Our first work week in progress

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We’ve almost finished a week here, and while I probably wouldn’t choose the desert to put down my roots, it is growing on me! It’s chilly in the morning…not wear-your-coat chilly, but have-long-sleeves-for-a-couple-hours chilly…and use-your-air-conditioner hot in the afternoon. But then it cools down again in the evening. Not a bad lifestyle for this time of year!

We (women) have spent the week painting some lumber for building repairs, but mostly we’re working on repainting the metal furniture by the swimming pool. Things rust easily here, so there’s sanding and priming involved here. Manicures are not utmost important right now! I do enjoy working outdoors. The men are in their repair-storm-damage mode. They’re repairing porch awnings and fences, and moving/cutting fallen branches. It’s a good thing they’re finished at 3:30

Other than that, we’re just doing the regular stuff…planning Thanksgiving, being thankful that we’re not moving right now (diesel is $3.80…gas $3.30) and wondering how they can possibly be considering having Christmas when it feels like July! As one woman explained it to me the other day~~”We have Christmas because of the month, not the weather!” Sounds good!

All of us will be here for Thanksgiving, so we’re having a turkey-ham-and-everything-else dinner. We’re going to decorate Wagon Wheel~~room where we meet~~and eat there. It sounds like it’ll be a fun day! I'm trying to talk Bob into moving the motor home to the mall parking lot Thanksgiving night, so we can hit the stores bright and early on Friday. He's not even getting close to changing his mind, though!!!

Germaine is meeting with us for morning devotions, but isn’t working with us past that. Deb, the camp director’s wife, is going through treatments for ovarian cancer, so Germaine is helping her. They have two young kids. That’s why Paul and Germaine came early, and they’re going to stay here until March. They’re also with us for game nights and tours. It’s fun to have them back.

There’s another retired couple here who are with us for our socials. Bill works with Paul, the camp director. Diana helps out some, but isn’t on the schedule. They’re very fun, and we’re always glad to have someone new to play with!

I'm including some pictures to show you a cute bridge that's here. It was made from an old storage container~~you know the steel kind that they ship things by rail or ship in? The bridge is so cute, and I'll tell you about it in the pictures.

We saw a road runner yesterday...he was smaller than I expected, and there was no beep-beep from him! I'll try to get a picture, but he was scurrying right along. There hasn't been much for bugs, except flies, but we are told to watch for rattlesnakes. Ok, I hear that!

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Photos

These silly pines don't have
a root system that withstands winds...

Look at the size of the roots
compared to the size of the trunk. Ok, they're roots take up a lot of horizontal space, but not much for deep.

Look who's trutting his stuff
in the branches. I've seen two here, but both are males, so there's not much feather speading going on.

Covered bridge
The siding was donated (I tell you, if a camp director ever runs for president, I'm voting for him. They can get soooo much done with sooo little money that's it's unreal!) so they covered the steel container entirely.

Inside you can see where the
container was too short to cover the span, so they put planks on both ends.

I guess they had quite a challenge
cutting the windows. There are two on each side. You don't get to see it from the side because of the trees around it.

This is the view from the windows.
No matter which direction you look, there's nothing running down the creek.