Ready for take off !!!!

We are ready to head out in the morning. I finished up working on Thursday and spent most of the time since then wondering what I am going to do with all this stuff we have accumulated in the last 7 months. I think we have it all in place for our trip to California. We tend let things sit out when we are sitting still. The carving tools, the carvings, books and all the other things we use on a regular bases seem to find a spot on the counters or dash. That spot is not conducive to traveling, so we have to find a hole to put them in for the road. We are looking forward to a new adventure. Our first day on road will be a short one. We are going about 30 miles to the Camping World to have the oil changed in the motorhome before the long drive west. Also one of the tire pressure sensors on the Jeep is bad and they are going to fix that while we are there. Pretty cool way to spend my birthday huh...lol The trip west will be about 1500 miles, but we have a month to get there. I would like to arrive the last week of September to get ourselves settled in before starting to work October 1.

I just finished these 2 carvings this week. The giraffe walking stick was made for a lady here in the park. She really liked it and so did I. The blacksmith I made for me...lol..because I wanted to. I think they both turned out pretty good.

TIll next time

Duane and Louise

The bear

I just finished a craving class on making a bear bust. This is the finished product. The focus of the class was to learn how to texture the fur. I was very happy with way it turned out.

Louise is still in California visiting and is do back on Thursday. We will have to get busy rearranging things for our departure on the 2nd of September. We will sort through things to see if we can get rid of some of the things we have on board. I need more room for my carving stuff.....lol. I have 3 more days to work...YEA!!!!
Till next time
Duane and Louise

Cowboy bottlestopper #4

Just finished this one this morning. Louise is enjoying her stay in California with the grandbaby. I'm working, carving, watching the Games and just hanging out. Five more days to work here, then need to get things ready to head out.
Till next time
Duane and Louise

MY WIFE LEFT ME FOR A YOUNGER MAN !!!!!!

Louise left today for San Francisco, to visit the California kids and the younger man, our grandson. She will be there for 2 weeks. She gets back here on the 28th, we leave here for Thousand Palms, CA. on Sept. 2. Thousand Palms is about 450 miles from San Francisco, so we won't be able to get up there very often during our stay in CA. We hope to get up there after the new grandbaby is born in Dec. I will be working a few carvings I hope to complete before we leave here. I have another walking stick sold that I want to finish before the 2nd. Our stay here has been nice, but, it's time to move on.

Till next time
Duane and Louise

The snake

Here is the snake walking stick I just completed. I will deliver it tonight to the guy that ordered it.

Nothing else new around here. Louise is at a quilting get together tonight. I started a couple of new carvings. It has been really hot here, to hot to fish much. The boat gets so hot that if you touch the fiberglass, it burns. Just not a lot of fun when it gets that hot. I have replaced fishing with carving for the time being. I enjoy turning a block of wood or a stick into something nice to look at.

Three more weeks to work here!!!!!

Till next time

Duane and Louise

The eagle head cane

My latest. I just completed this cane for a guy here in the park. This is the first carving that I have sold. I have walking stick almost done that is also sold. I hope to have pictures of it to post in the next couple of days.
Till next time
Duane and Louise

The latest carvings

Here are the latest carvings I have finished. The cat is already off in the mail to Ohio. I am working on a cane and a walking stick that I have buyers for. The cane will have an eagles head on it. The walking stick will have a snake going up the shaft. I hope to have the cane done this weekend. I have another stick that I am suppose to have done before we head out. I need to get busy...lol
The work here is going about the same as always. This past week we spent 3 days building a bunkbed for the cabins we worked on when I first got here. The latest news on the cabins is, after all the work we did rewiring them, they are now talking about running a new electric service to them so they can install 220 airconditioners in them. Why they didn't think of that before I have no idea. If they do that, then we will have to rewire them again. I only have 3 more weeks to work here so I will not be envoled in the rewiring anyway.
Louise flies off to visit the California kids on Thursday. She will be gone for 2 weeks. She gets back on the 28th, we leave here on Sept. 2. heading to California in the motorhome. The California kids live about 450 miles from where we will spending the winter. We hope to get up to see the new baby when it arrives in December.
Till next time
Duane and Louise

Rainbows and Sunsets

Hello everybody who is brave enough to check us out! We continue with our lives here in hot ol Texas. The last couple of days the temp under our awning in the afternoon has registered 116! That means that the temp is about 110 or so. Not bad if you don't go outside. Now you know why southerners move slowly. Too hot to go from house to car to building very fast, even in the morning when the temp is 85 at sunrise. The pix were taken last Wed. when a few thunderstorms rolled through here. They dumped rain with a lot of thunder and lightening. In the evening we were strolling through the steam when we spied the rainbow. It faded a bit by the time we hurried back to the coach and returned with the camera and tripod. Duane looked around for the other end and spied it among the trees. We caught the sunset and cloud formations on the return trip to the coach. The other exciting thing going on is that we are getting some projects done. I have finished my embroidery and have spent the last couple of days reading. Duane finished a cat bottle topper and is almost done with his eagle cane. It's good to have inside hobbies when we can't do much outside. Tomorrow we take a trip to Tyler to see our new doctor, the other one having moved to south Louisiana. We will meet up with our son for lunch, then drive further east to Kilgore to visit with our daughter-in-law and our two grandchildren. It's an all day trip, and we will be getting home late. Tues. Duane works and I plan to get started on baby quilts for Christmas gifts. That's about it for now.

Duane and Louise

Giraffe carving and Louise's count and cross stitch giraffe

Here are a few pics of our latest creations. My giraffe is carved out of basswood. I think it one of my best carvings to date. Tonight the man that runs the marina here in the park ordered a cane from me, my first commissioned carving.
While Duane was making his giraffe, I happened to be making mine. It is a detail on a counted cross stitch birth announcement I'm making for our (so far) youngest grandson. I think if it weren't for our projects we would be going nuts. This is the longest we have parked anywhere without touring and/or geocaching or anything! With Duane working three days a week we use our days off for shopping and other errands, then settle in doing our things. It's not as dull as it sounds. We enjoy working on our hobbies, and are making quite a few things for Christmas gifts. But after our whirlwind 11 month tour last year, we are longing to move again. O well, just another month and a half! I did make a new friend in the park, Maria Elena. We exercise together in the mornings and chat a lot. This evening we went out for pizza with her and her hubby Steve. They are fun to chat with. Later, Louise & Duane

The dock

This dock is at the park where I work. The winds on this lake seem blow all the time. We have been working on it most of the summer. Every time we fix it in one place it breaks at another. Now they want us to take all the boards off and reweld all the joints. The bad thing about that is, we can only do the work when it is calm, which isn't every often. This could take a while. The other bad thing is, IT'S HOT OUT THERE !!!!! on the water. The days that the wind is calm the heat is stifling. I'm getting too old for all this...lol. The good thing is that all the work and sweating has made me lose weight and I am learning to weld.

TIll next time

Duane and Louise

Eggheads

Bald guy bottlestopper
Bald guy
Horsehead cane

We're back after a short intermission. Notice the two eggheads above. About a month ago I shaved Duane's head. He got tired of paying for haircuts. Actually, I think he got impatient with waiting his turn. Also, he wanted to use haircut money for buying carving stuff. Be that as it may, I am just now getting used to him with no hair, and he's saying he needs a haircut! Also pictured is his latest creation. The head is carved from one piece of wood and mounted with dowel and glue to the cane which is made from vine-twisted sweetgum we found in our wanderings. You will notice a lack of baby Luke pix. Not my fault. We did go to Kilgore and I did get my grandma arms full of him and his big sis. We did take lots of pix. But they look pretty much the same as the ones posted, so the photographer wouldn't let me post any more. Before we leave for CA we will prolly make one more trip there and then you'll see something! Nothing much going on right now, just getting back to normal. This means we bike and walk, he works and carves, and I embroider. I don't post my work cause the things I make are for Christmas presents for people who read this. So, I will put them on after Christmas. I know, I know, you can't wait to see them, but you'll just have to suffer.

Basta por hoy! Louise and Duane

Meet the newest grandchild

Lucas Reid Buechter

Well, here he is, our new little addition to our growing family. Luke makes grandchild #5 and grandson#3. Cute, isn't he! Jeremy and Jennifer report that Allie is a model big sis, always wanting to take care of her little brother. We have not driven the 2+ hours to see him yet. Last weekend Jennifer's family was there, so we decided to wait until this Friday for a visit. Besides, we had company too. Daughter Stacy and her partner Carrie drove in from Ohio on Saturday for a visit. They stayed at Jr and Brandey's house, so we drove the 15 miles to their house for visits. While Jr and Brandey worked, the girls visited with us here. We had the usual family visit--full of good food, good conversation, and fun and games. HORSE basketball was the main outdoor activity, while Eucher (Midwest card game) and yakking dominated indoors. The girls left this afternoon for friends further south, so we are left to our usual mundane activities. We are laying low indoors this afternoon. Duane is napping now, but he'll probably carve after a bit. I intend to work on Luke's counted cross stitch birth announcement, but may get distracted by a good book. After supper will be our evening walk. He has to work tomorrow, then on Friday I get to fill my grandma arms with our new bundle of joy. Look out for some more pix!

Basta por hoy! Duane and Louise

The latest carvings

I thought I would post my latest carvings. Lately I have been working on bottler stoppers instead of walking sticks. They are a lot easier to work on in the coach and it has to hot to work outside much. The weather has been in the 90s for a long time now. After working all day in the heat, I'm ready for some air conditioning. We plan on getting up early in the morning to do some fishing. After about 10 it is to hot to be on the water. Hopefully we will have some fish for the freezer tomorrow.

Till next time
Duane and Louise

Hello from Louise!

Jack, Our California grandson

Flowers along the trail here in the park

Hi everyone, Duane was bored with writing since we are just sitting here not doing much, so he passed the keyboard to me for a spell. I hope you like our pix. The top one is of grandchild #4 who will be one in July. His parents named him Jack, and now that he is mobile they call him The Jack Attack. He has a sibling due in Dec. and we have one due in a couple of weeks in Texas, so that will make six. Our kids took their time getting started, but now there seems to be no stopping them! The other pix are from a short (2 1/2 mile) hiking/biking trail we have here at the park. It is just a bush hogged path through some overgrown land along the north west side of the lake. They were taken on Wed. evening when the sunlight was particularly good. It was really, really windy, though, with sustained winds of 30 mph and gusts up to 40 mph so it was difficult to get anything standing still. The lake actually had 2 foot high rollers crashing on the shore. It looked and sounded like the ocean! Duane took his walking stick along with his camera, but we didn't see any snakes. People all around us have seen large copperheads, water moccasins, and rat snakes, but I have seen only two small dead ones. Duane saw one large black rat snake one day at work. However, as I tend to stay on the paved roads that is probably not too unusual. The weather is really hot here now with night time lows at 75 and daytime highs in the upper nineties. The wind is hot but makes the outside bearable, at least until you can get to some air conditioning. So we tend to lay low in the "house", Duane carving walking sticks and wine bottle stoppers, and me making quilts and counted cross stitch embroidery. At least that's what Duane does when he's not working. Today was his day off but he had to work on the public dock. The wind had the waves so riled up that both the docks were literally breaking into pieces. He just went over for a look-see and ended up staying all day, in tshirt, shorts, and sandals. Neither of us thought a thing about sunscreen until he came home all sunburned! O well.
Basta por hoy! That's Spanish for enough for now!
Louise and Duane

California it is

We have been pondering which job to take, California or Florida. After a lot of discussion between Louise and me, and talking to the people at both places we have decided to accept the job in Thousand Palms, CA. We will remain here in Texas till after Labor Day, then head that way. They want us there before the first of October which will give us time to do a little site seeing on the way. We will be working in a visitors center at a nature presevre, so it will be a change from this job. I wanted to try something different for a while. Louise will have work some there and is not real happy about that....lol Our tour there will be from October till the end of March. The lady that runs the place said I could sell my walking sticks in the visitors center, that's pretty cool. When we get done there I hope we can take the summer and visit all the National parks in Utah. Bryce Canyon, Zion, Capital Reef,Grand Staircase, Canyonlands and Arches National parks are all fairly close together. With the price of gas so high we will have to plan our travels carefully. We can stay on BLM land out there to save money on the camping. That's the plan as of now...

Till next time
Duane and Louise

new carvings

Here are the 3 latest carvings I have done. The cowboy is a wine bottle stopper, the other 2 are walking sticks. I am working on more bottle stoppers. I hope I am not boring you with the carving pictures.

We hope to talk to the California workcamp position tomorrow. We hope to make a decision on which way we will be going this fall in the next couple of days.

Till next time

Duane and Louise