Property Owners Association Annual Meeting

The Horseshoe Bay Property Owner’s Association Annual Meeting is tomorrow, Saturday, March 15th @ 10:00 AM, at Quail Point on Red Sails in Horseshoe Bay. The agenda is on their website.

One item on the agenda is information about hazardous waste disposal. The LCRA is sponsoring hazardous waste disposal for Llano, Burnet, & San Saba counties on April 26, 2008. Residents of these three counties can bring their products to the LCRA Western District Complex, Texas Highway 29 and R.R. 1431, Llano County. Hours are from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Check their on line schedule.

Lawn and garden products, automotive lubricants, cleaners, paints, and solvents are found in most homes & their improper disposal can pose a threat to health & contaminate land, air, and water. LCRA's Household Hazardous Waste Collection and Education Program teaches the safe and proper management of these materials and collaborates with local governments to properly dispose of them, & to prevent contamination, especially of local water resources.

In helping local groups sponsor one-day waste collections, LCRA provides assistance with sponsorship and community fundraising, media and public awareness, school-based education, product exchanges, and collection and disposal.

For more information about real estate in Horseshoe Bay, please check my web site: http://www.janbusse.com/ .

Spring Has Sprung!

Spring has sprung in Horseshoe Bay! Our temperatures have been consistently in the 60’s & 70’s over the last several weeks and we’ve even hit over 80 several times. Once we can start watering our lawn again, things should be turning green pretty quickly. Since my husband & I live on the lake, our sprinkler system feeds from LBJ & we’ve turned it off until lake levels are back up to normal.

The LCRA will begin refilling Lake LBJ will on Feb. 25 and should be completed by Feb. 27 unless an emergency requires LCRA to refill the lake earlier. Refilling Lake LBJ is expected to draw Lake Buchanan down about one foot. I’m planning on taking photos during that time for posting to the blog & my web site.

With Spring, in Horseshoe Bay especially, comes golf. The Southern Texas PGA Senior Series is leading off their ten tournament schedule on March 17-18 at Horseshoe Bay Resort. The STPGA Senior Series is open to golfers aged 50 and above as of Nov. 1, 2008. Annual membership dues are $125 and include eligibility for Senior Series tournaments plus special branded merchandise. It’s open to both professionals & amateurs. Professionals playing in Senior Series events compete for cash; amateurs for merchandise certificates. Golfers who finish in the Top 6 on the season-ending points list earn spots in the field at the 2008 Texas Senior Open Championship. Check out the entire schedule.

From Lake Front to Creek Side in Less Than A Week

My first blog entry & it’s quite an event! Horseshoe Bay, built on the shores of beautiful Lake LBJ has a new look! The lake level is down five feet and what were once coves & canals are now dry beds and trickling creeks. My husband & I live on the open cove where Slick Rock Creek flows into the lake. You can see by the photos the change is dramatic! All of what looks like beach -- the areas without vegetation -- is normally under water. It took about three or four days to slowly draw down the water. The last time the lake was lowered was 2005. The Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA) says it will take about the same amount of time to refill. They chose now to avoid with the tropical storm season, the peak system recreational demand, & prime fish spawning, which begins in March.

My husband, Roy, Dutch our chubby chocolate Lab, & Dutch's skinny & beautiful girlfriend, Lady went out this weekend to check our waterfront lots. It was a beautiful weekend, about 67 degrees and bright sunshine. The first photo above is from our lot in Wilderness Cove. It's one of my favorite subdivisions on LBJ, private & gated, with estate sized lots & over 65 acres of green belt. We're in the final planning stages of building a spec house on lot #7. It won't be listed until it's further along, but I do have a virtual tour for it. Look at the difference from just a few months ago when the lake was full: Wilderness Cove #7 virtual tour. We ARE marketing lot #35 in Wilderness Cove. Find it & all my other listings on my real estate web site: http://www.janbusse.com/

Photo #2 is from our lot on Applehead Island, virtual tour which is also in the MLS & on my web site. It's one of the few remaining open water lots on the Island. The final photo is a view from our dock, looking up the cove toward Quail Point. Quite a dramatic change from just over a week ago!

We’re very lucky on Lake LBJ: it’s one of the very few constant level lakes in the country. Because of Ferguson Power Plant, our lake levels don’t fluctuate more than twelve inches unless a planned event like this is scheduled. The plant is natural gas powered & cooled by the waters of the lake. In cool weather, jet skiers love the plant's warmer waters. Whether the rest of the Highland Lakes are dry or flooding, Lake LBJ is still within twelve inches of its normal level! Just another reason property values are so strong on our lake.

Since the 500 year event floods last spring & summer, the LCRA approved extending the already slated lake lowering from four to eight weeks. This will give residents time to repair & maintain docks & boat houses and allow for shoreline maintenance, debris cleanup and controlling nuisance plants. We did our major repair last summer, but plan to do some dredging under the boat house while we have the opportunity. If you’re planning on doing lake work, you’ll need to apply for a permit during the draw down. Be ready, however to remove any equipment quickly. If there’s an unexpected flood or more hydroelectric units need to be operated on the upper Highland Lakes, the lake will have to be refilled on short notice.

IMPORTANT TO FELLOW WATERFRONT OWNERS:

My good friend & fellow Keller Williams agent, Ray Gill reminded Roy & I to turn off our automatic lawn sprinkler system that siphons lake water! Good thing he did -- the intake is laying in the mud right now.