Pulling Roots Brings A Little Surprise

Earlier this week Sandy said her right arm was broken out with several red splotches and it itched. After closer examination we believe it is Poison Oak. We feel the area where we were cutting and pulling roots earlier just might at one time been infested with Poison Oak.

James was over this afternoon and confirmed " yes indeed it was Poison Oak" and the area did have this vine growing in it before he scrapped the area with his tractor blade. So, we will now be a little more careful when out there pulling and cutting roots. Maybe long sleeve shirts and just making sure our skin does not come in contact with the root.

We have had to dumped our black water once in the three weeks we've been here and the gray water twice. This sure beats using the BlueBoy every four to five days. I will dump again tomorrow morning before we leave for Canton's First Monday Trade Days. We have no sewer or water where we park behind our booth. We manage pretty well considering we are there for eleven days. We pull over to the area where they have full hookups Sunday evening and dump before departing for our base Monday morning.

We still have hummers showing up at our passenger side window.This afternoon I got upon our roof and gave it a good washing. Boy was it dirty as this is the first time in a while I've been able to get up there and wash the roof myself. Afterwards Sandy and I washed it and I put on some of The Solution. This just about wiped me out mainly because of the high humidity we are having after our little rain the other day.

We’ve started to work on the areas where we hope to have our bird feeders and bird bath set up. We have looked into some stepping stones and bricks for this area. I've tried to sell Sandy in putting a small fountain somewhere in this area but still have some convincing to do. We have looked at some tables and chairs for our patio and let me tell you that stuff is not cheap.

Until next time. . . .MtnAire Travlers.

Now The Hard Work Begins

It has been so doggone hot here we find it is best to get up early and get outside before 7am. We have mostly being leveling the ground around the two pads.

Here is a picture of the hookup pad. We have just about completed that area. We have decided to hold off on planting any grass because it's hot and very dry. I still need to get about six more stepping stones to complete the walk to the pad.

We use two metal rakes to pull/push the dirt up to the edges of the pads. This place has so many roots in the ground that you pull up one and it in turns pulls up two to three more.

We started leveling the area around the large patio today. Let me tell you this area is not going to be a push over like the hookup pad. We encountered hundreds of roots and small to large rocks throughout this area. The rocks are mostly iron ore as this area has a lot of iron ore. I don't know how true it is but the town of Lone Star I'm told was originally called Iron Bluff because it was noted for it's rich iron ore through out the area. When Lone Star Steel (now known as US Steel started their plant here because of the iron ore) they changed the name to Lone Star TX. Boy that just about was a tongue twister.

Here are just some of our rock/root piles we've managed to rake up. We probably have six to eight of these through out the area we've been working.

 

 

Here is one huge slab that was dug up by Sandy's brother tractor. We will use it as a stepping stone. There are about four more about half this size which we will place later. (click on photos to enlarge)

Until next time. . . .MtnAire Travlers.

Cement Truck Arrives All Pads Completed

Juan and his crew arrived at 6:30am this morning to finalize the pads before the cement truck arrived. Rather than have the cement for the patio to run up to the jagged edges of the asphalt we asked him to put in a form so the edge of the cement would be smooth. We would later come back and patch these edges with cold patch.
After they completed the patio we sure were glad we took this step as it looks much better.

BIL James called just before 7am advising the cement truck had left Mt. Pleasant and would be here in about 45 minutes and one of us needed to be out near the driveway to flag him down. About 7:30am I drove out to the driveway in the BadBoy and waited. About 7:45am he arrived and I escorted him to where he needed to be to pour the patio.

Here they are pouring the patio on the passenger side. It is 12ft wide x 17ft long with a 4ft x 6ft walkway near the door of the home. You can also see the smooth side near the home verse what would have been jagged near the broken edges of the asphalt.

After they poured the patio they then begin pouring the 5x5 pad around my hookups.

 

This took no time at all and they then moved over to the pad for James' water well.

When they completed this the driver said he probably had a half a yard left. James had already told me if there were any cement left to pour it in driveway one over at his place. I took the driver a back way so he did not have to remove his chutes.

At 8:35am the cement truck pulled out heading back to his plant to pickup another load of cement.

When I got back to our area Juan and crew were busy trawling and brushing our two pads. The patio was a little slow in setting up so they could not put their final finish work on it until 9:30am. It finally got to the point where they needed it to be in order to brush it. At 10:00am they had cleaned all their tools and where out of here. They will return sometime tomorrow to remove their forms.

We now have a nice patio and slab for the hookups. We are looking forward to being able to set out in the mornings and evenings. All we need now is a change in our weather to work on flower beds and a court yard for our bird feeding area.

Until next time. . . .MtnAire Travlers.

Cement Will Now Be Delivered This Saturday

At the first of the week we were told by the cement company they would not deliver on Saturday unless they had a 50 yard minimum. Oh cr@# now what do we do as Juan and his crew have a regular job and only do jobs like ours on weekends. BIL James said he would check again today hoping they would have enough requests called in for Saturday delivery that would meet their 50 yard minimum. I understand why they have a minimum policy and our small 5 yard request would be very expensive for them to fill. So, we just will have to wait and hope for the best.

Great news James just called and said the cement company had enough orders for Saturday's delivery to meet their minimum. Since our name was on their first to call list a cement truck with our 5 yards would be here by 7am this coming Saturday. Boy, were we happy to hear this good news. So, he has informed Juan and they will be here around 6:30 am.

As I understand it should not take no more than two to two and half hours to do our two areas. After they finish, James has a small pad where he plans to build a small building for his water well and some patch work on one of his driveways. So, bar no glitches or rainy weather we should have our patio in place Saturday.

Speaking of weather we have had no rain what so ever since the middle of May. With the temps soaring above or near the 100 degree mark for the past ten days we are really dry. Grass is dead and leafs are beginning to fall from the trees. Things are so dry here the ground in some places is beginning to crack. Our area is nothing but powdered  sand and when you walk in it big puffs of dust appear. We don't want to put down any grass seed or squares until the weather changes. We may wait and put down some summer or winter rye grass just as soon as we can hoping this will get us through until next spring.

Yesterday morning Sandy and I painted our steps and re-carpeted the top and second step. We also replaced the two steps with treated 2x12 as the original steps were beginning to rot out. My handyman Mark built these for us about five years ago.

Sandy had her first hummer land on her feeder right outside the living room

window yesterday evening. Boy, was she excited. Since we moved our two bird feeders the birds are a little slow in discovering their new location. Or, it may be just to hot and our feathered friends have moved on.

We also wish to welcome our 45th blog followers Doyle and Terri Johnson. Great to have you join us.

Until next time. . . .MtnAire Travlers.

Foundation, Forms Rebar In Place Cement Next

James arrived with his backhoe right at 9am this morning and proceeded to drive it off his Big Tex gooseneck trailer . (click on photos to enlarge)

We waited for Juan and his crew to get here to start the foundation prep. Shortly around 10am they arrived and Juan took James backhoe and started digging the foundation for the walkway and patio.

While Juan was doing this his two workers started shoveling the dirt out of the area.

It wasn't long they started laying the forms for the patio/walkway.

After the prep for the foundation they cut and laid the rebar wire.

They then moved to the hookup site and prepared the 5'x5’ pad.

Here are the two sites that are awaiting concrete. Say is that the crew boss setting there in the background??

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They were finished just a little after 1pm. We will order the cement Monday for delivery this coming Saturday where Juan and his crew will return and complete the job. We estimate it will take about four yards to do these two pads and a smaller pad over at the water well.

In the mean time Sandy is already talking about tables/chairs with an umbrella, flower pots etc. Did I say it was a little dusty around here today. Dusty doesn’t even describe it!!!

Until next time. . . .MtnAire Travlers

Getting A Concrete Patio Poured At Base

Sandy and I have been discussing with her brother James of having some cement work done around our new base.To our surprise this evening there was a knock on our door. It was BIL James with several men who came to give us a bid for pouring us a 12'x20' concrete patio on the passenger side with a walk way near the front door of the motorhome. We also wanted a 5'x5' pad poured around our hookups with a small walkway. This would give me a nice place to stand when doing our hookups.

After a while they had a pretty good idea what we wanted and would return tomorrow morning to start putting in the forms and rebar wire. James will dig the foundation with his backhoe. It sure is nice to have a BIL that is not only talented but has the equipment to get the job done. They say they will have the forms and rebar wire in place by Saturday evening. The job should be completed before the end of the coming week which is primarily due to the scheduling of the cement truck.

Sandy and I are real excited to get this done. We will put out some grass seed or squares after they finish. Will post pictures of the work in progress. Our next project will be to work on some flower beds.

Until next time. . . .MtnAire Travlers.

Our New Home Base

We were up at the crack of dawn this morning for several reasons. One being we were traveling to our new home base. The adrenalin was flowing with our excitement of pulling into our new site with full hookups. Another reason for up so early was we wanted to travel in the early morning hours as it was much cooler. We arrived in Lone Star a little before 9am. (click on photos to enlarge)

The area where we park the home is a black top circular drive. You enter one drive and exit the second. We had to make several attempts of jockeying the home so we would be able to reach the sewer drain with our 20ft sewer hose. The 50amp electric cable and 25ft water hose presented no problem as they both were long enough. All of our hookups are located in the same general area.
After we found the right spot we marked the drivers front and rear tires with orange paint so we can find the correct spot when we leave and return.

I marked the drive so Sandy could line up and hit the spots without to much difficulty. After that I took my multi-meter and checked the 50amp receptacle to assure myself it was wired correctly. Better to be safe than sorry. Everything checked okay and we plugged in. It sure was nice to have the breaker in the box that allowed me to turn the power to the box off before plugging in.

After everything was set up we loaded into the Jeep and headed to Mt Pleasant for groceries for Sandy's Mom and us. We got back around 3pm and started the task of moving our stepping stones, bird feeders, flag pole and wind mill over to our new site. We both love our new spot and look forward to working toward getting it like the way we want it to be someday.

Until next time. . . .MtnAire Travlers.

What Happened To Our Cooler Weather

We've seen the temperatures over a 100F for the past three days. Today's 105F has been the hottest. Our friends in Gladewater had what they believe to be a tornado hit their neighborhood yesterday evening knocking down trees and lifting shingles off some roofs. What was so weird about this is they had no warning as it just popped up. We could see thunderheads in that direction yesterday evening going to dinner.

We also have some more storms building up again in the North East and they appear to be moving our way. Maybe these might break this hot spell that has us in it's grips, okay with me as long as there is no bad weather.

Our June First Monday was a bummer. The crowds where here which really surprised me since it was so dog gone hot.

On an interesting note diesel at the Circle K Truck Stop on I20 jumped $0.30 a gallon yesterday. Friday evening it was $3.71 a gallon and last night we saw it at $4.01 per gallon. Now explain to me why a 30 cent a gallon jump in 12 hours. The price of a barrel of oil is still hanging around the $100 mark.

We got our brief rainfall around 7 pm and our temperature dropped to 76F. Where was this earlier when we needed it. The cooler weather was a welcomed sight and allowed for a cooler motorhome. Our voltage also is better with most vendors gone now. Our voltage meter shows 129V where for the past three days with all the loads on the system we were running 108V-112V with both A/C running. We switched our refrigerator over to gas during the marginal voltage period.

In the morning we will leave and will drive to our new home base. will post some pictures.

Until next time. . . .MtnAire Travlers.

We Now Have Full Hookups

Sandy's brother James called about 1:30pm today advising the electrical company had completed their work and we now have electricity. So, when we leave here Monday morning we will go to our new home base.

We are not moving that far but it sure is going to be great having full hookups. I just can't imagine how good its going to fill  not having to dump our black water every three to four days in the Blue Boy and haul it to the sewer clean out on the other side of the property. We now will be able to do a better job of flushing our holding tanks.

All I can say it is down right hot here at Canton. The weatherman is now saying we could see temperatures near 102F tomorrow. Right now it's 100F and inside the Pavilion with all the back drops it feels like it's 110F-113F. Our neighbors have one of those misting fans and wow does it make a big difference.

Its not even 3pm and several of the vendors around us have already closed up for the day. Our crowds are very small and I can't blame them for not coming here. If we had any sense we would be closed too. Just think this is only June and we have the hottest part of the summer still ahead of us.

It won’t be long before Happy Hour and we may just have to set inside the motorhome instead of outside under the big awing. There are usually five to six of us that gather in the evenings after we close for the day. I  have a feeling tonight  just might be Mexican food at Robles. They are one of several Mexican Food Restaurants in the Canton area. I feel they have the best cheese enchiladas in town.

Sandy just walked in with the cash register so I guess we are closed for the day. Perhaps a early Happy Hour is in the making.

Until next time. . . .MtnAire Travlers.

35th Wedding Anniversary

Today is our 35th Wedding Anniversary. It hardly seems like 35 years ago we were happily married. Dear you are truly a blessing from God. Thank you for being my partner, lover and best friend. We've both grown together through these years. Thank you for your love you show me regularly. If I were to buy you roses these would have been my pick.

Yahoo! We heard from the electric company today and they say they will have power to our meter pole either today or tomorrow. So, when we leave Canton next Monday we will go to our new home base. We are looking forward to this move.

I had my Nuclear Stress Test Tuesday and seemed to have handled it pretty well. The test took 2/1/2 hours of which about 35 minutes was setting and waiting on the next level and picture taking. I should have the results hopefully by this Friday.

All I can say is it's hot here in Canton. Our high today through Friday is  suppose to be around 98F to 99F. I believe summer just might be here. We should start cooling down by Saturday if you can call 92F cool.

Until next time. . . .MtnAire Travlers.