Boat ride plus

Sunday while Butch was playing golf with Jason, Tallman's called to ask if we would like to come to Lake Panorama for a boat ride followed by sandwiches and then play some cards. We jumped at the chance to shake off the insulation and have a different kind of fun. Here are some pictures from our ride on the lake. We used to live on Lake Panorama from 1979 to 1988 so it was interesting to see our old house and many other changes.

Used to be ours

Cannot see it well for all the trees-north side

Lowest level

Relaxing on the lake- Jan Tallman, Marvin Smith and Judi Smith.

Goslings out for a practice run

Fancy recirculating pool at a fancy lake house

Curly likes to bring you gifts. He brought Butch a towel. He doesn't like to give them up however. Some dogs are above the rest in endearing ways and Curly is one of those.

Granddaughter Ann and her daughter Nina Grace

Ann

and Nina Grace...both blessed with beauty.

Snipped from Facebook

Try again for the kaleidoscope...

Some of you have told me you cannot get to the kaleidoscope from the link in the blog so I am trying to post it again. Maybe the link got broken. So try again!
http://inoyan.narod.ru/kaleidoskop.swf

For my Kindle friends

There are 2 websites where you can sign up to have a newsletter delivered with lists of free & low cost books. They are: Pixelofink.com and Ereadernewstoday.com
They will send you a newsletter with a description of the books and links to Amazon. I know many people who if they had known they could get so many free and low cost books they would have bought a kindle much sooner. Hope you’re enjoying your kindle as much as we do.

And Now...

Butch is off golfing with Jason and I just finished a short bike ride.( 4 miles) I went on the trail but didn't stop to take pictures. The trail gets a lot of use on weekends so thought it best to stay on the move.
We cleaned up the house the past few days-burning some stuff-putting some things in the dumpster and bagging up insulation. We now have 10 bags of loose insulation. Sure wish we knew of someone who could use it. We hate to fill the dumpster up with it but that may be what we have to do in the end. So things are coming along. It encourages us to stop demo and clean things up a bit now and then.
One of the bedrooms, soon to be bathroom is now free of old drywall and all the ceiling insulation is bagged up .

Now up to 10 bags of loose insulation.

Kaleidoscope

This is so cool...had to share

Click here: for a beautiful kaleidoscope to watch

 

http://inoyan.narod.ru/kaleidoskop.swf

I FORGOT ETHAN!

I cannot believe I did that. He is such a special little guy and our only great grand SON. I guess when you get old you can't count to four anymore. Here is Ethan brushing his teeth. Since he has moved to Newton his grandparents do not see him enough and we see even less.

I am so bummed that I forgot Ethan. At least I didn't lose him in a grocery store.

Surprises

I don't do facebook much but the other day my granddaughter Ann's name caught my eye so I requested to be her "Friend" and she accepted. In so doing I found out she is pregnant with a girl, plans to name her Scarlet and is due around August 16th. This would be our 3rd great grand-all girls.
I also found out that Butch's grand niece Jennifer is also pregnant. I guess if you are not on Facebook- you know nothing!! And even then you have to be a detective to get it all figured out.
Yesterday Butch and I purchased some 16 inch square blocks to make a path to the moho from the house so we would not track mud. We are also making a landing at both moho and house. This is the kind of work that kills my back but Butch's back is already hurting so I started in. I was able to get the landing outside the moho done but it has taken a toll so I will have to rest up before going at it again.
 Butch decided to get down and dirty today so he started tearing down drywall in one of the bedrooms so we could bag up insulation. Last I knew we were up to 10 bags. I helped this morning but so far I haven't made it back out after lunch.
We are getting beautiful weather but no rain. I was afraid my rain barrel may be lacking and the forecast isn't good for filling it up unless we get one of those isolated T's they keep warning us about. I say beautiful weather but it is hot and we do have the AC running in the moho. Everyone's definition of beautiful weather is just a bit different.

Compare to picture in the header and note new color on the steps and the garage door. We obtained our dumpster this morning and filled it with the accumulated debris. They are scheduled to empty it tomorrow so we should be free to do more demo now as we will have somewhere to put more debris. We also got a burn barrel so we can start burning some stuff. Leo was a big help in obtaining the barrel at a very good price-Free. Things are coming right along.

Big Day

I put the topcoat on the garage door. I am really loving it and it looks almost like a new door. Bill and Jo Brooker came to help us with furnace and AC issues. Jo and I visited while Butch and Bill worked. We had lunch here. Keri baked bars that were scrumptious and I ate way too many...but thanks, Keri. Later Leo stopped by to help us get some dirt moved. Butch's back has been hurting so this was a BIG help too
I had made carrot burgers so we went to Leo and Keri's where Butch grilled the burgers. Keri and I both had made sides to go with the meat and it all was delicious. I tried my oven that is in the garage that came with the house. The lady who lived here before going to the nursing home (Bessie Murphy) was known as a really good cook. She was a cook in several restaurants around town in her younger years. I am telling you her oven has not lost its touch. I made a broccoli casserole (Thanks Kay) and it turned out all brown and bubbly on top. It looked as good as it tasted. I am going to like that oven in the garage. It will be a big help to my culinary skills. I am sure Bessie had to put her special touch on her stove.
It was a very good day despite the wind.
Last year at this time we had just arrived in Michigan. We will always treasure that summer at Thunder Bay Golf and RV resort. It will forever remain special as will the 3 we spent prior to that at Snow Mountain Ranch YMCA of the Rockies. We made alot of friends in both places. Treasures all.

Next day

Butch continued to whittle away at drywall and I tackled putting primer on the garage door. When we first purchased the place, our plan was to replace the garage door but then Butch was able to get it functioning mechanically without much trouble and I decided a coat of paint could do wonders for it. It is a fiberglass door and it is almost more fibers than glass but the primer is welding it all together in fairly fine fashion. I am anxious to see it with its topcoat but today is a rainy one so it will have to wait. It will definitely be an improvement over the ugly brown that it was yesterday.
Jefferson's school colors are black and red. I have a class reunion coming up so decided to make a bracelet for a door prize. Finished it last night.

Here is the new location of the rain barrel and with the rain we got last night and today it should have some rain in it.

I think it is the perfect spot for it now. Certain people are encouraging us to take down the evergreen but we both like it and now it has a new job.

It is a good day for napping so think we will do that.

Saturday Morning

Wasn't raining this morning and it was a tad warmer than it has been so we walked uptown for breakfast. Lengthened our walk on the way home to justify what we ate although we were conservative in our choices. Found 47 cents on the sidewalk. Somebody has a hole in their pants pocket, I am guessing.
 Butch put our flag up for the holiday. The south Texas wind had been rough on the pole so he had to modify it a bit.
The rain barrel has been moved. Its new home is behind the evergreen tree on the north end of the house. Much better place for it as it is not quite so visible. We had to empty it to move it so it is not holding any rain water right now. We visited both cemeteries to water plants and decided that if we wanted to visit many of Jefferson's residents we could just hang out at the cemeteries all day.
We stopped at an auction. It is one that is held on a regular basis-like a couple times a month. Sure were not many people there. I saw several things that were appealing but it is way too soon to purchase anything. It would get in the way of the remodeling and nothing that will not be on sales of the future too..

Tried to

I tried to post yesterday but a combo of things kept it from happening. None of it interesting enough to relate. Blame it on Verizon.
Butch has been into demolition to a great degree and golf to a lesser one.  He is tearing off drywall in a systematic manner to have a look at the bones of the place. I have been working on the exterior and the curb appeal part. We are going to move the rain barrel to a less conspicuous location as soon as it is empty. It is too big and ugly to be so front and center.
Yesterday friends Mickey and Jayne stopped by. They were in town to visit the cemeteries. We did that yesterday as well. They didn't stay long enough to suit me but we have a class reunion coming up in a couple of weeks and I will see them then.
After returning from the cemeteries I started cleaning the garage door and front step with that abundant rainwater in preparation for painting. They cleaned up and dried quickly so decided to paint, choosing the steps to start. In so doing I d___  near killed my back. I was afraid it was serious and permanent last night but it is much better this morning.
Leo and Butch went golfing last night and when Leo stopped by he had some of Keri's freshly made lemon bars to offer and they were scrumptious. Thanks Keri! I must say to Peggy and Kay when one cooks door closes another cooks door opens!
I planned to start on the garage door today but rain is going to save me so will do some indoor things instead and give my back a break. OOPS...Give my back a rest.
Till next time...
Correction: Whoops. I guess they were Norma Milligan's Lemon Bars. Keri would have given me on had they been hers. wink, wink

Rainy Rain Barrel

The Rain Barrel arrived this afternoon and about 5 minutes after Butch put it together we got a downpour. It is in the front of the house now but mainly because I have flowers there that need watered with no easy way to get water to them. Later on when I have a hose in the front of the house we may move the rain barrel to the backyard. We will see.
Tomorrow morning the plan is...if it isn't raining... to walk to the hospital for our annual blood draws. It is on the far west side of Jefferson and we live on the far east side so it will be a nice healthy walk. I promised Butch we could stop at the Uptown Cafe for breakfast on the way home.
I rode the trail this morning. I had many things I wanted to get done so I only rode 2 miles out and 2 miles back. It was great and felt really good to be back on my bike on my favorite trail. I was met by beautiful purple flowers bordering both sides of the trail. They were tall wild flowers and I need to look them up. What a greeting!

The new rain barrel. It may need a little dressing up to make it pretty but right now I am liking it!!

Rain Barrel

Well I did what I could to induce a drought. I bought a rain barrel. I had been looking at them in various places for the past few weeks. In my shopping I looked them up on Craigslist and found a deal. $60 for one that is shipped to our door. That was about the best deal I could find. We had seen one in Atlantic last Thursday at Cappels for $109.95. That made $60 sound pretty good. I should be getting it in the next few days and I will take a picture of it for you. If anyone is interested I can give you more details about it.
Today was laundry day again. I am not really that organized to have laundry day on Monday. It just worked out that way.
I rode my bike uptown this morning to stop at city hall and order a dumpster. Wouldn't you know- they do not have any right now but hope they can get one for us sometime this week.
I also worked on the travel trailer today. Cleaned it up and washed linens. Sanitized the water system. It is very near ready for overnight guests.
Butch took out a few more boards in the house and got the oil changed in the Hyundai. Then he went out to Leo and Keri's to finish up a couple of chores.
We hope all our friends in the Joplin area are okay. They have been very much in our thoughts and prayers. We are very familiar with that part of Missouri. What is worse is they are under warnings again tonight.

Ice eating days are over

Butch spent a fair amount of time eating ice this winter. I find it quite irritating but only on a few occasions did I mention how it grated on my nerves. He had told me that the dentist told him he had so many crowns in his mouth that it was unlikely his ice eating habit would create a problem. I am a bit ticked at both of them now. Friday we went to Atlantic to the dentist because Butch had a filling falling apart. So now we are in the midst of a root canal and a crown with two more trips for these procedures. We are saving up our money for it because we had dropped our dental insurance. There will be no more ice eating in our house in my presence. If he does there will be considerable more noise than the crunching of ice boulders and the damn crashing of the cubes hitting the bottom of the cup every few seconds.
We stopped to visit friends Randy and Sherri and also Bill & Bev. We caught Bill and Bev on a card playing day so we were only able to quickly say hi.
A trip to Atlantic pretty well takes care of the whole day.
Today I was able to get some plants in pots while Butch continued with demo. It is coming along but not quickly. Oh and we also went for quite a long walk.

A Different Kind of Day

I went with Butch this morning while he played 9 holes of golf. I walked with my camera while he played. I needed the exercise but told him not to get his hopes up that this would happen on a regular basis.
Here are some of the pics I took.

Settling in

It takes longer some places than others to settle in. Most everywhere it takes about a week. You have to settle in to a new routine getting situated as to how, when, where and why you will get things done. It is naturally taking longer here because this workamping situation is for us and we are fussier than most bosses. wink,wink.
Walked across town yesterday and it seemed like a short walk. I suppose because there is so much to look at and so many different routes a person can take and I haven't even been on the bike trail yet.

We leveled up the kids trailer yesterday and I plan to get to work on it today, airing it out, dusting etc. on the inside and seeing what it might take to clean the outside getting it ready to serve as a guest house.

I have some blue painters tape somewhere in this motorhome. I started my search this morning. So far no luck. I now know why my mother had multiples of everything. She could not find the one she already had so she bought another one. I am about ready to buy another one.

View from classmate Denise's kitchen window

Jefferson's carillon tower. Sings to us every day.

Our mini RV park. Taken from the back door of our house.

Monday and a bit of Tuesday

My laundry was way behind so that was my plan for the day yesterday. I have a nice clothesline and all of our clothes fit on it. Mother Nature makes a very good drier. Butch spent his day taking off trim boards. Leo stopped by and used his handy truck to get Gary and Susan's travel trailer parked in site 2 of our mini RV park. So we are much closer to being drop-in ready for guests.
Last nights supper was a bit of a debacle. I planned on Spaghetti and meatballs but after getting it started I noticed the spaghetti sauce was questionable in quality so I switched  the sauce to tomato soup/mushroom soup/vegetable soup. Not one of my better attempts at winging it.
After supper we went to Jefferson's Middle school gymnasium for a Simon Estes performance. The South  African kids that he sponsors were performing and they were really the main focus of the show. Leo's wife Keri plays the piano and Simon had noticed her skills on a previous visit to Jefferson and asked her to accompany him at this performance. What an honor! It was a great show!
Butch and I walked to the school and back home again. One of my goals in being in Jefferson was being within walking distance of EVERYTHING! That too is a treat. We walked to all these same places as kids and didn't think a thing of it.  It felt really good to get back to walking. This morning I need to get a check to a former classmate for my upcoming class of '61 reunion and I plan to walk to her place to give it to her. I am so grateful I can!! Then we will walk back home and start to work with renewed vigor.
Our Direct TV guy was here and installed our dish bright and early this morning. His efficiency was super!! We were impressed!!
Pictures of our mini RV park will soon be forthcoming so stay tuned...

From Grandpa Gary-Birthday Videos

Finally! It took some tenacity on Grandpa's part. For some reason the cake eating videos kept failing in the upload. At least a dozen times of failing!

Pre-party
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpcPCFVftuI
Cake Eating
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQn-XPW-yqE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXKzh-4ukDc
Presents
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEnX2lNQtHQ

Monday in Jefferson

We spent a wonderful weekend helping Elise celebrate her first birthday. Pictures speak a thousand words so I will get as many uploaded as possible. Our Verizon connection is sometimes frustrating so a great deal will depend on it as to how many I get posted.

From last Friday

Blogger is down right now (Friday AM) and has been for a few days so I am writing this and then when I can I will post it. Probably not till Monday as we will be in Missouri until then. We are in our own backyard!  There are two RV spots with full hook-ups (water/sewer/electric) and we are sitting on one of them. We are using our son Gary's travel trailer as a guest house but we can also move it if you have your own RV. So this is your official invitation.  We are not feeding the birds yet but there sure are lots of them. It is quiet except for the trains and the carillon tower and I am sure we will get used to both. After all we both did in our youth.

Blackmarket Pizza in Ames Iowa 
Last night Jason called to see if he was needed to help with sewer hook-up and was greatly relieved to find he was not. He has been putting in 10 hour days at his work and he is getting to an age where that takes a toll. So he invited us to come over and go to Ames for pizza at their favorite and now our favorite pizza place. It is well worth the trip.  Chicken Ka-blam pizza was my favorite of the ones we tried. The owners have quite a success story; from homeless to successful business men in a very short time. If you are anywhere near Ames Iowa you will want to check it out or you can check out their website here. http://www.blackmarketpizza.com/

Wednesdays News

Plumber finally showed up. I know Butch's brother Bill is chuckling over the last few posts concerning plumbers. I would not recommend the guy we hired but as always it is slim pickings when it comes to plumbers. If more people would keep their customers in the know rather than have them hang around for three days waiting for them they would have happier customers. Just like when you go into a restaurant and it seems like the waitress keeps passing you by- if they stop by once in awhile and acknowledge your existence you have alot more patience.
Our plumber also did something a bit funky with the connection but it works so that is the most important part. We really got the idea the guy didn't enjoy being a plumber much. Not good when people do not enjoy their chosen profession.
So we have two RV sites ready for occupancy. Sewer/water/electrical are all hooked up and ready to go but now its raining and Butch doesn't want to get our rocks all muddy.
Also yesterday Butch decided to measure our neighbors lot. Remember he told us our garage was 2 feet on his property? After taking a measurement from the edge of the sidewalk we did not think so. Butch went to the assessors office and the assessor gave him a printout of a satellite survey of Jefferson taken in 2009 and we are both on our own property. So there, mister self-proclaimed bigshot!
So we have had a bunch of wait time in the past 3 days and we did get a fair amount done. I cleaned and reorganized the garage yesterday knocking down 10 to 15 years of cobwebs. Butch poked a hole in the ceiling drywall to see what all we might be dealing with up there. Getting the insulation out of the attic may be the toughest and most disgusting job of the whole renovation. We have yet to find a pain free method of doing that part.
So tomorrow we are going to Missouri to a first birthday party for our great granddaughter Elise. It will be different and we are ready for the break. We do not take many road trips without our MoHo. This will be a car trip. We have been spoiled. Packing a suitcase, finding places to pee and eat are things we are not used to doing after 9 years of fulltiming. I have a feeling we can adjust to it on occasion.

Another thing!!! Butch read the abstract on our new property and in so doing discovered that we are on the property owned by my grandparents in 1922. They lived there for 14 years. My father was adopted by Sam and Anna Brock when he was 3 months old. He was born in 1923 so this would be the home he would have grown up in. It is not the same house because the current house was built in 1946 but it is the same property. So we are now walking on the same ground my daddy did till he was about 12 or 13. Life holds many surprises.

Plumber Troubles

Butch waited for the plumber guy all day. When he called him this morning to tell him we were ready, he said as soon as he fixed a water leak in a front yard he would be there. hmmm... apparently it was a sneaky leak and went into hiding. Hopefully he was able to spend the whole day on it and get it done making us first on the list for tomorrow. Hey, I live on hope!
I spent the day cleaning the house. The one we currently live in. It had been too long between cleanings so it took some persistent cleaning. I ran out of steam but I did get most of it done.

Another glitch- our refrigerator is part of a recall. It is a Norcold. Fortunately there are two RV dealers in town so we were able to check on it at Harrison RV and found out that we were one that needed the new part. So they will order the part and put it in. It takes a week to get it. So they say... So do we wait here until they ask us to come in for the new part or do we go on into our new spot and then have to break down and take it to the dealer after being parked for only 3-4 days. I asked but didn't get an answer. No answer is usually an answer.
For our RV friends you may want to check on that Norcold recall. You will need model and serial number of your Norcold fridge and the VIN number of your RV. We found out about it on RVTravel.com.

Butch did get some things done while waiting today. One thing about it there will always be something to do while waiting for something else to happen. I have a feeling there will be lots of that sort of thing.

From Grandpa Gary

Elise Playing on a Saturday in May. 1 week away from her first Birthday!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XsQK1XFfIY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3PZ99uum4Y

Friday and Saturday-two hard days

Friday the plumber told us he may be able to get to our sewer hook up on Monday if the pipe was ready to connect so our job ever since has been to get the pipe within connecting distance. Butch and I worked on it Friday and made considerable progress. We continued on Saturday and Leo came to help and a great deal of help he was too. Keri fixed us lunch and supper and that too was a big help. We are grateful and thankful. The hard part was digging out under the house to make room for the pipe and get the right slope. Leo was able to get his sizable frame under the house and made a bunch of progress on the dirt digging part. Butch brought up many bucketfuls of black Iowa dirt and took it outside to add to our pile. That had been my job earlier in the day and it certainly isn't easy. Butch had to use smaller buckets when I was doing it. Once Leo and Butch had a rhythm going I switched my job to pulling staples. I completed my job and they nearly completed theirs. Butch has more digging to do today but we should finish and be ready for the plumber tomorrow.
When Leo first pulled up in the back alley our neighbor to the northwest was hollering for her dog (Layla the pitbull). I noted the tone of panic in her call but the dog did listen and came to her. It apparently had gotten loose. At the same time her 3 or 4 year old daughter came running out the back door of their house buck naked. There was so much going on that Leo completely missed the girl. He was focused on the dog! It was a busy two minutes!! Butch was under the house digging a trench and missed all of it.
Here are pictures I took yesterday:

The tulips in the front yard are huge!

This is the black hole where Leo and Butch spent too much time the past couple of days.

My dirt pile beside the tree. It looks so small in this picture. I plan to plant some hostas around the tree. Do your hostas need thinned?

Leo and neighbors Everett and Bert Beebe

The cactus blooms!

Thursdays News

It is a slow news day. Except the cactus is blooming. That means it finally got warm enough! Our "neighbor" came to visit yesterday. I do not consider him a neighbor really because it is a rental unit. He owns it is all. He said the place is his and he has no problem with keeping the alley open. It is his kids trailer that is blocking it. He did not sound like he was going to 'request' that his son move it however. Anyway we had a fairly amiable conversation. He thinks we are just plain loony for doing what we are doing. But he has a rental unit mentality whereby we are doing it for us with no intention of renting it. So our thoughts are coming from a different place is all.  I think we will not see enough of him to be a problem. A couple of old sayings come to mind; Don't borrow trouble and don't cry till you are hurt.

Today the plan is to continue working on the sewer in the ditch. Getting it the right level and slope is the business of the day. We have to get into and under the house ready for the plumber to come in and make the final connections. The plumber said he might be able to get to that late Monday if everything goes right and we have it ready. So that is the goal for this weekend. So I'll close down now and get a move on....Yeah...like I am going in that crawl space? I do feel sorry for the guy who has to though. Really I do.

Wednesdays pictures

Butch tried to keep from overdoing with the wrist yesterday and I was there to remind him. wink,wink. We did manage to get some things done. Like the electrical in the pedestal. When he did that he dropped an allen wrench down inside the box. He drove out to our MoHo and got his magnet and was able to retrieve it. We filled in some on the ditch trying to get the slope right for the sewer. We have a plumber coming today to supervise our efforts and hook up underneath the house.
Here are some pictures of yesterdays progress.: