Texas Pond Side

We celebrated Thanksgiving with our families, including Keith's parents from Crystal River, FL. We are extremely glad that they were able to travel to spend time with us. We have a lot to be thankful for, especially for our health and for our families. We have a new member to our family - Kasey, a chocolate standard poodle with amber-colored eyes. We hosted some children from a Uganda orphan's choir in October while they visited our church. We have some new Fall photos to share with you.

Wei Wei had cholecystectomy to remove her gall bladder in October. Here is a chronicle to her ordeal. She has healed nicely and is back to 100%. Thank you to everyone who prayed for her surgery and recovery, especially the Zweiaker bible study class at Messiah and our families!

During Spring break we visited Aunt Margie and Uncle Ron in Orlando and Mom and Dad in Crystal River. It also snowed in March, and in April we had several tornados touch down in and near the Dalls/Fort Worth area. God looked over us - we didn't suffer any damage or injury, but it was scary enough to send us to our downstairs closet. We have been busy planting Knockout roses, trees, and a victory garden of vegetables. The idea of a victory garden intrigued us because we learned that this was actually a WWII concept. It appealed to our sense of being self-sufficient, though we will be far from it, and to our sense of being green. I don't think you can be more ecologically-friendly than to harvest vegetables right from your backyard!

A's Creative Writing Corner - A's selected writings can be found here. It's a celebration of words, ideas and imagination.

2008 is the year of the rat! In the beginning of December, at Canton's First Monday Market, we got our sixth dog - Kona, another Great Pyrenees. Kona (named after the Hawaiian town of coffee fame) was 5 weeks old and 4.5 pounds. Less than two months later, Kona grew to 30 pounds! Kona likes to follow Koda, our one-year old Great Pyrenees, around to learn the ropes of surveying the property and looking for breaches of the property line. It is so cute to see both of them together playing and running in the field. It has been said that two Great Pyrenees can take down a bear! With the sightings of mountain lions in this area, we will feel more secure when our property is guarded by Koda and Kona.

Keith's sister, Kathy, and her family came to visit us for Thanksgiving and we had a good time spending a few precious days with Kathy, Ned and Kendra. We visited Southfork Ranch and Fossil Rim. Kathy loved the ostriches! :)

In August we vacationed on the Big Island of Hawaii and had a wonderful time. We stayed at the Hilton Waikoloa for the first part of our stay there, which was located on the Northwest part of the island. We then stayed South of Hilo near Kea'au on the Southeast side of the island. These are two very different regions - one desert-like with lava fields and the other tropical with waterfalls and lush green gardens. We swam in geothermally-heated pools playing tag with fish, snorkeled in tidal pools filled with fish and corals, went horseback riding on Parkers Ranch (the world's largest ranch), saw the sun set on the horizon and gazed at stars from the peak of Mauna Kea (at over 13,700 ft.), walked around the rim where violent volcanic eruptions occurred, and flew in a helicopter over the Pu'u O'o, the lava flow vent of the Kilauea Volcano (the lava currently is flowing inland rather than to sea). The threat of Hurricane Flossie, earthquakes, and tsunami didn't dampen and, luckily, affect our plans. God was watching over us! I think this was a perfect vacation and a great hurrah for the kids before school started.

Michael visited us from Michigan Lotus Beads^TMis Wei Wei's jewelry design business. Lotus Beads designs use natural stones with a wide range of colors and patterns (turquoise, jasper, tiger eye, garnet, amethyst, lemon and lime quartz, smoky quartz, rose quartz, rutilated quartz, citrine, carnelian, chrysoprase, aventurine, agate, amazonite, etc.), coral, and pearls in a creative way. I would be happy to arrange a trunk show for you and your friends if you are in the Dallas metroplex. Custom design is also available. You will be amazed at how many compliments you get for your new necklace. For information please call Wei Wei at 469-878-8643 or email texas.pondside@verizon.net.

North Texas had a very wet Spring and Summer 2007. Everything is very green and lush, but all the bugs are also very happy, especially the mosquitoes and the chiggers. This year's total is well over 30 inches, which far exceeds the past two years' rainfall totals.

A has advanced to the state science fair with her project! Although she didn't place at the state science fair, we are still so proud of her! Her project was titled The Intelligence of Fish.

Spring is here! The bradford pears, redbuds and forsythias bloomed beautifully this year. Now the Texas mountain laurels, wisterias, grape hyacinths, and lady banksia roses are in full bloom. Everywhere you see is green, the shade of young leaves that is so soothing to the eye and peaceful to the heart. We planted even more trees - bur oaks, Chinese pistachios, shantung maples, live oaks, redbuds, and cedar elms. More bushes were also planted - sweet brooms, Chinese fringe flower, sweet olives, and knock out roses. Everything has come to life, and unfortunately that also means that weeds are also out in full force, so we are also busy plucking out weeds of all kinds.

A new addition to the family zoo! Koda is an adorable Great Pyrenees who joined our zoo in December 2006. We wanted a Great Pyrenees because this breed can stay with livestock and fend off predators. In July 2006 we lost our emu baby, Sapphire, and on January 29, 2007 we lost our rat terrier, Pepper, to what we think is a bobcat. We wanted a dog that would not harm our chickens and peacocks but would be able to keep predators at bay. In less than three months Koda doubled his weight and is now taller than Cookie, our standard poodle. We've read that the males of this breed may reach 120 lbs. Koda has a very deep bark that resonates and travels very far. Unfortunately, this breed is very verbal and Koda likes to bark at night. We are hoping that he becomes more discerning as to what he should bark at and what is just normal noises of the night. We are also learning to live with fur that is not on the body of the dog but is sticking to our clothes. One of Koda's hobbies is to pull up newly planted trees and shrubs. With the addition of Koda, all of our dogs now boast a French origin (Poodles and Great Pyrenees).

We visited Chicago in November 2006. A highlight was visiting the Natural History Museum and seeing Sue. We also ate at the same Chinese restaurant in Chinatown almost every night because we really liked the food. We also sampled the local favorite - Gino's deep dish pizza. Although short, we had a great time in Chicago.

Jack, a green winged macaw, joined our household when he was five-week old in July 2006. We named him after Jack Sparrow of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. Here is his goofy picture when he was a baby. We hand fed Jack until November 2006. Jack loves getting scratches on his head and under his wings. He also likes to snuggle. Jack has a red head, red chest, red shoulders, a green band on the wings (blue on top and red on the underside of the wings) and turquoise blue back, darker blue wings and a tail that is blue and red. Jack loves almonds, eggs and rice. He likes to climb down from his stand to our lap to share our dinner, especially if dinner includes rice. If he is in a playful mood, he will roll over on his back and try to grab fingers that stray into the vicinity of his claws. Once a finger is grabbed, then it goes into his very sharply pointed beaks.

We spent the Fourth of July 2006 with Keith's family on Lake Douglas in Eastern Tennessee. It was great to see everyone in the Mantey family. We also had fun water skiing, tubing, white water rafting, horseback riding, shooting off a variety of firecrackers every night, and visiting the Forbidden Caverns. We also managed to squeeze in a visit to Arkansas' Crater of Diamonds State Park to try our luck at diamond mining and with Keith's Uncle Elmer in Memphis on the way.

Our peacocks Apollo and Zahara have been out of the cage and living in our garden, however, Zahara's attempt to lay and sit on her eggs has resulted in her death. She disappeared and never came back. We suspect a coyote or bobcat may have killed her. The peacocks have become less timid and would get very close to us in search of tasty morsels. Every morning they peered into our windows to see when Keith will come out to give them handfuls of treats. They are curious birds and they like to inspect everything closely. They roost on the shade structure over the patio that Keith built, but occasionally they will fly up on the roof and take a stroll inspecting our rooftop. Little Baby Zathura is doing well and now full grown. We now also have a pair of white peacocks, Atlas and Zuri. In late 2006 we also added two young peahens to our flock, Zaza and Zara. Zaza is an Indian Blue peahen and Zara is a white peahen.

Wei Wei got the crazy idea that emus would be great additions to the menagerie. Keith was the Head Egg Turner and after 50 days Sapphire was hatched. Sapphire was adorable and fun to watch. He had a crazy running posture that looked like he left his head behind trailing at the end of a long neck. He loved being hosed down with the water hose. Sapphire was born March 2006. We had to leave him at home with the other animals for Keith's family reunion. Sapphire was attacked by what we think is a bobcat and he was killed (we have spotted the bobcat since we came home and we resolved to trap and relocate the bobcat). We were all devastated and saddened by Sapphire's death. We have become so accustomed to hearing his emu baby peeps....

Patio for the side yard The major construction in the yard has been completed - wrought iron fencing with stone columns, flagstone walkways around the koi pond, two patios and two arbors. The fence and the gates are beautiful and really enhance the beauty and integrity of our property. Everything turned out beautifully and really added architectural structures and shade to the yard. The new mail box that Keith designed and built is functional, sturdy and beautiful. Our old mailbox was wiped out by a truck that ran into it and flipped over as a result (the driver passed out).

We are thankful to Christ our Lord for our family, our good health, and God's many blessings on us. We are grateful for our new house that will enable us to create our little garden of Eden and give us more room to stretch.

God Bless America

Visitors since July 1998

Email us at texas.pondside@verizon.net