Mom, The Shed,Thanksgiving & a Birthday

November 16th - December 1st, 2013

The last two weeks have flown by while we have spent time visiting Mom.  How time flies when you are enjoying it.  Most days we have spent at Moms and she has cooked some wonderful meals for us.  Thanks so much mom, now we have to get back to what shall we have for dinner tonight!!!

I'll try to show you some events in date order.

17th - Our eldest son, Ian, entered his first 10k Mo-Run  in Cardiff, Wales and completed it.  He grew a moustache and dressed for the occasion.

Well done Ian...... We are proud of you.

18th - 19th - I got some pictures of the trees outside the RV park when we left to go to moms this morning.

It was time to start dismantling Dad's old shed in the back yard at Moms.  

Before demolition started, clearing out inside.

 There were a couple of squirrels playing in the back yard and investigating.  We saw these squirrels most days.  Click video to see one of them, although you will have trouble finding it sometimes as I couldn't keep up with it.  I tried to get video of them jumping between the trees and chasing each other but it was impossible, they were too quick for me. Not difficult to be to quick for me, I'm not very good at the videos!!!!

The siding has to be taken off first.  

Siding is half off

20th - We left Bryan cleaning tools and Mom and I went to the hairdresser and I got my hair trimmed to about shoulder length.  The gray is really showing through now.  I will be glad when it had grown out completely and I can be a "little old lady" :)  A picture will follow.

21st -   More demolition.... Bryan took the remaining siding off and then we hooked a chain between the beams at the top of the shed and mom's truck and pulled.  After a couple of attempts it was completely down.

At the end of the day

23rd - 24th - Bryan worked on dismantling the roof and wooden frame over both days. He took the nails out of the beams.  We joked that Bryan's dad should have had shares in a nail company with the number of nails he used.  He certainly wanted to make sure the shed was not coming down.

Bryan in the middle of dismantling

Mom's neighbor, Ben, came over and helped and sorted wood, some of it was still usable.  The rest he was going to burn.  The metal we planned on taking to the scrapyard.

Mom went out to check on Bryan and her cat wondered where she had gone.

Where's my mom!!!

By the end of these two days, all that was left was the base, which needed to be broken up with the help of a chainsaw, which we would need to hire and the metal to be taken to the scrapyard.

The cat found mom!!!

 25th - Bryan was suffering and could hardly move today so he had a day of rest.  He has really been pushing himself this last week and had accomplished a lot but it was time to take a breather. It's at times like this that you remember why he had to retire early.

26th - 27th - Rain stopped play, because of the rain the back yard was too wet to work in and we couldn't risk mom's truck getting stuck.

28th - Thanksgiving Day - We are thankful today for the time we have spent with family and friends since we started our fulltiming lifestyle and for the opportunity of being free to do this and the friends we will see on our future travels. We are thankful for all our family and friends in the UK and have special thoughts of Mum who has been struggling with her health recently.  Get better soon, mum - we love you.
We are especially thankful to Mom for taking such good care  of us while we have been visiting and cooking wonderful meals.  Today was no exception and she spent a lot of time yesterday and today in the kitchen.  I helped as best I could, without getting in the way, and Bryan & I did dishes.

Thanksgiving Dinner and Sue's haircut!!

November 29th - Happy, Happy Birthday to my wonderful hubby Bryan.  It was so good to be able to spend Thanksgiving and Bryan's birthday with his mom.  The last time we were here at this time was 20 years ago when I first came to the States and we were on our way to Las Vegas.  Bryan chose Longhorn Steak house for his birthday meal and we had some good food.  The service could have been better but we made the most of it. We watched the Garth Brooks show Live from the Wynn in the evening.

November 30th & December 1st - I took some pictures on one of my early morning walks with CoCo.  The temperatures dropped below freezing a couple of mornings. In these pictures you can see the frost and the "steam fog" rising from the lake due to the cold air.  We really like this campground it is well kept and we will return.

Unfortunately, we will not be able to clear the base of the shed and take the metal to the scrapyard this visit as the rain and time has beaten us.  This is a little disappointing but sometimes these things can't be helped.  We will be back through this way but Bryan's brother may beat us to it.  I have enjoyed helping mom with her washing up and learning some of her recipes and just generally chatting.
We were sad to have to say goodbye but once again it really is "au revoir" as we will return. Being on a time restriction sometimes really sucks!!!