We are still here….

 

Our location:

BLM Ogilby Rd, Winterhaven, California 

We are still tucked away in Southern California enjoying the winter adventure. The days are mostly balmy with some chilly winds tossed in occasionally to remind us it is now winter time. We are of course sympathetic to those that can’t be here and will just suffer through for everyone with no complaining. Yes we are that generous!

Some times the night sky is on fire. 
Dec 22

We are no longer solo as most or at least some of you know, our friends Ken and Kim have been here since Nov 18,  they too are suffering the reminder of winter right along with us, they are not complaining either. Happy hours are more on the quiet side but fun, informative and some times even educational. We are truly enjoying their company. 

Kim and Ken have taken a spot in the front yard.

I told you it was breezy, sand in the chairs.

We, meaning the four of us, Kim, Ken, Riley and I met up with Bill, Patsy, Duncan and Patty on Nov 19 at the entrance gate to Los Algodones, Mexico for a fun filled day. It was our first time meeting Duncan and Patty, who also are from Ontario, Canada, and in fact are from Northern Ontario just as Riley and I are. We had a fabulous time, enjoyed some laughs, some good food and drinks, managed a few hugs and handshakes from some folks that remembered us, we even managed to spend some money, after all ,”Its almost free.”. It was so surprising when we turned the corner to start for the line at US customs, 2:00 pm and no one was in line! We all enjoyed that a great deal.

L-R
Riley, Deb, Duncan, Patty, Patsy, Bill, Ken, Kim

We shared Christmas Dinner in our rig with the two K’s, they supplied half, we supplied half, we were all full by the end! You will have to take my word for it as we don’t have a single pic! Thanks Kim and Ken, it was delicious and the company fantastic!

Christmas Eve

We FaceTimed with my grandsons on Christmas Eve for a bit, but chatted with everyone back home and here in California on Christmas Morning. SIL Janet and hubby Dennis are once again in Indian Wells, California.

Not spectacular but nice.

Nightly chats with Dad, has us wondering if they will get any more snow, it has rained now for a couple of days, their snow is mostly gone, but there are serious patches of ice in some places. 

Happy belated birthday wishes to Isabel, my great niece. She celebrated on Christmas Eve. I believe Miss Issy is 11. Also happy birthday to cousin Barry, a Christmas Day baby. 

Thanks for stopping by.

Until next time…..

Take care, stay safe,

Deb

Merry Christmas

 

Merry Christmas to all. We hope you all have a fantastic day. 

Deb and Riley 

Another sunset…

 

Our Location:

BLM Ogilby Rd, Winterhaven, California 

Another beautiful sunset here on Dec 14, better late than never! I’m sure you folks tire of the photos but I enjoy them. These photos were taken with my iPad. There is truly no way to capture the same fiery colours with technology that you see with the human eye. However it is beautiful and definitely worth sharing.

Nightly chats with dad, a few with sister Jan, SIL Barb, my other daughters Courtney and Bradey, and friend Linda. The overall news, Manitoulin is getting hammered with snow, heavy and wet, light and airy, thick flakes, tiny flakes, straight fall and blowing and drifting. It is also in the midst of rain, heavy downpours, lightly falling and misty. Did I mention the fog factor? The snow now is like a layered cake, ice, ice crystals, more snow, etc.  The lean to roof that covers a tractor and dad’s travel trailer has sagged, about 2 feet of ice and snow had to be taken off. It would not simply slide off as usual, it was actually frozen to the metal and require a great deal of labour to get it off. All is well, nothing was damaged but the roof will need some reinforcement in the spring. My daughters both live in southern Ontario, one in Toronto and one in Brantford. Both are doing well and neither have much snow.

The days here are much the same, so far we have only had a couple of windy days. A day of clouds, but mostly sunshine with cooler temperatures. We are now closing our door around dark and most of the windows as well, it gets too cool inside if we don’t. We have ventured into Yuma a few times, groceries, fuel, drinking water, Amazon pkgs, miscellaneous things and lunch. Yesterday I restrung one of our blinds, it was easy but I could have did three more in the time it took me to do the first. We cleaned up the inside of the Dogsled, something we haven’t done since we arrived in the desert. We have also been trying some new recipes to add to Riley’s cookbook. Traditional recipes with a long list of ingredients and many steps to follow result in wasted time, ingredients and the desire to cook. Google truly is our friend for things like this!

The moon is a little whimsical as the sunset steals the sky.

We hooked  up, emptied/filled the necessary tanks, and upon arriving back on Ogilby Rd drove past our previous spot for one a bit farther down the pad. I’m certain Deb D will remember when Jim and Barb  came to visit overnight, the next day they headed off only to have to turn around and come back to get out. We are now parked down that pad, we like it better here. Yes we have to go the wrong direction to get back to the road out but it’s much like leaving home in the fall, north to go south, so we are kind of feeling more at home here! It is a big spot, room for friends, or just more room for us to spread our stuff around!

This is just a note for myself and Sammy ( my mechanic) there is no need to offer advice: the check engine light has been off since Dec14th, the idiot tire light is inconsistent with temperature and humidity but always goes out. The tires are at the proper PSI. There is no difference in performance or fuel consumption, just as Perry said regarding engine light. It is a curious thing, we drove to rest area to take our trash, shut it off and when I started it again the light was off and so far has stayed off.

A little catch up on the tractor operation, the new steering installed works great after bleeding the lines to get all the air out. A new paint job on the hood and  (new to this tractor) grill, it looks like a million dollars! It steers better than before, which will make it easier to use in the bush during wood cutting, tree hauling and the many other chores it handles.  No pics, sorry!

The moon is playing peek-a-boo.

We once again offer our condolences toAl Bossence in the passing of his beloved Kelly. We never met them but feel as if we have known them for years as I have read Al’s blog for so long. Kelly wore many hats in their family and will be sadly missed but never forgotten. We also once again offer our condolences to Contessa and Colin Jewall in the passing of her aunt and his brother recently. We have never met them either but I have followed along on their adventures as well.

So that’s it, we are all caught up now, thanks for stopping by, I do hope you enjoyed the visit. Just in case I don’t get a chance to post, we would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and the happiest New Year. Eat, drink and be merry but stay safe.

Until next time……

Take care, stay safe,

Deb

Art or Junk?

 

Our Location:

BLM Ogilby Road, Winterhaven, California 

Lots of photos today.

The sage is brown this year.

The arroyos are very dusty.

I love the sky.

The road along the power lines.

Things are quiet here, and we like it that way. I have gotten back to walking on a more regular basis, reaching my goal of 6000 steps more days than not. I’m happy with that.

I wonder if someone uses this to rest an arm
on while sighting in on the bucket.

He had to come down the power line road.

The Imperial Sand Dunes way over there.

We are over there in that group of rigs.

In the next couple of days we will hook up and dump the tanks but we will move to a different spot when we come back. We find this spot too open for us and will move a bit farther down to a spot that we have visited a couple of times while walking. I think we will like it better.

Someone moved these rocks to make a compass. It is accurate too.

Someone moved these rocks too but over the years people have added things.

Lots of snow and then rain on Manitoulin Island over the past number of days. Lots of slush to move, and it’s too early for the snow banks to be this high. It will require either the big blower or a clean up using the bucket of Jason’s big Cat. They can push it with the quads but it gets skinnier and skinner with each heavy snowfall. So glad we are missing that weather.

On my walks I have often come across many things. You decide, art or junk.

Until next time…..

Take care, stay safe,

Deb

Some visitors dropped by….

 

Our Location:

BLM Ogilby Rd, Winterhaven, California 

It has been quiet here for the most part, very few daytime aircraft flyovers but for a while the early night time flyovers were low and loud. We have been sticking close to home, a few errands in Yuma and of course a few trips to the Rest Area on I-8 for trash deposits. Otherwise we go no farther than our feet will carry us.

An FYI about the rest area on I-8, they have removed the water spigot, it is completely gone, no remnants of any kind. Some very big new white posts in that area. The building that was in the middle of the roadway near the previous water location is also gone. There is a new building in the middle of the rest area, near the bathrooms, that has a spiked iron fence around it, it appears to have an outside water connection unreachable inside that fence. There haven’t been any workers around during our stops there to ask about water but maybe in the future.

Belated Happy Thanksgiving America! We had surprise visitors show up that day, Jerry and Elva Shannon dropped in driving Gerry’s new Jeep. A nice quick visit but alas no pics, sorry. Later Riley and I enjoyed a Thanksgiving lunch of salad, ham, mashed potatoes, stuffing and corn. I forget if we had dessert!

Today’s photos are of two different sunsets, Nov 25 and 29. There have been few spectacular sunrises or sets this year but these 2 sets were worthy of pics.

I chat with dad every night, sister every few days and have even managed a couple of chats with friend Linda over the past week. The weather on Manitoulin is cold, snowy and mostly overcast with a fair wind blowing those squalls off of Lake Huron. A rough guess from dad, they have about a foot of snow. Brother Rick has already shoveled off part of dad’s roof as the snow from the big roof slipped down to the lower one but decided it had fallen far enough and stopped. Dad thought it was about 3 ft deep up there. It is way too early to be shovelling the roof!

We are both a little under the weather with sniffles, sneezes, headaches  and in Riley’s case a wee bit of a sore throat. I’m wondering if it’s allergies as everything is so much dustier this year, very little green of any kind. No fevers, no coughs, no watery eyes, nothing like that. We aren’t sick but a tad off. It tends to make us lazy feeling this way.

I liked this one so much I posted it twice. Lol.

Last night we had another surprise visitor at the door. Not anyone we knew, but a pigeon landed on the silver step plate at the bottom of the door and stuck his head in through the magnetic screen. I hustled quickly over to shoo him away least he come in and think it was his coop. It stayed around all night and I heard it leave just as dawn was fighting for a foothold this morning. It was very odd.

Now why do you ask is there a magnetic screen on the door? It is there because our rig has no screen door, just a very long door window that will tilt open. It became obvious to us that we needed something to keep out flies, bugs etc, and this is an easy solution.

Thanks for stopping by.

Until next time…..

Take care, stay safe,

Deb