The November Arctic Blast

     It's Veterans Day and the arctic blast covering much of the United States has arrived.  Yesterday was a beautiful sunny day and 80 degrees.  I had on a t-shirt, was running the air conditioner and had the windows open until 9 pm.  Then the wind came blasting in and temps started to plummet.  This morning we woke up to the upper 20's and winds blowing 30-40 mph.  This afternoon it is 41 degrees and very windy but the sun is out and it's a gorgeous day.  The trees in the RV park are a beautiful array of reds, oranges, yellows and greens.  The picture to the left is a maple in a friend's yard.  Its' one of the prettiest trees in her yard.   She told me that the other trees in her yard all cost a fairly significant sum but this one she saw at Walmart.  It was a small tree and cost her $12.50 and it is absolutely stunning.  

     This was the friend that we took care of while she had surgery.  John and I moved to her place one week after his surgery and he recuperated there while I took care of all her animals until she came home.  Then we spent another week taking care of her as well and helping her get back on her feet and able to take care of herself and her animals.  We were able to return home this past Friday.  John has been back at work for over a week now and doing very well.  

     We spent time this weekend battening down the hatches in preparation for this very long cold snap we are now in.  They are even talking snow this weekend.  John topped off the antifreeze in the motorhome and our two cars, hooked up a new heated hose and put insulation around it as well, and put lamps in where the refrigerator's pipes are to keep the ice maker from freezing and in where the sewer and water hookups are to keep them all from freezing.  So we are all snugly warm and ready for the long haul.

     Sunday we drove to the Wichita's near Lawton, Oklahoma to enjoy the pretty day before the cold blast.  It was nice to get out and walk with the girls,  We also saw lots of prairie dogs.  They are so cute.  

     Today Bailey and I finally were able to get back to the hospital for our pet therapy visits with the patients and staff.  It was nice to be back.  It's always tiring but I really enjoy talking to the patients and being able to pray with some of them.  They frequently like to share their pictures of their pets with me and those are fun to look at.  

     This morning I took the girls out and they seemed to love the cold, windy weather.  I bundled them up in their little sherpa coats and bundled myself up as well.  It was only about 31 degrees and very very windy.  The girls ran and ran and wrestled with each other as if it was an awesome weather day.  Crazy girls.  This afternoon when I got home I had to get the camera out to get some pics of the pretty trees in the RV park so I've shared them in this blog.

     This weekend we had planned to go to Cedar Blue but they are predicting possible snow and wintry mix so we will probably not take the RV.  There is no sense in taking a chance with our 'home' in bad weather on the road.  I have meetings to attend with the Board of Directors on Saturday so we will probably just drive down for the day.  The big news is our building project is done so we have a free-standing room that John and the girls can hang out in and watch TV or nap.  We have a room heater now to take down there so we can heat the place up.  We have had a beautiful Fall this year and now it's time to head through winter.  

Update on our Building Project and John's Hernia Surgery

Our Girls New Play Area

Our building project at Cedar Blue is nearly completed.  We had hoped that the last few details would be done by now by alas, our builder has had some serious family issues and has not been able to get it done. Maybe before winter sets in?  

The Girls Love Hanging Out With John

The patio is done and is wonderful.  John was able to install vinyl fencing with gates around it so the girls have a place to run without being tied up and they are safe.  

An Expanded View of our New Digs

In the Spring we will start in on some better landscaping.  I would like to put some drought-resistant evergreen shrubs that only get about 3' high around the patio.  We also want to put in a stone walkway from the patio out to our drive. I was also thrilled that the knockout roses I had to pull up to do this project actually came back to life after moving them to the bed around the storm shelter.  

They have a huge patio yet there they are in the chairs!

At least we were able to get all this done and the boat and waverunner winterized before John ended up in surgery!  So onto that story.  About two weeks ago on a Wednesday evening he started having serious abdominal pain.  It was serious enough we decided to head to the ER.  While there things got interesting. Two police officers and two suspects all had been shot and arrived at the same ER about the time we did and the hospital went into lock down.  So things seemed like they just slowed down for all the rest of us.  During this time John's pain let up and we asked if we could leave as we knew this was going to be a long night.  They convinced us to stay for some labs and an EKG which were normal so they released us and asked that we followup with the doctor, which John did the next day.  After more scans, the doctors felt like the problem was caused by an incisional hernia they could see that resulted from his emergency surgery in 2008.  His pain did return and stayed with him almost a week but he trooped on while waiting on the doctors.  The decision was made to do outpatient surgery and that was done on 10/21/14.  All went very well and we were home five hours later.  John even walked the dogs that night!  The surgeon actually found two hernias close together so fixed them both.  A 2-for-1 special!!  John has experienced some uncomfortable abdominal pain on and off for several months so hopefully this fixes that.  

John will be off work for a couple of weeks while he heals up so the girls will definitely enjoy having him around.  Next week we move to our friend's home to help her out for a couple of weeks while she has surgery.  Taking care of all her dogs and cats will be a challenge for her for a bit.  In the midst of all this I have one major project left to train the lady that replaced me at my old job and hope to get the majority of that done in the next two weeks.  It has been a long haul trying to get the ladies in the office all trained on what I did for so many years.  I'm hoping the fact that I rarely get a call or an email is a good thing and that they are feeling comfortable in their jobs.   

I hope everybody has been enjoying the beautiful Fall weather like we have.  It has been an awesome Fall with warmish days and cool evenings and a bit of a nip in the air at night.  We have fluctuated a bit from air conditioning to using the heater which means temps have gone from mid-80s to upper 40s at times but that's okay.  I wonder what winter will bring.  

Vacationing at Broken Bow Lake in Oklahoma in September 2014

We started our vacation at Cedar Blue for the weekend, then headed to Broken Bow, OK for Monday through Friday and ended the trip back at Cedar Blue for the weekend.

Upon arrival at Cedar Blue on Thursday night we found our cement patio all poured and most of the metal roof completed.  YEA!!  It was so awesome to see most of the work completed.  There is some trim work left on this project and cement needs to be poured in front of the storm shelter but all is now usable.  We hung up our colored lights, moved the fire pit into the middle of the patio, setup the new rocking camping chairs as well as the hammock and got the grill set in place. 

John and I still have projects to do but they are all things we can take time to do.  We need to build some fencing around the patio so the girls can run free on the patio and we don’t have to worry about them taking off.  The outside of the new room and our shed will need to be painted so they match.  John is going to build a folding table for the inside of the room that can be used as a buffet table, a game table or a dinner table and finally, we will need to do some landscaping.  Whew, that’s a bunch but it’s always good to have projects.

On Monday we headed to Broken Bow and stayed in a small private RV park across from Beavers Bend State Park.  We decided to take our waverunner with us so had to tow that separately with the jeep as the RV, jeep and waverunner all hooked together was longer than the 65’ limit.  It was still cheaper to drive the jeep then rent a waverunner.  The SE part of Oklahoma is absolutely gorgeous.  It’s hilly with lots of very tall trees.  You feel like you are in another State.  

John had done some internet searching for jeep trails and sure enough the forestry service has tons of roads to do 4-wheeling on.  We got some maps and advice from some nice ladies  at the park service and off we went on Tuesday morning.  After traveling several miles on gravel roads we took a turn onto a side road and bam, boy did we hit the jackpot for our first time out 4-wheeling.  This was a narrow road with weeds growing up between the tire lanes as high as the top

of our jeep engine.  It was a 3.2 mile road and very slow going.  We crossed 15 creeks with the last one being quite a bit bigger than the others.  We crawled over large rocks, down steep terrain, through water and then steep climbs up the other side.  Part way down the road we encountered a truck coming out.  We both had to really crunch to the sides to pass and were able to chat with the two guys in the truck.  They were very nice and told us they lived at the end of this road and we were welcome to turn around there as that was the end of the road and check the place out.  They had a couple of cabins and a large garden.  It appeared from some signs that they allowed hunters to join them as there was designated hunter parking.  Not sure if the hunters can stay overnight but they obviously can park there.  The forest was gorgeous and we had a great morning driving through it.

That afternoon we headed out to the lake with the waverunner and were awed by the beauty of this lake.  There are no houses or businesses other than a State lodge and a marina on it.  It is surrounded by thousands and thousands of very tall trees.  There are several islands throughout the lake that are also tree-filled.  Over the course of two afternoons, it took us about 3 hours to check this lake out with just a few short stops to swim.  The State Park is also gorgeous and I’m thinking this may be a new favorite place to visit in September.  The tourists are mostly gone so the lake has almost nobody on it and we didn’t have to contend with others on the trails with the jeep.

On Wednesday we did some more 4-wheeling in the morning and hit the lake in the late afternoon.  Our time on the trails got a little interesting in that we thought we were lost.  The maps we had weren’t great and I thought I knew where we were.  But then we started heading in the opposite direction I thought we should be going so we turned around.  We found a road that appeared to be a dead end on the map so we decided to check it out to see if that was in fact where we were.  Part way down the road here was a forestry service employee out in the middle of nowhere!!  An answer to prayer.  He had a great German accent and was very helpful.  It turned out that we originally were headed the right way.  We just hadn’t gone far enough.  We eventually came to the Glover River which is supposed to be the only free flowing river left in Oklahoma.  It apparently is not dammed. 

After lunch we took the girls and explored the State Park a bit more and then got back out on the lake with the waverunner again.  This was going to be the last hot day for the season I think and it was nice to be able to do some swimming and riding around the lake.

On Thursday we woke up to lots of rain.  It was a nice gentle rain for most of the morning and much cooler weather.  Instead of mid-90’s it was in the low 70’s.  We explored more of the park in the afternoon and found some gorgeous places along the Mountain Fork River that runs through the park.  There are lots of places to tent camp or park the RV along the river.  The park also has a swim beach on the river, horseback riding, and you can rent canoes, kayaks and paddle boats.  There was also a place we found where folks were fly fishing.  In addition, the park has a very pretty lodge that overlooks the lake where you can rent rooms as well as lots of cabins throughout the park.  I’m sure this place is absolutely mobbed in the summer but in the Fall it is almost empty and a great time to visit.  We will definitely be back.

 

On Friday morning we headed back to Cedar Blue.  We woke up to more rain which continued the entire drive back to Cedar Blue and the temps were only in the 60's.  Wow, what a change.  The drive was uneventful, thank goodness.  I was a bit concerned about our windshield wipers on the RV.  They had recently started acting up.  If you used the washers you had to turn the engine off to turn off the wipers.  If you didn't use the washer but did use the wipers they would stop wherever they were when you turned them off.  Ugh.  Could be a long drive home in the rain.  John had tried to check them out but was unable to do anything about them.  We figured it would be a trek to the truck center.  Well, I turned them on as we started down the highway and amazingly, they worked just fine and turned on and off the way they were supposed to.  God is so good.  He takes care of even the little details.

I will end the weekend by getting my feet wet with the Board of Directors for our Cedar Blue park that I was recently elected to.  Tomorrow we meet to get us newbies up to speed and my first monthly board meeting with the property owners next weekend.  Keep me in your prayers.

Our Room is Done!

We arrived at our place at Cedar Blue on Friday morning, August 15th, to find our room done.  We had a contractor enclose our covered deck into a 10'x19' room so we would have more living space.  The new covered patio, however, is still not done but there were a few more pieces of bracing for the cover.  So the work began.  John and I spent three days painting, finishing the electric hookup, installing the security system and adjusting the cameras, putting a computer desk together and putting up some curtains for the sliding glass door.  We were exhausted each night.  We had a window AC unit installed in the wall and hoped that it would do the trick cooling the room down and boy does it ever.  I have found myself covering up with a blanket!    

The girls helping assemble the TV stand

Tonight we are sitting in our new reclining loveseat watching our new 40" TV with our girls sleeping on the loveseat with us.  We are waiting for a TV stand that we ordered.  We left one end of the room open for a folding table that we can use for eating with friends or playing games and putting puzzles together.  After much internet searching for that perfect and affordable table, John has convinced me that he should build one.  I'm pretty excited about it.  We checked out wood at Lowes and found a nice pine.  The table is going to be 5' long with two 12" wide side panels and the center panel will be 16".  It will fit great along the wall.  Can't wait.  May just have to start this project this week while we are here.  We are sure hoping that the patio is done in time to enjoy some fires in the Fall.

Putting together the new gas fire pit

My biggest dilemma has been curtains.  I purchased some nice ivory curtains for the sliding door planning to order the shorter curtains online as they store didn't have any.  Of course, I could get just about any of the other colors for those curtains in the shorter length but not in ivory.  We traveled to Ardmore and Pauls Valley this week searching for stores that sell curtains and only found one.  They make them and were going to want $2,000 for six panels!  YIKES.  Not for a room at a camping spot!  So I have order six more panels of the same curtains I have in the long length and we will just shorten them.  Way less money!

Our unfinished covered cement patio

The girls seem to like the room as they have some more room to run around.  They especially like the loveseat.  Today I bathed both of them and cut their hair.  They were getting very scruffy looking and probably hot with the long hair.  They are so patient with me while I groom them.  

This summer (keep in mind it is now mid-August) we have only been out on the lake twice.  Once in the boat and once on the waverunner.  Many of the weekends we were able to go out it was raining.  Since we have several more days here this week we should get plenty of lake time in.  Our poor lake is 7' down from its normal level.  With all the rain the State has had, including the surrounding area of Lake Arbuckle, it just seems that the big rains keep missing the lake.  I sure hope the Fall and Winter are wet.

Our RV snug as a bug under the cover

Looking forward to just relaxing a bit now.  Maybe reading a book and doing some crocheting and getting in the lake.  

A view of the storm shelter, patio area and room

What a Week!

This past week has been a crazy and testing week.  After many months of prayer and discussion we made the decision to pull out of the DivorceCare ministry that we have been doing since 1996.  This has been a wonderful and rewarding ministry and we will miss it.  Among other reasons, I think burn-out plays into this decision as well and if we are burned out then we aren't much help to those who need us.  I pray that some folks will step up and take over so hurting people can continue to find help at First Baptist Moore.  In addition to that decision, we also made the decision to start attending church closer to where we live.  Since we are gone so much in our partial retirement, we are feeling a bit disconnected at our home church as well as having to drive about 30 miles one way every Sunday, so we plan to try out a Baptist church just 2 miles down the road from where we live.  I look forward to finding short-term projects to get involved in there. 

Last Thursday Bailey and I headed to the hospital to do pet therapy.  Upon arrival and while headed through the parking garage Bailey started throwing up.  This was the third time she had done that within the week with no rhyme or reason to why or when.  Obviously I couldn't have her doing this on the patients so I decided to just take her to the vet for a checkup.  I had noticed that she hadn't had much of a spark in her walk either so needless to say, I was concerned.  The vet did an exam and asked a lot of questions and came to the conclusion that there was nothing terribly concerning to her as her tests and exam were negative.  Her best guess was that she was dealing with some reflux.  So she gave her a shot and sent me home with some meds for a couple of days.  She seems to be much better and perkier and not throwing up anymore.  As I look at her this morning she is laying upside down in a bed on the dashboard of the motorhome with the morning sun shining down on her.  Her favorite spot in the mornings.

Last Thursday night we headed to Cedar Blue hoping beyond hope that we would find the inside of our room that is being built completed.  There just seemed no reason for this not to be done.  Upon arrival alas, it's not.  The floor has not been installed, the AC has not been installed, the trim around the windows and doors has not been installed and the outside work has barely begun.....  Some of the workers showed up Friday morning and told us the floor would be done and they would put the door knob and lock on the door as they knew we wanted to paint and put our loveseat and chairs in the room as they had to be picked up from the furniture store.  Well by the end of the day they had most of the floor done but not all of it.  I went ahead and started to paint while John worked to hook up all the electricity.  I finished the ceiling and about half the walls in a really pretty lemon cream color.  Love it.  Then bam the first problem with the electricity.  John had it all figured out except for one set of wires that didn't seem to go to anything and 3 outlets that didn't seem to have any power.  Keep in mind all the drywall is up so we cannot see behind the walls but with this set of circumstances it probably means that the workers drywalled over an outlet that was wired in but we can't see it and we don't know where it is.  This is the only explanation.  So we punted it back to the contractor to find the elusive missing outlet.  John got the majority of his work done and he powered up some outlets but this just meant that he couldn't finish the job this weekend.  It also meant that I couldn't finish the painting if they have to take out some of the drywall.  So I finished all but one wall as we had at least narrowed down the area that missing outlet must be in.  Oh well, I can work around things on our next trip down and paint then.  We plan to return in two weeks and stay for 10 days and hopefully can outfit our 'finished' room.  We'll see.  These guys could have built an entire house in this time frame.  The patio is definitely not done but they have started the framing for the cover.  I can't find blame with this as they need several dry days to 1) let the ground dry out as it has rained every week all summer and 2) they need dry days planned after the ground is dry to pour the cement.  And yes, there is more rained forecast.

While at Cedar Blue this weekend, April had an accident.  Ugh!  On Friday night while John was walking the girls he looked down at April and she was holding up her front paw and it was bleeding.  She had not yelped or whimpered once so what happened?  Bailey somehow figured out that April was hurt (because April was not making a sound) and went nuts trying to check on her and wanting out to find the 'culprit'.  We cleaned her paw and bandaged her up for the night and then found a vet in the Sulphur/Davis area that was willing to meet us at the office.  We were very impressed with this clinic and they were so nice.  April had somehow pulled a nail off on her front paw so he put her on pain meds and antibiotics and told us the nail would fall off and a new one would grow back.  She was a real trooper and today is doing just fine.

While we were at Cedar Blue we had a visit from some of the Board members for the park to talk to me about running for the Board.  There are 3 positions open for 3-year terms and for whatever reason, nobody has turned in a resume.  I had shown an interest to the President at one point but because I could not fulfill the third year as John will be retired and we may be gone a lot, I decided not to run.  In the meantime, the President asked if I would be interested in fulfilling the 1-year term of a Board member that can no longer serve, which I told him I would.  Well these other Board members convinced me to run instead for the 3-year position noting that if I won and could not finish out my last year they could appoint somebody to fill that slot.  I have no idea why there aren't several resumes for these positions as there sure are a lot of park owners that gripe about what the Board is and is not doing.  Now they have their chance to make a difference and they don't.  At last count two of us have now submitted our resumes.  I sure hope that others step up to the mat.


Today (Monday) I enjoyed lunch and visiting with my friend, Priscilla.  We hadn't visited in a while so it was nice to just sit and catch up, which we did for about 4 hours.  She is such a wonderful and giving person and is always doing something for her extended family even while dealing with the loss of her wonderful husband at such an early age and her own health issues.  I pray that God watches over her and comforts her.  

Well that's a wrap on all that went on in my life this past week.  I dealt with a lot of stress but have a complete peace now and feel that I have done what God wants me to do.  I look forward to a great week.

Baby Owls and Introducing the Girls to a New Puppy

At the beginning of the week while outside one evening I got something out of the side of my eye flying swiftly along the ground of the wooded greenbelt across the road from our RV.  Periodically I caught other movement and couldn't figure out what it was.  It was getting darker so I realized I wasn't going to know what I was seeing.  

The next evening the movement started up again so this time I started to pay attention.  I wondered closer to the area and just stayed still and realized it was an owl.  As I watched I realized there were now two of them and eventually three were out there putting on a show.  They didn't seem put off by humans or dogs.  On the third evening I made a point of getting out there by 8:15 pm and took my little Nikon camera with me.  Wow, what a show.  All three showed up but alas my camera's telephoto just wasn't strong enough to get a great shot.  One of them landed on a tree not too far from us and we got a good look with binoculars.  But it was getting dark. 


Last night I came out with my good camera and telephoto and boy did I get some pics.  This barred owl landed about 20' from me while I sat quietly next to a motorhome in a swing and just looked at me.  Then up into a tree he flew and kept watching me.  These seem to be young barred owls.  I assume they are hunting each evening.

This weekend we were not able to go to Cedar Blue.  John had a nail removed from his big toe so getting into the lake wasn't going to be on the agenda as he certainly didn't want an infection.  Also, our builder was at a point of putting in drywall and flooring in our new room and asked if we could wait until next weekend to go down there.  

So on Friday we headed over to our friend, Priscilla's home.  She has a new puppy (Pippa) that is a morkie like our dogs but a completely different color.  We are going to keep her next weekend so we wanted to introduce our girls and start the process of getting them to like each other.  She is all puppy so April did a lot of snapping at her and Bailey just gave her some fierce growls.  It was a sunny, hot day so we got into the pool and just let the girls run around and get used to each other. 

We put Pippa in the pool trying to teach her the way out.  She has some more training to do on that but she loved the pool and climbed out just fine when she did get to the steps.  The water didn't put her off at all and she would just lay down at the edge of the pool and interact with us.  She's just a little lover.  Still trying to get her housebroken though so next weekend we will have to keep our eye on her all the time.

Bailey and April aren't buddies with her yet but they did play chase around the pool a bit.  I got each of our girls in the pool too and they didn't seem nervous about it at all.  They also swam to the steps but weren't interested in hanging out at the edge!  LOL  

I wasn't able to get a good pic of Bailey today.  She was being her willful self. April, on the other hand, posed for a couple of nice shots.  

Priscilla has tons of potted flowers around her pool and they are just beautiful.  

July 4th 2014 Weekend

The July 4th weekend has come to an end and we had a nice time.  On the 4th we started by visiting our friend, Priscilla, and her enormous mob of family at her home.  She must have had 30 family from out of town visiting for the weekend.  The small children enjoyed her beautiful pool.  We enjoyed some good food and then moved onto a fellowship our Sunday School class was having our one of their homes.  They have a beautiful home out in the country (kind of) with a very large back yard that backs up to a dirt field.  So this made it very conducive to having fireworks shot off.  One of the class members brought an enormous amount of fireworks with him and put on a very nice display for all of us to enjoy.

April

Bailey

On Saturday we took a day trip to the Great Salt Plains State Park in Oklahoma.  This place is really neat to see and hard to believe it is in Oklahoma.  We took the girls and the jeep and headed NW for 2 1/2 hours to Jet, OK.  On the east side of the park is where you can access the lake and camping areas.  There is quite a large dam and spillway there as well as some equestrian camping areas and trails.

 We found a small but nice camping area that would handle our rig that sits right on the river below the spillway.  It was very nice and we will probably spend some time there when it's cooler.  It would be fun to go out and dig for the selenite crystals.  http://www.fws.gov/refuge/salt_plains/visit/dig.html 

In order to get to the crystal digging area we had to head back south to Jet then west for a few miles to go up the west side of the lake and salt plains area.  By this time it was lunchtime and the only place we could find for food was Cadillac Jacks Cafe in Jet.  Since we had the girls, John went in and got food to go while I kept the girls cool in the car.  They actually had very good greasy spoon cheeseburgers.  

As you can see from the picture of John in the vast white area, this salt plain covers an expansive area. The picture of what looks like a road is just that.  You have to drive where directed to the dig areas which are rotated all the time.  There is apparently quick sand under all this so you really don't want to end up in that!  The crystals are always forming to that is why the dig areas are rotated.  The web site I listed tells you how to dig for them but you hit water no more than 2' down.  We had a great day and look forward to heading there to spend more time.  Only about 45 miles SW of this area are the sand dunes so we hope to check those out in the jeep as well and see if we can do some 4-wheeling!