Thanksgiving and a new carving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. We hope you had a happy day. We started our day with our walk under beautiful skies. We wore shorts and tees. At dinner at one rain poured down, then the sun returned. By dark we were running the furnace trying to stay warm and dry. Meantime we had a good dinner and a good time with our Escapee family at the Activity Center here in Livingston.

Us

Tom and Mary, who decorated our table

Their handiwork

Our family dinner

Bob and Sharon, fellow trainees and current managers

Duane's new inspiration

In our down time while we wait for our new fender we keep on making projects. Duane found this wood after he spent three days straightening his shop. Its amazing what treasures we keep finding! He finds wood he forgot about and I find fabric I didn't know I had. Our ultimate goal is to use most of our existing stocks of supplies to lighten our load, so keep looking for new wonders to appear from our little house.

Time to get busy again,

Louise and Duane

The shop

I thought I would post a couple of pics of the carving shop in the trailer. I spent yesterday arranging things a little different to make room for the dust collector I bought. Now I can use my power tools to sand and fine tune things in the shop. I use to have go outside, hook up cords and set things up to sand. Now I can do it all in the shop. One of the residents here that I met earlier this year let me use his shop to make a bench top tool holder so I could get my portable tool box off the bench. This made room for the dust collector. I guess I don't have any excuse for not carving...lol Oh wait... I can always say I don't have the right size wood...

Till next time

Duane and Louise

Hangin around

Emma
Ava

On Wednesday we traveled to Celina, TX to visit with son Duane Jr, wife Brandey, twin granddaughters Emma and Ava. It's a 250 mile trip so we spent the night there. The twins are growing up in a hurry now. They are 17 months old now and starting to get into everything. They are giving their parents a run for their money. They know what they want and are not happy when they don't get it...lol They are nearing those terrible twos, hang in there Brandey. They are a lot of fun at this age. Watching them relate to each other is amazing. They laugh a lot and play together really good most of the time. Of coarse they have their little deputes over who gets what toy and such. Then there is the occasional biting...lol... oh, wait that is not funny is it? We had a great time visiting and chatting with all. By the time we get back to this area they will be SOOOO big.

Pine cone

Indian 4 1/2 in. tall

These are my 2 latest carvings. I saw the pine cone in a magazine and had to carve one. The Indian is a scaled down model of a larger one I had done a year ago. I'm not sure what I will work on next. I spent today cleaning the shop and looking for a drill bit I thought I had. How do we lose so much in such a small house??? We are always misplacing things and finding them months later ... maybe the mind is slipping...lol I wanted to make a tool holder for in the shop, hence, I needed the drill bit. I have a really nice travel box that son JR. made for me. When we are sitting I want to make a bench tool holder so I don't have to set the travel box on the bench. I just bought a bench top dust collector that takes the place I use to set the tools. Now I can use my power carver and sander in the shop without creating a bunch of dust. Before, I had to go outside to use them. Sure makes things easier and saves me a lot of time.

We are still waiting to hear from Heartland about the roof problem we have. Well, I say we have problem, not so sure they agree. It is not leaking now but has bumps showing up under the rubber. I am worried that down the line something may break through and cause a leak. We shall see. Our plan now is to stay in Livingston till the Monday after Thanksgiving, then head out. I hope it works that way.
Our friends Paul and Marsha Weaver are coming to Houston the first of the week. We are going to meet them for lunch on Tuesday. Looking forward to visiting with them again. We met them earlier this year here in Livingston, then again in Knoxville. We always have a great time sharing our travel stories.

Till next time

Duane and Louise

Still in Livingston

I just finished this cypress knee Santa. I think I'm going to start on another one tomorrow. We hope to find out wants going on about the trailer tomorrow. We are waiting to hear what, if anything they are going to do with the rubber roof. There seems to something under the rubber showing up. The service center manager said it looked like they didn't clean the roof before putting the rubber on. They sent pictures to Heartland and we are waiting for an answer. We shall see what happens next....

We spent the last 2 days in Lake Jackson, TX visiting youngest son Jesse. We had not seen him since Jan. and since we are leaving Tx soon, thought we would pay him a visit. He just started working at a hospital there in the nuclear medicine department. We spent today driving to the beach for a look see. Boy was it WINDY and COOL. Did a lot of chatting and some game playing and then it was back to Livingston. Ice cream social tonight at club house. Got to go....lol

Till next time

Duane and Louise

And we're off, again

We picked up our glasses today. That was the last of our things to do here in Shreveport. We will be heading to Livingston, TX in the morning, staying at the Escapees RV Park for the next week or so. We are looking forward to moving on down the road. While in Livingston we hope to meet up with our son, Jesse, that lives down that way. When the trailer is fixed we will head out again, on the road to New Mexico. We start our work camp job in Deming Jan. 2.
Till next time
Duane and Louise