The Old Folks Home

[NotAFarm]

Quote: That is the Llano River. My Dad measured 3.25 inches of rain from Sunday, March 6, through Friday, March 11, in their backyard. They need the water. I've never seen that area so green. The Llano was up....up over the road!

 

[Alaskan]

Sweet!

 

[Latestarter]

It's really too bad that when things like that happen that some of that excess water couldn't be piped and impounded somewhere for later use.

 

[NotAFarm]

My parents live about 65 miles northwest of Austin in the Hill Country around the Highland Lakes. The six Highland Lakes are all man-made and are possible because of the dams built along the Colorado River (not the same one that provides water in California). They act as reservoirs and some have been extremely low in the past years. The heavy rains have helped to fill the lowest ones to near 90%.
I try to visit in the spring because I love the wildflowers and it is nice to wear summer clothes in March.

 

[Alaskan]

It's really too bad that when things like that happen that some of that excess water couldn't be piped and impounded somewhere for later use.

The Hill Country is actually set up like that.... In addition to the reserviours that notafarm mentioned, there are lots of giant underground aquifers that are quickly recharged by rain (if it rains enough).

None of that water goes to waste.

It is always fun so see the dry brown rangeland switch over to lush green. It happens in almost an instant!

 

[chickisoup]

Alaskan-

 

[bruceha2000]

It's really too bad that when things like that happen that some of that excess water couldn't be piped and impounded somewhere for later use.

NPR had a story on the CA reservoirs. Bizarre! They DRAIN them down even though they are not full in CASE it might rain, cause them to overflow and result in flooding. Apparently the laws were made back in the 1800's when weather predictions were somewhat less accurate than they are now. One person being interviewed (somehow connected to the water 'district' or something) said it is kind of hard to get people to think they still need to be conserving water while they watch it being dumped into the ocean. No, REALLY??

Bruce, wow, how odd that they can only have LLamas. Like everyone in the country wants to have them. I used to walk past a Llama farm every day, and the pee pee smelled to high heaven. She finally sold out/ or got persuaded to leave, many years ago, and I see nothing has been done to her property but, you can still "smell it," from half a block away.

They can have alpacas too. And dogs and cats and horses. I think I even saw a loophole that would likely allow them to have pigs if they wanted. But no poultry. Given the BIG lots are 2 Acres, it seems a bit bizarre to allow large animals but not small birds. They could have said no Toms or Roosters. Roosters don't make as much noise as the dog that lives in a house just downhill from that 8 unit development. It is about 1,300 feet from my house (between me and the development) and that dog is heard by me a LOT more than the roosters at the house 900' up the road from me.

Thanks for the expert's input on the topic Joe. I've not lived in a place with an HOA and I am pretty sure I wouldn't want to. I'm sure they could change the rules if everyone agreed (or whatever their rules say is needed to make modifications).

Alaskan-

Whoa, $5.53/dozen. Can I charge a lot more since my girls make use of 37 times the outdoor space as their minimum?

 

[getaclue]

IME, Having been in HOA's from established neighborhoods as well as new developments, and as a past HOA elected officer, I can tell you; when an investment group gets together to build a development, they set up the PUD plan and HOA before the first lot is ever sold. (I believe this is the case in this instance) They own 1 or more HOA votes for every lot in the development. Each new buyer gets one vote. The HOA is not turned over to the actual buyers until a minimum of 80% of the development is sold, and sometimes not until 100% is sold. The developers will take no risk that the HOA might get changed or thrown out before they have sold all the lots. Typical HOA documents allow the owners in the HOA to remove the HOA with a certain percentage of owners voting and a certain majority selecting to do so.

The HOA rules are NOT set up to cater to owners needs, but to cater to potential sales efforts. It is 100% used as a sales tool, with the knowledge that 98% of potential buyers won't know or argue that the rules are contrary to what they will REALLY want/need to do if/when they buy their piece of the dream. This being the case, especially early after the actual owners get the right to vote, HOA rules can be eliminated or modified/re-written to better suit the people living in the community. The longer you wait after the initial right to vote is gained, the more difficult it becomes to get anything changed until many, many years have passed.

Bruce, since the HOA on the back property only has 8 houses, it should be relatively easy to get changes done or get the HOA removed entirely. It is after all an "association" of the effected home owners, and only those 8 have any say or vote. Said home owners could decide they no longer wish to abide by the rules they initially agreed to abide by, and nobody else can argue/litigate with that.

You explained it perfectly. The HOA has not been turned over to the buyers yet. I don't know about the rest of the country, but here in Florida, equestrian communities are for the well-to-do only. She has not told me what the housing, and building restrictions are yet, but normally the homes have to be no less than 3000 air conditioned square feet, which does not include the garage(s), and there is usually a minimum square footage for barns too. Most of the houses in one sell for $750,000 - 4 million dollars. Normally the only type "livestock" allowed in them is horses. I don't think they realized what they had gotten themselves into, just from the way she's talking about it.

 

[bruceha2000]

You will pardon me saying this but:
More money than brains in the people who intentionally get into such a place. Restrictions AGAINST proper shelter for the horses?

How big are the lots? McMansions stomping on a good percentage of the land and minimal space for those horses? Who the heck cares (or should care) if someone doesn't feel the need to blow a lot of energy keeping a house much bigger than they need cool? The A/C "requirement" seems sort of silly since it is darned difficult to live in Florida without it. There is a reason the population didn't increase dramatically until A/C was common and affordable in the 1950's. And, of course, the design of houses people build now would not fare well at all without it.

I guess since there are no trees, it would be unseemly to have a "puny" 2,000 sq ft house out there with the McMansions

I think it is more about show than anything else. There are a lot of multi-millionaires who live in regular size houses that meet their needs and don't get expensive new cars every 2 years. Those are the ones you find out about when they leave a ton of money to their favorite charities.


Edited by Staff

 

[perchie.girl]

You will pardon me saying this but:
More money than brains in the people who intentionally get into such a place. Restrictions AGAINST proper shelter for the horses?

How big are the lots? McMansions stomping on a good percentage of the land and minimal space for those horses? Who the heck cares (or should care) if someone doesn't feel the need to blow a lot of energy keeping a house much bigger than they need cool? The A/C "requirement" seems sort of silly since it is darned difficult to live in Florida without it. There is a reason the population didn't increase dramatically until A/C was common and affordable in the 1950's. And, of course, the design of houses people build now would not fare well at all without it.

I guess since there are no trees, it would be unseemly to have a "puny" 2,000 sq ft house out there with the McMansions

I think it is more about show than anything else. There are a lot of multi-millionaires who live in regular size houses that meet their needs and don't get expensive new cars every 2 years. Those are the ones you find out about when they leave a ton of money to their favorite charities.

I would never by any land that had a home owners association. As it is my land is so divided by easements that I have to have a full on survey in order to fence it. Not just locating corner markers and such... There are two Road easements and the power easement. At least for anything except Tpost and field fence.

parcels here are a minimum of ten acres Anything smaller than that was divided before that zoning was done. So my eighteen acres has to stay whole... I am good with that. I would love to own Toms land. My neigbor. its a full twenty acres and goes back to BLM land

But outside of code requirements and breaking the law in other ways I can pretty much do what I want. What I want is to be left alone.

deb