Have a great Memorial weekend.

It has been a month since I last posted but what can I say, I have been busy.

I did my usual 10 days gate guarding for Rancheros Visitadores. It was my 19^th year of doing this although I actually started 21 years ago. I missed two years because of trips out of the country.

This year went by fast for some reason. My usual 2 cohorts, Jim and Harry might have had something to do with that. We do make a good team.

While at the gate we had one afternoon of rain. About ¾ of an inch it looked like. That caused a few problems with both the road condition and moving cattle in from a nearby ranch. Eventually it was decided to unload the cattle into a corral by the gate as the truck couldn’t get to the corrals in the back country. Later the cattle were turned out into the pasture over night so they could graze. The next morning they were rounded up and driven into the back country.

 

Double deck and double trailer.

After our job was done on Friday, Jim and I drove to the Santa Maria Elks Club RV Park where we were later joined by 3 other camping friends and our spouses for 5 days of relaxation, wine tasting and good food.

We ate at the Elks Club Friday night BBQ where you select and cook your own steak which was very good. On Tuesday we went wine tasting at Rancho Sisquoc followed by a picnic lunch on their patio. Tuesday night we ate at the Far Western Tavern in Orcutt. A very new and modern version of the old steak house in Guadalupe. It was all very good.

Last Thursday I delivered the RV to a repair shop in Ventura to get the slides adjusted prior to our upcoming trip in June. I hope they don’t take too long to get this done as I have a few other repairs to do before we head North.

On Monday neighbor Paul and I cut down the very large twisted juniper tree between our driveways. The juniper did block some of the view of our RV from the street but the roots are under Paul’s new paver driveway and we didn’t want them displacing any pavers.

After cutting it down with a chain saw and electric pole saw we ran all the small branches through the chipper which resulted in 5 large garbage cans of mulch. I will use this on garden pathways to help keep the weeds down. The remaining wood I stacked in the back yard to use as camping firewood.

I have spent way too much time on the computer working out trip routes and plans with friends and also with son Tim who will be here with grandson Matthew and granddaughter Ivy the end of July. I think I have a handle on all of that for now.

Very windy days.

Fresh eggs.

Son Craig takes care of a friends chickens when the friend is away from his house. We reap the benefit of that by having a nice supply of organic eggs. By the color I imagine the chickens are of all colors. The size of the eggs vary also so some must be smaller than the others. It makes no difference as they all taste good. Did I say free!

Not much of interest going on here. What we need most is rain but I guess that is done for this year. Bummer!

We have been working in the yard as usual. Always weeds to pull. I did put the cover on the gazebo on our back patio. I hope it lasts for one more summer.

I am working through my list of to-do items for the RV in preparation for the 10 days I am at Ranchero Visitadores starting a week from tomorrow. I have my menus planned, my food list made, and equipment list updated.

I have checked all the wheel bearings and added some new grease to all 4 wheels. The batteries have been checked and are good to go. I flushed the water heater and replaced the sacrificial anode. The water tank is full and I have started to put a few items in the RV as I come across them. Most things will need to wait until next week to load. I fill the RV and the truck to the max.

We have had wind for days now. Today was really bad. It really is drying out the hills fast. They had been so nice and green. It’s back to the golden hills of California I am afraid.

The time sure goes fast.

After we got home, it was time to tackle the weeds in the garden, again. Rain while we were gone meant more weeds. I did a quick mow job in the garden and Craig mowed the lawn. The next morning I found the lawn mower sitting by the shed with the starter cord hanging out all the way. Oh-oh. I tried taking it apart but had little luck with that. Craig looked at it and said it was worn out. I went off to do something else and a few minutes later I heard the mower start. He had just wrapped the cord around the starter pulley and gave it a tug. It started and that’s the way we have been using it.

I really don’t want to buy a new mower as this one has a Honda engine on it and Craig got it for free. It was sitting on the curb with a free sign on it. He tinkered with it and got it running and we have used it for several years.

I actually am looking at a battery powered mower from Amazon. It comes with 2 lithium batteries and has 2 mower blades. I actually saw one advertised on TV today. I hate small gas engine power equipment. I have always said that my goal in life was to get rid of all my gas powered equipment. This may be the time to start. To that end, I did my lawn edging with an old fashioned hand powered edger this week. More work but less hassle and no sprinkler heads sheared off.

We did not do all work and no play this week as we visited friends who are embarking on a new adventure. Well, new to them anyway. They bought a motor home and will give work camping a try this summer. We wish them good luck!

I found myself glued to my computer chair this week. I have so much family history to enter in my Family Tree Maker software that it will take me years to complete it. So, I started with Clyda’s family. Mainly because of the data I had from her sister’s passing and it seemed like a good place to start while everything was fresh in my mind.

I have all the pertinent data entered but there is much data still to check and all of the family stories to be added. I am sending off what I have to Clyda’s cousin to do some of the checking as much of the data came from him originally a few years ago.

Also, I have been corresponding by email with a friend on local history of the area in Wisconsin where I grew up. He has access to all the old newspapers from that area from which to draw on for stories and to check facts. I am using a local history book created for the Centennial years of 1874-1974 for that area. My parents had gotten a copy for me and it has been an invaluable source of local history. The one flaw in the history is that it may not have had all the facts thoroughly checked.

I made the comment that I wish my father was alive as he could have answered many of my questions as he had lived in that era. It has been fun to add the few facts that I remember from my father and from my days living there as a kid. The problem we are having is identifying places mentioned in the Centennial book as no one is still alive who can verify the data. To that end I have been looking at old plat maps which tell me who lived on what piece of land in the time period we are working on. A puzzle for sure but rewarding never the less.

Sorry no photos, as I need to move some from my phone that I took on the way home from Washington before I can put them in the blog. I forget to do that when I have time and only think of it when I do the blog.

Home.

We are home, having arrived at 4 PM yesterday after spending 2 days in Oregon with Navy buddy Gary and his wife Judy who was Clyda's best friend from early school days. While there, Gary and I tried our darnedest to best the ladies in multiple games of Sequence and Five Crowns, all to no avail. We will get them next time for sure.

Our next stop was in Walnut Creek to visit Gary and Cindy. Always a nice stop. We even managed to take in a movie called Eye in the Sky. It is about the new drone technology used to track and eliminate terrorists. Quite a tense story while the political vs Military aspects were debated under real life conditions.

One memory from the trip is how green everything was all the way from home, up to Lynden, and back. All the fruit trees were in bloom which made it very colorful.

Trees in bloom at a rest stop in northern, CA.

We had our taxes done today. Still waiting for one piece of paper however.

Final thoughts.

The service for Candi was held on Sunday afternoon in the Rotary building in Lynden. This building was used as it was thought that more people would attend than the regular church Mark and Candi attended would hold. In fact somewhere between 250 and 300 hundred did attend. It was a beautiful service with Mark, daughter Dawn, and daughter-in-law Lizzie speaking. All had eloquent words to say. This was followed by a slide show set to music put together by Mark from all the thousands of photos the family has. It was a very nice synopses in photos of Candi's life.

On Monday family members started leaving for home. We took Mark out to dinner Monday night. Clyda and I waited until Tuesday to leave so we could do last minute things, like laundry for all the beds, towels, etc. We drove to Portland to spend a few days with our friends Thomas and Debbie. They had driven to Lynden for the service on Sunday.

To all those who sent cards, flowers, and thoughts, we would like to thank you for thinking of us in this very difficult time.

Candi was 55 years old and in the prime of her life. She had two new grand children under the age of 6 months. A lot to look forward too but the good Lord had other plans.

A beautiful bouquet of white lillies. Candi's favorite flowers.

In memorium.

Much has happened this past week.

First, Clyda's sister Candi passed on Thursday morning. It was not unexpected but it happened very fast. She had been on Hospice care at home but had been moved to a Hospice house on Tuesday. 

 

I had decided to drive to Lynden on Wednesday afternoon. I drove because Clyda suggested that we rent a car and drive home so I thought I might as well drive up also. Airfares were quite high as they would be last minute. I reserved a rental car and a motel and left home at 5:30 AM Thursday. It was a fairly easy drive to Weed, CA where I arrived about 4 PM having driven 600 miles. All the hills were nice and green and all the fruit trees were in bloom. A very nice drive.

I started again at 5:30 AM on Friday in the dark and driving rain. Within a few miles I drove out of the rain but did need to use the wipers intermittently all the way to Lynden. The trip through Portland was fine, however as I approached Seattle it all went to heck. With construction on I-5, multiple interchange construction, and heavy Friday traffic my progress was slowed considerably. There is no easy way around Seattle. I finally arrived in Lynden about 7 PM after driving another 650 miles.

My days have been spent on the computer, scanning photos, etc for a slide show at the memorial service this coming Sunday. Candi had so many photos, both hard copies and digital. She had over 29,00 digital photos alone.

We have so enjoyed the 2 new grand babies. Both Michael and Lizzie's Mathias, born in January and Mat and Dawn's Samantha, born in October.

Clyda and I will probably leave for home next Monday or Tuesday depending on what needs to be done here.

Catching up on the to-do list.

Clyda went back up to Lynden, WA 2 days after we came home from our winter trip. Her sister is not doing well and Clyda wanted to be there for her.

I in the mean time have a long list of to-do items. The most pressing was to get control of the weeds in the garden area and the flower beds. The rains that we did have while we were gone greened up the local hills but also made the weeds grow. The garden area was tackled with the lawn mower which made short work of them. The tree areas and the flower beds took much longer. Basically I did it on my knees using my gloved hands to do the pulling. This works fine except we have lots of cactus which require fineness and the use of forceps to get around the sharp thorns. Over the last week I have filled 3 of the large green waste barrels. They were emptied yesterday so that was good.

We are expecting rain over the next few days and hopefully it will amount to something. The hills are still nice and green and rain would help keep them that way. Anticipating rain, I bought a 6 foot length of tubing to direct rain water from a shed roof into garbage cans to be used to water plants later. We are still under a severe drought restriction by the water district so every gallon counts. I also direct our wash machine water into 2 plastic barrels and from there it flows through a hose onto the side yard. It isn't much, but it does keep the grass green.

The other things on my list involve the RV. I have several major things that need doing none of which would prevent me from using it if I needed to but they do need to be done. I need to replace the kitchen faucet and I need to work on the pump switch.

I did get the rig vacuumed today and the floor scrubbed so that is done. I need to run the two Honda generators as it has been more than a month since I last used them. They need to be run periodically so they will start when needed. When I don't plan to use them for some time I drain the gas from the carburetors. This is recommended by the local Honda dealer.

I had a long list of people to call after I got home. Some of that is done with more to call next week.

While we were in Willcox I took a photo of an old building on a back road. It just caught my eye.