Death Survey (120-05)

Robert Kidd

The "R. KIDD" Inscription on Roy Road

by Thomas Kidd
7/26/2010

I started the inscription in July 2009. It has been about a year now, and I wanted to make some notes about it. Some of this is a little personal.

History:
After Pop's illness in late August of 2008, then hurricane Ike in September, then Pop's subsequent death on October 8th. I began taking care of Mom most weekends (Kent and Kathy were covering the weekdays). The first year of spending almost every weekend at Roy Road was doing hurricane related house/garage/well-house repairs, clearing debris and trying to keep up with the never-ending task of mowing. But after that first year, most essential repairs were done (many of which were also done by Roger and Jeff), so I had more and more time to simply "maintain" the property (mostly mowing).

The Idea:
One time after I had mowed the "back-five" (the N.E. and S.E. quadrants), I was resting and admiring how awesome that much land looked after a good cutting. But I also thought it was a tremendous waste, since the house and ancillary buildings were only on the S.W. quadrant. I wondered if there was anything that could be done with that section. I remembered once a couple of years before his death, Pop told me I could do whatever I wanted with the property (I had been thinking about putting up a small steel storage building to store my tractor & other items). And I remembered seeing from the air on flights to Austin what the LUECKE family had done with their property just north of Smithville. We had just lost Pop hardly a year ago and I was still grieving, and felt it so unfair that I was able to stand here on property he worked hard to acquire, and he was not able to. I wished I could somehow tell him that I still recognized this place as his, and I didn't want death to take it from him. So when I realized I had a large canvas available to work with, well, the idea that I could write a message of some sort was born.

I wasn't sure what to put at first. Some early ideas I had were: "KIDD", "RKK", "RKK/WLK", "R.K. KIDD", "RK & WL KIDD", "We Miss You R. Kidd", etc. I finally settled on "R. KIDD" because I liked it, it honored Pop, and it fit well into exactly one quadrant (I thought I would save the N.E. quadrant for something else).

The Luecke's had used existing trees and land clearing for their inscription, and it was three miles long. I didn't have the luxury of that much land or time waiting for trees to grow, so I thought the next best way to mark the land would be tactical grass cutting. It would require maintenance, but at least I could make it happen.

Starting:
The site work started by first cutting and measuring the entire 10 acre property. Once I found the true east-west center line, I was able to mark it, and then find and mark the exact center point of the property, thus dividing it into the quadrants. Then I turned to Microsoft Visio to draw everything. I made a drawing of the property using measurements I had taken on site. I then added a text box with the inscription (at about 80pt size on 8-1/2x11 paper) and centered it in the S.E. quadrant. My first drawing/idea on paper had the letters at 60' high, much smaller than what finally became reality. I tried various fonts, and even italics. I found using Arial font worked best, and I still had a lot of available space to work with, so I kept increasing the size, while trying to keep within the S.E. quadrant of the property. I zoomed the drawing to 400%, set the drawing units to feet, and began measuring the letters (on the computer), making marks on the drawing and recording the letter dimensions.

I had labeled the points on the drawing using letters of the alphabet. I guess I wasn't thinking very well, because I didn't realize until I got to the letter "D" that I wasn't going to have enough letters. So I switched to subscripts, such as R1, R2, K1, K2, etc., which is evident on the drawing. I also didn't realize just how much work this was becoming, both at my desk and later out in the field. Ultimately, my third drawing became the final one.

Back on site, I began by measuring and marking the first points, starting with "A", then "B", etc. It was very time consuming with only one person measuring compared to if I had another person to hold one end of the tape measure. Needless to say, I had to do lots of double-backing. And of course it was an extremely hot summer to boot. But I used the center point and the property fence lines to place the letters, and line-of-sight to line them up. I used the 3-4-5 triangle rule to square the letters where needed. I haven't yet perfected the arcs needed for the "R" and the "D"s, but will do that when final adjustments time comes.

On a side note, although the grass was just cut, I knew I would have to mow it again someday, so I purposely placed the permanent stakes very low to the ground, so I could cut the field without damaging the stakes. During the process I often couldn't see the stakes I had placed, because they were too far away, and too low to the ground. So I placed temporary tall stakes at strategic places for visual reference from a distance.

Once I had the stakes placed, I could now use string lines and the push mower to "draw" a border for each letter. I had previously cut the field quite low with the tractor in order to measure, but the push mower could cut even lower to the ground, making it better for drawing the letters in short grass. After the outline of the letters were done, and after a few corrections, I hand mowed each letter. This was a lot of work! I'm glad our name is KIDD and not BEAUREGARD.

Working Blind:
As I am only 5'10" tall, my visual reference of the flat inscription is quite bad. Any 2-diminsional item does not look the same when looking at it flat from the horizon as it does looking at it from directly overhead. So I could only guess at what it might look like when viewed from the sky, which is what my objective was.

There are a number of internet sites (Google Earth, MapQuest, Yahoo Maps, TerraFly, WikiMapia, etc.), that show satellite views, and the property can easily be found. However, to date I have not found an updated photograph taken after July 2009. I check these sites occasionally looking for updates. I wanted the inscription to be neat, clean and accurate. Not having a visual reference means I can't yet be sure of how well I was able to make the font.

Other Problems:
There are two clusters of scrub trees obscuring the second "D". Just south, one cluster was far enough away, but leaning towards the inscription, and would most likely cause a southerly aerial photograph to be partially blocked. I have cut back, pruned, and otherwise trimmed this cluster of trees so to remove the visual obstruction, without having to actually cut down the trees.

On the north of the second "D" is a more serious problem. Trees are directly on the letter. I knew this ahead of time, but felt the project too important to let a few trash trees stop it. I felt moving the inscription around the cluster would make it too funny looking, so in this case the trees will have to go. I still have quite a bit to go before resolving this.

Early Reactions:
I was making the inscription because I wanted the world (and my father somehow) to know that we miss him, and that after almost two years, just because he is gone, didn't mean we still don't think of him. So far, I had been keeping the project a secret because I wanted the inscription to be somewhat presentable before showing it. During the early measuring, Kent noticed I had been working out in the field, but he never directly asked me what I was doing, so I never volunteered anything. Later I heard from Jeff that Kent thought I was measuring the property to ready it for sale. Anyway, eventually it became time to tell someone about it. So in spring of 2010, just before taking him to the airport, I drove Jeff out to the back and I showed him what I was working on.

Jeff's initial response was encouraging. I can't express how important this was because after working on the project for nine months and telling no one, I began thinking that if anyone ever found out about this they would think I was crazy. And after months of working on it (when time permitted), my mind would play tricks on me I think, because I found myself wondering if this was a waste of time, and thinking no one would ever appreciate it anyway.

Next, on a working visit, I showed Roger. He was not as enthusiastic as Jeff was, but he never called me crazy, and again I felt encouraged. Finally, I told Mom, who casually agreed with me when I said "it's kind-a silly, isn't it Mom".

Since still not seeing the inscription from the air, I had been curious if low-flying pilots would even see the inscription. I got confirmation of this, when a banner tow aircraft flying under 1000 feet was approaching the property in a straight line from the S.E. At first, there was no indication the pilot had seen it. But when he got closer to the property line, the aircraft turned about 20 degrees south, tilted his right wing down until he passed the property, then returned to his original straight line course and leveled off. I was elated!

Since then, I have seen numerous aircraft fly directly over the property, including more banner tows. I wonder now, if it is an unofficial land mark for a recurring banner tow course, or simply a spectacle that fellow tow pilots laugh at thinking "someone's got too much free time on his hands." I don't care either way, I wave at all of them.

Looking Back:
After the initial idea, the project became personal to me. I know today there is no redeeming value in its existence. And I expect no one really cares as much as I did about completing it. And Pop himself would have thought it silly. But I needed to work on something out on the property again together with my father, just as we had done so many times before when he was alive and able. I needed to sweat, and saw, and work, and take on something that was bigger than me, but not for me, just like I had seen him do many times (the property and house are good examples). But mostly, I needed somehow to let it be known that my father had been here, and that we miss him. How else could I tell the world? Even if no one ever saw the inscription, I still wanted to do it.

Today:
Keeping the inscription letters looking sharp and clean requires me to mow them about every 2-3 weeks and around them every few months (during growing season). I could easily lose it, if I did not keep it up, which I have been able to do.

Here are some statistics about the inscription:

The final letters are 88 feet tall.
The overall width is 443 feet.
The "R" and "K" is 80' wide. The "D"s are 75' wide.
The period is 16' x 16.

The actual font is ARIAL, bold, point size 108936.

This photo (above) is of the "R", looking from the top, taken July 25, 2010. Can you see Mr. Gus (our dog) sitting shotgun in my '88 Chevy S-10 pickup?

This photo is of the "K", from the bottom.

This photo is of the first "D", taken August 2, 2010.

The second "D".

The overall property drawing I originally worked from (revision 3).

This is the revised drawing I used to make corrections (revision 4, September 2010). (click to enlarge)

Above, this is the first aerial photo I was able to get (photo circa January, 2010). (click to enlarge)

And of course, my first attempt at corrections. (click to enlarge)

Above is an image estimated to be late summer or Fall of 2010. At this point, I had begun making corrections, like on the arcs in the two "D"s, and some smoothing of the "R". But for some reason, correction to the "K" continued to elude me. That will be the area I will spend the most time on shortly.

Update: February 2011
During the winter months, the grass mostly dies and the entire field turns brown. The inscription becomes obscure and washed-out in the field of brown, especially if we have had a freeze that kills the grass, which we did this past winter. In the summer months the inscription is alive, bright, and well defined.

But the winter months are the easiest time to make corrections. So, based on the first (and so far, only) Google aerial photo, I have now made most of the corrections shown on the January 4th, 2010 photo above. Given the aerial photos come about once a year, making corrections could be a long process.

I have removed most of the problem trees obstructing the second 'D'. There is still a tree stump there, and the grass is torn up around it, I expect this to not be a problem once the grass starts growing again, and surrounding the stump with greenery. The other tree cluster to the south has been taken down enough to where I don't expect it will be a problem either. I originally didn't expect to have to cut down these trees, but they were of a worthless variety, and they cast a shadow on the inscription due to the low angle of the sun in winter months

Roger asked me a while back (and still does from time to time) if I am still working on crop-circles. Kathy had also discovered a photo of the property, and was very positive about it.

Update: May 27, 2011

Here is what the entire property looked like, circa early spring 2011. (click to enlarge)

Here is what the inscription looked like in October of 2012. (click to enlarge)

And a bit later, exact dates unknown, but somewhere around spring of 2013. (click to enlarge)

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