HURRAY !!!! I'm back on line

After a month of having trouble with my internet connection, Verizon sent me a new modem. I could connect for about 2 minutes, then it would lock up, a real pain in the ***. I picked up the new modem yesterday, got it installed late last evening, working great. Seems to be faster then the old one was when it worked.
The pictures are of the latest walking stick. I am working on on a couple of others that I will post when finished. Louise finished the quilt she has been working on and started working on things for the baby boys for their birthdays. I have been working my 3 days a week in the park. They ask me if would work a few extra days in the next couple of weeks and then have a week or 2 off depending on how many days I work. I think I will do that so I can have a nice little break for a bit.

We are looking at 2 different winter jobs. One is in Thousand Palms, Ca., the other is in Blountstown, FL. The Ca. job is working in a visitor center at a nature preserve, the Fl. job is a maintenance job very much like I have now. Leaning toward the CA. job but not sure yet. I think I would like to something differnet for a while.

Till next time
Duane and Louise

The finished carvings

Here are a couple of pics of the finished projects that I started at the carving show. We are back at the park that I am working at. The weather has been real windy and rained a bunch last night. Again we were in the right place to avoid the worst of it. Most of the bad storms went south of us. I hope our luck holds out. Louise is still working on the quilt. I am going to get new tires and the front end aligned tomorrowfor the jeep. We got our income tax return back so I can afford the tires...lol If this wind ever quits blowing we plan on doing some fishing. After getting caught there in all the waves the last time I am a little more cautious about going out there.

Till next time

Duane and Louise

Walking Stick Class

Hoyt the Instructor
Top of walking stick

The leaves still have to be colored
The hand hold

The walking stick class I took was very interesting. We spent the first day working on the top of the stick and the handhold. I chose to do a mountian man head. The hat has a turquoise inlay in it. The second day was spent doing all the leaves and background. I have to tint the leaves and then seal the stick. When I get it finished I will post more pics of it. I will be painting the little girl and posting her also. I feel that my week here has been very helpful. I hope with what I have learned this week my carvings will get better and better. Tomorrow we will head back to the park at Lake Lewisville and back to work on Tuesday.

We seem to be living right when it comes to all the storms that this area has had lately. The bad part of the storm last night hit about 30 miles to the north of where we are. They had baseball size hail up there. It broke a lot of car windows and dented the heck out of the cars.

Till next time

Duane and Louise

Carving class

This is the first carving I made at the carving classes. Tomorrow I start the walking stick class. It has been very interesting so far. The little girl is the first caricature carving I have ever made. It took me 2 days, all day...lol The teacher does one in about 4 hours....lol...I guess when you design it and do about 100 of them you get faster...Louise has been working quilt while I carve.

Till next time
Duane and Louise

Glen Rose, TX

We are currently in Glen Rose, TX. The campground we are at host a carving rally once a year. It is 2 weeks long with all kinds of classes about wood carving. I will have my frist class tomorrow and will have a class a day till Friday. Tomorrow and Tuesday I will be carving people, Wednesday and Thursday I will be carving a walking stick with a mountian man face on it. Ought to a lot of fun and a good learning experience for me. I hope I can leave here with a better understanding of the art of carving. I had worked enough extra hours at the park to make up for my taking off. We will return to Hidden Cove park on Friday unless I decide to stay here for another class. I hope to have some good pics to post by the weekend.

Today was Louise's birthday, she tuned 57. We went out eat tonight to celebrate. She plans on sewing on the quilt she is making while I take the carving classes.

Till next time
Duane and Louise

Walking sticks

Here are 2 walking sticks I just finished. They are made from cedar shafts I got from a guy here in the park. I have another just about done that I will post when it's finished. It will be entirely different than the wood spirit faces I have been doing. Looking foward to going to carving classes next week.

Went out on the lake yesterday with a guy from the park that said he knew the lake well. NOT!!! The bad thing about the trip out was the wind...... When it gets windy on this lake, it gets ROUGH !!!!!!!! We headed across the lake to an area that my pardner said was good. It was pretty rough to make that long of run, but like a dummy, I did it anyway. We fished a cove and started to go to the next one. When we got out on the main lake the waves were at least 3 feet high. The wind had gotten worse. I said we had better head back to the dock. About that time a wave hit the front of boat and came right on in. We had about 6 inches of water in the bottom, guess what, the bilge pump would not work!!! Back in the cove we went. We bailed some of the water out with plastic pop bottles. After setting there wondering what to do next, I decided to try it again. This time I trimmed the motor so the bow of the boat was high. We were able to get the boat up on top of the water for the run back. When we got to dock we were both soaking wet from all the spray coming into the boat. WHAT AT TRIP!!! Today I spent all morning putting in a new bilge pump.

There is a vacant house here at the park that I got permission to use so Louise could lay out the quilt she is working on. We had to sweep and mop the floor so it would clean enough to lay it out. After the floor dried, we layed out the quilt and Louise got it all pinned and ready to sew together. It turned out to be a really great place for her to lay things out. I hope no ones moves into the house so Louise can use it again later...lol

Till next time

Duane and Louise

Not much happening here

Not a lot going here right now. I have been working a few extra days so I will have my days covered when I go to the the carving classes a week from Sunday . Louise has been working on a quilt. She has it ready to put together as soon as she finds some place big enough to lay it out. That is one drawback to the motorhome, not room to lay it out flat. I have been carving on walking sticks. Will have a few pics to post soon. We went looking for walking stick material at Jeremy's and found a couple of interesting flowers in the woods. Not sure what either one is,but thought they were pretty enough to post. We found 7 really cool vine twisted trees to cut to carve. When I was stripping the bark on them here at the park, a guy said " I have 11 cedar walking stick I would like to get rid of ". He had stripped the bark so they were ready to carve. I bought them for a good price so I have sometnig to carve while I wait for the twisted ones to dry.
The weather was great today so I spent it on the lake fishing. The fish are just starting to bite pretty good. I am going out tomorow with a guy that says he knows the lake real well. Says he grew up fishing this lake, we'll see how that goes. I hooked a BIG one today, he got away, isn't that the way it goes....lol.... Really, I did hook a big one. I hope the guy I'm going with tomorrow can show me some things about this lake that will help. This is a pretty big lake.

Till next time
Duane and Louise

Some new carvings and a quilt

I just finished my first walking stick. It is made of sweet gum and the twist is where a vine had grown around it. I am still working 3 days a week at the park. Louise has been working on her quilts. The quilt in the pic was made for our granddaughter Allie, she is big fan of Wizard of Oz. It has finally gotten warm enough to set outside to work on my carving. The walking sticks are hard to make in the coach. I have signed up for 4 carving classes in April, can't wait. Been fishing a little but haven't been catching much yet. The sand bass should be turning on pretty soon now according to all the locals.

Till next time

Duane and Louise

ARE WE IN TEXAS????????

• 
  What the heck is going on????? I think somehow we got transported back to Ohio. This isn't suppose to happen in Texas in March...lol There is about 2 inches of snow on top of the jeep at this point. It is suppose to snow off and on all night. We were going to go to Shreveport tomorrow, not sure now, we will wait and see what it looks like in the morning. Louise needs some more fabric that we can't find here, they have it in Shreveport. We will stop by to see Jeremy and family on the way back.

• Working is going pretty well. I have been doing a little electrical and some cabin repairs. Today we replaced a bunch of screens that were torn. Spent the day during the snow in the shop replacing screen in the frames. Louise has been busy working on a quilt, hence, the need for more fabric.

• Visited Jesse on Friday. Went to the gold show on Saturday, then went to a carving show on Sunday. Had a great time at all. After the carving show I realized just how much I need to learn. Those guy and gals are GOOD. I hope to get good enough to put something in a show like that some day. The woodspirit in the pic is the 3rd one I have done. I think the next one will be on a real walking stick instead of a trial piece of wood. Planning on taking a few carving classes in April, should be fun.

Till next time

Duane and Louise

A couple of carvings

The wood spirit is my first attempt at carving a walking stick. The dogs were sent to my daughter Stacy. She is starting a dog photography buisness and I thought she would enjoy them. We are going to Temple, TX on Friday to visit with Jesse, then to Belton, TX to a gold and treasure show. On Sunday we will back here so I can attend a carving show. Busy weekend. Good thing I only work 3 days a week.
Till next time
Duane and Louise

Sunset at the lake

My latest

We got together with Duane Jr. and Brandey over the weekend. Had steaks on the grill, then played cards. Had a great time. We haven't been doing much else. The weather has been really crappy, cold and windy. I was able to get out on the lake once in the past week, didn't catch a thing. It is suppose to start warming up later this week. Hopefully the water temperature will warm so the fish will be more active. We started rewiring some of the shelter houses here at the park. Last year this park was under water. The lake was 17 feet above normal. It flooded most of the shelters and ruined the wiring so they are redoing all of them. It is a nice change from working on toilets all day. The bear in the picture is the latest thing that I have carved. I am now working on learning how to carve faces on walking sticks. I hope to have one good enough to post soon. Louise has been busy working on quilts.

Till next time

Duane and Louise

Just working away

The work here isn't bad at all. The people seem to be pretty good to get along with. We will get all the toilet repairs finished up today if all goes well. Then we start putting new shutoff valves on the water lines to all the restrooms. You have to shut them off at the street now. I am going to put valves in the buildings to make it easier to shut them down. The weather has been really up and down. A few days it's nice, then back to cold. Was able to get on the water to do a little fishing and looking around. Did a lot of fishing and looking, not much catching. Caught 2 fish one day, none the next. Learning a lot about the lake and now can't wait till the water warms a bit and the fish start biting better. We had severe storm pass here night before last. A lot of lightening and a little hail. There was house on the other side of the lake hit by the ligthening and caught fire. We came through it fine. I guess I had better get to work.
Till next time
Duane and Louise

Just a quick up date

I worked Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday this week. I have been repairing restrooms the last 2 weeks. They have a lot things that need fixed around here. Have the next 4 days off. I hope to get out fishing. The wind has been really bad the last week. It has been reather cool also, not very comfortable for fishing. It is suppose to warm up next week.

Till next time
Duane and Louise

Work,work, work...

I worked the last 2 days repairing restrooms and then riding with the security guard in the evening. From now on I will just be doing maintinance work most of the time. I rode with the guard to learn what all he checks in case they need help in that department. Pretty easy pace right now. I'll be working 3 days a week from now on. They say that when the weather gets warmer this place really gets busy. The wind has not stopped blowing since we got here. I am going to bring the bassboat down here today to get it ready to go. It has been way to cold and WINDY for me to get out there. I love to fish but I also like to be comfortable when I do it. The temperature has been in the 50s and the wind has been white capping the lake with 2 or 3 foot waves. I think I'll wait till it flattens out a bit. I am going to get a new depth finder for the boat, the old one quit working. It's over 10 years old, guess it got tired. Hope to be able to get out on the lake next week.

Till next time

Duane and Louise

This working is for the birds...........

Started the job at the campground today. Went to work at 9:00 AM fixing restrooms. There are 12 restrooms in the park, all needing some repair. I went to tell the boss what I had done today and he asked me if I would ride with the security guard to learn that job. I got done with that at 9:00 PM. Tomorrow I will ride with the guard from 5 to 10 PM, may fix a restroom before that, not sure. I only have to put in 24 hours in a week so I have 12 left to do. The work is not hard and I don't think the boss is gong to be bad to get along with. The other park workers I have met are really nice. While I was working my fingers to the bone, Louise sat on her behinder all day working on a quilt.....LOL Just NOT fair. I guess I had better get to bed so I can rest up for tomorrow.
Till next time
Duane and Louise

OH NO !!!!!! It's off to work I go

We have decided to take a workcamp job just north of Dallas. I will be working 24 hours a week in a camp ground doing maintenance work in exchange for a free camp site. They want us here all summer, not sure about that yet. If we like the job we will stay put till September before hitting the road again for a bit. Louise and I can share in the 24 hours. Say I work 12 and she works 12 or any comination. I most likely will doing the work while she quilts. They said they may ask her to work in the office if they are short handed . Any work over 24 pays money. This campground is on Lake Lewisville, so we can fish on our time off.

Till next time
Duane and Louise

Comment feature

I have sent up the comment feature to work again. I was getting some oddball comments so I stopped it for a while. Several people have ask about leaving comments so I reinstated it to see how it works out. If you click on comment, leave a meesage, you have to click on anonymous if you don't want your nickmane to appear.

Till next time
Duane and Louise

Returning to Dallas area

Lake Livingston

We will be heading back to the campground at Hidden Cove near Dallas on Sunday. I have an interview for a work camp job there on Monday. He called today and said I had the job if we can work out the details. As much as I would like to head on south, we need to stop for a little while to save some money and decide which way we will go come spring. The job there should last 3 months, at least that is what I plan to work out when we meet with the park manager. The good thing about this park is that it is right on a lake so we will be able to fish a lot if the weather ever gets a little nicer. In the first interveiw he said for 24 hrs. a week work we would get a free camp site. That is where the save money thing comes in. With no campground fees and no fuel being used in the motorhome for 3 months, we should be able to save some money. I will post on Monday with the results of the interview.

Till next time

Duane and Louise

Livingston, Tx

Jesse's quilt
Jesse's quilt
My Carving box made by Duane Jr.

We are now in Livingston, Tx at the Escapee's RV Park. Our friends Bob and Sharon are here with us till the weekend. We are planning on staying here till the end of the month. After that, we are not sure yet. We hope to do some siteseeing around here before moving on. Louise finally finished the quilt, Jesse loved it. Duane Jr. made me a carving box to carry and store my carving tools in, I love it... Tomorrow I think we will drive over to Lake Livingston to check it out.

Till next time

Duane and Louise

About to get on the way

All the doctor appointments have been taken care of and all is pretty well. A few down sides to getting older, but better than the other option...lol We are camped at Lake Lewisville till Monday. The plan is to head toward Livingston, TX to the Escapees RV Park next. The park is about 200 miles south of here. While here I have been able to get the bassboat and do a little fishing. Notice I said fishing...not catching...lol. The wind has been real bad most of the days we have been here. Not pleasent to fish in. I have used the metal detector some in this park. Found a couple of dollars in change, nothing real good. Louise has finished up the quilt she has been working on. We plan to go through Temple, TX when we head south to drop it off at Jesse's, I think. Now that the quilt is done, we can start doing some geocaching again. She has worked on that quilt all day and half the night for the last month. We are both glad it's done...lol After Livingston, not sure what we will do yet, still up in the air a bit. Got to spend some time with Duane Jr. and Brandey. Had a great time playing cards and visiting. Duane made me a tool box for my carving tools, real cool. He did a great job on it.

Till next time

Duane and Louise

Moved down the road

We have move over to the city of "The Colony". We are a in campground on Lake Lewisville, about 20 minutes from Duane Jr. and Brandey's. Our plan is stay here for a week or so. I will go pick the bassboat up from Duane's house so we can get some fishing in. Last night it got down to 23, way to cold for me. It is suppose to warm up over the weekend to the low 70s. Now that's what I call NICE. Our friends Bob and Sharon are camping here while they visit with their son and daughter-in-law. We had a real great time with them in Big Bend National Park, so we are looking forward to our time with them. We will also get to spent some time with Duane and Brandey.
Till next time
Duane and Louise

Christmas in Troy with the kids

Simon and his Uncle Duane

Simon, Jack, Carrie and Brandey
Madeleine
Madeleine
Jackson
Simon and Jackson were born 2 weeks apart

We got to spend the evening with 4 of our six children and their families last night. We enjoy the chance to get the family together. As the kids get older and more spread out across the country it gets harder to get all 6 together at once. Everyone had a good time eating too much and passing out presents. The little ones were angels as always....lol

Till next time

Duane and Louise

Good news Bad news

Went to Doctors today. The good news is my kidney exam turned out all clear, no more cancer. The eye exam, not so good. My ARMD is on the move. The right eye is getting blurry and there is nothing they can do about it. He said that new glasses nor surgery would help. I just have to live with it for now, there is no cure. The family Doctor said my colesterol is up and my blood pressure is high. This getting old is hard.....lol
Louise gets her new glasses tomorrow so at least one of us can see. Louise has to go to one more doctor before she gets her all clear.

We are leaving in the morning for Ohio.

Till next time
Duane and Louise

Just about ready to head North

I have been falling down on the job of updating the blog lately. We are still sitting at Jeremy and Jennifer's house. I have been doing some carving and Louise has been sewing. I haven't been taking a lot of pictures accept for my carvings, so I guess I'll post those....lol We have a BUNCH of doctor appointments on Monday. 8:00 Louise goes to the dentist, 10:00 is my cat scan on the kidney, 1:00 Louise goes for a breast exam and at 3:00 I go to the eye doctor. Somewhere in there we are suppose to meet with the finacial planner and I'm suppose to stop by the family doc to get my blood pressure rechecked......I hope to head north for Christmas on Tuesday. That is if everything goes according to plan. We will take a couple of days to get there. I think we will return here a day or 2 after Christmas. We are taking the car to Ohio leaving the coach here. After returning to Texas we plan on going to the Celina area for a bit before heading on south.

Till next time

Duane and Louise

Hanging out in Kilgore

We are hanging out in Kilgore, TX for a while. We are parked at our son's house while we do all the doctor appointments. We have a bunch of appointments on th 17th that should finish the doctors for a while....we hope. We spent one day visiting with a rv couple we have ran into 4 times now. Our paths keep crossing. We have met with them in Van Wert, Ohio, Benson, Arizona, Arlington, TX and now in Tyler, TX. They started fulltiming in 06 also. I have been doing a little hunting but so far nothing to talk about. Louise is working on Christmas presents and I have been carving. Jeremy and I got the 50 amp service ran out to where we park the motorhome today. We can now run the microwave and don't have to worry about blowing a breaker. Makes life easier for sure. Had to fold up today to go down the road to a rv park to dump the tanks and refill the the water tank up. We're set for about another 14 days now before we to dump again.
Till next time
Duane and Louise

Kilgore, TX

We are in Kilgore. TX at Jeremy and Jennifer's. We had go to Shreveport, LA to the docs for our checkup today. Then I went to the plant to visit some of the guys I use to work with. Tomorrow we have to go back for my checkup with the cancer doctor and then to the dentist. We plan on going to Ohio by car for Christmas. Louise got a jury duty call for the 10th of December. We will have to wait to see how that turns out so we can plan on when to leave for Ohio.

Till next time
Duane and Louise