Month: May 2015

I am having a difficult time describing how I feel right now about this time of year. Memorial day is coming in 6 days, and then July 4th is not far away.

I am not a conspiracy guy, and I don’t hate the government per sey, but IT has always caused a lot of doubt and fear among the people of this great Country and it’s because of its abuse of the power that we have allowed it to have.

Republican or democrat makes no difference, the power has been abused in some form or fashion. I fear that it is too late to change some of the policies of our past Presidents, so we must live with them and do our best to flourish despite them. I would love to say that someone is going to stand up and change the way we function, but I really don’t think it’s going to happen. I haven’t seen anyone surface that can do it. IMHO.

However, while our great land may not be as free as it once was, we still have the most free land in the World. I have the ability to live in a MotorHome and do business from anywhere I please. I can decide to wake up at the beach, or the mountains, or the desert! Whatever I want. Thats a life of freedom that is only available in America. We have the freedom to go to church and worship the one and only true God every week without much disruption, so far anyway, but where else do you have this freedom?

You can probably tell that I am really struggling right now when it comes to the freedom we have, because I think its deteriorating quickly. But the thing we must remember despite the issues we have, brave men and women have died to protect that freedom from outside aggression. We must never forget them, and we must never let their deaths be for nothing!!

My family gave me a Flag to proudly display on the back of my MotorHome this last weekend for my Birthday. I have always wanted one. I love our Flag, and I love our great Country and I am proud to dipslay it 22′ in the air!!

Please join me by displaying your patriotism this year like never before. Let everyone who serves know that you appreciate them and respect them for their service and please join me in praying for this great Nation, because without God, we have nothing, and if we turn our backs on Him, we can kiss our freedom goodbye.

So after the extraction of the booth and sofa from the original floor plan, and the adding of the regular table and chairs, we decided that a complete re-painting would be in order before the wood floors were to be installed.

Jill started first in the bathroom just in case we didn’t like the choice of colors. She decided on a taupe for all the walls throughout, and a high gloss white oil base for all the wood. I think it’s going to be beautiful!! Here are the pictures so far. I will update as she moves through the entire home.

 

 

 

 

 

Now she is beginning on the bedroom because we liked the colors!! Notice the new curtains!!

 

Once the bedroom was completed, it was on to the living/dining room! We decided we really like the Taupe and high gloss white look so Jill continued with that same theme.

Next will be the kitchen slide!!

Jill and I have spent the last 2 weeks here in Bullard Texas, enjoying a beautiful park, full of wildlife, beautiful green grass, trees, a stocked lake and wonderful people. I think we have found our home base from now on.

Two more weeks here, and then we are off to Atlanta, Orlando, and then Destin, all in about 8 days. Possibly another week here in Bullard before we head back to Nevada and ultimately Phoenix for a month or so. Its going to be a busy 2-3 months!!

Anyway, I mentioned that the park where we are staying has a stocked lake. I am not a fresh water fish lover because I get a rush out of catching big fish. I enjoy throwing out a line, sitting back with a cold one and taking a nap. HOWEVER! In this particular catch and release FULLY stocked lake, there are some huge catfish, so while “Smokin Hot” does her thing casting and working the Bass, I put a big piece of catfish bait on my hook and sit back to relax. I can get used to fresh water fishing this way! 😉

Sunday night, we had the entire family over for Mothers day. Jill set up all of our fishing gear so everyone could fish after our cookout if they desired. It was quite funny as most of our gear is big salt water gear, so it looked like we were there to dominate this lake. LOL Nothing was biting. My parents had gone home, but the kids stayed and were enjoying fishing when all of a sudden, Johnny and Jackie both caught a really nice Catfish. I’m guessing they were around 10 pounds each. The excitement was short-lived, and it was around 9:00 pm so the kids decided to wrap it up and head home. My son Sam was busy helping everyone else and we were all saying good-bye, when all of a sudden, his pole flew up into the air and out into the lake. We all just looked at each other in amazement. That must have been a big fish!! Amazement shortly turned into disgust as I just lost a great rod and reel! Who would have thought there would be a fish big enough to take a salt water rig off the dock and carry it away??

Monday evening after work, Jill and I decided to go cast a few lines while looking for the lost rod. It’s not a huge lake, so it was possible that maybe, just maybe the fish had worn out and the rod would be floating somewhere in sight. No such luck. We couldn’t stop talking about that fish the night before.

It was beginning to get dark. We were discussing the evening before and how much fun we had with the family, when right in front of our eyes, it happened again!!! My pole flew straight out into the lake right in front of me???
I just stood there in amazement as I watched it continue out to the middle, disappear, bob back up, disappear again for a few minutes and come back up in a different location!

Ok, surely I can get my biggest casting rig which still had a saltwater weight on it and cast out there and try to hook the rod. Jill just laughed at me and said it’s gone John. You will never be able to cast that far, much less that accurately. Just forget it, it’s just a rod. Oh, that just made me more determined. LOL
I casted and reeled, casted and reeled, casted and reeled. My arm was about to fall off it was so tired. My aim started getting better and better though, and my weight was carrying the distance. Jill and I both though it was about 50 yards out. One last cast before I gave up and BAM I almost hit the handle of the rod as it had floated handle up. Jill pointed out that I should reel it back in to the right rather to the left because it appeared the handle was leaning he opposite direction. So I slowly began to reel. I felt some weight and then the pole disappeared. I HOOKED IT!!

I slowly reeled as the pole started coming towards us. It was evident that the fish was still on the line as it was running the opposite direction. Fortunately it was really tired. Anyway, it took probably 5 minutes to finally get the rod close enough to grab it. The lines had totally gotten tied up, so I held the rod up as Jill untangled everything. As soon as she finished, the fish ran, I set the hook better and proceeded to reel it in. I don’t have a scale, but we guessed between 12-15 pound catfish.

Jill and I high-fived, packed the gear and went to the MH for dinner. The night had been a huge success!!Now that is a fish story, complete with pictures that I can tell my grandkids one day. 😉

Once Jill and I decided that we were going to sell most everything and move into our Motorhome, we chose just a few items that we really loved or had some significance to it to keep in storage. We rented a 10 x 10 which at the time was almost too small, but since, as we have grown to love our decision, has become more and more empty as we have sold the remainder to finance ideas for the new home.

One item that I refused to sell is a red leather chair and ottoman that I paid an incredible amount of money for. We couldn’t sell it for even close to what we paid for it. Anyway, Jill loves that chair as do I. I’ll never forget her face when I took her to Haverty’s and bought it a couple of years ago.

Anyway, once she pulled the couch out of the MH, I told her that the red leather chair had to come with us and we both agreed it was a great idea.
One problem however was that when we made this decision, we also traded in our BMW and pickup truck for a new BMW so we couldn’t carry much of anything, anywhere.

Picture if you will my BMW X4 with the hatchback up and a red leather chair half hanging out the back as I traveled the 35 miles to our park. It was raining on and off, and I was incredibly worried about backsplash on the chair and in my car. I truly looked like that guy who didn’t have a truck trying to move a piece of furniture across town. ;)) Its not usually BMW’s though that you see doing this. I just smiled and waved at everyone!

Ok, so anyone who has an MH knows that the door is really narrow, right?
Its only about 24 inches wide. I got the chair to the front door, Jill came out and assisted me as we tried to get the 26 inch deep chair into a 24 inch opening.
I was about to have to take it back 35 miles to the storage if we didn’t figure out something quickly. It was about to rain, and I had nowhere to put it.

Jill flipped it over in the grass and immediately began to take the legs off. Ahhhh This would work!! She got 3 off, and there was a major problem with the 4th. Somehow, the bolt had been welded to the nut on the inside of the leg and we had no way to get it off. So there we were, in the grass outside the MH, sweat running down our faces, arms tired from trying to get this stupid bolt out, and rain was about to start. That beautiful leather chair was upside-down in the grass getting dirty and wet from all the sweat. 3 legs were off, and the 4th was literally by that time taking a beating. I was jumping up and down on it. Jill was trying to cut the bolt with a hack saw, I was beating it with a hammer, and the whole time I was just heartbroken that we were tearing this beautiful chair up. I could have at least gotten 800.00 for it. Now it’s not worth 300.00 It was trashed.

The leg finally came off. I was sick. It was now up to Jill to fix it, because not only is she Smokin Hot, but she is an incredible carpenter and yard guy. She has saved us THOUSANDS over the years taking care of stuff like this.

We got what was left of the chair into the door and up into the MH. It was beautiful!! It just didn’t have any legs and appeared to be a chair for a small family. Or Children. Of course, Jill went to The Walmarts!!

When she got home, she came in with a big smile on her face. She had found new legs for the chair, new bolts to install the legs, and stain to stain the new legs to make them match. I laughed and said, “Yup, if anyone can do it you
can!” Today, Tuesday, she turned the chair and ottoman over, put the new bolts in and the new legs on, having already stained them, and tightened them down and turned the chair over. ‘DONE” She proclaimed. What an amazing wife. She did it, and it looks wonderful!!