Port Mansfield Deer

Port Mansfield is noted for two things -- the salt water fishing and the deer.  The deer population is out of control in this town.  Of course no hunting is allowed in the city limits and everyone in town feeds the deer.  Jim has really enjoyed feeding them even though he named them chops, roast, tenderloin, etc.  Poaching is a very expensive crime here and the game wardens keep watch but that's not to say something doesn't happen in the middle of the night.  We would never take a deer illegally but they do look delicious although they are tiny here compared to up north.  A good sized deer here would dress out at just 130 pounds.  Most northern hunters wouldn't bother with this small size. 

We are finally going to go out deep sea fishing this week.  We are taking one of the charters that goes out to the gulf from here in Port Mansfield.  Its only an hour to the fishing grounds from here.  If you take a charter out of South Padre Island its a two hour boat ride.  We will be taking Dramamine just to make sure we don't get seasick.  We should be coming back with some nice red snapper.  Next week we will be leaving Port Mansfield and heading to Midland, TX.  We took a job for two months there at a campground.  They just need some extra help this spring.  We are looking forward to getting away from the salt air and watching everything start to rust.   

Gulf Coast Boats

Boats that go out in the Laguna Madre are very different from anything we've seen up north.  They run very shallow -- even the motor is up higher in back so it can go through the shallow water without hitting bottom.  The boat in the top picture is the latest version of "Shallow Sport" boat.  It has three indents running through the bottom like a catamaran.  Its supposed to run smoother in the chop because they don't have a lot of freeboard  -- the boat sits very low in the water -- .  We went out in the boat that Jim is standing by and it felt like any little wave would wash you overboard.

These boats are very stable and no one seems to have a problem with them out in the Laguna as far as falling overboard.  Although even if you fell overboard all you have to do is stand up.  The water is running about three feet deep. 

The weather is finally better without the threat of real cold -- low 30's.  The problem with cold weather down here is they threaten rolling blackouts because of the high demand with all of the electric heaters in use.  

Hillbilly Goldpanning

Guess what happens when you get really bored - you will try anything.  Jim saw a Youtube video on how you could find gold in a bag of Quickcrete.  So we went to the local Home Depot and bought a bag of Quickcrete sand-- the all purpose sand not the play sand kind.  We ran it through our gold wheel and did find some black sand.  Gold will stick to black sand because black sand is pretty heavy just not as heavy as gold.  There was also some nice little pieces of quartz -- all good signs of potential gold.  So the idea isn't as crazy as it sounds and in the Youtube video the guy did find some tiny specks of gold.  I guess it just depends on where the sand comes from -- obviously our bag wasn't from the right place. 

The weather got fairly cold and wet down here - hovering in the low 30's for almost two days.  The whole Rio Grand valley was on notice to be prepared for rolling blackouts because the power company couldn't keep up with demand.  We were lucky -- we only had a few hours where the power was on and off -- of course right during primetime tv watching.  We can run our furnace on battery power for awhile but we really don't want to find out how long the batteries would last. 

The Red and the Black

Who knew that vultures could be interesting.  Here in Texas we have the usual Turkey vultures with the red on their head as well as the Black vultures with grey heads.  Turkey vultures are found throughout the U.S. but Black vultures are only found in Texas and across the Southeast.   Turkey vultures are a little bigger than their black cousins.  Vultures play an important role in cleaning up carrion and are said to be able to smell something dead up to 10 miles away.  In the mornings they like to perch and spread out their wings to dry. 

Our water heater decided to start leaking.  It was a leak in the tank so we had to have it replaced.  It works on either propane or electricity and holds 10 gallons of water which is a good size for an RV.  It was quite expensive to replace but its no fun not to have hot water.  Especially here where the bathhouse isn't heated and we've had days in the 30's and 40's. 
 

Boca Chica Beach

We took a day and drove down to Boca Chica Beach.  It is down in Brownsville, Texas along the gulf coast.  You can drive down the beach to where the Rio Grande dumps into the gulf.  We couldn't drive the beach because it was too sandy where the pavement ended and the beach started.  Our truck is so heavy that any kind of soft sand means we would be stuck.   Last week we heard that the sand was hard right up to the pavement.  We met some guys who were metal detecting along the beach.  They hadn't found anything but they seemed to be having a good time.  Other people were shore fishing.  We just walked and picked up some beautiful sea shells.  It was a rare 70+ degree day with little wind so we really enjoyed it.  When we got back to Port Mansfield which is only 80 some miles north of Brownsville the temp was at least 5 degrees cooler and the wind was really blowing. 

Brownsville is in the very southern most tip of Texas.  So we've managed to be as far north as you can go this summer along the Canadian border and now the farthest south you can get before you are in Mexico.

Mexican Eagle

These birds are named the Crested Caracara.  They are the Mexican national bird.  You find them here in south Texas as well as the southern areas of the Southwest.  They live all the way down through Mexico and into northern South America.  They remind me of  eagles when in flight.  They feed on carrion and hang out with the vultures.  It must be mating season because we are seeing them in pairs all over the place. 
We accepted a job for the summer in North Dakota.  Its a campground called Indian Hills and it is just west of a little town called Garrison about 80 miles south of Minot.  It is located right on Lake Sakakawea where the walleye fishing is phenomenal.  We just watched a fishing show -- Jason Mitchell Outdoors -- and he was fishing with a local guide right where the resort is located.  The walleyes looked fabulous.  We can't believe we are looking forward to a summer in North Dakota but its all about the fishing!

Pose for the Camera!

We haven't been doing a whole lot because the weather has been cold and rainy.  Jim has continued to feed the deer for something to do.  The deer have gone into rut finally -- late December, early January -- which is a lot later than in the north.  The deer are much smaller "black tail" deer.  They come to our 5th wheel and wait for Jim to come out and feed them.   Everyone in the area feed the deer.  The DNR guys here have talked about putting on a feeding ban but it would be very hard to enforce with everyone in the whole town feeding them. 

The RV park we are in has finally started to fill up with winter Texans.  So many people wait til after the holidays to come down and get warm.  Most of the people that come here like to go fishing.  A few people have boats and take friends out with them in the Laguna.  Others will fish off of the piers and still others will wade fish.  They get in the water with their waders on and fish.