July Family Birthdays

Yes, we have birthdays in July for three family members, actually a fourth as Sandy's late father George also was a July birthday. I believe the 28th.
The first is Sandy's oldest brother James. His birthday is July 24th. So...... Happy Birthday James!


The next is Sandy's sister, Pam her birthday is July 26th. Happy birthday Pam! Happy Birthday Pam!

Pam's son and our nephew Jeff is the next family member with a birthday on July 27th. Happy Birthday Jeff! We are very proud of Jeff. He did two tours in Iraq and was awarded a Purple Heart during his first tour. Thanks Jeff for serving our country. We appreciate you and all the men and women in the arm services. May god bless all of you and bring each of you home soon.

Sandy is just about to finish up on her second week of working. She likes her job being outdoors and while its been warm to hot she has dealt with it pretty well. Of course the RTV she drives is air condition. She has seen deer, snakes, wild hogs, cows and horses during her trip up and down the pipe line. They have stuck one of the tractors, the RTV as well as bottoming out on a Hugh log that was in tall grass. They have about a two hour drive to their current mowing area and usually doesn't get home until 7pm. I have been doing the RV cleaning, washing etc. Sandy will usually fix dinner in a crock pot so we have been eating well. I have my surgery next Wednesday the 29th at VA Shreveport. Will up date you later.

Until next time....MtnAire Travlers

Sandy Has A Job-Yes A Real Job

Sandy said I'm going to find a job. Guess what she did and has been working most of this week.

She is working for a large mowing company that presently mowing about 800 miles of a petroleum pipe line right a way.

She is assigned to one of the three mowing crews as a RTV driver and carsonite post marker. Her job is to mark the gas pipe line with these fiberglass post that shows the pipe line and have a phone number sticker on it in case of emergencies. She up every morning at 5am and doesn't return until usually 7pm. They are mowing a line that stretches from Longview to Corsicana, TX.

She drives an enclosed Kubota diesel RTV1100 series vehicle that has an A/C, AM/FM radio that carries the cooler, carsonite posts and follows the two mowing tractors each with a 15ft bat wing brush hog.

Her RTV looks like the one to the far right.

She uses a Rigid SR20 pipe line finder like this.

Once the SR20 does its job she with the help of another worker drive the fiberglass corsonite post into the ground with a special driver, This post being fiberglass is tough and flexible. Once driven into the ground its just about impossible to pull it out of the ground.

She tells me the area they are in is just beautiful. She sees a lot of ranches with cattle and horses
like shown here. You can barley make out the two mowers in the far background.

I had my visit Monday with the dermatology office at VA in Shreveport and the dermatologist proceed to remove four bower cells she found on my arms and cheeks with liquid nitrogen. The growths on the old nose turned out to be basal cell carcinoma. These will require removal by a surgeon which I don't know exactly when. Suppose to receive a notification by mail. Who knows I might end up with a MJ nose. So, friends stay out of the sun the best you can and use that sun blocker lotion.

Yea! we are getting rain as I write this post. We have been in a mini-drought here in Northeast Texas. We had strong winds and my guess we have had 2-3 inches of rain so far. Yes, rain makes grass grow and maybe Sandy's job will extend beyond end of September. Right now our plans are to still do Canton First Monday as Sandy is off on the weekends. I'll set up the booth and work it Thursday and Friday. Imagine me selling ladies purse inserts. (heehee)

Until next time....MtnAire Travlers

Our Rear A/C Unit Is Cooling Again!

Lyle's RV arrived Friday, July 10th and proceeded to check our rear A/C unit. His first check was the starting capacitor for the compressor which checked okay. He then proceeded to connect his bypass relay directly to the to the compressor and it came on and cooled. The next item he checked was the electronic board (brains) for the A/C and sure enough it wasn't working. He said that he could order a new ICC board for $168.00 however he would have to order it from Dometic which he said could take several days. He said he had a used board that he took off a unit that had the compressor burn up and would sale it for $85.00. So we opted for that and we had our first cool night in a while last night. The total repair cost was $287.00. While we had the shrouds off we washed and cleaned out the drain trays and condenser coils . Lyle use to do Canton First Monday and since as quite. Had he still been there we could have had this done while at Canton and saved his $90.00 service call fee. Oh well its fixed now and running like a champ.

Here is a late photo of our dinner for Sandy's birthday at Posados Cafe in Longview on the 25th of June.

From left to right is her sister Pam, her husband Mike, her brother James, his wife Bev, niece Amanda, Mom Alice (Sandy's mom) and the birthday girl her self Sandy. We had a wonderful time an excellent meal and fellowship.

Until next time....MtnAire Travlers

Dog Days Of Summer

Yes, those days referred to as "Dog Days Of Summer" are here. Last weekend we had temperature's at Canton in the low to mid 100's. On Saturday the temperature in Pavilion 4000 was 110F and our crowd knowing that it gets hot in these metal buildings chose to stay away. Can't blame them for not showing up. At least they were smarter than us vendors. We managed to squeeze out our expenses and that's all.

Air conditioner's never shut off the whole weekend. In fact our rear A/C worked so hard it went on the blink. Lyle's RV will be here tomorrow to take a look at it. Hope it's not anything major. We stayed over Sunday night to do laundry. Thank full we did as in Lone Star they had a heavy storm with wind. It rained about 4" according to the rain gauge here. Spent Monday evening mowing the three acres and we took Sandy's Mom to the heart doctor Tuesday for her followup visit. All checked okay except her potassium which was high. Next week I will travel to Shreveport to VA to have them look at a couple of molds on my face and nose. Who knows I may get a whole new face or nose. hehe

We lost both our land line and cell phone signal today about the same time. It was reported that the whole town was effected. There was a major line cut in Dangerfield ( about six miles from here) by some earth digging contractor. Finally got them both back at the same time. Go figure how does a land line and cell phone both be effected at the same time. As you can see I'm really struggling to post this journal. It's so hot here all I want to do is stay inside.

Until next time....MtnAire Travlers