… a couple of days late. Our celebration today went very well and very relaxed. All tasted pretty good & we’re all sated, ‘n watching a movie now.
Tomorrow we’re planning on going for breakfast at Bad Boy’s Cafe. Thom and Scott are probably going for the sweet potato pancakes, I’m going to do either biscuits ‘n gravy or cheese ‘n mushroom omelet and Mari will do whatever strikes her fancy at the time.
Today was a pretty good day. Fairly warm with relatively little wind. Mari sat outside with only a sweatshirt on and sketched the saguaro ‘n other things. She wants to go for a ride to find other sketching inspirations. Maybe tomorrow or next day. They will be here for several days so there is no hurry. This time together, we will most definitely get Mari making a wire sculptured tree! I need to find the instructions. I can remember it mostly, but a few things need to be refreshed in my mind.
Just wanted to let ya’ll know we are all here, healthy ‘n happy and doing great. If we go traipsing around, I’ll be sure to take my camera and share what I shoot.
Hope ya’ll had a great Christmas (those of you who celebrate it). Our’s was nice and relaxed. It started with waffles for breakfast, and then we proceeded to wait for the Christmas Calamities to start. It wasn’t so bad this year. The truck’s batteries were dead so Thom had to hook up the charger and generator to get it going, then we took it for a 40 mile round trip up hwy 95. The batteries are 7 years old so we count ourselves lucky we haven’t had problems until now. Guess we need to start shopping batteries for the truck. Yuck! When I went potty before our drive I noticed the toilet didn’t have any water in it again. Oh poo! When we got back I checked and again no water. Another mini-calamity. Thom cleaned the valve real good and it appears to be holding water again. We have to remember when we clean the toilet to clean that valve good being careful not to damage it. There’s so much more to living in an RV than there is living in a stick home. It’s worth it though, being able to relocate our “home” whenever we choose.
The low temperature Christmas morning was 28F here in La Posa South. A few clouds came in last night so it only got down to 32F this morning. Our highs have been in the mid to high 50’s, but going to 60 tomorrow. There has been a constant 3 - 5 mph wind out of the NW the last two days and it’s a downright cold wind! It’s not comfortable outside without at least a sweatshirt.
My turnips are almost gone. I’m saving a few so Mari and Scott can sample them. Speaking of them, they should be arriving here sometime this evening. They left Mesquite, NV this morning. Normally that is about a 5 or 6 hr. drive, but they plan a few stops on the way to pick up some things, so we won’t expect them here until 6 or 7 p.m. I’m hoping it’s warm enough a few evenings while they’re here so we can have a campfire or two and not freeze.
We sold our old weather station 2 days ago. We put the ad up on the bulletin boards the afternoon of the 22nd and it was sold on the very next day. We sold it for 1/2 of what we paid for it, so the buyers got a pretty good deal.
If I’m going to make cheesecakes for dessert tomorrow’s Christmas Dinner, I better get into town and buy some eggs, as well as get the cream cheese out and warming. I also need to dig into the depths of my pantry and find the Mexican Vanilla.
Usually when the weather report says 20% chance of rain, it means rain may drop over the mountains around us, but we won’t see a drop, just feel the wind. Today we got just short of 1/10″ inch of 20% chance! There was lightning, thunder and downpour. I’ll try to post pics of “after the rain” later.
We finally decided we wanted a weather station that sent wind data to the station more often than every 3 minutes, so Thom went shopping online. He found a weather station that is much more efficient for about the same price as our LaCrosse. We received it yesterday and managed to get it set up before sundown yesterday. We really appreciated the weather we had today. The new weather station works great! The wind data is sent every 48 seconds… we got from 0.0 mph to 28 mph. The storm isn’t over yet, but we’re in the calm right now. It should be over by 11 p.m. tonight.
We now have our summer plans set. Of course, last year they were set also, only to change 4 times, but all within the Ogden Canyon. Next Summer we will be hosting at Cemetery Point on Pineview Reservoir in Ogden Canyon. The point is a day use area and boat ramp. I’ll be manning the entrance booth and Thom will be cleaning the picnic areas and beach. We will be on a rotating cycle where we work 6 days, 1 day (AND night) off, work 5 days, 2 days (AND nights) off. It will be slow during the weekdays, but hell on wheels on the weekends. Needless to say, we won’t have weekends off. We won’t be able to have friends and family come camp with us, but they can come stay in our trailer a day or two. I may even have to splurge and buy an out of state fishing license while we are there… been a long time since I’ve caught a bass.
‘Nuff for now. May have pics this evening.
Ya’ll stay healthy ‘n happy.
Toodles.
PS…
Those pics I mentioned. By the way, it looks like the storm is over already (at 5:00 p.m.), winds down to less than 2 mph, clouds almost all gone, and no sign of rain.
This first pic is of dear Marv working on the springs on the “Honey Wagon”.
When I got up yesterday morning and opened the shades I just had to grab my camera and shoot the end of the sunrise. The cloud formations are just beautiful to me.
If the sun is shining at the end of the day, this is what we see just before the sun drops behind the hills to the west. These are the Mountains to the east. We call this particular formation “Abe Lincoln”. This shot was day’s end yesterday.
Now for a few shots of after the rain today. This shows a few “streamlets” running off the flats. All of these run into the wash to the front of us, which is in the picture after this.
This is the wash at the front of the trailer. This one and the one at the back of the trailer run into another main wash… this is how flash floods happen!
This last shot just shows the rain puddles around our trailer and Marv’s truck. As I look out the window now, the streamlets and puddles are all gone. There will still be water in the washes for a couple of days.
That’s all for tonight. Again, ya’ll stay healthy ‘n happy.
…and I didn’t even have to email Ron & Terry. My two posts titled “On the Mends” and “Near Perfect Day” were typed in MS Word because I didn’t have enough online time to type it in my blog space in WordPress. I just copied and pasted it into the blog on WordPress. Apparently, that eliminates the code making it possible for Internet Explorer to read it. Have I mentioned I HATE Internet Explorer?!
I retyped the whole post for “Near Perfect Day” and now my IE will read the post. I’m going to try to just copy and paste the code into “On The Mends” and see if that will make IE read it. If not, I’ll re-type it since it has the info on the horrific winds we had on Monday Dec 7th. Wind is something one really wants to consider if one is thinking about wintering on BLM Long Term Visitor Area land in Quartzsite.
At any rate, scroll back down and see if you can read those two posts now. Let me know.
judy@jggrafx.com
I’ll probably post more later this evening.
Okay, I’m back for more posting.
Did I mention that several days ago we received the new gasket to fix the toilet leak? Thom and Marv got it installed, so I didn’t have to writhe around on the floor helping Thom get it fixed! The toilet no longer leaks and all is well. Thank you, thank you Marv!
Today was a cloudy day so Thom decided that he’d have to run the generator a bit today anyway, so he chose to laundry today instead of visiting the vendors on Main St. With luck our UPS package will get here tomorrow morning and we can go to Blythe tomorrow to take advantage of great buys at Albertson’s and pick up some lime juice at the Blythe Ranch Market (only place we’ve found that carries the brand Thom likes).
Our friend who lives here in QZ year round, Lee, came by today delivering several items from his garden. He brought Jalapeno peppers, Daikon Radish, red radish, icicle radish, and a bunch of Swiss Chard. I know what to do with the peppers and radishes, but have never cooked or tasted chard before. Tonight for dinner I sauted a bit of garlic in olive oil and butter, then threw in the Chard and cooked it ’til tender. Wow! Was I surprised! It tasted so mild, buttery and “gardeny”. I’d buy Chard in the stores but I understand it gets bitter and strong the longer it sits in stores, etc. The chard I cooked tonight was fresh picked this morning. I still have some left to cook tomorrow night, and believe me, I don’t care what we have for dinner, I’m cooking it up while it’s still fresh.
Have I mentioned we’ve been eating my salad turnips lately? Talk about good stuff! These turnips are so mild and sweet and yummy! I think I’m going to harvest most of the rest of them and re-plant so I can have more in about 6 weeks. Lee said he’s grown some of these turnips and loves them.
It’s almost 10:00 and time to turn off the generator, so I better say g’bye.
Too many days have gone by since my last post. I’ve felt discouraged from posting since I learned my last two posts would not download on Internet Explorer… Mom & my son, Mike, can’t read it, two of our faithful readers and friends haven’t been able to load it, and that’s only those who have told me. I wonder how many have tried to download the blog and haven’t been able to get it to load. I guess I need to send an email to Ron & Terry and see if either of them have any idea what I can do to make my blog readable in IE.
In the meantime, lets play catchup. I can’t remember which day it was, but we had a couple who read our blog and have been emailing with us give us a call saying they were in La Posa South so we met them at the pavilion and led them back to our site. They are Don & Arlene from BC, Canada. Really neat people. Hopefully we’ll be seeing them again before they leave the area.
Marv ‘n Deb left for Utah to spend the holidays with their family. They’ll be back the first week in January. It’s funny, the day they left the weather started warming up and the wind died down to slight breezes. If we didn’t miss them so much we’d wonder if we really want them to come back.
Mari ‘n Scott will be here sometime on the 26th. We plan on doing Christmas dinner on the 27th with them. I’ve got the turkey, dressing, sweet potatoes ‘n cheese cake planned ‘n Mari can throw in whatever she wants to go with it. I can’t wait for them to get here.
The last couple of days we’ve noticed a large road runner coming thru our camp. He’s probably looking for an easy meal in the birds I entice down to the feeders, but so far he’s not had any luck… probably because I always run outside with the camera and he runs off. Now I wish I could see a Kit Fox. They are nocturnal and I’m not. If I’m outside at night, I’m by the fire where vision is limited.
Business is picking up at the contact station.. we signed up 15 people on Friday. But, today we went to check out the vendors and many say it’s slow, slow, slow. I really hope it picks up after Christmas, for the vendors’ sake. Today we checked out the vendors in Rice Ranch ‘n Tyson Wells and tomorrow we’ll probably do the main street vendors.
We’re supposed to receive a UPS delivery on Monday, so we’re going to play tomorrow and do laundry on Monday since we have to stay home that day anyway. We’ve learned we can have UPS deliver to the BLM Long Term Visitor Areas if we use the mile marker # on Hwy 95, as well as the LTVA name and BLM road #. They will call us when they get to the LTVA area and we meet them at the contact station parking area to pick up our package.
After we finished shopping today, we went by the food vendor that sells our favorite snack… the one we’ve been craving since last April… and we each got an order of fried jalepeno cheese curds. Oh m’ gosh! We thought we’d died ‘n gone to heaven! I don’t care for hot pepper heat, but the jalepenos in the cheese curds aren’t very hot.
I think I’ve gone on enuff, so I’ll say g’bye for tonight, ‘n email Ron ‘n Terry to see if they have any idea how I can fix IE’s aversion to posting my blog.
First off, I want to share with ya’ll the lovely beginning to our day on Thursday the 10th.
What a great day we had yesterday. We all piled into Marv’s car (all = Thom, me, Deb and Marv) around 9:30 a.m. and headed out to a swap meet at the county park a bit north of Parker. We didn’t find anything that interested us at the swap meet, but enjoyed the walk around and looking at stuff. I got a great Mocha to warm my hands and innards (it was rainy ‘n cold). Marv learned that Thom and I had not been on the road on the California side of the Colorado River, so when we left the swap meet we went across the river at Parker Dam and drove down to Parker from there. We saw a sign into Black Meadows Landing, which brought up memories for Marv & Deb from the beginning of their marriage so we decided to take the 10 mile drive down into Black Meadows Landing. It’s a lovely place, lots of camp sites, some right on the waterfront, others above it, and still others along the little golf course.
This is a shot of their little marina.
While driving around the campground we saw oodles of piles of equine type manure. Rounding a corner, Deb looked on top of the hill and pointed out the reason for all those oodles of piles of manure. There are quite a few wild Burro in the Mohave & Sonoran desert.
A lot of the land on the California side of the Colorado River is BLM land with developed campgrounds. We saw a couple of places we’d be interested in hosting. One of the places is an information center (BLM)… Thom and Marv and Deb just happened to see a Bobcat walking close by the information center. I was in the bathroom AND I’d left my camera in the car. I did get a glimpse of the Bobcat from a distance, but had the wrong lens on the retrieved camera and wasn’t able to zoom in on the critter. Another place we might like to host is a BLM campground called Crossroads Campground… only 13 or 15 sites. Right on the river. Our interest in hosting would be for the summer.
We got back to Parker around 1:00 and decided to have lunch. I mentioned I’d like to check out, one day, the only Chinese Restaurant I’ve seen in Parker, and Marv made the decision to go there for lunch. What a great decision! Lunch was wonderful, between $5 & $7 for each of us, and Thom and I had enuff to take home for dinner too.
To end a near perfect day we had a little rain which brought this lovely rainbow. If you look real close, you can see the double above the brighter arch.
A blog or 2 ago I mentioned a plant we ran into on one of our exploring side trips. It had yellow berries. I found the bush online and it’s called the Crucifixion Thorn Bush. Here’s a couple of shots, first of the berries, then the thorns.
It’s been a pretty uncomfortable week for me, but it appears I’m on the mend.Last Thursday I started with tummy cramps and all those fun things that go with them.Thursday evening my fever started, got up to 101 and stayed there until yesterday morning when it dropped to just below 100 and today is down to normal.My energy level is getting back up there, but I’m sure will take time.I don’t have much planned for today other than making a banana cream pie, and tomorrow and Friday we work, so that means a lot of sitting around and mending.
I think I mentioned earlier we had a 70% chance of rain on last Monday and Monday night.We had one helluva storm!It started a misty rain Monday morning, got the ground wet and able to soak up the rain rather than let it run off, then thru the day it started raining a bit harder and semi steady, soaking in in most places… really good for the desert.It started to get quite windy in the afternoon.I was still sick.I’d gone back to bed and was awakened by the awning making a bunch of noise.I lay there shivering with fever, thinking “I should go put the awning up”“it’s takes climbing on the ladder to put it up” “it’s raining and only 40-some degrees out there” “I’ll fall off the ladder”.So I lay there shivering and listening for the RIP sound.By the time Thom got home from wherever he was the wind had died down a bit… but… later it started really ripping and pouring rain.It came on fast and the last I’d read on the weather report was gusts to 30, so we didn’t prepare for the wind.Thom and I were outside in the cold wind and rain getting the awning put up.I held the awning down, keeping it from ripping off the trailer, while Thom released all the tie downs we’d put on it.Finally we got it all ready to roll up & the wind was keeping it from rolling up.The wind would break, it’d roll a bit, then be held where it was, then the wind would break again, and it’d roll up a bit more.We finally got it up and stowed.After we got back in the house from all the stowing, I sat in front of the little propane heater shivering, trying to recover.Our internet satellite dish was still up and I was in a dilemma as to what to do.In it’s current position it was angled into the wind, so the wind was skimming over it’s surface rather than hitting it full in the face/or back.Do I leave it and hope for the best, or stow it, where at some point it’s position will be such that the winds hit it full force.Phyllis called at that time and told me they just got word that 70 mph winds were to the west of us and coming this way.That pretty much decided us.I waited for a break in the wind and started the stow.We were lucky and only had one gust while stowing and the dish wasn’t in the full face position at that point.We had done pretty much all we could do to get things stowed and set so they wouldn’t blow away.The TV satellite (on a tripod) was blown hard enough the stakes came out of the ground, so Thom laid it on the ground.I’m thinking we had steady winds of at least 40 mph with gusts to 50 (Thom may argue that they were higher)… until around 10:00.Those 70 mph winds hit.I don’t think they were actually 70 mph, maybe 50 with gusts to 60 or more.My stupid weather station only registered a high of 46.3 mph, but it’s protected by Marv ‘n Deb’s trailer at the southeast and our trailer at the west and the shed at the northwest.We gotta move it.
Marv ‘n Deb did just fine.They took the sides on their cabana down (in the wind and rain), and the next day Marv recovered Deb’s hanging bird bath from a tree a couple hundred feet away.A few things were blown around, but no damage.
Several people faired a lot worse than we did.Our neighbors to the northwest had set up a motorhome, a gazillion tents (maybe 5) and a garage like ours.All the tents blew down and the poles didn’t just bend, they broke.I’m assuming the garage poles broke too because they haven’t gotten it back up yet.The man of the family is a Minister and they do services at the Pavilion every Sunday.They have 4 of their 10 children with them.I’m thinking some of the children were sleeping in the tents.Several folks lost their awnings.
All in all, we were quite lucky.Thom has the garage tied down with turnbuckles and on the west side every turnbuckle had been twisted by the action of the wind on rope and twisted completely apart.
Yesterday and today are sunny and cold and there is a 20% chance of rain tomorrow and Friday, but no winds to speak of.
Marv ‘n Deb leave next Tuesday to go back to Utah for Christmas.They’re leaving their trailer here, of course.We will be having a “Christmas Dinner” with them before they go.Probably steak for all but Thom, and he’ll have chicken breast.
My pie crust has thawed, so I better get busy on that banana cream pie.
we’ve gone for a long time without being sick, so I guess we’re due. I’ve had a tummy bug the last 3 days. Yesterday and today I’ve been running a fever of 101. Today was the Parade of Lights in Quartzsite and we were supposed to go to a friends place afterwards for hot apple cider, snacks, etc. Needless to say, we aren’t going.
Our weather has turned cold the last few days… highs of low to mid 60’s and lows in the low 30’s. Tomorrow will be another day of cool and breezy… not comfortable to sit outside. Monday the NOAA site says we have a 70% chance of showers for the day and 60% during the night. Hope we get some.
I’m feeling really poopy, so I’m going to sign off and hope to write better next time.
all the things I’ve thought I want to share only fit in a “This ‘n That” category.
#1) OMG! It’s December already!
#2) Sunday: Picture this… Thom and I, both oversized (not tall), on the floor in and at the bathroom working on the toilet (when I told Mike he thought it was an hilarious picture)… Thom on the floor, upper body in the bathroom, legs sticking out the door (bathroom is about 3′ x 4′), me outside the door squatting with my hands under his arm holding pieces in place while he tightens bands, etc. The bowl wouldn’t hold water and it leaked at the floor. We managed to get the leak at the floor fixed, but the bowl still won’t hold water. Yesterday (Monday) we ordered a new gasket for the toilet. Hopefully that will fix the problem.
#3) Yesterday we drove to Parker to pick up a special order at Safeway. Everytime we drive to Parker, we pass road on Hwy 95 that goes West. A little bit along the dirt road is a water tank and it’s a well maintained dirt road. On our way Home from Parker yesterday we decided to explore. A sign at the turn-off says it’s the Copperstone Project, Bonanza Mine Corp. On the road back there is the Water Tank (pics later) which leaves a large puddle of water, which the house finch flock too. When we drove by it yesterday, there were oodles ‘n bunches of birds, but I couldn’t tell what they were. There was also an area where there was a bush/tree that looked more like a type of cactus with bright yellow berries (again pics later). I told Thom I wanted to go back today with my camera. By the way, we went all the way back to the mining operation. There was an open gate, but a sign that said authorized personnel only. We respected that and didn’t go in to try to get more info. We did go back today and I did get pics of that bush/tree/cacti with yellow berries, but you’ll have to wait for the pics. I didn’t get pics of the mining operation. I really need to get pics because I can’t explain it. It looks like desert plateaus/mesa, huge, high, go forever, but it’s man-made.
#4) When we got home yesterday from our trip to Parker and side trip to Copperstone Project we noticed some chairs had been blown over and several things totally out of place. It appears we had a rogue wind go thru our site and whirlwind half our things in the shed around and left the other half totally untouched. At least the shed was left standing.
#5) While we were in Safeway in Parker we noticed they had Turkey on sale for 39 cents/lb if you spent $25. We managed the $25 no problem so picked up a 12.3 lb turkey for Christmas. Thank heavens for the freezer. I also bought a spiral sliced ham for $1.20/lb. I’ve been so hungry for ham and ham sandwiches.
It’s been in the 70’s for highs and 40’s for lows here in QZ. To be honest, we wouldn’t mind a heater in the morning, but manage to stay comfortable with sweats and sweatshirts in the morning until the sun thru the windows warm things up. I think it’s interesting that we are now comfortable in shirtsleeves at 63 and above in the trailer. I keep wondering how we’re going to do next summer if we end up on the Oregon Coast. Could be wearing long sleeves and pants in 75 degree weather.
I’ve shared the things I wanted to share (or at least those I remember) and I’ve rambled quite a bit, so I think this counts as one of my normal blogs and I can say…..
