I've been gone a while. I reckon I got busy. How about a recap of the build. I knew taking on this project was going to be a whopper but you just cannot prepare for the punches that follow. Everything seems to team up and cause catastrophic disasters. Hurricanes and tornadoes are no help either. A tornado, a month before Hurricane Beryl, blew out windows. Beryl ripped the tin off of the barn. Everything metal rots to he77 and back. Scorpions and rattlesnakes own the island. I still love it. I hope you enjoy the pics and vids, I certainly have. This opener will be the first opener I've had to miss in 50 years!

Be sure you click on the youtube links at the bottom of the posts. That first post was 4 or 5 years ago. I've lost 85 pounds since that pic. Food is a funny thing. I eat more now than ever before. I just don't eat carbs and sugar. Cabbage and pork chops aint got a chance around me and the weight just fell off. That last pic of the tin on the ceiling cost me about $100 in materials. I bought a pallet of tin for $50 at an estate sale. The 4x8x1.5" insulation retails at $77 a sheet. I bought 100 pieces used at $5 at a total of $500. On the way home a dude hit my truck and asked me if he could pay me instead of reporting to police. I asked what he thought was fair and what did he say??? $500! So the insulation cost the fuel to go get it. Three layers of that, the deck and the dead spaces, figure out to be about an R36 rating. The screws we put the tin on were left over from the roof.

Take my advice. Don't ever ask your wife, do you see something back there that might be wrong with the tires. Just don't do it. At least the ratchet strap held out for the rest of the trip.

Look on top of that stack of ducks. Cinny!

Again that barge pontoon has quickly become my favorite boat. There is no doubt its a work horse. It can take a freaking wave pounding beating I found out. Last December the news was reporting that major freeze. It was not reported to be coming in to the coast until 6PM on the day it was coming in. Be it I've had the pipes bust twice already, inside the house even, I decided to load up my dog and go prepare for the freeze. We I can't just run down there I decided to work for a day and leave out the next day long before the north brawling winds started. West Matagorda is a little Gichagoomie. She will end you without a care when that north blows. Upon arrival there was a bit of a west wind so i tied up with 4 ropes on the east side of the wall, you can see it in one of the pics. My dog and I polished off a link of Bellville sausage and a can of ranch style beans. I worked late into the night and crashed about 1230 am. I was up at 5am and working again when I heard a board fall on the front porch. I had leaned it against the wall in the night. So i opened the front door to see if a coon had knocked it over. The door flung open from the wind. I was immediately terrified. That wind was 20 out of the north. I knew the waves were lifting the boat up and dropping the boat on the concrete wall. I gathered my pertinents and the dog and off I went. When I go to the boat I was right, it was getting the smack beat out of it. By the time I got there the wind was a steady 25 with 330 and 35 gusts. 4 footers were hitting the boat but out on the sand bar were 6 and even 7 footers. 3 of the 4 dock ropes were cut already. I had to leave behind $2000 dollars worth of tools in the barn. Against my better reasoning I went for it. I needed to get off that island right then and there or stay for the next 2 days. I was able to get the last rope off, Turn the boat around in 20 yards without waves beaching it. Now it was lawn dart time. I tucked the dog behind the console and headed for the swells on the sand bar. They were too tall, too fast and instead of going over them, they came over the top. Waist deep! I managed to get through 50 to a 100 yards of that crap and it settled back to 4 footers. Somewhere in the next mile a wave came over the deck again. i heard nor saw anything wrong. Somehow that wave took my dog. I always watch front, side to side and backwards as I drive, good or bad weather. I looked down and she was just gone. I looked back and saw her head as a wave came up. She was swimming her arse off. I got to her and timed the rear of the boat dipping and grabbed her. Off we went. We were both frozen after that 40 minute boat ride. We stopped at the condo in Port Oconnor and I got a hot shower and dried my clothes. We still had another 18 miles to Seadrift where the trailer and truck were parked. Never trust the weatherman!

If this build has taught me anything it is this. Nothing stays the same, nothing is guaranteed, this are going to go wrong and if they don't, they will go horribly wrong. You best learn to roll with the punches or you aint gonna make it.

A couple more I should have added. The first fire in the wood stove, that was nice! And the decor score of this entire build. I found these shrimp net doors on marketplace and made arrangements to buy them at $35. The pictures hid the treasures with these doors. I met the woman and paid her. WhenI flipped the doors over I found the metal permit tags screwed to the doors. 1970 was the oldest tag and ran consecutive for a while. These will hang by their chains from the tin ceiling in the great room I posted earlier.

That's a cool find on the doors. Glad you were able to find your dog in those seas. With only you on the boat it was fortuitous or divine intervention.
It was good to read an update. Thanks for sharing.

Good morning jnd59. Thank you for the kind words. I’ve been present when some really bad water incidents happened. My rule is everybody wears a life jacket in my boat. I used to be supposed to it and thought “The state shouldn’t tell me what to do”. Not anymore. Even the dog gets one. I found her a gray shark outfit and don’t even care how [censored] it looks. It served her well as she was high up on the water surface. The handle made it so much easier the grab and yank her back in.

I cannot say enough good things about Bay Dog life jackets. They are built for offshore and are high viz - started using them when our two dogs started slowing down a bit. Extremely sturdy and I can pick them up (100 lb labs) by the handles on the jackets and it doesn’t budge.

Spent the weekend working on the duck house. Huge milestone this weekend. I got the ceiling fans and lights for the great room in place. It is soooooo nice to be able to flip a switch and have air moving and lights. The milestone is the fridge!!!!! Now we can keep it even make ice while there. It’s hard to go more than three days with ice when you have to open the ice chest constantly. Well all that’s over. Notice the fridge is the same on Stakecracker uses. No that was not planned.the corner looks like a shelf and will be used as such but is much more important than a shelf. These are made of 2x6 and 3/4 plywood. They have a 2 part function, they lock 90 degree walls together and help stop twist during high shear winds. They will be in every corner of the house. Every piece of lumber that is afixes to another piece of lumber has a hurricane strap from the roof all the way to the concreted posts in the ground.

Found a decor score. I had forgotten the old men drinking nickel a cup coffee back in the 80s. They bought the cup during a promotional and from then on the coffee refill was a nickel. Check out the Indian head nickel on the front. Yes the buffalo is on the back. I wonder if Whataburger would still honor the nickel a cup?

Lastly I ran across the barge with the tractor. That seems so long ago. I had forgotten my brother rode the bucket across.

The mishaps, break downs etc. are something I have become way better at handling than in the old days. As hard as one tries, maintains as best he can, you just cant get around mishaps and break downs. I carry my battery operated skill saw, sawsall and air hammers back with me every time. I keep them in water tight totes or anything to keep the saltwater off when crossing to the duck house. Well I didn't have a tote so I got an old marine cooler and put them in that. I strapped that cooler down to the deck of the boat. I didn't make it 20 miles, the strap failed, the ie chest came off and all I could see were my "precious to me" battery operated tools doing a jig down the FM road. I managed to fix the air hammer in short order. THe safety touch trigger that has to be depressed was bent and pulled out of place. The irony here is I used a manual hammer t beat it back in place, the irony of it all. The skill saw worked, basically for cutting through wood. The plate guide is bent to haiti and back. The sawsall came through with road rash. I feel lucky that all I need is to replace the skill saw and thats it.

A lot of hard work right there...Well done!!!

What is your source for power out there? A generator? Also, if your fridge is making ice, where is the water coming from? Forgive me if you explained this and I missed it.

I would definitely try to use that cup. I bet they'll give it to you even if it isn't still active. They'll have so much trouble trying to figure out how to ring it up that they'll just tell you to get a cup for free...

lol. I thought that same thing.

We collect rain water from the roof and use a solar panel charging a car battery running a 12v water pump. It works very well. We run the rest of the house on generator. I burned up my Honda 2200 so I switched to. Predator 3300 or 3200 with a no questions 2 year protection plan. Later I’ll get another and wire them together for 7000 watts. That’s way more than plenty for all AC units and appliances.

Thank you. I’ve been involved in 6 100 plus year house restorations. I’ve been in construction. Contracted my own house after two floods and moved that house after two floods. This was a beast of a project, I knew it going in. The actual work on the island is in itself is difficult. It’s the preparation to get there and come back, the planning, the work at home that I couldn’t foresee and factor into the equation. I am a tenacious person, I don’t quit, I never ever give up. Somewhere in the middle of this project I sat down and the devil got in my head and tried to make me quit. My tenacity told me just get off your fat arse and put one more nail in before you think about anything else. I worked for 8 more hours after that. Thank you for noticing and the nice compliment. Have a great season my man.

Looks good Wal!

Headed out this weekend. My crew called and said they were going whack a duck. I’m taking advantage of the help to get this 300 pound stove up the stairs. Going to be a lot of gumbo happening on that thing.

Nice!

I can smell that gumbo already.

2am up and slamming coffee. Made it to my house at 6 am and started loading the boatload. 9 am trained a dog. 10am nephews arrived and latched onto the boat and off we went. We just got through carry the last load up the stairs an hour ago and polished off an entire Magnalite pot full of deer chili. Big big load today, standing room only in my boat and the other boat wasn’t any better.

Wow...can't imagine carrying all that up those stairs. That will get you in shape.

Won’t get my day areas in shape. Them nephews of mine are a different breed than most youngsters today. They play and work hard. They did all the off loading the boat and carrying up the steps.

Impressive!

Thank you

Duck shack report! Well we lit out with a massive payload and all went great, right up to the point it was not so great. We got to the island, unloaded and all materials transported to the house. Them nephews of mine make it look easy. All good, we made chili for supper and off to bed, long day. Up at 4AM and had coffee ready for them to go shoot duck. Note the wall behind the boys and its transformation during Saturday while they went to shoot ducks. They left and I set in, had to put the wall boards on, cabinets etc. About an hour into it I see a truck coming up my road and assumes it was the boys. I stopped 200 yards out and the driver and passenger got out and went around the front of the truck that was pointed right at me. I couldn't imagine why they were back so early but figured they saw a rattlenake and were going to catch it for me. Mind you the island has dense vegetation 6 foot high, some green some dry. Well all of a sudden there was a 10 foot high fire. Terror set in! I ran outside to hollar at them and the truck backed out to the main road and took off. I had no vehicle to follow them. I am still completely amazed it went out on its own. I noticed there were 3 other big fires on the island. Ranchers burn all the time and it is super beneficial to both the cattle and the wildlife. The problem is these weren't ranchers. Ranchers wait until all of it is dead and a proper wind. An east wind from the east at 15 mph sustained is NOT the right wind. I have no idea why they would light these fires but it set off an extremely dangerous chain of events that left many people scrambling to save their houses and equipment. Some worked all day and long into the night fighting these fires. As far as I know they are still burning now. So an hour after they lit the fire my nephew came into the house saying we got a problem. When the wind switched from the north, against the strong current bull tide, things went haywire in the harbor. I still cant understand how it happened because the boats were tied on the west southwest of the bulkhead and the wind came from the north east. I don't have to understand how, but I know what it did. One boat was sunk and sitting on the harbor floor. I use 3/4 inch dock ropes and the front dock rope snapped, the rear held. Be in the rear rope held, the rear of the boat was getting a brutal bashing through the night. The pontoon developed hole from the bashing and at one point the lower unit was sitting on top of the wall grinding a hole into the lower unit. We were dead in the water so to speak. I fired up the boat and ran her hard to the beach. We pulled up on dry with the truck and let it drain. We siliconed the holes as best we could and made a 2pm appointment for Monday to be towed. SeaTow is the best dern thing I've ever purchased. The tow boat guys will be there and get you back in no time flat.

So we decided to keep moving forward with the house but the fires were still raging 1.5 miles in either direction. Sunday was meeting day. We stopped house work and went into fire preparation mode. We took all lumber, anything burnable out from under the house. I don't know what they are but they look like sunflower seeds. They grow up to 9 foot tall. They are all dead and extremely flammable. We hooked up a trailer, pulled these by hand and hauled them off. I had a lot of used motor oil that I spray the vehicles with. I mixed it with more diesel and gasoline and we used pump sprayers to put that mix on what vegetation remained around the house. We went full Ghengis Khan and back burned a big circle around the house, taking all sources of fuel from the coming fires.

My buddies place is a mile to the east and another house a mile to the west. The fire to the east went right up to 20 yards from my buddy's house, turned north for 200 yards and then back to the east. Odd to say the least. The fire to my west kept coming. We were so confident we decided it was OK to leave with the fire 150 yards from the house. I had to keep my SeaTow appointment and get the guys home. We left and I was told by others on the island that our back burn efforts went as planned and the fire passed right on by. I am still sore in every part of my body. I am in my late 50s and still can work as hard as the young men, just not as fast. Island adventures! Sorry the pics are kind of out of order. So the kitchen is in and half of the last bedroom is done. I had 2/3rds of the walls in the great room left to install and then hire the floor guy. He is a 72 year old dude that loves to be on the island. I will leave him there for the week with the keys to the truck to go fishing, food and gas for the generator. When I get back he will have it all done. Thank for reading. This project has been a journey that is for sure. Oh to give some perspective on the size of the fires, that first pic you can see the house on top of the dunes, that house is right at a mile away. That fire you're looking at is big, hot and coming on fast.

And btw the fed who decided to open duck season on Nov 1 should be flogged with a dead racoon. There are NO birds to speak of at the coast.

Did the guys that started the fires get caught?

Not yet. The islanders are trying to find out who they are and have a polite educational conversation with them.

This is awesome! What island is the duck shack on?

It’s called the Matagorda Peninsula but technically it’s an island. It is 100% surrounded by water. You can’t drive to it. Thank you for looking and the nice compliment. I have an idea at the rate I am going the interior and quite possibly the exterior will be done by spring.

I used to fly over that island regularly and always thought it was a cool looking place. The number of cattle on the island was a wonder to me.

For over 100 years the ranchers have a big cattle drive, driving all the cows 22 miles east and force them to swim the Colorado river. They then drive them north up Hwy60 through Matagorda City and to high ground of the mainland so as to avoid losing cows to hurricanes. Pretty kewl site to see for sure.