ADDITIONS TO MY OUTDOOR LIVING AREA

                                        

I have bought a couple of planters and interesting and striking looking plants to go in them. 








I also bought some plain old Petunias, but I put them in some interesting planters that I found.  








 All in all my outdoor space, where we spend a lot of time, is getting really homey.

HAVING TROUBLE LEAVING COMMENTS?

Just a quick note for anyone that is having trouble leaving a comment on my Blog.  I'm told, you need to sign up for a google account first in order to comment.  Once you have a google account, you select that as your profile and you can comment. Hope this helps. 

I'M A LITTLE DISAPPOINTED

This is the Gazebo I wanted for my new Patio, it would have covered the whole patio, but it was not approved.  They say it would not stand up to the strong Texas winds.  So I had to settle for an Umbrella.  The Gazebo would have been nice, but I also like the way the Umbrella looks, I may get more than one, and they will be a lot easier to deal with when we pack up to go home in the spring. 

So what else have we been up to since my last post.  Both of us and Sea-Enna have been getting lots of exercise.  We walk the entire park, up and down each street and avenue morning and evening most days.  Last night we went to our first community dance.  We had a great time, even though I don't normally like Country music, it was tolerable.  We have again met a lot more people.  We better buy a directory, (which the park sells) because we are having trouble remembering all of the new names.  This evening we are going to Magic Valley Park, as Doug Wheeler, from Uno Por Rio, in Gimli, is doing a stand up comedy routine there.   Well, that's it for now.  More later. 

IT WAS CANADA DAY IN PARADISE PARK

It was Canada Day here today.  All the Canadians got together in the community hall for a pot luck get together. 

It was very well attended seeing as how there are only about 50 Canadians in the park.  We are going to have to do some recruiting.  We see all kinds of Manitoba license plates all over the valley, and some parks are almost all Manitobans.  But not here.  Lots from the northern states, but not very many from Canada in this park. 

It was a good time, lots of good food and laughs, and we got to meet a lot  more people.  

I've got to get me one of those hats for next year. 

I LOVE MY PATIO

This is the Fabric I have settled on.     It is bright and colourful and very tropical looking. 

I think the cushions make it all look very comfy and quite homey. 

Our neighbours Dave & Helen came over to help us test it all out.  And "Buddy"certainly gave it his approval. 

OUR GRAPEFRUIT TREE IS PRUNED

We have finally had our Grapefruit tree pruned. 

The guy we hired was like a monkey, scrambling around up in that tree with a chain saw in his hand. 

.  And I was right.  It sure looks UGLY.  But, I have been assured that by next year at this time, it will be back to lots of new shoots and in full leaf again.  But we will not get fruit off of that one for another year.  Dan's now looking at getting some pruning equipment so we don't let it get that overgrown again.  Then after our regular evening walk last night we went for a quick dip in the pool and hot tub.  So relaxing before bed.  Tonight we are off to the Club House for a Fish Fry.  So thats it from McAllen for now. 

WE NOW HAVE PATIO FURNITURE

This week we went out and bought the basics in Patio Furniture.  Four Chairs for the table I bought last year and a Settee and two matching chairs and a side table.  We now have seating for ten.  Any more than that and you have to bring your own folding chairs. 




Now I just have to choose the Fabric I want for cushions and some accent colours.  Of course I would love to go nautical, like I have inside the trailer, but I haven't been able to find any nautical accents around here.  It's all cowboy stuff. 
Today we also hired a local to trim our overgrown Grapefruit trees.  I have a feeling they are going to look pretty ugly for the rest of the time we are here this year.  But they should bounce back by next year.  I hope.  One of them is sooo overgrown, I don't know if it will survive the amount I want it cut back.  If it doesn't I can always plant a new one.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME.!!

Today I have to face the big 70.  And I am going to celebrate it, and not bemoan it.  I have been enjoying the fact that Dan turned 70 on the 5th, and have been teasing him about it ever since.  I have finally caught back up and am now the same age as Dan again.  It was great being one year younger for the whole 9 days.  I bragged about it to everyone who would listen. (which weren't very many) 

 












These are pictures that Sharon took, when they had us over for Dinner on Dan's Birthday. 


Today we drove down to Weslaco, to their home to pick up Dan's hitch and the Patio table I bought when I was still dreaming of some day having a storage shed to put it in.  Casey and Sharon were nice enough to store my rash purchase until Dan had a chance to Buy and Assemble a shed for me. 


So thanks to Dan, I now have the start of my Texas Patio.  Next week Chairs and Accessories. Then A Gazebo/Pergola, then some plantings, Patio lights, maybe a Bar, a Bistro set, etc., etc., etc.,  but we will break all this to Dan one step at a time. 

I must have a little more done for my annual St. Patrick's Day Cocktail party.  That's MY big thing down here.  I DO St. Patrick's Day.  I'm even expecting Dave and Donna Riemer this year. 

For now we are really enjoying ourselves, up in the morning to Grapefruit straight off of our trees.   Then deciding, "What are we going to do today?"  The weather was a little cool for 2 days, but we are back to 75 degrees today, so we can't complain.  Retirement is GREAT. We went to the community breakfast this morning and Dan is taking me out for Dinner tonight.  I will go back to patio shopping on Monday.  So that's it for now. 

THE SHED IS FINISHED

Our new shed is finished.  It turned out to be really worth all the work and cursing.  Thanks to our neighbours Dave and Helen for their assistance and a special thanks to Darrel for his expertise about injection molds. 

"I think I have some left over parts?"

Oh, Well, Now I have room to store them until I find out if they are spares or overlooked. 

It should hold lots of "Stuff".


It's cool here today.  Only going up to 65 degrees.  They even closed the pool,"Due to cool weather".  All us Canadians are saying "What?"

THIS WAS QUITE A DAY

We have been very busy, so I haven't been posting much.  Our new storage shed was delivered on Monday, but we didn't get approval for it until yesterday afternoon.  We knew that the approval would not be a problem (they just wanted to confirm the exact location), so we started all the pre-assembly of all of the sections.

There were parts and pre-assembled sections everywhere.
 

There were also tools everywhere you looked. It was like a giant Lego set to put together. "Slide tab A into slot B, etc. etc. etc." It went on and on all the way to "Snap tab YY into slot ZZ."

Then to top it all off "The Cable Guy", make that "The Cable Gal", showed up to hook up our cable..  Seeing as how we are going to stay put, for our whole three months, this year, we decided to have cable vision. 

We didn't quite finish yesterday.  We ran out of steam by 6:00 pm  We will get it finished today.  Then I can move some stuff out of the trailer and into the shed.  Then I'm going  shopping for more Patio furniture. 

I will only be Blogging about once a week, from now on, because as I re-read my last post, I found it pretty boring.  I am sure no one is interested in every detail of what we are doing every day.  But I will post at least once a week, even if it is only the mundane details of our life here in Paradise Park. 

Great Day in Paradise Park

We had a great day today.  We went to the Rec Hall for the Saturday Breakfast.  It was very nice.  A great turn out and great food. 

After breakfast we took Sea-Enna to the dog park two blocks away.  She romped and played with a few dogs, and had a good time. 

Dan's back into eating a big bowl of shrimp every day.  I'm sure he is going to have gout by the time we get back  home in the spring.

Before supper Dan & I went for a swim.  We pretty well had the pool to ourselves. 


After dinner it was such a lovely evening, still 74 degrees at 7:00 pm, so we took Sea-Enna for a walk and discovered a Morning Dove, sitting behind our trailer.  It wasn't hurt or anything, just resting, because it did fly away when we approached.  So that was our day. 

Shopping

Yesterday we went out and bought our storage shed.  We got a real good deal on one of those low maintenance vinyl kind.  Dan will have his hands full putting that together when it is delivered on Monday.

I bought my Bread Machine.  So I will be busy making bread this weekend. 

But this morning we are off to the Park Rec Hall for the community Saturday morning Breakfast.    It is going up to 80 Degrees today, so I will definitely be going in the pool. 

Not Quite Used to the Warmth

There is nothing like driving down the freeway in shirt sleeves and looking at the palm trees to remind you, that you are in Texas.  It takes a while to forget that it's January and there should be snow on the ground, but in a few days all this will seem perfectly normal and we will forget all about the great white north. 

We went to Sharon & Casey's for dinner last night.  Which was a real treat, to not have to cook, after all that unpacking and shopping all day yesterday.  It was also Dan's 70th birthday.  I'm still only in my 60's you know.  So, for the next nine days I get to brag about the fact that he is a year older than me. 

I think today is the day that we will finally get a chance to settle in and relax, and maybe walk over to the pool for a while. 

Our Little Home Sweet Home in Texas

I was too tired to Blog last night so here it is Thursday morning and I'm typing up yesterday's Blog. 

Well, here we are in Texas, hauling out all the stuff we stored in the trailer, and hauling in all the stuff we brought with us.  We have been to Walmart, to get some basic groceries, unpacked half of the truck, and we are exhausted.  Trying to throw some burgers together for supper and realizing all the supplies we don't have in the trailer.  I know it will take days and days to be properly stocked. 

Sesa-Enna is so happy to be out of the truck.  I think she recognizes things.  She certainly is sniffing, sniffing, sniffing, and greeting people as if she knows them.  You can never quite tell with her though as she is so friendly with everyone.  Well, I guess I better get back at it.  I am sitting here with stuff piled all around me, that I need to find a place for.  That's the very true saying, that definitely applies to a trailer, about "A place for everything, and everything in it's place.", otherwise it is Kaos.

WE MADE IT TO TEXAS

Time for todays Blog. 

We accomplished three things that we always look forward to.  1. We reached Green Grass.  2. We had to turn the heat off in the truck.  And last but not least, 3. We made it to Texas. We are only 33 miles over the Oklahoma / Texas border in Denton Texas.  We still have a full days driving of approximately 600 miles, but at least we are in Texas and on the home stretch.

 We left St. Louis this morning at 7:30 am and made a diagonal journey across Missouri from St. Louis to Joplin.  I was surprised to see the lovely rolling country side out side of St. Louis.  It was a very pretty drive all the way, much like the Oklahoma that I am very familiar with.

 Here is the green grass we saw today.  Very different from the snow we left in Ohio.




 Then we made a diagonal journey across Oklahoma through Tulsa and on to Oklahoma City, then straight south toward Dallas. 

  

  We stopped at 4:30 as we did not want to tackle Dallas in "Rush Hour".  We have done that before (with the trailer in tow, no less) and it’s no fun. 

So,  with any luck at all,  we will be at our little home away from home by  dinner time tomorrow. 

OFF TO TEXAS

We left Youngstown at 6:00am with a light sprinkling of snow in Lisa's yard, that turned into absolute white outs from time to time as we travelled across Ohio.  All the way along the highway there were cars and trucks in the ditches, which of course caused tie ups and traffic jams.  Everywhere there was an accident, there were always at least 4 cars involved.  As we travelled through Indiana it became intermittent. It would clear and we would think it was all over, then it would be back again. 

Finally as we entered Illinois it started to clear.  We still had the odd streak of snow come through but nothing to serious.  And as we entered St. Louis Missouri, the sun was shining just like us prairie girls like.  The wind was howling and it was cold, but the sun was shining as if it was Manitoba.  I can live with that.  (I'm used to it.)  So we are settled in here in southwest  St.Louis, and going out for dinner.  We will try to make San Antonio TX, tomorrow, the forecast there for tomorrow  is 62 .   I'll take that.

Our Last Day in Ohio

Today was our last day in Ohio, so we had a family dinner kind of get together at Lisa's.  Leon and Lynn came for dinner, but I forgot to take their pictures until after they left.  Oh, well, we did talk about them possibly coming up to Canada next summer so I will keep my fingers crossed. 

We had a wonderful time at Lisa's with her and Micheal and Racheal.  It was great and thank you very much for your warm hospitality.

After dinner Loreen and Carmelo came over with Carmelo Junior and we had a nice visit.  So it's off to bed early tonight and up and at it bright and early in the morning.  We hope to be on the road by 6:00 am.  Some yucky weather is supposed to be heading this way, so hopefully we will drive out of it. 

      TEXAS HERE WE COME.