SURPRISE VISIT BY A FELLOW RV BLOGGER & HIS BISCUIT

HAD NO IDEA THIS MORNING WHEN I WOKE UP I WOULD BE SLUGGING AROUND RAILWAY TIES

Warm enough for me to sleep with my window wide open last night & fan going to boot.  Not warm enough to be uncomfortable & not cool enough to close the window.  This will end in a few days as temps are predicted to begin dropping.

PHEEBS, I GOT MY EYE ON YOU >>>

We are either dealing with a very wily Skunk or a nimble footed Pack Rat.  The popcorn leading up to both cages was gone this morning as well as the popcorn in the cages.  And one of the bait dishes consisting of popcorn & cat food was tipped over.  But neither trap was sprung.  Wily critters indeed.  And the Critter Cam in the attic showed there was no activity up there again.  Tonight I will place the Critter Cam outside to monitor the Skunk traps & see who we have getting food out of the traps without setting off the traps!!

POPCORNS GONE & NO SIGN OF THE SKUNK

Determined this morning our Sirius Satellite Radio mobile vehicle antennae is indeed broken so if we want our nice relaxing ambient music while rolling down the road we are going to have to find a new antennae that fits our particular model of radio.  Seems every time they come up with a new radio model they of course have to change the antennae port which I’m thinking is purposely done to generate the sale of Sirius Satellite radio antennae's at nearly $30 a pop.

HELPING PHEEBS WITH A STICKER IN HER PAW THIS MORNING

We had noticed some HUGE piles of railroad ties sitting by the tracks in Congress near the junction of highways 71 & 89.  Those big timbers are often used in landscape gardening projects.  On her way back from Wickenburg Monday Kelly saw some guys working there so stopped in to see if we could buy a few ties.  They said yes & gave her a number to call.  The railroad just went through here a few months ago replacing hundreds if not thousands of old ties & these piles of ties were from that upgrade.  Kelly phoned that number & got a purchase order number for 16 ties.  Hooked up our Saturday morning garage sale trailer & off we went.  Took us about 3 minutes to reach the pile of ties.

 

Workers were in the process of loading a couple big flat bed trailers with banded bundles of 16 ties each.  Fella said that truck was headed for California.  Lowes buys them & sells them for about $14 to $18 apiece.  We got em right there beside the tracks for $6 apiece.  It was a good test for our new to us utility trailer.  A young fellow deftly handled his fork lift machine with ease & loaded 8 ties on our trailer.  We whisked them home where I slugged them off the trailer.  We were back for our second & final load about 10 minutes later.  And that was that.  We now had 16 railroad ties to try & figure out what to do with.

IT WAS A GOOD TEST FOR OUR LITTLE TRAILER & IT PASSED WITH FLYING COLORS

These railway ties are 8’ long & they are not light so I had to figure out some ways of moving them around & getting them into place.  And then to get them level.  I started out using some rope, a couple shovels, & a few blocks of wood.  I ended up just finally manhandling the darn things into place.  One of the problems I have when I get myself into this kind of a project is that I simply do not know when to stop.  I sort of get it in my mind that I am going to keep at the project until I either get it done or I hurt myself.  Well I didn’t get the project done & I was lucky enough to be spared hurting myself by a surprise visitor.  Had this fellow not dropped in I would have just kept going until one of my arms fell off or something.

 

I didn’t recognize the spiffy looking white 4 door new Jeep Sahara when it pulled into the driveway.  Didn’t even recognize the driver at first.  But then I saw little Biscuit:)))))  Well by golly it was RETIRED ROD his very self.  Boy was I glad to see these guys because that meant an automatic work break for me.  Rod hadn’t set out from Mesa with the intention of coming to Congress.  He has a squeaky back seat in the Jeep & him & Biscuit were out for a test drive to see if the could find the squeak.  Before long they were up around our neighborhood so decided to pop in.

 

WE HAD US DUELING NIKONS AT 3 PACES

 

OOOOOO I LOVE THOSE PHEEBER SMOOCHES

   

Really nice to see Rod again.  When we last saw him & Biscuit a few weeks ago in Albuquerque NM we were both very tired & didn’t stay too long.  Had just come from Crackle Barrel & were heading for the Route 66 Casino to grab some much needed rest.  Kinda bothered me we hadn’t visited with Rod longer but when he pulled in today I felt better.  Hauled ourselves up on the porch & set us a spell.  Kelly & Pheebs returned from the Library so Biscuit & Pheebs were able to get some rollicking running time in.  That little Biscuit is a cutie patootie.

 

Always lots to talk about with fellow RV Bloggers & today was no exception.  We tried to get Rod to stay for supper but he had just stopped at the Wickenburg McDonalds before rolling on up to our place.  Rod stayed a couple hours & Kelly didn’t let him & Biscuit get away without taking a turkey sandwich for the road with them.  Thanks for dropping by big guy & who knows, maybe we’ll get ourselves on a road trip down around your neck of the woods sometime this winter:))

TOODLES

We also had us an electrician fellow drop around today.  He actually works for Les our yard guy but does electrical work as well.  Needed an extra receptacle put in my bedroom plus my bathroom light is just hanging from the ceiling by it’s wires & that was needed fixing as well.   Also wanted him to have a look at a few other electrical problems in the house.  He will be coming back again in a few weeks to rewire some old wiring that was never done right in the first place when the house was built back in the 50’s.  Electricians name is Wendell.  Nice young fella.

<<< CHECKING OUR MAIN FUSE PANEL & WORKING ON MY HANGING BATHROOM LIGHT FIXTURE

I set the Critter Cam up outside tonight facing the Skunk traps.  Kelly brewed up some more popcorn & sprinkled it around & inside the 2 live traps.  If we don’t catch anything in the cages again maybe we can at least catch something on our Critter Cam.

Another device that is handy for spotting critters at night are Digital Night Vision Monoculars.  And thanks to another RVing Blogger I just happen to have a pair of those.  A few years ago Alex from SPRINTER & I met up in a Tim Hortons’ coffee shop in Goderich Ontario.  Alex presented me with a pair of Ranger Night Vision Monoculars made by YUKON ADVANCED OPTICS.  Monday night I spent some time again scanning our front yard for Cactus eating critters right from my bedroom window.  Also use them occasionally if & when I hear Coyotes near the house at night.  It’s amazing what one can see in total darkness where the unaided human eye cannot go.  Thanks again Alex.  By the way, Alex recently completed a 7,456 mile round trip through 18 States.  And he even made it through Congress Arizona as well:)) 

DIGITAL NIGHT VISION MONOCULARS

Sure like walking out in our little front yard Cactus garden on Moonlit nights.  With a host of Crickets providing their soothing background ambient music it is just an overall good feeling seeing the landscape bathed in the glow of a ka-zillion million Moonbeams………………...

 

GUESS I KNOW WHAT I WILL BE DOING IN THE MORNING…….LOVE IT:))

GROANER’S CORNER:((    Patient: Doctor, if I give up wine, women, and song, will I live longer?
Doctor: Not really. It will just seem longer.

Patient: Doctor, I think I swallowed a pillow.
Doctor: How do you feel?
Patient: A little down in the mouth.

As the doctor completed an examination of the patient, he said, "I can't find a cause for your complaint. Frankly, I think it's due to drinking."
"In that case," said the patient, "I'll come back when you're sober"

-------------------------------------------------------------
- Tourists see the world, travelers experience it.
- Home is where your pet is:))
- "If having a soul means being able to feel
love and loyalty and gratitude, then animals
are better off than a lot of humans."
(James Herriot)
- The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails -William Arthur Ward
- The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...AL.
- It is not so much having nothing to do as it is not having the interest to do something....AL.