Has it really been that long?

It is hard to believe it has been over three years since I've posted here. So much has changed. We live in a different State. I have some thoughts I want to express and thought I would put them here but I think I will compose offline and post later.

Life goes on doesn't it?

Home at Last!

It is so good to be home after traveling so much. I've lost count of the trips to Arkansas to visit son. DH works at son's store a lot. We've also visited daughter and grandchildren in Tennessee a number of times.

Our biggest trip was in July. The two of us took the motor home to the West Coast. We went through the State of Idaho using the same route that Lewis and Clark used to get to the Pacific. That is some beautiful country! The most beautiful were places we could not get a GPS or cell phone signal, in a deep valley of the Columbia River. The National Park Service maintains some campgrounds there and I am so anxious to go back and spend a few days there again.

We weren't able to spend as much time as we wanted as my sister's daughter, was getting married in Washington State and since it is just me and my sister now, we wanted to support my niece by attending the wedding.
Daughter and grandchildren flew into Portland, Oregon and we met at my sister's home in Washington. It was a civil ceremony at the Courthouse there but I was impressed with the solemnity of it and how spiritual though non-Christian it all was.

The reception was held at a Grange hall in the small town where my sister lives. It was a very casual affair with lots of food and music. Both in their thirty's but first marriage for both. It was a joyous affair.

After the wedding, our daughter and grand-children joined us in the motorhome to explore the Olympic Peninsular and Oregon Coast. More breathtaking views! If you are ever traveling on the Oregon Coast, you must add at least 3 days to your schedule. There is so much to see that you have to keep stopping.

One stop we made was unplanned tho. Hubby started having chest pains. We were in a very small seaside town at the time. I gave him an aspirin and we found a small clinic. He was not having a heart attack, but his blood pressure was very high. They gave him something to bring it down and said they really would like to keep him overnight but they did not have a bed or cardiologist on staff. The closest facility that did was 70 miles away. Hubby said he felt fine and the chest pains had stopped and signed a release that he would not hold them responsible to letting him leave. So-o we traveled on.

Next major stop was Yellowstone National Park. One of my most favorite places on earth. If anyone doubts that the earth is really very young-that is the place to go. It brings to our attention how the earth is still in a formation stage. I feel strongly about Biblical Creation and a worldwide flood. You can really see the evidence of both at Yellowstone.

Then we dropped daughter and grandchildren off at Omaha Airport so they could get back to Chicago by a certain date. Hubby and I drove the motorhome to Iowa to visit his sister there.

I had the best corn on the cob I have ever eaten at her house. She had bought it at a neighborhood roadside stand; I think it had been picked that morning. Each cob had both white and yellow kernels and was absolutely delicious. I will forever compare corn to that now.

Traveling in the motorhome is so comfortable. No suitcases to carry in and out of motels. Your own bed, bath and kitchen. While parked at hubby's sister house we did use her shower since we were only hooking up to her electricity. And she would fix breakfast for us but hubby could fix his morning cup of coffee before getting out of the camper.

Then Hubby's sister and her hubby and grandson, followed us on to a campground near Chicago. Daughter's husband had been given a box suite at the ballpark for a night. It was my first experience in a box suite. The food and service is so much fun. Daughter's friends from Nashville had flown in too. It was like a big party while watching the White Sox win over the Toronto Blue Jays. The children also had a wonderful time. Hubby's sister seemed to really enjoy the experience too.

We had taken a train to the game and got to the station just after the next to the last train back left. We had to hang around the station and that too was a new experience for us.

I had also planned to meet up with some online friends at Schaumberg near Chicago. On Saturday, my hubby and hubby of one of the online friends went to the ball game while my friends and I hung around the pool at the motel where they were staying. It was the first time most of us had met. It is really unbelievable how close you can get to someone on line. Meeting was such a joy and seemed so natural. We still keep in touch on our little website that one of the gals had set up. It was unbelievable to get to meet so many wonderful ladies.

Well, there is more but I'm going to stop here for today.

The Maiden Voyage

First of all let me say that it was a wonderful trip. We had decided to take hubby's brother up on an impromptu family reunion at his home in Florida as one of their sisters was going to be visiting and it would be a rare opportunity to get together without it being a funeral. We invited another sister and husband and daughter, who live near us, to travel with us in our motorhome.

We started out about 9:00 a.m. on Thursday, March 22. At least we tried to start out. We had parked the motorhome on our lot next to the Lake house. Since the lot is lakefront, it slopes down toward the lake. Hubby had worked with the local road district and paid to have a culvert installed, taking water from a ditch across the street to a culvert on the edge of our lot. But the lot is probably the lowest point in the immediate area and still catches quite a bit of water when it rains. Well, we had had over 3 inches of (much needed) rain on Tuesday and the ground was soaked.

We were also carrying over 300 pounds of clay shooting targets to our son in Arkansas. He had been unable to get any from his suppliers and asked us to buy some in our area for him to sell in his sporting goods store.

Well, to make a long story, short. We had to get a wrecker to pull us out of our own lot before we could leave on our trip.

Now I need to back up to the previous weekend when we bought the motorhome. We bought it from private individuals. They were a couple, a few years older than we are. They had bought it used from a dealer three years earlier. They had used it very little as the husband was losing his vision, due to glaucoma. His wife was afraid to drive the motorhome. They mentioned that they liked to be present when it was shown as people had been leaving appliances on and running down the battery. He had even recently replaced the battery. He even said he was hoping someone who knew a little about mechanics bought it. They sold it at a very reduced price to us. We suspected something might be wrong but the price was right.

Come to find out, the alternator was bad and every time it was driven, it used up all the juice in the battery. We found that out first hand when it started running rough as we were driving it to the lot in Arkansas, where our trailer is parked. We called hubby’s sister and they came and made sure we made it. We limped home to Missouri the next day and parked it at the lake. Hubby, being a mechanic, among his varied talents, bought and installed a rebuilt alternator.

So, we are off on our trip. We are about 150 miles from home but not too far from our Arkansas son, and nieces and nephews. Picture this. A tall steep mountain road. On our right is only a guard rail to mark the side of the road and a steep cliff about 600 feet deep. On our left is the single lane for on coming traffic and another steep cliff about 400 feet high. The engine of the motor home makes a horrible loud screeching sound and then slapping sound. There is no shoulder to pull off on. The road is curving up and around the mountain and on coming traffic is charging down the road. About half way up on the on coming traffic side is a runaway truck ramp for 18 wheelers who have lost their brakes on the steep downgrade. During a slight break in on coming traffic, my husband swings the motor home onto the truck ramp. It is immediately after a curve and the oncoming traffic looks as through it will run right into us.

The alternator belt has broken. We use our cell phone to call SIL’s son who is a Superintendent of a nearby school district. Hubby gives him the numbers off the old belt and he graciously brings it to us in about 20 minutes. My SIL, meanwhile, is looking out the front of the motorhome at the on coming traffic, exclaiming every time it looks like we are going to be hit. I prefer not to know it and just go about arranging more stuff in the camper.

Hubby puts on the new belt with my help. He crawls under the motorhome and puts the new belt on the necessary pulley then pushes it up for me to place on the alternator pulley. He has removed the engine cover inside the motorhome so I can reach the alternator. Everything seems to be o.k. and we take off again.

About 20 miles further down the road, it happens again. This time we are in the small town where SIL’s son is. We call him again, but this time he is unable to bring a belt to us. Instead, he calls a local O’Reilly auto parts store and they deliver the belt to us. Hubby puts 2nd new belt on, again with my help, and again, we are on the road.

We make it all the way to Pine Bluff, Arkansas and it happens again. We are now too far from nephew but, SIL has been conversing via cell phone with her daughter. Niece had started out the previous day to travel to the Florida Reunion but got called into work. She is a Surgical RN. She was still planning to go the next day and would stop at a parts store on her way and get TWO alternator belts and bring them to us.

Ironically, we have pulled off the road right in the driveway of a RV sales and service dealer. We manage to pull off to a somewhat level spot and settle in for the night. We had talked about spending our first night on the road in a Wal-Mart parking lot rather than paying the $30.00 plus campground fees, so it wasn’t much different.

As hubby and I are lying in bed before we fell off to sleep, I ask him if it was the original belt that first broke. He said yes, he had checked it when he put the alternator on and it appeared to be o.k. I then asked him if there was any chance that the pulley on the present alternator was different than the former one. He replied that he had even asked the guys at our local O’Reilly store if it was the correct pulley on the rebuilt alternator and they assured him it was. We drifted off to sleep.

The next morning the niece arrived with two new alternator belts. She had gone to a local O’Reilly parts store to get them and they had assured her it was the correct belt. As I was helping hubby put belt on alternator, this time I ran my hand over the pulleys and could feel that there were rims with grooves on the area the belt was placed. BUT, on the pulley on the alternator, the belt did not fit inside the rim; it overlapped the edge of the pulley. I told my husband what I had observed. From underneath the engine, he shined a flashlight and confirmed that the belt did not fit properly on the alternator pulley.

Since I am not mechanically inclined but just follow his directions, I usually don’t give any input on something like that. He was very upset with himself to see that I had observed something he should have seen. (hee, hee, hee, chalk one up for me). I did not say anything though. He needed to think this out and did not need any needling.

The niece was still with us and since he had purchased the rebuilt alternator at an O’Reilly parts store and would you believe had brought the receipt with him, the niece took him to the O’Reilly store where she had purchased the belts. They very graciously took a pulley off a new alternator and put it on our rebuilt one. Hubby said he is going to take those broken alternator belts and wring them around the necks of our local O’Reilly guys.

No more mechanical problems for the rest of the trip. O.K. that’s enough for one posting. I write more next time.

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Heading South

I am not a winter person. I was born in Florida and my father was from Greece. I have a Mediterranean climate body. I do enjoy hibernating in the winter tho. Today is very cold. Even hubby came back in for a better head cover. Clear blue sky but temps in the teens with wind chill's below 0.

I've got lots to do to get ready to go down to Arkansas. We will be living in our camper while hubby works in son's sporting goods store. Son is taking a trip with a friend to Nebraska to hunt buffalo. He asked his dad to work for him while he is gone. He has some good employees there but likes to have "family" in the store in his absence.

I've been washing clothes and sort of packing. If the camper were here, it would be easier to pack it. But we rented a lot in a park down in the town where son's store is. I did not say campground because it is just a place to park/store the camper. It does have full hookups which makes it lots better than having to move camper to "dump" every few days. But the lots are very small. We can barely extend our awning without touching the next camper.

Anyway, I have the challenge of packing the food and clothes we will need in plastic tubs that we can store either under the camper or in the back of the pickup.

I am also taking some tools, etc. to do some work on the cornice boards in the bedroom of the camper. Hubby bought the used camper for a very reasonable price. It was pretty clean but the drapes in the bedroom were very faded and threadbare. I found some $1.00 a yard material at Wal-Mart and made some new drapes, but then the material the cornice boards were covered with did not match. So, I pulled it off the cornice boards. I have material and wallpaper scraps that I think will look o.k. So I will spend some of my time working on that.

I really thought we would be spending more time down there than we are. But hubby is living his dream on the farm now that he is retired. Men who love working cattle have almost a "husband" attitude toward the cattle. I guess that is why is has been called "animal husbandry".

A number of the cows are dropping their calves at this time. Most don't have any problems but you have to check them regularly, just in case. We might not be able to leave for Arkansas until some of them have dropped their calves.

I guess I need to get off my can and this keyboard. I may not be able to get a signal while I am down there. I can use the laptop if I do find a wireless signal. There is an Internet Cafe in that little town but I hate to pay $3.75 for a cup of tea. "Free" Internet while I'm there tho.

Never again!

I admit, I am a pack rat. I hate to get rid of anything that can still be used. I will give it to someone without any regret but to just lay it out on a yard sale table and allow someone to critically look at it and then REJECT it. Ouch! I feel like they are rejecting a part of me.

Is there a Pack Rats Anonymous? I should join. "Hello, my name is Irene and I’m a Pack Rat.” I’m always afraid that after I get rid of something I will need it again. I try to find alternative uses for all sorts of things. Our house has a full basement and when I say that, I mean a FULL basement! Even worse, I am married to the Pack Rat King. He became totally addicted a few years ago after he cleaned out one of the smaller outbuildings. He had about one and half squares of old composition roofing. It wasn't fit to use on a roof so he burned it. After he got the outbuilding clean he realized he needed something to put on the dirt floor. Oh No! The roofing would have been ideal. Now he is worse than I am.

My grandmother used to say, “Keep something seven years and you will find a use for it.” I think I must be genetically predisposed to being a Pack Rat. I don’t remember her having a lot of clutter around though. Of course back then, you did not buy stuff you could not use.

Like so many women, I love the $1 Shops. I find so much USEFUL stuff there. “Maybe someone I know needs that particular item. It is only $1; I’ll buy it”. I seldom get out of those stores for less than $25.00. And before Christmas, a couple of my favorite spots were having “Everything 30 cents Today” specials. Do you know how many 30-cent items are in a $10.00 bill? Too many.

I’m going to put some stuff in the box for a yard sale. Someone around here may just be needing something like that. If they don’t happen to come by my yard sale, I will give it to one of the charitable organizations in town. I’m going to be strong. I am going to do it.

TRAPPED!

No, not me. A beautiful bright red male cardinal was trapped on the unfinished addition at the lake house. I noticed it through the still present window(will later be a doorway). The top of the walls of the addition are not closed in. The soffits are open to the outside and I suppose he had been sitting up there to get away from the cold and decided to fly down into the room itself. He did not seem in any distress and I just figured he could find his way back out by flying to the top of the walls and out again the way he must have come in.

We have installed a large glass, single door, which our daughter gave us when she added on her sunroom, with another clear glass panel. It fit perfectly and allows a lot of light into the room. Anyway, this afternoon, I noticed Mr. Cardinal kept trying to get through the glass in the door. It is still below freezing outside but I crawled through the window and opened the swinging part of the door to the outside. He was so desperate to get out he even tried while I was unlocking the door. I went around behind where he had lit and walked slowly towards him from the opposite direction of the opened door. He went straight to the opening. I could almost sense his surprise when this time he was able to fly through the opening instead of fluttering against the glass.

He was gone in a flash so I don't know where he went from here. He really wasn't trapped in the room, he just thought he was but he still had to have help in getting out. Hmmm, there could be a moral to this story if I think about it.

Not a Winter Wonderland

We have been enduring a severe winter storm and have not had power at the farm since Saturday around 7:30 p.m. We are fortunate to have a marvelous fireplace that can just about heat the whole living area and some of the bedroom. We shut off the two bedrooms we aren’t using and were warm.

DH brought up his camping stove and I was able to cook a little and heat water for coffee and tea. We were surviving. I’ve stayed close to the fire but DH has had to go to town and he said it looks like a frozen war zone, with tree tops down and over the road. Power poles are leaning at 45 degree angles if not totally snapped in two. Ice and icicles are on every surface. It took him 45 minutes to clear the lane up to the barn; normally a 2-3 minute trip.

Then yesterday, Monday, I called the power company to see how long it might be before we would get power and they said it might be3 more days due to out living so far from town. I had already had to take the food from the refrigerator freezer and put it in open tubs on the deck where it was in the teens. I had avoided opening the chest freezer in the unheated basement, hoping things would be safe until the power came back on. But three more days? I was getting concerned. I was also missing a nice warm bath. Then DH came in and suggested I call my neighbor at our lake house to see if they had power there. She said it was fine a the Lake and she did not know of anyone who did not have power.

So, we packed up some clothes and the food from the refrigerator and headed the 26 miles to the lake. We could hardly believe our eyes when we got here. NO ICE! It was like another world. So, I fixed us a nice hot supper while Bennie got a hot bath. We were even able to watch TV and I could get on line with my laptop. DH had to go back to the farm for the night to keep the fireplace going so the pipes won’t freeze but he came back this morning with everything from the chest freezer. We have a small chest freezer here in the basement of the lake house. Everything was fine.

DH is working on getting a generator running but needed to order a part from the factory. He called awhile ago and said that there were over 50 people standing in line at the dealer who ordered the part for him. May not get home till late. Still no power at the farm. Tonight is supposed to be the coldest night of the year so far.

All the signs pointed to a rough winter; the warm spell made us doubt the signs. We were wrong. Old timers knew how to predict the weather based on generations of observation of nature. We need to relearn those skills.