Prelude to a Christmas~2001

Howdee all,

Back to December of 2001

We left Las Vegas in our new motorhome *Homey* and drove to Phoenix, Arizona to be with our Motorhome Mentors Dave and Jackie Daniels..

They liked this over 55 RV park in Mesa and stayed here many years..

It is like a summer camp for old folks..All kinds of activities.

Val del Oro

Jeff was 53 and I was 45 they made an exception and let us into the park since we knew another couple there.

Ha..this year I fully qualify for a 55 an older park..

Christmas Décor in the RV park

Dave and Jackie liked to hike and took us on a hike up the Superstition Mountains.

See Phoenix in the distance..

We didn’t bird then…

I took a photo of a Cactus wrens nest.

It was December and the weather was beautiful.

The scenery spectacular..

Me and our RV mentors Dave and Jackie Daniel

Sunset in the Superstition Mountains

Our first December in our Homey on Wheels..

The month was not over..we had Christmas and Hanukkah to celebrate..

Stay tuned to see where and with who.

Any guesses?

I was a Christmas Decoraholic~

Howdee all,

I am going backward before I go forward.

Before I show you our first Christmas in our Homey…I want to show you our last Christmas in our Brookline, Ma. home.

Ever since I was a young gal, I have collected Christmas ornaments and décor.

I delivered newspapers as a young gal and saved up my Christmas tips to buy decorations…actually most of my Sickstas did the same thing…we all loved Christmas decorations.

Luckily I married a Jewish man who didn’t mind my Christmas décor fetish.

Come on in and take a look..

 Christmas 2000

Our livingroom..

Nobbiecat loved sitting near the fireplace..

Our daughter Samarrah painted this picture of our Winter festival…

Notice the Menorah and Christmas tree.

A happy blending of traditions…

The Holiday tree…

Living in a condo and having no yard to plant a real tree in…I opted for a fake tree…I used the same tree for many years.

I collected antique ornaments..

Most from estate sales.

Our Holiday star…A mix of old…

And new…

I also had a collection of antique glass balls..

I put them in my antique glass vases..

This Santa, sleigh and reindeer are special. I bought these as a very young gal..

Maybe around age 12..

More glass balls..

The dining room..

Santa collection..

My sweet Ballie playing with ribbon…

I miss that fur ball!

More glass ornaments..

A new Santa and antique ceramic girl holding Christmas tree..

A new snowman..

In the den…a new Santa surrounded by homemade decorations from my Aunt Diane.

Stairway down to the bedrooms with our stockings..

I had a collection of antique birds..

Think these are in storage.

So…as you can see..I had a Christmas Décor addiction..

I am over that now…But it was so much fun back then..

I hope you enjoyed the tour…

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah and Happy Holidays..

From Dawn in December of 2000

Ten Years fulltiming in an RV!~ 2001

Howdee all,

  I didn’t start blogging until 2005..so many of the photos from when we first started RVing are in folders on my computer, collecting cyber dust.

I thought I would share some of these old photos.

Wow! These are ten years old!

Yikes! We have been living full time in a Motorhome for 10 wonderful years!

Rving was new to us~We had allot to learn.

We picked up our Homey early September in Junction City, Oregon..

~Country Coach Factory~

A Motorhome being made..Our Homey being born..

The inside of Homey being made for us..

Wow~seems like yesterday~

After taking delivery of our new Homey on wheels and spending the months of September thru the beginning of November working out the kinks and exploring Eugene Oregon and the Oregon coast, We headed to Northern California then Las Vegas to visit with friends.

Red Rock Canyon~Las Vegas

A favorite place of mine..

I love hiking amongst the huge boulders and red rocks…

You would never know the Las Vegas strip is only a 20 minute drive away.

See it in the distance?

Notice all the pictures of me?

Jeff took all the photos back then.

We spent some time in Vegas visiting with friends and checking out the hotels..the weather was warm and so different than our Decembers in New England.

I looked so much younger 10 years ago… 🙂

Jeff and I posing for a Christmas and Hanukkah greeting~

The first away from our families.

We did spend time with one special family member…and it wasn’t in Vegas.

Will post photos of our first Christmas in our Homey on Wheels soon.

PS~I still have that fake fur vest 🙂

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Yellow-bellied Sapsucker checkin in…

Howdee all,

Homey has arrived safely in NC and it parked snugly between two familiar hickory trees.

Arrival was not without complications. Just two miles away from Carthage, Jeff stopped for diesel~after fueling Homey would not start..

No sound when the key was turned. This has happened several times in the past ten years. This time it took a few more taps with a hammer on the solenoid and it started.

Before Homey arrived I noticed a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker mewing and going to the suet.

Not soon after Homeys arrival, the sapsucker checked out its reflection.

Our windows are reflective and we always have birds coming to the window to see who is in their territory.

For the past two mornings Mr. Sapsucker starts tapping on our bedroom window at 6:30 and then moves on to the bathroom window for a bit.

Here is a video of him tapping at our bathroom window.

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Colin and Jack

Howdee all,

I have been in NC for over a week now~Still waiting for Jeff to arrive with Homey. One day routine service appointments always seem to turn into two or three days. We are kind used to that.

I am getting antsy though,

I would Love to have my Homey, Hubby and all here in NC. They are due to arrive very shortly~Hopefully..

Jeff just called and said that he was at a Gas station and after fueling up the Homey wouldn’t start. Hopefully he will just bang some solenoid part with a hammer and it will start…Hee hee..it works. He has done that on numerous occasions.

I hope it works this time..

Anyway..

Colin is recuperating well.

Jack helps.

He’s 12 years old and likes to sleep in …

When Sicksta Dell and Craig get up..he leaves their Bed~

And snuggles with Colin.

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Photos in National Parks Traveler

Howdee all,

Just wanted to share an article written by a fellow Twitter friend~ @sharptern . About a week ago he asked if he could use a photos I took while in Big Bend National Park.

Jeff and I went looking for the Colima Warbler, March of 2010~we knew we were a month early for the warbler..but we looked anyway…and no Warbler.

We did get a few habitat photos that Kirby Adams wanted to use for his article on

Searching for the Colima Warbler in Big Bend National Park

If you want to experience our hike to South Rim looking for the warbler…

Here are my posts

South Rim~ Part 1

South Rim~ Part 2

We will go looking again for the Colima~next time in April…don’t know if I would want to hang around Big Bend in the heat of May.

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Miss my fur boys~

Howdee all,

I was going thru my old photos and found this…

Taken ten years ago.

With my Golden Nobbie and Black Ballie..

Nobbie passed three years ago..

Ballie this past summer…

I still haven’t had the heart to blog about Ballie yet…still fresh and painful.

I miss my fur boys.

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Autumn in the garden of Dell and Craigys

Howdee,

Its that time of year..the garden is starting to go into winters slumber..

Some of Craigys hearts hanging from the entry trellis,

Craigy makes hearts for Sicksta..

Sicsksta Dell likes garden statues and art..

Anyone want to contribute some garden art?

Camellia’s bloom this time of year.

The grasses showing off their dried mops..

The old shed in the back yard is falling apart slowly..

One of these years it will be torn down..

Another Craigy heart on the entry path…Sicksta embedded it between home made pavers and shiny blue glass beads.

Craigys blue bomb~I mean truck..;0

Another piece of garden art..That gets moved around from time to time, when things need moving to the dump.

I wonder how he sees out of these foggy side mirrors..

I wander out of the yard and into the field next door..Its for sale…the field and 20 acres that go down to a small stream.

It’s a pretty field..it used to be mowed and planted with crops to attract deer for the neighbor who was a hunter.

The neighbor passed away and the field has gone to the grasses and wildflowers..

Good place in the spring to look for Indigo buntings and Blue Grosbeaks..and other purdy birdies.

Back in the yard I check out the area near the home made rock patio..

When I am here it is always filled ….its strange to see it empty.

This sandy space is waiting for Homey and Jeff…and so am I ..

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Fire in late Autumn..

Howdee all,

Its nice to finally be here in NC at Sicksta Dell and Craigys.

When we arrived the Oak and Hickory trees had let most of their leaves go and it was a big leafy mess in Sickstas garden.

So…Sicksta raked…and Craigy burned some of the leaves..

Jack supervised..

I took this particular day off..

The following day I raked leaves, put them on a tarp and dragged them to the back yard . I cleared the area in preparation for Jeff and Homeys arrival next week.

I set up the bird feeders.

I am wondering where the Robins and Cedar Waxwings are..they seem a bit late this year.

Jack and Kali in their new orange scarves. 

Its hunting season here…and one cant be too careful.

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Migrating Songbirds being “slaughtered”

Howdee all,

PLEASE HELP

I am asking those who haven’t already done so to take a few minutes to read about what is happening and then to take action by filling out a Protest form.

These birds are being hunted legally..but there are issues..read the link below to understand the issue.

Some object to the CABS use of the word slaughter..I say get over it ..and get to the issue.

The text in green are quotes from the website

~Committee against Bird Slaughter~

  Bird lovers throughout Europe are still in a state of shock after watching a video of Italian hunters shooting down several thousand song birds in front of protesting bird conservationists. The hunters were completely undisturbed by the filming of this almost unbelievable massacre of migrating song birds. The ugly spectacle took place some 1,400 m above sea level on the San Zeno alpine pass – one of the most important migration corridors in the Southern Alps.

Read more by clicking on the text above…

Then

Watch the video below..

The shooting orgy, in which some 100 hunters took part, was filmed by the conservationists on video. The game rangers present estimated that at least 10,000 Meadow Pipits, Chaffinches, Bramblings and Hawfinches were killed. CABS today published sequences from the original film, several hours in length, on its Youtube channel. The film can be viewed at “Youtube: Zugvogelmassaker am Colle San Zeno” and shows in great detail the brutal killing of thousands of birds on passage through a single alpine pass in the course of only a few hours.

 

  Now please~

Take a minute to fill out this Protest form.

Follow the instructions and click on the form link..it took me less than a minute to fill out.

This is not the only area where birds are being killed needlessly..read more on the CABS website about other areas of slaughter..

At the weekend Hungarian customs officials stopped a truck loaded with some 10,000 freshly-shot song birds on the border with Romania. According to the Bonn-based Committee Against Bird Slaughter the consignment consisted mainly of Skylarks, an endangered species in Germany and other European countries, but much favoured as a delicacy by Italian gourmets.

 

There is also a newly formed facebook you can join for more information

Committee against Bird Slaughter

Thanks so much for your time!

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