Cat castle

We had a bunch of boxes left over from Amber's and Carmen's birthday, so I used them for an idea I'd been thinking about for a while, a cat castle.

It's two stories, with two entrances at the bottom and one at the top. The bottom left entrance goes straight in and leads to stairs that lead to the upper level. The bottom right entrance turns to the right and then turns left to join with the left entrance before the stairs. The stairs go up and to the right, leading to a tunnel that takes you to the balcony entrance.

It's not very pretty, but Pepper has really liked it so far. She is especially fond of hiding in the top-level tunnel and attack our fingers through the holes.

The Great Freeze of 2021

The cold weather that drove us out of Big Bend and brought snow on Amber's and Carmen's birthday ended up being a major winter weather event and national news.

After the snow on the Monday the 15th, we had probably our coldest night ever here, with temperatures into the teens. We had wrapped up our pipes, but even still, we woke up to no water when the pipe leading into the house froze. Thankfully we were able to thaw it using the heat gun, but during the whole process something got clogged in the kitchen sink, so it only has hot water, not cold.

That night was when people all over Texas started losing electricity. The power plants were not winterized enough and started shutting down and lots of people spent days in freezing weather without electricity. This led to many people having pipes burst and flood their homes. Our electricity stayed on for the first, coldest days, but we put the thermostat down low to help conserve and spent several chilly days in the house.

School was changed to online at first, then canceled the whole week because people either couldn't get to school or had no electricity for online school. I was able to work from home, but there were very few people online as many were dealing with power outages and burst pipes. The kids found various ways to entertain themselves. Roblox was a favorite.

On Wednesday night, right after dinner, our power went out in what we assume was a rolling blackout. It had gotten slightly warmer by then, with overnight lows just below freezing, so we were able to turn on the gas fireplace and play some candlelight cards.

The fireplace kept the house reasonably warm all night, but it was still chilly enough that Amber slept in the living room. The power came back on late Thursday morning, then went back out again for a few hours again that evening, so we got to have a candlelight dinner.

Things eventually thawed out, and we were happy to find that besides the clogged kitchen sink, and a few plants in the new front garden that look dead, we came through the great freeze better than many.

Amber's and Carmen's birthday

The cold weather that came at the end of our Big Bend camping trip turned out to be the start of the coldest winter weather we've ever had since we've lived here (more on that later). But Carmen didn't mind, because she woke up to this on her birthday.

We all got bundled up and went out to play in it while it lasted.

There was even enough snow to build Bert the snowman.

It was too cold and frozen to try to go anywhere, but we still had presents to open.

Carmen got some Legos, Itty Bittys, a giant stuffed octopus, Redwall books, and a Mandalorian puzzle, among other things.

Amber got her usual collection of utilitarian requests, including ladles, a coat, and a new kitchen trash can.

But I also like to surprise her a bit, and she got a 3D-printed soap dish for her homemade soaps, and for fun, a unicycle.

Amber wanted a cherry pie, so they had that in lieu of cake.

Big Bend - Part 7 - Boquillas Canyon and Trip Home

We had decided to leave early because of the cold, but there was one more area of the park I wanted to see before we left. We drove to the southeast part of the park to go see Boquillas Canyon, another canyon carved by the Rio Grande.

We first stopped at a little store where we were able to find a souvenir magnet, then drove towards the canyon and stopped at the Rio Grande Overlook. Some people were too cold from the Balanced Rock hike to look, so it was just me and some kids.

We drove on and pulled off just before the canyon at the Boquillas Canyon Overlook to take a closer look at the Carmen mountains.

It was so windy I could barely close the car door, and it was so cold I started having doubts. I could tell no one wanted to go on, so I aborted the plan to hike the canyon, and we turned around and headed back out. As a silver lining, this coyote ran across the road on the way out, and I was able to get this great picture.

In retrospect, it was probably a wise move to get out of there. The weather got progressively colder and rainier, and we received word from Terry that I-10 was frozen, so we took the southern route along the border instead.

We saw some wild pigs on the road (that I would have hit had I not slowed down in time), but mainly it was cold, dark rain. The car said it was about 36 degrees. We stayed in a La Quinta in Del Rio, and were very grateful we were not camping in that mess. Warm showers and warm beds felt very good that night.

We stopped at Crystal's house again on the way back. Amber and I got to go on a little lunch date, and she and Crystal went cowgirl boot shopping.

The next morning, we had to scrape ice off of the van before we could leave, and were once again grateful we hadn't stayed to camp in this weather.

The weather stayed around freezing for much of the drive home, but thankfully the roads were not iced and we made it back safely. (This was all packed in the back of the van.)

Big Bend - Part 6 - Balanced Rock

We'd been monitoring the weather, and as predicted, it changed dramatically overnight, and Thursday morning we woke up to clouds and a few sprinkles of rain.

The temperature was supposed to drop dramatically, and no one wanted to camp in literal freezing weather, so everyone decided to bail and we all packed up our tents and loaded the car, had pancakes for breakfast, then hung out and waited until the road opened up and we could get out.

The Pages hadn't had a chance to go on a hike with us yet, so they went with us to Grapevine Hills Trail, which leads to Balanced Rock. The road to get there is a very rough gravel road, and by the time we got there it was surprisingly windy and cold. We had to quickly grab our coats, hats, and gloves out of the back before we could start the relatively short hike.

The landscape reminded me of southern Utah, lots of red rocks.

The main attraction is the Balanced Rock.

But we had a lot of fun climbing around the area and discovering things, like a tiny arch, and little caves.

The rocks seemed to warp and bend. This was probably my favorite place of the trip.

Big Bend - Part 5 - Emory Peak

Since we were taking a trail near the campsite on Wednesday, we didn't need to beat the road construction and were able to sleep in and have a warm breakfast of Spam and eggs.

We had an ambitious plan ahead to hike about 6 miles and 2400 ft of elevation to the top of the park's highest point, Emory Peak (and of course the 6 miles back!). We loaded up with lots of water, some lunch, and granola bars and headed out on Pinnacles Trail.

There were lots of stairs and rocks and we took lots of breaks on the way up to not wear ourselves out, and to admire the Pinnacles.

As we got higher, we started to get some nice views of the area.

High up the mountain we reached the Emory Peak trailhead and stopped there for a lunch of tuna sandwiches and chips.

We left one of the backpacks in the bear lockers there and headed to the top.

The kids were troopers. It was not an easy hike, but they didn't complain. The last bit of the hike had no trail, just a scramble up the rocks.

And at last we were at the top!

The view was fantastic, of course, and it was a perfect day for it, no clouds and just a little bit chilly at high elevation.

We stayed up there for quite a while, admiring the view, resting, and looking at all the ladybugs.

Eventually, it was time to head back down the mountain.

We took a break at the Emory Peak trailhead where we'd had lunch, and after commenting on how much easier it was going down than up, Amber mentioned that she'd barely felt the backpack (that had been in the bear locker, and not on her back)!

The hike back was considerably easier and took probably a third of the time as the hike up.

We had brought just enough water to last us all, but the kids were worn out (especially poor little Miles) and had sore feet and my knees were hurting by the time we made it back to camp, right as the sun was setting behind the mountains.

It was an ambitious hike, and I wasn't sure how it would go or how the kids would like it, so I was happy to hear, after we'd come home, that it was the unanimous choice for their favorite part of the trip.

That night we had a dinner of rice, beans, and salsa with chips on top, then we were so exhausted that we just went to bed early that night.