bags, a water filter for the refrigerator, and a new solid rubber tire for my wheelbarrow.

On Saturday morning we woke up early and went back to the home improvement warehouse to buy plants and shrubs and more mulch. We also got started on the yard. At about one or two it started raining and we had to call it a day. So we went to get Hailey from my parent’s house.

On Sunday morning we pawned Hailey off on Sanna and Elizabeth and we got back to work. We had planned on doing the front and back yards but could barely finish with just the front. By Sunday mid-morning we were back at the home improvement warehouse to buy more plants, and more mulch. We finished with the front yard and I started the very hard task of moving the remaining dirt to the back yard. Nightfall prevented my from finishing.

On Monday morning while I was at work Hailey coned her Great Grandfather Roscoe and Great Uncle Ralph into moving the rest of dirt into the back yard.

As you can see from the before and after pictures, the yard looks good.

Remodeling the Yard

See the Remodeling the Yard, March 2004 set.

Tuesday March 9th, 2004

On the Farm

On the farm there are cows, chickens, a cat, and a dog. There is a pond, or a fish tank. There are no ducks. I saw a post in the local newsgroups about young female ducks for $15. I decided that my mom and dad need some ducks to go on that farm.

The post described these ducks as young runner ducks. They didn’t require a pond. They only needed a fresh supply of drinking water. Further correspondence revealed that the ducks were social animals and that I should consider getting at least three so the ducks wouldn’t be lonely. I arranged for four ducks, all female, and all younger so we won’t have to worry about eggs for a while.

When my mom first brought chickens home the chicks were small, about the size of a hamster. All ten would easily fit in a small moving box. My duck provider said these ducks were younger, she said they would fit in a cat carrier. Naturally, I thought I knew what a duck looked like, Hailey’s bathroom has rubber duckies all over the place. All ducks are small, yellow and squeak if you squeeze them.

The plan: pick up the ducks after work, go by the house and get Brianna and Hailey, drive out to the farm and drop off the ducks.

Reality: the ducks are bigger than I expected. They are the size of our cat with a much longer neck. Two ducks will just fit into a banker box. Rubber bands must be used to make sure the ducks don’t push off the lid. Both banker boxes fit on the back seat of my car safely snuggled between the side panel and the car seat.

The ducks look like the ducks in the illustrations of the children’s book The Story About Ping except they are not yellow. There are two dark green ducks, and two mostly white ducks. They have long necks, large wings, and webbed feet. I do not think these ducks can fly. The ducks are quite vocal when they are unhappy. The ducks were very unhappy to be stuck in a dark banker box in the back of the car. Ducks smell badly. Imagine the smell of the penguin cage at the zoo. Now imagine that my car has just become the penguin cage. I rolled down all the windows, called Brianna and told her she would have to meet me. I’m going straight to the farm.

It is now 4:50 pm, I am at 183 and Mopac. I need to go south, way south.I have smelly, loud ducks, a stick shift, open windows, and traffic. Mopac isn’t moving. From the back of my car I hear quack-quack-quack, NPR and and the AC on max seems to calm them down a little. After an hour of bumper to bumper, stop and go traffic, and quack-quack-quack, I am in South Austin and can finally accelerate out of 2nd gear. I am confident that any minute the ducks will break free from their containers and I will have to fend for my life at 60 MPH on highway 290. I reach back and put my laptop across the two lids just in-case.

At the farm we arrange to use one of the chicken coops as a new duck home. I spread some hay in the corner for a roost, we put some food and water down and then let the ducks out of the boxes. They are not hurt but they are not happy either. They walk together in a mob. They look like penguins or bowling pins or a mixture of both.

After about five minutes of quack-quack-quack the alpha rooster, who looks like “little Jerry Seinfeld” comes strutting from the back of the yard to the front of this duck coop to investigate. He struts back and forth with frequent cock-a-doodle-doos. The ducks do not seem impressed.

In theory, Sassy is a dog. She barks and she chews on bones. In reality she is about the size of a 5lb bag of sugar or a medium sized city sewer rat. She thinks that she rules the yard. She came running over to see the ducks as soon as she heard the quacking. She would look through the fence from the front, then run around to look through the fence from the back. I can’t wait to see how she acts when the ducks are turned loose to roam the yard.As night fall approached and “little Jerry Seinfeld” deemed the situation was safe, the other chickens began to come near the ducks.Eventually as it got darker the chickens went to their coop which is on the back side of the duck coop and settled in for the night.

The ducks found their water and their food and seemed happy. Once again it was quite in the country

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