Case comes for a Short Visit- Kody's Fish

Swimmers having fun

Kody performing his world famous "butt buster" for Nanny & Case

Kody & Case playing on the couch

Kody with a Sand Bass he caught Monday

Joey had an outpatient procedure done on Thursday so Mel drove over to Fort Worth, picked up Case and she, Case and Kody went to Hurricane Harbor and spent the day. They came back to the lake and out for a boat ride-swim we went.

Kim, Ryan, Kody, Josh & Stef

Stef and I

Josh catching his dad with a fish net

Kody driving the boat

On our way back from Colorado last week, we stopped off in Amarillo, grabbed the grandsons and headed back to the lake for their summer visit. Lots of swimming, boating, fishing, eating and visiting ensued. Stef made her 4th summer visit in five years- not bad for a college student from Belgium--- here's a few shots...

Ctiy Awarded Police Officer from "Obama Dollars"

I have spent a considerable amount of time this spring and summer chasing the American Recovery and Reinvestment Funds and that chase paid off Tuesday as the Department of Justice announced the City will be able to hire a police officer, paid for by "stimulus" funds.

West Tawakoni was one of 31 Texas law enforcement agencies awarded funds to replace police officers who were laid off by budget cuts. In a locally controversial move last summer, our City Council eliminated two city staff position, one of them a police officer.

Here is a story from today's Greenville Herald Banner...

West Tawakoni to receive federal funds

By DANIEL WALKER
Herald-Banner Staff

WEST TAWAKONI — The City of West Tawakoni has been awarded $117,000 under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

West Tawakoni was the only Hunt County entity to be awarded funding by the program. “We’re real excited. This is going to make a big difference in the community,” said West Tawakoni city administrator Cloy Richards. “We’ve been chasing those Obama stimulus grant dollars all summer and we finally got one.”

The Obama administration on Tuesday announced $1 billion in grants nationwide to help keep police officers on the beat during the economic downturn. The aid announced by Vice President Joe Biden and Attorney General Eric Holder was highly sought after. For every $1 to be delivered, another $7 in requests were unfunded under the grant program, Community Oriented Policing Services, commonly called COPS.

“We figured we only had a 12 and a half percent chance of being funded. We are tickled to death that the City of West Tawakoni was able to obtain a slice of the stimulus pie,” Richards added.

West Tawakoni, which currently has four police officers, had been forced to eliminate a police officer position during the 2007-08 fiscal year due to budget shortfalls Richards said and the money will put that officer back on the streets.

“We had been running a deficit and had no way to fund an officer,” Richards explained. “It upset quite a few members of the community,but we had no choice. This will get us back to nearly full staff.”

Richards said the city can hire the fifth police officer immediately and he expects the city to act quickly. The grant will fund the officer position — including pay, healthcare, retirement and benefits — for three years with the city responsible for the fourth year.

“As excited as I am about the grant, I’m a little overwhelmed by the grant owner’s manual I just downloaded, it’s 81 pages long,” Richards added.

According to the Department of Justice, West Tawakoni’s application was ranked 18th of the 385 Texas entities that applied for funding. Thirty-one entities in Texas were approved and 196 new officers will be hired in the state.

Colorado...

The State Flower of Colorado and one of my favorite wildflowers- the Columbine

Sunset at LaManga Pass

The Cumbres & Toltec train blowing its horn at a crossing (we had Case and Joey on the phone and they heard the whistle loud and clear)

The cookout fire just below Platora

Brookies ready for the camp fire

Melanie Fly Fishing

Me at the Homeowners Park at HORCA named for Dad

Elk Creek is still swolen from runoff

The Conejos Valley from the observation turnout on Highway 17

A welcomed guest to our cookout taken from Elk Creek

Me with the sign for Dad's Mile on Highway 17- Yes Mel and I cleaned it although his friends have been doing a great job of keeping it clean

For eight years, our immediate family shared a lot of memories and good times in Colorado. Mom and Dad bought a house, and, as usual, opened it to everyone they knew and even some they barely knew.

It has been five years since Melanie and I have been to HORCA (located between Chama, NM and Antonito, CO on Colorado Highway 17) and it is an amazing place.

Melanie and I arrived late Saturday afternoon and took the drive up Spruce Hole to take in the view. Sunday we went to the Conejos Community Chapel and connected with a lot of friends mom and dad had there and Sunday afternoon we started fly fishing the creeks and the Conejos River. I don't really count fish but people always ask "how many did you catch". Tuesday morning I was the first one in on the Elk Creek Trailhead so I started from there instead of hiking in, past the other fishermen. In three hours I probably released 35 or so and ended up with the final four small brookies Melanie and I had reserved for a cookout. In two and a half days of fishing, probably 50 trout were caught and all but eight were released. The largest I landed were a pair of 14 inch "twin" rainbows but, as ususal, a nice brown, maybe around 20 inches, got away from me in the fast currents of the Conejos about 75 yards north of the 17 bridge at the end of an S curve in the river. I had him to withing 10 feet or so, but when he saw me, he shot to the main current and we had about a split second standoff, I felt a shake of the head then felt the tippet break.

We drove over 250 miles just in the Conejos Drainage in three and a half days, going back to see all those places where so many happy memories were made. I heard the stories again of how admired my Dad and Mother were and are and what they meant and mean to the people they know.

I hope to return to chase the trout, see the leaves in the fall and just soak in that aroma of pines, camp fires, and clean mountain air.

So, to Robert and Jean, Dan and Martha and a couple of others who welcomed us back- thanks. We hope to see you soon.

(Remember- click the photos to enlarge if you care to do so)

Mel's Here to Stay!

She got word Thursday she has been hired at Bland ISD. It is 35 to 40 minutes from here but it is a lot closer than Midland. WoHoo!

Big Tomato

Recent lake visitors have been enjoying the tomatoes, peppers, squash, zuchini from our small garden but I had to share this very large tomato I picked yesterday. Our tomato plants must love their lakeside home (they are a couple of feet from the water). That is my hand hidden behind the monster.

July 4th Weekend

The Gang Sunday evening

Jana's big sand bass

The new fish cleaning station

The Qualls gang invaded Lake Tawakoni over the weekend. Johnny and Merikay and their four children and nine grandchildren spent the weekend, along with Melanie's dad Fred, his youngest daughter Emily and her friend Emma. We did not have room for everyone so all three trailers at the city park housed a bunch of people.

We had three boats so people spent a lot of time swimming, tubing, wakeboarding and of course there was a gotta catch fresh fish for a fish fry fishing trip. Jana and John caught some big ol sandbass and we got the brand new table pretty bloody as we cleaned 76 sand bass. We fed 32 people fish Saturday and then everyone loaded up boats and headed to Mrs. Stanley's firworks show on the lake.

Sunday we had a barbecue for 20 or so on a new barbecue pit Melanie bought and put together (by herself) for me.

Johnny and his son John built the very cool new fish cleaning table that has running water, electrical outlets and lights. That thing will last forever and is very much appreciated.

It was hectic and Sunday evening some folks that were still around wanted to take a ride out and watch the sunset. I stayed behind and ate some leftovers and just kinda chilled.

We had a good time, no one got hurt (well, a splinter here and a boo boo there) and as usual, the only person who showed inappopriate behaviour was me.