Wednesday and Thursday, November 13 and 14th, 2013-Inks Lake State Park

The two coldest days and nights here turned out to be very good days for me. I worked on the deer blinds both days and had a great time. The weather, while cold, was beautiful and it was simply a great day to be outside in the woods. We saw some deer while we were out including a very large 6-8 point buck and a smaller 4 point as well as several does. If you are familiar with deer, you know why I didn't get any photos of them. It happens so fast, I would have had to have my camera in my hand and ready to take the shot, and it's hard to drive and take photos. 

Yesterday my friend Stan came by but I didn't get a chance to talk to him. He had some surgery done last week and looked pretty good, although he was moving very slowly. It was good to see him out and about and I'll be looking forward to catching up with him again.

I came home for lunch yesterday and we ate outside on our patio. It was very pleasant when we sat in the sun but in the shade was pretty chilly. I came home from work today and we had a chat with out neighbors and made plans to go out to eat tomorrow evening. I later built a campfire and sat outside beside it for awhile before it got too cold be be comfortable, so I came inside for the evening. Stella made a beef stew that was very tasty and we settled in for the evening. 

We are getting into the swing of things around here and enjoying our stay here. We are having some visitors in a couple of weeks and I am really looking forward to seeing them. 

So long.

Tuesday November 12, 2013-Inks Lake State Park

The morning began cool and it only got cooler! Supposed to get cold for the next couple of days, but it will be back in the 80's by the weekend. I can stand a few days of winter because I know it will warm up soon. Remind me of this in January and February.

I went down to the shop, and as soon as John and Chip arrived, we were off to the woods to check on the deer blinds. We found that someone had done something to the Gator that we were using because the sign-out sheet was in the office with Do Not Use on it with no explanation. Jeff, the ranger in charge of maintenance and repair took off today so we didn't find out why it was down. 

John took us to some new blinds for Chip and I so we could see the layouts and start to familiarize ourselves with the locations. It was an enjoyable morning and we learned a lot. Chip brought his portable GPS so we can mark all of the blind locations on a map for the park. We saw several deer this morning and lots of deer sign. I put out more corn and we noticed that a lot of the corn that was put out over the weekend is gone, so we know they're there. Oh, and remember my comment above about January and February? John told us that it snowed on him last January during the deer hunt. I can't wait!

So long.

Monday November 11, 2013-Inks Lake State Park

Yesterday was a cloudy, gray day with coolish temperatures all day long. We went to Burnet to the grocery store and came home and watched football all afternoon. I thought it was a good way to spend the day.

Today was another cool morning but it was clear and a very nice day, once it started warming up. We got a Gator and cleaned fire pits in the morning and chatted with other park hosts during the morning. There is another couple that just arrived that was here last year and they have started cleaning fire pits also. It doesn't need two couples to clean the pits, so my new job of working on the deer hunt will fit right in. I should be working plenty of hours on that project to make all of our hours. We'll see soon enough.

We spent a lot of time outside enjoying the clear skies and warm temps. It is supposed to turn much colder tomorrow, so we wanted to stay outside as much as possible. We even ate lunch outside, leftover hamburger patties on toasted buns-very tasty! The doggies love it when we spend time outside because they can come out too. 

Kim and the boys will be here in a couple of weeks for Thanksgiving. Now if I could just get Jennifer and Melissa and the crew from Garland to come up at the same time, it would be a perfect holiday. Just a thought...

So long.

Saturday November 9, 2013-Inks Lake State Park

The work week went very well. We worked on the project that we accepted, cleaning fire pits and we got them all done, between rainstorms. We and the other hosts here do not work in the rain. Our work should get to be less and less as we get the pits clean, so it should not be too much of a problem.

Thursday morning was a beautiful sunrise, out my window in the living room. These are almost an every day event up here, so I won't bore you with a lot of sunrise/sunset pictures. 

John came by and asked me to work with him and his crew on preparing the deer blinds for the upcoming deer hunts next month. We all worked pretty hard on Thursday, but John, using the tractor and mowing deck, outdid all of our efforts, and we got a couple of the blinds looking pretty good. John and I came upon a small buck standing near one of the blinds. He wasn't afraid of us or the noisy Gator. I took a couple of pictures with my phone but the deer didn't show up very well. Maybe I can get off by myself in the evening and take some deer photos to share. 

Saturday was a special Munzee day, with everyone getting 4X the points. That means that for every one deployed or captured, we get 20 points! I left home about 7:30 this morning- just after daylight- and began deploying. I started the day with 9851 points and at the end of the day I was at 11,111 points! Up two levels! Whoopee! That includes a couple of captures that I made and a couple of my own that were captured by someone else. 

One of my captures took me to the Dead Man's Hole. You can read the plaque for yourself, and it's pretty interesting. 

The hold has been filled in and is only two or three feet deep. There was a family there when I took this picture and I had a nice little chat with a 4 year old little boy. He seemed quite impressed with the hole where bad guys were buried-his words-

I ran my phone battery down twice today, so I had to sit in the truck for awhile while it powered back up. It was down to less than 30% when I got through and I'm sure it was glad when I was done. I'm gonna rest well tonight too...

So long.

Monday November 4, 2013-Inks Lake State Park

The weather men/women had forecast rain all day today, and this time-they were right! It rained all night and off and on all day. The temperatures never rose above the low 60's, so it was chilly too. 

We didn't see or hear anyone else going out to work today either, and I saw very few park employees running around. I guess everyone took a rain day off. During one lull in the rain I went down and checked out a Gator to start cleaning some of the fire pits but it was simply too wet to get into the sites. It started raining on me again before I got back to the shop, so I gave up and came home.

Stella fixed us a new recipe of tortilla soup in the crock pot and it was delicious. Then she made a banana cream pie for dessert using a no sugar added pudding that was also delicious. I'm liking these rainy days when she has plenty of time to cook!

Tomorrow and Wednesday are both supposed to be rainy days too, so there may not be an entry for those days unless something else goes on.

So long.

Sunday November 3, 2013-Inks Lake State Park

We had a very nice Sunday, watching all the weekend campers leaving. We miss our old site that was beside the dump station because it was our entertainment to watch. I couldn't believe the amount of jockeying around and trying to cut people off, just to get up there and empty their waste water tanks.

John came by in the afternoon to pick me up to go for a ride around the deer blinds. We should start work on them this week when the deer corn comes in. John has done a lot of work with the mower, carving out roads and trails but there is still plenty of work to be done. I'm looking forward to it.

We had a campfire last night but we didn't spend too long at it because the wood wouldn't burn, it just smoldered and smoked. It was still smoldering this morning, so I added a couple of small pieces of firewood and some kindling that I had and coaxed it back up to a full fire. It was nice to sit outside with a small fire burning. The breeze was cool but sitting in the sun was very pleasant. I managed to keep the fire going all day, so we had another campfire after dark. Our friend Mike came by to look at our lights and our neighbors Chip and Bunkie came over to chat for awhile. We barely made it back inside before the rains came! We knew that rain was forecast, but we hadn't been inside ten minutes when it started. Lucky...

So long.

Saturday November 2, 2013-Inks Lake State Park

Today was such a nice day, we spent a good deal of time outside. Tramp and I went for a couple of long walks among the weekend campers, and be assured that he introduced himself to everyone around him.

This afternoon, after my nap, I decided to go get a Gator and sell some firewood. I didn't get too much from the wood pile and more than anything, I just enjoyed being outside and meeting lots of people. I helped a couple with directions to this area, and a lady and her son needed some air for their bicycle tires, so I went and got my small air compressor out and filled them up. I visited with several people as I drove by. People are very interested in our lifestyle of being full time RV'ers and I am happy to talk to them about it.

I talked to my daughter Melissa, who reminded me that she will the big 4-0 on her next birthday. Wow, where has the time gone? It was nice to sit beside the lake and chat with her, even if she did remind me of that fact...

It was a great day and I enjoyed it.

So long

Friday November 1, 2013-Inks Lake State Park

It was another very cool morning here, about 48 degrees. It warmed up very nicely and was a beautiful day with clear blue skies and low 70's temperatures. There wasn't much going on in the park today except for lots of people coming in for the weekend. Trucks & trailers and motorhomes poured in all day and by evening, most of the sites were full.

The main thing we did today was to go to the Highlander restaurant in Burnet to see our friends Stan and Cheryl. They were park hosts last your when we were here, but medical treatments will keep them from coming back.

Here is a shot of the group. We all enjoyed our meal and the company of our fellow workers. 

Here are the guests of honor, Cheryl and Stan. They look good and we wish them well with their procedures. We will miss them at the park.

So long.