Sunday, March 22
While we dearly love attending Sunday services at the Rim Rock Cowboy Church when we are in the area, we decided that this morning we would go to the morning service at the community center here in Holiday Village.
When we arrived shortly before 10:00, we were pleasantly surprised to see the large number of cars, pickups, and golf carts in the parking lot. But, we soon found that most of those folks were there for breakfast or the morning coffee group. Still, there were ten of us that gathered in the large commons room for the worship service.
The pastor explained that the song leader was in the hospital and that we would just dispense with the singing and get on with the lesson and sermon for the morning. Well, that just wouldn’t do, so one of the men got up and lead us in a couple of songs before we got down to business.
The purpose of the Sunday morning service is to offer a Bible-based non-denominational service, but we decided that it was decidedly Baptist in nature, because it wasn’t long before we were lifting our feet to keep from getting our toes stepped on!
When the service was over we spent a few minutes meeting some of the other folks and getting acquainted with what life at Holiday Village was all about.
After returning to Big V and having some lunch, we drove to Mineola to see how everyone was doing at Mother’s house. They were having lunch when we arrived, so we sat and visited for a bit and then invited Ernie and Billee to come out to see what we had accomplished since we started working on the new lot.
We came on back to the place, changed clothes, and started working again. Barbara continued her work of clearing the entry way while I went back to the main part of the lot and started trimming trees, pulling briars, and gathering up dead wood to put on the burn pile. Josh had brought a chain saw from his house to loan us for the week, so I fired it up and started cutting down limbs, and branches.
Ernie and Billee got out to the lot around 2:30. We gave them the grand tour and showed them what we had done. They had seen the lot when we first started looking at it, so they were able to be a little more objective than the ordinary visitor about the progress.
After Ernie and Billee left to go back to Mineola (about 13 miles south of the park), we continued our work and by the time we were finished for the day, Barbara had cleared much of the driveway and I had three large piles of limbs and briars stacked up and ready to burn.
Worn out after a full day of activities, we returned to Big V. While we were sitting outside and winding down, we got a phone call from George and Margaret Bradley, the project coordinators for the new Liberty Hill Church (Ethridge, Tennessee) that we have been planning to help build. They were calling to let us know that the project was back on schedule and wanted to know whether we would be able to join them. With that call, we started changing our travel plans, and now hope to leave the lake home on either April 1 or 2 and make our way to Ethridge for a couple of weeks before going back to Toccoa, Georgia for three weeks of volunteer work.
Feeling good about having a “plan,” we went inside Big V, fixed a light supper, and settled in for a nice quiet evening of washing clothes and watching the DVD of Bucket List that Ryan and Leah gave us for Christmas. What a fun movie! (Definitely one we could relate to.)
Monday, March 23
For once, the weatherman was right and we received the high winds that had been promised, and our plans to start burning off the trash piles were very definitely “gone with the wind,” so to speak.
Instead, we drove to Mineola and started a search for a small storage cabinet that we could put our lawn tools in at night. We’ve been loading everything in the car and hauling the rakes, pruning tools, weed-eater, and chainsaw back and forth with us, but that got old very quickly. So, we wanted to find something that we could use temporarily for a tool shed and finally as a dry cabinet for storing firewood.
We searched all over the area and finally found what we wanted at the local Sears store…even found it at a better price than anything we had seen at Lowes in Lindale. The trick was going to be getting it back to the lot, but with a little ingenuity and a lot of effort, we managed to get the big box loaded in the Vibe.
After a quick trip to Mother’s house, we talked Ernie into loading his lawn mower into his car and I rode back to the park with him while Barbara drove the Vibe.
When we got back to Little Hideaway (the proposed name for our lot), Ernie reassembled the lawn mower, got it started, and turned the controls over to Barbara, who started carving down all the grass that had been growing on the lot. Meanwhile, Ernie and I tackled the foolproof and easily assembled vertical storage cabinet (no tools necessary). After a brief glance at the instructions, we tackled the job and in only twice the time that it should have taken, we had the cabinet assembled and standing in a little clearing under some of the trees. 
By the time we were finished, Barbara had almost completed the mowing, so we waited until she was through and loaded the mower back into the trunk of Ernie’s car and he left to return to Mineola while we stuck around to take care of a few more chores. As we were working, one of the neighbors came by and asked about cutting out a huge cedar tree that blew down along our driveway. The tree is easily 50 feet tall and must have blown over sometime during the past few months. The problem is that when it fell, the top landed in the top of another tree closer to our yard, and evidently the cedar didn’t become completely uprooted. So, we have a giant tree that is growing out of the ground at about a 35-degree angle.
Gary, the man who wants it, said he would cut it down and haul everything away if he could keep the wood, which sounded like a good deal for all of us. We need it out of there but don’t have the necessary tools, and he wants the wood for building furniture…probably a better deal for him than us in the long run, but it still works for all of us.
Tonight we washed another load of clothes while we watched Something to Talk About, a DVD that our friend Beck Roark had loaned us.
Tuesday, March 24
With cold, wet weather forecast for today, we decided this would be a good time to take care of some business away from Big V and the park. So, we gathered up some paperwork and a large jar of coins that we have collected over the past couple of years, and headed across the country to Terrell, Texas, where we could find the nearest Wells Fargo Bank.
After making our deposit (so we can turn right around and send it to the Treasury Department to pay our income tax), we attempted to cash in all of our coins; but, as has happened before, the bank didn’t have a coin counting machine. I don’t know…maybe banks don’t deal with coins anymore…who knows.
As we were leaving Terrell to return to Mineola, we stopped at Home Depot to look at some tools that I will need for working on the church in Tennessee. When we helped out at the church in Lady Lake, Florida, a couple of years ago, some of the men had extra power tools that they loaned me. We’ve looked at cordless drill/drivers since then, but didn’t see the need in investing in one unless we were going to be on a construction crew again. With the phone call on Sunday letting us know that the Tennessee project was on as scheduled, we decided to make the leap and buy a drill/driver so we can help put up the steel buildings.
While we were in the parking lot at Home Depot we called our friend Bob in Georgia to see if he could make recommendations about good brand names (or let us know what brands we didn’t want). Then, armed with that knowledge, we waltzed into the store and started looking,
While we found some good deals in Home Depot, we still didn’t feel right about making the purchase there today, so we left without buying anything and drove back toward Mineola, stopping at the Lowes store in Lindale to see what they had to offer. As luck would have it, the store had exactly what we wanted, but we decided to wait until pay day to go pick it up…sure hope it’s waiting for us when we go back!
From Lindale we drove back to Mineola, stopped at the post office to check mail, and then went over to Mother’s house to see what great excitement was going on there. After a short visit with Mother, Billee, and Ernie, we returned to Big V and settled in for a quiet afternoon and evening.
Wednesday, March 25
Happy Birthday to Becky Terpening in Artesia!!!
Today was a workday at our new lot. We got over there around 8:30 and started raking, pulling briars, and clearing out the multi-year collection of leaves and other debris under the trees.
After a couple of hours of all that fun, Barbara suggested that we take the coupons that we received from the park and buy breakfast at the community center. Since there are always a bunch of cars around there, we figured it must be a pretty good place to eat.
Luckily, we go in there before they finished serving breakfast and found that not only is the food wonderful, it is priced right! Barbara ordered a pancake (about 9 inches in diameter) and a couple of eggs, while I ordered eggs, ham, hash browns, biscuits and gravy, and coffee. Since everything is cooked from scratch, it took a while to get our food, but it was well worth the wait…I’m sure we’ll be trying that again soon.
After eating, we walked back down the road to our lot and started working again, building three large stacks of branches, briar vines, and leaves, hoping that maybe tomorrow we will be able to start burning. Meanwhile, I was using the chainsaw that Josh had loaned us to continue building up our stash of firewood. 
When we had done all we could do and it was obvious that a new round of rain was coming in on us, we shut down the work, put all the tools back in the shed, and returned to Big V for a shower before making a run back to Mineola to see what was shaking there.
There wasn’t much excitement there, but we did stop at Wal-Mart for a few groceries for later in the week. While we were in Wal-Mart, we noticed that they had a coin redemption machine and decided that we’d just go ahead and cash in our coins, even if the machine took out 8%. It was worth it to not have to deal with all those coins anymore.
Thursday, March 26
Some days the best-laid plans are nothing more than well-laid plans. From the looks of things, we are in the middle of the spring monsoon season. With steady rain and several hefty thunderstorms, it was no day to work on the lot.
Instead, we fixed lunch here at Big V and carried it to Mineola for a family meal with Mother, Ernie, and Billee. T.J. had been invited, but had other activities on her dance card, so the five of us enjoyed visiting and chowing down on chicken spaghetti (Nancy Terpening’s recipe), salad, and homemade Italian bread.
Ernie and I went out to their storage shed to find an extension cord that was packed away there, and then went to the bank, post office, and insurance company so I could take care of some business.
With lunch out of the way, we returned to Big V to take a nap (all that driving and eating made us very sleepy.
Later we drove to Quitman to buy a couple of things that we will need for a Saturday meal. When we came out of Brookshire’s, we was a video rental/sales store and went in to see if we could find any more seasons of Monk. They didn’t have Monk in stock, but we did find several racks of movies that were priced at 4 for $20, so we scrounged around until we found four that looked interesting,
When we got back home we kicked back and at dinner while watching Robin Williams in Man of the Year. We weren’t sure what we were getting into with the movie, but it turned out to be very good…a blow for common sense in the elected government (obviously fiction; common sense isn’t all that common in the government) but a great story…one we highly recommend.
Friday, March 27
Happy Birthday to Jean Terpening in Artesia!!!
Today was a work day to end all work days as far as we were concerned. It was cool, cloudy, and a little misty when we got to the lot around 8:00 a.m. (although, as we found out later in the day, not nearly as “cool” and cloudy as Liberal, Amarillo, and Artesia).
Our main objective for the day was to burn off the three large piles of trash that we had cut out, raked, and carried to the main part of our lot. We weren’t sure whether, under the circumstances, we could get a fire started, but were willing to give it our best shot.
We discovered a couple of days ago that charcoal lighter fluid had no effect on this much green and wet wood, so this morning I brought the remnants of a can of Coleman fuel to give it a try.
We picked a stack to start with and I poured the fuel all over it, trying to get at least some of it down to the ground so the heat, when it started, would burn toward the top.
Barbara put some pieces of newsprint in various places on one side of the stack and was trying to get them lit, but had only spotty little flames going. Now, I was not aware yet that she was going to be in charge of the fires, and my job was only to feed them once they got started…a near-serious lack of communication. In my ignorance of the responsibilities assigned to me, I decided to help by sparking a light on my side of the stack while Barbara was still working on her side.
Those of you who have sufficiently warped senses of humor and even minimal knowledge of fire-building are probably starting to smile and chuckle already as you see where this is going. Although I had warned Barbara that the Coleman fuel could flare when lit, I wasn’t quite prepared for the instantaneous explosion that occurred when my spark hit a well-doused limb. As the ball of flame roared out of the stack (in all directions, I might add), Barbara fell back and started yelling, “You burned my hair…my hair is on fire!”
I went around the pile (which, by the way, was no longer was burning) to see how she was, and assured her that her hair wasn’t burning and that she was ok. She just looked at me and told me again that I had burned her hair…she knew I had, because she could smell it burning.
I looked as closely as I dared and told her that no one could even see where it had singed her hair and again let her know that it would be ok.
We decided to move ahead from there, but with charcoal lighter out of the question and the Coleman fuel flames burning a hole in the ozone layer 30,000 feet above us, all that was left was a little mixture of gasoline and 2-cycle engine oil that we’ve been using for the chainsaw and weed-eater.
After I had doused the stack with a little more than a half-pint of the mixture, we let it soak in for a minute or so and then I struck another spark. We still got a rush of flame, but this time it stayed contained (mostly) within the stack, and in a couple of minutes we had a fire that was going to work for us.
For the next three hours we kept the home fires burning, as it were, constantly adding wood and briar vines from the remaining two stacks as Barbara kept the flames stirred. I was able to trim off some of the larger limbs with the chainsaw and cut them up to be added to the ever-growing woodpile we had started on one side of the property; and, of course, I made a few forays into the wooded part of the lot to pull out as many briar vines as possible so I could enjoy watching them burn. Hey…that’s only perverse if you have never had a close encounter of ANY kind with briar patches – just spend a day working with those things and then let us know that you won’t be stocking up on gasoline and matches!Anyway, things were going splendidly after our first little flare-up, and we were enjoying making progress in getting the lot cleared…all was forgotten and forgiven until Josh, the young man who first showed us around the park last month and who brokered the sale, came by to see how we were doing (everyone within five miles knew WHAT we were doing…in fact, everyone knows us as those people who are doing all the burning, but that’s another story).
Josh came over to where our fire was burning merrily, we engaged in some small talk, and then he looked at Barbara and exclaimed, “My gosh…did you burn yourself?!” Well, that only got the story going again, and Barbara told it with relish, sparing none of the details.
Aside from that hair-braising incident, the work went well throughout the day and we got a lot accomplished, burning off all three stacks of limbs, vines, and leaves, and getting the firewood pile well-stocked.
While Barbara tended the fire, I went to the clubhouse and ordered a couple of burgers to see us through lunchtime. Again, we were pleasantly surprised at the quality and cost of the food…two old-fashioned burgers (fully loaded) for a total of five dollars…can’t get a deal like that anywhere!
Gary, one of our neighbors, came by and again attacked the giant cedar tree that was gradually falling into the part of the lot that we plan to live on. He made such progress that I was there to help him pull down the top of the tree (it was hung up in another cedar). There’s still a lot of cleaning up to do, but we were thrilled to have that tree cut down.
About 3:30 I took Barbara back to Big V so she could start cleaning up and fixing supper. I then returned to the lot to watch until I was sure the fire was out and to pull a few more briar vines and cut some more firewood.
A little after 4:00, I returned to Big V and stepped inside just as the bottom dropped out of the clouds overhead…seems we were in a tornado watch, complete with high winds and heavy thunderstorms. It was when we turned on the TV to track the storms that we found that the Texas Panhandle and surrounding areas had been hit by a huge blizzard…wow…all kinds of weather excitement out there today and tonight!
Luckily for us, the really bad weather didn’t develop around us, so we spent the evening listening to a few wind gusts and the intermittent sounds of rain hitting the top of Big V. We were too tired after our full day of work on the lot to even think about watching a movie…just headed for bed to read and then fall asleep.
Saturday, March 28
We awoke to a very cold morning (we know, no sympathy from you folks in the Liberal and Artesia areas, but it sure felt cold and wet to us).
Ernie and Billee had planned a day trip to the Fort Worth area to visit their daughters, so we said we’d go to Mineola and spend the day with Mother. Besides, we planned a special meal as an early birthday celebration for Aunt T.J.
After grabbing a couple of breakfast burritos at the Sonic in Quitman, we drove down the road to Mineola and Mother’s house.
Mother was just starting to stir when we got there, so Barbara fixed her some breakfast while I hauled in some laundry that we brought along so we could keep the washer and dryer active.
We visited with Mother while she ate, and when she was finished, Barbara started on the laundry while I set up the ironing board and started ironing some of my shirts.
The day gave Barbara a chance to take care of some on-line business with a high-speed connection (something we definitely don’t have where we now are parked), and I got to tackle the inside of the Vibe, a cleaning chore that was way too long overdue.
T,J. came over for lunch at noon and we enjoyed a meal of roast pork, macaroni and cheese, cornbread, and a delicious cake that Barbara learned through an email from Nell in the Atlanta area. The best part of all was that T.J. was truly surprised (and very appreciative) by what we had done.
After lunch we all drove back to our lot so we could show Mother and T.J. what we had gotten done. They hadn’t seen it since we first looked at it over a month ago. They seemed sufficiently impressed.
We spent the afternoon doing various chores around the place. Barbara mowed the front yard while I ironed several of Mother’s blouses, and we both went through some boxes of clothes that we’ve been storing there at the house. With our upcoming trip to Tennessee and Georgia, we’re not sure what clothes we’ll need, so were trying to put together wardrobes that will handle both cool and warm weather conditions.
By 7:00 p.m. we had about “visited out” and had done all the chores we originally set out to do, so we got Mother some supper, fed the puppies, loaded the car with all our stuff, and drove back to Holiday Village to spend another quiet evening in Big V.
“Lord, help me to remember that nothing is going to happen to me today that you and I can’t handle together.” (wallet card Barbara carries)
Spending time in the lake country of East Texas,
Jim & Barbara
