Howdy, I'm back.

I haven't put any entries in here for a long time cause over the summer we didn't have enough power or what ever to upload anything so I gave up. I really don't know if anyone actually reads my blog anyway so it will just be for my own enjoyment I guess.

I'm in TX for the winter. We've been north of Austin since before Thanksgiving. We may be moving after Xmas to the Big Bend area of SW TX. I think we've got Workamping jobs down there for the rest of the winter, I'll know for sure tomorrow. I hadn't been able to find a waitress job this winter where we are so, I started hunting for a Workamping position and found these in Big Bend. I've been interested in finding jobs in the Big Bend area ever since we visited there a few years ago.

Today my employer from last year here in TX called to see if I'd work a few shifts while one of the other gals is off for the Xmas holiday and I said sure. So I'll get in a little work before heading further south.

The weather has been up and down so far this winter. We're back in a warm spell, may have hit 70 today and lots of sunshine. A couple days ago we had to disconnect the water lines cause it was freezing cold. The drought has broken here, there's been lots of rain compared to the past 2 years. There's green grass and the huge cracks in the earth have disappeared.

We spent 6wks. before coming to TX at our new little house up in Neb. We got the bathroom refinished and a new kitchen dry walled. The new kitchen has ended up costing twice what we expected so needless to say, we are pinching pennies for awhile.

1st trip to Glacier

1st trip into Glacier Nat'l Park

We had a beautiful drive through the Park yesterday. It was a sunny and warm day so everything was just beautiful. There wasn't any wind either so we were able to get some mirror images. Right now we could only drive 13 miles into the Park until the snow either melts or is removed at the high pass. When it is open we'll be looking forward to the shuttle bus so we don't have to drive that road in our big truck.

We're really out in the wilderness here, we have to drive 40 miles for any groceries. There are Cafes in the area but the only groceries are those small containers that cost a fortune meant for backpackers. It will be nice to be away from the maddening crowd though.

Pictures will follow.

This last picture is what the rest of Montana looks like when you get away from the mountains.

We got to St Mary, MT yesterday after a slight delay. One of the wheels on our RV sheared off at the axle and flew into the middle of a field. We were lucky we weren't on the freeway at the time cause it could have caused a terrible accident. Our emergency road service came through for us again and got the help we needed to us and they had us back on the road with only a days delay.

St Mary is beautiful and these other pictures are from our campsite at Johnson's of St Mary. We started work today so we haven't had a chance to do any driving around the area yet and probably won't for a few days cause the restaurant will be opening tomorrow. The Road to the Sun we're told won't be opening until the end of June so we won't do that trip for a while but we will get out and about as soon as we have a day off. I'll post more pictures when we get them.

We have 3 other Workamper couples working and camping near us. I worked with one couple today and found them to be real nice folks and good workers, the other couple just arrived today so I've just met them so far.

The weather is just beautiful right now here. It's real warm and there's a good stiff breeze. It was even warm for sleeping last night which was a surprize to me, usually our experience in the west has been cool nights even if it is warm during the day. It seems a bit dry here, they may be in need of some rain from the looks of the ground but everything is green and the trees are leafing out from the snow run-off. A few wildflowers are up and hopefully there will be more soon, I've been reading about all the beautiful wildflowers this area is known for.

Richard was busy all day prepping for tomorrows opening, everything is made from scratch here. We were told they only make one soup and it's never been the same in the 59 years they've been open cause it's always made from the leftovers, should be interesting. They make all their breads and desserts as well.

Pictures that go with this follow.

Finally some pictures!

These show the carpenters taking the kitchen off, digging the big hole for the crawl space and the footings after the concrete was poured.

On the road again.

It's time to start off on another adventure. Tomorrow morning we'll be heading for St Mary, MT on the east side of Glacier Nat'l Park. It's Johnson's of St Mary we'll call home for the next 4 months. I'm excited cause I haven't really seen this part of the country. We went through Glacier during the night when we were on a cross country train trip one time but, we couldn't see anything so it will be all new to us.

We're sad to leave our new home at Butte, NE, especially since it's in such a unfinished state. We're going to have to rely on my brother sending us pictures as the building project continues. To date they tore off the old kitchen, dug a huge hole for the crawl space and built and filled forms with concrete for the foundation. It's raining now but, in a few days they'll put styrofoam forms up that will be filled with more concrete and there will then be good cement walls for the house to sit on instead of the rock they used before. When I'm on my own computer I'll include some pictures of what the house used to sit on, the new foundation is going to be so much better that it will be worth the wait.

My brother still plans to get the plumbing and wiring done without us, I don't know what we would have done without him on this project. That way when we come home things will be ready for us to get the bathroom and kitchen together real fast. We hope to have those 2 rooms ready before we leave for where ever we end up going for the Santa Season the middle of Nov. I've decided to put new cabinets in the kitchen which will be easier than restoring the old ones. We've been told to stop on our way back to Neb. at the Habitat for Humanity store in Sioux Falls, SD and see what they have for cabinets it's a real good store usually. If they don't have anything then we'll head to Menard's or Home Depot for unfinished cabinets and I'll paint them myself.

We're leaving Neb. in full spring, garden's coming up and flowers are blooming and heading to the end of winter again I think. We'll get to go through spring again so I'm hoping for lots of wildflowers like we had in the Tetons last year.

New member to the family!

This is Gabriella Grace Gilchrist my niece, Melissa's new baby born 4/25/09. She weighed 7# 11 oz and was 21 in. long. Both Mom and baby are doing great. We're spending a wet week in Mpls. getting to know our new family member. My brother, sister-in-law, Richard and I along with our 2 dogs are staying in our RV in Savage, MN just down the road from where my parents lived before moving to FL. Man, has this area changed, I hardly recognized the area. We've pretty much stayed off the freeways and used the city streets to get to the hospital cause there's so much construction. Melissa, Brian and their family live in Richfield, the suburb I grew up in, just a few blocks away from my high school. Richfield has changed a lot also since I left 42 yrs ago, guess that's why they say you can't ever go back. Today it's been raining hard all day, maybe April showers will bring May flowers.

It's raining I'm sure at our house in Neb. so the kitchen building project will be on hold anyway so we might as well be here spending time with Melissa and the family.

House news

I got to use my own computer while in Mpls. so I could add a picture of the kitchen part of the house we're going to have rebuilt. I told you all about the termites and the damage they've done, nasty little bugs! Our carpenter has talked sense into us and we've decided to rebuild the whole kitchen section of the house. My brothere is happy also cause he was a little worried about a few things in that section of the house. The carpenters will add 2 ft. all across the back side of the house and I've decided to not replace the wall between the kitchen and utility room so it can all be kitchen. This will give me room to build an island that will give me the much needed work space and more storage. The roof line will be raised so we'll have a full size wall on that end of the house instead of the shed roof that's there now. That will make the room much lighter and seem much larger. I'm real happy with the new design ideas we've come up with.

Today Richard, my brother, Greg, and I started work on the bathroom and took the kitchen cabinets apart so we can save them. We probably will only get the bathroom done this visit because of the new building project. When we get back in the fall the kitchen will be ready to go.

I also got the RV ready for another trip. My sister-in-law, Joy, had a great idea. We're all ready to head to Mpls. as soon as my brother's daughter has her baby so instead of staying in an expensive motel we're all going to stay in the RV with our 2 dogs. We'll be able to stay longer cause the trip won't be as expensive as it would have been. The weather has become very springish so we'll all be very comfortable and there are several RV parks that are open all year in the Mpls. area if you can believe that.

Tomorrow we start putting down the new floor in the bathroom and then Sun. we've got to go to Sioux City, Iowa for the rest of the supplies we need so we can stay busy next week.

Here are pictures of the termite damage we know about so far. It doesn't look good. Depending on how much damage they've done may determine how long this rehab project will take now.

Still trying to get out of TX.

We were supposed to leave TX last Wed. then on Sun. and then today but.... the weather isn't cooperating. First it was snow and now it was extreme wind. Tomorrow is supposed to be clear of everything so we should be able to finally get out of here.

We're wanting to get to our house in NE cause we found out a couple days ago we've got termites. When our carpenter was starting to install the new kitchen door he found them eating the sill under the door. Today or tomorrow the exterminator is supposed to arrive to tell us how serious the problem is. Butte had 12 in. of snow on Sat. night so travel has been affected as well. Hopefully the snow will melt some before we get there so we can unpack the RV without carrying boxes through 12 in. of snow.

Making the most of being stuck in TX.

We had planned on heading to Neb. April 1st. but, the weather didn't cooperate. This is the winter that might never end it seems. We are going to see how the weather looks this weekend and may be able to leave on Sun. In the meantime we are trying to enjoy the TX around us. Yesterday we walked a couple of the city parks Georgetown has developed along the San Gabriel River. It was a beautiful day. Today we were going to head to one of the State Parks for a hike but the wind is so strong we just stayed home. If it's nicer tomorrow we'll head into the Hill Country to see wild flowers and take a hike at one of the parks.

We just got some bad news about our little house, the carpenter has found termites have infested the sill the house sits on. He's going to see how bad the problem is and my brother is going to look for a company to deal with them. If it's a really big problem it may delay our getting the place ready to live in since we have limited funds. Thank goodness we've still got our RV so we have an alternative to living there until we can afford to get everything fixed. If need be we'll just continue finding jobs down south in the winter and and up north in the summer and make the money needed to get the job done.

This is part of the crew I work with at The Cafe on the Green in Sun City, TX. The woman on the far right is Jennifer, the owner and working manager. I haven't made a whole lot of money here but it has been a fairly good experience. The Sun City residents have been real nice to wait on, cheep but real nice. I've just got one week left and we'll be leaving TX. We'll make a brief stop in Bartlesville, OK to visit a friend and then on to Butte, Neb., HOME!

We've had a busy couple days off. Thurs. we went over to Johnson City and met some RVing friends, Kay and Dan. We had a good hike in Pedernales State Park. Lexi was like a Mt. Goat climbing over the rocks at the Falls. We also visited Dan's sister's place and got to see her art studio, she's a fine artist. Dan and Kay surprized us with one of her pictures for our new house, what a wonderful gift.

Today we went out to lunch at the restaurant I work at with some of my Monument Cafe buddies since our season here in TX is almost over. Tomorrow we'll be going to the Austin Rodeo and Fair with Shawn Marie and the grandkids and then be sharing pizza with the Shawns and Louis and Sharon, another set of Grandparents.

Lexi

I was really just doing an experiment to see how to upload pictures using Picasa cause I've been having trouble downloading pictures from my Kodak camera to my computer. If I can't fix the Kodak site looks like this will work.

A Ride with Bob, The Bob Wills Musical

Last night Richard and I had a great night. My ex-husband and his wife invited us out to this Musical, A Ride with Bob. It's a muscial about Bob Wills the king of Western Swing music done by the Western Swing group, Asleep at the Wheel and a big talented cast. It was really great. The music and the writing of the script were all so enjoyable. It was presented at one of Austin's real nice production halls. We got together early and we bought dinner at Threadgills one of the restaurants that's been part of Austin's music history for years and years. Louis has wanted us to have a real good Austin music experience before we left town and this was certainly a good one. I've been a Western Swing lover ever since Louis first introduced me to the style of music back in 1976, I thank him for that.

Party at Bebe's

Angiw, her son, his girlfriend, and another family friend.

Bebe and her husband Ziggy.

Sat. evening my old friends from Monument Cafe, Bebe and Angie and I got together at Bebe's. I've sure missed the Happy Hour get togethers we used to have on the days we all worked and Bebe lived in Georgetown. Bebe's moved to Taylor which is 30 miles from Georgetown. Angie lives there also so they get together regularly but I haven't joined them but a few times and we're all starting to realize I'll be leaving for Neb. soon so time is running out.

update on house

I talked to our carpenter today and he assures me he'll have the new roof and the new doors and windows installed by the time we arrive the beginning of April. I think Richard and I are really ready to get started making this house a home for us and Lexi the dog.

I've tried doing a blog before but friends found it hard to access so I thought I'd try this one and see how friends like viewing it. More will follow in the coming days as we leave our winter camp in Georgetown, TX for our new hometown of Butte, NE. We'll only have 6 or 7 weeks in Butte this spring before we head for Johnson's of St Mary, MT for our summer Workamper jobs. We hope by the time we leave TX, our new little house up in Butte will have it's new bright red tin roof and all it's new windows and doors installed so we can get busy on getting the water lines replaced and the bathroom and kitchen well on the way to being refurbished.