Courtyard - December 2022

Many Thanks to the participants at Park Volunteer Day!

The Courtyard Book Club will start the new year reading a mystery, “The Last Thing He Told Me,” at its January 3, 2023 1 p.m. meeting. And the book club has set its reading list for the new year.

Laura Dave’s mystery thriller spent 48 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and the book is reportedly soon to be a limited series for Apple TV+. The story centers around the disappearance of a woman’s husband and an unfolding story that reveals he is not who his wife thought he was. Meanwhile she is entrusted with his teenaged daughter from a previous marriage and they set out to learn the truth about their husband/dad.

The Courtyard Book Club meets at the home of its chair, Lou Blemaster, 5612 N. Scout Island Circle, at 1 p.m. the first Tuesday of each month. To receive monthly book club emails, contact Lou at LouBlemaster@gmail.com. Even those who haven’t read the monthly book are welcomed to join your neighbors for some interesting discussion. And if you have friends in other areas of Austin who would like to join a book club, feel free to include them.

Each fall, the book club nominates and chooses books for the following year. Here are the dates of the 2023 meetings and the books to be discussed. Join us!

Jan. 3 – The Last Thing He Told Me

COURTYARD BOOK CLUB

A park volunteer day was held in the Courtyard Park on Saturday, October 22. If you enjoy the playground and trails of the park, please consider attending the next volunteer day. We have two volunteer days each year: The next volunteer day will be in the Spring of 2023. We did trail maintenance along the pathways, picked up downed limbs and branches, and gave the picnic tables a top coating of polyurethane. We are so grateful to those of you who generously give your time to make the park more enjoyable for us all!

A special thanks to the following volunteers for their involvement in this project: Dave Scholes, Terry Edwards, Joany & Lewis Price, Jim Lloyd, Fred Wahlers, Richard Stelzner, Ronnie Schleiss, Konavis Smith, Jim Vence, Milam & Jordyn Raemsch & Family, Travis Tegland, Charles Crooks, Garrett & Millie Hicks and family, Meredith & Justin Kloetzer, Waneen Spirduso, and Firoozeh Tuller.

Feb. 7 – This Tender Land

March 7 – Endurance

April 4 – The Ones We Leave Behind May 2 – The Thursday Murder Club

June 6 – After the Last Border

July 11 – Man’s Search for Meaning

Aug. 1 – If I Had Your Face

Sept. 5 – Horse

Oct. 3 – An Anonymous Girl

Nov. 7 – Oil and Marble

Dec. 5 – Holiday Party

Jan. 2, 2024 – The Four Winds

Courtyard Caller CHA BOARD OF DIRECTORS

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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.

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President Konavis Smith.................. ........................ konavis@gmail.com

Vice President

Treasurer Jim Lloyd jlloyd@austin.rr.com, 512.231.0855

Secretary Waneen Spirduso................................. ....spirduso@utexas.edu

BOARD MEMBERS-AT-LARGE

Charles Crooks

Meredith Massey-Kloetzer......................meremass@gmail.com Henry Mistrot 512.459.7313 Randall Tuller........................rtuller@mac.com, 713.677.4104

COMMITTEES

Environmental Control (ECC)

Diana Apgar ............................... ..............fd1966fd@aol.com

Community Park Terry Edwards t.edwards54321@gmail.com, 214.392.4627

Welcome Erik Maye erikmaye@gmail.com, 512.626.2404

Social & Decorating Joany Price ................... joanyprice@gmail.com, 512.775.8942

Landscape & Decorating Ed Ueckert ........................................................ 512.345.6137

Security Jim Lloyd ........................ jlloyd@austin.rr.com, 512.231.0855

Communications, Editor – Courtyard Caller Jen Harold.......... harold.jennifer@gmail.com, 281.773.2880

Compliance Goodwin & Company, 512.502.2115 Kayak Jim Vence ...................... jimvence@gmail.com, 512.436.5678

Fire Safety Richard Stelzner .................................. arebeess42@gmail.com

Area Development and Zoning Liaison

Denise Hogan 214.403.4454

SUB-HOA CONTACTS

Center Court:

Amanda Gilliland mandagilliland@gmail.com, 512-927-7118

Travis County Courtyard (aka "Backcourt")

Terry Edwards t.edwards54321@gmail.com

Villas at Courtyard: Thomas Hoy Thomas.Hoy@freescale.com, 512.231.1270

Wolf Court: Susanne Doell ................... Drdoell@gmail.com, 512.454.3400

Copyright © 2022 Peel, Inc.

Courtyard Caller

Water Conservation in the Winter Saves Money Year Round

Conserving water during late fall and winter saves you money on two fronts. First, you get a break from those landscape-induced higher summer water bills. Second, and just as important, conserving water during this time can keep your wastewater bills lower for the next 12 months.

There is no meter on your home’s wastewater line, so to determine residential wastewater volume Austin Water uses a process called wastewater averaging. Austin Water averages your water use during your three monthly billing periods between mid-November and mid-March. This average sets a cap on the wastewater volume you will be billed for the next 12 month period. In late fall/winter, the typical landscape rarely needs supplemental water, pools don’t usually need to be topped off and slip and slides have been packed away. Without all that outdoor water demand, this timeframe typically gives a good indication of how much water is being used indoors, going down the drain, and ultimately to a wastewater treatment plant. The lower that average water use is, the lower your wastewater charges can be. Let’s say a family of four averages 6,000 gallons of water use monthly during their wastewater averaging period. As summer comes along, and their outdoor water use increases, they use 12,000 gallons per month. The family will be charged for 12,000 gallons of water, but

-Jacob Johnson, Austin Water

because of their wastewater average, they will continue to only be charged for the 6,000 gallons of wastewater average cap. Even after the wastewater average is set, wastewater charges can be lowered by using less water than the wastewater average cap. If the family with the 6,000 wastewater average uses 5,000 gallons of water one month, they will only be charged 5,000 gallons for wastewater volume. Wastewater volume is billed at the wastewater average cap or at the same volume as the monthly water usage, whichever is lower.

A higher wastewater average will result when irrigation systems are left on or leaks are present during the 3 month wastewater average period, and can be very costly. Turn off automatic irrigation systems and identify and repair leaks early.

To find your specific waste water averaging period, check out the Utility News section on your utility billing statement. Customers must have at least 60 days of billed water usage during the wastewater averaging period to have a calculated wastewater average. Visit www.austintexas.gov/wastewateraveraging for additional information.

This winter, practice good water conservation behaviors, turn off your irrigation system, and see how low you can go!

A Reminder to All Residents

As we are all cleaning up our yards, please remind your yard crews: NO YARD WASTE should be left in the street or piled along the curbs. Any yard debris should be swept and bagged for collection. Help keep Bull Creek free and clear of leaf litter. DO NOT allow your leaves to accumulate along your curb, as all of this debris will be deposited into Bull Creek through the storm drains. Leaf litter can build up in Bull Creek causing a vegetative sludge and hampering recreation. Please trim back any plants, bushes or trees that cover the sidewalk – especially those at eye level. The City of Austin collects yard trimmings curbside each week. Please place your lawn and garden waste in your green compost bin or in city-approved yard waste bags. Yard waste bags are available for purchase at area grocery and home improvement stores. Thank you!

COURTYARD FIRE SAFETY

Like our ancient ancestors, when the temperatures drop in the cold months, December, January and especially February, we start a fire, well…we actually turn on furnaces and supplement with fireplaces to keep warm. When we celebrate the holidays we probably stay in-doors and gather together to cook and bake and share the company of family and friends. It may seem redundant, but worth repeating, now that Thanksgiving is a fading memory. Be careful with electrical decorations, pets, children and preparing a feast for the holidays:

- If you are sleepy or have consumed alcohol ask for help when using the oven or stovetop.

- Don’t leave the kitchen or the house if you’re cooking or ask someone to keep watch.

- Keep flammable items like towels, paper and wood implements, away from your stovetop.

- Small cooking fires can be smothered by turning off the burner and covering with a lid.

- Oven fires can be smothered by turning-off the heat and keeping the oven doors closed.

- And there should always be a fire extinguisher near the kitchen. House fire and carbon monoxide alarms are an essential feature to keep homes safe and secure. A recommendation that often goes unheeded is to test and change the batteries twice a year, including wired alarms with a battery backup. Plan to do it New Year’s Day and 4th of July to help remember. Add it to your list of resolutions. And while we are evaluating the impact of fire let’s keep in mind the risks of wildfire. During late October and November temperatures moderated and weather was relatively wet. That was good news after the hot and dry spring and summer. Although the long-term forecast from NOAA predicts a high percentage of drought conditions through January 2023 for most of Texas. Understanding and preparing for the most threatening wildfire seasons, summer and fall, gets us a head-start. Researchers have attempted to develop models to predict the movement of wildfires. Colorado State University engineers Hussam Mahmoud and Akshat Chulahwat have developed one that may predict how wildfires impact a community and liken the mitigation strategies to tactics used to control the spread of COVID-19. A community’s immune system can be boosted by mapping a structure’s surroundings (contact tracing), clearing defensible space around structures (social distancing), reinforcing structures to be more fire resistant (immunization), and creating a buffer zone at the wildland-urban interface (closing borders). Some homes are like super-spreaders, they are more at risk of fire and more likely to transmit fire to other homes. Targeting certain homes or areas for reinforcement could maximize a community’s mitigation efforts, As mentioned in past articles there are online resources on preparing homes for wildfire threats, such as, How to Prepare Your

Home for Wildfires (https://www.nfpa.org/-/media/Files/Firewise/ Fact-sheets/FirewiseHowToPrepareYourHomeForWildfires.pdf).

Also, in-person Home Risk Evaluations provided by the Courtyard HOA, can be requested by emailing fire-safety@courtyardhoa.org or by emailing arebeess42@gmail.com.

Meanwhile, y’all have a happy and safe get together during all the holidays you celebrate and a healthy and prosperous New Year.

Courtyard Caller FOREST THERAPY

Do you ever feel overwhelmed and swear you can’t take one more phone call, wash one more load of clothes or cook one more meal? Do you ever want to tell your co-workers to take a hike? Well, maybe you should follow your own advice and take a hike. Can taking a walk in the park or a nearby forest really be beneficial to our mental and physical health?

Numerous studies have been conducted concluding that a mere walk in in the woods does wonders for our overall health. One such study was done by the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin. Researchers devised the study using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRi) involving a small almond-shaped structure in the center of the brain called the amygdala. The amygdala is involved with stress processing, emotional learning and the fight-or-flight response. Adult volunteers were asked to fill out questionnaires and perform memory tasks. Some of the activities were designed to create stress. While performing these tasks, they underwent MRI’s. Some of the participants were then asked to take a 1-hour walk in either a busy urban area or a forest. After their walk, each volunteer was given another stress-inducing task and completed another

-Cheryl Conley

questionnaire while undergoing another MRI. The volunteers who took a walk in the forest showed reduced activity in the amygdala indicating less stress.

“The results support the previously assumed positive relationship between nature and brain health, but this is the first study to prove the causal link,” says environmental neuroscientist Simone Kuhn, head of the Lise Meitner Group for Environmental Neuroscience at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development.

This study gives some of the clearest evidence yet that stress can be reduced by simply getting out and enjoying nature.

Research has found that adults and adolescents in the U.S. spend over 90% of their time indoors and more than seven hours per day looking at screens (EPA, 1989; Moody, 2022; Rideout, Foehr, & Roberts, 2010). Do yourself a favor and spend some time with Mother Nature. Bask in the sunshine, breathe in the fresh air and put that phone away!

Helping Monarch Butterflies

Where have all the monarchs gone? And what you can do about it? The epic monarch butterfly migration has nearly vanished but still, you may have seen a few in late October on their way to Mexico where they overwinter. They will begin their return to Texas in early March. Seeking emerging milkweeds, they move through Texas laying eggs on the young plants before dying. Their offspring consume the milkweeds and then continue to the eastern U.S. and southern Canada. See https://tinyurl.com/MoreOnMonarchs for more background information. The most helpful thing a person can do to help these butterflies, is to plant milkweed. Unfortunately, many local nurseries sell tropical milkweed which is harmful to monarchs. Avoid this even if it’s all that’s available. Any other milkweed is safe, but some are especially well suited to our climate. The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center lists several native Texas species at https://tinyurl.com/ LBJWCnatives

If you would like to start from seed, and this is recommended because spring seedlings are in very high demand, December is a good time to begin. The Native American Seed website offers a Sustain the Migration Kit, which includes a variety of milkweeds with instructions and vermiculite. It also sells individual seed

-Maura Powers

packets. See the catalog at https://tinyurl.com/seedsource Milkweeds can be uncooperative, but don’t give up! The best result I ever had was by planting seeds in ½ gallon milk containers with potting soil and vermiculite. They were left out on the back porch for the entire winter and many seedlings emerged that spring. Next, transplant the seedlings where they will thrive. This may be a matter of trial and error. The plants do need some TLC when they are young. Not too much sun, and some water. Milkweeds are perennials, so once you get plants growing, leave them be so they can re-seed the area each year. Another helpful thing is to grow “pollinator” plants that offer sustenance to adult butterflies. An easy, fast-growing plant is the Gregg mistflower, and there are many others. For a directory of suitable plants, refer to the City of Austin’s Native and Adapted Landscape Plants available at many nurseries or online at https:// tinyurl.com/COAPlants

Thank you for joining the efforts to sustain the monarchs and their millennia-old migration