New build in South Texas

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Brushpup, a long time ago the Rio Grande had a lot of tributaries that flowed out to the Gulf of Mexico. Resaca’s are natural waterways that still exist today and our lot is along one of those Resaca’s. Today they act as holding areas for runoff of rainwater from Hurricanes and also the city has a piping system that they transfer water from the Rio Grande into various Resaca’s and then to the water treatment plant
 
Melt in the sun.

Believe it or not my wife has made friends with the Nutria. In fact their babies will go up to my wife and tug at her pant legs for some food . We have Egrets and blue herons that nest in the trees at night. Once in a while Pelicans come by to eat some fish out of the Resaca, not to mention the ducks and geese. We are on a migratory path for birds and the population increases twice a year. In fact, we saved one tree so that my wife can still hang her seed baskets. I can’t even tell you how much we spent in retaining wall cost because you would not believe it.

The PB is going to build a ramp so the wildlife (including Nutria) will be able to access their food. Now the trick is to have them go where we want them to go and stay away from other areas of our backyard. By no means am I under any illusion that it’s going to be easy to keep them off the travertine. There are a number of steps I am going to try. They include a fake alligator head that will float in the water and anchored to the bottom, portable sprinkler head with its own water supply that will turn on if the motion sensor detects movement, a fake coyote statue that will scare them and finally two lovable but intimidating great Danes that will chase them.
Long story short, we love the ever changing environment that we are part of.
 
"They include a fake alligator head that will float in the water and anchored to the bottom, portable sprinkler head with its own water supply that will turn on if the motion sensor detects movement, a fake coyote statue that will scare them and finally two lovable but intimidating great Danes that will chase them."


This is awesome
 
Martin - you're going to have to post photos of that when you are all done! We lived outside New Orleans for a while when we were house hunting, checking out the backyard at one house, and walked to the top of the levee and two nutria are sitting there having lunch, never saw my husband move so fast - yelling we're outta here! Obviously after that, houses that backed up to the levee were removed from the list!
 
Nutria generally eat bird seed and are vegetarians. The also love Tortillas. The babies will sit on their hind legs and sit up and beg for them. My wife Diane, enjoys the interaction with them. The population seems to ebb and flow throughout the year.
 

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I spent 2 days in Detroit and another 2 days in NYC and I am finally back. I hate not being here during construction, but I can monitor their progress through our security cameras. I can be anywhere in the world and keep a eye on them. I will be in Brazil next week and am happy with the travertine work so far


this is travertine tiles going on the current patio. Travertine pavers will go every where else

- - - Updated - - -

The pool coping also has been started





They are prepping other areas. Over 3,000 sq/ft in total

 
Man that is a lot of Travertine, and it sure will be nice. My wife wants a Turtle Group, and I think we'll end up with one. Porcelain group, and it will be nice I think. When I get my PC back up, I can send you a link to the best price we found on mosaics if that interests you.
 
Brushpup, Thanks for responding. We already are having something put together in Mexico and it should be on the way. It was one of those decisions were you start to think back and ask yourself if I am going to create other problems or maintenance issues because I didn’t ask the question of people on the forum. Sort of one of those hindsight things.
 
The weather has been bad in South Texas also. The stone for the retaining walls is coming from Oklahoma but is delayed by weather. The patio is finished with travertine. The trench for the perimeter wall on one side is being worked on. More cold and rain expected on Tuesday and Wednesday. There is no way that the PB is going to be done by the end of March. This project started in August of last year.







 

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