Took off last Thursday and Friday to take a crew out to the island. I needed high speed because we are in hurricane season and the frame was sitting with no hurricane clips. I got them to the island and they started working. Thats when things went straight to hell in a handbasket. You can have the best most thought out plan, but when you go to the island your plans might as well be toilet paper. In spite of it all we made our own outcome and we now have the roof deck on and hurricane straps in place. One more weekend with a crew we will have it dried in with the roof, doors and windows installed. Its been a long row, but the end is in sight. We will be duck hunting out of the house this year.

Awesome

Looks like you have a good crew. Progress looks good.

So is this build on state land? Did you need a permit? Is the building insurance?

Starting to take shape...

Why wouldn’t you get wind? Wind saved me almost 6 figures on Harvey. As the Harvey wind blew out the upstairs door causing inside to get excessive moisture, the wind also put tree limb through the side

Insurance is unobtainable on the island. I pay a heavy toll in Port O'Connor for the insurance. At the rate I pay there, i can bank that money and insure myself. In as few as 7 or 8 years I will have saved enough to cover the cost of the build. I will have maybe $40,000 in the entire build. I have studied quite a bit on what will not stand a cat 3. This side here is the most vulnerable part of the house. Most trouble comes from improper gable ends and the roof overhang. The end in the pic will be braced with 45 degree 2 x 8 braces from the top of the 8 foot mark back up to the engineered beam in the great room. The over hang supports the decking of the overhang will get a ridiculous amount of hurricane clips. Every connection between every piece of lumber in the house will have hirricane clips. So essentially the ridge beam will be connected to the concrete for the pilings through by way of clips. If a hurricane gets it, we either build again or maybe i'll be too old for that again.

Its a fools bet to bet against a hurricane. We know this house will eventually be taken by a hurricane. Another Carla and Port O'Connor, Indianola, Port Lavaca, Palacios, Rockport ect will be gone. When I say I studied Hurricanes it is mostly Carla. So I tend to not worry nor wonder. I am going to finish it and pray the good lord lets me have some years before its gone. Carla took the roof off the ranch house in Flatonia. My mother took the kids from Houston to Flatonia to be safe. Guessing Flatonia is at least 100 miles inland. That house has been there for 125 years and never has a hurricane even bothered it.

Harvey and wind insurance was a life save and essentially a pretty nice remodel for us in Rockport. Eye went right over us. My neighbors that didn’t, was a bad deal, but then again bigger square footage, but to each their own

Between the tax day flood and Harvey flooding we were paid a ton of money. Thank God I had flood insurance both times. I was also paid by FEMA to cut the house off of the slab and move it to the hill on our place. If I find a positive in my home being flooded, it was the items I can still use. I was paid $10,000 for replacement windows. Only two were broken from the current flowing, a pile of fire wood went through like butter. The rest of the windows I stacked in the barn and those will be the windows going into the duck house. The contractor left rolls and rolls of pink panther insulation, enough for the duck house. Many examples of re-used materials. Now, if an insurance company would insure the house, I'd probably buy it. They just won't consider it. Either way I am happy we will be able to spend teal season in the house. I won't even hunt, I'll just let my peeps go. I'll go drag a shrimp net, dig oysters, pull a trap and make gumbo with it all. Hopefully they are successful and we get seafood gumbo with bacon wrapped teal breastesses.

One slow step at a time. Picked the boat up from POC and headed to Victoria Metal Mart to pick up the roof. No problems until the offload. I borrowed a skid steer. The thing that created the absolute most PITA was the bucket had to be flat on the ground to open the door. So explained to my wife how to hook up the straps so many times she started getting pissed. The second I close that door and pull the skid bucket over the tin, every bit of instruction vanished. I'd rather fight a bear than to go through another session of using sign language through the glass. All in all we got her did. Next weekend the roof goes on, doors and windows dows get installed. Everyone of yall ranchers can thank me. Didntrain for months. The minute I lay plywood we get a super cell dumping dumping on it.

Can you tell I am exhausted my picture placing abilities?

I fixed it for you. That is going to be one hell of a nice duck house when it is finished. Wish I was there looking at it from the water, but the beach house we rent tripled and with the cost of everything else near doubled so we cancelled both our POC Spring and Fall trips this year to fish closer to home instead.

Well for you its like spelling Chicago. Chi Ca go , put the chicken in the car and go. There will be many great times ahead, you will have to participate. My wife and I agreed, because we lost the 5 years of forward progress, that we would say be damned the money and get her done. It could be done as soon as the spring. If we get a lot of ducks this year, then it will be done. My crew are all avid duck hunters and fisherman.

I have already planned on the first meal in the house will be on the teal opener. I will be down the week before, place all my crab traps baited heavy. I will run the traps on the way out for the opener. I bought a shrimp net, so while the crew is beating up the teal, I will be yanking that net along the bottom. When I get enough shrimp then I'll motor over to an oyster bed and dig oysters. Crab, shrimp, oysters and andouille sausages for seafood gumbo. On the side will be

Crab stuffed Cheddar Bay Biscuit with a Lemon butter 🧈 sauce.
Ingredients
1 package Cheddar Bay Biscuit Mix
1 tsp garlic
1 tsp Italian Seasoning
Crab:
1 pound lump crab meat, be sure it is fully cooked
¼ tsp paprika
½ tsp onion powder
½ + cup mayonnaise
1 tbsp mustard
½ sleeve Ritz crackers, crushed
1 cup grated parmesan
How To Make Crab Stuffed Cheddar Bay Biscuits with Lemon Butter
Make the biscuit mix according to package directions, set to the side
Preheat the oven to 375*, spray two muffin tins with nonstick spray
In a bowl, combine the crab meat, paprika, onion powder, mustard, mayonnaise and crushed crackers
Stir to combine well, adding a touch more mayonnaise if needed.
Using a scoop, place some biscuit mix on your hand that has been dusted with flour, Form a cup type of biscuit
Take a scoop of the crab mix and place it in the bowl part of the biscuit
Cover the biscuit with a little more biscuit dough
Continue until you have used all the dough
Place each biscuit into a muffin tray
Bake for 12 to 15 minutes
Brush with a mixture of melted butter and 1 tsp of lemon juice.


If they get enough teal, they will get the old bacon wrap with andouille sausage on the breast plate, jalapeno on the mesquite fire.

This pplace, this amount of work, the logistics, the money, the traveling is all crazy. Its a crazy pace to keep. It is all done for one thing, to get back to my duck hunting roots. I can't get satisfied any longer with a rush down Friday, hunt the morning, fish the eve and hunt again on Sunday, only ton rush home and prepare to go to the rockpile on Monday. When this house is done and the good Lord allows me to live long enough, I will get back to that time and place. I will be able to go duck hunting for weeks on end. I will be able to get immersed in the sport. I will only leave on my terms, not on my job's terms. If I were to have to continue on the job's terms, I'd probably stop duck hunting altogether.

Oh and thank you for fixing it. I was blind tired. PM me when you figure out the fall trip dates.

OK one more and I'll stop. I am just excited because this is happening. I went back Saturday for the first time since the rafters and deck were put on. It feels like a house now. Before I had those devil placed feelings trying to keep me from finishing. I just could not feel the finish was coming anytime soon. The first time I stepped into that door I knew we were headed to a finish. This pic is from the beach. Don't let the photography fool you. The house is 200 yards from where my wofe took this pic, the windmill is another 200 yards behind the house.

The windmill you ask??? Yes, the island has cows periodically and the windmills were put there by the ranchers to keep them watered. One of the oldest longest running cattle drives happen right there on the island (technically an island but is called a Peninsula). My wife and I were alone one day working when all of a sudden a cowboy on horseback appeared right next to us on a dune. I don't mean a guy on a horse, I mean a full all out 100% cowboy. Cattle was his living. Once I saw him then I noticed the rest of the cows being driven by a group of cowboys to the east. They drive them off the island just before hurricane season. They push them 25 miles to the east, push them to swim the Colorado river and go north to the mainland where they will wait out the hurricanes in safety. They will bring them back for the winter. What a sight to see. The cowboy spoke to us for a few minutes. He asked if we had seen any snakes and we hadn't. He cautioned us as he had seen six giants rattlers since he left the jetties 7 miles away. Then off he rode.