The motor that's meant to be

So I've had this idea, for like 10 years, to rig up a little boat for nature photography from the water.

I asked to borrow or buy a little boat from a friend of nearly 25 years. He said I could keep the boat, treat it like my own, etc. I'll give the abbreviated version... I tried several means of motor repair, replacement motor, nothing trustworthy resulted and as a result of that bad luck, I sort of left it alone.. for several years.

Fast Forward to 2013, entering the life changing 800mm f 5.6 lens that I scored on EBay. It re-kindled the gun (lens) boat idea.

I call that old friend and say that I'm thinking about fixing up the boat, maybe getting a much newer and way more reliable motor (outboard), but if he's going to say he wants his boat back, I'll just start shopping for a complete boat, motor and trailer.

How did he respond.. he actually came down to Houston from the Fort Worth area during his kids spring break and transferred titles to me for the boat, motor and trailer.

Parts for the motor he gave me are pretty much obsolete.

Enter the motor miracle.

I had been watching, only planning to pull the purchasing trigger on a really sweet deal. Several pretty suspicious Craigslist deals kept popping up, but I couldn't get any response at all for them and all but 1 good deal from EBay were local pickup only deals and each of them involved a 3-4 days of driving adventure.

Enter the almost too good to be true deal. After watching Craigslist from Corpus to New Orleans, Galveston to Dallas/Ft. Worth.. the exact motor that I was looking for popped up 2 neighborhoods away. The price wasn't close to right, but there was something about this motor, and being so close to home, I thought I'd make a run on it.

I email the seller tell them that their price looks a bit high, that I wasn't trying to offend them, but if they needed the money and have the proper paperwork, I was ready to make a deal. The response made it obvious that the person selling didn't go out and buy the motor new, or didn't even buy the motor at all. He said he checked on the pricing for that motor and would only go down 12%. I said that I could respect that, but there was a real smoking great deal down out of Corpus that I was waiting to hear back from.

I got busy, almost forgot to check.. but about a week later, I check and he had changed the price to the lower amount he told me. I thought of making another offer, but decided to check back in a week. When I checked back.. he had lowered it now 29% lower than the original listing. I made an offer for 47% less than the original asking price. He told me he'd sell it for 37% less than original asking price and I agreed.

Enter the fun part.. I met him at his house, it started right up, but there were a few minor issues. When I look at the title, it's not the guy selling it. He tells me that he inherited it when his uncle passed away. The uncle had lots of boat motors and parts, and hulls, etc. and he and his dad were in the process of selling of what they could when they could that I should be fine since the title was signed. In Texas a signed title is only half of it. There's a PWD 144 form that has to also be filled out by the titled owner. I find out that the only way to title it without the form would be a bonded title process that takes several months and a few extra hundred dollars.

Quite discouraged, I take to Google searching for the title holder. A phone # comes up to the address, in Livingston, TX, for a pet grooming service. What have I got to lose? I call and explain my wild goose story.. and the man says, yeah, that's my nephew, try this phone number. OK, I think.. I call it and leave a voice mail, again explaining the wild goose story. The guy called me right back saying YEAH! "You got my old motor eh...? Wanna sell it back to me! I loved that motor and I would love to have it back!" I'm like.. no, I don't want to sell it.. I want to get some use out of it.. but is there any way we could meet up somewhere, I'll buy lunch.. and get you to fill out and sign that 2nd paper needed. He was like "Sure! I just went through the mess of not having the right paperwork!"  We agree on a place and rough time.. then my phone rings again..

The guy I bought it from was calling to tell me that his dad told him they did have the PWD 144 form signed by the title holder, he now had it and would be happy to meet up with me to give it to me. Turns out, he and I were only 10 minutes apart. We met 15 minutes later, neither of us going out of our way and voila! I had the paperwork.

I get out of a meeting with time to make it to the PWD office, but not really early enough to make sense to head back to the office, to head home a short while after. I opted for the PWD office, and VOILA! It all went right through without questions or issue and KAPOW! The title is in the mail..

I'm thinking for all of this to work out this way this fast.. I'm kinda meant to have this motor and will soon have lots of incredible pictures to share that were captured from this boat.

That is all for now.

TK

Kleb Woods Preserve

Kleb Woods Nature Preserve.

I drive by often and see the signs for the County Run Kleb Woods Nature Preserve.

With it being Lent and me deciding to exercise more, I decided to stop on in driving home from work in Tomball.

If this is all you have time to read. It's not a very nice park in terms of wildlife. If you have more time, I'll explain why.

Parking - I could not believe that on a Friday afternoon there was only 1 parking space, but I took that as a good sign and expected to see lots of people.

There was a nice map board in the parking area.

People - I didn't really see anyone! LOL! There was a couple of people at the Nature Center, but it was closed. 

I headed for the nearby farm house hoping to get to the closest "Wetlands" area on the map & maybe get a glimpse of a wading bird or two.

The farm & blacksmith shop are really neat. It would be great for a school field trip or similar.

There was a nice French named tree right down the trail

I get to the beautiful blue pond on the very bottom left of the map "Myrtles Pool" and walked by it without realizing what it was. It was definitely the pool, because it was the end of the trail.

I'm starting to realize that these "wetlands" are not nearly what I'm used to calling wetlands but I'm in it for the exercise. Onward & upward!

I decided to go further down the trail to the other "wetlands" area and circle back, being grateful that I didn't pack my camera gear.

There was near stuff in the Oak Grove area

When I got back to parking there was still light so looking at the map, I thought I'd run over to the other section & check out this Mocassin Pond.

These trails were in bad shape, not marked "widow maker" broken limbs and felled trees leaning on other trees etc. I made a right turn when I couldn't tell for sure that left was a trail.

Sooooo after going way the long way around... I think I see it... Or at least a clearing that resembles a dried up lake with a tiny little pool in the center...

Yup! This is it because the observation blind is there...

I brave the risk of snakes, because it has been cold and walk closer to the pool

After this, I decided I'd head on home.

It turns out, I did walk all around the section because when I left, walking through a few fallen trees & limbs the walk back was only 15% as long as the walk from parking to the Mocassin "pond"

For maps and more information on the preserve Click Here

Be still and wait

After driving all around the Southwest Houston Metro area for Meca's Science Olympiad, get her official shirt from her mom, drop off the shirt, etc...

I decided to sneak in a few hours at Brazos Bend State park.

The park was not as exciting as it has been. It seemed to be inundated with Vultures! Thousands of Vultures.

I even heard a few "dead tree" branches snapping from the weight of multiple vultures.

I was really surprised to see a few Gators out, this early in the year.

As I walked to a favorite spot, I heard a few hawks and woodpeckers. I did see the hawks, never found the woodpecker.

The lesson though was to just be still and wait. I set up on a platform/pier thingy. There was nothing. From knowing a little there was evidence and reason to think there should be a few critters there.

As I sat still a little swallow I must have spooked came back to check on his nest in a "dead tree"

Then some teal, grebes and coot actually came towards me

And a few other tiny birds

The vultures even started landing pretty much right overhead

Then I could hear dozens of kids fast approaching and knew they would spook off anything in the area and headed on out.