Travis Country West

Volume 11, Number 4

April 2016

TCW Neighborhood News Official Publication of Travis Country West Community

Honey Bee Swarms

HAPPY SPRING, TWC RESIDENTS!!

Save the Dates Travis Country West 2016 Meeting Dates

Board Meetings: Wednesdays: May 4, August 3, and November 2 All meetings are held at the pool cabana, and begin at 6pm. Annual Meeting: Monday, May 16 Austin Pizza Garden 6266 W. Hwy 290 Registration begins at 6:30 Meeting begins at 7pm We can make our neighborhood even better with your participation! Copyright ÂŠ 2016 Peel, Inc.

Honey bees are beneficial by producing honey, wax and pollinating crops. With warmer temperatures, honey bees are becoming more active and may soon begin to swarm. Honey bee swarms look like a large clump of bees clustered together. The swarm may stay in a location from a few hours to a week. Swarms are produced as a part of the colonyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s reproductive process. An established colony produces a new queen, causing the old queen and half the worker bees to leave the colony to search for a new nesting location. Swarming honey bees are usually gentle and unlikely to sting. Swarms are not protecting their home, food or offspring. Scout bees are sent out from the swarm to search for a nesting site. Colonies produce comb and honey and are defensive. Bees from a colony are more likely to sting as they are guarding their home, food and offspring. Sometimes, honey bee colonies can be found in wall voids, chimneys, attics or sheds. If bees are in a wall void, DO NOT block their entrance; this makes them search for another way to exit and could lead bees into the structure. To keep bees from entering a home, seal any holes found in walls where pipes enter the home, cracks in window framing, knotholes, weep holes, or cracks between wood and brick junctures. While many enjoy having honey bees around, some people are severely allergic to their venom. This, along with other situations, such as bees located near (Continued on Page 2) Travis Country West Homeowners Association Newsletter - April 2016

Travis Country West (Continued from Cover) sensitive areas (such as playgrounds) may require removal or even extermination of the bees. People should NOT try remove or exterminate bees on their own. Beekeepers and pest control companies have equipment to carry out these jobs in a safe manner. The city or county does not provide bee removal services. For more information or help with identification, contact Wizzie Brown, Texas AgriLife Extension Service Program Specialist at 512.854.9600. Check out my blog at www.urban-ipm.blogspot.com The information given herein is for educational purposes only. Reference to commercial products or trade names is made with the understanding that no discrimination is intended and no endorsement by Texas AgriLife Extension Service or the Texas AgriLife Research is implied. Extension programs serve people of all ages regardless of socioeconomic level, race, color, sex, religion, disability, or national origin.

Recycle Old Paint, Batteries Do you have old paint that you’ve been meaning to recycle? Used motor oil or batteries stacking up in the garage? On Saturday, April 23 from 8am12pm, local Girl Scout troops are offering opportunities to recycle this waste in southwest Austin safely and responsibly. Troops will accept sealed containers of paint, used motor oil and antifreeze, along with donations of used batteries, including car batteries. The waste will be transported from three drop off locations to the Austin Recycling Center for disposal. Girl Scout Troop 1825 will be collecting at Clayton Elementary. Troop 2514 will be at Patton Elementary and Troop 2502 will be collecting at Shepherd of the Hills Presbyterian Church on West William Cannon Lane. This location will also be accepting donations of gently used stuffed animals to donate to a children’s shelter. The communitywide collection is the Gold Award project of Girl Scout Ambassador, Madeleine Reinhardt, a junior at LASA high school. Reinhardt’s own troop has held a similar collection for four years. “My troop has been able to help recycle hundreds of gallons of used paint and oil for the City of Austin. I want to inspire other girls to continue this effort but also to show them that they can have a positive impact in our community.” To learn more information about the collection, visit earthdaycleanup2016.weebly.com .

Travis Country West Homeowners Association Newsletter - April 2016

OAK WILT

With the continuation of good weather and the springtime plant growth, a reminder that Oak Wilt continues to be in the area. It is recommended that NO Pruning of Oak Trees occur from February 1 through June 30. For more information: http://texasoakwilt.org/oakwilt/ and https://www.austintexas.gov/page/oak-wilt-suppression.

Alzheimer’s Respite Center in Austin In today's world almost every family is touched by Alzheimer's. Someone in the family falls prey to this dreaded disease and it eventually impacts immediate and often extended family. The person with the greatest responsibility is the primary caregiver. Alzheimer sufferers often reach a stage of the disease that demands that someone be with them twenty-four hours every day. This places the caregiver in an extremely stressful position. If family does not live in the same city or if family is unavailable to help, the burden on the caregiver can become overwhelming. Accomplishing the simplest tasks becomes sometimes impossible because of the pressing needs of the person they are caring for. A public, on-campus Alzheimer's respite center was established in Austin, TX several years ago. The center provides four hours of weekly care for people with Alzheimer's so that their caregivers can have a few hours of respite to do whatever they need to do. Great Hills follows the guidelines of the Alzheimer's Association Capital of Texas Chapter, and works closely with their Executive VP and Program Director to be sure that their Alzheimer's respite center meets all required standards. The Great Hills Baptist Church Radiant Friends Alzheimer’s Respite Center is located at 10500 Jollyville Road, Building A, Austin, TX 78759. Alzheimer’s patients are welcomed with skilled caregivers, enjoyable activities, a nutritious meal, and safe exercise free of charge every Tuesday from 9:30 am until 1:30 pm. If you have a need in this area, contact Barbara Cross at 512-250-0826 for more information, and/ or to apply for services. Copyright © 2016 Peel, Inc.

Travis Country West IMPORTANT NUMBERS

AUSTIN FIRE DEPARTMENT:

Saturday, May 7, 2016 Wildfire Community Preparedness Day Topics covered will include: • Evacuation Readiness: Key to Surviving Wildfire • Protect your home So it can protect you • Insuring for wildfire: Knowing what’s at stake • Fire-Adapted Families: Protecting what matters most Wildfires are a fact of life in Central Texas. But that doesn’t mean we are powerless against them. Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center 4801 La Crosse Avenue Austin, TX 78739 9:00 a.m.—3:00 p.m. Lunch and beverages provide This event is free, but seating is limited! Register now at: Wildfire Survival Symposium Questions? Contact Justice Jones at (512) 974-0199 or via e-mail at justice.jones@austintexas.gov.

PROPERTY MANAGEMENT COMPANY Ascension Property Management Paul & Melissa Yehl admin@ascensionpm.com www.ascensionpm.com Ph: 512-255-1671 Fax: 512-777-4905 BOARD OF DIRECTORS President.....................................................................Julie Saft Vice-President......................................................... Gary Jones Secretary........................................................... Tim Shelhamer Treasurer.................................................... Jonathan Gallmeier Member At Large...............................................Dave Chastain Email........................................ Board@traviscountrywest.com

CITY OF AUSTIN CONTACT NUMBERS Dead Animal Pick up................................................ 947-9400 Abandoned Vehicle.................................................... 280-0075 Pothole Repair........................................................... 974-8750 Street Light Outage................................................... 505-7617

NEWSLETTER PUBLISHER Peel, Inc.............................www.PEELinc.com, 512-263-9181 Editor - Pat Muntz................................. patmuntz@gmail.com Advertising..............advertising@PEELinc.com, 512-263-9181

ADVERTISING INFO Please support the businesses that advertise in the Travis Country West Community Newsletter. Their advertising dollars make it possible for all Travis Country West residents to receive the monthly newsletter at no charge. No homeowners association funds are used to produce or mail the newsletters. If you would like to support the newsletter by advertising, please contact our sales office at 512-2639181 or advertising@PEELinc.com. The advertising deadline is the 8th of each month for the following month's newsletter.

Travis Country West Homeowners Association Newsletter - April 2016

Travis Country West ANNUAL LAKEWAY TEA BENEFITING HELP OUR WOUNDED NETS RECORD $4,800 Stunning centerpieces, gorgeous hats and special costumes filled the Hills Country Club for the Annual Lakeway Tea benefiting Help Our Wounded on Saturday, March 5, 2016. The amount raised from tea ticket sales and donations is a record setting $4,800. This money will benefit so many wounded veterans, who have valiantly served our country. Almost 200 women attended the high tea with proceeds benefitting Help Our Wounded. Many participants competed for prizes by decorating tables with many different and creative concepts. After every guest had voted for their favorite tables, high tea was served. Help Our Wounded (HOW) was founded in 2009 by Rosie Babin after their son was severely injured. The mission of HOW is to help wounded veterans and their families with necessary financial assistance to ensure the assistance is a hand-up not a hand out. HOW is unique in its ability to respond quickly to the veterans’

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needs. “What a stunning group of ladies, surrounded by beautiful tables settings and all for a worthy cause to help our wounded veterans and their caregivers. Thank you for being a part of healing American heroes,” said Rosie Babin. To learn more about HOW go to helpourwounded.org. Nancy Clayton and Ann Neighbors, tea co-chairs, thanked everyone for their contributions to HOW and for making the tea such a success. The table designers were recognized, door prizes given out after which Clayton and Neighbors announced the table prize winners. First Place – On Broadway designed by Linda Kephart Second Place – Peacock Paradise designed by Leanne DuPay Third Place – American Strong

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Travis Country West Homeowners Association Newsletter - April 2016

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Travis Country West

NatureWatch: Mud Hens by Jim and Lynne Weber

Spend any amount of time observing wildlife around freshwater wetlands, swamps, marshes, suburban lakes, and sewage ponds, and you’ll no doubt see a Mud Hen or American Coot (Fulica americana). Commonly mistaken to be ducks, coots belong to a distinct scientific order and differ significantly from other species of marsh birds.

plumes covering the front half of their bodies, often referred to as ‘chick ornaments.’ While these plumes get bleached out after about 6 days, experiments have shown that chicks with more of this ornamentation are given preferential treatment by their parents. The oldest known coot lived to be more than 22 years old. In winter, coots can be founds in large groups or ‘rafts’ of mixed waterfowl and in groups numbering thousands of individuals. They can consume very large amounts of aquatic vegetation, but because they live in wetlands, they can accumulate toxins from pollution sources including agricultural runoff, industrial waste, and nuclear facilities. As such, scientists monitor coots as a way of measuring the effect these toxins have on the health of the environment at large. Send your nature-related questions to naturewatch@austin.rr.com and we’ll do our best to answer them. Check out our book, Nature Watch Austin, published by Texas A&M University Press, and our blog at naturewatchaustin.blogspot.com if you enjoy reading these articles!

American Coots are commonly called ‘Mud Hens’.

An overall blackish, plump, chicken-like bird with a rounded head, red eyes, a sloping whitish bill with a dark band near the tip, and a small reddish brown forehead shield, coots swim like ducks but do not have webbed feet like ducks. Their yellow-green legs end in long toes with broad lobes of skin on either side that help them kick through the water. Each time the bird lifts its’ feet, the lobes fold back to facilitate walking on dry land. Their tiny tails and short wings make them awkward and clumsy fliers, and they often require many wing beats and long running takeoffs to get airborne. Coots mainly eat aquatic plants and can dive in search of food, but they can also forage and scavenge on land for terrestrial plants, arthropods, fish, insects, and mollusks. Mating season occurs in May and June, with coots requiring heavy stands of aquatic vegetation along a shoreline with some standing water within those stands. It is here that they make their nests, which consist of multiple structures used as display platforms, egg nests, and brood nests. Egg nest material is woven into a shallow basket and lined with finer grasses to hold the eggs. The entire nest is anchored to upright plant stalks and is generally a floating structure. Females deposit eggs between sunset and midnight, one per day, until the average clutch of 9 eggs is complete. Both males and females share the 21-day incubation responsibility. Being persistent re-nesters, coots will replace lost clutches within 2 days during the deposition period. Additionally, once hatching begins and a certain number of chicks are present, coots will abandon the remaining eggs. Unlike the drab color of the adults, coot chicks are quite colorful, having conspicuous, orange-tipped, ornamental Copyright © 2016 Peel, Inc.

An American Coot showing its’ lobed feet. Travis Country West Homeowners Association Newsletter - April 2016

Travis Country West At no time will any source be allowed to use TCW Neighborhood News' contents, or loan said contents, to others in anyway, shape or form, nor in any media, website, print, film, e-mail, electrostatic copy, fax, or etc. for the purpose of solicitation, commercial use, or any use for profit, political campaigns, or other self amplification, under penalty of law without written or expressed permission from Peel, Inc. The information in the TCW Neighborhood News is exclusively for the private use of the Travis Country West HOA and Peel, Inc. DISCLAIMER: Articles and ads in this newsletter express the opinions of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Peel, Inc. or its employees. Peel, Inc. is not responsible for the accuracy of any facts stated in articles submitted by others. The publisher also assumes no responsibility for the advertising content with this publication. All warranties and representations made in the advertising content are solely that of the advertiser and any such claims regarding its content should be taken up with the advertiser. * The publisher assumes no liability with regard to its advertisers for misprints or failure to place advertising in this publication except for the actual cost of such advertising. * Although every effort is taken to avoid mistakes and/or misprints, the publisher assumes no responsibility for any errors of information or typographical mistakes, except as limited to the cost of advertising as stated above or in the case of misinformation, a printed retraction/correction. * Under no circumstances shall the publisher be held liable for incidental or consequential damages, inconvenience, loss of business or services, or any other liabilities from failure to publish, or from failure to publish in a timely manner, except as limited to liabilities stated above.

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Travis Country West Homeowners Association Newsletter - April 2016

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Attention KIDS: Send Us Your Masterpiece! Color the drawing below and mail the finished artwork to us at: Peel, Inc. - Kids Club 308 Meadowlark St Lakeway, TX 78734-4717 We will select the top few and post their artwork on our Facebook Page - Facebook.com/PeelInc. DUE: April 30th

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Travis Country West Homeowners Association Newsletter - April 2016

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Travis Country West Homeowners Association Newsletter - April 2016