Seasons Greetings to One and All

Alone in the desert, I have been baking goodies with the Sun Oven.  Today I set out in search for the elusive vandwellers camped out West of me about 20 miles… to share with them this Christmas Day.

Painting by Debbie Jenkins.

If you really aren’t in the holiday mood, Lou Travels began a Facebook group called Humbuggers United… just for silliness and fun.

Being alone when you are lonely(a feeling new to me).. is a bummer, but sometimes you get a wonderful treat and this one… is the BEST Christmas gift I could have gotten this year… a video of ALL of my descendants together (a first).

Try this link for skydiving video of all my flying babies.  https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=ac1291870308f748&id=AC1291870308F748%214299&sff=1

Photo by Rhonda Bailey

Uncle Richard, holding his niece Zoey and nephew Will.  The big one in grey is my son, the small one in green is my grandson 3 and the little one in blue is granddaughter Zoey 5.

Photo by Rhonda Bailey

Zoey’s daddy (my oldest son) is watching proudly behind the glass at her right foot.

Photo by Rhonda Bailey

Will’s parents are on other side of glass, behind Will’s right arm.

Santa was so excited when Zoey told him she was going to pretend to be on of his reindeer while she was flying… so he just had to fly for her.  If you watched the video, you saw he almost lost his drawers here.   See the tall gal on the right behind the glass, that’s my oldest granddaughter, Tori Bailey.

The season also reminds us of times gone by… so I reflect.

Our upstairs neighbors (like brothers) Rickie and Danny Higgins, from McKim Street, Indianapolis, IN, year about 1949?

My one and only grandson, Will from Wenatchee, WA, abt 2011?

And many more sweet memories… see slide show.

		Christmas’ Past VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Happy New Year and have a Fantastic 2014.

National “Feed Charlene” Day–June 9, 2012

What a funny or fun day this was.  I’ve been on the job high in the Rocky Mountains now for three weeks.  No one has fed me.  But today, for some reason, everyone was feeding me???

My campsite is near the open place in the trees,
where you can see the road.

First, two campers were walking the mile back to their camp from the Lake,  had caught four rainbow trout fish.  I’ve never eaten that before… and to my surprise they invited me to lunch.  That was really really good.

Second, a young couple and their two kids were picnicking. I was busy doing something at my van and heard a small wee voice say “Do you want some corn?”  and this little girl handed up an ear of roasted corn. They had roasted corn in the husk over the fire.  Boy was that good.  I went about my work and later stopped to thank them for the corn and they offered me more, and then watermelon, then oranges (quartered), and then small Snicker candy bars.  Wow… guess it pays to be nice to people.  We chatted and joked and I asked it they needed to adopt a grandma.  They joked back, SURE!

And finally, a couple of gals camped at the other campground… with their families, came over to see my rock collection. We sat and looked at the three trays of polished rocks I finished last winter in Quartzsite, and joked and laughed… and then they invited me over for dinner.  Wow!  This day has got to end… I could gain weight here.  And what did they have??? Shrimp cocktail, one of my favorite things on earth.  And Black Eyed peas and bratwurst.  And fresh salad with most of the ingredients straight from Terri’s garden.  Terri is a very interesting gal and she even invited me to come down and stay over with them on my days off… and have a hot shower. They offered me a bedroom but I explained that I never sleep inside anymore, but then they offered me their driveway.  Perfect. 

I was so full by the time the day ended.  And I laughed to myself that this was the day of my 50th High School Class reunion back in Indiana… and I thought, NOPE, this day has been WAY BETTER than if I had gone to Indiana.  Just WAY BETTER!  (O.K., I admit it, I’m curious as to how the reunion went.)

The other day I baked delicious cornbread in my Griswold Cast Iron skillet in my Solar Sun Oven.   Yummm.