Cold Spell Gone

 We had a few nights of 18 degree weather a couple of weeks ago. This was an unusual event for this part of Texas. It was accompanied by a few days of power outages. This wouldn't have been a problem up home, but here the water pipes are not buried very deep or insulated. We did some last minute preparation on the refuge plumbing but still ended up with some broken pipes in a couple of the buildings. We had our fresh water tank full in the motorhome and ran the generator for a few days until power came back on to stay, so we were luckier than many people in their houses.

The refuge had a couple of kiosks like this for posting informative signs. They were getting old a rotten and Kent and I were given the task of removing and replacing them. A few days work for each 

A few days work for each of them and this is what the new ones looked like.

Last Saturday we went out to some garage sales and ended up in Angleton, TX at lunch time. We tried out a Mexican restaurant there that we hadn't been to before. Food and service was great and I would highly recommend La Cosona. 

We have a couple of small alligators who live in the pond by the entrance gate here. Sometimes one or the other of them hang out on the dock.

There is another pond behind the shop here. We sometimes see a large alligator in here, but on this day we saw turtles!

A closer look. They looked to be about 3 foot across. The bright green on their backs is algae from the surface of the water. 

Driving around the refuge, we can usually find a few of these big fellows.

This area usually has a bunch of small ones like these.

Can you see the little ones here?

We watched the little ones for awhile and then the mom stuck her head out of the culvert.