On The Road

This Old House Gets A New Roof

2008-05-19T07:33:00.003-06:00

Friday May 16th, the work began with Al and Matt (16 year old step son of our carpenter) up on the roof tearing off the old tin and me on the ground picking up and hauling off what they threw down.
Work progressed nicely but it was beginning to get warm.
And there goes the old porch! We will replace it soon with an expanded version.

Saturday John, our friend and carpenter, was there to help and things went quickly despite the weather heating up to 85. Thank heavens the wind kept itself down to a mild breeze, handling those huge sheets of propanel is impossible in the wind! We all worked until 8:30 and then I cooked brats and burgers with all the usual sides for the hungry crew.
Sunday all that was left to do was some minor stuff on the main roof and all of the back section which had some really bad spots that needed replacing before the propanel could go up. John found "treasure" in one area....a child's shirt and bib overalls! Had us all wondering if we were going to find the remains of the kid too!:0

John had predicted that we would be done by 2:00 so I gave him the benefit of the doubt and didn't put the pork loin roast on the grill until 1:00. As it turned out I should have waited until 4:00! For some reason things went very slowly all afternoon but the roof is finally on except for a couple trim pieces and it looks great!
I will post an "after" pic in the next post....for some unexplained reason Blogger will only let me put 5 pictures up at a time. There has to be a way to post more but so far I haven't been able to figure it out. :(

Moab Classic Car Show

2008-04-30T08:54:00.004-06:00

Al worked on his '65 Ford Falcon Ranchero for about 15 years. He did 95% of the work himself including the paint job, pretty impressive when you look at the other entries with their long lists of shops that had a hand in restoration of their vehicles. Finally it was good enough to enter in our first classic car show. I was finishing up packing for the weekend while he went out to load his baby on the trailer. Pretty soon I looked out the window to see what is taking so long.......here comes Al headed for the house with the most woebegone look, shaking his head and the Ranchero is sitting 1/2 in the garage....HUH? Seems she pitched a fit when he tried to load her on the hauler and kicked a ramp out causing her to fall off the trailer. OH NO!!!! I went out to look at what Al was describing as a major wreck.....and he accuses ME of exaggerating! True, she has a pretty deep gouge and dent in her door but I deemed it not bad enough to cancel our first show........"Don't be silly!" I told him, "I'll fix it!"

A few bandaids and some graphics applied with a Sharpie got lots of looks and comments from the crowd!

Friday morning everyone lined up for a run up Scenic Hiway 128 which follows the Colorado River between towering red cliffs on either side. After turning around in Castle Valley we stopped to allow the photographers a chance to get ahead of us again.

Miles of classic cars ahead and behind us. Those are the LaSal mountains in the distance.

On the way back we stopped at Red Cliffs Lodge for a great lunch. Then we toured the Movie Museum on the grounds there. It has posters, history, pictures and stories of all the movies that have been filmed in the area.....lots and lots of movies as it turns out. "Thelma and Louise", "City Slickers", "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid", and most of John Wayne's movies just to name a few. Al tried to steer me away from the winery but I found it anyway and bought one bottle of red and one of white wine. Maybe I'll save them for when my sisters come to visit again, maybe not.

Friday night we joined the line of cars "cruising Main" at 5mph. Crowds were lined up all along the way with their lawn chairs cheering for their favorite cars and encouraging them to do burn outs, even going so far as to wet down the pavement to make the burn outs more impressive. After our first pass we were starting to overheat so we pulled to the turning lane to make a left hand turn. Uh oh......what are those flashing lights? That cop can't be after us....can he????Yup. He said we didn't signal for a turn and proceeded to check all our tail lights. Real nice guy, I think he just wanted to check out our ride!

Saturday the cars were on display in Moab's town park. There was such a huge turnout this year that there wasn't room for all of them, they were parked on the side streets and in a school parking lot across the street. I was sort of surprised that there weren't more vendors, I didn't even buy Tshirt! But there was a DJ who played "oldies" all day, kind of appropriate.

This entry really caught my eye, the motor home is built on 1951 truck!

Saturday night we made one pass down Main and once again overheated so had to put her to bed. I was really disappointed, cruising is most of the fun of the Moab show.

Sunday after a Continental breakfast in the park we once again lined up for a run, this time out to Deadhorse Point. Heading up the hiway the side mirror on the driver's side of the Ranchero parted company with the bracket and smashed on the road in front of the car behind us.....talk about "OMG!" Thank heavens it didn't hit it, that car was a 30's or 40's something that had a paint job that was worth more than the Ranchero! we didn't go all the way to Deadhorse since we had just been there a month or so ago, instead we went out to Grand View Point where I hadn't been. Another beautiful part of Canyonlands National Park.

Rather than try to load the Ranchero again, Al just drove it home. She seems to be doing real well except for the transmission slipping occasionally and the overheating. Both easily fixed along with her "ouchy". We are both anxious to go to another show, it was really lots of fun!

Just in case you didn't know....you can click on the pictures to enlarge them :)

ATV Ride To The Cashin Mine

2008-04-06T11:52:00.004-06:00

Yesterday we loaded up the ATVs for a day of exploring. There is a road partway up LaSal Creek canyon that has always intrigued me. Al had been on it many years ago as part of mine rescue training but was willing to go again.

The day was overcast and not very warm, maybe 50 deg but not too bad as long as we kept our speed down. Not a problem as I was busy looking at pretty LaSal Creek and the cliffs on either side. There were arches, waterfalls, hoodoos and just generally neat stuff. The road would have been OK for the Toyota but I am always more comfortable on my ATV, you never know when you will come to a wash out, rockslide, or tree across the road.
The Cashin Mine was about 4 miles at the end of the road. It was a copper mine, started in 1896 and shut down in 1946.

Some of the copper bearing rock

After exploring the area we retraced our path back towards where we started and took a side "road" that went up the north cliff and paralleled the creek from on top. If we had tried this one in the Toyota I would have done lots of cringing when the skid plates and front and rear bumpers scraped the slick rock! I LOVE MY ATV!

This scene was about half way. The far peaks are the LaSal
mountains and down below you can see the road that leads
to the mine where we had just been.

Eventually we came to the end of the road and were at a point overlooking the Cashin Mine

The weather never got any better and luckily it never got worse either. It turned out to be a very enjoyable day and we brought home a bunch of pretty rocks!

Click on any of the pictures for a larger view:)

Trimming Trees

2008-04-01T07:46:00.004-06:00

Easter weekend Al and I had bribed and coerced Howard to come over and prove what he had been bragging about.......supposedly he was a tree trimmer back in Indiana before he moved here. We promised plenty of help and a cookout.
There is an ancient humungous tree in front of our house whose branches were hanging over most of the roof. In a couple weeks we will be entering "windy" time when the wind shrieks and howls down the valley. The last thing we need is a tree branch coming through the roof!

It took several hours but Howard got the tree cut back to manageable proportions.

Then a little trimming on the Black Walnut that was hanging over the back of the house. I have a suspicion that I am going to hate this tree when it drops nuts all over the yard!

Then it was time for burgers, brats, baked beans and potato salad, YUM! Howard and his wife Julie have a 4 year old daughter so I hid some Easter eggs for her. Turns out the poor kid has never had Christmas or a birthday party and had no idea what the Easter Bunny was! Can you imagine??? She had so much fun finding the colored eggs that she re-hid and hunted them several times then cried when one of them broke.

Easter Sunday Al and I had promised ourselves a day off so we packed some snacks and drinks in the ATVs and took off from the house for Carpenter Ridge. Unfortunately we were a few weeks too early. We got to the top of the ridge but then the snow and mud turned out to be too much and we had to come back down. This road ends just around the bend.Kids, your father may have taught you how to hunt, fish, go camping, drink beer and lots of other things important to life but I have to tell you.......I THINK HE IS ILLITERATE!!!! This pic is from last weekend when he decided to prune the fruit trees. I know darn well that step ladder has a warning sticker that says "Do Not Stand On Or Above This Step"

You Say Something Is Interfering With Your Cell Phone?

2008-03-27T11:30:00.002-06:00

No, this is not another rant about lack of cell phone service here in beautiful Paradox but rather something that caught my eye the other morning.

This bird was either practicing it's pose for a flag pole ornament or warming itself atop our cell phone tower. Whatever, it stayed in that position long enough for me to find the camera, get outside, and snap several pictures.

Eventually it put it's wings down. I went back inside to find the binoculars to see if it was an eagle. Nope, closer inspection revealed a turkey buzzard.

Ya just never know.

This Old House

2008-03-25T07:26:00.004-06:00

We were off to a pretty good start on fixing the fixer upper. Al started the daunting job of rewiring, there were only a few plug ins in the whole house and all the overhead lights turned on with pull cords. He started in the living room and somehow managed to break the pry bar......HUH?!!!
We were really making progress on the house until the new garage showed up on the back of a truck. We had purchased it the previous week when we had gone to Montrose to get our driver's licenses. Unfortunately the computers for the state were down so we spent the day killing time (maybe the computer thing would get fixed) and spending $money$.
After the garage was in place there was a shift in priorities. Now we had to concentrate on getting the garage wired, insulated, drywalled and painted. The house would have to wait. One of the many reasons for getting the garage finished first was that we couldn't find any of the tools, paintbrushes, nails and other parts and pieces that we needed to work on the house. They were still in boxes crammed into the storage shed along with 1 1/2 tons of pellets for the pellet stoves. Another reason was that Al needed to do some last minute work on the 65 Ranchero before we take it to the car show in Moab.I'm really looking forward to the car show, this will be the first one for us. On Friday April 25th there is a rod run up the Colorado River hiway to a big resort for lunch. Then Saturday is another run to Dead Horse Point.

The garage is finished and we have started sorting the stuff in the storage shed and getting everything organized and put where it belongs. We'll get back to the house soon ;)

Finally Moved

2008-03-06T06:57:00.003-07:00

Whew! I haven't been able to post for awhile, been kind of busy!Before we could move we had to dig the Retirement Home out of the snow in LaSal. This included shoveling ice and snow off the
roof so we could put the slides in.
The TV antenna was also frozen in place. Then there was the ice underneath from the flood of a few weeks ago. Two bags of ice melt and a couple warm days helped us out.
Friday the 15th we were up early and took a quick drive to check the road conditions . There was some snow and ice but the county road trucks were out sanding and we determined it would be safe to move the Retirement Home, the trailer, and both pick up trucks down to Paradox. The owners of the place we were buying were nowhere near being packed and out, they had both been set back by the flu. We all drove to Montrose (2 hours away) to sign closing papers. Then back to Paradox where we spent one last night in the Retirement Home.
The next morning we were again up early and on our way to Nucla to rent another Uhaul andload our stuff out of the storage shed. Our crew worked really hard!
We were loaded and then unloaded in the new place by early afternoon despite all the MUD!

Communications Setback

2008-02-13T06:57:00.005-07:00

Remember one of my first blogs when I was singing the praises of cell phones and aircards? I thought we were so up to date with technology. Well,I think I have mentioned that our Alltel cell phones and aircard aren't going to work at the new place we are moving to. The area is served by a local phone company, the Nucla Naturita Telephone Company a.k.a. "the mafia". They are expensive and think they are God's gift to Paradox Valley. Maybe 50 years ago they were but I see no reason they should continue to take advantage of ignorant residents, many who have never ventured more than 100 miles from home. I have been very vocal about not playing their silly game, we don't need a landline but we do need a cell phone that is halfway reliable and internet access. So this week I took a drive to Nucla to find out for myself just what they were offering in the way of cell service. Unlike my experience a couple years ago with the NM Dept of Motor Vehicles, no one threatened to have me bodily removed or arrested. See? I can learn how to act civilized...heeheee. The nice lady who answered my questions looked totally out of place, she was professionally dressed and had an expensive haircut as opposed to most residents who wear Carharts and muddy boots. She explained their cell phone plans, you can buy the phone outright and pay $45 per month for their basic 250 minute plan or get a "free" phone and pay $10 a month more for the same plan with a 2 year contract. HUH? The "free" phone sells for $150 if you buy it outright, if you opt for the "free" deal you end up paying $240 for it! All the rest of the phones displayed in a locked glass case ran anywhere from $300-$900, rather expensive for a piece of equipment that will be out of date in 6 months, don't you think? On further examination of their various plans, non of them have voice mail...that is $4.50 a month more! What is that about? I asked if the phones would work out of area....would it work in Moab? in Durango? in Phoenix? yes, yes, yes.....OK, whose towers are they roaming off of? Alltel, Verizon and Sprint! Only the very best! OK, why don't you share your towers with those companies? "Well, I guess those companies don't want to use our towers, you should ask them that question." Darn right I will! I left there with most of my preconceived notions confirmed but with the sad fact that we may have to get one of their darn cell phones. And it won't be the FREE one!
Back in LaSal I called Altell and told the nice service person my sad tale. I asked why they didn't use the "mafia's" towers, she said Altell probably found them to be inferior for service, too expensive, or not feasible....I'm guessing all 3! I told her about the new tower that the mafia had just put up in the middle of the little town we are moving to , just a block away from our new place. I thought she would never stop laughing! "What are they thinking?" she asked, "that will never work, you are too close to the tower!" oh. Well, what can we do about getting us out of our contracts? "What kind of phones and which aircard do you have?" huh? what difference does it make? I have the Hue, Al has something by Samsung that rarely works because I somehow managed to program it on Verizon, and the air card I just call Huey because I have no idea how to pronounce it's real name. Normally it would be around $200 each to get out of the contracts but after consulting with a supervisor it was agreed that my phone would be $109, Al's would be $99 and Huey would be $159. So much for free and special price phones! Just like with the "mafia" you are actually paying for them. OK, but don't disconnect me yet, I need to do our income taxes first!

Thoroughly disheartened, I inserted the Turbo Tax program in the laptop, answered all the questions, and efiled all the returns with the help of Huey. Guess I will place an online order today for Hughes net pro. I'm really going to miss Huey!

Playing Catch Up Here

2008-02-07T07:19:00.000-07:00

OK where was I? Oh yeah, I was getting ready for a moving sale.

These are plants that may have a chance of surviving after being frozen solid. The sign says "Free to a Good Home".

Al made it to Bloomfield just before the first eager shoppers showed up. It was a hectic 3 days but we got rid of lots of stuff and put $2,000 in our bank account. My son and his wife got lots of good stuff. Al's granddaughter got our sofa and loveseat in exchange for a futon she had, I wanted a futon for the sun porch and figured I could find another couch at a later date.

Al left for Colorado early Sunday to try to outrun the next snowstorm. Poor guy, he has had to fight storms every time he goes back and forth.

So I am back to packing and making arrangements with Salvation Army to come get the remnants of the moving sale when our Bloomfield realtor calls.........the buyers want to close early, we would have to be out next Saturday. GULP.........OK, we can do that! I called Al and persuaded him he really needed to come back to Bloomfield and HELP ME!!! He got back Wednesday and we tore into what was left with a vengeance.

We have tons of paperwork for the two transactions, selling and buying, but where is the Title preview for the house we are buying? The objection date was yesterday. Turns out the title company mailed it, which means it is probably sitting in the post office in Utah. A frantic call to our Colorado realtor gets the papers emailed to us. What is this? The title company says the property we are buying is recorded in 2 sections and they aren't contiguous? What is that all about? More calls to our CO realtor, and time out for county record searches online. Which only makes the situation worse.....it looks like our property doesn't end at the road like the owner told us but continues across the road up to the front door of a church/community center! And the "not contiguous" turns out to be a 6' lane between the 2 sections and right through the middle of the house! OK, tell our realtor to tell the seller's realtor that we want a full survey and WE AREN'T PAYING FOR IT!

Now it is Thursday, and we are running very low on propane. A call to the company that bought out the propane company we leased the tank from gets me nothing but"we can't deliver less than 100 gallons, that will be $283.00, would you like to pay the driver or put that on your credit card?" Hey! Are you listening to me? We aren't going to put that much propane in the tank for the new owners, we only need enough to get us by for a couple days! "I'm sorry, we can't deliver less than 100 gallons,..........." I finally called our Bloomfield realtor, explained the situation and offered the new owners early possession if they will take care of the propane problem. Which of course generates more paperwork.

The Salvation Army truck shows up to pick up the rest of the stuff from the moving sale. They were supposed to be here Tuesday but it snowed, they don't pick up in the snow. They open the back of the truck and OMG! There is the absolute perfect couch and matching recliner rocker in Southwest design just as I had envisioned for the new place! Much to Al's disgust, I talk them into unloading it and give them $120.00 for the set. I think Al was more upset at himself, he was trying to rewire our tow hitch because he left the wire harness in the RV and we needed it to tow the Beer Runner behind the Totally Awesome Toyota.

Early last summer we had been riding our ATVs down Largo Canyon when we came across 6 whipchecks that had fallen off an oilrig truck. These are wire cables about 4' long with clevis ends.The ones we found appeared to be brand new and still had tags from the manufacturer on them. I later called the local company which made them and determined they sell for about $75. We had put them out at our moving sale, several people offered to take them off our hands but no one wanted to pay for them. So I call the company again to see if they want to buy them back, of course they can't do that but the gal gives me the name of a drilling company that uses that size. I give them a call and the guy gets all bent out of shape, accuses us of stealing them, wants our address, rants and raves, I hang up on him. Sheesh! I was just trying to do them a favor and sell the darn things at way less than they would have to pay for new ones!

By now I have recharged my cellphone several times and there is no doubt that we will go over our plan minutes for the month with all the calls to the realtors. It is cold in the garage and workshop where we are finishing the last of the packing and we keep going in the house to thaw out fingers and feet. Phone rings again...now what? "Hello, this is the assistant District Attorney, I understand you are in possession of stolen property." OH FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!!! NO! We did NOT steal the damn things! Come and get them, our address is..."We'll be in touch ma'am"
Great, now we are criminals....

Friday is more of the same. I have reserved the biggest Uhaul truck online and they are supposed to call us back with instructions on where to pick it up. Finally I call them and find out the place we are to pick up the truck doesn't open until 10:00 on Saturday morning....that will not work, we have to get out of here. So we transfer the location to a place that opens at 9:00. A call to them and after begging, they allow us to pick up the truck on Friday afternoon. YES!

Saturday,moving day. It is snowing. Al is anxious to get started loading. My son Bryon is on his way from Pagosa in a snowstorm, Al's granddaughter and her SO are dropping the greatgrandson off at SO's parents.
They all show up and get to work.All the boxes have been loaded and we are working on this.
At this point I am getting seriously worried, notice the truck is almost full and we still have a big upright freezer and a garage full of stuff to go on yet. The guy going up the ramp is my son, Bryon, the other guy I got from Job Service. I had called them earlier in the week and offered $25 and lunch to whoever showed up to help load....he was the only one and he was very good help.

OK, it is 1:00 in the afternoon. The truck is loaded and amazingly everything fit. Our flatbed trailer is loaded and hooked to the back of the truck, the Beer Runner is attached to the Totally Awesome Toyota with a towbar and it is snowing again. But we are OUTTA HERE!

As usual, Al and I are not communicating. Not that we want it that way...we have tried several different things when we have to drive separate vehicles. CB radio, my handheld isn't strong enough. same for our two way radios. Today Al's cell phone is going straight to voicemail...darn thing never has worked right.

It is still snowing lightly and the farther north we go, the more snow on the road we are seeing. I am not comfortable going 60, the Beer Runner wants to "wag" the back of the Totally Awesome Toyota. As we near Dove Creek the snow on the road is getting worse and we pass a horrendous two semi accident. The cab had been entirely torn off one of them. We stop in Dove Creek for fuel and to talk about our options. I am all for heading northwest through Monticello and on to LaSal and the comfort of our RV for the night. Al wants to turn northeast and push on for Naturita where we are supposed to unload the Uhaul in a storage unit. I lost, turns out to be a good thing because Hwy 191 from Monticello to Moab was being closed about that time. So we head towards Slick Rock, the snow gets worse, the road is snowpacked, at times it is whiteout. And this is what lies ahead:

See that squiggely yellow line going from bottom left to upper right? That is Slick Rock Hill. It drops 2,000' into the Dolores River canyon. In good weather it is scary and spectacular. Today.......I grip the steering wheel harder, engage the 4WD, put it in low, and head down. I can no longer see Al ahead of me which is probably a good thing. Then, amazingly, the snow stops, the road is only WET! Whoopeee!! Piece of cake. Disappointment Valley is clear all the way across but then we climb up a little bit to Big Gyp valley and once again it is snowing and the road is snowpacked. Where are the snowplows? Up ahead Al blinks his tail lights....great. There are deer everywhere. Hey! I didn't make it this far just to hit a darn deer!

It seems like the road goes on forever, especially with me creeping along at 40mph. Then we cross over into Montrose County and the plows have been out so now we don't have snowpack but ICE! It is getting dark, I am exhausted, and I'm spinning out on a hill. Somewhere along the way I took it out of 4WD and have forgotten to put it back in. Ooops. Got it back under control and eventually we made it to Naturita.

After 5 1/2 hours of whiteknuckle driving I don't have much trouble convincing Al that we are going to get a motel room and some dinner. There is only 1 motel in town so while I get us checked in Al goes in search of dog food for the kids. I ask for a non-smoking ground floor room, it takes the gal an age to get us a room and process the credit card. She finally gets it done and we lug some stuff to the room. Whew! If this is a non-smoking room I hate to see what the smoking rooms smell like! But we are too tired to go back to the desk, dinner and a beer are more important. Back at the room we have fallen exhaustedly asleep when the phone rings. It is 10:00 at night, what the heck! The owner of the motel is on the phone...would we please move the Uhaul, it is blocking an access. GRRR!!!

Next morning we determine that there is no way we can safely get the Uhaul up the short drive to the storage shed, it has been snowing here too and not a single thing in town has been plowed.
We take a drive over to Nucla where we are to turn in the truck and lo and behold, there is a storage place there. We finally track down the owner (it is Sunday) and make arrangements to leave the truck until the next day. We leave the Uhaul, unhook the Beer Runner and hook the trailer up to the Totally Awesome Toyota and head for LaSal. More snowpacked road across Paradox Valley. We dropped the trailer at a friend's house near where we are moving (remember, the place with 6' of land separating the 2 sections). Everything was OK when we finally made it home to the RV. But it was snowing again.

Monday morning, we have another 8" of snow but set off for Bedrock where Al works at 5:30 am. Hmmmm, snowplows haven't been out yet but there is one set of tracks on the road and it is very beautiful and peaceful. There are two very steep curvy places to go down but I am not worried, the snow banks on the sides of the road are really high. When we get to where Al works we find out the road we just came over is CLOSED! Imagine that! The sun is starting to come out and we head on to Nucla and the Uhaul truck with all our household stuff still inside. Kenny, the owner, has found us a storage space, someone had moved out on the sly, so a couple phone calls (now Al's phone works but mine doesn't) to Al's friends and we have help unloading.

Things are progressing on the place we are trying to buy, the surveyor will be out to do his thing today. The owner is confidant that all will go well and is going to be out and on his way to Kentucky next Thursday. We are supposed to close next Friday, we closed on the Bloomfield place Tuesday.

Things are looking better!

I Made It Snow

2008-01-24T06:00:00.000-07:00

Hey, Mother Nature? I'm sorry if I pissed you off yesterday by complaining about the snow......it really wasn't so bad....and it was melting.....probably would have been OK to have the big MOVING SALE tomorrow.....SO CAN YOU PLEASE MAKE IT STOP????? We don't need any more right now. You, dear lady, have a warped sense of humor!

Many years ago, like around 1954, my sister Barb, cousin Doreen, and I each got dolls for Christmas. Somewhere I have a picture of the three of us holding our new dolls in front of the Christmas tree at Grandma Asher's home in Clarksville, Iowa. I thought my doll was kind of neat because she had red hair exactly the same color as mine and she had high heels.Now I was never much into playing with dolls, Cowboys and Indians was more my style, so my doll never saw much use. But for some reason I have kept her and toted her all over the country in various moves. At one time I took her to a doll show to have her appraised. The snooty lady told me she was a Horsman and not worth much. Alrighty then, back in the box and up on the closet shelf for many more years. So yesterday I employed the magic of internet and eBay to do some more research. Guess what?! She didn't have "Horsman" stamped on the back of her neck but something that looked like "Alexander". I discovered that she is a Cissy doll made by Madame Alexander and worth mucho $$$$!
I know she only has one glove on, I tried to put the other one on her but it is too fragile and I didn't want to damage it.

She still has 2 pairs of original strappy heels which I see are going for around $50, and I believe her slip is original.

I wonder what happened to her "diamond" ring?The rest of her clothes were made by my mother, even her sexy red bra! I think Mom had more fun with my doll than I did!

I wonder where these panties came from?And to think I was going to sell her at the MOVING SALE for $20.00!!!

Didn't Know Whether To Cry, Get Drunk, or Throw Up

2008-01-22T06:34:00.000-07:00

Yesterday morning Al left to go back to LaSal driving the Totally Awesome Toyota and hauling his restored tractor and brush hog. I tried to make him promise to stay on the hiway and not take the shortcut down Three Step and Lisbon Valley Road (gravel, snowpacked, steep, etc) but he wouldn't commit. So I got to worry until he called to tell me he made it OK.

Turns out we both should have been worrying about something far worse.......the gal who was supposed to be watching the "Retirement Home" for us and opening the grey water valve everyday hadn't done it! Al reported that the inside is flooded and there is a giant ice skating rink surrounding the RV. We had left the water dripping so the lines wouldn't freeze and burst, no big deal , you just have to go out and open the grey water valve and drain it every day. Why the park manager or no one else didn't call us I don't have a clue! They had to have seen all the water coming from the rig. Al hadn't talked to anyone before he called me so I don't know what the answer is. But I have an idea.......I think they are all idiots due to inbreeding!!!!

On the good side, our realtor for the Bloomfield house called, apologized for the inspectors who turned the heat off, and said everything was on schedule and we had passed the pest and septic inspections. Now it is just an appraisal and up to the lender to determine whether they think the house is worth loaning that much money for.

A mortgage rep from Wells Fargo called (I had filled out the loan request online) and after talking for a bit he thought it best that we finish with a local agent due to short closing time and a couple structural issues with the house we want to buy. (Don't all old houses come with asbestos shake shingles?heehee) So everything is being transferred to the bank in Montrose and I will talk more with her today. I really don't want to have to get a "renovation" loan, too much paperwork and BS. Did you know the loan rates are down to 5% right now? WOW!

I am making slow but steady progress on packing and setting up the moving sale. Why do we always end up having moving sales in the snow?

The picture on the left was when we moved from Silverton CO in 2000. If I remember correctly, the month was JUNE! The pic on the right is our garage as it looked a couple days ago before I REALLY started stacking stuff for sale in there.

Well, chin up, take some pain meds, put Icy/Hot patches on my knees, and get on with it!

Deja Vu All Over Again

2008-01-20T10:11:00.000-07:00

Friday morning we left LaSal before 5:00am headed for Bloomfield. We had the Beer Runner (Al's 93 ford Ranger) loaded on the trailer pulling it with my totally awesome 06 Toyota Tacoma. It's about a 3 1/2 hour trip depending on how many pit stops I need. We had to get to Bloomfield early before the gentleman rancher from Cortez showed up to get the baler and hay rake and also before some folks from Durango who were buying the small ore bucket.

Last Sunday when we left Bloomfield headed back for LaSal we double checked each other: faucet in kitchen and back bath dripping...check; washing machine faucets off.....check; water heater turned to "vacation"....check; furnace set on 60 deg.....check. So.......what do we find when we arrive back at the house??????? TOTAL FREEZE UP! The furnace is OFF, there are huge icicles hanging from the faucets that had been left dripping, the water in the toilets is solid, the sewer drains are froze solid, it is below zero in and out of the house.....Ya' get the picture? And who, you ask, is responsible for this disaster???? Why, the people who inspected it for the potential buyers last Monday after we left! It took all day to get the temp back up in the house and the water and sewer lines unfrozen. We were NOT Happy Campers! Luckily nothing broke or sprung a leak The biggest "uh oh" was one piece of vinyl tile in the bathroom that blistered when Al dropped the heat gun on it. Did I mention we were NOT Happy Campers? Fortunately I have a couple tiles and adhesive left from my bathroom remodel job so I can replace the damaged piece. Just another addition to my "to do list."

In the middle of all this fun Al started for town to fuel up the BeerRunner. He got about a mile down the road when the timing chain broke and had a very cold hike back to the house because his cell phone was left at the "Retirement Home" in LaSal for reasons known only to him. we loaded into the awesome Toyota with a tow chain and I dragged the BeerRunner back to the house. It needs to be fixed so I have something to drive this week when Al takes the Toyota back to LaSal. If it had to break down I'm just glad it did it here where there are 2 auto parts stores handy.

Saturday Al's granddaughter Mandi came over with great grandson Isaac to get some things we had set aside for her and go through some other stuff before next weeks moving sale. Unfortunately Isaac, who is all of 4 months old, is teething already and was very fussy so she had to cut her visit short. Then my son, Bryon, showed up from Pagosa Springs with his wife Tina and her daughter Jessica. They carted off lots of stuff and will be back next Saturday for some more and to help with the moving sale.

To be continued.......

Plans Are Made To Be............

2008-01-15T06:40:00.000-07:00

glug, slosh bang, swish.......hear that? That's me trying to keep moving forward and my head above all these plans made in Jello! We now have a back up offer on our NM house....yippeee! when it rains.....or is that "snows" in our case? We have also decided that we don't want to try to live in the "retirement home" for 2 more winters, just too hard on it with temps in the single digits all the time. So we revised our plans from looking for an acre of land to park it on to looking for a house.

Yesterday we ventured to Nucla, CO to look at a "fixer upper" priced at $40,000. Oh my....it was way beyond any hope of "fixing", the realtor even suggested a bonfire! After taking Al back out to where he works in Bedrock (home of the Flintstones) I drove back to Naturita to pay a visit to Lynda, the realtor we have been working with on the Colorado side. We had looked at a place in Paradox last fall that I fell in love with but Al saw as needing too much work, the house is as old as we are but not all that bad. So we made an offer on it. Do you have any idea how much paper is involved in offers, counter offers, contingencies, addendums........When this is over we will have enough paper for a great campfire!

Last weekend we went back to NM again, I had placed an ad in the American Classifieds for our farm equipment and one in the Durango Herald for a couple ore buckets. The phone had started ringing Thursday evening as soon as the farm ads came out, seems everyone is looking for a small hay baler. When we got to the house it was colder inside than a meat locker! Someone thought he was turning the thermostat down when we left the previous weekend but instead turned it all the way off. Brrrr! Good thing we had left the water dripping in the kithcen and bathroom sinks. Soon a couple rancher in a pickup and a gentleman rancher in a Caddilac showed up to look at the baler. We didn't know if we were going to have a bidding war or a good old knock down drag out! The gentleman rancher prevailed and bought not only the baler but also the rake and side sickle. Sometime after dark a young couple showed up to look at the ore buckets (I did say it was after dark, right?) They ended up taking the big one. Meanwhile I was busy unpacking some of the boxes that I had packed last fall.......remember, at this point we didn't know for sure if we were going to buy a house or downsize all the way to the "retirement home." This is the Jello Factor at it's best.

This weekend we will go back there, hopefully the homeowner in Paradox will have accepted our offer, and I can start all over again with a little better sense of direction.

The only downside of the Paradox house is that Alltel doesn't work there. My phone shows bars when you flip it on but immediately disappear with the message "no service available". It seems Sprint does not share their tower with Alltel. I really really do NOT want to switch to Sprint, their service does not work most other places here in the Wild West. We just signed 2 year contracts for 2 cell phones and an aircard, it's going to cost a fortune to cancel and get a service that works in the valley. Guess that is one of those bridges to cross when we come to it, huh?

OK, time for breakfast and phone calls, emails to the NM and CO realtors.

Snowy Wednesday

2008-01-09T08:28:00.000-07:00

Last Friday when we got back from Grand Junction where Al's mom had surgery, we discovered our big propane tank was empty and we had left the smaller one in Moab when we deep fried the Christmas turkey. While we were debating what to do our realtor called. Another realtor had gone to show the house in Bloomfield and found the propane there had run out and the water was frozen. AARRRGH! So Al drove back to Moab to retrieve the small tank and the next morning we headed out at 4:30 am for Bloomfield. We located our propane company, they had moved, and bribed a driver $100 to bring some propane out to the house. thank heavens the weather had warmed up and the pipes thawed out by themselves without breaking. There were no longer things ice skating in the toilets. We spent the rest of the weekend making piles of stuff: yard sale, trash, kids, charity. We didn't even make a dent.

When we left out of there last September we hadn't decided whether we were going to buy a house in UT/CO, continue living in the motorhome, just buy some land here, or (worst case) have to go back to NM if the house didn't sell. The end result of this confusion was that the garage is packed with stuff left over after 2 garage sales, some stuff is packed, and the majority is still where it was when we lived there. A lot to deal with in the next few weeks before closing.

And here I sit in LaSal watching the snow come down. Guess I'll defrost the fridge and hope the moving fairy takes care of everything at the house.

Panic

2008-01-04T05:38:00.000-07:00

Well, considering I sorted through everything in the house, packed the "short list" of stuff to keep, held a huge moving sale and made countless trips to the dump and local charity second hand store...................all in my sleep last night.......I am exhausted!

Our counter offer was accepted and it looks like the buyers financing is going to go through so I need to put myself in overdrive. Closing is Feb 14, aka Valentines Day. Twenty or even ten years ago that would not have been a problem, that was before my knees, hands and back went. We had not done a whole lot towards getting rid of all the stuff because there was always the possibility that the house wouldn't sell in a reasonable time and we would have to move back there........we have been going backwards financially since Sept. when Al took this other job. Now we can go forward again heading towards our retirement dream.

Meanwhile, we have to go to Grand Junction today, Al's mom is having surgery on her legs.

So if my writing is sporadic for the next month, I apologize. Anyone want to come to beautiful Bloomfield, NM to help? Pay would be all the "stuff"you can carry off!

The Wait Begins

2008-01-03T10:54:00.001-07:00

Our counter offer has been presented. Now we have to wait, I don't wait well.

Speaking of waiting, uploading pictures using my sometimes on/sometimes off cell connection can be a real education in patience! So, since I am waiting for the phone to ring, I might as well wait for some pictures to upload.

This is one of the bald eagles that live in the trees about a block away from us
This was a common sight sight a when we first settled in the RV park. Cows are noisy when they are being herded.

This is a "black diamond" section of the Hook and Ladder/Cameo Hills ATV trail. Al didn't even ask me if I wanted to try it, he just got off his machine and started climbing back up to take mine down while I stood at the top with my knees knocking together and my heart racing.The beautiful LaSal Mountains as seen from the west

and from the south

And a full moon rising

What A Great Start For 2008

2008-01-02T07:32:00.000-07:00

We received an email yesterday from our realtor, Shannon, with GREAT NEWS! We have an offer on our house in NM! The offer is quite close to what we are asking (after a price reduction of $14,000) so it would seem that all we need to do is a counter offer (there were a couple things we didn't agree to) and then hope and pray the buyers loan app goes through!

I am already having nightmares, we left the house with some stuff packed up, most not, a lot shoved into the garage after 2 yard sales. The problem then and now is that we aren't exactly sure what path we want to take from here. Do we purchase another house or buy an acre or so of property and continue living in the "retirement home" for 2 more years until Al retires? There aren't any restrictions here in La Sal that would prohibit us from putting up a garage, digging a well, putting in a septic system, hooking up to electric and living in our RV. Which is probably what we are going to do. Al wants/needs his garage. It is driving him nuts that he doesn't have access to his tools and fix-it stuff here when something needs to be fixed. He also likes to tinker and restore vintage cars.
This '65 Ford Falcon Ranchero is almost done.

With a nice heated garage/workshop I could put our washer/drier and upright freezer in there. Also maybe Al would let me have a small section for my projects. Yes, I think that is the way to go. Now to get busy and research some costs. I'm ready for this!

The Bug That Joined Us For New Year's Eve

2008-01-01T07:37:00.001-07:00

Al brought the bug home from work early Monday afternoon. You know the bug, the one where you don't know whether to sit on the potty or lean over it....... Not that we had any plans for New Year's Eve anyway, midnight is way past our bedtime. However we could have gone to the community center here for First Night activities sponsored by the LDS Church if we had been so inclined. Or at least stayed awake until 10:00 mountain time to watch the ball drop on Times Square. But no, because of the bug we got to play Musical Sleeping Places!

Normally I have no problem falling asleep on the couch...sometimes I even have an extra blanket.

So that was the logical place for me to sleep. Al was hot/cold/hot/cold and taking up the whole queen size bed, either with all the blankets or none at all. He said the slightest movement made him nauseous. No way was I going to sleep with him! (Great way to start the New Year, sperate sleeping arrangements) So it was the couch for me.

This is where we ran into problems. Where were Kate and Zorro going to sleep?

If I was going to take the couch, they would have to fight over Al's recliner which is only big enough for one. Did you know that Border Collies have been rated as the most intelligent dog breed? I don't know if it is true but ours are certainly very smart. They came up with the game of Musical Sleeping Places. The rules were to distract the one who was on the recliner so he/she would get off. The best way to do this was for the distractor to stick a cold nose in my face and beg for pets. The distractee would not want to be left out of pets and would vacate the recliner which the distractor would immediately occupy. At one point Kate even tried to get Dad to play thinking she could get rid of me and have her couch back. Not a good idea.

That is how I happened to be playing Spider on the computer at midnight.

Al is up and feeling better this morning but we probably won't be going to the Community Breakfast.

HAPPY NEW YEAR'S

Music, Movies and Books

2007-12-30T09:06:00.000-07:00

It seems I am missing some important gene, the one that drives others to have gadgets like iPods so they can listen to their favorite music. Back in the dark ages when I was a pre-teen and then teen, I can only remember owning 2 45s. One was Elvis' "Fools Rush In" (I don't even LIKE Elvis!) and the other was some child prodigy who even I can't remember. That was it, 2 records. My money was hard earned, I babysat, my parents could not afford to give any of us kids an allowance. Having that beautiful yellow angora sweater that shed all over was more important than records. Sure, I listened to music all the time, on that new invention called a transistor radio!

That mind set continues to this day. Our only CD players are in the vehicles but we don't have any CDs to put in them. We do have Sirius radio for all of them and also as part of our Dish satellite TV. With Sirius I can match the music to my mood: cleaning the house? a little old time rock and roll livens things right up; gloomy day? jazz or easy listening is called for; rolling down the road? country western is our choice. And weekends are NASCAR baby!!

I also like listening to local stations to find out what is going on in the area. Who knows, we might want to go to that rodeo or the grand opening of a new grocery store. Sometimes the weather reports are even close to being right!

If I only listened to music by my favorite artists that I had recorded, how would I know about new stars and songs?

The same holds true for movies. I would no more buy a DVD than hold my hand in the campfire. We don't go to movies and don't have Showtime or HBO on our Dish package. Why would we want to spend $$ on a movie that we may not like and would for sure never want to watch again? The movies will eventually come on TNT or TBS, we aren't in a hurry. And there is the option of PPV...we haven't tried it yet but "Wild Hogs" is available for $1.99 today. Maybe.......

Books. We also don't buy books even tho' Al and I are avid readers. We patronize the local library or the many places where you can "leave one, take one". I am very picky about my reading material....life is too short to read poorly written books. If I can't find anything to my liking, there is always a world of blogs and information on any subject I am interested in on the internet!

I'm really glad I'm not spending time today trying to figure out how to put music on an iPod!

Games for RV bloggers

2007-12-27T05:47:00.001-07:00

YIKES! I've been tagged by Froggi Donna!
Seems we have to list 5 things about ourselves and 5 places we want to see, then tag 5 to 10 bloggers. BIG PROBLEM! Donna tagged almost all the blogs I read!
RULES

Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog.
Share 5 random and/or weird facts about yourself on your blog.
Share the 5 top places on your "want to see or want to see again" list.
Tag a minimum of 5, maximum of 10 random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.
Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

RANDOM FACTS
1. In 1987 my youngest son (then 14 years old) and I rode horseback from PHX to Jackson Hole WY.
2. Al and I both lost our spouses in 1999.
3. Al used to be a uranium miner
4. My oldest son is a career Marine married to a career Air Force gal. They are in military intelligence (is that an oxymoron?) stationed in Okinawa.
5. I have had type I diabetes for 22 years

WANT TO SEE
1. Marysvale UT to ride the Paiute ATV trails
2. Alaska
3. Baja Mexico
4. Grand Tetons
5. Black Hills of SD again, and again, and again........

TAG
1 George and Ms Tioga
2 Lucy Here's Lucy
3. Nick and Terry Gypsy Journal
4. CJ Wandering Quilters Life in a Box
5. Kirk and Pam Our Great Adventure

Now, what was really on my "to do list" for today?

More Tour Guide, Winter Style

2007-12-25T08:40:00.001-07:00

Yesterday there were only 4 adventurous souls so we loaded snacks, GPSs, binoculars, dogs, and anything else we thought we might need into Phil's Tundra. Our original destination was Deadhorse Point with some geocaching along the way. Unfortuately we didn't prepare for treasure hunting very well, the locations were programmed into our Garmins but not the descriptions or even names. Using the "Go To Nearest" feature is useless in Canyon Country unless you are a bird.

We made it out to Deadhorse Point ooohing and aawing at the spectacular scenery. Not much adventure there...Hwy 313 is paved and the snow was bladed off. Once again we had a world famous destination all to ourselves. We spent some time in the interpretive center learning about rock formations and other interesting stuff. Then out to the Point.

We stopped at the Center again on our way back because Phil's GPS was showing a geocache there. For once I was the one to find it! In celebration of their 50th year the Utah State Park system placed geocaches at all their parks with trackable geocoins. Of course the coins were all gone but it was filled with all sorts of state park freebies.

We headed back on that nice, safe, paved road. Have I mentioned that I am not a big fan of offroading? We used to have an old Jeep that Al rebuilt but we sold it because he got tired of listening to me scream "LET ME OUT!". I am 90% more comfortable on my ATV. So what does Phil do? Turns onto a gravel road the soon narrowed and started going down. Way down. Now I have lots of confidence in Phil's 4WD ability. After all, he was taught by the best...his Uncle Al and Grandpa Art. But things got beyond my "no fear" level very quickly
There is reason this part of Long Canyon is called "Pucker Point"!
We made it the rest of the way with no big mishaps and stopped ti look at dinosaur tracks and Indian writings before making it back to Moab.

Hope everyone has a great Chirstmas Day!!!

Canyon Country In The Winter

2007-12-24T11:07:00.000-07:00

Al's nephew Phil and his girlfriend Patty are here for the holidays from San Diego. Yesterday we had them, Al's mom, and Al's sister out to the motor home for breakfast. Blueberry pancakes....YUM!
Then it was off to play tour guide since Patty had never been here before. We slipped and slid on some backroads that hadn't been plowed.....almost made me wish for our snowmobiles. I said almost! We finally made it out to Needles Overlook.

Chivalry is not dead, Al helped his mom, who is in her 80's, out to one of the overlooks.
Then we drove along the rim to Anticline Overlook

The views are just spectacular. And no one else for miles Big difference from tourist season.

Age Has Its Privileges

2007-12-21T10:43:00.000-07:00

When you reach 50 you can join AARP, a very worthwhile organization. Then around 55 you are eligible for senior discounts on certain days at local stores. The problem here is that by this time you are getting forgetful and can't remember which day is Ross and which is Alco.

When you are 60 you can join the activities at the local Senior Center. A couple years ago I was looking forward to this event so much that when my 58th birthday rolled around I had myself convinced that I was 59! Only one more year and I could go to the center for lunch and good times with all the rest of the old folks! Al, who is 4 weeks younger than I am, burst my bubble by wanting to know how I could be 59 when he was only 58. Oh duh!!!

So I finally turned 60 for real a couple weeks ago. The seniors here in La Sal meet every other Thursday for lunch and socializing. Yesterday we had our Christmas dinner, would you look at all those deserts?No one went hungry and we even got presents! We each got a fleece blanket, kind of appropriate considering how cold it is today. Of course you realize that all these people are way older than I am! heehee....

Later in the afternoon the two little kids from across the street knocked on the door and gave us a Christmas basket filled with tangelos, homemade fudge, candy and puppy chow. I love this stuff! Good thing that I made arrangements with a couple other gals yesterday to get together at the school gym to walk a couple times a week. Walking outside here in the winter is not a fun thing !

Wasting Time

2007-12-20T07:50:00.002-07:00

Yesterday I wasted 5 plus hours of my life that I will never recover, trying to figure out this game. It is called Funny Farm and let me tell you, that is where I almost ended up....it was driving me crazy! Being new to this type of word game, I didn't realize that using Google, Wikipedia, about.com etc. was considered cheating but I learned more about some topics than I will ever need to know. I wasn't doing too bad, had gained access to six squares but I was really stuck and frustrated. So. I really cheated....gasp! I Googled the game name and went to a couple gamers boards where some helpful soul had posted a semi-complete puzzle. Let me tell you, I am very glad I did, it saved me many hours of tearing my hair out and wasted time. The author of the game has a very weird word association that I suspect most of the population could never follow. Most of the answers were things or people I had never even heard of. Sometimes cheating can be a good thing. I'll just go back to Spider and some mindless free games on Pogo.com, popping balloon can be a great stress reliever...heehee....

It appears from the comments being added here that some of us should form a Mutual Admiration Society. It seems we read and enjoy each others blogs and we have many things in common. I'm talking about Froggi Donna, Lucy, CJ, Sandra, and I am sure there are others out there yet to be discovered. Someday down the road I hope we can all meet face to face!

It appears that today will be the last time we get above freezing for an unforeseeable future so I need to keep working at getting the darn black and gray tanks thawed and completely dumped. Made more progress yesterday (when I wasn't wasting time on that silly game) and I believe it now may just bee a case of gunk on the tank sensors but I'm not taking chances! In the process of running hot water down the bathroom sink I discovered a water leak. We aren't sure exactly where it was coming from but Al said the hot water line fittings were loose. He tightened them, my poor hands can hardly grip anything anymore, and I'll have to watch today to see if that fixed it.

So Much To Learn

2007-12-18T10:15:00.000-07:00

This blog stuff can be confusing for an old lady who doesn't really understand most of this computer gobbledeegook. So far Google has taken most of the mystery out of it by doing everything for me but I am one of those creative people who hates to look like everybody else. There don't seem to be many options for personalization for those of us that don't know what they are doing.

I found out something kind of scarey yesterday...did you know that those sitemeter things that count visits also collect all kinds of other information? YIKES! There is a page I can look at for my sitemeter that tells me exactly what time someone looks at my blog, how long they looked at it, whether they clicked on any links, a bunch of computer info, and scariest of all......where they are from! I don't think I can tell WHO it is tho'. So, whoever is reading this over there in Gateway, CO, would you like to identify yourself???? You aren't that far away, maybe we have interests in common? I love the car museum over there, it's fun to go ogle the cars, have a picnic lunch, and come back home by way of John Brown road over the LaSal Mts.!

See what I mean by "scarey"???? Enough paranoia........

Yesterday I discovered that the gray and black tanks were not only full again but FROZEN! Double YIKES! Its a little bit warmer today, should get above 32 deg so I am trying to get them to thaw and drain. I'm heating water on the stove and pouring it down the potty and letting hot water run in the bathroom sink. Wish me luck.

I am also doing laundry. When we first came here we were boondocking which would normally mean trips to a laundromat,but luckily Al has his own building at work where electric stuff and other things I can't identify are housed. It is real clean and also has a washer and drier. Supposedly these were put in to launder cleaning rags but as far as Al can tell, has never been used for that. The boss told him he could do his laundry there. Ladies, how many of you has a husband who does the wash??? All I had to do was sort it and send it with him.......sometimes he even folded it! But now that we are in an RV park, there is a laundry room that is FREE and even gets the clothes clean! Imagine that! So now I am in charge of laundry again. Excuse me for a minute while I run over there and check on the sheets, will you? Help yourself to another cup of coffee and a Christmas cookie.

Missing Walmart

2007-12-17T07:21:00.000-07:00

I have been addicted to Walmart since they first opened their doors in the Phoenix area in the 1980's. Their original idea to locate their stores in small communities that needed jobs and affordable prices was commendable to say the least!

During the 3 years at our home in NM running to Walmart for everything from groceries to prescriptions (gotta love the $4.00 generics!) to dog food was at least a weekly occurance. I could spend hours just wandering around and getting some excersize at the same time. After all, sometimes it was too hot or too cold to do my walking outside! Sometimes I found things we "just had to have" that I didn't even know existed...heehee...

Now we are living out here in the middle of nowhere....nothing wrong with that, in fact we prefer it that way. BUT! the nearest Walmart is 2 hours away!!!! OMG! The closest grocery store of any size is City Market in Moab, 30 miles away. The first time I shopped there I stopped dead in the middle if the first aisle, blocking traffic, in total STICKER SHOCK. Oh dear.......the tomatoes are over $3.00 per pound, the Sara Lee Delightful multi grain bread that we like is almost $4.00. What am I going to do?

There has been talk recently of a Walmart coming to Moab but the planning commission is afraid it would "ruin the image" of Moab they want to preserve. HUH?!?! If you have ever been to Moab you know that it is an old ranch/uranium mining town that had almost dried up and blown away before it was "discovered" as a "must do" tourist town by Jeepers and bicyclists. The current image is a mix of lots of really old rundown single wide mobile homes and new high end condos and trophy homes. Which aspect do the city fathers (and mothers) want to preserve? They are also boohooing the lack of funds they need to build a new sewer treatment plant and aquatic center.......gee, do you suppose the sales tax from a new Walmart would help with that?

In the meantime we will just have to schedule an occasional trip to Grand Junction, CO to ease my withdrawal pains. That's where the newest grandbaby is, one more good reason to make the trip. I sure miss my walkin pantry and 2 upright freezers!

You Know It's Cold When......

2007-12-15T09:54:00.000-07:00

You know it is cold when the new sooper dooper atomic clock/weather station that always predicts rainstorms says it is 2 deg BELOW zero!
The pork roast you got out of the freezer yesterday is still frozen solid today

You can make a slushie from the stuff that comes out of your water faucet

Your dog's newest favorite place to sleep is curled around the oil heater. BTW it is turned on high!

One of the things we have done to keep the heat in is to make inserts for all the windows. A couple years ago I made Warm Window coverings for all the windows in our NM house. I had enough of the insulating material left over to make inserts for all the windows in the RV. They are hung on tension rods between the window and day/night shades.
At night or even snowy days the day/night shades are pulled down over them to provide extra insulation and hold them tighter.On sunny days they are folded up under the valances. Can you say "stuffed"?They make a BIG difference. Someday we will be able to spend our winters where these aren't needed.

Decorating For Christmas

2007-12-14T07:53:00.000-07:00

The past few years at our house in NM I went all out with the decorating thing. Sometime around Thanksgiving I would start dragging all the boxes and super-size plastic totes into the house from the storage shed.. Then I would convince Al to get up on the roof and string colored chasing lights all the way around the edge. We wouldn't turn them on for another week or two. Meanwhile all the indoor decorations would start appearing; the wreathes, all the miniature snowmen,
the village with glass reindeer, baskets of pinecones that smell like cinnamon, the chairback covers that I made along with the matching table runner
, garlands and poinsettias everywhere.
Every room in the house would have some sort of decorations. Outside there would be miles of garland strung on the fence with big red bows and more wreaths. The Blue Spruce and Juniper would get netlights, each year they had grown so much that I had to make a trip to Walmart to try to find more nets that matched (what a great invention those are!)
The two ornamental plum trees would be draped with strings of clear lights, beneath them the herd of lighted moving deer grazed.

Then Al and I would go out to public land to find "the perfect tree". What an adventure!

Sometimes we did good, one year we ended up with a tree that was as big around as it was tall....heeheee!

The tree would get decorated
and the presents would start appearing. My mother always spent lots of time wrapping each gift and they were a work of art. I tried hard to do the same but seemed to fall short.

Christmas would bring my son and his family,

Al's mom and sister,

and anyone else who happened by.
We would deep fry a turkey

and if the weather was decent, take turns riding the ATVs.

Packing it all away was bittersweet.Come January I would always be shocked when the electric bill arrived and I was still finding decorations that hadn't been packed back into the boxes that were already in the storage shed.

Fast forward to this year. Not much room to decorate in an RV. Actually there is room, but no storage for afterward. We have a tree, a little live on I found at Walmart.

I suppose I can plant it someplace next spring, or maybe take the ornaments off and see how long I can keep it alive inside....it doesn't take up much room. As for the outside...see for yourself.

So is this better? Certainly easier. But somehow not so satisfying. I need to work on changing my mindset from the material aspects to the spiritual.

For now.......May The Spirit of Christmas Dwell In All ofYou!!

Cell Phones and Internet

2007-12-12T08:54:00.000-07:00

How did we ever live before cell phones and internet? On several previous RV trips I went into severe computer withdrawal that could only be alleviated by trips to local libraries to check email. When contemplating fulltime RV living I stressed out just thinking about the available options like DataStorm, especially the $$$$. And how was I ever going to convince Al that this was something we needed?? Then along came aircards...YES! As long as you can get a signal you can go online and most of the time it is faster than the dial up I had at home. We have always used Alltel for our cell phone service, it works better than anything else out here in the wild west followed closely by Verizon. So it was a no-brainer to go with their aircard. And the best part was that it didn't cost thousands of dollars!!

Of course no signals can go through mountains or reach into canyons so sometimes we have to get creative.
This is Al and his sister, Sherryl, at the "phone booth" high above Paradox Valley in western Colorado. You had to stand still...it was a loooonnnngggg way down!

This was one of the places where my laptop worked. It was a 4 mile drive up a narrow winding road from where we were boondocked in order to get a signal. It is a great mystery to me that places where I get a good cell phone signal the laptop sometimes doesn't work and vice-versa. Thank heavens they both work where we are now and I don't have to leave the warmth of the RV!

Thanks to the aircard I am able to do all our banking online, send and receive emails, surf the net to keep up with what George and Tioga and all the other blogs I follow are up to. And most important...I can SHOP ONLINE! Like last night when our Mr Buddy heater finally died. We figure he has been with us for at least 4 years and had seen a lot of use so it was probably time. I immediately logged into eBay and new one is on the way.

Replacing Mr Buddy heater is a must as it was 5 deg. this morning. At least the sun is shining today so it feels warmer. I'm thankful not to be in the places where ice took out all the power, I lived in Iowa long enough that it takes no imagination to know what they are eduring.

A Good Day For A Shower

2007-12-11T13:21:00.000-07:00

I decided this might be a good day for a shower so left the coach heat on, normally I turn it off after breakfast and switch to Mr Buddy propane or a small electric heater to conserve propane. Hard to know what to run when propane is over $3.00 per gallon and electric is .10 per kwh.

What's in your shower? Living fulltime in an RV means making use of every spare inch of room.
To take a shower I have to first remove the laundry basket, a 40# bag of dog food and the vacuum cleaner.

Much to my dismay, this morning I also found 1/2" of water in the bottom of the shower stall! Only one thing that could mean.......the gray water holding tank was full. Ordinarily when we boondock I check the system panel a couple times each day to see where the fresh water, battery power, black and gray holding tank levels are. But since we are in an RV park with hookups I haven't even been thinking about it much. Also I am not conserving water like I usually do. So now I have to go outside anf open the dump valve before I can take a shower.

Oops. We had another 12" of snow last night, guess I need to put my boots on. The guy across the street has been out plowing snow with a blade on the front of his ATV but can' keep up with it.

We have the water line heat taped but have to leave the holding tanks closed because that sewer line freezes solid and breaks. Already been through that once this winter when someone forgot to close the black water valve. There is a reason it is called a "stinky slinky". Got the tank drained and my shower taken. I am longing for the summer when it is warm enough to use the outside shower and not worry about running out of hot water before I can get the conditioner out of my hair.

I have spent most of the day reading blogs of other RVers and surfing the net. Seems there is always someplace else to explore. We have come a long way from encyclopedias and Sears catalogs! Zorro and Katie can't understand why we don't go outside and play frisbee or go for a walk.......it is still snowing...

Getting Started

2007-12-10T10:07:00.000-07:00

Whew! It was a lot of work getting this thing started! Especially for a tech challenged old lady. uh oh....where are the smiley faces?

I am hoping this will be a good way for relatives and friends to keep up with what we are doing and where we are. We really need to talk more than a couple times a year.

So with that thought in mind.....we are living in our RV in LaSal, UT.

Never mind that no one knows where LaSal is, it is beautiful here.

.......except for today....it is cloudy, cold and trying to snow some more. After all those years in Silverton, CO I no longer appreciate snow. It is, after all, a four letter word. Our house in Bloomfield, NM is for sale but the market is so slow that we just lowered the price by $14,000. Picture me crying and tearing my hair out. Al is working in Bedrock, CO, home of Barney and Wilma. He is the electrician for a government project that is supposed to remove salt from the Dolores River and pumps it back down 3 miles into the earth. Why? The Delores empties into the Colorado River and heaven forbid that we send salt water to Las Vegas or California. In reality what they are doing causes earthquakes in the area. Don't believe me? Look for Bedrock on Google Earth (make sure you have all the features toggled) and check out all the seismographic icons! We decided on a job/location change for Al for several reasons: we are now closer to his mom and other relatives, the job does not involve 20-30 hours of overtime a week nor does it bounce him around so bad that he can't stand up straight like operating the Cat did. The downside is the pay is about 1/2 of what it was because of no overtime. But 4 day weeks leave lots of time for us to get out and do the things we enjoy.