Vacation Highlights Part 2: Fort Richardson State Park

Fort Richardson State Park was our next destination on our 2021 vacation. We camped in our motorhome in the equestrian area. It was the only place that had sites available when we made our reservations. It was a open grassy area within walking distance to the fort. It was nearly empty when we arrived Friday afternoon. But it filled up and was full all day Saturday and Saturday night. The equestrian area doesn't have sewer hook ups and there were no restrooms nearby. But since our motorhome has facilities and we were only there for four days it didn't matter to us. There were no horses there that weekend.

We saw and photograph a lot in our four days there. I'll try to just hit the main highlights though, as I want to finish writing about our 2021 vacation before we go on our 2022 vacation! 

The fort that the park is named after was established in 1867 as an outpost for US Army soldiers to protect settlers along the Texas frontier. It was abandoned in 1878. The National Guard also used it briefly during World War II. For more information on its history go to https://tpwd.texas.gov/state-parks/fort-richardson/park_history

There are several original buildings still standing and an interpretive center.

Here are just a few photos from our visit to the site.

Interesting flag pole.
The building in the back ground is the original hospital. It is a pretty building. But according to an informational plaque, soldiers at the time tried to avoid going there as long as possible!   

Original officer's quarters built in 1867. 
We thought our trees were too close to our house!
The tree is probably not original. 

Beautiful mesquite tree. I've never seen one with such a twisted trunk before. In the background is the interpretive center. It's in a reproduction of the non-commissioned officers quarters.

 A ranger we talked to said this railroad bridge was not part of the original fort. It was moved to the site in more recent times from a nearby creek because of safety concerns. Trains were no longer using it but local children liked to jump off it into the creek below. So the city leaders decided to move it to the park. 
If you look very closely in the photo above you can see John next to it by the tree.
 

Now, as you can see, there is nothing fun to jump into from it.
But it's fun to photograph.

Coming back from the store Saturday afternoon from buying brownie mix :-), and and other essentials,  I was surprised and delighted to see a number of large kites flying in the fort area. It is such a wide open area it was a great place for it. We took our cameras and went over there.

The kites were quite big. Even as big as a person in some cases. The kite string (actually very strong cables) was tethered to the ground with metal stakes.

We chatted with the people who were flying them. They are originally from the Philippines but currently living in the west Texas town of Odessa.

Sunday morning we went hiking near the Lost Creek Reservoir. It was my first hike of our vacation. I still had to go easy so as not to re-injure my heels. (See the previous post if you don't know what I'm referring to.)

It was a windy day again.

We noticed large numbers of coots on the water. It is common to see a few but this was many times more than we have ever seen. They were mostly just floating all bunched up together bobbing on the waves but occasionally one would dive down and quickly come back up again.  

John taking pictures of the coots.

The next photo I set to "original" size so you can see them better. To see it all you will need to use your scroll bars at the side and bottom of the screen. Go ahead and give it a try it is worth the trouble to see them. This was only a portion of the coots. There were more to the right but I couldn't get them all in.

A close up of the coots.

We were hiking in the Lost Creek Reservoir area on the left. Our campsite was in the area on the right. It is an unusual state park in that it is divided into a few different segments with several miles between and the town of Jacksboro between the two areas. 

flower like fungi

When we got back to our campsite after our walk I was delighted to see that all the other campers had already checked out and we had the whole equestrian area to ourselves. In the evening after dinner we made the most of it and moved our lounge chairs to another site where we could enjoy "golden hour" with a lovely view of the mesquite trees.

We had a lovely time and would like to go there again when we have more time.

Stay tuned for part three of our Vacation highlights. Or maybe the next phase of our landscaping project. We'll see...

To see Part one of our vacation see the previous post button below.

Vacation Highlights: Part 1 Mineral Wells State Park

I thought I would take a little break from blogging about landscaping to write about some high-lights of our 2021 vacation. 

We camped in our motorhome in four state parks over three weeks. There is a lot I could say about each one but I want to try and just hit some of the main events and high-lights.

The first several days we stayed at Mineral Wells State Park (MWSP).  

Our first morning, while eating breakfast I glanced up from reading and looked out the window and was rewarded with this sight of a deer also eating just across from our motorhome: 

I watched it for a few minutes and snapped several photos. Then it crossed the road toward me. It got quite close to our motorhome before disappearing into the woods.

It was a lovely way to start, or maybe I should say restart, our vacation.

It felt like a reassurance that despite difficulties it was a good thing that we had come on this trip and now it was time to hit the reset button and enjoy the time away.

From the start this trip felt fraught with problems and potential problems. 

Although I wanted the time away, I was worried about my Mom. It was the first time we would be that far away since she had moved to the new assisted living home early this year. And then shortly before we were to leave she started having a couple of worrying symptoms. We scrambled to try to find solutions and were in contact with her doctor. He seemed to think it would be ok for us to go ahead with our travel plans. 

We were also unsure of our motorhome. A few months before this the anti-sway system air bags went flat and we couldn't find anyone to replace them. We assumed it was more of a comfort issue and thought it would be safe to drive, but opted to only go a relatively short distance just in case.  

And then the day before we were set to leave John discovered that one of the inside back tires on the motorhome was flat. It was a new tire so he hoped that it was just a matter of the valve not being tightened all the way. The shop that replaced them all a few months before had left a couple of the valves loose at the time so when he went to get it from them a couple of the other tires were flat and had to be re-inflated before he could even drive it away. They made a couple of other mistakes too so we were hoping this was also due to their carelessness. Anyway John pumped it up and checked it the next morning and it was still holding air. So we thought it was fixed and set off as planned. 

We didn't hear a peep out of the tire pressure gauge monitoring system the whole way to Mineral Wells so we thought the tire was fine. After getting the motorhome set up John went on a hike and I stayed behind to get settled and rest up from the trip. A few minutes after he left the tire pressure monitoring system started beeping. I didn't remember how to make it stop and couldn't reach him on his cell phone. The beeping drove me outside after a few minutes. Eventually I was able to reach him and find out how to turn it off. 

When he got back from his hike he checked the tire and it was completely flat. He usually turns off the tire pressure monitor when we arrive and set up at our destination but for some reason he didn't this time. It turned out for the best so we could know that there was a problem before we got ready to leave for the next state park at the end of the week. Since it was Sunday when we arrived he waited until the next day and called a tire place in Mineral Wells. (It's called Double H Tire. We highly recommend them. They did a great job for us.) 

 (316 E Hubbard St, Mineral Wells, TX 76067)  

John thought it was interesting timing and that maybe it was God's way of making sure we went on the trip.

A couple days before we left home I made the bad decision to wear some "cute" shoes that were not broken in yet and they ended up scraping layers of skin off the backs of my heels. I was shocked at how quickly it happened and how long they took to heal. Even with "mole skin" and Band-Aids and ointment and proper hiking socks with liners I was not able to hike or even walk much for several days. 

But we did go canoeing. 

Don't worry, the trailer and truck in the center of the photo are not sinking. They are on the road that is on the other side of the dam.  

One of two small islands.

The second and larger island has what looks like the remnants of a fireplace and chimney from an old house.

We saw an otter on a rock in that little indented place in the middle but it dived below the surface just before I took a picture. We circled the island again in hopes of seeing it again but it wasn't interested in being seen!

Turtle on a rock. We were so far away I could barely see it but I somehow managed to get this shot by zooming way in and almost blindly pointing it in that direction and hoping I would get something.

Going out we had a fare amount of wind but coming back it dropped and there was barely a ripple.

Landscaping stage one - Tree planting!

We planted a tree! 

That's the first stage of our new landscape design done! 

It's a Shantung maple. Our landscape designer, Val, recommended it. She said it would be a good size for our yard as they only grow to about 25-30 feet across at maturity. 

I had heard that maples don't do well here, but apparently Shantung maples are different. They are from a part of China that is similar to our climate and soil conditions. They can handle full sun and heat, as well as cold, and even our alkaline clay soil. So Val assured us that it would do well here. She has one herself that is quite healthy looking.

I did have doubts though when I read that they need consistent watering. We are sometimes away for long periods. But John did not think that would be a problem since he is developing a drip irrigation system for our yard that should go on working even when we are away. He is doing a beautiful job creating the system. I just hope the technology is as reliable and as easy to maintain as he expects.  

Anyway, a week ago last Friday we went to Metro Maples in Fort Worth, TX. Getting it home in our car was an adventure. We put both the front right seat and the back left seat down and laid the tree down with the bucket in the back of our small hatchback. The trunk and branches went up through the middle of the car. It was even touching the dash. I sat in the back right seat. Somehow we got it all the way home without breaking any branches. Sorry we didn't get any pictures. John said it would have been the most interesting part of the whole process!

We got the variety called "fire dragon" for it's red Fall color. There is also a variety that has yellow leaves in the fall but John preferred the red. Of course being late Fall here the leaves have all fallen off for the winter.  

It was a 15 gallon size. (I just measured it and the height now that it is in the ground is 93 inches (7.75 feet) tall.)

Figuring out how far from the side walk to plant it. 

Before we planted it we did a perk test. That is, we filled the hole with water and waited and measured the water level frequently to see how long it took for the water to drain out.  

It took over 13 hours to drain! Val said anything over 2 hours would indicate poor drainage. So it seems we have very poor drainage. 

I wish we had known that before we bought the tree. The staff person at Metro Maples (MM) asked us if we had good drainage. At the time we thought we did since we had never noticed a problem. I wonder what she would have said if we had known how really poor it is. We might have decided to pick a different kind of tree. We'll never know of course! 

Anyway, Val didn't seem too worried. She said it mainly means we don't need to water as often. But I wish we had done the test before buying the tree. 

Here is the hole the next morning after the water finished draining. The leaves blew in over night. John only dug part of the hole deep enough for the perk test as he needed to get back to work after our trip to buy the tree. 
(I tried to take a picture when we first filled it with water but my phone battery went dead and I had to recharge it and then I forgot to do it later when it was more charged. I really need a new phone!)

John digging the rest of the hole out so we can plant the tree.

A few roots from our old ash trees were in the way. Here John is removing one with his sawzall (reciprocating saw).

We cut the bucket off the maple because
there was a root coming out of one of the holes at the bottom.
Unfortunately it broke despite our best effort to save it.

We added two inches of expanded shale to the bottom of the hole. Val said that would help even out the moisture by improving both drainage and moisture retention. The two small brown tubes going across the hole are part of the drip irrigation system John created.

Here (and the next picture) John is loosening the root ball a little. That is important to help the tree roots to reach out properly. Otherwise they might end up growing round in a circle like the shape of the pot they were in and eventually strangling the tree. 

The tree was a little root bound in places. It was kind of scary since Val said breaking roots can have long term consequences for the tree! We did end up breaking a root in the process. My friend Susan, who is a master gardener, said not to worry about it. She said the tree would be ok. It's interesting how every gardener has strong opinions that often contradict other gardeners!

Then we had the "fun" of getting it to the right level and position. First we had to stand back and make sure we had it straight and turned the way we wanted it. 

And then we had to get it to the right level. Deciding what the right level was was the hard part! MM said the top of the root ball should be 3 inches above grade. Val said in her printed instructions that the same grade as it was in the pot was best. But when we told her what MM said, she said we could go an inch above grade. She thought that three inches was much too much. Most other experts said in their tree planting guides that the top of the root ball should be level with the grade. We ended up splitting the difference between Val and MM and did about one and a half inches above grade. Now I wish we had done it even higher since it will likely settle. And we could have just added mulch around the root ball. 

My friend Susan said that more than 3 inches would have been better! See what I mean about gardeners having different opinions! John wondered if maybe since all these experts have different opinions maybe it doesn't matter as much as they think it does. The main thing that they all agree on is that the point where the trunk meets the root ball must never be below the level of the surrounding soil!

"Watering it in" before mulching around the root ball. 

More watering after mulching it. Notice mulch is kept away from the base of the trunk. That is another thing all gardening experts agree on--never put anything around the base of the trunk!

We did a few other steps including adding compost ("top dressing") around the outside edges of the root ball once it was in place before mulching and applying something called Seamist root stimulator after mulching.*

Here it is the next morning. I was standing a little off center when I took this photo. It really is centered between the two left windows. 

*Please note: this account is not meant to be a complete tree planting guide!