Tuesday, June 14, 2016

Town and Country Adventures

These Gherkins rock. They school in the a.m., help out at Mom G's in the afternoon, and always have the energy to clean up the dinner dishes and build a fire back at the Caboose.  Michael and I feel our age. Seriously, even my elbow aches and I can't lift my Bible. Seems I have more to learn about how to properly swing an axe.

We knew it was coming after the pace of last week. Monday was a hard day for Michael, as was this morning. We simply need to take things at a pace we can handle...slow and steady.

Monday afternoon we took Mom G to the doctor (a beautiful 13 mile drive through the Redwoods), unfortunately severe motion sickness dampens my enthusiasm  a tad bit. ::wink::  Michael and Mom G visited and I ran in with her shopping list. I had talked with the park management earlier in the day and they agreed to let us use the lounge/kitchen past the normal hour so we could have dinner in the lounge. Mom can't climb into the Caboose and it was too cool to eat outside for her.  The lounge has a big pool table and we enjoyed visiting while the boys sharpened their skills. I considered it a personal success when we tempted her at dinner with salmon, salad, asparagus, french bread and quinoa.

A highlight of the trips to town is CELL SERVICE - and a chance to receive and respond to text messages....I continue to search for spots up here in the woods where our mifi may work.  I'm wondering if a cell extender may help - or may not if there is no signal to extend. As for my phone - it continues to say I'm roaming - though Straight Talk says on their website they have no roaming - what is going on? I need to find time to call them.

Today, we visited with a park neighbor, Jim. He's amazing. He's older than Mom G - he didn't tell us how old he is, but at least 88....travels around in a trailer....teaches...he's a retired pastor. We enjoyed a touch of  church at the picnic table. I also made a few calls for a wedding location. Arielle and Cory have set their date at 17 December 2016.

We headed over to Mom G's to continue our project of reclaiming the yard from the evil Cork Elm trees/roots/sprouts, blackberry vines etc ... The boys continued working on the dead apple tree, Stacia moved a woodpile from the back porch to the upper garage, I spruced up inside and did some laundry,  Stacia and I continued cleaning the back porch and she hauled brush to the brush pile, and together we cut a huge pile of  cork elm sprouts, trees and roots down to burning size. Alex and Nolan took turns feeding the fire....I impaled my bum on an apple branch - a fact the kids noted with great humor.

We worked in a visit with Mom G and it was time to head across the river to make dinner.  I didn't have the energy to walk down the bank to the river - but it's too pretty not to at least take a picture or two.


I nearly cried and cheered when the pastor of the church we visited Sunday called to talk to Michael. He asked why we were here and where we were living on Sunday.  It's always interesting to watch reactions when we say we live in a trailer in an RV Park. ::snort::  We'd simply told him we were here to help Mom G and we weren't sure how long we'd be here, but it would be months. He called to tell Michael if there is yard work to do, when we figure out what needs to be done, the church has a team of men that would like to help. WOW.....we may not take them up on it, as we aren't sure if we should go to Mom G's church or continue in town....and we don't want to be guilty of using a church....but just the offer meant so much today.

Michael tells me we are now 8 feet from reaching the fence.....