Osprey fishing trip

Saw this Osprey Sunday afternoon trying to pull a large gold fish out of Bluewater Lake. The fish must have been hooked/attached to the bottom, because he kept going under the water and coming up with it, but couldn't get it out of the water and ended up flying off without it.  Too bad, it was a nice fish.

 

From me and Katie, have a great Monday, everyone!  :)

If you haven't seen our My Memories.com Digital Scrapbooking Software Giveaway, click the link for information. I don't want you to miss out.

A Giveaway for one of our Followers :)

Today's post is something different for me.  I was contacted by My Memories, which is a digital scrapbooking company, asking me if I would be interested in having a giveaway for one of the readers of my blog.  I thought about it for a while, checked their website, and e-mailed back that I was interested.  When I agreed they gave me a copy of the program and a coupon for $10 to  purchase something in their store at mymemories.com.

I've been playing with it for a week or so - it seems to be designed to create different pages using the same design element style - ending up with a photo book.  You can also make cards and scrapbook pages, so I made some cards for my granddaughter, Lauren.  She is going to be six on the 21st, and I thought this would be a good try-out for the program I received,  My Memories Suite.  After making the cards below, I logged onto their site again and read through the forum items, and looked at some of the tutorials offered, which are Youtube videos.  Those are going to be really helpful.

I remember a while back there was chatter in the RV blogs about creating books of our RVing Blogs, and a few of you had some made.  I thought this program would be perfect for that.  When you choose a specific template for your book, the program puts together a bunch of pages, from four to 17 pages depending on the template you choose (you can add more pages, or delete pages if you want), with different images in the same template design, and each page is different.  You can use the pages as they create them, and you can also add or delete elements.  There are places to drop in your photos, and places to journal. From what I learned in their forum on the website, some people had their photo books printed through My Memories, and other people had other companies print their books, so you have a choice if you are going to have them printed.

I love using digital crafting programs to make greeting cards and other digital files and have been playing with this crafty stuff for years. I have thousands of digital images stored in files on my computer, and this program allows importing of images that are on my computer.

They have a lot of "Freebies" that come with the program, and a lot more on their website that I've downloaded.  I also ended up purchasing two kits with my $10 coupon.  Whoever wins the Giveaway will also receive a $10 coupon to purchase a kit or two of images or a couple of ready-made templates or "quick pages" to use.

So, I made three totally different cards.  Maybe I'll send Lauren all three?  Here they are - what do you think?

Lauren is having some of her friends over for a cupcake party.  They are all going to frost and decorate their own cupcakes as one of the fun things to do at her Birthday Party.  So this is a cupcake card.

Because Lauren is so beautiful, I wanted to make her a beautiful card - with six candles and six flowers for her sixth birthday.

And this is a photo birthday card with Lauren's photo.  She is a gymnast and this is Lauren posing in her new team leotard. I've probably put too many elements on this one, but I liked it.

Which one do you like best?

Since I've been playing with the program, it seems there's been a Freebie on their website every day. This is one from the other day, it's a "quick page" that you just drop photos into for a finished page:

You just import your photos, and you're done.

I just got this one from their site this morning, it's a pack of eight different papers:

If you are interested in winning the free giveaway, My Memories Suite, let me know in a comment and I'll put your name in a hat.  Two weeks should be long enough - so - let me know in your comment by the end of Sunday, September 29th.  I'll have someone here at the park pull out a name, and that person will be the winner of the digital scrapbooking program and the $10 gift certificate to spend in My Memories' on-line store.

If you are interested in checking out the site, it's mymemories.com.  I'll let you know in two weeks who our winner is!

Boy, are we ever getting the weather this week!  It's been so cloudy and rainy and lots of lightening and thunder, it's pouring right now, and we just had a crack of thunder that was really close.   My generator wouldn't work the other day and we had no sun all day, so I gave up and moved over to an electric site for the rest of my two weeks here.  First electric site all year.

Look at who came for breakfast this morning:

I remember last year one of the horses checked out my bar-b-que, too.  There must be some drippings on the burned wood that someone left.  Isn't he cute?

A few times the colt started racing around - I guess just like any kid, he had some extra energy to get out.

He walked around yesterday morning for a while full of greenery.  He must have had a nice roll in the grasses and flowers and some of it stuck.

Below is what the sky looked like right before the heavens opened up again.  

These poor horses, they've gotten a lot of rain in the last few days; they just stand there in the driving rain.  Can you see how hard it's falling in the photo below?  I guess they must be okay, but I feel bad for them. The Monsoon Season here is from June 15 through September 30, so I guess we'll be through it soon. 

Welcome to our two newest Followers,  wb3dzy AND Taryn Faust!  They don't show any information about themselves, or blogs, so ...  if either or both of you have a blog, let me know so we can check it out!  Thank you both for following along with me and Katie!  :)

From me and Katie, have a great weekend, everyone!  :)

Wordless Wednesday - Grown-up Treehouse

Treehouse at Camp Wandawega Lake Resort in Elkhorn, Wisconsin

From me and Katie, have a great Wordless Wednesday, everyone!  :)

Three-part Gloom and Doom :(

Yesterday morning when I was outside washing windows, cleaning the "city water" spout and it's plug that was leaking, and some other little chores, I noticed this at the rear of the rig:

That doesn't look good, right?  I noticed the fittings were pulling out and the material used to finish off the end was coming out.  I can't imagine how that happened, unless it was just normal weathering.  So, I cleaned up the area and got out my trusty silicone tube and pressed the pieces in as much as I could, and plugged all the openings so it's water tight again.  Judging from the last time I used silicone to plug an opening, it will probably only last a year, but it should get us through the winter, and I'll keep my eye on it.  (The same area on the right in this photo was losing it's "stuff" too, so I gooped it up with silicone before it gets bad.  Then I checked around the outside of the rig for any other bad spots, but these two were the only ones.)

Katie has been pretty vigilant about critters in The Palms.  She has woken me up very early every morning since we've been here at El Malpais with her "I hear a mouse" stance, pointing her nose right at the cab of the truck.  She also turns her head to look along the couch and back into the kitchen.  Every morning I check under the seats, and the snap-traps and sticky-traps are still there, empty, so I thought the critters were running around under the engine, and then running along the gravel under the couch side of the rig. 

Finally this morning, after Katie was so insistent that something was up there, I opened the hood of the truck, and lo and behold:

Whoa!  Big foot prints, nothing like the other tiny mouse tracks.  I got the Fresh Cab packets back out - I put them in the engine compartment at Bluewater, but removed them when I was driving and hadn't put them back.  Well...  this morning they went back, plus two new ones.

When I was fiddling around placing the packets, I heard noises coming from the back of the engine, around where the gas/brake pedals are - that corner of the engine compartment.  I went back and got a little white sticky trap and placed that on top of the battery.  Then I closed the hood and went inside. 

Katie was being insistent again, so I raised the hood again, and in just a matter of minutes, here were some foot prints on the sticky trap, but no animal.  I don't know how he walked over this glue-trap and wasn't stuck.  (The brown stains were there already, only the tracks are new.)  These were tiny prints:



I checked all over the place inside The Palms and there are no signs of rodents, none getting caught in traps, no poops, and no nests, so I'm thinking they were in the engine only, and then jumped down and ran under the motor home on the ground, and that's what Katie heard.  So far (fingers crossed) we haven't had any critters inside since I plugged the last two holes in the cab area.

I also got out my little solar lights and lined them up in the sun.  Tonight I'll place them around the tires and under the engine to see if the light will keep out the critters.  Oh, well.  We'll see what happens tonight.  I hope all is quiet.

I wonder if anyone else in the campground is having the same problem with critters. I'm the only one with a pet, though, so I guess if I didn't have Katie, I wouldn't have known something was in there.  I think I'll let them know they might want to check for foot prints in their engines.

My friend, Hazel - with the two Greyhounds -  let me know that her female dog was attacked by another Greyhound on Thursday.  She was visiting a friend and fellow camper, they were outside at the picnic table saying hello.  Her two dogs were on their leashes, and the other Greyhound was also on a leash. All the dogs were calm and friendly and the owners were right there, when suddenly the other dog went for Fleur's neck and caused quite a bit of damage.  Hazel took Fleur to the Vet in Grants, where Fleur had surgery on her neck and spent the night.  When Hazel picked her up yesterday morning, Fleur was all wrapped up around the wound with a drain to help with fluids.

Poor Sweet Fleur.  And poor Hazel, too.  That must have been such a scary experience for everyone concerned.  They go back to the Vet in two weeks to have the bandages, drain and wrappings removed and the stitches/or/staples taken out.  Hazel,  I hope Fleur is feeling better today and will have a speedy and complete recovery.  I'm thinking about you guys.  See Hazel's post with photos of Fleur here.

Boy, so far this post is really Gloom and Doom, isn't it?  The Palms exterior coming loose, big critters in the engine, Fleur being attacked. Does it help if I tell you that as I'm writing this I'm periodically glancing out the front windshield where a Black-chinned female hummingbird is coming and going, buzzing around, guarding the feeder?  :)

Let's lighten things up:

Here's my 4-year-old Grandson after a Padre's Game in San Diego.  (Thanks Trish, I copied this from your Facebook page. So cute!  I hope you don't mind.)

Do you get the idea that he likes the hot dog more than the bun?

And finally, below is a sign I shamelessly copied from a site full of these signs with funny sayings.  This is originally from TASTE OF AWESOME.COM.  How well do you follow directions?
 

I usually follow directions pretty well - but I have to admit I failed this one.  I agree - damn misleading arrow!

From me and Katie, have a great Saturday, everyone!  :)

El Malpais National Conservation Area, and an RVer meet-up

We're here in the El Malpais Campground - which is part of the El Malpais National Conservation Area - just a bit past the town of Grants, NM.  I did our Wal-Mart shopping on the way, and arrived here late morning on Wednesday.  I was surprised that many of the campsites were already occupied, but was lucky to get a good, level spot.  

I almost hesitate to tell you how much I like it here - next time there might be NO sites left when I arrive.  But...  someone told me about it, and I believe in Karma, so I'm passing it on.  Anyway, this is a BLM campground with a Camp Host and ten "no fee" campsites.  Three are designated as tent sites and they don't have much room for an RV, which leaves seven RV sites, half of which are not very level.  I was surprised that last night nine of the sites were occupied.  

Sunset at El Malpais Campground

Our site is a drive-through with large bushes/trees on three sides, so it feels very private.  The concrete pad is big with a large metal structure over half the area - it shades a big concrete picnic table - and the other half has a fire pit and a separate bar-b-que.  The campsites have recently been re-done, and are very nice.

Our patio area.

This is the view out the dinette side window.

The RV parking areas are gravel.  Lots of cactus, bushes and trees, and tons of grasshoppers and caterpillars in the grassy areas.  There is no water or dump, but there are bear-proof garbage receptacles.  The stay limit is 7 days out of each 30 day period.   If you stay in the wilderness areas, the limit is 14 days for each 30 day period. 

So far the weather has been beautiful, the nights quiet (except for coyotes), and the night sky full of stars.  I'm really happy to have found this very nice campground, and will come here from now on during my six days out of Bluewater Lake State Park.   And if I do get here and there are no sites, Wal-Mart in Grants is only 10 minutes away.

Yesterday a fellow blogger arrived in the campground.  Nancy has a blog, Wish You Were Here!,  which I've been following and she has been one of my followers, too.  She e-mailed that she was going to be in the area, and luckily we have been able to meet-up and have some really nice visits.  Nancy is a Lazy Daze owner, and her rig is beautiful and perfectly kept.  She drives a 24 foot C Class motor home with no slides and no toad, just like my set-up, and has been a full-timer for 3 1/2 years.  She'll be here a few days, and I look forward to visiting with her more.  Katie absolutely LOVED Nancy, as you can see...

... and Nancy was very sweet to put up with Katie's licking and snuggling and all-around shenanigans.  :)

As I said above, there are so many grasshoppers here, when you walk in the fields, they jump all over the place. 

And there are caterpillars everywhere, too.  There are black and yellow ones like the little guy below, and also TONS of plump all-black ones.  There are going to be a lot of butterflies/moths around here in the next couple of months.

 These cactus are still in bloom, with some beautiful flowers.

 

When I was taking close-ups of the flower below, I noticed a Praying Mantis on it.

One more flower photo - these are just so pretty.  We don't have nearly as many flowers in bloom here as there are right now at Bluewater Lake, but these were so pretty, I had to get a shot of them.

Here is last night's sunset photo:

From me and Katie, have a great Friday, everyone!  :)