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cross mountain ranch

Official Publication of the Cross Mountain Ranch Homeowners Association

Volume 1, Issue 4

NOTES FROM THE PRESIDENT We have rescheduled the meeting with our attorney for August. He has updated wording for our bylaws and we will be reviewing his recommendations at the August meeting. The BOD welcomes input from home owners. Do you have a problem, issue, or complaint that you believe the home owners association needs to investigate? If so, e-mail our CMR Community Liaison, Stephen Van Cleave at [email protected] Residents are also encouraged to attend the monthly BOD meetings held the 1st Tuesday of every month. Check www. crossmountainranch. org to confirm meeting date and location. Have a fun filled and safe summer.

Go Green Go Paperless Sign up to receive the Cross Mountain Ranch Homeowner's Association Newsletter in your inbox. Visit PEELinc.com for details. Copyright © 2009 Peel, Inc.

August 2009

Landscape Watering

Article Courtsey of www.saws.org Watering with an irrigation system or sprinkler is allowed only once a week from 3-8 a.m. and 8-10 p.m. on your designated watering day as determined by your address:

Last Digit of Street Address

Watering Day

0 or 1 2 or 3 4 or 5 6 or 7 8 or 9

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday

No watering on weekends with a sprinkler, soaker hose or irrigation system. Areas without a street address, such as medians and neighborhood entryways, water on Wednesday.

Water for Generations San Antonio’s cheapest source of water is conservation — water we don’t use. That’s why our proven conservation programs have become a cornerstone of the community’s long-term water management and supply strategy. With your help, we can keep SAWS rates among the lowest in the nation, while managing tomorrow’s water today. Cross Mountain Ranch Homeowner's Association - August 2009 

cross mountain ranch Important Numbers EMERGENCY NUMBERS EMERGENCY................................................................911 Fire....................................................................................... 911 Sheriff.................................................................................. 911 Ambulance........................................................................... 911 Poison Center....................................................1-800-222-1222 "Call A Nurse for Children:........................................ 226-8773

Other services Sheriffs Dept. – Non Emergency................................. 335-6000 Sheriffs Dept. – Accidents & Offenses......................... 335-6201 Burn Permit - Bexar County Fire Marshall.................. 335-0300 Leon Springs Volunteer Fire Dept-Non-Emerg.......... 689-11593 Texas One Call (call 48 hours before digging)...1-866-896-6001 Bexar County Household Hazardous Pickup.....1-800-449-7587 Cross Mountain Architectural Committee.................................. ..........................architecturalreview@crossmountainranch.org

Newsletter information Editor (submit articles, events, information)................................. ......................................... [email protected] Publisher Peel,Inc...................................www.peelinc.com, 888-687-6444 [email protected], 888-687-6444

mission statement The Cross Mountain Ranch Homeowner's Association Newsletter The mission of The Cross Mountain Ranch Newsletter is to provide The Cross Mountain Ranch Community with one source of local news content that is written by Cross Mountian Ranch residents. Our goal is to help build the community by connecting local businesses with residents and residents with relevant neighborhood information.

"Be the community."

advertising info Please support the advertisers that make The Cross Mountain Ranch newsletter possible. If you would like to support the newsletter by advertising, please contact our sales office at 512-263-9181 or [email protected]. The advertising deadline is the 20th of the month prior to the issue. 

Cross Mountain Ranch Howeowner's Association - August 2009

Cross Mountain Ranch HOA Officers

President Steve [email protected] Vice President Carlos De Leon................ [email protected] Secretary Kathy Haygood Treasurer Bill [email protected] Deed Restriction Committee Walter [email protected] Architectural Review Committee Charles [email protected] Community Liaison Contact Stephen Van [email protected]

Website.................................... www.crossmountainranch.org Mailing Address 24165 IH 10, Ste 217-159, San Antonio, Tx 78256-1159

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cross mountain ranch Strategies For Surviving A Stage 3 Water Restriction by Calvin Finch, PH.D – Saws Water Resources Director

This is the first time that San Antonio area homeowners and businesses have ever been faced with possible Stage 3 drought restrictions. The restrictions are severe because they must reduce water use by 30 percent, but they are designed to provide enough water to protect a landscape on a long-term basis if the gardener is disciplined in managing available time and water. Under a stage 3 declaration, the basic restrictions are lawn watering with a sprinkler is only allowed one day every two weeks based on the last digits of the address (0, 1 – Monday; 2, 3 – Tuesday; 4, 5 – Wednesday; 6, 7 – Thursday; and 8, 9 – Friday). In Stage 3 you can still water by handheld hose any time, but drip irrigation is limited to Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 3-8 a.m. and 8-10 p.m. — the same as sprinkling times. If everyone follows those rules it will reduce water use by 35 percent without reducing water available in the house or water needed for manufacturing and other job related activities. Here are some suggestions on factSheet_ad_half.pdf 6/25/2009 2:24:33 PM landscape management during a

Stage 3 restriction: • Make a map of your landscape to divide it into watering zones. • Identify wild, tree, or shrub areas that do not need supplemental irrigation. • Identify lawn areas that can be allowed to go dormant until the rains begin again. This would be all or part of a zoysia, Bermuda or buffalo grass lawn. Perhaps only water a small area near the house. • Identify shrubs or perennial areas that only need hand watering or soaker hose watering once every three weeks. • Identify the lawn areas that need sprinkler irrigation every two weeks. • Identify plants such as containers, stressed plants, vegetables or flowers that need hand watering or drip irrigation every week or more often. • Set a day every week when you will walk the landscape looking for plants that need special attention by hand watering. They may not need it every week, but the survey needs to be made.It is soon (Continued on Page 4)

For more information, check out our website at

www.colinshope.org Increasing water safety awareness and standards

DROWNING CAN STILL OCCUR EVEN IF YOU KNOW HOW TO SWIM

FACTS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT DROWNING C

DROWNING WILL AFFECT YOU OR SOMEONE YOU KNOW

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Drowning is the leading cause of unintentional injury-related death in children ages 1-4

NO ONE is “drown proof” – no matter their level of swimming ability.

Falls, entrapments, and injuries lead to drowning regardless of swimming level.

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Drowning is the 2nd leading cause of unintentional injury-related death ages 1-14.

A majority of people overestimate their own and their child’s ability to swim, especially in a panic event.

DROWNING IS QUICK AND SILENT 2min

Drowning occurs in as little as 2 minutes.

4min

Irreversible brain damage occurs in as little as 4 minutes.

5min

Most children are out of sight or missing for less than 5 minutes and usually in the presence of 1 or both parents.

6min

Most children die who are submerged for as little as 6-10 minutes.

Children who drown do not scream, splash, or struggle. They silently slip beneath the water, even with adults & lifeguards present. Copyright © 2009 Peel, Inc.

Cross Mountain Ranch Homeowner's Association - August 2009 

cross mountain ranch Water Restrictions- (Continued from Page 3) obvious that the more of your landscape that you can let go dormant or cover by drip irrigation, the easier time you will have. • Clearly mark the calendar for your watering day. When you only have one day every two weeks it is important that you not miss it. • Remember that watering times are limited to 3-8 a.m. and 8-10 p.m. If you are going to rely on an irrigation controller, make sure that you can set it for once every two weeks. It might be best to operate irrigation systems manually as long as any Stage 3 restriction is in place. On the calendar mentioned in the first bullet, include the times you expect to start and end your sprinkler on you watering day. Go through the same process with your drip system. It can be scheduled Monday, Wednesday and Friday with the same time limitations as the sprinkler. It will be a real advantage to expand your drip system during dry weather. Drip irrigation is efficient and superior for plant growth over sprinkler irrigation. Remember how hot it is out there. While you work to meet the challenge of saving your plants from the heat, also protect yourself. The restrictions lend themselves to doing most of the work in the cool part of the day, but not all of it. Wear a hat and loose-fitting, light-colored clothing.

Annual Meeting Notice

Cross Mountain Ranch Homeowners Association The Annual Cross Mountain Ranch HOA Board meeting will be held on Thursday, October 8 at 7:00 pm. Location: Leon Springs Baptist Church at Boerne Stage Rd. All Cross Mountain Ranch Home Owners are welcome. Please check www. crossmountainranch.org to confirm date and location. Stephen Surratt - President CMR HOA

Meet the CMR Board Secretary: Kathy Haygood

• • • •

Kathy has lived in Cross Mountain Ranch since 2006 and has been on the CMR Board since 2007 “I like how quiet and peaceful the neighborhood is, as well as the wildlife.” My hopes are to keep CMR feeling like the country and a safe place to live and raise families. I like to visit with family, travel and read

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cross mountain ranch Is Your Home an Internet Broadcaster? (It might be and you don’t even know it) Submitted by Laurie Scott

Laptop computers have made computing mobile and very convenient. Wireless routers in our homes have made it possible to use our computers anywhere in the home, and not just where the connection comes into your home. If you have a wireless router at home, then you are using one of three possible levels of security, 1) none, 2) poor and 3) what you SHOULD be using. “None” is real simple, open the box, plug in the router, connect to the Internet. With this connection, ANYONE within range, meaning your neighbors, passersby and that annoying teen-age kid down the who likes to hang around your house in the evening can use your wireless network to access the internet or worse, access your computers at home. Also, any illegal activity over the Internet is going to be traced back to your home, not to the person or computer that may have done it. I often tell the story of the time I moved to Austin from Sacramento 4 1/2 years ago over the Thanksgiving holiday. I stayed overnight with a friend in Flagstaff, Arizona at her parents’ home. Lots of relatives were there and they all smoked (and smoked a lot). Even though it was 35 degrees outside, I went and sat in my car for an hour just to breath fresh air. While in my car I powered up my laptop and discovered a completely unsecured network within range. I connected to it and took the opportunity to check my email and do some web surfing. Then the good Samaritan in me decided to do them a favor. I figured they hadn’t changed the default password on their router, and sure enough I was right. I logged onto their router and took a screen shot of it. Since they were also using the default name for their computer network, I changed mine to match and could see that they had a computer turned on with one of their hard drives shared (no, I didn’t peek at it.) I also saw that they had an Epson printer connected to it, so I downloaded the printer driver and installed it on my laptop, opened Microsoft Word and pasted the screen shot of their router into it. I also included instructions on how to keep prying eyes out of their network, thanked them that I was able to check my email, and then I PRINTED the document out on their printer. Keep in mind I have no idea which house I had connected to. I imagine if they were home that they were a little shocked to have their printer start all by itself and print a note from a complete stranger. Lucky for them I wasn’t someone who wanted to copy their files, 

Cross Mountain Ranch Howeowner's Association - August 2009

plant a virus or lock them out of their own network. The two levels of security that are usually displayed with a padlock symbol are WEP and WPA. WEP falls into the “poor” category of security. WEP will keep honest people out of your network, and will prevent someone from accidentally getting connected to your network, but WEP was “cracked” several years ago, and nowadays it only takes a laptop and 60 seconds to break into a network secured with WEP. What you should be using is WPA (or WPA2) to provides a connection that (with a good password) can’t be cracked in a comfortable lifetime. Log into your router (usually at http://192.168.0.1 or http://192.168.1.1), go to the wireless security settings and set it for WPA. Then change your laptops and other wireless devices to match. There are many different routers on the market, but there are a few standard rules to follow: Changing the security settings on your router should always be done with the computer attached to the router via a network cable - don’t change it over a wireless connection. If you make a mistake, you won’t be able to get back in to fix it. In the wireless security settings on your router, you will see WEP and SHOULD see WPA as options. If you don’t see WPA as an option, your router is probably several years old. Go to the manufacturer’s support page on their web site and look for updated “firmware” to download. Download the firmware and update the router per the instructions provided by the manufacturer. If the latest firmware doesn’t provide WPA encryption, then it’s time for a trip to Best Buy or Fry’s for a new router. ANY new router will provide WPA encryption. Next use a strong password. A strong password should be at least 12 characters long, feel free to make it a lot longer - the longer the better. Be sure to use upper and lower case letters, use numbers AND use special characters like # * ( \ } [ @ ! &. Write it down and put it in a safe place. If it helps, use 2 or 3 non-related words or numbers that you know but no one is likely to guess. Something like maybe the city you got married in with the year of your first car and the name of your brother’s daughter. It might look something like Dallas@1989!Samantha#. Even people you know you won’t guess this. Be creative and have fun, but MAKE IT STRONG! Next month I’ll talk about keeping your information secure when you’re online both at home and away.

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Photos from CMR BBQ on June 28th

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