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!

 
 





 

Our Building Project at Cedar Blue

At the beginning of May we contracted with a local builder to turn our deck under the canopy on our lot at Cedar Blue into a room.  We also contracted with him to put in a new covered cement patio.  The project didn't get started for nearly 3 weeks while he was waiting on supplies and here it is the end of June and we are still not done.  It's coming along though.  The walls, siding, windows, doors, electrical and insulation are in for the room.  He still has to install flashing on the metal roof, foam and batting on the ceiling, drywall and laminate flooring.  The patio is started with posts and framing for the cement.  Hopefully, when we return in two weeks we at least will have a room that we can put furniture in. Some of problems with the project have been a canopy and deck that weren't square and lots of rain. 

The room will be about 10' x 19' and will be used for extra living space.  We plan to have a loveseat with reclining seats, a couple of swivel/glider barrel chairs and a TV.  We also have a 6' folding table and plan to get some padded folding chairs that can be used for feeding company and playing games or putting puzzles together.  We will have an AC unit in the wall and a radiant type of heater for colder months.  The deck will be 18' x 20' and we plan to get a new swing, a nice grill and a gas fire pit.  Besides having to get all the furnishings for this project, we will have to paint the inside and outside of the room, put in some window dressings, paint the shed to match the outside of the room, and we want to stain the cement.  Then we need to do some landscaping.  So this project will keep us busy for a few months I'm sure.  We hope to take a full week in August here once it's done.

Since we plan to spend a few months a year here once John is retired this extra space will be wonderful.  The room is big enough to put down a couple of large air beds if we have overnight company, unless, of course, they prefer to put up a tent in the yard or come with their own camper.  Yes, there are hotels in town as well.  We will probably do a combination Thanksgiving/Christmas with family and/or friends here in Novembers before heading to south Texas or Arizona for the winters. 

More pics to come as the project progresses.

Spring is Coming to an End

It's been a while since I posted and Spring is coming to an end.  The pics you see are the place we park near Newcastle and Blanchard, OK.  

In April we had the reunion visit with my sisters followed by John's 60th birthday celebration and we ended the month spending a week at our friend, Priscilla's, home house and pet sitting.  As I think I've told you before she has 3 large dogs, 3 large cats and a dove and one of the cats has diabetes so needs two shots a day.  We always enjoy staying there because she has a lovely home and the animals are very easy to care for.  There's a bit of work involved in the mornings feeding, watering and cleaning litter boxes as well as time loving on them but none of it is hard.  Also she has a bathtub and John loves to soak.  Finally, when it's nice out she has an beautiful inground pool to swim in. 

April and May are supposed to be our wet months but that certainly wasn't the case until the week we stayed at Priscilla's and it poured.  We caught up from our prior drought at then end of June 2012 and then all the moisture stopped.  We didn't even have much in the winter so we started out this spring way way behind.  Our ponds were dried up and many of our lakes were several feet down.  The lake we boat on (Lake Arbuckle) was down 7'.  There were islands were there weren't supposed to be islands.  Well the end of May started to bring in rain and this June we have had several inches.  The ponds seem to be full and the lakes are starting to come up.  Lake Arbuckle is still down 5'.  We have more rain predicted for the end of this week so we pray that it will keep coming.

This past weekend we spent on projects.  We live in a gully and for a long time the cell/data booster antennas we had worked well but more recently they ATT and data boosters seemed to go by the wayside.  So we switched out to different directional antennas and hoisted them up on one pole and we are doing great now.  John had to switch out poles as well to get something more sturdy to clamp to the metal cover we park under.  I'm also in the process of changing from ATT.  They are just way too expensive especially to use as your dedicated hot spot.  So I down graded to 2 GB of data which dropped my cost by about $40-45 a month (I have one more year on my contract before I drop them completely) and picked up a Straight Talk Hot Spot and love it.  It's only 3G but I can get 4 GB of data for 2 months for $40 and eventually will switch my phone to that as well for $45 a month with unlimited talk, text, and web.  Way cheaper than ATT!  And they ping off Verizon which is what we are setup for with our antennas.  I'm sure that's way more info then some of you want but for RVers this is definitely something to consider.  Since I'm just using the hot spot for personal stuff 4GB lasts me a long time as long as I don't stream movies, videos and so forth.

We finally were able to get a mask/bra made for the front of our RV.  We have a 2013 model RV so there were no companies with patterns to fit this rig but a company in California worked with us and based on pics and measurements made one for us.  When we got it there was only one thing that was off by several inches so we returned it, they fixed it and we had it back in less than 2 weeks and it fits beautifully.  We had to install all the little metal things you attach it to which meant drilling holes and using a rivet gun but it was a piece of cake.  Now we are protected from all the junk and rocks that hit the front of the rig driving down the road. 

The final story for the day was my little accident!  This past Friday I spent 2 hours going up and down a ladder waxing the RV and had no problems at all.  I had already down the front before we put the mask on and got the entire passenger side done and looking great.  I got all my stuff setup to start on the back of the RV and went inside for some water.  On my way out I went down the RV steps too fast and when I stepped onto our last step I stepped on the edge and my right foot slipped of turning completely under and down I went.  OMG the pain was incredible and I was sure I had broken my ankle. 

John rushed out and sat with me while I rolled around a bit waiting hopefully for the pain to subside, which it did.  I then realized it was my foot and not my ankle - thank goodness.  So far it seems to be a bad sprain - no broken bones as far as then can tell but had a huge hematoma on the foot.  The doctor put me into a cast boot for 1-2 weeks.  Sunday it felt so much better so I spent a bit of time getting around without the boot and it swelled up like a cooked marshmallow so back into the boot.  I see my PCP today so will get her thoughts.  This slows me down way too much!  But it will heal. 

My next blog will share about our building project at our lot in Cedar Blue where we are enclosing our deck into a room and adding on a new covered cement patio.  That's an entire blog by itself. 

I hope you all have a great week. 

John's 60th Birthday

John turned 60 on April 16th!  What he asked for was to stay at the Embassy Suites Hotel with our girls (Bailey and April).  I couldn't let the 60th go by without a bit more of a celebration, though.  So in addition to the weekend at the hotel, I had a party for him.  Our dear friend, Priscilla, opened her lovely home for this which was so very kind.


I ordered in Earls BBQ and had a birthday cake and ice cream.  Then we all played Catch Phrase which was great fun.  The top photo is John with his new scanner.  Now we get to hear all that is going on around us!!  Oh boy!  John also got an Apple TV so the next picture is of him and the girls trying it out at the hotel.  It is a pretty neat 'toy' as we can see anything he can see on his IPAD on our TV.  Great for showing photos, watching movies and so on.  

The last picture is of most of the group playing the game.  Although everybody knew somebody at the party I don't think any of them knew all the rest of the group but there was no lack for conversation.  You would have thought they all knew each other like old friends.

Our next milestone will be John's retirement.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY SWEETIE!

Sister Reunion April 2013

My sisters, Anne and Liz, and their husbands, Don and Frank, made a trip to Oklahoma this past week for a get together with John and I and the girls.  Our Aunt Shiena was hoping to join us from Oregon but due to some surgery she was unable to make it.  Shiena -- we missed having you with us.  The snacks you sent were yummy and we them all!  Thank you again for thinking of us with those.  Hope you enjoy the blog.

We stayed at the Embassy Suites in Norman and had a great visit.  The hotel was great.  The rooms were 2-room suites with enough seating in the living room for all of us to visit.  They had an enormous breakfast area with the option of having made to order omelets and so on included in the price of the room.  Every evening for about an hour and a half they had a managers reception which included free drinks and some munchies.  You could gather at tables in the breakfast area or the center courtyard area where they had comfy chairs and coffee tables.

On our first day we brought them out to the RV to let them see where we live and the inside of our digs.  Then we toured through the tornado hit areas from Newcastle and into Moore showing them where our home used to be as well as all the other horrific damage.  After that we headed up to Bricktown and had lunch at Earls BBQ and followed that we a ride in one of the taxis on the Bricktown canal.  That ride allowed them to see all the

wonderful metal sculptures depicting the Land Run.  These huge sculptures are right beside the canal.  Following that we headed up to the Bombing Memorial.  Our tour the first day ended with a visit to our sister, Beany's, grave site in Norman where we cleaned up the headstone and put in some pretty yellow flowers.  That evening we had dinner at Outback and then visited a bit and looked at old family photos.

On our second day we headed south to Fort Sill in Lawton.  My Dad was stationed there from 1941-1944 as a physician and both of my sisters remember living there.  Several buildings of the original fort are still there and in use.  It was interesting going through a couple of the museums.  Anne and Liz had a family picture of the old post chapel which is still there and in use.  Also the building that housed the hospital at the time my Dad served there is still there and in use but not as a hospital.  There was another hospital prior to that building in the same place and the hospital has been in two other locations since.   The gals could not remember where the houses were that they lived in.  The picture they had of one of them seemed to be base housing as it had the family name on a plaque out front by the street.  

Then we checked out the old guard house.  Geronimo spent a little bit of time in this

facility.  He is also buried on Fort Sill land about 4 miles out from the main area so we drove out there to see it.  He is buried in a cemetery with other Apache Indians.

After our tour of the base we checked out lunch at a place in Lawton called the Backporch Drafthouse.  It was quite good and popular.  

In the afternoon we headed back to OKC and visited the Oklahoma City Museum of Art which neither John nor I had ever been to.  It was an awesome visit.  The glass work made by Dale Chihuly is incredible and it is a permanent exhibition.  There was also an interesting exhibition by Ansel Adams and another one by Lisa Hoke.  Lisa Hoke's display is one large display in a room on three walls that is made up of things we all throw away, such as any kind of paper good, plastic cups, boxes from food products.  It's all arranged by color and is really fun to get up close to and check out.

We finished up the day by picking up the girls (our dogs) from our friend Priscilla, who was so kind to keep them a few days, and having a light dinner at Zios.

On Wednesday Anne and Don headed home to Houston and I drove Liz and Frank to the airport in the morning for a flight home to Potomac, Maryland.  Then we headed home to the RV, picked up groceries and drove down to our place at Cedar Blue for the rest of the week.  Potentially bad weather had been forecast for Wednesday so we watched it carefully and got the tornado shelter prepped for the spring storms.  Put in a lantern, bottled water, snacks, work gloves, a flashlight and battery operated fan.  Thankfully nothing transpired.