November/December-Hunting/Traveling etc

November still in Minnesota, first time we've been here since 2004. Art retired September 2005 and we've been leaving end Sept. or first of October since then. Time to do something new. Art and Arte wanted to hunt so he came up the day before and we got stuff ready to go and took the camper down to David & Glorias farm the night before. Day one-Arte got a doe. Day two-Arte got a forked horn. Day four-Art got a 10 point. Day 6-Art got a spike. This makes for a lot of butchering so I would no sooner get one done and in the freezer and we were starting again on another. We could have purchase many more permits for lots of deer, but that was enough butchering for one year. uggh. But after not having venison for so many years, they were both hungry for it. Here are pictures of the forked horn and the 10 point:

After the first week of hunting we signed papers for buying the house next door and that took some days to accomplish. We took the neighbor and only a few of his things with us to the Assisted Living where he will be living. Then Art and I started cleaning and burning brush plus the Excavating & Sewer guys were there to put in a new sewer so we had lots of activity going on for a few days.

The mobile & lot

Fixing Sewer System

After hunting and cleanup neighbor house came Thanksgiving, at our house Friday. The whole Minnesota crew came for dinner:

Mak doing schoolwork?

Dave Jacob Meri Nathan

Lets Eat!

Kaleb Art Arte

Meri Nathan Jody playing games

Handsome Kaleb

Smile Grandma

Mak Gma

Showing Dimples

Meri packed up to go home

A few days after Thanksgiving Art and I leave for Oregon via Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California then Oregon. first night: Des Moines, IA. second Liberal, Kansas. Third, Bowie, Arizona. Fourth Night Quartzsite, AZ. here's our campsite there:

Two nights in Quartzsite looking at the flea markets that were open. It was before the big rush, so it wasn't awful crowded, but plenty to see in a day and a half.
Then it was on to 29 Palms to see David and Barret (I wish I had taken pictures of David but I wasn't thinking):

Max

Parked in front yard

Bougainvillea

Barret Gmpa

Surveying Sand

Hmm Chips

Breakfast

Max on his blanket used under the tree

On to Oregon-got this picture of Mt Shasta out of the truck window:

Christmas at Moms' house:



Mom sick bundled up on couch




Christmas Tree









Merry Christmas to all & to all a Good Night!

September/October the Quiet Months

Well, not much to post for September, just working on cleaning out the garden and catching up on yard work. Actually I gave up on the flower bed and just used the weed trimmer on it last week, can't keep it up like I should. Cleaned up the asparagus bed-with the weed trimmer, too.  
Towards the end of the month it was time to start getting ready for the trip, which meant getting rid of the horse trailer. It worked just fine, but wanted to go lighter. And since we are going the California route this year, we would need a camper with 'facilities'. So, first off, empty, clean and sell the horse trailer. Didn't take long on craigslist. Put it up in the afternoon, got a call that they would be here in the morning. They came, gave us the money, returned in the afternoon and picked it up. Hey, that was nice. Then we decided to go pickup camper shopping, after scanning craigslist for couple weeks. Either they were too heavy, or no bathroom, or too old (gotta upgrade, not get older stuff). So, we went to Superior, then Kerrick, where we found a new one that would do. Price wasn't too bad, except they were going to give us next to nothing for our pop-up camper we have now. So, back home, fix up, cleanup and put the Northstar popup camper for sale. Saturday afternoon, put it on craigslist, got a call that evening, they wanted to come Sunday a.m.. I told them we go to church, could they come later. Nope, they would come early so we could still go to church, and they did.  Bought it, loaded it up, pretty fast. So, Monday we called the dealer said we'd take the 2011 Travel Lite Camper model 800x that was on closeout. The X stands for the bed running lengthwise, instead of side to side.  It's an 8' model, only weighs 200 pounds more than our popup camper did. Here's a few pics:

The inside:

Kitchen



Dining Room/Living Room/Bedroom

Dining Room-like the crazy print?

4.0 cu ft 3-way fridge



The Bathroom-no wasted space, barely enough actually.

Well, that's about it. Caught up to date. Still working on getting the yard ready for winter, sheds and get all the veggies taken care of. Potatoes are dug, but still have a squash use up. Made two pies today from two of the winter squash I got from Lucille, Impossible pie. Will try to post again before January, would be easier to keep up without doing it a few months at a time. ttfn



July & August Summary

I'm going to try to remember what happened this summer so I can catch my blog up to date. Here's what I remember of July/August.
July-Garden and VBS. The garden was needing water & weeding, I got some of it but not all, it was pretty jungle-like by the time I started harvesting most of it. Kevin, Wendey, Mikaela Davis and Jacob Davis visited for a few days in July. The guys did lots of fishing and Jacob came to VBS the first night before they had to leave. It was nice to get to know two more of Kevin/Wendeys grandkids and I'm glad the guys fished so much, we got to eat Northern Pike for quite a few meals.

VBS is always a busy time- planning, decorating, lots of time spent figuring out crafts, what works and what doesn't. Our VBS was July 17th-21st in the evenings. I blew up hundreds of ballons with prize numbers in them, using our little portable compressor. The week went very well, so many people pitch in and we really enjoyed the fellowship with all our crew.
August is the time for harvesting- zucchini by the wheel barrow load, summer squash, beans, peas, broccoli, etc. It was a pretty good year, but some critter was eating my cucumbers and no trap caught it, and I had several traps set for him. Also ate some peas and nibbled on other stuff. Hopefully he won't be back next year.
First part of August went to the St. Louis County Fair with Lucille- saw Dave/Jody & twins there. It was about the same as usual,  I really enjoy looking at the quilts and 4-H stuff each year, it's always different.
Dave/Jody/Jacob/Nathan/Arte/Meriden came for a barbeque about mid/August, celebrating Arte and Meriden coming up for a visit. I think Meriden enjoyed being the 'information giver' for the boys, they are always asking questions and she was happy to give them answers. They all enjoyed playing on our decrepit old swing set. Steaks on the grill turned out great, enjoyed the meal and the company.
Took Meriden fishing for sunnies, here's a pic of one of her 'catch':

After the biggest bulk of the garden was over, we decided on another trip to Oregon. Mom was having an 85th birthday party and Art had some project to do for Doreen. Gloria and Renee needed to go too, so we rode together, which saved on gas expenses. Renee went to paint Davy/Adriels house and Gloria wanted to check on her folks, who had health issues going on. That was a fun trip, drove all day, all night, into the afternoon to get there.
We had a few days to regroup before Mom's birthday celebration. Verns' son & wife, Vernon Jr & Tara were there with their two kids and many people showed up at the church Saturday, it was good to see everyone again.

The next day Judi, Mom & I took off camping with Judis' van & Winnebago trailer and tried Beverly Beach campground.  First night was tough, we got in late, plug ins didn't seem to work, couldn't figure it out. But we managed without 110 that night. Next day, Art came down and helped us figure out the electrical situation and we moved down to South Beach Campground. I was moving better by this time, still not healing from my surgery/broken foot like I thought I should. We walked on the beach and I managed the sand hill much better than my beach trip in May.

Back to Willamina Tuesday, then off to the Oregon State Fair on Wednesday, Moms' actual birthday. I love to see the flowers and all the quilts and exhibits, we listened to guitar music and enjoyed the whole day.
We headed east on Saturday. Picked up Gloria (Renee had flown home to be back for some school business) and drove all day/night/day again to get back to home.
And that was August.

May & June 2011 Summary

My last post was in May, guess Judi's right, gotta get caught up. Just seems like there's so much to do, getting ready for winter, hunting and a trip all at once.
Back to catching up.....
May was so crazy. Art & I decided to go back to Oregon, collect our car and get back here for our garage sale June 3rd. In the meantime, my knee is still hurting from when I stepped out of the horse trailer wrong. Doc Schnell took x-rays, found the problem and says to me, you want surgery on May 10th. I told him we were flying to Oregon on the 17th, he says, "You'll be fine." Day surgery, not bad, recovery seems a little slow, since he had to do more than he figured on. But, tickets are bought already.  So, we hitched a ride with Jody to David/Glorias may 16th. They took us to Hinckley where Arte picked us up and took us to our motel. Took a shuttle in the morning to airport, flew to Oregon. Visit, camp at the beach, reunion with Arts & my family at Corvallis Park. Took Mom and Aunt Jo around to put flowers on family gravesites. I was still hobbling around, not able to bend my knee very far.



Camping at South Beach S.P.

We did bring the 95 bonneville home. Good thing, since the Impala needed some work this summer. Got back home, preparing for the garage sale, still hobbling, fell down on the stairs and wrenched my bad knee all the way closed, oww did that hurt, caught my foot in between the rungs and broke 3 bones on the top of my foot. Who does that after they had surgery? At least it was the same leg, so when they gave me the 5 lb brace to drag around, it was on my bad leg. Well, the show must go on! Jody and I did have our garage sale and I spent a lot of time in the camper laying down, trying to stop the pain in my leg/foot. After our sale, Art took me to Urgent care where I got a foot brace. Then Doc Cardwell put the 5-pounder on later in the week, boy, what a summer. I did get a garden, thanks to Jody. Did some planting myself, she did the plants, which is hard, you have to get down on your hands & knees for that, it was great she could come help me. So went June, me hobbling and whining and complaining the whole time. That cast was a pain when my leg hurt already.
Two very busy months, everything I did took twice as long, or I had to prevail on someone else to help me.


Family Reunion Avery Park



Mom & Aunt Jo-Car is Loaded with Flowers



Wearing my Foot Brace-Jody/Daves' Deck

Is it May already?

Well, after seeing Judi's blog I feel like it's about time I said something new on mine. Let's see, last post was January 20. Home from Hawaii and back to my real life.  Hmmm. Well February is sort of foggy in my mind, but March stands out. We spent the first week down at Doreens watching Nina and her ranch while she visited Marty & Erica in D.C.. So, back to Willy, I had become sick and was like that for about a week when we found out Mom B was losing ground. So, try to get stuff ready to leave while trying to get well, and not make everyone else sick (guess that worked). Then comes the cross country, beautiful trip in the mountains, what scenery with snowy mountain passes, it was awesome. And of course I got my camera out right after we passed the last of it!

Camping in the cold is an experience, but the little canvas side pickup camper is surprisingly warm. Home Friday night, get the house open, heat on, water on, sleep, get up, back up trailer, hurry, unload, move trailer, unhitch. Off to Jody's, visit, boys nap. Jody, Mak, Art & I head to farm to visit Mom B. We did not know it would be our last visit. She was sleeping and Gloria talked loud to her that we were there, she nodded and then went back to sleep. After an hour and a half or so, back to drop off Jody and Mak, plans to visit Mom longer the next day, but it wasn't to be. She passed away 11:58 that night. Thank you, Lord, that we were able to visit. Got the message in the morning that the Lord took her home in the night. Then plans for family to come visit. Clean house, get some food, company coming and going, funeral. More family visits, then everyone is gone, just us again. I remember the funeral was nice, Renee made DVD with pics, got a chance to really watch it when things were quiet. March is gone, into April.   Quotes on furnace, cold weather, snow comes and goes, sunshine, warm, then more snow and more cold. Easter church with Jody, Kaleb, Makayla, Jacob, Nathan, Art & I. Then hide Easter eggs in afternoon, dinner that evening with the whole crew.  Finally it is May 1st, Mayday, it should be warm, why is the ground white? Glad that furnace is almost ready looks like we'll need it long time still. Guess I'm caught up till the next event......ttfn

Hawaii Day 10: last full day

Well, today we went to the flea market again, after stopping at Kmart to get some aleve for my knee. Then later to a Walmart to get a knee brace. The flea market has a whole circle around the Halawa Stadium set up with hundreds of vendor booths. Anything from clothing, jewelry, crafts, etc. Then to the Dole Factory to have some Dole Whip and look around. This is my last day to post, will be packing up the computer in the morning. Plane leaves in afternoon so will be at airport right after noon probably.

Flea Market at  Halawa Stadium

Dole Plantation

Dole is written in shrubs on front lawn

The grounds.

Information on Pineapples

How they grow, this one seems to be on puny vine.

Have some Koi

Hula Dancer

Ukulele Player

More pictures out front

Getting ready for pic.

Last night picture after our grilled fish dinner and a game of 'Apples to Apples'. Barret won again.

Aloha!