The Joys of Home Ownership,Berry Springs Preserve, the Moon and other musings!

Today, I feel a little like the Godfather felt when he said "Look what they've done to my..." (HOUSE, in my case). 

We've always known we needed to have foundation repairs done to our home, and today the process started.  I didn't realize just how bad things would look after just one day. 

Hopefully, the crews will have finished their work and cleaned up everything by the end of the week.  Poor Henri can't even go outside alone because he'd never get out of the holes if he fell in.  So instead, he has to stay inside curled up under his blanket.  Tough duty. 

Once the foundation work has finished, we plan to have painters in to repair drywall and repaint the interior, then have an overlay placed on the front and back concrete patios.  Then we'll have to try to recover the landscape, then . . . well, like I said, the joys of home ownership!

Next week, I'm looking forward to several days in Oklahoma City, and working with the Oklahoma DOT folks on some heavy equipment training classes we are developing for them.  The week after that, I get to spend a week in San Angelo TX teaching a few safety and environmental classes to the TxDOT folks.  So an eventful few weeks for me coming up. 

BB, Henri and I found a great county park just east of Georgetown this last weekend.  Berry Springs Park and Preserve, for those of you in the area, is on County Road 152 and is well worth your time.  We enjoyed the miles of great hiking trails and the historical background on John Berry and family, one of the early settlers of the Georgetown Area.  Having lived in Georgetown for decades, I've always heard of Berry Creek, but never took the time to appreciate the history of the creek's namesake.

As you might be able to read from the photo, John Berry, as was many of our Texas pioneers, made of sterner stuff and had quite an impact on not only the local community, but the State and beyond.  John had 18 children by three wives.  Part of the marker reads ...

Berry’s oldest sons, Joseph (1811–1842), John Bate (1813–1891), and Andrew Jackson (1816–1899), served in the Republic of Texas Army. All three were Texas Rangers before and after the War for Independence (1836) and in the Battle of Plum Creek (1840). Joseph was the first casualty in the Mier Expedition (1842), and John Bate was in Perote Prison for a year.

A Williamson County pioneer, John Berry settled three miles northeast of Georgetown in 1846. He built a blacksmith and gun shop and a spring-driven grist mill near Berry Creek. Berry had 18 children by his three wives: Betsy Smeathers (d. 1818), daughter of pioneer Texan William Smeathers (Smothers); Gracie Treat (d. 1830); and Hannah Devore (1812–1904). Five sons and three sons-in-law served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War (1861–1865). Berry died at age 80 and was buried near his home. His descendants include a great-grandson, Audie Murphy, the most decorated soldier in American history.

PS:  a good database on historical markers is available at http://www.hmdb.org/

A remarkable legacy, and a great county park to visit in the Georgetown, TX area. John and others of his illustrious family are buried on his family plot at the park, seen behind the flags in the picture below.

One of the things BB and I were looking forward to seeing was the full moon on March 19th.  This particular full moon was called the "super perigee moon," which, due to the slightly elliptical orbit of the Moon around the Earth, places it closest to the earth every 18 years or so.  The Moon at perigee is about 31,000 miles closer to the earth than at apogee.  (How about that; a Camp Wood boy using the words 'perigee' and 'apogee'.)

Anyway, we had clear skies and a pleasant viewing evening, but I found another thing that I am miserable at; taking night-time photographs of the Moon.  See below for what I'm talking about! (Henri was not impressed; he slept through the whole thing.)

Don't NEVER get ME to take a picture of the MOON for you!

So, with thanks to folks who really know what they are doing, and with my apologies for "borrowing" their photo from the web, here's a couple of pictures of the perigee Moon of 3/19/11:

Hope everyone has a great week! Till next time!