Camping Memorial Day 2007

Well, I survived the camping trip. Besides the heat, sand, and no running water, it was a great time! Attached are some highlight photos.

JD is notorious for winning the "most stuck" award EVERY time. This trip was no exception. He 'claims' he had no brakes, but funny, his brakes worked after the swim in the water -hmmm (scratching head). It took both Jared and Clint's rigs working together to get him out. I got to hand it to him though. He got it running again and didn't miss out on the action the rest of the weekend. Despite his casualties of two cell phones and a camera (the camera was never seen again).

The other shot is Clint holding the rattlesnake I found when looking for a pee spot. Yep, you got it. I was paranoid the rest of the weekend. Luckily, it was the only one we saw all weekend. Clint let me keep the rattler as a souvenir after he shot it in the head.

I got to say, there was more time spent fixing rigs than playing in them. About 3 or 4 more times fixing than playing. I guess that's part of it. I have to give the guys credit though, they can fix anything. I saw Jeff and Isaac use cardboard from a beer box to fashion a gasket. That's creative.

I learned alot, too. Since this was my first camping trip, I learned that next time I should not come so prepared. We brought way too much food and we didn't fix all the elaborate dishes I had planned like 'Hot off the grill Apricot Pie'. After seeing how the boys camp, I was embarrassed to bring out any more of what I considered necessities. However, Clint did fix me a wonderful breakfast Sunday morning on our new camp stove that included fried eggs, sausage, bacon and hash browns. Yummy! It was bad enough Clint and I were the only ones in a tent sleeping on an air mattress, while the guys slept in the back seats of their trucks, wearing their dirty jeans. They were very kind and gracious, though, considering I was the only girl intruding in their 'men's world'.

If you want to see more of the action, click here http://picasaweb.google.com/jjTexas424/CampingMemorialDay2007?authkey=M6_6_l5sxHI Unfortunately, I didn't get many human subjects in my documentary. What's new.

Newspaper

So, the local area newspapers are always a good source of news and... entertainment. Besides posting generic wedding and shower invitations in the newspaper for just anyone in town to read and attend, which is so frequently done that they often forgo mailing formal invitations entirely, they also use the paper for clearing up any personal identity conflicts that might arise. I suppose, that's one way of getting the word out.

Safe and Sound

Just so everyone knows, for you weather watchers, we are safe and sound from the storms last night. They did blow the siren and we headed to the basement. There was a whole bunch of hail. I'm still not used to the hail. Some of it was quarter size, but most of it was more like a dime. It got so loud! Even in the basement, you could still hear all the racket going on. However, for this area, since it is a farming community, the biggest scare was for the wheat. It's going to be a big wheat harvest this year from all the rain we've had, and all the farmers are so pumped because they have not had to irrigate so there are big profits in sight. Hail is very threatening to the wheat crops, especially when it's in the "green stage" as it is now. From what I've gathered this morning, the damage was minimal so that is great news. In town, our handy John Deere rain gauge (provided to us free of charge from our "in" at the local John Deere house, Landon) shows we got 4 inches last night. For those readers from Houston, I know you are thinking that's nothing, but for here, that's a flood. What's even more exciting is that just southeast of town, they got 12 inches! A lot of folks in the country are stranded in their homes because the roads are impassable.

On a sour note, we did have one casualty last night. The flower bed under the tree at the office that we recently planted with vinca, after long tiring hours of shoveling out old lava rock, was completely washed away. It must of overflowed and we lost most of the baby vinca plants and a great deal of the dirt. We do have some replacement dirt available to us, free of charge. From where you might ask? Well, the Old Hansford Cemetery of course! EEWW! The good news is, we do plan to rebuild. hee!

That's all folks!

Swinging from the rafters

This is one of my favorite funny pics of Clint. Swinging from the rafters of our log cabin he rented for a vacation in Red River, NM last year. It was a perfect get-away vacation and beautiful country. I think this photo says it all - we had a blast!

Tribute to Adele

Well, you asked for it! I know I need get some human subjects in my photos, so I thought I'd take a step back and show some from the past. So, here are some favorites of Adele and I in various shots including Adele's birthday bash entitled, "Getting Down on the Yard" and Hawaii. Aah, takes me back.

Ok, I promise...last ones...

Just a few more pics of the pretty flowers. I just never saw so many! Those are red poppies in the butterfly garden, and a really pretty eggplant-colored vine making a second archway by the back gate.

Ahh, the smell of fresh roses...

We have the most beautiful rose bushes at the house. Take a look while they are in their full glory!

Spring at the office?

My boss and I took the opportunity to brighten up the place a bit. There is a new baby Red Delicious apple tree. Isn't it cute? The wine barrels have new life with geraniums and petunias and we removed the old lava rock in the bed under the tree and added a vinca bed. Still to do? A "Transpetco" sign and a brand new bed under the concrete lattice work for honeysuckle.

On a brighter note....

Check out the cool flowers in our flower gardens! Mrs. Graham, the former owner, was quite the gardener and so we've had all kinds of surprises come up this spring.

Be gone wicked carpet!!

So, the carpet is out of the living room. We are waiting until we can get the remaining carpet out of the halls, kitchen and dining room before we rent the dreaded rotary sander. Here are some before and after shots. It was that old sculptured stuff! The worst part is definitely getting the paper backing from the vinyl that was in the entry hall. Not fun. It definitely needs to be refinished, but we are enjoying being carpet free in one room at least!

Oh the joys of wallpaper

So, I haven't got any photos of me actually removing the stuff, but I have some before pics and some after dewallpaper but before paint pics. One section of wall had multiple layers of wallpaper. Wonder what the story is there? We have spackled and now we are in the process of sanding. After that, we will clean, prime and finally PAINT!

Playful pup

So, I am finally getting around to adding some more photos, as requested by many. Here are some more of Baxter doing what he does best - playing!