December 2, 2009

Yea!! We are settled at Inks Lake State Park for the next 3 months. Don't know for sure what we will be doing but it should be environmental education. Of course, it is WINTER so don't know how many kids will be here. There are 10 volunteer couples....good social environment. Camp fires, cards, eating out, pot lucks....fun, fun, fun!!!!

Have most of my Christmas presents purchased...now just need to get them wrapped, get the 5er decorated, bake and bake some more, etc. This is our kid's year with their other families Christmas Day, we will celebrate the 19th.

It is winter in TX. Supposedly, we are going to have snow Friday night....2 snow flakes and 1 icicle. The entire area will closed down under those circumstances. But I do love TX winters....20 degrees one day and 70 degrees....no long, long cold spells.

November 28, 2009

It has been over a month since the last post.....so much has happened.

We have been to Brackettville to visit Mom & Dad...brought Mom back to the hospital in Georgetown because of severe dizzy spells. She is okay but they really need to be closer to family and in some sort of retirement community. The problem is convincing them of that fact. For now, they are back in Brackettville....hopefully we will be able to convince them soon before it is too late.

Then off for a 14 day Panama Canal cruise. The canal is amazing....to think all of the work was done by hand without today's technology and is still working!! We had several stops....Grand Cayman, Colombia, Costa Rica and 3 stops in Mexico. It was a great trip but is nice to be home.

We are at Todd's house until Monday when we go to Inks Lake State Park for the winter. We'll have our family Thanksgiving tomorrow...this year was our kid's time with their other families on Thursday. Tim will get the boys tonight so we will all be together. A great day to count our blessings!!!

October 25, 2009

Another beautiful day in Central Texas!!! For the moment the sun is shinning, the wind is calm and it is in the 70's but......another storm is supposed to come in later tonight. Oh well, we still need the rain.

Yesterday was rodeo time at Todd's house....Beau was not in the mood to be ridden. He is the last colt out of Poezya (my Arabian mare). Beautiful horse but has not been ridden much. I gave him to Tanya but she did not ride him so he stood out in the pasture and "got stupid". He will take a strong rider to get him under control. Todd is a very good rider so if anyone can do it, he can.

We moved to Todd & Mandy's house on Thursday. It was still muddy but we were able to get the 5th wheel in and set up. They had over 5 inches of rain Wednesday so the creeks were up and parts of the road washed out. Mike & I had to come in different roads....CR 3500 was partially washed out so 5th wheel couldn't go that way and CR 2 had high water over the creeks so Mike didn't want me to try with the jeep....by Friday all the water had receded. All this rain does make for beautiful green grass and trees!!

October 21, 2009

After 28 months of drought, we should be happy to see the rain; however, I do wish it would hold off for a few days. We were supposed to move the 5th wheel to Todd & Mandy's today.....rain and mud. Hopefully, tomorrow will be a better day!

I think the drought is officially over. The lake levels are rising, most of the stock tanks are full and all the grass is green. We had planned to do some dredging on our cove while the lake level was down but alas, we brought the rain back with us. The burn ban has been lifted so at least we can burn the 2 year old brush piles!!

October 17, 2009

This has been an interesting and stressful few days. My 95 year old Daddy is rapidly failing. I know he has lived a long, productive life and his quality of life is no longer good BUT I am a "Daddy's Girl" and not even close to being ready for what is to come. I wish they were closer than 4 1/2 hours to any of us kids. Unfortunately, we cannot convince them they are at a time in their lives when they need help. VERY STRESSFUL!!!

Friday Bill & Marilyn left for Lago Vista. We have had such a great time with them this summer/fall. We sure will miss them and Bill's creative accounting.

We have had Tyler & Zach with us this weekend. Those boys have so much energy. We have played games, gone for long walks and played with their Wii (games that are beyond me). Thank goodness the weather has been nice!!! It has been so much fun having them. Next weekend we will be with our only grand-daughter, Casey. The next weekend we will have all 4 boys Friday night.....2 teenagers and 2 9 year olds....can we do that?????? YES WE CAN!!!!!!

October 13, 2009

RAIN!! It seems to follow us everywhere! Last summer in Alaska, it was the coldest/wettest summer on record. This summer in CO, it was colder/wetter than normal.....now we are home and it has rained 6 out of 8 days. Do we have a little black cloud over our heads?? On the bright side, TX needs the rain so badly! After many, many months, our water front property on Lake Buchanan might actually have water soon.

While it rained this afternoon, we played cards with Bill & Marilyn. THE GUYS WON AGAIN!!!!! Marilyn and I just can't seem to get good cards............AND we don't take the chances the guys do. It was not Bill's creative accounting, they just WON.

October 12, 2009

Central Texas has finally been reached!!! HaHa It is still a 2 day drive once you cross the border at El Paso.....and, of course, my hubby doesn't like to stop once he reaches TX until he gets home!!!! We have driven that route straight thru more than once. Because of all the deer crossing the road we did make one short stop....at dark then up again at sunrise. Good thing we have our own bed with us.

We are parked at Live Oak Ridge Park. It is on Lake Belton just across the dam from Tim's house. His driveway is a little short for us to park the 5th wheel there. We are close to all the kids so will stay here for 3 weeks. Then we will move the 5th wheel to Todd & Mandy's house until the 1st of Dec. when we go to Inks Lake. We are going on a 2 week Panama Canal cruise the 7th-22nd of November.

Saturday we watched Ryan's football game. The were out scored but played with lots of spirit. RyBread was quarterback and carried the ball several times. Tuesday we are going to watch Tyler's 8th grade game....He and Justin both play on Tuesday so will have to alternate between them. Such fun being able to watch their activities. Next weekend is Casey's first shotgun meet.

Sunday our friends Bill & Marilyn joined us for a few days. As usual, we played Hand & Foot.....with Bill's creative accounting, the guys won (again)....seriously, I grudgingly give then their due...THEY WON!!! Okay Bill now HUSH and that's all I have to say about that.

October 4, 2009

This has been a travel week. Stops of 1 or 2 nights. We spent the last 2 days in Benson, AZ at the Escapees RV Park. An absolutely beautiful park.....the sites are huge and most have a 10 x20 storage building. The park has great rec room with so many activities happening all the time. Would be a really nice place to spend the winter.

Our time in Vegas was stressful and hot. We spent most of our time trying to locate our mail. When it was forwarded, it was not scanned into the system in Houston....so....it could not be tracked. It FINALLY appeared in Provo, UT the day after we left???? They forwarded it to LV, where we finally received it. They have some "very interesting" people picking up General Delivery mail in LV. At least we lost less than $5.00.

Tonight we are in Los Cruces,NM.....tomorrow TEXAS!!!! Looking forward to getting home.

September 26, 2009

I have been reminded by my friend, Bill(6), that I am not keeping up with my blog. OOPS!! Also, he wonders if our travels are as interesting without them....maybe, maybe not!!

Tuesday, they left us to start back to TX. So sorry to see them go. We stayed around the campground to do laundry and clean house.

Wednesday, once again we headed for Salt Lake City but this time to go see the Great Salt Lake.....okay, it's a lake. I don't know what I was expecting but whatever it was, I didn't see it! However, it was very interesting to see where they mine the salt out of the lake........huge mounds of salt.

Thursday, we went to the Museum of Natural History in Dephi, UT. It was a very nice small museum. A lot of UT history. Also, did a little more driving thru beautiful Aspen trees. Then home to start getting things ready to head South tomorrow.

Friday, the first thing was to see if we could locate our mail. It was to have been in Provo by the 23rd...okay USPS where is it? It was scanned into Houston but is now in oblivion. The advice from USPS is to put in a change of address.....what??? Could explain why our postal system is always in the red! Oh well, one of these days it will catch up with us. As planned, we headed South. We found a great campground in Beaver, UT. Each site has a covered picnic table with sitting area plus a fire ring. Family run and everyone is SO friendly plus they have a restaurant.

Saturday, we toured Fishlake NF, Bryce Canyon and Zion NP. The drive thru Fishlake is breathtaking. The Aspens are in full color....yellows, gold and red. WOW!! Then onto Bryce Canyon. Because I still can't do any hiking, Bryce Canyon was not as spectacular. Not disappointed by not overly impressed. We saved the best for last....Zion is worth seeing over and over!!!! Still no hiking but the view from the truck was wonderful. We traveled about 300 miles today....glad we took CoCoa since we were gone so long.

Pictures will have to wait because I froze my computer and Mike's is so slow. Do you think it was the 900 pictures I was trying to download?

September 20, 2009

Thursday, we toured Dead Horse SP, Canyonlands NP and Arches NP. The scenery is absolutely breathtaking. We were not able to do any hiking because, being the graceful person I am, I broke a couple of small bones in my foot. We did manage to get some beautiful photos. The juniper trees were in full bloom....resulted miserable allergies!!!!

Friday, we traveled on to Provo, UT. The drive was a little nerve wracking but some beautiful views. We could have done without the construction and an 18 wheeler pulling out in front of us!! Found a great RV park!

Saturday was a hang out day. Mike caught a cold and his allergies went crazy!!!! Time to just chill.

Sunday, Mike is much better!!! We drove to Sundance, UT...home of Robert Redford. The changing trees and Bridal Veil Falls are beautiful. Tonight we played cards....due to some creative accounting, the guys won!!! (HaHa) Marilyn and I just couldn't get any good cards tonight!!!!

September 16, 2009

Tuesday was a travel day....we left Dolores, CO for Moab, UT. Nice drive, nice scenery and we were able to follow the 2 by 2 rule -- 200 or less miles and stop by 2 PM. We are staying in Archview RV Park. Nice park but the sites are a little tight. Toured Moab a little and stopped for pizza. Nice visitor center!

Today we traveled Utah 279 along the Colorado River. Beautiful views and some great Indian rock art. Then onto Utah 128, still along the Colorado River. The colors of the rocks are absolutely beautiful. We stopped at a BLM park for a picnic. Such a great drive!!

Tonight, once again, we played cards BUT this time the guys won....by the hair on their chiny-chin-chins!!!! Oh well,, once in a while we have to let them win!!! HaHa

September 14, 2009

WOW such a busy week!! Half of our Rigs group left for home on Tuesday (8th), the rest of us went back to Mesa Verde to tour more ruins. Wednesday we toured the Anasazi Heritage Center. I played with the loom...I have always wanted to try weaving. I haven't totally given up the idea of an alpaca farm. We could shear, spin and then weave with our own yarn. Sounds so cool!!! Played cards with Bill & Marilyn and, of course, the girls won. Think the guys are getting used to it??????

Thursday we started for TX!!!! Such a great trip! All of our kids and grandkids were there for Tim's Commissioning Ceremony on Saturday. We all stayed at NAS/JRB Dallas, where Tim had rooms for us at the Q. The ceremony was great. My Dad (age 95) and Mike pinned on Tim's bars. He has worked so hard to make this dream a reality. Congratulations Son!!

Sunday we flew back to CO. With Tim being a pilot for Mesa Airlines, he was able to get us stanby flights. We got on the first flight from DFW to Denver and the first flight from Denver to Durango.

September 7, 2009

Hope everyone had a nice Labor Day...we celebrated by staying at the RV park. The park hosted a cookout. They furnished the hot dogs and hamburgers with the residents/guests bringing side dishes and deserts. Nice relaxed day. Once again, the girls had to show the guys how to play Hand & Foot....3 nights in a row! They came a lot closer tonight but still the girls were victorious!!!

September 6, 2009

Telluride and Ouray have been our destinations for the last 2 days. The towns both had many old buildings and lots of little shops. Of course, the guys weren't too impressed with the shops....imagine that!!! Beautiful mountain vistas, trees and flowers. The aspens are just barely starting to turn....CO will be a decked out in beautiful fall foliage before too long.

This has been such a great time with with friends. I don't think we have laughed this much in a long time. To top it all off....the girls beat the guys twice in cards and Texas won the football game. Great weekend!

September 3, 2009

We left Alamosa NWR on Sept. 1st with mixed emotions. The people (especially Floyd) are so special and they will be greatly missed. Hopefully, we accomplished most of what Floyd needed this season. I worked with the Kid's Fishing Day, completing the corrections on the safety inspections issues, reopening the Visitor Center and anything else Floyd needed while Mike built 9 4x8 kiosks and 3 3x4 kiosks. But the commitment was completed and it was time to move on.

After driving thru rain, hail and construction over Wolf Creek Pass, we met our friends from TX at Delores River RV Park, Delores, CO. The Lees and Shoves be leaving for TX on the 8th while the Theis' and us will stay until the 15th. We will make a quick trip to Ft Worth the 10th - 14th....Theis' will watch our 5th wheel and CoCoa while we are gone. From here we plan to head to Moab then on to Salt Lake City.

Yesterday, we went to one of the casinos....lost our $20.00 then came on home. We all went to the Farmer's Market then just hung out the rest of the evening. Today we all went to Mesa Verde NP....toured the Anasazi ruins. Fascinating....they were such an industrial people.

August 29, 2009

Such a disappointing day!!!!! The groups I had scheduled for hikes and tours of the Visitor Center did not show. They were to come from Denver in 2 groups....one at 9:30 am and one at 1:30 pm....neither showed or called. Sad that this was our last day of work at the Refuge!!

August 28, 2009

Only one more work day!!! We completed the majority of our projects today....I distributed and installed all of the new fire extinguishers while Mike rebuilt the fence for the bird viewing area. Tomorrow I am opening the Visitor Center for a group coming in from Denver to hike the trails along the Rio Grande River. Mike has a few odds and ends to take care and we are finished.

Sunday we will break camp, wash vehicles, etc. Monday the Refuge is taking us out to lunch and we will say farewell to the people we have worked with for the last 3 1/2 months. Although there are a few things we would change about this experience, the people and the Refuge are not among them. I do wish Mike had not had such problems with the altitude since that kept us from doing too much hiking.

Tuesday morning we will head for the Mesa Verde area (Delores River RV Park). We will join the Theis', Shoves and Lees for several days of playing tourist.

August 25, 2009

WOW--once more I need to play catchup with this blog!! We have been so busy playing tourist with our friends from TX that I have hardly opened the computer. So here goes......

August 18 -- Another work day off the list. Mike is still working on the deck along with assorted other chores. My chore for the day was taking pictures of the completed safety issues along with getting some of the appliances ordered.

August 19 -- Finished getting all the appliances ordered. Yea! Some of our friends came to see the refuge and the Visitor Center. Today is our oldest son's birthday--HAPPY BIRTHDAY TODD!!

August 20 -- We went to Fun Valley to see everyone. So much fun visiting and as always, wonderful food.

August 21 -- We went to the Royal Gorge with Bruce & Ann Shove. Ann is terribly afraid of heights but we got her on the sloped railway...she did great. Mike & I crossed the gorge on the tram while Bruce & Ann went on the trolley. We all rode the trolley back to get the car, then drove over the bride. GREAT DAY!

August 22 -- Another day with the Shove's. Today we went to Creede to tour the underground fire station and the mining museum. Afterward we ate with the crowd at Fun Valley. Great chili, Jean.

August 23 -- Today was an at home day. Usual fun items to take care of (laundry) plus Mike had several items he wanted to get done around here. He finished my beautiful craft cabinet and more shelves for the medicine cabinet. The cabinet makes a great end table and has plenty of storage for all my craft stuff!!!

August 24 -- Today was the first day of school for all of our grandkids -- Have a great year kids!!!! We took all of the group to Baca NWR. With all of the old buildings and history it is one of my favorite places in the valley. After lunch, we all went to the Great Sand Dunes NP. AMAZING place. Of course, we had to eat once more before saying goodbye to all. Some of the group is leaving tomorrow, others are leaving on Wednesday and the rest will be meeting us at Delores, CO. on Sept 1st.

August 25 -- Mike played golf and I beaded. Not much going on today !!

August 17, 2009

Next to last week of work!! Mike is rebuilding the deck around the office and I am taking pictures of the completed safety inspection issues, purchasing the new appliances and any other chores Floyd comes up with. We need to get all of these projects completed by August 29th......our last work day. I have hikes and tours scheduled at the Visitor Center that day.

Our group of friends from TX arrived on Saturday. They will be spending 2 weeks at Fun Valley in South Fork. Unfortunately, we will only get to see them on our days off as SF is 50 miles away. We had lunch with Bill & Marilyn Theis on their way thru Alamosa but the rest of the group came a different way. They were about 2 hours behind the Theis' and had already stopped for lunch by the time they came thru Alamosa. Will have to ask which way was better!!

Yesterday was Justin's (our oldest grandchild) 14th birthday. Can't believe he has grown up so fast.

It is starting to cool off quite a bit. We have had frost the past several mornings...my one poor little tomato plant is still producing but the leaves are starting to curl. The coyotes, ducks and ibis have returned in quantity. NICE

August 12, 2009

We are finished working for this week. Still working on completing the safety violations from our recent inspection. Hopefully, we can get this wrapped up before we are finished here. We only have 7 more work days!

We are going on our train ride tomorrow. We should get some good pictures to add to our blog. We have visited with several people that have taken this ride and without exception, all says this is a very worthwhile trip.

August 9, 2009

Time here is getting short!! We are doing things we have been putting off all summer because we had plenty of time....today we went to Pueblo to the zoo and the Aircraft Museum. We made our reservations for the Cumbres & Toltec train...Thursday.

We need to get the oil changed in both vehicles, have the parking brake adjusted on the truck and have a light harness installed on the jeep. Lots of little things but all time consuming. Of course, we still have to work 3 days a week and the Rigs group will be here Saturday! The refuge is having an volunteer appreciation lunch on the 16th but somehow I ended coordinator????? And I have a group coming for Visitor Center/hiking/bird watching the 29th. Lots still to do and not too much time.

I took a right-angle beading class....the bracelets are turning our pretty good!

August 8, 2009

Thought I was doing so much better on this blogging but guess not as it has been a week since the last entry.

We'll start with last Monday. I am in the process of getting prices for new appliances for the refuge complex...all of the new appliances have to be energy star rated. Such a fun job.

Tuesday was another day of certifying the fire extinguishers. Unfortunately, we have several extinguishers that did not pass inspection. It took several hours to do Monte Vista NWR so we will be doing this again on Thursday.

Wednesday, Mike worked over at Monte Vista NWR on the kiosks and I goofed off....not really!!! Did some paper work for both the extinguishers and the appliances but did spend a good part of the day off.

Thursday was once again spent on certification of fire extinguishers but this time at Alamosa NWR. Again, there were several extinguishers that need to be replaced. At least all of this work will get the complex current on fire extinguishers!

Friday, we once again hiked to Zapata Falls. The last time we did this hike, Mike ended up in the hospital. CoCoa and I did not hike all the way to the falls but we did hike to the top of the ridge to look down on the falls. Mike hiked to the falls.

Today was spent on necessary chores.....grocery store, local farmer's market and washing the vehicles and 5th wheel. Oh!! and out to breakfast.

August 1, 2009

We had a heat wave today...it was all the way up to 79 degrees...really is so much better than yesterday afternoon's 59 degrees. We are in the monsoon season so it rains every afternoon. Wish I could send some of this cool, wet weather home to TX.

Yesterday we said goodbye to the YCC kids. They have done such a great job...lots of hard work. Great Kids!!!! A farewell lunch with the staff and kids.

Today we drove some of the back roads to Creede. We went by Terrace Lake...it is the victim of old gold mines. The area mines used arsenic in mining. This killed all life in the lake and river when the retention lake dam at Summitville broke letting all the arsenic flow down river and into the lake. Several years ago they were awarded "Super Fund" monies to clean up this mess...they succeeded!!! Cleaned up the river and lake, then Mother Nature took her course, they stocked the lake with trout. The trout, the river and the lake flourished. Unfortunately, the dam broke again so they had to drain the lake. There are still no fish but the grasses and flowers are starting to come back.

We stopped in Creede at the mining museum. They were having a rock and mineral show so the tours of the mine were not available today. I did buy a couple of polished stones for necklaces.

The buck is one of our nightly visitors. He is so pretty.