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....................

COYOTES AND ROUNDING UP CATTLE!

While enjoying our campfire Monday afternoon, Ralph caught a pack of coyotes walking across Hoppy and Loy's ranch. We counted 5 coyotes. They did not seem in a hurry, just kind of walking merrily across the pasture. I loved seeing them, it was quite a thrill for us.

Yesterday, Hoppy called Ralph to see if he could lend a hand and help him and his neighbor Richard cut out the yearling's. They needed to be separated from their mothers because the yearlings were heading to the cattle auction.

This had to be done on foot. Hoppy got rid of horses and cattle years ago, but over the last couple of years he got back into cattle. So these 3 cowpokes rounded the herd up and got them into the arena. There they separated the calves into the loading chute.

I almost went to help, but I would have cried, I know how traumatic it is for cows. As soon as they started separating them, Ralph said the mother cows started to bawl and the bull started getting real angry. The bull charged and made contact with the chute a few times. He was trying to break the yearlings out.  Hoppy did not want the bull harming the yearlings by accident, so he started throwing small rocks at the bull to get him off the fence. The bull would then take off, start bucking only to turn around and come back and try again. He snorted and pawed the ground and showed his anger.

The calves got loaded up and down the road they headed. The mother cows actually followed the truck and cattle trailer down the lane to the ranch gate and that is as far as they could go. They stood there all afternoon just bawling. We heard them all day long.

I took this picture of the bull last month.

Happy Trails until next time................

BURRRR! AND A WONDERFUL LAZY SUNDAY!

SUNDAY, JAN. 5th-On days when it is cold and the high will only get into the 40's we sort of hibernate. Yes, I said in the 40's! We aren't from Maryland anymore! We are what the northern folks call "lizard people". Living in the sunbelt for several winters, we want no parts of anything that is below 55 degrees!

On these lazy days when not much is happening, I try to put pictures up from our past. Our friend's Chuck and Annie who we spent New Year's Day with are pictured here on the left. Of course there is Ralph and I, then Marilyn, Dennis, Rachael and Buck. We went to a country dance during the Christmas holiday in 2010.

Every couple of  years while "wintering" in the San Antonio area, we take a trip to downtown San Antonio and visit the Alamo. The battle started on February 23, 1836 and ended on March 6, 1836.A couple hundred Texians defenders held off a few thousand Mexican troops of General Santa Anna's Army during the 13 day siege.

Me visiting a Alpaca and Llama farm in Cheyenne, Wyoming in Sept. 2007

Here is Ralph with a couple of "Floosies". We were visiting Cody, WY. and they had cowboy reenactor's performing gunfights. We got to see Buffalo Bill Cody, Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane shoot it out with bad guys.

Here we are in Yellowstone National Park in Sept. 2007. We rode our bikes around the park looking for "downed trees". The park would allow you to cut anything that was down for firewood. We would put the pieces of wood in our bicycle basket and haul it back to our campsite.

We decided to cook steaks outside on the grill. Just as we pulled our steaks off the grill, a fast and furious snow fell. Luckily it only lasted 15 minutes!

A beautiful majestic buffalo and Old Faithful.

Funny story here.....Ralph and I thought it would be fun to get up early and walked to the Madison River in Yellowstone NP to watch the sun come up and listen to the Elk "bugle" off in the distance. So we did just that. We set our alarm not knowing the time of the sunrise that morning. At the time we did not have heavy winter coats, after all we thought we would never need them ever again. Well that morning we did!

We left the RV and walked about a mile to the Madison River. We had our coffee thermos, tripod and camera equipment. There we stood in the dark shivering waiting for the sun to come up. We had arrived way early and it was close to an hour before the sun made its appearance. What was really neat was while we were waiting, we heard the constant bugling of the Elk and as time went on they were getting closer and closer to us. That made the hair on the back of our neck rise a bit but we never did see them.

When we got back to the RV we put on the news. There was Al Roker telling everyone, "Last night the coldest place in the U.S. was in Yellowstone National Park". We had a good laugh over that
as we were thawing out.

We visited the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center in West Yellowstone. The animals are unable to live in the wild for different reasons. Many were orphaned and others were labeled "nuisance bears" because they were becoming dangerously comfortable around humans. They were given a second chance and relocated to the Discovery Center. The park rangers tell us that "A Fed Bear is a Dead Bear". Once humans start feeding them, they become use to that and no longer fear humans. Usually they are killed. Thank goodness for the Discovery Center.

One of the rangers gave a nice talk on birds of prey. All the birds here can no longer live in the wild. They were brought here because of injury or abandonment.

What a nice way to cap off our fun day.

MY FAVORITE KIND OF DAY!

There are days that are cold (by Texas standards is anything under 55 degrees). Yes it is funny. When we use to come down to Texas for the winter, we would laugh at the Texans in their winter coats, gloves and hats when it was in the 50's. We would be in short sleeves, or a sweat shirt or maybe just a light jacket. We would think this was wonderful having a winter like this. After all we were use to Maryland winters.

Well now we laugh at ourselves because we now bundle up when it is in the low 50's here in Texas. When it is in the 40's we don't even want to go out.

Such a day was today! It was Saturday, January 2nd and the high is to be around 40 couple. We have no where to go today and nothing that needs doing! Hooray! Not only that, we really slept in! Ralph woke up this morning at 8:45 a.m. and I woke up at 9:45 a.m! I am thinking it must be all that good food in our belly from Annie and Chuck's New Year's Day dinner! You know what they say about turkey and tryptophan!

It was cold and dreary out. We had our electric fireplace going and the our hazelnut candle lit. A perfect day for snuggling. The best part is we stayed in our PJ's!

An added bonus was a TV station playing John Wayne movies all day. We watched Rooster Cogburn, Donovan's Reef, Angel and the Badman and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.

I decided to try to see if my camera could take a picture of John Wayne. I wish I would have thought of this earlier, for Rooster Cogburn was the last John Wayne movie that was on.

Too bad kids of the last couple generations can't and don't appreciate movies with real acting, great actors and wonderful story lines. Glad I got to grow up in an era when movies and TV had hero's and cowboys.

Happy Trails Until We Meet Again!......................

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2015!

The longhorns showed up near our yard. Momma was giving her baby a bath.

New Year's Eve we were in bed by 9:30 p.m.! We don't go anywhere on New Years Eve. We just relaxed with a quiet evening at home.

On New Years Day, we headed over to our friend's Chuck and Annie.

We met Chuck and Annie several years ago at Lake Medina RV Resort/Leibolds/Grothues Ranch in Lakehills, TX. where we became fast friends. At the time they lived high in the mountains of Colorado but during the winter they would come to the RV resort.


Chuck does "Cowboy Action Shooting" and also does cowboy reenactments with a group called the "Bandera Cattle Company Gunfighter's". Both he and Annie dress up in western period clothing from the 1880 era and put on a show for the tourist that come to visit Bandera.

Bandera's, population is under 900. It is known "officially" as the "Cowboy Capital of the World". In July they celebrate "National Day of the American Cowboy". Every weekend the town has something going on for the tourist. Several times a year they have a rodeos and parades with cowboys, cattle, wagons and the tourist live the old west all over again. Cowboys are often seen riding through town on their horses. There are several bars and restaurants that have hitching post for their horses.

There are many "Dude Ranches" on the outskirts of Bandera. Folks come from all over the world to stay at these guest ranches and live the dream of cowboy life.

Last year they sold their home in Colorado and bought a home in the close by neighboring town of Lakehills.

Chuck has had a bit of a tough time the last few months. He went in for arthroscopic knee surgery and ended up getting an infection. He ended up staying a solid 2 months in the hospital battling infection after infection. Finally mid December he was able to go home. Annie has taken over the nursing and sees to the "doctor'in" up of his "boo-boo" that is still healing.

Well since he had to be in the rehab nursing facility over Thanksgiving, we thought to have Thanksgiving on New Years Day!

Annie made the most delicious turkey and wrapped it with bacon. Oh my gosh was it delicious. She did sides of mashed potatoes and gravy. I made sides of stuffing, green bean casserole and triple berry crisp.

Clean up was a snap. Everyone lent a hand. Ralph and Annie cleaned the turkey with Buddy their Golden Retriever supervising.

We retired to the living room where the fella's had a nice fire going. We enjoyed chatting about everything and above all cherishing our friendship. This never would have happened if we hadn't chose the wonderful life of RV-ing!

I couldn't imagine a better way to bring in the new year. What a perfect and fun way to celebrate New Years Day! I know 2015 will be a wonderful one!

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL OUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY!