Dealing With The Heat, Slow Internet and The Crud

We are in Canton for First Monday this July 4th weekend. Most of last week Sandy and I both have been  battling the crud and just didn’t fill up to doing anything. Right this moment we are having a much needed rain shower that has cooled things down. I see the whole country is fighting the heat and high heat index's. It certainly has kept me inside and doing any chores either early in the mornings or late in the evenings. Even then I come back inside the home looking as if someone might have thrown a bucket of water on me. If this keeps up I may have to resort to this to remain cool.

Also for some reason we’ve had a couple of days where our internet services with the air card have been rather slow. Don’t know if they were working on the tower or what but everything seems to be back to normal now.

We went to Tyler yesterday and dropped by Best Buy as Sandy wanted to look at the Ipad again. While she was looking at the Ipad I dropped over to the camera area as I wanted to look at the Panasonic Lumix digital cameras I’ve read about on Jerry’s and Al’s blogs.

They had a ZS5 on display and on sale for $269, normally $299. It is a tiny thing and the salesperson rated it very good for the price. Didn’t get it though as I felt sure Sandy would want to order the Ipad. Didn’t do that neither, so back to Canton we drove after first stopping at a RV dealer to buy a 25Ft non-kickable 1/2” water hose. It looks like I’m going to have to replace the one on the home. I’m not looking forward to this as the one their now is on a automatic reel and I’m not exactly sure how to go about it. With my vision problem I sure could use my friend Mark now. Sandy will be by my side when I tackled this project when we get back to base next week.

They took my Mom to ER Saturday evening as she was having trouble swallowing and wanted to burp everything back up. They did a upper GI on her Monday and found she had a Hiatal Hernia and will treat with medicine. She came home yesterday evening a little tried and worn but said she felt a little better.

Until next time….MtnAire Travlers.

Is It A Deer Stand or Perhaps A Wild Hog Stand

Yesterday BIL David emailed me photos taken at the deer lease with his game camera. I was expecting to see at least a eight point deer or a  deer period. Instead all we had were photos of a wild hog family. They evidently tore down the wire fence as you can see they are inside around the corn feeder. They may have to put up a bounty on these guys as I don’t see them going away anytime soon. They are very destructive to the land.
The farmers in the area say that a family this size will completely destroy any crops or farm land. Wild boar are generally known as Razorbacks. As of 2008, the estimated population of 4 million boar caused an estimated $800 million of property damage a year in the U.S.A.

My BIL James says it looks like they are going to have to put up some hog wire fence which is much stiffer and the wire itself is a larger diameter. He wanted to avoid this if he could as it is much more expensive than the wire fence they have put up. However, since that’s not working it looks like if he wants corn for the deer he has no other choice.

Sandy has a collection of bird houses we’ve made back when we were in the wood craft business.This is just part of her collection.  The Texas flag  bird house and bird house with the red roof were our most popular styles back in the day. When I went to bed at night I would have dreams of building these.

Until next time….MtnAire Travlers.

Our Country Squirrel Has Become A City Slicker

Has our country squirrel become as smart as those city squirrels....maybe even smarter. Yesterday the little squirrel accidently fell from the top feeder to the larger feeder below and in the process discovered he could use this as his platform to eat out of smaller feeder just

above……. he must have said “boy was that easy” as he has done the same thing again today. Except this time he climbed down to the larger feeder below. We now have a greater separation between the feeders and he must think “is this hate squirrel week” as he can no longer use the larger feeder as a chair. I’m sure this country

boy will eventually figure out another way to get his free chow.
Paula Deen has only one thing over Sandy when it comes to southern cooking and that is her money. Sandy can stand tall right next to her as to delicious home cooking traditions, Southern charm ...tasty country meals.
The other day she prepared the most tasty salmon patties, purple hull peas, fresh garden grown tomatoes, 10-15 sweet onions and cornbread. Yummy. Boy was it good. Only one thing wrong thou she did not prepare enough of the patties. I only had three and since I’m still a growing boy, ( more ways than tall how about inches in the waist) and in his seventies, I sure good have eaten maybe two more.

Well as lady luck goes if you experience one bust in your water hose you need to be prepared for more. The hose on the motor home is on a rollup reel and yesterday we had it burst at the end. Of course this hose is only eight years old what else should you expect. I had a female i/2” connector that I was able to put on the old hose. Hope this will hold up until I can figure out how to replace it on that reel. We checked our pressure at the hose entrance to the home and it was 48lbs. I guess you can not expect it last forever.

Sandy’s sister Pam and her husband drove over from Longview yesterday evening on their Goldwing motorcycle and we shared the pot roast, potatoes, carrots and all the trimmings that Sandy had prepared. After we ate we watched the rain delayed College World Series game between Oklahoma and South Carolina.

Here is our resident mother rabbit and one of her babies eating below the feeders. Sandy peeled some carrots and put the peelings out for them. 

Until next time….MtnAire Travlers.

Happy Fathers Day

First of all we want to wish all Fathers a Happy Fathers day. The following is from DaySpring Blessings:

A Father's Love

A father is respected because
he gives his children leadership...
appreciated because
he gives his children care...
valued because
he gives his children time...
loved because
he gives his children the one thing
they treasure most - himself.

The righteous man walks in his integrity; his children are blessed after him. Proverbs 20:7 NKJV

Until next time….MtnAire Travlers.

Our Week At Base

Monday June 14, 2010

We left early and traveled to Pittsburg to purchase some more peas and fruit from Efurd’s. We decided to drive the back road Farm to Market 557 which is a little out of the way and lots of curves, but very scenic with the farms and ranches.

We purchased tomato's, purple hull peas, peaches and cantaloupe. It was to early to try the homemade ice cream. We’ll save it for another trip. After wards we drove to Mt Pleasant for breakfast at the Whataburger. On our way we passed one of my favorite sticks and brick homes just before you enter Pittsburg. If I was going to build another sick and brick home this would be my pick. Sandy’s too. The cream yellow with the white trim and fence really makes
this home stand out. It’s just before you come to Mr Bo Pilgrim home of Pilgrim’s Pride chicken. Pilgrim’s Pride Corporation is one of the largest chicken companies in the United States and Mexico.

After eating our breakfast, we went to Lowes’s to pick up some 1” PVC pipe to rebuild my flag pole. I knocked it over  when mowing the grass last  week. Afterwards we had to stop by Wally World to pickup supplies and bird feed for the feeders.

Tuesday June 15 – Thursday June 17, 2010

We did not do a lot of running around as I was up early each morning while it was cool and used The Solution on the motor home. In fact I have not washed the motor motor home now for the past three months. Of course we have had the fortune to not drive the home in the rain either. Also during this time I replaced the kitchen light switch as it was getting very difficult to turn on or turn off. To my surprise it was quite simple and since it is 12 volt all I had to do is plug in the wiring to the back of the switch.  For some reason I had in my mind that it was going to like a sticks and brick on/off switch which naturally is 110 volt. It took me all of about 15 minutes to get it done. 

Friday June 18, 2010

We went to Longview to visit Sandy’s sister Pam and her husband Mike. What a beautiful back yard they have with all kinds of plants and beautiful flowers and of course the nice swimming pool.  We had lunch at Chick-fil-A and tried their new spicy chicken sandwich. Boy was it good. This particular Chick-fil-A does a bang up business with their drive thru. They had three employees outside taking orders and relaying them back to the kitchen.
We’ve being noticing a peculiar smell coming from our water and could not figure out what it was, It smelled like gray water and tasted awful. Sandy asked be when was the last time I changed the house water filter. I told her not since the dealer replaced it two years ago when we purchased the motor home. So, we dropped by the local RV dealer and  purchased two replacement filters.

Saturday June 19, 2010

Our phone ranged about 6am this morning and it was our SIL Bev informing us our water hose had evidently busted and water was spewing all over everywhere. Sandy ran out and cut off the water and sure enough their was about a three inch split in one of the 50ft water hoses. So, off to Longview again to pick up another hose. Upon return I replaced both the water filter and the hose. Everything so far is working and the bad taste and smell of the water is gone. That pretty well wraps up our week. Here are some pictures of critters that have visited our bird feeders.

Until next time….MtnAire Travlers.

The Making Of A Deer Blind Part III

This morning BIL James knocked on our door and wanted to know if I wanted to go out to the deer lease to work on their deer stand and feeder. Since I had not been there for sometime I thought I would tag alone to see what they have done to their hunting area. So I grabbed my shooter (camera) and off to the piney woods we went. Upon arrival to their entrance you good see he had brushed hog a road back into the woods to his deer stand. After traveling back in the woods about two miles we arrived at his site.

This is the deer stand and the auto corn feeder. When we arrived you could see that the gate to the fenced in feeding area had been knocked down. Upon investigation you could see wild hog tracks all over the area and they were very fresh looking. You could see the tracks of the sow or bore along with small piglet tracks around the corn that had been auto dispensed on the ground. They managed to get under the hog wire and in fact ripped it into several pieces.

This is another shot of his deer stand. We reran some of the hog wire and some additional t-post to strengthen this area. We also put out some deer chow a high protein feed in one of his single cylinder feeders.  After we finished there we drove over to BIL David's deer stand about 3/4 miles from James stand and found it to be in pretty good shape. Upon walking in the feeding area you could see a lot of deer tracks around the feeder.

David has not put up his deer stand yet but it is in process of being built. They plan to set it up sometime this month. Maybe I’ll get to tag alone and see what’s involved. Remember this is all new to this city guy.

After returning from the lease we did some brush hogging of BIL James four acres and did a little pad work where he plans to build his home. 

It was a good day and it was nice to get out in the woods even though it was quite warm today. Tomorrow we go to Longview for that weekly grocery shopping for Sandy’s mom and us. The photos below are those of some recent visitors to our feeders and a poor shot of the country squirrel trying to get into one to the feeders.

Until next time….MtnAire Travlers.

Second Day Of Continuous Rain

It Rained off and on most of the night and has rained all day. They say we’ve had somewhere between 4-6” of rain in this area in the last 48 hours. Bridges are being washed out and there are road closures in several counties in the area. We were also under a tornado warning this evening until 6pm. Boy has it come down here in Lone star.The two systems are coming from the south and seemed to stall over Northeast Texas. All this rain however has kept our temperatures in the lower 70’s.

This afternoon Sandy and I watched the country squirrels try to figure out how to get in our bird feeders. Talk about a sight they were setting on top of the feeders or hanging from all fours off the bottom and never succeeded in getting them opened.  I tried to get pictures but they just wouldn’t be still for the camera.I call them country squirrels as unlike the city squirrels at Sandy’s sister Pam’s home in Longview those city squirrels play havoc with their feeders.

BIL James picked up a 200amp meter pole today and it won’t be long before we will have the local electrical company run electricity to his property. We will tie off on that and have our on meter at our site. We plan to bury the line so there won’t be any overhead lines to worry about falling tree limbs taking them down. With all the rain we’ve had it will be a while before we can check this off our to do list.

Until next time….MtnAire Travlers.

It’s Rain….. It’s Rain

This morning Sandy and I were up early as we wanted to go to the Post office to pick up our mail after spending the last ten days at Canton’s 1st Monday. On the way in to Diana we noticed some dark skies in the south. We haven't had rain in the Lone Star area for about three and half weeks. We both committed at the same time maybe this will be our turn to get that much needed moisture.  We also wanted to go to Efurd’s in Pittsburg TX west of here to pick up some peaches and fresh purple hull peas.  After getting our mail we headed to Pittsburg about 18 miles from Diana and on the way the skies opened up and boy did we get the rain. This is what the system looked like that rolled through our area. It rained so hard Sandy nearly stopped a couple of times due to lack of vision from the heavy down fall. We even hydroplaned a couple of times due to the build up of water on the road. We drove in this all the way back to the RV where we had  bookoos of rain standing in the yard. Yes, we finally were blessed and got the rain we much needed. Their is another system down south that is working it’s way north who knows we might get some more rain.

At Efurd’s we picked up a 1/2 peck of fresh peaches for $16 and the four bags of purple hulls were $2 a bag. This place has fresh vegetables, watermelon, cantaloupe, and the best strawberry and peach ice crème you will eat anywhere.

This is a photo of their little rest and picnic area next door.
If you are ever in this area between June and July they are about four miles south of  
Pittsburg on Highway 271.

We are grateful for the rain that has been provided and maybe will settle down the red dirt from Farmers Trucking and make the grass grow so I can mow again.

Until next time….,MtnAire Travlers.

Dog Days Of June??????????

Haven’t posted in a while because we were very close to that 5G mark allotted to us by Verizon. We finished another 1st Monday at Canton. We were hot, hot, and hot the whole week. It’s amazing that we had the crowd that we had on Saturday, June 5th. The actual temperatures ranged from 94 to 99 degrees with a heat index from 103 to 113 degrees. Gosh this is what we normally see in August. Even though our crowds were good our sales were down from last year. I guess they just wanted to get out and bake in the heat. I could not believe the number of people with small babies. You know they had to be hot as they were usually in a baby back pack or in strollers. Even the dogs that were there had to be hot their tongues hanging out as they walked down the aisles.

We have had no rain now for three weeks and with it being so hot things are really drying out and the grass is dying. I usually have to mow the three acres when we gat back put not this time. I can remember this winter when we complained about the rain and how cold it was. Why are we humans never content. Always complaining about something. While this may not be true with some of you it certainly is in our family. When we got back to base Monday morning and in the process of setting up the home we both looked like we had been swimming as we both were drenched in sweat.

Well I've got my rant over with now and can go to some thing a little brighter. To my surprise we still have a lot of bird and critter activity around our feeders. Here are some photos taken today.

I know these photos are no comparison to Al’s with the Bayfield Bunch but they are the best I can do with my Sony DSC-H9. I guess I need to look into one of those long fancy zoom lens that Al picked up. His photos are the best I’ve seen.

Here is a email I received from my sister I feel it has a lot of meaning and I need to do a better job of applying it to my life.

Need Washing

A little girl had been shopping with her Mom in WalMart. She must have  been 6 years old, this beautiful red haired, freckle faced image of innocence.  It was pouring outside. The kind of rain that gushes over the top of rain gutters, so much in a hurry to hit the earth it has no time to flow down  the spout.. We all stood there, under the awning, just inside the door of the
WalMart. We waited, some patiently, others irritated because nature messed up  their hurried day. I am always mesmerized by rainfall. I got lost in the sound and sight of the heavens washing away the dirt and dust of the world. 

Memories of running, splashing so carefree as a child came pouring in as a welcome reprieve from the worries of my day.
Her little voice was so sweet as it broke the hypnotic trance we were all caught in, 'Mom let's run through the rain,' she said.
'What?' Mom asked. 'Let's run through the rain!' She repeated.
'No, honey. We'll wait until it slows down a bit,' Mom replied.
This young child waited a minute and repeated: 'Mom, let's run through the rain..' 'We'll get soaked if we do,' Mom said. 
'No, we won't, Mom. That's not what you said this morning,' the young girl said as she tugged at her Mom's arm.  'This morning? When did I say we could run through the rain and not get
wet?' 'Don't you remember? When you were talking to Daddy about his cancer, you said, ' If God can get us through this, He can get us through anything! ' The entire crowd stopped dead silent.. I swear you couldn't hear anything but the rain.. We all stood silently. No one left. Mom paused and thought for a moment about what she would say.

Now some would laugh it off and scold her for being silly. Some might even ignore what was said. But this was a moment of affirmation in a young  child's life. A time when innocent trust can be nurtured so that it will bloom into faith. 'Honey, you are absolutely right. Let's run through the rain. If GOD  let's us get wet, well maybe we just need washing,' Mom said.

Then off they ran. We all stood watching, smiling and laughing as they darted past the cars and yes, through the puddles. They got soaked. They were followed by a few who screamed and laughed like children all the way to their cars. And yes, I did. I ran.  I got wet.  I needed washing.

Circumstances or people can take away your material possessions, they can take away your money, and they can take away your health. But no one can ever take away your precious memories...So, don't forget to make time and take the opportunities to make memories everyday. To everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under heaven.
I HOPE YOU STILL TAKE THE TIME TO RUN THROUGH THE RAIN.

I apologize for this being a little long but maybe we will soon get a little rain and I can get washed.

Until next time….MtnAire Travlers.