Alphabe-Thursday..."R" as in REPURPOSE

It's time again for Alphabe-Thursday at Jenny Matlock..."off on my tangent." This week Ms. Matlock asked the class to work on the letter "R."

I was already thinking ahead to the "R" post when we went down to Galveston a couple of weeks ago for the Historic Home Tour. I had read in the Houston Chronicle about the way some of the dead trees from Hurricane Ike were being repurposed. You can read the article here.

My Dad used to have an expression. He'd say, "You can't make chicken salad out of chicken _ _ _ _." (You'll have to use your imagination...we're keeping this a G rated post.) Galveston has made the best of a bad situation. Many beautiful, large Live Oak trees died when the storm surge swept across the island, but Galveston found a way to make chicken salad.

Here are pictures of the results.


A group of Herons.


This was the largest one we saw. Much of the dead tree was used in this statue.


A flock of birds were created from one of the branches.


Even the trunk was carved with little animals and reptiles around the base.


All of the upper branches were carved. I can't help but wonder how it was done. Did someone stand on a ladder? Perhaps they used scaffoling? Maybe they did it the old fashion way and climbed up the tree?


This was in front of City Hall which is located next to a Fire Station. It's a fire hydrant with running water.


You can't have a fire hydrant without a Dalmation!


This home had a guard dog.


This dog sat happily in the front yard. (The basket of pups was concrete and not carved from a dead tree.)


Isn't this a cute frog?


I wasn't quite sure why there was a Japanese lady in this yard. Perhaps the owners are of Japanese descent?


And this yard had a mermaid.


This is a pelican on a post. I could only take the picture from the street and the pelican is facing the house.


I really liked this one. It's a memorial to the trees that were lost in the storm.


Here's a close up. It says, "In Memoriam Of Galveston's Lost Oaks."


I'm not sure why these people chose the Tin Man, but he's cute.



This large porpoise was in a backyard. I didn't have the nerve to knock on the door and ask if I could go in the back to take a picture, so it's taken from the street.


They also had an owl. You can see the porpoise again on the right. Since the house was on a corner I was able to get two different angles.


This is a mermaid and some porpoises.


Isn't this a cute little porpoise?


This squirrel was carved and then placed on a stump.


I'm not sure how long these will last. They were all varnished or painted, but I would think eventually they would start to rot or termites would move in. Hopefully, they'll be around for a good number of years.

I missed our letter "Q" assignment last week (I didn't QUIT school.) and I might miss again in the next few weeks, but I'll be back and so will my doll scenes.

I hope you read this assignment carefully. There might be a TEST when we get to the letter "T."

(Nah...I'm only kidding.)