Sunday, January 31, 2016

Spectacular Sunday

We made it on time! Early even two weeks in a row! We are learning how to time showers at the shower house.  ::snort:: Stacia cracked me up by telling me it was time to "Rock the Flock," when she heard the worship team practicing as we walked in. She also informed me she wanted to sit in "our row." I told her we've not attended this church long enough to have a set row....but I guess we have. It was another great day of worship and teaching at The Rivers.

Nolan had suggested we drive out to Grass Valley today. The thought was to get out of Beale....and it was fun. We had lunch at Big A's Drive In - his choice. Cynthia and I tried this together on our first retreat scouting trip.  I enjoyed the memories as we ate.

The kids love the hamburgers - I LOVED the Asian Salad - coconut, peanuts....good stuff. 

We shared an order of Pesto garlic fries
They taste way better than they look 
Made in house rootbeer....

We couldn't resist the lure of DeMartini's RV sales. They are always honest with us. We asked about a new model we've been checking out. They said they are spotty and that a big holding company has bought several of the big name RV's lately - REV.  Seems the workmanship has been spotty the last year....so.....we aren't ready to buy anyway. We took another look at the Palazzo they have that could work....but would have less storage space than we have now......while I know it's ALWAYS possible to downsize.....I'm not sure I'm ready to go much smaller than our 268.5 square feet.  We'd lose the bunkroom for a bunk closet for the boys and a pull down over the driver's for Stacia.....just looking! That's all!

Next on our agenda was finding a couple of geocaches in Grass Valley. The first one was an easy find......It was a small cache - a film canister.
Find 104
 Just as we began looking for our second one it got blustery and began to rain and hail! We kept driving and eventually ended up at the right spot.....it was still cold and wet but we got out and explored.

There's a lot of history here. We'd love to come back and explore on a warm day. 




We finally all gave up and retreated to the warm van - EXCEPT MICHAEL. He found it! A micro-cache....see the small tube he's holding?  We don't feel very bad about counting it as a family find when he was the only one who persevered. ::snort::
Find 105
Cold and wet - but HAPPY to have been in some weather - we headed home and watched a few movies. Everyone settled in to read and I took advantage to send out a couple of messages - excited to see a new ministry venture taking shape -  and get a jump start on next week.

Oh- and Michael got to talk to The Donald.  The one we met in Bible college - not the other one. 

Saturday, January 30, 2016

Planes

There was just enough time after returning from our bike ride to dig Nolan's Radio Controlled plane from the hatch and go over to the Beale Blackbird RC club's airstrip. 
Nolan, Michael, Alex



We grilled burgers for dinner. Alex had requested this over a week ago and I had been waiting for a good night to grill to avoid frying in the Caboose.  We ate out and enjoyed a fire in the patio pit - no s'mores just the fire.  It was perfect.
All in all it was  a great day. Everyone turned in early - prepping for our early Sunday morning shuffle at the shower house. ::snort::

Epic Bike Ride

Today was supposed to be rainy....but it was beautiful. We finished school, Nolan finished Japanese, Nolan and I made a commissary run (he likes to drive me places) and we had an afternoon stretching before us. 

Michael proposed a bike ride. I headed off on a back road...there may have been some comment about seeing if the men's wimpy tires could handle this road.....maybe.....We road up a gravel road - and up and up....and then soared down a dirt/gravel road.....All tires did just fine. 

Photo session at the Upper Blackwelder Lake....next, we checked out some EOD disposal sites. Michael kept riding past the lake - the idea was to eventually meet up with the main road - until  we saw a promising side road and the plan changed.  I talked Stacia into stopping so I could get a photo of her with the cow. We thought it a bit odd there were cows here....but o.k.  I yelled, "Hey, Cow!" in true Gherkin fashion....and was surprised when I looked over my shoulder and saw 6 -8 cows running towards us. I told her to get on her bike and ride......


Ah - it appears as we circled around on back roads we ended up in the cow's pasture. 

We seem to run into barbed wire wherever we go out here. 

It was my turn to "hop over" after watching everyone else.  Michael said to put one leg on one rung and swing my leg over....didn't work quite that way.....proving once again I have the shortest legs in the family these days....but I got over...I was VERY happy the gate wasn't barbed wire.

It was an epic bike ride. We'll be doing more if the weather holds out. Some of us are paying a price for the fun - but it was worth it.

Wednesday, January 27, 2016

Sunny Day Projects

We have  been enjoying the sun! Stacia likes history much better in the sun. 

Michael took advantage of the sun to replace the heating element in our hot water heater! 
It was time.


See the legs sticking out of  the rear hatch? Tom and Sandy have been great neighbors while we've been stationary at Beale. Tom came over to help Michael.   

Everything is always cheerier with a touch of sun! 

Catching Up

I'm realizing anew the unique opportunity Michael and I had to serve a young congregation while he was in the Air Force chaplaincy..... somewhere along the line I made lots of "young" friends. I didn't realize how odd this was until the last few years when I realized most my friends were my daughter's ages. ::snort::  Funny how that works - we were all the same age at our first assignment. ::snort::

One such friend is Rachel and her husband Matt and children. It was a delight to be able to eat together tonight and connect in person.  These kids are my "first set of grand kids."  I was a bit worried Elli has entered the "stranger danger" phase since we last saw them.

WHO IS THAT MAN AND WOMAN?????
 I had no such concerns with Joy. She ran out to the driveway, "Grandma De'Etta and Stacia are here!" I'm sure she's thrilled to see the boys and Michael as well.
Joy & Stacia
Star Wars Risk...Nate, Zac and Seth prefer the boys company to mine. ::snort:: 

Melts my heart - Nate is a great big brother!
 Spending time with this family is a soothing balm to our hearts! We are blessed our stagnation has resulted in a few more visits. We are excited to see God confirming His call and plan in their lives.

And Elli? Yes, she warmed up to us. How do I know? Well - would one share her most impressive tricks with just ANYONE?????
I tried - I can't do this. 
 Seriously, she let me hold her, smiled for me, cooed...and this is all good because we're having a pizza game night with the kids next Friday so Rachel and Matt can go to a big shindig to honor Matt and the others receiving quarterly awards....it's a good thing she warmed back up to us.
I think she'll be an orator - look at those expressive eyes and gestures
Thanks, Matt and Rachel. We had a great evening!

Tuesday, January 26, 2016

"Sun" Day

My weather ap, installed for warnings while we travel, said Beale was supposed to get snow today! I uninstalled it.

There has been much rain in recent weeks. Today was sunny.  Michael and I chatted and decided we'd set aside plans for the day (school) and as soon we could we'd head out to explore the local area via geocaching.  He looked up coordinates for us to find and I finished baking bread. 


As soon as the bread came out of the oven, we left it cooling on the rack and headed out. 

Our first find was a "micro cache." I was a bit surprised when it took us right through a cattle corral.....it was titled. O.K. We figured we were in the right general area.

We climbed over the barbed wire and explored fence posts, river banks, around trees, up in trees......

Yuuki loves these days
 The clue was "hangar" - Michael checks out a hangar shaped wire hanging from the tree

We gave up. We climbed back over the barbed wire.  As we left, I spotted it. Can you? We wonder if someone moved it as it is NOT where the coordinates lead you and is out in the open. 
A little canister, covered in camo tape, attached by a clothes pin to the right corner of the fence thing

We kept reaching spots where the gps would say the cache was .28 miles directly right - across fields full of cows. Michael wondered if it was public land, but being respectful geocachers we skipped them. We finally ended up HERE - a familiar spot to us as we've cahced with the D family and tree cached here before.  We immediately knew were were looking for a micro cache - probably magnetic. It was fun to hug the rail when a car went by.


  Found! Unfortunately, we didn't realize the coordinates inside were part of a multi-cache. This means we need to go back and get those coordinates and go find the next one before we can count it as a find! But we did find it. LOL

The more we thought about it, the more we decided  the caches were planted inside the fields because we are allowed to be in there, it must be state land. This whole area seems to be part of the Spenceville Wildlife area.  We especially noted we are in the last few days of hunting season.

I so appreciated driving until we found a GATE this time. Barbed wire fences are not friends of those with short legs....which in our current family situation would mean me. LOL 

What fun! Miles of rolling pasture land...


Michael and I surmised the cache would be at this tree...it was the only thing for a long ways. 

Yep - pretty easy for four of us to spot it....Do you? 

Stacia was searching far and wide - we all finally congregated on the branches and she eventually came to explore....



Armed with the GPS, Stacia took the lead to find our next one....



  I thought it might be hidden at the bottom of this muck - it may be - we never found it



JUST like riding a horse - she tells me again she WILL have a horse when she grows up
on the farm, with the RV pad for Mom and Dad


This was also a multi cache. The first part over by the valve/pipe thing was a bust. When we got home and read the comments of others online, we see some say the coordinates are missing....but from the clue we headed to the burned out stump hoping to find something. We didn't.

We did, however, have a great day out roaming the hills and fields on Northern CA. Rain is predicted for Saturday - we'll catch up on school then.

Not one snowflake was seen.