Posts Tagged southeast texas
River trip part 4
This update was supposed to be in 2 parts. The first part was supposed to be doing some maintenance to the boat, such as fixing some broken rivets. The second part was supposed to be taking the boat out on the river to make sure is running ok, and to to use a GPS to see how fast the boat can travel down the river.
Well, the boat never made it to the river.
The front of the boat has a deck that is held in place with rivets. Over the years of walking on the deck the rivets have slowly pulled lose or broken.
Replacing the rivets
Use a drill bit the size of the rivet, drill through the middle of the rivet, the head should come loose.
Use a punch or drift pen to drive out the middle of the rivet.
If the rivet does not want to drive out, use the drill to drill it out.
Insert new rivet into the hole.
Use a rivet gun to secure the rivet.
River trip part 3
When planning a trip like a 100+ mile river / camping trip, its important to test your gear. Part of the testing phase is making sure your boat is in good running order. The purpose of todays trip was to test the boat to make sure it was in good running order.
A few weeks ago I put the boat in for repairs. During a recent camping trip a bolt fell out of the gear shifting lever, the water pump impeller has never been changed, and the spark plugs were looking a little old, the oil in the lower unit had never been changed and there was a short in the starter button.
Trip to the shop
I brought the boat to a local boat repair place. the service guy was told what I wanted, I even had him go out to the boat and take a look at something I wanted fixed.
River trip part 2
For those of you that have not read River Trip Part 1, please do so. After talking to my buddy about the boat launches I went and looked at on my first trip, he sent me an email with what was supposed to be a boat launch just south of the dam on Toledo Bend dam.
The plan for Sunday was for my wife and I to make a trip to Toledo Bend dam. There are two roads on each side of the river on the south side of the dam where the Sabine river starts. The goal is to see if there a feasible boat launch.
What I found on the trip on each side of the river were steep banks, and no real boat launch. There is a place where a pipeline crosses the river. On the Texas side of the river, it looks like bags of cement were placed on the bank to stop erosion. The bank is so steep that it would be dangerous to carry a boat and boat down the bank.
Comparing the banks at the Toledo Bend dam to the other boat launches:
From my house, its plus or minus a few miles, its 50 miles from my house to the dam at Toledo Bend
The banks dam are very, very steep. I would consider the banks so steep that it would be unsafe to a boat and motor down the bank.
River Trip Part 1
For around 14 years or so, a couple of my buddies and I have been talking about making a river trip from the northern part of the Sabine river, all the way to the Orange / Bridge city area. If everything goes according to plan, we will be making the trip sometime in 2012. The trip is currently in the planning phase – we talking about what boats we want to bring, where we are going to launch the boats at, who is going to be going on the trip,,, just stuff like that.
There are two boat launches in the Bon Wier Texas / Merryville Louisiana area that we are looking at using. On Sunday January 15, 2012 my wife and I made a trip to the boat launches to see if it was feasible to launch at either one.
Sunday morning started off bright and when my wife and I crawled out of bed around 8:45am. After getting our shower and having some breakfast, it was finally time to get one the road. We stopped at a local corner store to picked up some snacks, bought a sunday paper for the coupons, then it was to wal-mart to get some gas. If you use the wal-mart gift card, you save 3 cents a gallon on gasoline. A few days before hand, my wife put $40 on a gift card. When we stopped at the super wal-mart in Jasper I put the whole $40 in my truck.
After gassing up, and getting some snacks, it was finally time to get on the road. My wife and I left Jasper heading west on HWY 190 towards Newton. At Newton, we passed over HWY 87, then turned south on HWY 190.
Holy crap its hot
And not only is it hot, its dry. Its not that “oh, we did not get any rain in the past week” kinda dry, its like “we are in a SERIOUS kind of drought” type of dry.
Where is the rain?
Our lakes dry up, and no rain falls.
Our creeks dry up, and no rain falls.
Our crops wither away, and no rain falls.
Our tree sheds their leaves and start to die, and still no rain falls.
Back in February 2011 my kids and I went to the Bug Out Location and planted some trees. the trees included some oak trees, a plum tree and a peach tree. One of the oak trees had been grown from an oak that fell from the tree in my front yard. When the oak tree was planted, it might have been maybe 5 years old.
Over the past 6 months my family and I have been making trips to the camp to make sure the trees have been getting plenty of water. Well, over the past few weeks it looked like we had been getting some rain at the camp, so I did not bother checking on the trees. The problem is, the rain was a little of nothing.
August 20, 2011 my wife and I go to check on the trees, and they were in bad shape. Most of the leaves had turned brown and fallen off. There were a few green leaves, but not many. My wife and I put 2 gallons of water on the tree, waited about 30 – 45 minutes, and then put 2 more gallons on the tree.
Video about climate change and long term survival plans.
Thinking about the 2011 – 2012 hunting season
We are on the final 3 month countdown to the start of hunting season here in Texas. Bow season starts in October, and rifle season starts the first weekend in November. How is the season going to turn out? I have no idea.
My new rifle, a DS Arms SA58 FN/FAL needs a scope. Even though the shots are only about 75 – 100 yards, in the late evening light the sights seem to just fade away. I thought about getting some tritium sights, but for the price of the tritium sights I could get a scope. If the price between the new sights and a scope is “about” the same, why not get a scope. Before I could mount a scope on my FN/FAL, first I had to install a new scope mount, which worked out well.
Hunting season is my favorite time of year, the weather turns off cool, we get a break from the Texas heat, bugs go away, leaves on the trees turn colors and fall to the ground.
There is just something about winter time that can not be described, the quiet and peacefulness of the woods and the wind blowing through the trees. Summer is nice, but I think winter has a certain beauty about it that summer can not touch.
Texas February 2011 Ice Storm
To the northern states this might not be a big deal, but here in Southeast Texas, we are not used to dealing with this kind of stuff.
The overpasses around the Beaumont, Port Arthur and Orange areas are frozen over. Some of our bridges are closed – like the Veterans memorial bridge and the Rainbow Bridge.
The tarp that covers my boat has a thin lay of ice on it, and were rain water has collected, its frozen
The majority of the local court houses and schools are closed.
But for some reason Jasper ISD did not close their schools and are putting kids on the icy roads. Maybe its time to elect a new school board.
Ice cycles off the roof of the storage building are maybe 1 – 1.5 inches long and growing.
Its not expected to get above freezing until tomorrow.
Texas rolling blackouts
Around February 1st a major cold front pushed through much of the US. Estimates put about 1/3 of the total population has been affected in one way or another – including Texas. Parts of North Texas may receive cold weather from time to time. But for the most part, our winters might be in the…
November 20th 2010 hunting trip
Friday evening my kids and I talked about if we wanted to go hunting Saturday morning and Saturday evening, or just Saturday evening. The agreement was made to go just Saturday evening – in part because we had a birthday party to go to at noon.
Saturday morning rolls around, we sleep a little late, get up, get our morning shower and breakfast. From there we started getting ready for my grandsons 2nd birthday party.
Behind the library in Jasper, Texas there is a fenced in park with 2 covered areas, bathroom and a play ground. Its a nice place for the family to have a birthday party, or just take the small kids to go play. The whole are is fenced in, so you don’t have to worry about the smaller kids leaving the park.
Everything went well at the party, I brought along a small grill to cook hot dogs – so we had cookie cake, cake and hot dogs to eat.
Around 1 pm or so we loaded up and headed back home. Between 1pm and 2:30 I played some Left 4 Dead 2.
Deer lease in Southeast Texas
If you live in the Southeast Texas area, and if your looking to get on a hunting lease, I just happen to know of a lease looking for members. Cost – $900 per year Off deer season – access to over 5,000 acres During deer season – each person has their area to hunt on,…
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