Friday, March 28, 2008

Camping at Lake Cachuma

Location, Lake Cachuma

We are camping at Lake Cachuma for a week with friends. This is sort of an annual trip to celebrate March birthdays for Budd and Bev. There are four couples here who at one time all lived in the same neighborhood and in fact two of us still live next door to each other.


A Western Redbud

We checked into the campground around 11 AM yesterday and immediately Clyda and I had to return to Santa Barbara to complete some escrow papers. We got writers cramps from signing all the documents, in triplicate no less. Real estate transactions in California are ridiculous in the amount of paper work required.

After returning to the campground we sat outside for a while but the wind had come up so we retired inside for “Happy Hour” at Budd and Brenda’s RV. I grilled brats for dinner while Kathy supplied sauerkraut and green beans. We talked until 9 Pm when everyone left for their own RV. Clyda and I read until 10 PM and then went to bed. I don’t think I moved all night.

Friday, March 21, 2008

Visiting Friends

Location, Home

Wow, a whole week since I last posted! We received our taxes back from the preparer and actually are getting double the amount back over what was projected. Very nice!

We had friends from Oregon to dinner on Tuesday evening. Dick and Sandy are doing their annual swing through the desert southwest and spent two days in our area. We dropped by their rig which was parked at the local Elks club on Wednesday where I tried to help repair the electrical cable between the RV and tow car. The cable was so stiff that it would pull out of the socket, drag on the ground, and wear through the wires. We replaced a connector on one end and added about 3 feet of cable so there was no strain on the connectors while driving. However, we could not get power to the left turn light nor to the tail lights. We checked every fuse in the rig which are located in three different places but could not find the problem. They took the RV to a repair shop on Wednesday and four hours and $400 later they were good to go. There were multiple problems with the RV and the tow car which had to be fixed.

I got back to my roots today as in digging more roots. I have about 10 more feet of flower bed to do and it is all solid roots. Really slow going. It should keep me out of trouble for a few more days anyway.

Saturday, March 15, 2008

Taxes done!!

Location, Home

This will be a short post to bring everyone up to date. On Thursday we had our taxes prepared. I was actually expecting that we would need to pay this year but in fact we will receive a small refund. Yippee!!

I am still digging roots in the planter bed and as of Friday when I quit I had the longest section done. So far I have filled 3 garbage cans with roots. The section that remains may be the worst to dig because of a guava tree in the neighbor’s yard. Those roots come through the planter bed and into my lawn.

Here is a photo of the completed bed with all the nice loose dirt piled up.


Today I worked on other projects around the yard, mostly cleaning up. I did manage to setup my cutoff saw and cut all the limbs I had accumulated into fire wood lengths. These will need to dry for some time before they can be used. I will probably burn them for campfires when we go camping.

Of course this is “March Madness” time so I catch a basketball game now and than on TV. Our local college women’s team won the conference championship today so they will play in the NCAA tournament. The men’s team lost yesterday so they are out until next year. There have been some really good games.

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Working like a slave!

Location, Home

Has it really been almost a week since I last posted? Hard to believe! I have been working like a slave on the planting beds along the rear fence. I am digging down about a foot and sifting all the soil to get all the roots out. It is a back breaking job especially for me as I have been somewhat of a couch potato. I do walk every morning for an hour but that requires few muscles and none in the digging, bending, lifting area of my body.

I work for a while then rest for a while. Sometimes my rest breaks are longer than my work periods but that’s what being retired can do for you. During my rest breaks I sometimes work on other small projects.

When I arrived in Quartzsite in January, my refrigerator would not run on propane. The first thing I checked was the burner to see if any rust had fallen down from the vent tube. When this happens, the igniter can’t light the propane as it gets shorted out by the rust. This happened to be thee case so removing the rust allowed the burner to light. However, some rust particles did manage to fall into the burner openings so I made a mental note to remove and clean the burner after I got home. I did this during one of my breaks the other day.

I carry a small barrel stove on our winter camping trips to ward off the cold on those nights we want to sit outside. Believe me, we do sit outside when we winter camp except on those nights when the wind blows. I have been using the same stove for many years and because of the hot fires we have in it, the bottom was rusting through in places. My friend Jack had a new barrel this year and gave it to me as a replacement for mine. He had found a larger barrel to use for his stove. During some of my working breaks I have been getting the old hardware transferred to the new barrel. Here are a few pictures of the completed stove.



The door has a damper which can be adjusted to regulate the amount of air for the fire and there is even a plate atop the stove for heating water, etc. There is also a spark arrester on top of the chimney. When fully fired up, the stove glows cherry red and flames come out the chimney. You can site all around the stove and everyone can be warm.

To keep the bottom from burning out I have added a metal pan to keep the fire off the floor of the barrel. Thanks for the barrel Jack.

Thursday, March 6, 2008

Yard Work

Location, Home

For the past 3 days I have been cutting the Heavenly Bamboo and digging around each plant along the rear fence in preparation for removing them. I ran all of the cuttings through the shredder and will put them (2 garbage cans full) out for the green recycling program. I don’t want to spread them in my garden as mulch with the chance they will reseed as they can propagate from cuttings and seeds.

Today my neighbor Paul came over with his tractor and we pulled the stumps out along with a few other plants that need removing. It made a really tough job soooo much easier.





I spent the afternoon knocking as much dirt off the stumps as I could. I think I will need to haul all those stumps to the dump

All of this exercise, which I definitely am not used to requires lots of rest breaks. Still, I am surprised at how much I have gotten done in a few days.

Sunday, March 2, 2008

Spring blossoms

Location, Home

The fruit trees have started to blossom so maybe spring is around the corner. Although I think it may have more to do with the mild temperatures than any thing else. We have had some very nice day time temperatures this past week.

Here is a picture of a plum tree in blossom.

This is a Ceanothus or sometimes called California Lilac which its small blooms resemble. It is used for plantings along a wall and also grows wild on the hills nearby.

A cymbidium in our back yard. We once had lots of these in different colors but time has reduced the number of plants we now have.


I purchased the cedar boards for the side fence this week and have them stacked on our back patio to dry. I will need to rotate them periodically so all boards dry the same without warping.