Friday, July 29, 2011

Just hangin out

Not a whole lot to report from Deming. Louise works 7 hours Thursday and Friday, I work 3 hours the same day. The knife blade cover in the picture is my latest carving. I plan on carving covers for all my knives. Louise has been busy making quilts. On Monday I go to the rock shop to work on stones for jewelery. It has been way to hot, 100 +, to venture out in to the desert hunting rocks. We are finally are getting some rain so maybe things will cool off a bit. Our big adventure is a trip to Las Cruses every couple of weeks. Deming has a Walmart, that's about it. Cruses has everything. Deming has no good pizza places, so when Louise wants pizza, off we go. That's where the Lowes, Hobby Lobby, JoAnn Fabric, all the stores we frequent are. They even have Texas Road House.
The Holiday Inn next door to the rv park lets us use their swimming pool and work out room. There is a gate from our park to the lot so it is short walk. Louise goes to the pool every day. She just started getting on the stepper machine before going to the pool. I go to the trend mill about 5 days a week. The days that I work, I don't go over. By the time I get done doing the yard work in the heat, I figure that's enough for one day.
That's it for now
Duane and Louise

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Hangin out in Deming

Not a whole lot going on here in Deming, NM. We now work Thusday and Friday. I pass my time carving and working on shaping rocks. Louise has been working on a couple of quilts and working on bead projects she started in AZ back in March. The weather here has been REAL hot, 100+ just about every day. Last night the first storm of the monsoon season hit., High winds and a lot of rain. One of the residents said they had 2" in their rain gauge. To say they need the rain is an understatement. That was the first measurable rain since Jan. When I went to get into bed, my side was all wet. After changing sheets and blankets, putting towels down, I went to bed. This morning I went up on the roof to try and find the leak. It was easy to spot, the rubber seal that seals the tv cable had come loose and allowed the rain to run down the cable right over the bed. Fixed that sucker right away...lol


This Roadrunner jumped up on the electric post right outside our window. By the time we got the camera in hand and it had moved to far off to get a really good ppicture.



This is a stone that I just finished shaping. I didn't realize till I got it about shaped how cool it looked. It finished looking like a desert scene. I think it is about the neatest stone I have done to date.



This is my latest carving. It is a walking stick with 9 animals carved down the shaft. The eagle head on the top screws off so I can put a camera mount in it's place to make it into a monopod.







It has been way to hot to go out into desert rock hunting. Hopefully it will cool off so we can get out. We have a lot of time left here to hunt so we aren't going to go out there and get heat stroke. I need to start going through everything we have on board and try to cut some weight down. Guess we don't need to go out rock hunting after all...lol. Really, I would like to lighten up at least 500 pounds maybe more. Before we leave here in the fall, I hope to move out a lot of "stuff" that we just don't use or need.


We are not on the road now, so not as much to blog about.


Till next time


Duane and Louise



Wednesday, July 06, 2011

A HAPPENIN' PLACE!

Well, we've been in Deming at Dream Catcher (Escapees) RV Park for 2 weels now. In that time we've worked 4 days, gone to Las Cruses twice, enjoyed the holiday with a bbq and fireworks with our 'family', played games, exercised, and did chores. In other words, whatever everyone does when they are at home. Today we finally saw some wildlife besides birds and cotton tail rabbits. This little beauty of a tarantula surprised us in the driveway. I had never seen one "in the wild". I had never seen a black one before. This one would fit in my palm.

We also saw this lovely gopher snake curled under a tree. The work crew was cleaning out tumbleweeds along the fenceline and apparently disturbed this beauty. It pretended it was a rattlesnake by hissing, shaking its tail and getting into strike position.




Oh, I forgot. We saw this horned lizard outside our door on the 4th. It so nicely sat and posed. Notice its lovely white stripe. It has another on the other side of its spine. In the desert this guy and the snake would have been all but invisible.




After all this excitement we went shopping in Las Cruces and ate pretty good pizza for lunch. Back home we exercised, ate salad for supper and went to the clubhouse for a (card) game of hand and foot (aka hands and feet). Back home again, I decided to do a little ironing. I put water in the reservoir and heated up the iron. Out crawled about a hundred tiny ants! We picked them up a few months ago, but I didn't see them very often, and then only a half dozen or so. Now I know where they've been holing up! I filled and swished the reservoir a couple of times before all the ants and their eggs came out. Fortunately, my reservoir is clear, so I could see when they were all gone. What a full day. We're exhausted! Tomorrow we work, so nitey nite!




Louise and Duane