Spring in Winter Clothing

Spring in the Midwest is fickle as a three-year-old child. Stuck in the convergence of weather systems swooping down from Canada and surging upward from the gulf coast of Texas the day can bring just about anything. Tulips covered in snow is not an unusual scene here. Until the season has officially changed and the jet stream makes up its mind which direction it wants to wander, it can do anything from snow to bathe us in 80 degrees and sun.



This year spring sprung like a broken wind up alarm clock. We arrived in early April to consistent upper 60’s and lower 70’s and sun more days than not. I was keeping my winter Texas tan, woodland flowers  bloomed, birds I saw in Texas started to arrive, then just when I thought Iowa was really in the clear everything came unraveled. The sun went behind the clouds 5 days ago, and the ice water rain started falling from the sky. The last week of April here has been colder than the worst Texas had to offer in the ‘dead of winter’.

I have to keep reminding myself, ‘at least I didn’t have to endure an Iowa winter. The irony for me is, even when I faced winter each year spring was the season I dreaded most and apparently still do.  As an avid gardener,  one would think spring is my favorite season. Nothing could be further from the truth. I detest spring and its inability to make up its mind. Spring is like a bad high school boyfriend, every now and then it does something nice and you think you can trust it, then it turns away and acts like it was never there. We have talked about waiting a couple of weeks longer next year to come back but as evidenced this week, even late April isn’t entirely safe.

Our friends from Texas have arrived to see Iowa on its worst spring behavior. All the outdoor things I have planned will still likely happen but we won’t be in shorts and tee shirts. It will be hotter than blazes here soon, I keep telling myself.  My skin will darken again and I’ll feel healthy and warm. It’s hard to accept that part of the reason Iowa is so lush and green with grass like thick shag carpeting and trees towering over 50 feet and shading an entire yard is this wet cool nastiness they call spring.

My cool weather vegetables growing in containers in front of my RV are hovering close to the dirt waiting for the sun to return. I’m hovering in my RV under my blanky waiting to turn the heat off. One thing for sure is I am thankful we have an indoor job at Saylorville. This is our weekend to work, at least we don’t have people coming in the Visitor’s Center telling us what nice weather we are missing.  If it weren’t for the Mother’s Day pre-school craft booth I’m planning to have and all the prep that goes with it, I would have trouble staying awake at ‘work’ this weekend.

This coming week I’ll do my best to show our friends the real beauty of Iowa, warm up at the Iowa Tap Room with some tasty Iowa craft beer and Midwest comfort food, and maybe I’ll see my legs sticking out of shorts again soon.  In the meantime I'll dream of summer.

[caption id="attachment_279" align="alignnone" width="165"] Summer time on my boat[/caption]

Until next time…

Annie's Diary April 24th 2017

Things finally stopped moving again.  It seemed like every time we turned around the walls started moving and the house would shake all day.

[caption id="attachment_273" align="alignnone" width="300"] Hanging out by the Arkansas River[/caption]

We stopped at a place that Buster and I really liked. It was next to the water and there were lots of birds and squirrels in the yard. We really liked it there but we didn’t stay very long.

Buster and I decided we like where we are now. I hope our humans like it too so we can stay awhile. Barefoot lady still insists on carrying us out and putting the things around our neck. We know how to walk just fine but she insists on carrying us. We have a nice yard next to the woods.

[caption id="attachment_271" align="alignright" width="300"] Keeping an eye on things[/caption]

There are a lot of things to watch. One night we were laying out there and deer came by and said ‘hi’ on their way to their sleeping place.  There is also a piece of tree that I like to sit on and watch everything.

It was fun in Texas since they let us run loose sometimes, but it is nice to be where the grass is thick and the ground is soft to dig in. Texas was hard and prickly. We had burrs stuck in our feet a lot and had to work hard to get them out of our fur. Iowa is much softer.

We are pretty sure we are somewhere we have been before because the little people with the loud voices are back.  Some of them are nice, but there is one who is really loud and I’m afraid of him.  Even when I go in our door under the stairs I can’t get away. He sticks his head in the hole and swings the thing they kill flies with at us. Even when I smack him with my paw or hiss at him, he just laughs at me. He is supposed run away when I do that but he doesn’t.

Fuzzy man is building something out of wood. It smells like the deck where we used to live. I remember that smell I used to spend my days laying on it and keeping an eye on the yard.  It is sitting right by the door of the house and we have to go on it to get in and out.  Buster and I think he must really like us since he is making something new for us to scratch on.

I wish they would just let me walk around outside and go where I want instead of being on a string. Sometimes I just lay in my window in the back and watch or take a nap with the breeze blowing in. Buster and I are happy here. I think our humans are too.

[caption id="attachment_272" align="alignnone" width="169"] Pure Contentment[/caption]

 

Home at Saylorville Lake

We arrived at Saylorville Lake Volunteer Village the second week of April. We’re meeting and getting to know our new neighbors as they arrive and are excited about our new digs for the summer. We are not strangers to this place by any means. We were introduced here the summer of 2001 and have been together ever since. We have camped here regularly every summer for the past 16 years and this place remains special to us. It is also centrally located to our three kids and their families and most of our friends. In the realm of RV workcamping, you might say we hit the jackpot when we were offered the Visitor’s Center position here.

[caption id="attachment_266" align="alignnone" width="300"] View to the north from the VC Deck[/caption]

We have had a chance to see all three kids and most of the grand kids. We’re making our way around to see friends that we missed this winter. The funny thing to me is we are also in the process of getting to medical appointments, eye exams etc. I realized we are now the snowbirds that were my bank customers for so many years. I remember them talking about their routine when they came back to Iowa each spring. Doctors, banks, grand kids not necessarily in that order. For me a hair appointment is coming. I got lazy and didn’t get my hair cut all winter. The pony tail is my preferred style these days and I’m kind of set in my ways and didn’t want to have to explain my mop to a new stylist. I love the person who has cut my hair for years and I didn’t want to miss a chance to go see her. I do kind of feel sorry for Erin, since she will have to wade through the mess of overgrown layers, kind of like going into a flower bed in the spring and cleaning out the winter mess.

Our ‘job’ is to man the Visitor’s Center 20 hours a week, which is to say we get to visit with people who are visiting the area, talk to them about what there is to do here and sell things from the gift shop. I am surprised at how much we didn’t know about this place having spent so much time here over the years.  Our new role has given us a perspective we didn’t have as campers. We can tell you every nook and cranny of the  Prairie Flower campground and the lake shoreline from our years camping and boating. I hate to admit, we had only visited the Visitor’s Center once over the years and were quite unaware of the extensive habitat management that is going on behind the scenes, the secondary interpretive trails and the number of education programs that take place here at the lake. It is quite a fresh new face to us.

I returned from Texas with the ‘birding’ bug and am seeing Iowa through a new set of eyes. I’m quite sure these birds have been here all along. The difference now is, their presence resonates with me and I’m enjoying seeing and hearing a nice variety of birds; some here to stay for the summer, others, are migrating to points further north and I’ll know to watch for them again late this summer or early fall as they make their way back south.

Our new friends from Texas will be stopping here for several days on their way to a NWR further north and I wanted to be sure John and Cathy got to experience to good birding while in Iowa. I have learned that one of the best birding opportunities exists right here at Saylorville!  Who knew? It will be fun to go with them and see what birds are here that my untrained ear and eye hasn’t noticed yet.

As the summer goes by we’ll slip into our old routine of family events and spending time with friends. The most striking difference will be our absence from the camping group. We’ll visit the group campsite but to pull the camper out of volunteer village for a weekend at another park with the group will be far too involved given our permanent lifestyle. I’m excitedly planning my new container vegetable and flower garden and have started assembling my supplies. I have a good friend and a daughter who want yard and garden help, so I won’t miss gardening as much as I thought I might. In fact, I’ll probably get to do more of it since I don’t work full time any longer. An unexpected bonus!

We know where we will be working in Texas next winter, so for now our only job is to enjoy where we are and look forward to all the new experiences that await!

Until next time…

The First 6 Months

Last week marked the six month milestone of our life as full time RV volunteers.  I must say it has been everything we imagined it could be and then some. Personal myths I had about the lifestyle have been dispelled and new revelations I never imagined have emerged.

As we make our way back to Iowa from our winter home in Texas Hill Country it is finally hitting home with us that we do not own property anymore. Yes, we are returning to Iowa and all that is familiar there. But ‘going home’ means something entirely different. It is now a concept, rather than a tangible place. We are lucky in that virtually all of our family is located within a 100-mile radius. Many of those we have met on the road had kids, grand kids and siblings scattered all over the continent. I have realized how incredibly lucky we are to have our kids and siblings all in the same place. That is what home means to us now.  So, to those who asked me over the winter, “has it sunk in yet?”  I can finally say, “Yes, it is starting to”.   Do we have any regrets?  Absolutely not!

One of the big myths we both shared about embarking on this lifestyle, is that the number of years we would do it would be determined by the number of years we were both alive and healthy. As we meet people we realize that death or major illness won’t necessarily force us back into a brick and mortar home, quite the opposite. We met many this winter who have been widowed and the common thought is that this was the life they lived, why would they change? They return to the same places as guests or volunteers and carry on. In some cases the RV was traded to something more suitable to a single person. But death of a spouse does not equal death of the lifestyle. We met others who carried on even though there was a major health issue with one of them. We spent 30 days next to a couple who had endured the husband suffering from some sort of infection that resulted in the amputation of his left leg just above the knee. He was working to perfect the fitting of a prosthetic leg and learning how to get around with it, while we were neighbors in November. It never crossed their mind to sell the RV and buy another house because of it. As a result of meeting these people and having ‘what if’ conversations with other Full Timer’s the conversations are more about what kind of RV will we get or what kind of work will we seek out, not where will be buy a  conventional home. I’m sure there are some who would make the choice to come off the road, but we have found that we don’t believe either one of us will want that when the inevitable happens.

We have learned to keep travel plans fluid. Severe weather is a real threat when your home is not anchored into the ground by footings or a basement foundation. However, that is an advantage given modern weather forecasting and the fact that RV parks and campgrounds are plentiful. We put that into practice on our return trip to Iowa this spring.  Bad weather? No worries, we’ll simply stay another day or take a different route.

I don’t miss gardening as much as I thought I would. The refuge allowed me all the hours I wanted working in their landscaping.  I spent as many hours planning my new container garden and researching the nuances of that type of food production as I have in past years planning my garden in my old back yard. I am just as excited as any other year to start growing vegetables and flowers.  My daughter and I have discussed building raised gardens in her new yard. Heck, I may get to do more gardening than ever as a result of our lifestyle change. Who’d have thunk it?

Champ, a prolific modifier and fabricator, has stayed plenty busy making tweaks and improvements to the RV.  Even without a shop and all the modern tools, he has made all sorts of improvements to the RV. Building out custom storage areas, moving or adding electrical outlets to suit our specific needs. We even have a dedicated outlet with a switch inside to operate outdoor Christmas decorations! He does miss his welder, I think. There have been a couple of things that he couldn’t do. Not the least of which was we traded our truck just before heading south and our hitch set up was not compatible with the truck set up. Had he still owned a welder and had a garage it would have been an afternoon project to made the necessary modifications. Instead the welding shop couldn’t get the work done in our time frame so we had to borrow a hitch from a friend that was compatible and wait till we return home this spring to get the work done at home by a trusted experienced welder that Champ has known for decades. Good thing we have managed to convert most of our friends from travel trailer owners to 5^th wheel owners. It was a huge favor, and much appreciated.

We’ll be ‘home’ in a few days.  As we settle into our digs at Saylorville and get to know our new companions in volunteer village we’ll enter into the next six months without some old myths in our minds and an ever broadening outlook on our new lifestyle. We are so excited to see our kids and grand kids we are both about to come out of our skin. We feel something like the proverbial horse who can see the barn. The closer we get the more we want to get there. On the other hand, we have our Texas ‘job’ lined up for next winter and we look forward to returning to Texas with its warm weather and warm-hearted people.

The cats are enduring one last leg of travel home. They get stressed but recover quickly. Soon they will be in a new site and will stay there longer than they have stayed anywhere since we extracted them from their ideal cat life running in and out of the house at will, before they even knew what a collar was.

For now, the sun is shining and the road is smooth.

Until next time…

Annie's Diary Entry 4-2-17

[caption id="attachment_75" align="alignnone" width="300"] Annie[/caption]

My name is Annie, I’m a beautiful calico and I live with another cat named Buster. He’s gray and has stripes. He’s also very fat and warm to sleep with. There are two humans who live with us. The fuzzy man and the barefoot lady. They’re not bad for humans, though I’m not sure how smart they are sometimes. Even though we have names they call us all sorts of things like they can’t remember what to call us. We know what they mean though and they are always nice to us and make sure we have food and water so we don’t  have to hunt  to eat.

[caption id="attachment_21" align="alignright" width="300"] Buster[/caption]

I used to live in a big house and got to go outside whenever I wanted. There was a time when I could go outside and climb trees to chase the birds, I laid on the roof of the big house a lot. I really liked it up there. There was also a big cornfield and barn. I went there every day to hunt or sleep in the cool dirt.

The humans had another house that sat in the back yard. I liked it when it was there, I would lay under it and watch everything.  Sometimes it was gone, but they always brought it back for me to lay under for shade.

One day a long time ago they let me go in the little house. It was really neat. It smelled like the humans but not like us. Me and Buster went in and rubbed our scent all over it. We liked it. Then one day, when we were in the little house, all the walls moved and the house got really small and it was hard to find our way around in it. Then the humans left and it started to shake. Buster and I were scared. It was noisy and shaking a lot. We couldn’t sleep and it was hard to walk around so we got under the table and waited.  After a long time, it stopped and the humans came back.  All the walls moved again and it was easier to walk around. We went outside but everything was different. There were so many smells we couldn’t figure out where we were.  The barefoot lady put something around our necks and we couldn’t walk very far.  It was horrible. We wanted to go back to the big house and the cornfield but we couldn’t find it.

The house shook a lot.  The fuzzy man and the barefoot lady were never there when it happened. We tried to tell them about it but they didn’t understand.  It stopped happening and we started having a good time again. We got to go outside without the tight things on our necks.

[caption id="attachment_222" align="alignleft" width="300"] The little house[/caption]

There were birds and mice but the cornfield was gone.  Everything was prickly and the trees smelled different. We started to like our new yard, but then yesterday the walls moved again, and the house is shaking a lot. Our humans are gone again. We’ll try to tell them when they come back, but like I said earlier, they aren’t very smart and don’t understand what we say. They just pet us on the head and give us food. They’ll want to sit in our chairs, so we’ll have to sit on top of them to rest.

When the house isn’t moving it’s a nice house. We have dark quiet places to hide in our new house. I’ll tell out about it some other time.  For now, I just hope the shaking stops soon.