Visit from Blog Reader

We had a great surprise today, when on of our blog readers came to visit us. 

This is Roger Mounger.  He found our blog on hitchitch.com when we were featured one month on their RV Travel Resource New Listings.  Roger and his wife Karen are becoming fulltimers soon and we exchanged emails about fulltiming.  Roger drives a tour bus and took the opportunity of being in the area to come visit us.

We spent a delightful couple of hours sharing information, suggesting domiciles (South Dakota), mail forwarding services (Americas Mailbox), satellite TV companies (DISH network) and insurance agencies (Miller Insurance Agency).

It was so nice to “pay forward” to Roger all the advice we had from other fulltimers when Jim and I were deciding about going fulltime.  Roger and Karen will be vacationing in South Fork this summer so we will have a chance to see them soon.
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We’ve been helping Rich and Terri clean up their campground in preparation for their official opening on May 1.  Terri and I cleaned the bath house and Jim has been helping them rack and dispose of mounds of leaves the last couple of days.  My part has been cooking dinner each night.

We are having such a good time with Rich and Terri!!!!! They are such good friends and bring us so much fun and laughter.  It’s been great spending time with them.

The other day we made up some more “Apple Pie” with the real stuff…if you know what I mean.  Rich and Terri thought it came out pretty good.  Looks like it too!!!

I’m making pork chops in gravy with mashed potatoes and corn.  I’m having MorningStar BBQ Riblets. 

What are you having for dinner???

Remember, you are loved.

Scone Recipe

I mentioned the other day that I made Cranberry Scones for Easter morning, and several readers asked for the recipe.  This comes from USA Weekend (the Sunday paper insert).  I just checked and it’s dated Dec 17-19, 2004.  I’ve made these scones numerous times and vary the fruit, but usually use crasins.

Simple Scones

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup plus 1 tsp sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
8 Tbs (1 stick) butter, frozen
1/2 cup raisins, crasins, or currants
1/2 cup sour cream (or yogurt)
1 large egg

Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position (unless you live in an RV and then you don’t have a choice).  Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In a medium bowl, mix flour, 1/3 cup sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.  Grate butter into flour mixture on the large holes of a box grater; use your fingers to work in butter (mixture should resemble coarse meal), then stir in raisins (crasins).

In a small bowl, whisk sour cream (yogurt) and egg until smooth.

Using a fork, stir sour cream mixture into flour mixture until large dough clumps form.  Use your hands to press the dough against the bowl into a ball.  (The dough will be sticky in places, and there may not seem to be enough liquid at first, but as you press, the dough will come together.)

Place on a lightly floured surface and pat into a 7-8 inch circle about 3/4 inch thick.  Sprinkle with remaining 1 tsp sugar.  Use a sharp knife to cut into 8 triangles; place on a cookie sheet (preferably lined with parchment paper), about 1 inch apart.

Bake until slightly golden, about 15 to 17 minutes.  Cool for 5 minutes and serve warm or at room temperature.
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The trick is to really mix the butter into the flour until really mealy.  Once you add the sour cream and egg mixture you want to manipulate the dough as little as possible so the scones don’t get tough and hard.  It works best to press the dough against the side of the bowl till it barely comes together. Patting out the dough into a circle finishes pulling it all together.  The end result is tender and delicious.

Let me know how your scones turn out.  Remember, you are loved.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

as it is a way to use up my homemade yogurt, instead of the sour cream the recipe calls for.

Easter 2011

We had a fun-filled Easter, sharing it with Rich and Terri Deacon here at South Fork Campground.  Rich and Jim worked together on cleaning up the campground during the morning, but stopped by noon.  At 2 p.m. we had dinner together in our rig, Terri and I cooking up ham, scalloped potatoes, squash/zucchini casserole, corn, deviled eggs and rolls, with brownies for dessert.

After dinner we were sitting around and all of a sudden it started to SNOW….yes, SNOW!!! On Easter Sunday no less!!! Nothing accumulated on the ground, but it snowed on and off all day long.

Watching it come down.

The four of us spent the whole day and evening together watching Rockies game, a movie about Queen Victoria and Prince Albert and something else I don’t remember.

It is wonderful to spend time with good friends! 

Remember, you are loved!

Friends-Barbeque-Baking

My friend Naomi is in a nursing home and every spring when I come home her son has me shop for a few new shirts for her.  She likes cotton shirts with a collar and for the last couple of years I’ve had to buy her shirts from the men’s department to get the collars.  The color choices were limited to beige, white, blues.  So I was really happy last week when I found a good selection of colorful, cotton, women’s shirts with collars at Walmart.  I bought her four shirts.  They looked so nice on her and fit her so well that yesterday I went and bought her three more, so she’ll have a new shirt for every day of the week.  She was so tickled!!!  At her age of 95 that isn’t easy to do.

It was hard to say goodbye to Naomi, as we were moving up to South Fork yesterday and I won’t see her but every two weeks for the summer. Alamosa is 65 miles away from our campground and with diesel at $4.09/gal, we don’t go to town but every two weeks.

While I was visiting Naomi with our Jeep, Jim moved the rig up to South Fork Campground, which our friends, Rich and Terry manage.  We’ll stay here until May 1 when we’ll move into our national forest campground.  We hadn’t seen Rich and Terri since we all left Abbeville, LA, in early March, as they visited Hondo/San Antonio while we were in Jasper, TX. So it’s been a long time since we’ve seen them.

Yesterday was Rich’s birthday, so Jim and I bought a bunch of country style ribs to barbeque. I stuck to my veggie lifestyle and had MorningStar BBQ Riblets, which were very, very good. You’d never know they weren’t meat.  I cooked up some cole slaw and potato salad and we all had a feast!!!

This morning I baked cranberry scones that we all shared.  We’re having Easter dinner together, so I baked some brownies and will make scalloped potatoes, squash/zucchini casserole and heat up the ham.  Terri is making rolls and deviled eggs.  I feel another feast in the making. It’s nice to share holiday meals with friends.

Hope your Easter is full of great food and that you share your meal with people you love.

Got a Perm

I had a perm in my hair continuously for some 57 years. About seven years ago I stopped and used a curling iron and gels to create a hairdo.  Then when we became fulltime RVers four years ago, I had my hair cut ultra short for ease of maintenance.

We usually boondock (camp without utilities) a good part of the year and at the campgrounds we stay at during the summer, you can’t use your generator till 8 a.m.  Well, Jim and I get up from 4 a.m. to 7 a.m. and we’re up and ready to go to work before 8 a.m. So I needed a hairdo that was pretty much “get up and go” without the use of a curling iron.

After four years of looking like a very round face pixie I decided to use my curling iron and create a bunch of curls before I went out shopping.  I received three compliments in three hours, so I decided to go get a perm.

With so little hair I hated to pay $50 for a perm, but then I found the barbershop Jim goes to was featuring perms for $29.95; a fast phone call yesterday got me an appointment for later in the day.

I really felt for the poor guys in the shop waiting to get their hair cut, with me covered in pink perm rods, when it was time to put on the perm lotion!  Oh, ugh, the smell!!! When the time came I announced “Sorry, Gentlemen”.  I’m sure they weren’t expecting to witness a woman getting a perm in their manly barbershop…one of the last male establishments.

After an hour and a half here is the finished product.

        

Now remember this is the first day so the curl is tight; it will relax in a couple of days.  I didn’t want the “nursing home” curl and I wanted more than a body curl.

So what do you think?  (Disregard the nose pinches from my glasses) Do you like it better?  It sure is easier to live with. Should I continue to perm my hair in the future? 

Remember, you are loved.

Smoothie Recipe

A couple of readers asked for a more detailed recipe for the energy smoothies I’ve been making, so here goes.

Beth, our daughter, said to use ANY two vegetables and any three fruits, add a splash of water or fruit juice, put all together in a blender and give it a whiz.  The fruits completely masks the taste of the veggies, IMHO.

More specifically, you want to add 1/4 to 1/2 cup of each item I’d guess. Cut up the items a bit to make it easier on your blender. Some of the vegetables I have used are:

Kale, I always use as it’s a big “Super Food”
Broccoli
Cucumber
Carrot
Zucchini 
Yellow Squash 

The fruits I use are:

Strawberries - any berry works well
Blueberries (frozen-it chills the smoothie)
Banana (I use a whole one)
Kiwi - a “Super Food”
Mango
As summer comes I’ll use cantaloupe and honeydew

I make my own yogurt and always add a half a cup to my smoothie but that’s a personal choice.  If your blender will handle it you can add some ice to make the smoothie colder. 

Really any vegetable or fruit will work. I’ve used leftover green beans, cabbage, peas and spinach in fact.  A smoothie is just an easy way to get in the NINE fruits and vegetables we are suppose to eat every day.  The fruits really do make the smoothie sweet and very delicious, so you can use any vegetable and the fruits cover the taste.  You can always add a little agave nectar or honey for more sweetness.

I hope this helps.  Give it a try and make it to your own liking.  Let me know about your experience making a healthy smoothie.

Remember, you are loved!

Visit from RV friends-The Tumolo’s

Checking out Facebook the other day, I saw that our fulltime RV friends, Sal and Bobbie Tumolo, were in Albuquerque, NM.  That’s only a four hour drive from us.  So I commented on fb that they were close and to “come on over”.  Which they did.

Pretty soon they pulled in.  They have a Carriage RV pulled with a Freightliner medium duty truck.  Bobbie and Sal take daily turns driving.

Sal is an electrician by trade and Bobbie was a park ranger before they went fulltiming in 2007.  We met them at our Escapees Class meeting in Quartzsite in January 2008.  Sal is a total “nut” and we have fond memories of him singing a raunchy “Bad to the Bone” on Karaoke night at Silly Al’s in Quartzsite.

Both Bobbie and Sal are big outdoor people enjoying hiking and skiing.  Retiring early in life, they continue to work most of the year as fulltimers, BUT now they can choose where and when they work.  During our visit they were between assignments leaving Utah and on their way to Moran, WY (about 45 miles from Jackson), by way of Texas because Sal lost his wallet skiing and had to replace his Class A driving license.

We’ve been blessed by being in the right place to visit with Sal and Bobbie several times since 2008.  We always laugh a lot when we are around them. Bobbie is a real nature-nut and has so much information to share.  It’s fun to watch her enthusiasm when she talks about animals and nature!

When I mentioned on this blog that I was knitting covers for Swiffers, Bobbie was one of the folks to expressed an interest in one.  So I knitted her one.

 

 

Jim had talked about his El Camino restoration in previous visits with Sal, so now was the time to bring Sal over to see the finished product. It was dusty so I put in a better photo for you to see.

            

After catching up on our lives since we saw them last year, we made plans to drive up to South Fork to show them our campgrounds and surrounding scenery.

At one of our campgrounds we found they had restored one of last remaining log cabin style toilet in the national forests.  It will be welcomed to the campers that stay in that area, since it’s been closed for four years.

As we drove back to Alamosa, we stopped to introduce the Tumolo’s to Rich and Terri Deacon.  They were kind enough to take a photo of us.

As we drove home we had to stop and take a photo of this small Catholic Mission church outside of South Fork.

Thanks, Sal and Bobbie, for your visit. We enjoy you both so much!

Remember, you are loved!

Energizing Smoothie

Our daughter, Beth, has been making an energizing smoothie for breakfast for several years. Beth told me that the smoothie works with any two veggies and three fruits. She always uses kale since it is such a superfood. Then uses almost any vegetable like carrots, cabbage and cucumbers (another superfood) and whatever fruit she has around. 

When we visited her a few weeks ago, she made me one of her smoothies…wow…what a kick in the butt of energy did it provide!!!  I really liked the smoothie and wanted to duplicate it.

Since we don’t have a blender or food processor I started researching for a good blender that would do a good job of grinding up the veggies.  That’s when I found Ninja Master Prep Professional.  It’s a food processor with two bowl sizes and a blender.  It has a removable motor that fits on top of the bowls and blender. I was telling my friend, Lory, about it and she said she had one.  So I borrowed it from her and took it home for a test drive.  It did a good job of mixing things up.  We made homemade salsa (recipe was in the instruction booklet with the machine) and it came out great. I figure I could use the medium size bowl for daily smoothies, the little bowl for salsa, hummus and stuff, and the big 48 oz. blender for those wonderful pineapple daiquiris.

OK, that’s what I wanted.  So when I brought it back to Lory we got online to see how much amazon.com wanted to for.  It was $41.99.  OK, that’s a pretty good price.  So after talking to Jim the next morning I was set to buy one…ah, ah when I went online it was $54.99, gads!  Did I want to pay that much?  I’ll wait to see if it goes down.  So I checked it the next day and it was $65.99, double gads!  Today the prices was $58.99 so maybe it will go down again tomorrow.  We’ll see, but I really want that blender/food processor!!! 

 

 

There is a Ninja Master Prep at Walmart but it’s 50 watts less, has only the large blender and small bowl for $39, but I want the professional model.

 

So this morning I was really wanting a smoothie but without a blender what to do?  Then I remembered Rich and Terri had given me an immersion wand for a birthday present a few years ago.  Would it work?  Would it grind the veggies sufficiently?  Let’s find out.  I used a tall, slender storage container and put in some apple cider, yogurt, a carrot, a leaf of kale, a few strawberries, a banana and a palmful of blueberries.  Turn on the immersion wand and whiz away. 

It came out pretty good…pretty chewy as the bits weren’t ground up completely, but it tasted good.  And about 10 minutes after drinking it I got such a rush of energy I started cleaning house like crazy.

Mission accomplished!

So I’ll continue to use the immersion wand to make my daily smoothies until the Ninja Professional blender goes down in price and I buy it. 

Remember, you are loved.

Knitting

We have been having a lot of wind storms in this area the last couple of weeks.  Makes me want to just stay inside…what to do? Knit, of course!

Jim’s boss at amazon.com recently had a baby so I thought I’d whip up a knitted gift for him.  They named him Herschel, but are going to call him “Tractor”. They showed a photo of him in a sweatshirt with a tractor on it. So I thought I’d carry out the “John Deere” theme. 

I had to be silly, of course, so I put the outfit on Chorizo for a funny photo…love the booties on him!

              

There are a lot of deer roaming all through the town.  Any time of day you can see three or four deer walking down any street in town or sitting on someone’s front lawn.  Yesterday morning four deer walked close to us.

We drove up to South Fork yesterday and stopped to visit with our buddies, Rich and Terri Deacon, at the campground they manage.  They just moved up there so they are in the midst of cleaning up and going through a whole winter’s worth of mail.  After our visit Jim and I drove to five of our campgrounds to check them out.  They all looked in pretty good condition and it doesn’t look like we’ll have much of a clean-up job to be ready to open.

We’ll probably move up to Rich and Terri’s campground this week just for a change of scenery and to be close to friends.  Jim will be able to get in some quality fishing before we go to work.

Remember, you are loved. 

Busmen’s Holiday-Both of Us

Yesterday Jim and I both had Busmen’s Holidays of sorts.  My dear friend and computer guru, Lory Sanchez, asked me to come along on a client call yesterday.  As many of you know Lory has taught me most everything I know about computers.  She was my boss when I first got into computers back in 1998 with the Alamosa School District.  She is the one who encouraged me to take a correspondence course on PC Repair which enabled me to get a tech job at the public library.  She is generous with her knowledge and has a heart of pure gold!

The clients were Rita and Jerry Phillips who live in Trinchera Ranch outside of Fort Garland…it was a very pretty drive into the mountains.  Here’s the views of Mt. Blanca from their home…breathtaking!

         

 

 

 

 

 

Jerry wanted to network their two computers and share files along with some general technology questions we were able to answer and some helpful software we downloaded for them.  Lory got on one computer and I got on the other and we worked together….like old times…it was fun getting my hands back in. Here’s Lory teaching how to use some software.

                     

Rita is a very accomplished quilter.  She makes and sells beautiful cloth purses and totes…well, you know me and totes….I had to order one for myself.  The purses and totes all have multiple pockets on the inside so they are very versatile and handy to use.  Rita only charges $25 for the totes and $40 for the purses.

	See how the pockets hold all our “stuff”
	Inside pockets
	Tote insides
	Love the color coordination

You can even bring her your own fabric or tell her what colors you want and she’ll pick them out from her large fabric stash.

Fabric stash

This is what I ordered

Rita’s very well organized sewing room

   
After we finished, Lory and I stopped at All Gon restaurant in Fort Garland.  They specialize in homemade Mexican and Italian food and serve good pizza, Lory said. We decided on soup and salad and what a large selection they had for a small salad bar.  They had great tasting posole and green chile and chicken chili. 

They also serve homemade fudge and have an innovative item called Fudge Shots!

Look at some of the names. Kickin’& Screaming had red chile flakes	Lory with her Chocolate & Coconut -I got Coffee & Crème…wonderful!!!

Jim’s Busman’s Holiday happened when his brother, Don, called asking for Jim’s help at a large grass fire they were fighting outside of town.  They needed water so Jim went to the grocery store and bought ten cases of water and then drove out to the fire and passed the water out.  He did some fetch and carry things that were needed and was gone about five hours.  He had a ball!!!

We found out this morning Don was out on the fire till 3 a.m. and some firefighters stayed all night.  The fire turned into a mutual aid affair involving other towns in the area sending their firefighters to help out.  We’ve had such high wind storms for the last two weeks the fire could easily get away from them without their diligence.

Did you know that 71% of all firefighters are volunteers???  That’s something to ponder.  Unless you live in a large city your fire department is probably run by volunteers who leave their place of work or their warm home to care for you and yours!  They all deserve our thanks and appreciation.  I know I am very proud of Jim and his 23 years of volunteer service with the fire department.

Well, we have a double-header scheduled today with the Rockies playing the Mets.  So far we have had a great start for the season as the Rockies are 8 - 2.  So much fun to watch!!!  Today’s games are not being broadcasted so we are listening to the game on our XM satellite radio.  So far, so good 5 to 2.

Remember, you are loved.