LOST 3.4 LBS AND MY WORKING RANCH HAND

This past Saturday, Jan. 24th, Loy and I went to our weekly Weight Watchers meeting. After one week I lost 3.4 pounds! Now I weigh 200.4 lbs. just 45 more to go!

After we got back we hopped in Hoppy's truck and Loy and I were off to Lowes to get lumber for their 10' x 12'  Tuff Shed she had delivered a week ago. It is actually going to be their grandchildren's play house when they come to visit.

We got 2x4's, paneling, floor covering and a ceiling light. Ralph is going to be the head carpenter and Hoppy will be the second banana.

While unloading the lumber, I caught this cute little calf getting a drink.

On Sunday Ralph headed to work. (OOOPS! I Have to put a quarter in the laundry jar) There are 2 words we are not allowed to say and they are WORK and SNOW! If we do, than a quarter goes in the laundry jar.

I went on to the ranch house to do a work out with Loy on the Wii. It is a pretty neat set up that Wii. You do get a decent work out and I am at the beginner setting.

I checked on Ralph before heading out on my bike. He seemed okay. I asked him if he remembered how to use a saw, carpenters pencil and a hammer.

I had a wonderful bike ride and did a leisurely 10 mile ride. As I rode, my iphone was playing good ole' traditional country music. I don't use headphones, just put it in my pocket and peddled. It is not loud enough that I can't hear the traffic.

As I finished my ride, I was turning into the ranch road and saw this inquisitive horse. I stopped to chat and she actually nickered at me. Hopefully she was saying "looking good, keep it up".

I had several fillet mignon steaks I wanted to use up because they have been in the freezer for a while. Ralph put them on the grill and we all looked on with anticipation and licking our chops including Missy the dog.

On Monday, Ralph and Hoppy finished up their remodeling job. I have yet to see the finished master piece, but will get a picture of it.

While the fella's were pounding nails, I went on a 13 mile ride with a convenience store stop. I relaxed with a cup of coffee at one of the picnic tables and took this time to make calls to friends. I can also feel the pounds melting away. This will be a good week at Weight Watchers.

Tuesday we took our dear friends Ruthie and Skip out to breakfast at IHOP. At first I was a little freaked out since I am on Weight Watchers. Well I have the "WW App" and it shows all the popular restaurants menus and gives the number of points each entree has. I was pleasantly surprised that IHOP has entrees for us Weight Watchers.

Skip and Ruthie have been "full timing" since 2004 and it is a decision that we all will be faced with when we get up in age and have health issues. They are trading in their rolling home for a stationary one. So Thursday they will leave Lake Medina RV Resort and head to Florida.

I saw pictures of their home online and it is an almost new, adorable home with a 2 car garage. Skip will enjoy fishing as they are only a few blocks from the Ocean. Ruthie is quite the quilter and will enjoy having a big sewing room.

Ralph and I winter at Lake Medina RV Resort for a month or so in the early part of winter. We always parked next to them and now it just won't be the same.

I am sorry I did not get a picture of us while at IHOP. It just totally slipped my mind. But now Ralph and I have a new place to visit!

Until next time..........Happy Trails to You..............

BIKE RIDING, ONE HORNY BULL AND DOCTOR VISIT!

The week of Jan. 19th  has been good. Ralph and I had a few days of bicycle riding. We are starting off slow. We did an 8 mile, 9 mile and a 10 mile ride. I have done a few mornings of exercising with Loy, the ranchers wife along with walks around the ranch. I am doing well on my first week with Weight Watchers and feeling good.

While out for a bike ride, on the very busy road of 2790 we saw these 2 horses tethered to the fence in order to graze. Land here in Texas is desert so folks have to feed hay. Along roads there is grassy areas and I guess folks take advantage of it. I see this fairly often around Texas. This road is busy and the speed on that road is 60 mph. Being a horse owner for over 40 plus years, I was just blown away seeing this. Personally I would never do this. It is just plain dangerous and horse and cattle thefts are very big here in Texas and across the country. Besides no matter how secure the rope is, it is not a guarantee that they can't break away. There is an old saying, "Don't tie a horse to anything that a tractor can pull it out".

One morning we were awaken to the sound of pathetic mooing. It was Hoppy's bull and he was in love. He was right outside our RV and looking over the fence line where he had spotted some good looking ladies from the next door neighbors ranch.

His constant mooing went on for about a half hour but it was not meant to be. The other rancher's bull was keeping a close eye on his "harem". He's all the way to the left of the cows and is all black with a white face and short horns.

Wednesday we headed to the nursing home to have a meeting with the staff on how Ralph's mom is doing. Gary, Ralph's brother also attends. These are health meetings and happen every 3 months. As usual mom is doing very well. She is in very good health, can walk, has no trouble doing stairs and jumping up into our pick up truck when we take her out. It is just the dementia that is taking her. 

Some days she will recognize us, other times it takes her a moment or two and sometimes we just don't know. Earlier this week I went into get her to go to lunch. Ralph was in the truck because there was no place to park due to some parking lot construction going on. I went up to her and said "Hi Mom, we are going to take you out to lunch, ready to go?" She looked at me with a little apprehension and looked over at the nurse's station. She then looked back at me and looked back at the nurse's station. 

I sat next to her and told her that her son Ralph was in the truck waiting and why he could not come in. I told her "Mom, it is me, Angela and we are going to take you out to lunch today and you will be safe with us and the nurses said you could go with us". She then seemed okay and we had a nice time.

On Thursday, Ralph had his eye check up. It has been one week since he had his laser surgery and Ralph does see improvement, however he needs additional laser surgery so in 2 weeks we will be back.

Until next time...........Happy Trails................

AHH! NOW I KNOW WHY I AM PLEASANTLY PLUMP!

We ate our way across Oregon.

While in Oregon, we rode our bicycles to the town of Bandon. It is a coastal town and we found a quaint little cafe called the Bandon Baking Co. to get coffee and of course a sweet goodie!  Now this is my kind of a balanced diet!

When people find out we are "full time" RV-er's, they asked a lot of questions. The most common questions are "What did you do with all your stuff"? or "How do you get your mail"? or "Don't you miss a home?" and "Are there any negative things about your lifestyle"?

With that last question, I could never think of anything negative. Well now that we are starting our 9th year, I have come up with only 2 negatives. The first negative is that you meet some wonderful folks in your travels whether  they are RV-er's or folks you meet around the towns you visit. There is a good chance that you probably will not see them again, but with emails, travel blogs and cell phones at least you can keep in touch. The second negative is you eat a lot.

When you are at an RV Resort, there are sometimes daily Happy Hours, weekly potlucks and evening campfire gatherings. It is a constant smorgasbord.

Ralph and I also enjoy the Food Network and we often make notes when the show rants and raves on restaurants, taverns and diners. I like to say that "We eat our way across the United States"!

Well here are just a few pictures of our food adventures.

We are at Greg's Grill in the Old Mill District in Bend, Oregon. We had drinks and o'derv's inside and had a wonderful dinner on their cozy outside patio right on the Deschutes River. I was in heaven with these monstrous loaded cheeseburgers.

And you know what? It was no problem, WE ATE THE WHOLE THING!

While on the coast of Oregon, we pulled into a small grocery store in Lincoln beach. There was a large gravel parking lot on the side of the grocery store and I went into the store to ask the manager for permission to stay for the night.

We had our mail sent General Delivery to the Lincoln Post Office and would be picking it up in the morning.

While there, Ralph noticed huge black berry bushes. He picked a few quarts and asked me if I could make a black berry pie. So at 7:00 p.m. I headed to the grocery store to get Pillsbury pie crust and of course vanilla ice cream. It came out of the oven at 9:30 p.m. and it had to cool for 4 hours.

So the next morning, this is what we had for breakfast while in bed. Oh so good! I went into the grocery store to thank the manager for letting us stay the night and gave him a piece of pie. He really appreciated that.

Next to the grocery store was a coffee house. I love coconut! I went in and got a tall Almond Joy Latte. Talk about a sugar rush!

We saw this cute sign in at a restaurant in Wickenburg, AZ. And yes, there is a skinny girl inside of me and over the years I did shut her up with cookies and also pie, cake, candy and ice cream!

This huge loaded cheeseburger was made at a saloon in Joseph. Oregon.  We enjoyed the saloons outdoor seating and we were surrounded by Wallowa Mountains. And yes, WE ATE THE WHOLE THING!

Our travels last year to the Pacific Northwest was absolutely DELICIOUS!

Until next time.......Happy Trails!

WEIGHT WATCHERS AND GETTING HEALTHY!

On Saturday, Jan. 17, 2015 Loy, the ranchers wife and I headed to Weight Watchers. I have been a life long Weight Watcher most of my adult life. What can I say? I love to eat and I love food! I have had very good success with WW and I know I will be successful this time.

Well this is the highest weight that I have ever gone to WW with. The scale said 203.8! I could not blame it on my sneakers because I weighed in my stocking feet!

Over the years I have tried doing the WW program on my own at home. I know the diet and what you have to do. However, I have found that when you go to the WW meetings and weigh in, you are holding yourself accountable. Yes, it does cost money to attend of course and this also keeps me "On Track" because I am paying money.

The last time I went to WW was in 2005 and I lost 30 lbs. I kept it off until 2009. It did not take long for me to pack it on because I got back into my old eating habits of constant eating and over eating.

Over the last 5 years I have tried several times to do WW on my own, but just couldn't do it. It was easy for me to say, "I'll start next week".

So I am putting myself out here. I figured if I write it on this blog, then it is sort of like a "written contract". I can't break it! My WW goal is 165 but my personal goal is 153 lbs. that I weighed in 2009.

So we are back on the bikes. Ralph and I have taken 2 nice bike rides so far. We are starting out with short rides. Our first day was an 8 mile ride and today was a 10 mile ride. We should be able to ride 3 to 4 times a week.

I also do a work out with Loy. She has a Wii and we do Yoga and the exercise games on it. It has been a lot of fun.

In just 3 days of exercise and eating right, I can honestly say that I am feeling better.






We do take breaks. Here is a nice convenience store in the town of Somerset. It is only about 4 miles from the ranch.

Roads around here are very bike friendly. There is very little traffic on these back country rural roads and although not seen in this picture, most roads have very wide shoulders.











Hoppy was doing some work around the ranch and stop by for a visit and a long neck.

His dog Tuffy is part Heeler. She will not ride in the Gator so she runs along side of it and follows Hoppy all over the ranch. She is fit and one big muscle. I nicknamed her Ankle Biter because she will nip at your ankles trying to "herd" you in the direction she wants you to go. These hard working breeds are found on many working ranches.

Happy Trails....................

DOCTOR'S, DENTIST'S AND DIET'S OH MY!

Only in Texas would you find an Ice Cream Truck with a set of Longhorns on it!

This past week was very busy. Every other day we were heading off the ranch to doctor appointments.

Monday was our dentist appointments. Where we "winter" at for part of the Texas winter is a wonderful resort called Lake Medina RV Resort. It is on the Liebolds-Grouthues Ranch. It is just about 50 miles from where we are at now.

The owners of the ranch/RV Resort are Greg and Gina Grothues. They are warm and wonderful folks and are like family to us. Gina is our dental hygienists and loves her work. She is also a horsewoman and we always enjoy chatting about horses while she is cleaning my teeth.

Ralph's 40 plus year old partial had to be sent out for a little repair, other than that our check-ups went great.

Another day this week we went to Parkhurst Eye Center.  Ralph had laser surgery that was performed by Dr. Parkhurst. It was to correct a problem from a cataract surgery in his left eye that had been done 3 years ago.

When they called him in, I thought I would relax and fix a cup of coffee from the offices nice Keurig Coffee Machine. With coffee in hand I found a nice over stuffed comfy chair, plopped myself down and barley drank 2 sips of coffee before Ralph came walking out. It kind of startled me and I said "What is wrong?" He said "I am done". I said "No way", but it was true, he was done. It was lickety split!

Our follow up appt. is next week where he will have another eye test to see if it cleared up the blurry vision. If not there are other steps they can do.

I now go to Ralph's General Practitioner for my yearly check ups. That way we can "kill two birds with one stone" so to speak and we can do our appointments at the same time. This particular appointment was just to meet the doctor even though I knew him through Ralph's check ups, get weighed (YIKES!) I did not know my sneakers weighed so much! Anyway he took my vitals, listened to my heart, lungs and we had a chit chat. All went well and in a few weeks Ralph and I go for our blood work.

In the mean time, I am enjoying having time to try things that I have never done until a few weeks ago. I am trying my hand at baking bread. So far I have made a Jalapeno Cheese loaf, hot dog rolls and buttermilk biscuits all with very good success. The hamburger rolls, not so much success. They deflated and they could have been used as a dangerous weapon, but I will try again!

My whole wheat dough had to rise twice, once in the bowl and again in the loaf pan.

After finishing its second rising, it is now ready for the oven. Oh my did it ever make the inside of our RV smell heavenly! There is nothing like the smell of bread baking.

 "VIOLA!" Warm fresh homemade whole wheat bread with real butter and apple maple jam. Oh My!

On every 2nd Tuesday of the month we play Bunco. There are 12 players and each month it is at one of the players homes. The "Host Player" does the dinner and after dinner we start playing the dice game Bunco.

It is a lot of fun, the camaraderie is great and the food is delicious! All these gals are wonderful cooks.

Here half way through the game, we are getting ready to take a break and have dessert along with more laughter and camaraderie.

Since we are staying put for the winter, this is really the only time I have, to try out my recipes that I have clipped over the years.

I have decided that this would be a perfect time for me to do a "Hostess Gift". So for each time we play Bunco, I will try a different loaf cake recipe in my mini loaf pans. I have 5 mini pans so I can bake one for the hostess, 3 for door prizes and the best part is I can keep one for Ralph and I to enjoy!



I found a Zucchini Pineapple bread recipe with walnuts and dates. Very moist and delicious! I had everyone draw toothpicks out of a bowl. If they got a colored toothpick they got a goodie. Each month I will do a different mini loaf recipe.

So what am I doing tomorrow? I am joining "Weight Watchers" again! As many of my friends know, I love to eat. It is my favorite pastime. I dream about food when I sleep and I day dream about food when I am awake. Cookbooks are my favorite reading material.

Over the last couple of years I have packed on the pounds. During my life I have joined Weight Watchers several times with great success. I keep it off and then I get back into my bad eating habits.

Our life style is constant eating. RV-er's at RV Parks are always getting together for Happy Hours and Potlucks. Then on top of that, add in the high caloric drinks I love so much. Out comes my Vitamix Blender and I fix my frozen pina coladas, frozen toasted almonds and Margarita's!

We watch the Food Network a lot and they are always featuring popular and unique restaurants across the country. We make note of them and stop by when we are passing through that area. You can say we are eating our way across the United States. Each region has specialties and we love them all.

Today Ralph pulled our bikes off the RV bike rack and started tuning them up. Here he is oiling the chains, airing up the tires and checking all the nuts and bolts.

Sunday we are hitting the road with exercise. We really enjoy bike riding. We only ride on wide shoulder roads with low traffic. There are great roads here in the area we are in. We also wear bike helmets, orange florescent vest and very bright front and rear lights that can be seen for a long distance even during the day. We often stop to take a break to get a cup of coffee at a convenience store and relax.

Ralph built this maintenance rack as he calls it a few years ago. It keeps the bike off the ground so he can turn the wheels, oil the chain and fix flats. It is high enough for him to be able to sit on a stool and be comfy.

Until next time............Happy Peddling!

A WONDERFUL LUNCH AND VISIT WITH NEIGHBORS!

SUNDAY, JAN. 11th-A few years ago, Ralph got into making leather items. He mostly does stuff for himself. Every so often he makes something for friends. Although he is not a professional and is still learning, he has done some beautiful things.

Hoppy's neighbor Richard and his wife Debbie have the ranch next door and together with Hoppy they have a partnership with the longhorns.

Richard is retired from the phone company.  While with the phone company he had always carried this tool called "Electrician Scissors". He still carries it today because this tool comes in so handy on a daily basis. His present scissor pouch has become worn so he asked Ralph to make him a new one. Ralph added a little something special by personalizing it with Richard's initials.

Ralph made a pattern by tracing the outline of the scissors. Next he cut out the pattern and transferred the pattern to leather and cut it out.

He wets the leather to smooth the grains with a hard flat piece of wood. If you are going to do any carving on it, you do it at this time while the leather is wet and soft. In this case he carved Richard's initials. Now it has to dry completely.

The piece you see in the picture "LR" is Ralph's alias name of Lefty Rhodes that he uses in his Cowboy Action Shooting competition. He is making a knife sheath for himself.

Next you put it all together and apply a leather glue around the edges to hold the pieces together. You prepare it for sewing or lacing by punching the holes by hand with a stitching awl.

Next step is to oil the leather and let it dry good. Then it is stained before putting a protective seal on it. The last step is to lace it up with a fancy double loop stitch and viola!

Debbie called us this morning and invited us up for lunch. She said we will have Bill Millers! (Hot Dog!)

On the way over to Richard and Debbie's home, we stopped to watch the Longhorns munch on a round bale of hay.

Here mom watches over her baby. I love the curl on her horns.















 


Ralph gave Richard his leather pouch and he sure did like it. He put it on his belt right away and was a "Happy Rancher".

There is a chain of BBQ restaurants called Bill Miller's. They are very popular and very, very good. Richard had gone out before we arrived and picked up brisket, sausage, slaw, potato salad, green beans, brown bread and brownies. Debbie has quite the garden and from it we enjoyed delicious hot peppers with our meal.

We sat around the table after lunch was over and had a nice chat. I bent their ear about longhorns, oil and ranch life. It is a different world here than in Maryland. What fun it was.

We sure have gotten to know some fine folks while traveling the country.




Debbie is a talented quilter. She is involved with a quilting group and they make quilts for soldiers. It is called "Quilts of Honor".

She has always quilted out of her home but she has gotten so big, she was running out of room.

In front of their house is a detached 2 car garage. Richard remodeled the garage completely inside and out. New siding, insulation, drywall, beautiful french doors, windows, ceiling fan and lighting. It is just beautiful and cozy.

Then I made a mistake. I let Debbie know that it almost makes me want to take it up quilting. For some reason I have always been interested in quilting even though I can't thread a needle!

Debbie piped up and said she would be happy to teach me. YIKES! (She needs to talk to Janna who taught me how to do this blog, I guarantee that she would soon change her mind).

I admire the talent that people have. What I like most is that every quilt has a story.

Until next time, Happy Trails........................

FREEZING RAIN AROUND SAN ANTONIO AND HILL COUNTRY

SATURDAY, JAN. 10th-Freezing rain in our area today! Mostly it has started slightly north of us. We are on the south side of San Antonio. San Antonio and points north are dealing with icy roads and this morning  many overpasses have been closed throughout the city.

Just north of San Antonio is the very large "twenty-five county region" of central and south Texas area known as "Hill Country". Hill Country is 31,000 sq. miles. These areas are colder and are at a much higher elevation up to 2,500 ft. Hill Country like it says is full of hills. I describe it as if the earth burped in that spot!

There is not a whole lot of flat terrain. You either are driving up or down hills and roads are winding. It is beautiful country and popular with the tourists. It can get down into the teens and the area can get a dusting of snow up to a few inches.

Luckily we can cuddle and hunker down today. So that means we can enjoy our electric fireplace and watch western movies all day.

As I stated the other day, when we aren't doing much I post pictures from the past.

Ralph and I love to "Boondock". Boondocking is when you go out on "BLM" land to camp. BLM is "Bureau of Land Management" land.

It is free to camp here when you stay no more than 2 weeks. You will have to move to another area of BLM land that is at least 25 miles away. If you want to stay in the same spot, you can buy a pass for a small fee.

It is peaceful and we are by usually by ourselves, but you do meet other Boondocker's on occasion.

In April 2006 we camped on BLM land in Camp Verde, AZ. What an awesome "front yard" we had.

One morning as we were sipping coffee in bed and we were taking in the magnificent desert view through our bedroom window. We started hearing this loud and constant "whooshing" sound.

Low and behold a balloonist landed not far from us! I was a little worried because there is a lot of cactus here. They soon took off and continued on their journey.

We took a walk through the desert and found a small group of "Boondocker's". This RV-er is a "full timer" and where most folks have a dog or cat, his pet was a parrot.

We can boondock for about a week, then we have to find a place to dump and get fresh water. There are numerous places to do so in and around the area. Some towns have dump stations and potable water fill and if not, we just go to a campground. We may stay a night or two where we can usually catch up on laundry or relax in their hot tub!

Happy Trails until we meet again.................

RESTING ALL OUR ACHES AND PAINS! (AND THROWBACK TO SEDONA, AZ.)

The morning of Thurs. Jan. 8th, I woke up to a new ache this morning. So besides my sore feet, sore lower back I am adding a sore hamstring to the list. Ralph just had sore shoulders.

Hoppy worked us hard yesterday so today we are enjoying a much needed day off to recoup! Only thing is I have to go to the town of Somerset to do laundry. I want to do it today because tomorrow and Saturday are suppose to be very cold. The high is to be only 32 degrees! Yes, you heard me right. I know all my "northern friends" are laughing. They would love to be in the 30's right now rather than in the teens and single digits. What can I say, we are "Winter Texans".

When I headed out to the town of Somerset, this is what we came out to. Our Weber Grill and grill table were knocked over as well as our folding chair and ladder. I can't believe we did not hear anything. Our bedroom is right above this and Ralph is a very light sleeper. I on the other hand can sleep through anything.

As best as we can figure out, is coyotes came to visit us in the night. They smelled the meat juice on the grill and decided to take a peek. When the grill crashed they must have scattered and knocked every thing else over as they made their get away.

Here are one of the oil tanks on the ranch. I need a bucket and a hose!

When things are slow and not much happening to report on our blog, I looked for pictures from our past years of full timing.

We left for our wonderful life on Feb. 2006.

Here is Sedona, AZ. We were here in April 2006.

We drove a portion of the Oak Creek Canyon Scenic Drive. It is a 14 mile drive along Route 89A between Sedona and Flagstaff, Arizona.

It is billed as the "Top 5 Most Scenic Drives in America by Rand McNally".

All I can say is the pictures don't do the beauty of the red rock bluffs justice! The camera did not capture the deep colors. They red rock bluffs were just so majestic looking.

The crystal clear Oak Creek River follows the route and there were many pull off areas. They even had primitive camping spots along the Oak Creek. We would have loved to camp here but our RV would not fit, they were for tents and very small RV's.

We found a wonderful and cozy spot to enjoy our picnic lunch.

 Until next time..........Happy Trails!

RANCH WORK, MY ACHY FEET, MY ACHY BACK!

Hoppy and Richard, his neighbor have been bull dozing ground. Hoppy got out of cattle a long time ago. Over the last couple of years he has gotten back into them. In the meantime the ground grew up with cactus, mesquite trees and sticky and prickly tumbleweed type bushes.

First the ground was bull dozed. Next came the root plow.

Here is the "Root Plow". It looks wicked doesn't it? Well the root plow goes in the ground a couple of feet and pulls the mesquite tree roots up.

So we lent a hand and became ranch hands for the day. Richard, Ralph and I jumped on the trailer and Hoppy hauled us out to the field.

OOPS! Another side ways picture.

The picture here does not do it justice. The rows were deep and the pile on each side of the row was fluffy and you would sink down several inches. This made walking difficult and tiring.

We gathered pieces of mesquite roots, cactus and other thorny branches. When the trailer was loaded up Hoppy took it to the burn pile where we unloaded it. We will have a huge bonfire at a later date.

There is a saying in Texas......"Everything that grows in Texas will either bite you, stick you or prick you!" Thank goodness for heavy leather gloves.

We did a couple of hours in the morning, a break for lunch and a couple of hours in the afternoon.

Let me tell you, I was beat! The bottoms of my feet hurt. The sides of my feet hurt. My lower back hurt. My legs started to get shaky and unsteady during the last 45 minutes.

Oh, yeah, now I remember why we sold our farm!

All fun aside, we were more than happy to help. The more the merrier and it makes is easier if their are several people sharing the work.

Next step will be to harrow the ground a few times and try to level it up. Hoppy will plant a hay grass in the spring.

Here is the Big Guy with some of his harem. He kept an eye on us.

I am so glad we drove the truck to the field. It  would have been about 3/10ths of a mile walk back to the RV. I think Ralph would have had to carry me.

Heading home. Some of the longhorns are quite inquisitive.

Until next time, Happy Trails....................