Anahuac NWR Bird Rookery

In 2019 I had a chance to visit Anahuac NWR. With COVID-19 driving many of us to seek out activities that can be done safely with social distancing during the COVID pandemic. 

The Anahuac NWR Bird Rookery part of Anahuac NWR is a bit odd, its tucked many miles from the main visitor infrastructure but it has some great short trails to get you into the lowlands where the gulf of Mexico and the State of Texas blend together.

The first parking area will put you at the live oak trailhead. The area is well paved, easy for my sedan to navigate. Its buggy, I suggest you bring your bug spray. The total length of the trail is less than 1/2 a mile and you will move across a diverse set of landscapes ending at a waterway where you can feel far away from everything.

The second parking area you will come across puts you at the Rookery trial head. This trail is better developed (Fewer bugs), longer perhaps 1- mile with an equally diverse set of landscapes, ending at a large field that is half marsh, half solid land. This trail is a birding dreamscape. We saw a couple out looking for a few feathered friends who were on their trips back north.

I think that I most enjoyed was the water crossing at the very start of the trail, so many fish, birds, and turtles to be seen. We easily lingered for 30 min spotting these animals as they enjoyed the warm sun and cooler water.

We coupled our trip to this part of the refuge with an afternoon on Bolivar flying kits and enjoying the gulf.

The total trip from downtown Houston and back was 9 hours. A great chance to get out of the city for the day.

Explore Houston - Lawndale/ Wayside

As transplants to Houston, we are excited to take some time and explore parts of this diverse and dynamic city.

Last spring (2019) we spent a day in the Lawndale/ Wayside area, very near the U of H campus.

This day activity that can be done with social distancing during #COVID-19

First stop: Kickin Kombucha https://www.kickinkombuchapickup.com/ This local Kombucha brewer is yummy and the staff is exactly what you would hope, passionate about the product, helpful if you have questions and always have something unique to share while you are picking up your order.

From there a quick drive about 1.5 miles brings you to Smither Park https://www.orangeshow.org/ I am not sure I have words to describe the incredible visual pleasure of this park but I hope these photos give you a sample.

From Smither Park, we walked the very short street/ parking lot to Fonde Park that connects to the Brays Bayou Greenway Trail.

The Bluebonnets were out and the trail itself is in great shape. The Bayou still shows signs of construction, rehab, and rebuild after Hurricane Harvey.  We walked about 1.5 miles before turning around and heading back to our car.

Total Time on this trip from departure downtown to return was under 3 hours.

Looking for more Houston activity ideas? Check out Its not Hou's post about COVID activity: https://itsnothouitsme.com/2020/03/24/10-ways-to-stay-active-during-covid-19-in-houston/

COVID-19

7 weeks into social distancing. If I was going to title each week the 7 titles would be:

Excitement?

Overworked

Overwhelmed

Exhaustion

Sick or is it allergies

Grandfather passes

Cramps

Tomorrow

Reflections are written and delayed posting not a reflection of current status, but a window into a past moment.

Cant do it all

To be a high achiever

or an overachiever

I find that I excel in the face of unimaginable challenges where many before me have faltered and where the stakes are unimaginably high and the oceans continue to rises.



But I do it at a cost

There are weeks that I don't talk to friend and family that I love

There are days where the sun it out and the weather is perfect and I am overwhelmed by the though of leaving my apartment.

It is not depression its just exhaustion.

A deep physical and emotional need to hibernate for a day and to re-charge.

Tomorrow I'll go outside.

Tomorrow I'll call my mom

Tomorrow I'll be ready to take on the evolving humanitarian needs in America.

2020 Donation Guide

2020 charitable giving time has arrived. We truly enjoy annual giving research. We are able to learn about so many interesting organizations and incredible work being done. During the search I add the feeds for these great groups to my social account regardless if we decided to donate to them.

Last years monthly donation plan did not work out as well as we hoped. Life became chaotic and there were many months that we simple let making a donation fall off our priority list.

This year we are trying something different with three gifts, each under $500 to three non profits in January.

The focus is on combating climate change with non-profits that have action beyond research. Not being environmental scientists I turned to google to help us find our three. The first question we had was what are the biggest environmental issues facing our planet? Schooled by Science listed 10 issues, the three that we picked from that list are biodiversity, water pollution & pollution

In reading about biodiversity we learned that habitat protection and restoration are key to biodiversity. The great lakes region is one that we both love so we narrowed our search and found Michigan Nature Association, They were referenced by several other conversation groups as a key partner. The end of year report had a great blend of land acquisition for preservation, education and natural area stewardship - creating public access.

Pollution was the next issue we wanted to impact. Carbon capture having been in the news was where the google search started. Reading about the controversies and challenges with carbon capture I noticed a next article link about the risk faced in Tongass forest. This is a very concerning risk and we found several groups doing advocacy around the logging threat but we could not find any direct action organizations. Keeping in this part of the world we found Litter Free a non-profit who put on regular litter clean up days and provide ongoing education and advocacy about litter free actions and recycling.

Final issue that we want to make a positive impact on this year is water pollution. Google results showed that dynamic habitat protection and restoration are important elements to address this issue. With the help of Charity Navigator we narrowed to another area we both love and looked at many Washington based organizations. The decision was Northwest Watershed Institute. Northwest Watershed Institute leverages land acquisition, public/ private restoration and education to improve water quality in areas of pacific salmon natural habitat.


As in years past we will provide in kind gifts to the Red Cross & an annual donation to our local United Way.  We have just started to volunteer with a local animal rescue (Houston Pets Alive) and are keeping an open mind that we may add them to our in-kind donations list in 2020.


The goal in sharing this each year is to give light onto some great organizations and to hopefully encourage you to make a positive impact as part of your plan for the year.

Fort Boggy State Park Cabins

Cabin 1

Cabin 5

Cabin 4

Cabin 3

Cabin 2

Had the chance to introduce my brother and sister - in - law to the joys of staying at Texas State Parks. As they are not big outdoors people the cabins at Fort Boggy State Park were the perfect location.

The park has recently redone the cabins and the information that I could find online was limited. But after an awesome weekend of fishing, campfires and board games on the screened-in porches I would say that the best to least best for the cabins are 4, 3, 5, 1, 2.

The park itself is fairly limited, not many hiking trails, the lake is small and the bathroom options are clean but limited.

The cabins are incredible with AC, fridge, beds, screened and unscreened porches with ceiling fans and each has a picnic table and fire pit. Really ideal if you want to relax and enjoy slowing down & being in the forest.

Donation Guide 2019

In what is now an annual tradition my partner and I are spending part of our new years making charitable donation goals for the upcoming year.

Check out last years here: https://surrealvolunteering.blogspot.com/2017/12/day-6-7daysofsocialmediavulnerabilitych.html

The first year we focused on water systems. The second on expression and speech. This year we are going a bit more local with a focus on things that have impacts in the Houston area.

Houston Magazine ran a great article about local non-profits that are making a positive impact in our community. Check it out here: https://www.houstoniamag.com/articles/2018/7/20/nonprofits-houston

With this to start us off, we have 4 that we will give to, 3 times each over the year.

The 2019 charities of our choice are:

Houston Public Media: https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/ - This has some carry over as in 2018 when we donated to NPR.

Houston Justice: https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/

Clinic Access Support Network: https://clinicaccess.org/index.html

ACLU Texas: https://www.aclutx.org/

As in years past, we will provide in-kind gifts to the Red Cross & an annual donation to our local United Way.  Partway into 2018 we began carrying "homeless kits" in our car and have been passing out bags with small support items to those we pass begging at stoplights. These bags have items like water bottles, kleenex, and cough drops. We plan to continue this direct style of donation into 2019.


The value of supporting systems that make our world a better place is priceless, but from over 20 years in the nonprofit sector, I know that monetary donations are required for these systems to function and our world to be better.

My wish for 2019 is that the world is a better place, one donation, one hour, one person at a time.