Dinner Out

We hired a relief gate guard to take over for us for a couple of hours so we could go out to dinner last night with two of the ranch owners and their wives. (Because we aren’t suppose to discuss any gate guarding business on blogs or where we are precisely located, I’m not giving names and thus will adhere to the rules.) The twins are having a birthday on Thursday and with Jim’s birthday last Sunday we decided to go out and celebrate together. We went to Pepe Boudreaux’s whose mascot is an alligator wearing a sombrero….kinda cute.

Pepe Boudreaux’s serves wonderful Gulf shrimp and seafood with a smattering of Mexican selections.  They have Louisiana Boudin and several crawfish dishes.  Jim and I both choose the fried flounder and jumbo Gulf shrimp.  Oh, my, so delicious! 

Needless to say,  we couldn’t finish it all and we’ll have the leftovers for lunch.

We were gone three luxurious hours.  It was nice to “pretty up”, curl my hair and wear nice clothes for a change.  We had such a good time with great company!  Hope to do it again before we leave.

Remember, you are loved.
Read the story behind the saying HERE

Poncho and Chorizo

Our “puppies”, Poncho and Chorizo (a.k.a. Beanie and Weenie) are ten years old. They looove being covered up. 

Here’s Poncho sticking his head out of the covers and he found Chorizo’s bone toy to make a pillow for himself.  I thought it was so cute.

 

Here Poncho couldn’t quite get under the occasional pillow but he was trying.

 

The two dogs both like to sit next to me on my left side, so when one of them gets there first the other just lies on top of him so they can both be by me.

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Remember, you are loved
Read the story behind the saying HERE

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanksgiving 2012

This Thanksgiving holiday we are outside of Whitsett, Texas, gate guarding for the oil wells.  This will be the first time since we’ve been fulltime RVing that we will be by ourselves.  The last six years we’ve been at an Escapee RV Club park in Florida, Alabama, Texas, New Mexico or Arizona with other members or parked somewhere with friends.  Sharing a table with others has been nice and enjoyable, but we like own cooking and enjoy leftovers more than the original meal. 

This year we knew we’d be on the ranch by ourselves, so we planned for a full-blown turkey dinner “with all the fixins”, as they say.  Then we found out one of the ranch owners was going to bring a complete dinner for each of the four gate guard couples.  Humm….but we want leftovers….so decided to go ahead and cook anyway.

At noon the ranch owner delivered our turkey dinner with a plate of five desserts and wonderful rolls.  We sampled everything and boy can his wife cook!!!

I found a Lil Butterball weighing nine pounds at H.E.B Grocery that was a perfect size for the oven. Happily I had the convection oven to also cook the yeast rolls, asparagus/bean casserole, stuffing, candied yams and pumpkin pie.  Cooking a full turkey dinner took me seven hours of prepping Wednesday night. Jim stuffed the turkey and put it into the oven while I was asleep.  Together everything came out grand! Everything was delicious! Just shows you can cook any meal in an RV’s three foot of counter top space.

We invited Curtis, one of the production crew, to

eat with us.  Curtis stops by every day to chat with us.  It was funny, Curtis is always sitting in his truck when he comes to visit and we had never seen him out of his truck….till today... we were surprised. He is a tall glass of water…he’s a good six four LOL!!!

It was a nice, nice Thanksgiving Day dinner. One we thoroughly enjoyed!  I hope you had an joyous holiday as well with someone who loves you.

Remember, you are loved
Read the story behind the story HERE

What I Eat

I’ve been trying real hard to stick with my “cheegan”/vegan lifestyle. Breakfast is usually four fruits like banana, apple, strawberries and a pear.  Other times it’s a fruit smoothie or oat bran with fruit.

For lunch I usually have a salad of some sort. This one is Romaine lettuce, broccoli, carrots, edamame, onions, cucumbers, quinoa and beets. I drizzle it with a little rice vinegar.

Dinner for me is some kind of cooked vegetables or pasta dish. I tried out a recipe I found recently.

 

This is butternut squash, potatoes, onions and apples. Yummy!

 

 

 

Yes, it is challenging eating differently than Jim.  Most times we cook our own meals and eat together.  When Jim is grilling a steak, he will grill a portabella mushroom or eggplant for me.  Jim continues to be very supportive of my lifestyle change and we’re making it work.

My biggest challenge is keeping enough vegetables on hand when we only go grocery shopping every two weeks.  See, Pleasanton is 40 miles away and with diesel fuel being so expensive, we limit our trips to town.  After the first week I’ve used up all the tomatoes, spinach, cucumbers, broccoli and fresh fruits; it’s then I start using the butternut and acorn squash and the frozen vegetables and frozen fruits the second week.  It’s working out.

Please share any of your favorite vegetable dishes or soups.  I’m always looking for new dishes to try.

Remember, you are loved
Read the story behind the saying HERE

Water Needs Fulfilled

We don’t drink the water provided as it is kept in a very large black plastic tank and gets heated by the sun. What you are seeing is the trailer with the fuel tank on the left, the water tank and then the 15,000 watt generator on the right.

Last year we kept 15 water jugs that we filled every two weeks at one of those water filling machines at 15 cents per gallon.  It was a big headache and a frustrating task. 

The oil company will give us water in 5 gallon jugs but I didn’t have any way to use it.  So this year I looked into getting a ceramic water container that you use with a 5 gallon jug. But then I stumbled across a hand pump to use on a 5 gallon jug. 

Thank you amazon.com!  For $13.50 I got this big bruiser that is working out great. It siphons out about 1/4 cup per pump, so it doesn’t take much effort to fill a coffee pot. Plus it builds up the muscles LOL.

So now I have a convenient way to get water for drinking, cooking and the dog’s water dish. 

The guys from the rig have been great in bringing us one or two five gallon jugs a week, so it has been very convenient.

Remember, you are loved.
Read the story behind the saying HERE

Same-o, same-o

Not much changing around here except the weather.  Most of our daytime temps have been in the 86-92* range, but with the humidity we’ve been running the a/c all the time.  We are on the top of a hill and with all the caliche dust swirling around, we don’t keep any windows opened, so we run the fan or a/c.

Then yesterday a cold front came in and off with the a/c and on with the heat pump.  Temps going down to 45* and daytime now is about 51*.  Off with the sleeveless tee shirts and shorts and on with the sweat shirt and long pants. 

Without having to sign anyone in all we have to do is be available for questions and basically “wave” people in.  It does get a bit boring, but some of the guys stop by and chat. One permanent worker has become a consistent visitor and we’ve invited him to join us for Thanksgiving dinner.

Yes, we’re going to cook a full-bore holiday dinner with turkey, stuffing, bean casserole, homemade yeast rolls, cranberry sauce and homemade pumpkin pie. 

Yes, I know it isn’t vegan, but I decided I’m a Chegan….a cheating vegan LOL!!!!!  There are some meals I’m going to have regardless.  But I’ve been doing pretty good with my vegan/vegetarian lifestyle.  Thankfully Jim is very supportive.  He cooks his own meals and I cook mine. Sometimes we can share a meal like spaghetti when I get my sauce out and then put meat or meatballs in his portion.

Oh, BTW, I found the very best spaghetti sauce IMHO.  It’s Giada de Laurentii’s Roasted Garlic Pasta Sauce available only at Target. It was highly recommended in a magazine I read and I tried it; oh, it is sooooo good and I highly recommend it.  Before we came out here I bought four jars to keep on hand.
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We bought a signal booster locally but it didn’t improve the signal much, so we took it back.  Then we ordered another signal booster from amazon.com but it’s been backordered for two weeks so we still don’t have any cell or internet service.  Every few days we come into Whitsett where we can get five bars on our MiFi.  Hopefully, we’ll get a good signal once it’s installed.

Well that’s it for now, please leave comments or send emails.  I miss hearing from everybody.

Remember, you are loved
Read the story behind the saying HERE

 

Using a Signal Booster

Texas is AT&T country and not very friendly to us Verizon users.  We can text with our phones but can’t use our phones for voice calls and can’t get enough bars to use our MiFi.  The Mossman’s bought a Wilson Signal Boost DT and were able to get a good signal for both their phones and MiFi.  So yesterday after having lunch with Linda I went to Ronnie’s Computer Service in Pleasanton and also bought one.

While I slept today Jim set up the booster.  Well, I am on the internet but I’m not so sure this booster is going to work for us.  It won’t power our MiFi so I’m using Jim’s smart phone as a hotspot and am getting online with his phone.  Not perfect.  I’m thinking of returning this booster and getting Wilson’s DB Pro 65 multi-directional booster instead. It’s the aiming of the outside antenna that is a pain to line up correctly to the closest tower, so with a multi-directional antenna it does it for you….I hope.  But for right now I’m able to get online and publish a blog post.
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Linda and Jim Mossman are about 70 miles away from us, so when Linda texted me Sunday to see if I’d like to meet her for lunch in Pleasanton Monday I jumped at the chance.  I woke up early so I went in at 10 a.m. and got the truck’s oil changed, got Jim’s prescriptions and did my shopping done. About noon I met Linda at the laundromat and we got that stuff done. Lunch was at Chili’s with a good visit lasting an hour and a half.  By the time I spent time getting the signal booster and drove home it was after 5 p.m. 

That made for a long day and then I still had 10 hours to go on “my watch” before I could go to bed. But it is an easy, easy gate for us.  We don’t have to write down anyone’s information and only have to be available for directions and wave to the trucks as they pass by going in and out.  I spend a lot of time watching TV at night, knit and play games on the computer. 

Jim has it rough as he has to be outside in the heat during the day.  I do “spell” him after I wake up at 11 a.m. (Jim comes “on duty” at 3 a.m.) and let him to inside in the air conditioning to cool off. It’s still warm here in south Texas so we are keeping on the a/c most of the time during the day.

It’s working…we’re doing fine…glad to be back online!!!!!!

Remember, you are loved.
Read the story behind the saying HERE

Jazzy Hands

Since we don’t have to open and close any gates, I started doing what I call “jazzy hands” to the truck drivers when they go past our gate. Jazzy Hands is like the American Sign Language sign for applause to a deaf person.  The illustration below is from www.lifeprint.com

I twist my wrist and smile and the drivers seem to get a kick out of it.  I see them smiling as they wave back.  Yesterday one of the passengers even jazzy handed me back as he laughed!

Oh, I know it is foolish or silly, but these men (and occasionally a woman) work long, hard hours and if I can bring a little levity to their day I’m happy to do it.

Remember, you are loved.
Read the story behind the saying HERE