Just a short post to let you know we are still kicking. Have been struggling with the new computer. 
Reinstalling programs and then seeing if they work under Vista. Getting Eudora 7 email to work. It just goes on and on late into the night. 

We then had a Super Bowl get to together with Bob and Sandy and a follow up tonight to eat the main course which we were too full to eat last night. So it was Indian Fry Bread Tacos with all the fixens. Fried in a Dutch Oven over campfire coals. 

Some shots you get to learn from. Like the one above.

Tuesday February 6
 

I had to find new screen capture software to work with Vista, 
I checked out the products form    They have some neet stuff. and FREE. FastStone Capture has more options than the one I had been using. It allows you to capture anything on the screen including windows, objects, full screen, rectangle / freehand-selected regions and scrolling windows/web pages.

And FastStone Image Viewer IS way more than just a viewer. It has a nice array of features such as image viewing, management, comparison, red-eye removal, emailing, resizing, cropping, color adjustments, musical slideshow and much more.

Both of these and more are at www.faststone.org   Note .org not .com  I found the Capture one on download.com and got to thinking about it, and remembered Bob and Linda from http://www.because-we-can.net had told me about this line of software. So went back and checked my old emails and sure enough there it was. Thanks Bob.

So playing around with the new software I came up with this. 

The pace of life is slowing down here in Q Terry is off helping with building block in a new shed at the rock club. I'm still fushing over the new computer.  And it has warmed up... Will get over 80 today.  While back in the midwest...  Well let's not go there. 
 

Found this shot from a couple of years ago when the desert was in full green mode due to the heavy rain we had all winter. Spiced it up a bit with the new software. 

5:00 PM It's about time we had a report on the tomato plant.

Now with the warmer weather we might just get some to eat soon. It was looking a little sad when we had to keep it in th 5er basement day and nitht, and only open the door to give it light in the heat of the day. But it is making a big comback. Lots of new green growth right under the bottom of the bucket. 

When we were in Blythe, CA. on Saturday getting stuff for the Sunday Super Bowel gathering we saw this unit in the K-Mart parking lot. What a beauty. On closer inspection you could see it had been been all rebuilt and was a treasured RV of the finest vintage. AND by the looks of it used for what it was intended for.

Waiting for Lucile Ball and Ricky Ricardo to step out of the trailer at any moment.

You might notice the changes to the this blog layout. With the new computer system and wonderful new photo handling software thought it was time to make a few changes.  I can do more with pictures without the dark background. And best of all, Netscape Composer 4.79 (WYSIWYG editor, to build web pages) still works great even with Vista. To get a link to it, and other great FREE web building tools, see my updated article:
Posting Pictures on your web site   How To keep the pixel size low
The links to this and more RV fulltime Help Articles are also on the HOME page in the lower section.

Wednesday February 7

The Big tent came down today... Like the song goes "The party's Over... It's Time to go Home..." or somthing like that.
 and around the campgrounds the call went out like the 1:50 AM bar announcer who yells into the sound system 
"Last Call for Alcohol"   It has been a long time since I heard that... 
    Now let us not forget...  there are other events yet to happen in Q this season. 

    Feb. 23-25, 2007   Quartzsite, Arizona

This looks like it might just be an event to attend. It has been taken over by Tyson Wells who might just be able to promote it and make it a premier event in Quartzsite. Last year Rice Ranch hosted this event. Don't ask. 
For Q to grow (for a longer season for RVers) it needs to produce events that extend the season. 
lt looks like Tyson Wells is stepping up and doing just that. 
Do go to the Soggy Mountain Bluegrass Festival site   for all the info on this event. 

There is a Chili Cook Off also.

4th Annual "It's Chili in Quartzsite" Chili Cook-Off and State Salsa Championship. 
All day Feburary 24 th, 2007

Thursday February 8

Just a normal day in Q like any sleepy burg in the southwest, except there are still thousands of RVs 
still parked in the BLM. Now is the time many of them have been waiting for, real nice warm weather. It was record breaking cold in January. And the town is at their beck and call as no more lines or traffic. So they can get out and 
do stuff or just relax at their campsite.  Read a good book from the great Quartzsite library. 
Many stay for the clubs in town.

The things they don't get club members to volunteer for. Like building brick walls for an addition.
Ya... that's Terry mixing mortar for the blocks. But he loves it. 
He even now wants to take over the the web site for the club that I started last year. I got tired of doing it and 
suspended it. I have been teaching him how to update web pages and upload them to the sever. So soon the www.quartzsitegemandmineralclub.org site will be back online. Don't worry we'll tell you when it is back up in all its glory.  To do justice to a site, you have to be emotionally involved. It has to be a labor of love, so to speak. Terry does love the craft aspect of the Gem and Minearl Club, and also an instructor. So he will put the time in it takes to keep the web site updated and current. More power to him. The computer questions should be interesting and I know we will get into a few shouting matches about how dumb that question was, etc. Or you didn't listen when I told you that before. 
We shall see...

Just in case you forgot what Q looks like... Looking east form I-10 coming down the grade from 
Blythe, California 20 miles away.

The white you see to the upper right are the RVs out in the desert. This is just one of the many BLM boondocking areas.
 

 Sunday February 11

by Terry   (New Update by Ron inside Terry report)
Another day in paradise,  well maybe just what Arizona is supposed to be in the Winter,  WARM, with a slight southern Breeze,  Now if it would just rain a bit and settled the dust.  Think the low temp last night was somewhere in the lower 60's,  The furnace did not run last night, and no need for that second blanket that was required during our recent cold snap.

Have not updated the blog for a couple of days,  Ron has been busy setting up the new Dell computer,  struggling with the flaws in the new Microsoft VISTA operating system and there has been little time for posting.  I am not computer inclined, and can not see how a company can continue to produce junk such as windows and Vista and still stay in business.  It does not work well with other programs,  is lax on security and has a tendency to snarl and bite.  If I had an employee with such a disposition he would have been fired long ago.

Did my teaching bit at the rock club Friday morning teaching a silver casting class for three students.  It's an hours worth of excitement crammed into a 4 hour time slot,  lots of time to wander about the club house.  All of the participants did well with their castings and will now have to spend time in the silver shops finishing their masterpieces. 

More mundane matters occupied the afternoon, and I spent my time in the laundromat taking care of a weeks worth of dirty clothes.  Get the stuff started in the washer, run across the street for a diet pop,  back to scramble for a dryer, then wander to the Club house and stand around.  It was a good thing I was at the club house,  as Ron had two software packages from Dell arrive while I was there to sign for them and get them back to the trailer for him to work on.

Replacement software replacment for Roxio CD burning software that came pre installed on the computer and did not work. (Later note by Ron.. New software on CDs did not load either. DO NOT get VISTA untill they get the bugs worked out.)

I'm on a first name basis with several customer support people at Dell. They sent the CDs overnight and a special FedEx van drove them down from Lake Havashu City (85 miles) overnight delivery. What does that cost!!!
But dell support has exceeded my expatations.  They are trying to deal with the new VISTA also. 
I have called them and would you believe they answered on the second ring with a tech. Unheard of in theis day and age. 

And I get the email address of the tech and phone number ext. to call back if needed. Can't ask for more than that.

Problems not fixed but not their fault....

Saturday was another busy day working away to keep the trailers systems up and running, hauling waste water out and fresh water back.  The desert is a great place to stay, room for a campfire,  no close neighbors, but also no services, so one has to do a bit more work.  We have just about perfected the black and gray water handling with our macerator pump and tank, but it still needs to be done.  Luckily there were no lines at the dump station in LaPosa South unlike a few weeks back when there might be 15 or twenty rigs waiting to dump.  Things are getting back to normal after the madness of the big travel show.

I had a nice visit with my nephew in Iowa last night.  Ron answered the phone and the first thing discussed was the 80 deg temps we were basking in at the time.  I could hear Nephew sputtering over the phone ten ft away, as they were trudging through the ice and snow in 5 deg weather.  Learned they were expecting below zero temps again tonight. 

Today, Sunday is looking like one of those quiet relaxed days, read the paper till noon, get caught up on posting the blog and more relaxing after that.  Will at some time have to go into Q to get gas for the generator, and a visit to the grocery store,  will have to get something to throw on the grill tonight,  along with a potato baked in the coals of the campfire.

I am also planning on finishing the pattern for a belt buckle to be cast in silver next week, and will clean up  around camp, just in case it does decide to rain.
 

Ron reporting... 6 PM Sunday

We took a drive east out of Q to a mine and some desert back roads (had some nice pistures, but VISTA lost them when trying to move them from the camera. Still on a learning curve with this new computer.) 

We stopped at Family Dollar for paper towels and found a box of two solar patio lights (stainless steel) for $9.99.  The other one is on the far side of the step. Just had to have them. Looks like a plant all potted... Takes in sun during the day and glows at night. No I didn't say grows at night. It is so much easer to find a coffee can or like we had this time a planter to stick the lite into. You try to dig a hole in the hard desert or put a stake in it!  We had two pots left over from our early mum growing days this winter, where they did not last as the desert black bugs found them and ate them up. You would think mums would do good. Hearty and all that, but bam, eaten alive in this desert climate. Our Geranium is doing just great, go figure. Last year I got a Gardenia, thought that would be a fun plant with all the white flowers. Well after the new buds one at a time fell off I researched and found this is VERY hard plant to grow. They look great when you buy them and then drop dead a few days in my case, or weeks later. How do they even get them to the garden centers looking so good is my question. Have learned it is easer to grow stainless steel glow lights instead!

      Now for a flashback.

8 PM
Looking at picture samples and learning how to resize them etc. with the new system I ran across this picture of Terry at Navajo State Park in NM (Blue Ribbon Trout Fishing) and the rain soaked campground.  See the brown water pools. 
How we would love to get some of that in the desert in Quartzsite, AZ this winter. 
 

Monday February 12
 

Got to looking through some old shots of great times in the Green River Lakes area north of Pinedale, Wyoming.

The Green River just a  mile down from where it starts.

This is not a post card Terry took this on a hike look bac a the lower lake.  If you look close you can see the foot bridge 
over the river outlet from the lake in the center. 

Terry fly fishing the outlet of Green River Lake.
A 52 mile road, the last 35 miles, one lone dirt road to get there. 
For more info on this area go to www.pinedaleonline.com 

Needed some lake and river pictures after being held up in the desert all winter.
 

 Saturday February 18
by Terry

We've been a bit remiss in posting this week.  Things have really slowed down in Q,  the lines at the grocery store have diminished considerably,  no queuing up to use the dump facilities at La Posa South,  and you can drive right up to a slot to fill up you water tanks, no waiting! 

I continued to work on the new addition to the shop building at the Quartzsite Gem and Mineral club.  I am almost starting to get the hang of laying concrete blocks,  not a skill I want to advance any further, but we are close to getting done.   Did a bit of silversmithing this week and finished polishing a number of WY Jade cabs that I had started earlier by doing the final polish. 

Our Neighbors got their 50 gal spray tank mid week and have accumulated the parts and glue to make their own substitute "blue boy tank".  They had gotten a macerator pump after reading our artivle, so they only had to make a tank.  Their enthusiastic embrace of the tank came after an unfortunate blue boy incident in which the discharge hose became detached.  They have since then been borrowing our tank and liked it so much they built their own. For more information on replacing your blue boy tank go to this link .

Ron had to struggle with Microsoft Vista this evening when he wanted to log in to a web cast of a "Prairie Home Companion" from Minnesota Public Radio.  It took him twenty minutes to the the web cast to work, and entailed downloading new software.  It's great listening to Garrison Keilor's  monolog on life in the frozen wastes of Lake Woebegon while sitting outside in shorts watching a recreational campfire.  In cast you are not familiar with a recreational campfire, it is done for aesthetics, and the heat generated by the fire is neither wanted or desired.

Around dark we finally went inside, and began to think about supper,  Ron came up with the suggestion of going to Blythe CA to eat at the Sizzler.  We had heard that is was a good place but had not yet been there.  We remembered the name as a cheap steak joint. WE were very pleasantly suprised,  everything was very good,  including a very nice thick 8 oz steak.  You can get a 14 oz. T-bone if you want and everything in-between. Fish and ribs. This was not your pounded tenderized cheap steak house. Between the steak and the exceptional salad bar we ended up eating way to much and felt stuffed  but in a very fulfilling way.  It was a world of difference from any of the restaurants in Quartzsite.  It was also a very popular place, people were lined up and out the door even when we left. It is an hour earlier in CA. so you can have a campfire here in Q and wonder on over and still be early for dinner. And the people watching was as good as the meal. The service was very good. You order and pay, get your drinks, and get a ticket and give it to your server and they bring the main course while you graze at the $3 extra salad bar. Ice cream is brought to the table later, you don't have to get up to get it. The salad bar, a meal in itself. We don't go out much but when we do we like to tip heavy as the servers sure work hard to please. A few extra bucks from us can make a smile on a hard workers face. We will go back maybe just for the salad bar, with chicken wings, mexican food, fry bread with fixxins, and soup, etc. A 4 out of 5 on our rating scale. 

Tuesday February 20

WOW another week in Q in the slow lane. It is nice to look out and know your camping neighbor who was here last week and again this week. Terry goes to the rock club and I read and work (play) on the computer.  I worked on the Hitchitch site most of the afternoon and found about 25 sites to consider to add to it. I feel like Simon on Americam Idol when looking at the sites to add. 
Ya we are watching American Idol right now. Why I don't know, as we were not fans of the show in the past. But let's face it, not much else on TV. Now I do have to say most of the time we just turn it off and I read and Tery gets on the net. So why not tonight?   Well Boston Legal is on later...

We have a chicken roasting in the oven for a late supper. With mashed potatoes and peas. Now that's good eaten...    When we were looking to do Tuna and noodles dish last week we didn't find forzen peas at the RoadRunner store. Later we found forzen peas in the General Store so that's waht we are having tonight.  Someitmes life in Q gets back to basic and that is many times good, right next to great. I grew up many miles from where we could hop to, to get the good stuff. I think looking back that might have been an advantage on how I look at things now in life. (On a farm in Iowa, in the 50's and 60's)   A Wal*Mart Super Center is over 80 miles away in Yuma. Do I want to go there YES... Do I need to  NO. 

When Dell can ship, and I get it overnight, who needs to leave the desert to go to a big city... FedEx and UPS will find you anywhere. Order on the net, get it in a day or two. New world new life. 

(A Flashback: When a kid on the Iowa farm way out from town I ordered a small diode for a kit or something I was making. Now this was back in the early 60s and up drove the UPS truck with the $1.95 part.)  Never got over that. 
And sitting in my room with a Heath Kit shortwave radio listening to the world, (it was the internet of its time) looking out the window at the stars. I over time in later years had to have a Commodore computer, and never stopped upgrading. Compuserve was an early internet type thing. And who even remembers it now.  We went to the moon in my lifetime, how the people of early earth history would have liked to be able to say that. 
Now look at us... Who could have thought at the time we would now have the world via the Internet.  WOW. 

Enough for now...  Simon just cut a contestant to shreds.

Wednesday February 21

Spent the afternoon adding travel web sites to the www.hitchitch.com site and reducing the pixel size of the picture thumbnails. Trying for faster downloading. Each link opens in new window so when you return to the main listings page you don't have to reload the pictures again. Had a problem with the html editor and had to find out why the program was producing bogus code. It has been a fun day.

Terry called home on the 2 way radio and is stopping at the General Store for stuff to make hamburgers with real buns and fresh homemade potato salad and cole slaw. 
The weather could not be any nicer... Sunny and about 70. 

Thursday February 22
 

Breaking news here in Quartzsite, AZ
5 PM
In the wash next to gas pipelines in the BLM south of Quartzsite they have discovered explosives and have called in a bomb squad team from Yuma. The police are are at the La Posa West entrance to the BLM with lights flashing. They moved some campers. 
 We hope this turns to be a false alarm with old ordinance found or something,  but you never know and I am sure they are taking no chances. We have our police radio turned on. Never a dull day in Quartzsite. 

The flashing lights and the blockade of the BLM entrance has been removed so let us hope the event is over and all is well. 

Now for a picture of our favorite BLM volunteer (Sandy) on the right, at the ranger entrance station 
at La Posa North. See Sandy's blog at  http://nativewyoming.blogspot.com/ 
We have become good friends with Sandy and Bob as we are all living the good life, boondocking in the the great Arizona southwest in the BLM. 

A look inside the BLM entrance station at La Posa North.
That is not her husband in the picture, but another volunteer. 
Bob her husband does his thing at the La Posa South station. 

The volunteers are all great people and do this not for the money, but for the love of serving people and the camaraderie of the people they serve and their fellow volunteers. (would you work for $1.50 an hour at a BLM entrance station?) So the next time you get upset with a volunteer at a campground just remember they are not doing it for the money. 

Friday February 23

Update on the explosives found yesterday.  They found 12 sticks in the wash jsut west from the main entrance to La Posa West.  This is a pipeline that angles just south of town and followes the new high power line going east from Quartzsite. Said it looked like it was very old and unstable. Not fresh. They were searching the washes today looking for more. 

Saturday February 24

We got up early to go to Yuma and explore the area and go to Staples to get a new computer desk chair.    We have been busy putting the chair together and the new plastic rug guard that fits the 5er. We are tired, and will post with pics on Sunday.  We called back to IOWA and they are having a blizzard with 1 inch of ice and now 1 foot of blowing snow and most parts of the state are without electric power.  At Terry's folks place, out on the farm homstead, (they are both 80) his brother has a setup with a big generator that can be switched to take over the house and water pumps for the livsstock. So they will be ok. Terry's nephew is in college (at Northern Iowa) and they also have lost power but you can bet the students in the dorms will be just fine with a party. His sister in Ankeny just north of Des Moines have also lost power and they have a little generator we used to use but it will not power their big heat pump they have, but can power the fridge and lights.  Much of Iowa could be off line for days or much more. We will stay in touch with them. Reg. phones are powered from the central offices with BIG backup bats and generators.  Hope the backup batts last at the cell sites. 
We told them they were now off the grid like we are. Not sure they caught the humor of that statment. We are boondocking in the BLM for the winter, if you are a new reader. 

So as I sit in my wonderful new computer chair with three way seat controls I leave you now.
Notice the three adjustment levers under the seat...  And on sale for $119 from the reg. price of $149

 Highly breathable mesh fabric 
Height and width adjustable padded arms 
Contoured back for lumbar support 
Molded back with adjustable back height 
Tilt tension and knee tilt adjustment 
Pneumatic seat height adjustment 
Variable position back lock 
 

Sunday February 25

On our way back from Yuma on Saturday we took a road to the right to explore a road that said Martinez  Lake 13 miles. 
Off we go to find it. One of the things we found was many, many very run down RV parks. Looked like colonias and right next them were multi million dollar homes. How do they determine property values  is any guess. 

How would you like to see this air ship coming at you. It is on the Yuma Proving Grounds.

More later... The Academy Awards are coming on.
 
 

Monday February 26
 

by your roving reporter Terry
Hard to believe that we are rapidly approaching the end of February, seems like we just got here a few days ago.  Now its time to think about preparing taxes and getting everything in readiness to hit the road.

Have been volunteering for a small project at the Quartzsite Gem and mineral club, and with a little luck we will be done in a few days.  We finished the framing of the roof last week and over the weekend we stopped at Lowe's in Yuma to get a few items of building materials that are not available locally.  Will now be able to apply the metal fascia covers, gutters, roofing tin, gutters and such.  Then hopefully will be done with the free labor to the rock club for a while.  Have hammer will travel-- 

Here is a picture of me finishing up the roof framing last week.

Spent the afternoon at the rock club working on odds and ends, some maintenance for the club, and some work in the casting room where i am getting ready to pour a belt buckle on  Tuesday.  The pour is turning into a teaching event, as I will be vacuum casting the buckle, which entails putting the mold into which I will be pouring the molten silver on a metal table rigged to a vacuum pump, then when the silver is poured the vacuum will suck the molten metal into the mold.  This is only the second thing vacuum cast in the club and there are a number of interested people.  guess I get an audience tomorrow.

Haven't heard from any of the relatives still in Iowa today,  Over the weekend they got hit with a late winter ice storm which turned into a blizzard.   My nephew called a number of time over the weekend with updates on who had power and who did not.  My Brother, and Parents were expecting power by tonight if they were lucky.  We had also heard that the big cross country transmission lines were in trouble and starting to buckle under the weight of all the ice,  but temperatures have since warmed a bit and hopefully the ice would have melted off of the wires.

Time do to dishes, and think of something light airy and delicious for summer.  Then again there are lots of leftovers that need to be eaten,  we will debate our dinner plans in a few minutes.
 

Watch this "RV Park: the Movie"

This is fun from   better than Robin Williams...
Get laid off and retire and go to the RGV in an RV for the winter... Very Funny!

RV Park: The Movie  Chapter 1   Chapter 2     Chapter 3    Chapter 4
 Chapter 5    Chapter 6    Chapter 7    Chapter 8
 
 
 
 

Tuesday February 27

by your roving reporter Terry
The belt buckle I have been working on for the last several months, carving the wax pattern, then adjusting, tinkering with, polishing, admiring, showing off the same wax pattern came to an end today when I was able to finally Vacuum cast the pattern,  and most suprising of all after of the worrying and fiddling it came out of the mold as a very nice silver casting.  There are a few small flaws which will have to be cleaned up,  then it can be filed and sanded, then polished to perfection.  I am very very happy with the results.  The sound you hear is me knocking on wood so I do not jinx future works.

The rough casting with spru still attached.

Here is a Elk Ivory pendant that I did earlier in the year.

Ron was not particuralry impressed with the buckle, but its hard to impress him with something thats not digital.  Have one more pendant to cast and then I will be our of wax carvings.  As long as it takes to create one of the wax models my personal casting time at the club is probably done till next fall.

The wind came up later in the day and there is quite a bit of dust blowing about.  We were going to grill , and do baked potatos in the camp-fire coals, but opted to bake the potato in the oven and pan fry the steak-, one of my single ingredient meal-- according to Ron.