Saylorville Lake Sunny 84 Degrees
We are finally getting May weather! We had to wait till late July to get it, but that is how it goes in the Midwest. The temperature is influenced from so many different places you never know what you will get. The only thing we know for sure is that we will not endure an avalanche, there are no mountains. And hurricanes will not make landfall here, even though they are known to drench us in several days of rain if they make landfall in Texas. Outside of that anything can and does happen here.
I have been thinking a lot about health and longevity lately. It occurred to me that people who work camp are general a healthy lot. Most fellow work campers I meet are fairly to obsessively health conscious. I have to wonder “Are people healthy because they work camp, or do they work camp because they are healthy?” Kind of a chicken and the egg question. I think it leans toward the latter and goes on because of the former to some extent.
Take our friends Will and Judy. They have been doing this for 18 years. They are both 79 years old and run circles around folks young enough to be their kids. That includes me, on both counts!
Full-time RV lifestyle is physically demanding weather you work camp or not. Just preparing to move, pulling (or driving) the thing from point A to point B, and setting back up is a lot of work. Even on full hook-ups you have to be able to dump your tanks once a week or so. We don’t walk into the garage like we did in our sticks and bricks home. We stoop down and stand on one leg, put our head under our armpit and reach over with the opposite arm to get a screwdriver out of the compartment. The roof needs attention regularly to maintain it. It’s not a young mans game crawling up the ladder and hoisting yourself on the roof to clean off the AC vents, clean out the little gutters or sweep the mulberries off so they don’t stain the roof purple.
I’m learning quickly, widowhood rarely takes the surviving spouse off the road. They just carry on. But a progressive chronic illness in one half of a couple or a single person will take them off the road right now. Staying healthy is on the minds of all of us. We all have our different methods. At the root of it is what we all want no matter how we live. Quality of life for how ever many years we get on this earth, or on the road in our case.
Until next time…
Tuesday, July 24, 2018
Friday, July 20, 2018
Day 142 / 223 Back In The Old Neighborhood
Saylorville Lake Cloudy 78 Degrees
Receding flood waters and lots of hard work from the Natural Resources crew that Champ works with, and the maintenance staff the past week allowed us all to move back into our Village today. We had some downright crazy weather here yesterday! About 3PM a massive tornado outbreak began that went on for several hours in Iowa. Numerous towns took direct hits including downtown Marshalltown who lost their century old clock tower on the courthouse. Yes, I mean lost, the tornado picked it right off the building and dropped in elsewhere. A major manufacturer in Pella took a direct hit as well during production hours. Miraculously know one was killed. Until yesterday I had not seen a tornado in my lifetime. I saw several yesterday in the distance as we were headed to Altoona to pick up Hunter and Isaac. We were contacted by many friends around the country who told us we made the national news that evening. We were in a sort of donut hole. Tornadoes touched down all around us. Where we were the sun shone, no rain fell and the winds stayed relatively calm.
Since buying the motor home the grand kids have all been intrigued with the driving compartment. We thought it would be fun to go get the boys since they are close and let them ride with us the 10 miles around the lake between campgrounds when we moved today. The plan was keep them overnight to spend some time with them and let them move with us. Isaac was not a fan of coming with us. Having just arriving home from daycare and not seeing his mom yet, who was still at work he wanted to stay home. Hunter thought it sounded like a good idea, so we got some one on one time with him and he got all kinds of new adventures.
[caption id="attachment_1052" align="alignright" width="225"]
Hunter leaving on his first motorcycle ride.[/caption]
Not only did he get to help pack up the motorhome and ride in it with grandpa when we moved. He also got his first real motorcycle ride! Champ used to ride around the acreage with him when we was a baby, perched on the gas tank, but this was a real ride on the back with his helmet on and out on the road. He got the full affect of the joy of being on a motorcycle and the unobstructed view of the lake as they road across the mile-long bridge. He’s hooked!
We’re all set up, but in another site with better shade. A good thing since our AC is still waiting on a part and running in low capacity. The evidence is still quite present that this was underwater a week ago. The flood line behind the motorhome tells a story. There is still some debris between sites. This new site is the first one in from the tree line that separates the village from the road that leads to the boat ramp and beach. You can see the road through the trees, except now it is littered with dead trees, deposited by the flood waters and left behind as it receded. It will take several days of heavy equipment and dump trucks to haul it all away and either munch it up or pile it to burn. It won’t happen any time soon, the water is still up the road way and probably 15 feet deep on the parking lot. Barring any heavy rain up north, it will be several weeks before the water is back to normal conservation pool again. It doesn’t smell as bad as I thought it would. Mostly, it smells like dirt, not the rotting vegetation smell I anticipated. A few good rains and a couple of rounds of mowing and you’ll never know it flooded here. The wild animals will have the toughest adjustment since the humans have invaded their shrunken habitat once again. I feel bad for them. They are really struggling to find food and shelter. The road way is strewn with animals that did not make it across and probably would not have been near the road had their home not flooded.
[gallery ids="1053,1054,1055"]
The cats were not thrilled when they realized we were moving again, yet when we arrived back here they seemed to know where they were. I brought them out on their lines, they looked around and walked to the back of the pad where they are normally tethered and laid down on the hill. As if to say, “yep, we're back home again.”
With any luck we can now get back to some normalcy with our summer. There are three birthdays and the second wedding of the summer coming soon. We’re looking forward to lots of family time with the kids and more fun events. It’s been an chaotic year so far. At least there have been no real catastrophes, just a few bumps, a couple of floods and an emergency surgery. One thing is for sure, it hasn’t been boring!
Until tomorrow...
Receding flood waters and lots of hard work from the Natural Resources crew that Champ works with, and the maintenance staff the past week allowed us all to move back into our Village today. We had some downright crazy weather here yesterday! About 3PM a massive tornado outbreak began that went on for several hours in Iowa. Numerous towns took direct hits including downtown Marshalltown who lost their century old clock tower on the courthouse. Yes, I mean lost, the tornado picked it right off the building and dropped in elsewhere. A major manufacturer in Pella took a direct hit as well during production hours. Miraculously know one was killed. Until yesterday I had not seen a tornado in my lifetime. I saw several yesterday in the distance as we were headed to Altoona to pick up Hunter and Isaac. We were contacted by many friends around the country who told us we made the national news that evening. We were in a sort of donut hole. Tornadoes touched down all around us. Where we were the sun shone, no rain fell and the winds stayed relatively calm.
Since buying the motor home the grand kids have all been intrigued with the driving compartment. We thought it would be fun to go get the boys since they are close and let them ride with us the 10 miles around the lake between campgrounds when we moved today. The plan was keep them overnight to spend some time with them and let them move with us. Isaac was not a fan of coming with us. Having just arriving home from daycare and not seeing his mom yet, who was still at work he wanted to stay home. Hunter thought it sounded like a good idea, so we got some one on one time with him and he got all kinds of new adventures.
[caption id="attachment_1052" align="alignright" width="225"]
Hunter leaving on his first motorcycle ride.[/caption]Not only did he get to help pack up the motorhome and ride in it with grandpa when we moved. He also got his first real motorcycle ride! Champ used to ride around the acreage with him when we was a baby, perched on the gas tank, but this was a real ride on the back with his helmet on and out on the road. He got the full affect of the joy of being on a motorcycle and the unobstructed view of the lake as they road across the mile-long bridge. He’s hooked!
We’re all set up, but in another site with better shade. A good thing since our AC is still waiting on a part and running in low capacity. The evidence is still quite present that this was underwater a week ago. The flood line behind the motorhome tells a story. There is still some debris between sites. This new site is the first one in from the tree line that separates the village from the road that leads to the boat ramp and beach. You can see the road through the trees, except now it is littered with dead trees, deposited by the flood waters and left behind as it receded. It will take several days of heavy equipment and dump trucks to haul it all away and either munch it up or pile it to burn. It won’t happen any time soon, the water is still up the road way and probably 15 feet deep on the parking lot. Barring any heavy rain up north, it will be several weeks before the water is back to normal conservation pool again. It doesn’t smell as bad as I thought it would. Mostly, it smells like dirt, not the rotting vegetation smell I anticipated. A few good rains and a couple of rounds of mowing and you’ll never know it flooded here. The wild animals will have the toughest adjustment since the humans have invaded their shrunken habitat once again. I feel bad for them. They are really struggling to find food and shelter. The road way is strewn with animals that did not make it across and probably would not have been near the road had their home not flooded.
[gallery ids="1053,1054,1055"]
The cats were not thrilled when they realized we were moving again, yet when we arrived back here they seemed to know where they were. I brought them out on their lines, they looked around and walked to the back of the pad where they are normally tethered and laid down on the hill. As if to say, “yep, we're back home again.”
With any luck we can now get back to some normalcy with our summer. There are three birthdays and the second wedding of the summer coming soon. We’re looking forward to lots of family time with the kids and more fun events. It’s been an chaotic year so far. At least there have been no real catastrophes, just a few bumps, a couple of floods and an emergency surgery. One thing is for sure, it hasn’t been boring!
Until tomorrow...
Thursday, July 19, 2018
Day 141 / 224 Practically Paleo
Saylorville Lake Cloudy 72 Degrees
Iowans are breathing a sigh of relief as we bask in a few days of moderate temperatures. The summer has been one of endurance and change for sure. A big change in my world has been the way I eat and by proxy the way Champ eats. My journey toward a Paleo diet has happened by degrees over several years. I decided to share this here in case anyone who follows me has experience similar health issues and has yet to find a solution.
I’ll start by saying, I have lost respect over the years for the world of conventional medicine. I think it has its place and is wonderous if you suffer a traumatic injury or medical emergency or are born too early. But when it comes to over all health and the epidemic of chronic health issues that has gripped our society this past few decades, todays doctors seem to be clueless about nutrition or how to avoid feeling the way we do. They only know reactionary responses like throwing a drug at it without trying to figure out the root cause. My first experience was about 12 years ago when I was having severe nerve pain and numbness in my extremities. After only asking a couple of questions, my Primary Care doc told me I had fibromyalgia and got out her pad to write me a prescription for Lyrica. I almost ran out of the office! The next day I mentioned the interaction to my chiropractor as he was giving me an adjustment and he asked how much artificial sweetener I ate. He told me the evils of the chemicals in them and told me to start reading labels, gave me a list of generic names for said evil substances and started me on a B-Complex Vitamin regimen with strict orders to stop eating anything with artificial sweetener immediately. He also said it would take about 6 months to turn things around but assured me it would work. He was right.
Next stop on the journey was my old arthritic joints that are a result of playing too hard and working even harder in my younger years. I started researching the evils of refined sugars and inflammation. I decided on my own about 4 years ago to cut refined sugar out of my diet as much as possible. Guess what? My joints quit hurting, and I lost 30 pounds that I have kept off since.
All this time I have dealt with a sluggish lower GI track. I do a good deal of nutrition research anyway since my daughter was diagnosed with Celiac at age 19 after being sick her whole life. Again, conventional medicine failed her miserably as a child and teenager and still struggles to give her any real answers about her autoimmune issues. As her symptoms and issues have compounded over time I dive deeper into researching my hunch that everything circles back to what we put in our bodies. I have felt for many years that most of what is wrong with us is the crap that they call food that we buy at the grocery store and fuel ourselves with. The more I researched gut health the more I learned that over the counter meds for headaches, joint pain, acid reflux and a host of other aggravations we don’t like to feel are destroying our gut health and leading to most of what ails us. They are supposed to be safe right? I think the FDA has a very different definition of safe than I do. Safe for the health of the drug business maybe but not our bodies. I also read a lot about the grains we eat today what I call Frankengrain. The genetic tampering with our crops is down right scary.
What did I have to lose? I have always grown vegetables and cook from scratch. As I read several books about Paleo style eating I realized there are several levels of ‘compliance’ to the diet but the root philosophy is eat whole foods, local if you can and stay the hell away from refined sugar, dairy and grain of any kind. Eat like the Hunter Gatherers did. I realized quickly I had been moving in that direction with my diet for several years and I love vegetables so much Champ says I’m part rabbit. It wasn’t that big a leap for me. Champ would tell a different story. He eats Paleo dinners with me and I have noticed on his own he is making better food choices for himself for breakfast and lunch. He’ll never admit it, but he is noticing a difference too.
I say I’m practically Paleo because although I follow the main principles day to day and eat 7-9 servings of vegetables each day (it takes a lot of veggies to replace all that pasta and cereal!) I do occasionally drink a beer. It usually upsets my stomach now so I’m not as inclined as I used to be. I do eat brown rice a couple of times a month. I am not eating $12.00 a lb. grass fed hamburger but do buy better quality meats. And I’m pretty sure the chickens that lay the eggs I buy at the store, do not have names, nor are aloud in the house of the person who owns them. I am buying more than ever at local Farmer’s Markets and am going to start exploring local meat lockers for locally sourced meat. It’s a progression.
The cool part is I feel better than I have in years. The chronic burning pain in my gut has disappeared, I’m more regular that I was. My energy level stays consistent throughout the day, I am sleeping better, and I have only had one headache since three days after making the switch 9 weeks ago. A three-day migraine a couple of times a month and nagging tension headaches the rest of the time was par for the course for me before. Champ has been able to stop taking is OTC purple pill for acid reflux that he as taken for several years. The best part is we have both lost about 5 lbs. without really trying.
[caption id="attachment_1048" align="alignnone" width="225"]
Colorful Paleo Dinner[/caption]
I’m not saying I’ve found the fountain of youth, or a magic bullet. I do however believe more than ever that how we eat as a dramatic effect on how we feel. I do my yoga practice and stay strong as I can and eat a loose version of a Paleo diet and I feel great. I am now officially decaffeinated. I love what I eat each day and I love cooking even more these days. One thing I can say about Paleo food is “It sure is pretty”! The only thing I really miss is Pizza. I REALLY miss pizza.
Iowans are breathing a sigh of relief as we bask in a few days of moderate temperatures. The summer has been one of endurance and change for sure. A big change in my world has been the way I eat and by proxy the way Champ eats. My journey toward a Paleo diet has happened by degrees over several years. I decided to share this here in case anyone who follows me has experience similar health issues and has yet to find a solution.
I’ll start by saying, I have lost respect over the years for the world of conventional medicine. I think it has its place and is wonderous if you suffer a traumatic injury or medical emergency or are born too early. But when it comes to over all health and the epidemic of chronic health issues that has gripped our society this past few decades, todays doctors seem to be clueless about nutrition or how to avoid feeling the way we do. They only know reactionary responses like throwing a drug at it without trying to figure out the root cause. My first experience was about 12 years ago when I was having severe nerve pain and numbness in my extremities. After only asking a couple of questions, my Primary Care doc told me I had fibromyalgia and got out her pad to write me a prescription for Lyrica. I almost ran out of the office! The next day I mentioned the interaction to my chiropractor as he was giving me an adjustment and he asked how much artificial sweetener I ate. He told me the evils of the chemicals in them and told me to start reading labels, gave me a list of generic names for said evil substances and started me on a B-Complex Vitamin regimen with strict orders to stop eating anything with artificial sweetener immediately. He also said it would take about 6 months to turn things around but assured me it would work. He was right.
Next stop on the journey was my old arthritic joints that are a result of playing too hard and working even harder in my younger years. I started researching the evils of refined sugars and inflammation. I decided on my own about 4 years ago to cut refined sugar out of my diet as much as possible. Guess what? My joints quit hurting, and I lost 30 pounds that I have kept off since.
All this time I have dealt with a sluggish lower GI track. I do a good deal of nutrition research anyway since my daughter was diagnosed with Celiac at age 19 after being sick her whole life. Again, conventional medicine failed her miserably as a child and teenager and still struggles to give her any real answers about her autoimmune issues. As her symptoms and issues have compounded over time I dive deeper into researching my hunch that everything circles back to what we put in our bodies. I have felt for many years that most of what is wrong with us is the crap that they call food that we buy at the grocery store and fuel ourselves with. The more I researched gut health the more I learned that over the counter meds for headaches, joint pain, acid reflux and a host of other aggravations we don’t like to feel are destroying our gut health and leading to most of what ails us. They are supposed to be safe right? I think the FDA has a very different definition of safe than I do. Safe for the health of the drug business maybe but not our bodies. I also read a lot about the grains we eat today what I call Frankengrain. The genetic tampering with our crops is down right scary.
What did I have to lose? I have always grown vegetables and cook from scratch. As I read several books about Paleo style eating I realized there are several levels of ‘compliance’ to the diet but the root philosophy is eat whole foods, local if you can and stay the hell away from refined sugar, dairy and grain of any kind. Eat like the Hunter Gatherers did. I realized quickly I had been moving in that direction with my diet for several years and I love vegetables so much Champ says I’m part rabbit. It wasn’t that big a leap for me. Champ would tell a different story. He eats Paleo dinners with me and I have noticed on his own he is making better food choices for himself for breakfast and lunch. He’ll never admit it, but he is noticing a difference too.
I say I’m practically Paleo because although I follow the main principles day to day and eat 7-9 servings of vegetables each day (it takes a lot of veggies to replace all that pasta and cereal!) I do occasionally drink a beer. It usually upsets my stomach now so I’m not as inclined as I used to be. I do eat brown rice a couple of times a month. I am not eating $12.00 a lb. grass fed hamburger but do buy better quality meats. And I’m pretty sure the chickens that lay the eggs I buy at the store, do not have names, nor are aloud in the house of the person who owns them. I am buying more than ever at local Farmer’s Markets and am going to start exploring local meat lockers for locally sourced meat. It’s a progression.
The cool part is I feel better than I have in years. The chronic burning pain in my gut has disappeared, I’m more regular that I was. My energy level stays consistent throughout the day, I am sleeping better, and I have only had one headache since three days after making the switch 9 weeks ago. A three-day migraine a couple of times a month and nagging tension headaches the rest of the time was par for the course for me before. Champ has been able to stop taking is OTC purple pill for acid reflux that he as taken for several years. The best part is we have both lost about 5 lbs. without really trying.
[caption id="attachment_1048" align="alignnone" width="225"]
Colorful Paleo Dinner[/caption]I’m not saying I’ve found the fountain of youth, or a magic bullet. I do however believe more than ever that how we eat as a dramatic effect on how we feel. I do my yoga practice and stay strong as I can and eat a loose version of a Paleo diet and I feel great. I am now officially decaffeinated. I love what I eat each day and I love cooking even more these days. One thing I can say about Paleo food is “It sure is pretty”! The only thing I really miss is Pizza. I REALLY miss pizza.
Tuesday, July 17, 2018
Day 139 / 226 Why We Work
Saylorville Lake – Cloudy – 84 Degrees
People ask us all the time why we chose to work camp. We work for our site about 10 months out of the year. The other two months we find a nice RV Park and hang out and relax and socialize. There we run into full-time RV’ers who do all kinds of things. Some are retired and are on a perpetual vacation, others are snow birds who still own property elsewhere where they take the RV during the summer, we have met families who home school the kids on the road and contractors who work from their RV’s in a staggering variety of vocations. The reason for us to work camp is multi-faceted.
Most importantly it is economical. I ‘retired’ at the ripe old age of 51 when we hit the road. That posed a number of financial challenges namely health insurance for me and the reality that I am not eligible to contribute to an IRA now since I have no earned income. Essentially, I walked away from 15 or so years of retirement contributions to live my dream. I am working part-time this summer so will be able to make a partial contribution, but this summer is unusual. Work camping makes this life much more affordable and comfortable on Champs retirement income which keeps us comfortable.
The second thing we talked about when we started imagining this lifestyle is work camping as a way to stay in shape, active, and engaged each day. We are both healthy and work hard to maintain our health. Neither one of us can conceive of sitting in the lawn chair yet. Hopefully we’ll be about 98 years old before those days come.
With those two notions in mind we set out getting volunteer gigs in areas we want to spend time. As we have worked different areas we are realizing other benefits of the work camping lifestyle.
We have done some really cool things! One common theme amongst workcampers who work in wildlife areas is all the neat, hands on things they get to be a part of along side the biologists, and naturalists. My friend got to help release sea turtles that had been rescued from the cold Texas coast waters last year. I got to net and catch birds for banding one year. We leave a little mark on the places we go. A visitor’s center display here, a welcome kiosk there. Champ’s efforts helping plant over 3500 prairie plugs this summer will be visible in the form of vast fields of wild flowers here at Saylorville for years to come. My friend Judy is the driving force behind the beautiful butterfly gardens that grace Saylorville. There is a deep satisfaction in giving your talents and muscle to make a public place more beautiful or accessible.
The other unexpected reward is the depth of knowledge we gain by working behind the scenes and interpreting the park we are working in to the visitors. I have been a voracious learner and researcher since I was a child. This lifestyle is quite simply a dream come true on that level.
Like most new things, you imagine how it will be, then if you are 100% in you get so much more than you expected. Like any way of life, you get what you put in. In this case we are getting it back several times over.
Until tomorrow…
People ask us all the time why we chose to work camp. We work for our site about 10 months out of the year. The other two months we find a nice RV Park and hang out and relax and socialize. There we run into full-time RV’ers who do all kinds of things. Some are retired and are on a perpetual vacation, others are snow birds who still own property elsewhere where they take the RV during the summer, we have met families who home school the kids on the road and contractors who work from their RV’s in a staggering variety of vocations. The reason for us to work camp is multi-faceted.
Most importantly it is economical. I ‘retired’ at the ripe old age of 51 when we hit the road. That posed a number of financial challenges namely health insurance for me and the reality that I am not eligible to contribute to an IRA now since I have no earned income. Essentially, I walked away from 15 or so years of retirement contributions to live my dream. I am working part-time this summer so will be able to make a partial contribution, but this summer is unusual. Work camping makes this life much more affordable and comfortable on Champs retirement income which keeps us comfortable.
The second thing we talked about when we started imagining this lifestyle is work camping as a way to stay in shape, active, and engaged each day. We are both healthy and work hard to maintain our health. Neither one of us can conceive of sitting in the lawn chair yet. Hopefully we’ll be about 98 years old before those days come.
With those two notions in mind we set out getting volunteer gigs in areas we want to spend time. As we have worked different areas we are realizing other benefits of the work camping lifestyle.
We have done some really cool things! One common theme amongst workcampers who work in wildlife areas is all the neat, hands on things they get to be a part of along side the biologists, and naturalists. My friend got to help release sea turtles that had been rescued from the cold Texas coast waters last year. I got to net and catch birds for banding one year. We leave a little mark on the places we go. A visitor’s center display here, a welcome kiosk there. Champ’s efforts helping plant over 3500 prairie plugs this summer will be visible in the form of vast fields of wild flowers here at Saylorville for years to come. My friend Judy is the driving force behind the beautiful butterfly gardens that grace Saylorville. There is a deep satisfaction in giving your talents and muscle to make a public place more beautiful or accessible.
The other unexpected reward is the depth of knowledge we gain by working behind the scenes and interpreting the park we are working in to the visitors. I have been a voracious learner and researcher since I was a child. This lifestyle is quite simply a dream come true on that level.
Like most new things, you imagine how it will be, then if you are 100% in you get so much more than you expected. Like any way of life, you get what you put in. In this case we are getting it back several times over.
Until tomorrow…
Sunday, July 15, 2018
Day 137 / 228 Summer Flies By
In our second summer as full-time RV’ers I realize today that these are the manic months. We try to cram 12 months of family time and living and making up for being gone all winter into the 6 months from April to October. We consider ourselves very lucky that we have this great Corps park located centrally to all our family and friends to come and work camp for each summer.
[caption id="attachment_1041" align="alignnone" width="300"]
Part of the old group of camping girls[/caption]
This past week was crazy. We both pulled extra duty for the park doing dam gate duty. We had family and friends, who we used to camp with regularly, staying at Saylorville for the week so in between my job, our hours here and spending time with them, we barely slept. The week ended with one of the happy events we have been waiting for.
Last night our close friends daughter was married. The first of two weddings this summer. It was a beautiful evening for a casual outdoor wedding and reception nearby. It was one of those events that put us in front of people we havent seen in many years. Usually it's a funeral where that happens. How nice to be at such a joyous event and run into people. I had to laugh when someone asked if we were doing a lot of camping this summer. We took a few minutes and got them caught up on our life over the past couple of years. This morning we got up with no ambition to do anything or go anywhere.
We did pry ourselves out of the RV and go over to volunteer village to take a look at the condition as the water recedes. The water is going down and leaving all the debris we anticipated behind. The village didn’t smell as bad as I thought it would. Our pad is dry but there is some erosion on the road.
[caption id="attachment_1042" align="alignright" width="300"]
Our pad far left. The garden frame in the road with the firewood[/caption]
It was weird to see the frame for my raised garden bed lying in the middle of the road. The zinnia and blanket flower look strange blooming there in the middle of all the brown residue that has replaced the lush green Iowa grass. The water is back in the timber again and the lake continues to go down. I imagine sometime in the next couple of weeks if the rainfall continues to moderate they will restore the power and we can do the cleanup and get moved back over there around the first week of August. In the mean time we are enjoying our temporary spot in the shade. We pull out weekly to dump the tanks and fill with fresh water. I am getting practice driving the motor home in tight places and backing it back into the site.
It hit me this morning that our time in Iowa is half over for the season. I’m not sure how I feel about that today.
Until tomorrow...
[caption id="attachment_1041" align="alignnone" width="300"]
Part of the old group of camping girls[/caption]This past week was crazy. We both pulled extra duty for the park doing dam gate duty. We had family and friends, who we used to camp with regularly, staying at Saylorville for the week so in between my job, our hours here and spending time with them, we barely slept. The week ended with one of the happy events we have been waiting for.
Last night our close friends daughter was married. The first of two weddings this summer. It was a beautiful evening for a casual outdoor wedding and reception nearby. It was one of those events that put us in front of people we havent seen in many years. Usually it's a funeral where that happens. How nice to be at such a joyous event and run into people. I had to laugh when someone asked if we were doing a lot of camping this summer. We took a few minutes and got them caught up on our life over the past couple of years. This morning we got up with no ambition to do anything or go anywhere.We did pry ourselves out of the RV and go over to volunteer village to take a look at the condition as the water recedes. The water is going down and leaving all the debris we anticipated behind. The village didn’t smell as bad as I thought it would. Our pad is dry but there is some erosion on the road.
[caption id="attachment_1042" align="alignright" width="300"]
Our pad far left. The garden frame in the road with the firewood[/caption]It was weird to see the frame for my raised garden bed lying in the middle of the road. The zinnia and blanket flower look strange blooming there in the middle of all the brown residue that has replaced the lush green Iowa grass. The water is back in the timber again and the lake continues to go down. I imagine sometime in the next couple of weeks if the rainfall continues to moderate they will restore the power and we can do the cleanup and get moved back over there around the first week of August. In the mean time we are enjoying our temporary spot in the shade. We pull out weekly to dump the tanks and fill with fresh water. I am getting practice driving the motor home in tight places and backing it back into the site.
It hit me this morning that our time in Iowa is half over for the season. I’m not sure how I feel about that today.
Until tomorrow...
Friday, July 13, 2018
Day 135 / 230 A Cat's Eye
Saylorville Lake – Sun 90 Degrees
I haven’t written about Buster and Annie in some time other than an occasional anecdote. They have been travelling with us for almost 2 years now and we’ve learned some things about travelling with cats along the way.
When we first got serious about doing this we struggled with the cat question. We love our cats and they were free roaming, hunting king and queen of their universes. The thought of corralling them in a camper seemed cruel. Were we being selfish wanting them with us at the expense for their cathood? Was it best for them to find a home for them with someone who would allow them to come and go as they pleased like they were accustom to? We decided to let them tell us.
The summer before we took off we started taking them camping with us and they went on vacation with us that summer. The first weekend, I’m sure they thought they’d been kidnapped by aliens and subjected to every horror that could befall a cat. Being trapped in the 5th wheel, having a collar placed around their neck and a rope that wouldn’t allow them to take off. Noisy campgrounds with weird sounds and even weirder smells. They were stressed but did pretty good. Each time they went with us on a short trip that summer they got a little more comfortable. They soon learned the signals that we were preparing to go somewhere with the camper and became harder and harder to catch when it was time to take off. We talked at length about what would be best for them and even talked to a couple of people about taking them. In the end our selfishness overruled, and they went with us.
I have to say they have adapted quite well over the two years. I wonder if cats have any long-term memory. Do they remember the good ole days when they went on 2-day hunting safaris at harvest time? Do they remember the old house? Do they remember being outside without being tethered? All good questions, maybe karma will bring me back as a cat that travels with an RV’er and I’ll find out.
[gallery ids="997,768,704,443,273,22,37,1036,1037"]
Like us they prefer some places over others. They really loved the first wild life refuge we worked at since they were able to roam free a bit during the day. I think they felt like real cats there, hunting and roaming about the woods. Every now and then they seem to really like a place and we feel guilty for taking them away when it is time to move on. They do well here at Saylorville, but our temporary site while we wait for flood waters to recede is really to their liking.
They like the motorhome, with it’s big windshield to lay in and watch the world when they aren’t outside and the pass-through bathroom that provides an oval style racetrack for them at 3AM when they decide it’s time to get some exercise and romp.
I have found so far that veterinarians are very understanding with folks who travel. It’s easy to get a recommendation when needed and we carry their records with us, so we know what shots they need and when. That part is easy.
One thing I can say is they know the vibe when we are getting ready to move and they don’t like it. They stick very close together and spend a lot of time sitting with their backs to us to let us know their disdain. They recover quickly and still love on us. They are probably more spoiled now that ever due to our guilt for taking them away from their real cat life. At 8 and 6 years old they are healthy, and I think happy most of the time. Accept when grandkids come to visit with their quick movements and high-pitched voices. They can’t escape as easily in the motor home as they could in the 5th wheel when they would simply run through their cat door in the steps into the compartment aka the ‘cat condo’. Those were the days. As I went through pictures I’ve taken of them the past two years I think they are content and I hope they feel as warm and fuzzy toward us as we do them. Who knows with cats, they probably only care that we keep the food bowl full and leave once in a while, so they can lay on the kitchen counter without getting sprayed with a water bottle.
Until tomorrow..
I haven’t written about Buster and Annie in some time other than an occasional anecdote. They have been travelling with us for almost 2 years now and we’ve learned some things about travelling with cats along the way.
When we first got serious about doing this we struggled with the cat question. We love our cats and they were free roaming, hunting king and queen of their universes. The thought of corralling them in a camper seemed cruel. Were we being selfish wanting them with us at the expense for their cathood? Was it best for them to find a home for them with someone who would allow them to come and go as they pleased like they were accustom to? We decided to let them tell us.
The summer before we took off we started taking them camping with us and they went on vacation with us that summer. The first weekend, I’m sure they thought they’d been kidnapped by aliens and subjected to every horror that could befall a cat. Being trapped in the 5th wheel, having a collar placed around their neck and a rope that wouldn’t allow them to take off. Noisy campgrounds with weird sounds and even weirder smells. They were stressed but did pretty good. Each time they went with us on a short trip that summer they got a little more comfortable. They soon learned the signals that we were preparing to go somewhere with the camper and became harder and harder to catch when it was time to take off. We talked at length about what would be best for them and even talked to a couple of people about taking them. In the end our selfishness overruled, and they went with us.
I have to say they have adapted quite well over the two years. I wonder if cats have any long-term memory. Do they remember the good ole days when they went on 2-day hunting safaris at harvest time? Do they remember the old house? Do they remember being outside without being tethered? All good questions, maybe karma will bring me back as a cat that travels with an RV’er and I’ll find out.
[gallery ids="997,768,704,443,273,22,37,1036,1037"]
Like us they prefer some places over others. They really loved the first wild life refuge we worked at since they were able to roam free a bit during the day. I think they felt like real cats there, hunting and roaming about the woods. Every now and then they seem to really like a place and we feel guilty for taking them away when it is time to move on. They do well here at Saylorville, but our temporary site while we wait for flood waters to recede is really to their liking.
They like the motorhome, with it’s big windshield to lay in and watch the world when they aren’t outside and the pass-through bathroom that provides an oval style racetrack for them at 3AM when they decide it’s time to get some exercise and romp.
I have found so far that veterinarians are very understanding with folks who travel. It’s easy to get a recommendation when needed and we carry their records with us, so we know what shots they need and when. That part is easy.
One thing I can say is they know the vibe when we are getting ready to move and they don’t like it. They stick very close together and spend a lot of time sitting with their backs to us to let us know their disdain. They recover quickly and still love on us. They are probably more spoiled now that ever due to our guilt for taking them away from their real cat life. At 8 and 6 years old they are healthy, and I think happy most of the time. Accept when grandkids come to visit with their quick movements and high-pitched voices. They can’t escape as easily in the motor home as they could in the 5th wheel when they would simply run through their cat door in the steps into the compartment aka the ‘cat condo’. Those were the days. As I went through pictures I’ve taken of them the past two years I think they are content and I hope they feel as warm and fuzzy toward us as we do them. Who knows with cats, they probably only care that we keep the food bowl full and leave once in a while, so they can lay on the kitchen counter without getting sprayed with a water bottle.
Until tomorrow..
Wednesday, July 11, 2018
Day 133 / 232 The Crest
Saylorville Lake – Sun 94 Degrees
I woke up this morning feeling less like a sci-fi killer alien and more like my old self after a rather psychotic day yesterday. I honestly don’t know how husbands survive menopause. They must really love us! Champ put a new water pump on the motor home this morning and that problem is solved. The generator could be another story but it’s not high on the list with everything else that’s happening.
The lake crested Monday. As I drove across the mile-long bridge on my way home from work that evening, I took note of the tops of the trees that had disappear below the surface last week.
Champ spent the day doing natural resources work. Now that the constant rains have taken a break the heat is back in full force and the water bags they installed around all the new tress earlier this spring need filled with water. On days he isn’t standing guard at the dam gates he will work on that job this week.
[caption id="attachment_1029" align="alignright" width="300"]
Crest line near the top of our retaining wall.[/caption]
Monday evening, we went over to Volunteer Village to check out the crest line on our retaining wall. Site 8 next to us is completely underwater. The road will need some work but not much. The electrical boxes on the back row, including ours will need some work before they put the guts back in and turn them on. I’d say we got very lucky.
[caption id="attachment_1032" align="alignright" width="300"]
Close call[/caption]
The water came up to within a couple of feet of the back of the pad and just a couple of inches below the top of our retaining wall. The sludgy residue left behind by the receding flood water is reminiscent of the bathtub ring left by the average 4 year old who has had a good day playing outside at our place.
There are subtle signs of the stress the animals are under being driven out of their homes in the timber and having their food source get flooded. Several of us have hosta planted under the trees in our sites. They have all been eaten. I left a tomato plant in my front planter that is still high and dry but has been eaten. Nothing ever eats tomato plants, they taste terrible! Someone was very hungry. There is goose and raccoon scat all over the pads that will need pressure washed before we move back. Disease will plague the animal population the rest of the summer and mosquitoes will thrive. Standing there reminded me that my tetanus shot needs updated when I get my physical later this week.
[caption id="attachment_1030" align="alignleft" width="225"]
Hunter and Isaac throwing rocks into the flooded yard where we usually play ball with them. Water is about 5' deep there now.[/caption]
I imagine I’ll have to put the cats out toward the front of the pad when we move back. Who knows what kind of primordial crud will be growing in the aftermath of the flood. It will not smell anything like the “Iowa” candle my daughter gave me that smells like fresh cut grass, but more like a high school gym locker and rotting vegetation. With any luck, in a couple of weeks the water will be out of the village and off the road. Clean up will kick into high gear and eventually we’ll move back to our summer home.
This season has been a memorable one so far. Record snow in April when we arrived, record heat early and a sick AC, then record flooding. I could really use some good old boring routine the rest of the season. Isn't it funny how life can go from utterly boring to chaotic in the blink of an eye? I have to remind myself daily that the chaos can and will subside at some point. Just like midwest weather, if you don't like the current condition, wait 5 minutes it will change!
Until tomorrow…
I woke up this morning feeling less like a sci-fi killer alien and more like my old self after a rather psychotic day yesterday. I honestly don’t know how husbands survive menopause. They must really love us! Champ put a new water pump on the motor home this morning and that problem is solved. The generator could be another story but it’s not high on the list with everything else that’s happening.
The lake crested Monday. As I drove across the mile-long bridge on my way home from work that evening, I took note of the tops of the trees that had disappear below the surface last week.
Champ spent the day doing natural resources work. Now that the constant rains have taken a break the heat is back in full force and the water bags they installed around all the new tress earlier this spring need filled with water. On days he isn’t standing guard at the dam gates he will work on that job this week.
[caption id="attachment_1029" align="alignright" width="300"]
Crest line near the top of our retaining wall.[/caption]Monday evening, we went over to Volunteer Village to check out the crest line on our retaining wall. Site 8 next to us is completely underwater. The road will need some work but not much. The electrical boxes on the back row, including ours will need some work before they put the guts back in and turn them on. I’d say we got very lucky.
[caption id="attachment_1032" align="alignright" width="300"]
Close call[/caption]The water came up to within a couple of feet of the back of the pad and just a couple of inches below the top of our retaining wall. The sludgy residue left behind by the receding flood water is reminiscent of the bathtub ring left by the average 4 year old who has had a good day playing outside at our place.
There are subtle signs of the stress the animals are under being driven out of their homes in the timber and having their food source get flooded. Several of us have hosta planted under the trees in our sites. They have all been eaten. I left a tomato plant in my front planter that is still high and dry but has been eaten. Nothing ever eats tomato plants, they taste terrible! Someone was very hungry. There is goose and raccoon scat all over the pads that will need pressure washed before we move back. Disease will plague the animal population the rest of the summer and mosquitoes will thrive. Standing there reminded me that my tetanus shot needs updated when I get my physical later this week.
[caption id="attachment_1030" align="alignleft" width="225"]
Hunter and Isaac throwing rocks into the flooded yard where we usually play ball with them. Water is about 5' deep there now.[/caption]I imagine I’ll have to put the cats out toward the front of the pad when we move back. Who knows what kind of primordial crud will be growing in the aftermath of the flood. It will not smell anything like the “Iowa” candle my daughter gave me that smells like fresh cut grass, but more like a high school gym locker and rotting vegetation. With any luck, in a couple of weeks the water will be out of the village and off the road. Clean up will kick into high gear and eventually we’ll move back to our summer home.
This season has been a memorable one so far. Record snow in April when we arrived, record heat early and a sick AC, then record flooding. I could really use some good old boring routine the rest of the season. Isn't it funny how life can go from utterly boring to chaotic in the blink of an eye? I have to remind myself daily that the chaos can and will subside at some point. Just like midwest weather, if you don't like the current condition, wait 5 minutes it will change!
Until tomorrow…
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