March Winds With A Vengeance

Well we finally have those March winds roaring here in North East Texas. The strange thing is they are not those from Arizona mentioned by Al with The Bayfield  Bunch . They are coming directly out of the South. Our winds have been blowing steady at 15-20 mph with gusts as high as 35-40 mph. Our temperatures are climbing as well we've been in the mid to high 80's for the past few days.

The wind and sand are blowing across the motorhome and at times it looks like one of those sand storms in Arizona. It wouldn't be so bad but the trucking company next to us is nothing but a red dirt lot. With their activity and our winds it's the worse we've seen in the 12 years we've based here.

It would help if we had some rain to settle all the red dirt and green pollen. We are so behind on our normal rain fall. Our streams, stock tanks and the lake here are way down. Maybe we will have those April showers that will turn this around.

Did a dumb thing this morning while mowing. I bottomed out the huge lawn mower in the ditch where the drive wheels were not touching the ground. Didn't approach the deep ditch at an angle had I this would never had happened. With this being a heavy big mower I had to get Sandy in the Jeep to pull me out. That wasn't as easy as it sounds as we had to put the Jeep in four wheel drive before we finally got out of there.

Because of the high winds I mowed in a west to east  direction so the cut grass and dust would exhaust to the north away from me. I still managed to get filthy dirty though.

I hate to see all the fellow bloggers I read heading back home. It looks like Al and Kelly have started that turn northerly. Mark and Dortha are back in Forth Worth from the RGV. Rick and Paulette say they are getting closer to their departure date sometime in April. There  are others who are now home or headed that way.

So, it won't be long and I won't have those beautiful scenic pictures and stories to see and read about their winter adventures. But, I enjoy reading their blogs regardless of the season and  where they might be staying.

My sister sent me a email with these pictures of goats eating on the walls of a dam in Italy. Simply amazing how they manage to stay on the dam wall without falling.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Until next time. . . .MtnAire Travlers.

A Brief Visitor And A Lot Of Activity

Earlier this week I was outside and was greeted by this gal. I believe she has a whole lot of bit bull in her. My guess she was about nine to ten months old. She was a playful thing you couldn't go out without her greeting you, letting you rub her belly and  and then taking off running around the house. You couldn't leave anything out as she would run off with it and most the time chewed it to pieces. I guess this was because she still had her puppy teeth and was teething.

Once she took both of my Crock shoes off my step and when I finally found them they naturally had been destroyed. I wanted to kick her butt but then I said to myself.... my fault shouldn't had left them where she could take them particularly knowing she had this trait about her.

You’ve probably noticed I used a lot of past tense describing this gal.This morning I was outside mowing and no dog. Don't know if she found her rightful owner or decided to move on. Hopefully she found her owner and not ran over.

FM 250 here is a very busy highway with all the eighteen wheelers running up and down it hauling tubing to the oil fields. With the price of oil being over $100/barrel now things related to the industry has really picked up here. US Steel here in Lone Star has been busy making the tubing used in the oil industry.

The trucking firm next door to us has been hauling pipe out like theirs no tomorrow.  They make a lot of noise using a huge front end loader to load the tubing on flatbed trailers. My guess is there is at least twenty or more trucks in and out several times a day. They even load at night sometimes.

My BIL is also reaping the benefits of the higher oil prices as he has been busy hauling pumping units to West Texas. Naturally we consumers are footing most of this due to the higher fuel prices. I just need to figure out a way to make this diesel pusher run on distilled  water. Of course when I do it too will go up in price. LOL

Spring is here! We are expected to see temperatures around the low 80's for the next several days. The dogwoods are beginning to pop. The red buds which to me should be called purple bud are all over the place. The wild fruit trees are also blooming. It want be long when the green pollen will be all over the place. We really enjoy this time of the year in North East Texas. (click on pictures to enlarge)

      

 

 

Until next time. . . .MtnAire Travlers.

Grass Cutting Season Is About Here

As most of you know I take care of mowing and weed eating the three acres at my BIL James place. Of course he provides the big lawnmower I use to cut the grass. It’s getting that time again where I will resume cutting the grass around here. I first needed to do the annual oil and lube maintenance, sharpen the blades and get it ready.

This will be the fourth cutting season for me using his 48" cut Scag Lawnmower with a 19hp engine. Also this will be the fourth tension spring I've had to replace for the right cutting blade. What gives here is the spring made in China or is their a flaw perhaps in the design? So, after discussing  this with James we decided we would  approach the dealer.  The prior two times I just went in and purchased a replacement and the first time they replaced it under warranty. This time we decided enough is enough and I would go in there with the story of replacing this spring for the fourth time and would ask if this was a fault in the design or perhaps poor quality of the spring.

Today I went in to the parts counter and looked the parts guy strait in the eye and told him about our having to replace this spring for the fourth time. I then asked him has he had other customers coming in with a similar complaint. He looked me strait in the eye and said yes. I thought to myself "got ya" and was preparing to ask for it to be replaced at no cost. But then he followed up and said the breakage is usually caused by running the engine rpm at to low of a speed which in turns creates a huge amount of strain on the blade trying to exhaust the grass. This strain also is put on the tension spring and in turn it breaks over a period of time.

I thought there a minute about my mowing habits and said to myself he is right. I don' t run the rpm up at full bore when cutting and just about every time the spring had broken it would be when mowing in tall grass and particularly when cutting into rows of cut grass is when I would notice the spring breaking. So, I quickly asked him if he could help out a guy whose habits were exactly as he described. The guy was nice enough that he gave me 25% off the regular price. We will give it a test in future mowing's to see if running at the higher rpm will resolve the problem.

Until next time. . . .MtnAire Travlers.

Sure Didn't Last Long

Our weather that is..... as Saturday we were cold with overcast skies for most of the day. So much for  my statement about spring just might be here. The weather I'm sure put a little damper on our crowds. Those that were here were not in a buying mood at least from us anyway.

Sunday turned out to be a much better day as far as our weather was concerned. Our crowd was the typical Sunday crowd mostly locals and with the fuel prices taking the jump they have this week I'm not surprised. Diesel went from $3.48 a gallon when we arrived last week to $3.77 a gallon today. Who knows were it's going to go?

We have to stay over Sunday night behind our booth. We couldn't get out due to some blankly blank parking his cargo truck/trailer in the parking lot behind us. So, rather than dump our holding tanks this evening we have that chore to do in the morning before leaving for base at Lone Star.

Judy and Emma wanted to know what we peddle here at First Monday. We sell ladies purse inserts like that shown below: (click to enlarge)

Most are available in five different sizes, nine different colors and  allows a lady to not only keep her purse organized it also makes it easy to change purses. Just lift out the insert and drop it in the other purse, diaper bag,  beach bag or briefcase. We have had men buy them to place in their consoles of their trucks and SUV’s. 

Until next time. . . .MtnAire Travlers.

A Little Like Spring. . . .A Good Thing

A big welcome to John & Linda's Travel "Adventure” our newest blog supporters. You might just want to click on their blog. They recently lost their fur kid Pearl who was a beautiful pure breed white Lab. They posted a wonderful tribute to her. Our pets are not only our best friends they are family and its tuff when you lose them.

Our neighbors finally showed up late Wednesday evening. It seems one had been battling a flu virus and the other trying to recover from a Affair Of The Hearts show in Oklahoma. We helped them unload and partly set up their booths. Afterwards we had a little later than usual Happy Hour.

AT&T has finally got around to adding 3G to this area. Things should go a little faster on the mobile and perhaps the cell towers won't overload as bad during the weekend when we have larger crowds.

I set in the booth awhile yesterday as Sandy has been battling a stomach virus. Notice, I said set as I did not sell a thing. Yes, it was a little slow Thursday. We have two new neighbors down the way . We don't know if they are temporary or permanent. One sells signs and the other sells a little of everything from paper towel holders to hat racks. Like I have said before you can expect to find it here.

We are thinking this should be a good weekend for us particularly since First Monday was snowed out last month. Also our weather is turning more like spring. We have clear blue sunny skies with temps in the low to med 70's. Folks probably have cabin fever and want to get out of the house. There are also more RVer’s here. We suspect some are winter snowbirds from the RGV returning home.

Until next time. . . .MtnAire Travlers.

March Canton

So far we've managed to avoid those lion winds of March. Our winds have been more like a lamp non existence and temperatures cooler than predicated. Of course there is that saying when in Texas if you hang around long enough it will change.

We went to McDonalds this morning for breakfast and on our way out this huge motorhome with an unusual toad, a trike bike, pulled into the parking lot behind the building. I did not have my camera with me so I asked Sandy to take pictures with her IPhone. This trike bike appeared to have been home built and it was supporting a small Chevy V8 engine. They were from Minnesota and we assume were snowbirds returning home.

I said this past Monday in my last blog it has been an usual First Monday when it comes to vendor arrivals and setup. Here it is Wednesday now and we have only one neighbor that has set up. Most of our neighbors around us arrive by no later than Monday and are setup before today. We usually  have Happy Hour in the evenings where we share snacks and stories.  First Monday starts tomorrow and it appears we will have a lot of vendors setting up later than normal. Sooooo it looks like we will have some catching up to do when they all finally get here.

March can usually bring out the crowds. Let’s hope that is the case this month. With the higher fuel prices that remains to be seen. Diesel here went up 10 cents a gallon in one day to $3.58.

Until next time. . . .MtnAire Travlers.