Monday May 31st 2010

Well, it is Sunday, no, it’s Monday, I’ll get it right, maybe.  It is really hard to keep track of the days the way we are working.

Had a pretty good day today, did a lot of cleaning and it went quite well.  I think we both felt better today than we have the last couple of days.

Don and LaVon came over again tonight, they will be heading back to Oklahoma tomorrow.  Sounds like they had a very nice visit and got a lot accomplished while here with the “Christian Resort Ministries”. They are looking at a church not far from where we are camped and now wish we had Sundays off so we could go there and check it out for ourselves. Sounds like a great church.

Linda made some pudding for Angel Food Cake.  Kind of like a chocolate mousse. LaVon is serving it up and is having a good time!

Voila!!!  It’s ready when you are!  But we can’t eat and take pictures at the same time!!

We sure have a good time with Don and LaVon, will miss them but will see them again in August.  They will be back for a month for meetings etc.  We will be able to play a couple more games of that “stupid game” Zilch.

We are tired and will probably go to bed kind of early.  Our Satellite dish seems to have gotten moved so we had to hook up to cable.  Can’t record now but will be able to watch TV.  We don’t have to go in tomorrow until 11AM so will get a few things done in the morning. Goodnight Ya’ll….

Sunday May 30th 2010

The day is supposed to be nice with a chance of rain???  Well, we will see. We had our schedule changed from 8AM to 9AM and they took and half hour off the day so we get off at 4:30PM, at least 3 days a week.  The other 2 days we work 11:30AM to 6:30PM.

The day started off nice.  Not to much to do (right now) but in an hour or so we will have more work than what we know what to do with.  We had 3 turn around rooms to do in about 3 hours and we aren’t fast.  We finished them in plenty of time but the people were sitting outside the room waiting. They were about an hour early and they didn’t mind waiting and we had it done before check in time.  I think we did OK.  We got pretty tired cleaning though and now we are kind of sore.

We were supposed to meet James & Janice for a birthday party for David who just turned 65.  James got to work over 45 minutes later than he was scheduled.  Made us a little late for dinner but was still fun.

Linda picked out a funny card for him.

Linda picked out a bottle of age reversal pills.  The directions are to take 2 pills “before” your birthday and when you blow out the candles you are supposed to “inhale” and if you survive this you will be younger, if not, you won’t get any older.

Pizza Hut time.  This Pizza Hut has very good pizza and I’m not a Pizza Hut fan.  I could be wrong but I think I’m the oldest one in the crowd.  Not sure how old James is but I think he is under 65.

This is the cake that Marian baked for David.

David got to cut his birthday cake, it was good, even if he did cut it.

Well, by the time we got done with the cake it was after 9:PM and time to get home. To late to watch TV but will try to catch the weather….Nite Ya’ll..

Saturday May 29th 2010

I was sore from yesterday.  I think the weed eating for a couple hours hurt my shoulders and back.  After I got moving around it wasn’t to bad.  Linda was in pretty good shape except for a headache and I won’t go away!

We started work and had some rooms to check to make sure they were ready for people to occupy.  We received word later that 2 cabins were ready to be cleaned for more people who will come in today.  We started on that after a lot of chasing after a golf cart, radio, etc.  After we got started on the cabin it wasn’t bad except for some of the drapes in the loft and the  linens.  The three cabins had to be cleaned and ready by 2PM.  We skipped our lunch to finish the third cabin.  We were pleasantly surprised while cleaning the first cabin, we had visitors!!  Don and LaVon Baker pulled up to the cabin and it took us awhile to figure out who in the world would be coming to the cabin to see us.  They really surprised us.

They took us to Fall Creek Restaurant for a really good meal.  I took my camera but we had started eating before I took a picture of the food.

 

They all had catfish, I had to be different and have chicken fried steak.  I had a taste of Linda’s fish and it was excellent, my chicken fried steak was really good too.

This is a restaurant like Lambert’s, they even throw the rolls.  Had a very good meal.

The Blues Brothers of course.  I didn’t take a picture of the cowboy but it was different, it kind of stared at you while you were eating, fortunately I had my back turned to it.  After eating we came back to our camper and played a couple of games of Zilch or “stupid game” as it is called by some people.  Had a great evening. They shared their experiences of how the Lord is blessing them and their Ministry “Christian Resort Ministries”.  Many great things are taking place with the Lord’s help, very exciting. 

We will watch a little TV and go  to bed.  Our schedule has changed and we won’t have to go to work until 9AM which is nice.  Should sleep good tonight…..Bye Ya’ll…..

Friday May 28th 2010

This is our first full day at work.  We will be on our own and will see how our work goes for the first day.  Went into work at 8AM and had a few rooms to get ready and one to clean.  It went real good, no problems to speak of.  We cleaned a room (refresh) and Linda found the “Do Not Disturb” sign on the other door.   Oh well, hope they didn’t mind to much.  We won’t do it again I guess.  We got 4 cabins ready to rent and by that time it was lunch time.  This afternoon, Linda worked in the office learning the computer and I got to go “weed eat”.  The time really went fast, seemed to go faster than the 4 hour days.

Marian made soup and brought it over.  She brought it over because we have bowls!!!  We do have quite a few bowls.  The tried our jalapeno bread and they like it but was a little to hot for them.

This is the soup she made.  It was very good, don’t remember having soup with almonds in it but it tasted good.

We went to the “store”  Wal Mart to get a few things.  Sunday is David’s birthday and we are going out for pizza.  I think that sounds like fun.

I am really tired today, I think the 2 hours of weed eating really tired me out. I will probably go to bed early tonight, hopefully I will get used to working, at least this kind of work.  Night Ya’ll ….

Thursday May 27th 2010

Looks like a nice day today, had to take a picture from the kitchen window. Funny how things change so fast.

The last time we were home the field across the road was short and very green.  Now it is turning a golden ripe color.  If we come home next month the farmer will have harvested the wheat and planted soybeans.

This doesn’t look very nice, and it isn’t.  The moles in the yard are terrible.  I don’t mind them eating the grubs but they push up the dirt into mounds and it looks bad!!!

This doesn’t show up very well but the moles burrow crooked trails with the ground pushed up where ever they go.  I need to spread grub killer all over the lawn, very thick but didn’t have time.  Just managed to get the lawn mowed yesterday.

This is Lambert’s in Ozark, MO.  Linda wanted to stop and get some rolls. Got a half dozen and took them back to the camper.

The above picture is our new convection/microwave oven.  I was surprised when the boss said it was in and in the shop.  I had David help me get it, he used his truck and we loaded it up and brought it back to the camper, took out the old one and put the new one back in.  It looks exactly like the old one but it works, for now anyway.  It didn’t take long to put it in but it sure was hot.  Now have to get the other one back to the manufacturer and we should be good to go. 

I think I need to rest.  The 5 hour trip back was kind of tiring and then the microwave and the heat, need to take it easy.  Tomorrow is a FULL day so I am going to say g’nite Ya’ll….

Wednesday May 26th 2010

Well today is very warm, stuck my head out the door at 6AM and it is already hot and muggy.  Good day to run the air conditioner.

I have a lot of things that I want to get done and really need to get done.  I was getting ready to take my shower and was trying to get the shower to work right (water coming out of the shower head etc) but while doing that the pump quit working.  I went out and was messing around with the pump and finally got it working.  Got in the shower and got all soaped up and wouldn’t you know, the pump quit working again, NOOOOO!! So I toweled off all the soap and got dressed and started on the pump again.  I know the pump runs so it has to be the pressure switch.  Figured out the points weren’t making good contact so I got an emery board and filed the points, and yes, I disconnected the power first:-)  That seemed to do the trick.

Our back yard light has been acting up for about a year now, so, we go to town to get some things, including a new yard light.  I left Linda at Wal Mart and I went to Lowes, found a light that is energy efficient!  Fluorescent!  Went back to Wal Mart and Linda wasn’t finished yet. I finally told her that it might rain and I had things to do so she got the things she needed and we boogied on home.

 

This is our new light and my switch blade knife, got to have the right tools for the right job, right?  Well before I climbed up on the garage I opened the box and put the light together and it started raining and it was a good thing, cooled the air a little and gave me time to put the light together, and it wasn’t easy, 6 screws and they didn’t line up.  By the time I got it together it quit raining (still the same day) and I went up to tackle the job. Looks like a pretty day doesn’t it?  Altogether today I would guess we got about 2 inches of rain.  Most of it came later though.

It works!!  Praise the Lord!!!  The light is actually brighter than the Mercury Vapor Light.  Supposed to use a lot less electricity too!

I also mowed the lawn between rain storms.  I did finish it after church tonight.  It was a little soggy but it looks better.  Jim stopped over this morning and he was going to mow it.  He didn't know we were coming home.  I will have to call him next time  Oh, the ugly freezer at the bottom left of the picture above, contains 1 each well pump.  If I ever have to change the pump I will replace the old freezer and build a new building for the new pump and hopefully it will look nicer than this.  I wanted to get a lot of weed eating done and spray Round Up but with the rain and lack of time I'm not going to get a lot of that done, maybe next month.

Been a long day and it's time to relax.  Linda bought a new Wii game. We tried that out tonight.  It was fun, different, but fun.  Nite Ya'll....

Tuesday May 25th 2010

Here is another sunny warm day.  We are going to go back to Sikeston today for two nights.

I called Apollo, the manufacturer of our convection oven, they were very nice and said they would Fed Ex one out right away and I could change it myself.  COOL.  Hope it works!  Shouldn’t be here until we get back.

We stopped here for a little break, it is on Highway 60 going back to Sikeston.  Got a bag of popcorn.  Really wanted to eat but I really get tired after eating and I was tired already so we waited until we got home to eat.

We made it home about 4PM and turned on the air conditioner and the refrigerator, it is hot here, close to 90 I think.  The house cooled off faster than the refrigerator!

Don’t she look happy??   I think she is posing!!

Our dinner.  Not bad for not having much on hand.

Guess what I’m going to do?

Yes, I found 10 pounds of flour in the freezer and had almost all the ingredients here!!  They turned out great except I didn’t get them done. BUMMER!!!  Still taste good though.

We had a couple problems here at home, a little problem with the drain in the bathroom, one of the large nuts had cracked and leaked a little, that was a pretty easy fix.  Our yard light is another problem.  I think I will buy a new one, this has been doing weird things for about a year now.  Will try to fix it tomorrow, think I will wait until it gets hot though.  Wouldn’t want to try to change it while it is comfortable out.  I will have to climb up on the garage to get to it, that is the easiest way.

Linda and I played some Wii games since we have no TV here this time.  To much work to bring it back for 2 nights.

Time for bed…..Goodnight Ya’ll….

Monday May 24th 2010

I am so messed up on the days I had to check for sure to see what day it is!  My watch said March 21st and that didn’t help any!! 

It is already muggy and warm outside so it is going to be hot today.  Our air conditioner does a fair job but we are in the direct sun and it is having a hard time keeping up.  It feels nice inside, it takes out the humidity. This is the camper we are living in-).

We didn’t have a lot to do at work today but kept busy with James and Janice and then after lunch David and Marian helped us.  We have 8 cabins that will all be occupied this weekend and we took inventory of the supplies that are supposed to be in them.  Our list of utensils and dishes etc is not a very good list.  We started taking things out that weren’t on the list only to find out they were supposed to be in there.  I think we need a new list.

I have been taking pictures with my phone and figured I would just download them onto the computer.  WRONG!  Well, I can’t do it anyway. My computer says there are no pictures on the card.  Maybe I will try Linda’s.  Hers has a card reader!!!  Doesn’t work either.  Maybe I don’t have the pictures on the card??? Will take more.

We went to the grocery store, Country Mart, after doing laundry etc.  I took pictures in there but they are on the phone. We had some strawberries that Linda had cut up but she wanted ice cream (I didn’t object) so that is why we went to the store.  We invited David and Marian over to share.

We had a lot of ice cream and strawberries.  It was very refreshing. 

After we finished I figured I should put the awning up before it rained.  To late, it already sprinkled and the awning was wet, had to put it up anyway, there seemed to be a storm brewing.  Wind started blowing and it thundered some.  Wasn’t a real storm, but it sure cooled off nice.

David came over later and he was having trouble with his plug.  It was arcing and was wondering if I had a 30 amp extension.  We made his fit and it worked.  There wasn’t any cord to spare.  He needs to get an electrician down to fix the 30 amp receptacle.

 

Had a great evening, will head for Sikeston around noon tomorrow I think.  I don’t want to drive into the sun, not comfortable at all for me.  Good night Ya’ll

Sunday May 23rd 2010

Another beautiful day in the neighborhood.  My fingers aren’t working good at all this morning.  Can’t blame my fingers, my brain is still asleep I think. The day looks like another beautiful day.

When we went to work we worked with James and Janice again and Marian after she got back from lunch.  There were a lot of rooms to clean but tomorrow there wouldn’t be any more checkouts.  We cleaned the rooms on the main floor and the other couple, Wilbur and Bernie, cleaned at the Main Park.  When we were finished at 3PM we still had a couple more rooms to do but tomorrow is another day, no arrivals today.

We made plans to go to church today with James and Janice and we picked this church:

This is a very friendly little church.  They had a special speaker tonight from “Bearing Precious Seed”.  They print Gospel Tracts and the ones they are sending to Prague are “John & Romans”.

They have 250,000 of these and 250,000 tracts all boxed and in a shipping container ready to go to Prague.

This is Barry and his family, the girls are beautiful singers.  They didn’t introduce them tonight so I’m not sure if one of them is his wife or not. He was really on fire tonight though.  I was just noticing the man in the left corner, I think he must be a Blue Grass fan and they definitely didn’t sing Blue Grass. (I’m just kidding!!).  I had a hard time following Brother Barry in his sermon.  He told us to turn to Numbers 4:4.  Then he proceeded to quote scriptures from Psalms and different books and when he finally got to Numbers 4:4  I have no idea what it had to do with what he was preaching on, which was, to a non believer, the book (Bible). Now I may be wrong and anyone can correct me if they want, but I don’t think we are to put a bible on a pedestal to worship, now the Word contained in the Bible is the Word of God which is to be read, memorized, used to live by and instilled in our hearts, but because they printed the Word it sounded to much like we are to worship the book.  I know better and the Bible shouldn’t be misused or abused because it does “contain” the Words of God.  OK, off my soapbox…..to something else……

This is a little “after the fact”.  Doesn’t look to good does it?  It was so good it’s gone!!  We stopped at Pizza Hut after church.  I’m not cheap or anything but a $10 pizza shared by 4 people isn’t real expensive!!  We had a good time and enjoyed the evening.

We plan on going back to Sikeston Tuesday to do a few things, pick up a few things and take back a few things.  Tomorrow is another day, as if everyone didn’t know that, so I am going to take it easy and relax before going to bed:-)    Nite Ya’ll………

Saturday May 22nd 2010

Rainy season must be over for a few days now.  Beautiful sunny sky, light breeze, warm, I can handle this kind of weather.  I put the awning out last night and left it out.  Guess the wind isn’t blowing very hard so I think I will leave it out while we go to work.  Should be OK.

When we got to work we found out that the bottom floor of the Lodge flooded.  The sewer back up.  Not good.  It wasn’t all that bad, but bad enough.  We didn’t have to do that part of the clean up but finished it later, sanitizing the bathrooms etc.

James and Janice worked with us today and actually we didn’t have a lot to do. We cleaned one room and made sure four others we ready to be occupied.  I kind of made a mistake.  I filled up the washer to do the sheets and towels etc. but then remembered that we weren’t supposed to use the water so I turned it off.  Guess that was a mistake.  It wouldn’t start up again.  I was told it was to full and that is why it wouldn’t start up.  I was also told when we started to fill it up, full.  Guess I need more training.

I didn’t really do a lot of walking today but my feet hurt, bad!!  After work I took a shower and sat with my feet up.  Took a long time for them to quit hurting.  I am going to wear a different pair of shoes tomorrow.

I wasn’t thinking this afternoon.  Linda made macaroni and cheese from scratch and we used the left over chili from yesterday and had chili mac. It was really good.  When we were finished eating I remembered the camera, so I didn’t get a picture of it.  I also made Jalapeno bread this morning and didn’t get a picture of that either.  I do think we have a problem with the convection oven.  The first loaf turned out nice and brown and the second one wouldn’t brown.  I think the fan quit working and that is going to be a problem.  We have used the convection oven (new) maybe six or eight times in the last month and now the oven is broke (I think).  We have over three months to go before we go back home, long time to go without an oven.

Well, so much for today, not a real good day but the sun was shining!!  Going to try to get a good nights sleep tonight…Nite Ya’ll….

Friday May 21st 2010

What a beautiful morning!!! Sun is shining, it’s a little cool but not bad.  Left the awning out all night last night and now the wind is starting to blow a little and we have to go to work this morning so I think that I will put it back up again.  Supposed to be a little cool today and I’ve been wearing my sweater while walking around the circle.  I think I will take it off before going into work though.

Work was kind of fun today.  We had one unit to clean and three to refresh,  which is pretty easy.  When we finished we started the laundry and I walked over to the main park to see if there was anything else to do. David came by on the golf cart and Robert told me to go work with him.  Well, he changed his mind and wanted me to weed eat a lot where a camper just came in.  I did it and I think all the lots need to have the weed eater knock down the tall weeds.  Can’t believe they don’t keep that part up good.  I would volunteer for the job but Linda says if she has to work alone she would quit so I probably won’t volunteer.  I think there will be plenty of work after Memorial Day.

We asked David and Marian over for chili dogs after work.  I didn’t get a picture of the dogs but I did get one inside the camper.  It got to warm to stay outside.  The sun was really warm and I think it got up to about 75 today.

This picture is a little blurry but it shows how low the cabinets are and how tall Marian is.  I have a hard time doing dishes here because the cabinets protrude out so far.

This is another picture of Marian banging her head on the cabinet!!  This is just right for Linda.

We had Hot Fudge Sundaes for desert and then had to take it easy the rest of the night.

I will have to apologize, I think I have been spelling yall wrong all this time, I feel so bad, I was corrected by Cindy from Carriere MS that it is Ya’ll, she didn’t really correct me but she spelled it that way and my spell check doesn’t correct that:-)      Night Ya’ll ….

Thursday May 20th 2010

Sunny and cool today.  That is how it started!  It got warm this afternoon. We don’t have a lot planned for today, Linda is sleeping in, I took my shower, did my reading and did a load of clothes so we wouldn’t have to do them while we were working.

Got Linda up and we went to Wal Mart, the big one.  The one in Branson West is a super wal mart but this one is bigger.  We still couldn’t find all we needed.  I was looking for a shower rod that was at least 90 inches long. We are going to try to cover the sleeper over the cab.  It is a collection point for our “junk”.  We don’t have a lot up there but it still is an eye sore.  I may have to improvise. We picked up a few things that we needed.   I know why they call it the $100 store!

We got some free tickets to this show tonight (perk!) and so far it was the best show that we have seen.

They put on a BBQ dinner with potato salad, Cole slaw, chocolate chip cookie and a bottle of water.  Not bad at all!!

This is James and Janice, they are parked next to us at the campground. Well, not right next to us but there is nothing between us right now.  Very nice people from around Texarkana TX.  I think they pulled in the same day we did.

The place was about packed!  I’m not sure but I think most of the people were like us, workers here in Branson, or affiliated with businesses here.

This was the cast.  The one in the middle with the cowboy hat is the comedian and he was GOOD!  We really enjoyed the show.  Got out of the show about 10:00PM and got back to the camper about 15 minutes later.  Made good time for the traffic.  This last picture isn’t real good but with them moving and not a lot of light and no flash, I’m happy with it.

Going to go to bed, supposed to be nice tomorrow and we have to go back to work tomorrow so…..nite yall….

Wednesday May 19th 2010

It’s another cloudy day.  It isn’t raining yet but I think it is supposed to. I would like to go to Silver Dollar City today just to walk around and see if it has changed much.  I walked over to the office to check if we could still get in today for free, one of our perks.  They said that today and tomorrow is still free.  They explained that they have festivals going on and we can get in free for the 1st week of the festival.

We asked David and Marian to come over so they could watch Dancing with the Stars.  Marian wanted to see it, David wasn’t real keen on the idea and I don’t really like the show either.  After they watched the show I showed them a couple hundred pictures on the computer.  After that boring ordeal they had to go take a nap.  Of course it was raining and walking around SDC in the rain didn’t sound like fun.

Well, it quit raining and the sun came out for awhile so we decided to give it a try. It isn’t warm!  The rain quit for awhile though and we did get to see some of the park before it started again. We got to see a couple of the bands, Blue Grass, and they were quite good.  We aren’t real Blue Grass fans but they sounded good.

These are the Sons of Silver Dollar.  They work here most of the time.  They change there song style to fit the occasion. They even sang some of the Beatle’s songs in Blue Grass style.  Very interesting!

Don’t they look excited???  We are close to half way through, the rest of the way was up hill and by the time we got to the exit Linda was hurtin!!!

No, we didn’t go on this, not a good day to get wet.  Way to cold to be walking around soaked.

This little squirrel wasn’t really very scared of people.  I wanted to get a picture of him on the ground but some one put their foot on the planter he was on and he decided to go up into the tree.

This is the clover we know.  A little different than Mississippi clover. I had a picture of the Mississippi clover in here about a month ago.

Well this is a good night to take it easy,  We got a little wet at Silver Dollar City when it started raining and I think it will rain all night now.  There are storm warnings out but not really for Branson.  Thank you Lord!  Have a great night yall……

Tuesday May 18th 2010

Sun is going to shine today, should be a  glorious day!!  After getting my things done this morning I decided to take a walk around the north park where we are.

These are the cabins in the park, I think there are 10 of them.  They look nice inside for a cabin.  I’m not sure how many it will sleep but there is a bedroom plus a futon and then the 3 windows on the top is a place with 2 queen beds, so it would hold a pretty good sized family.

 

We  had a meeting this morning and this is our entire cleaning crew. Some of them aren’t cleaners but do, or will, have part in the cleaning. Our boss wants everything done the same.  We can’t do our own thing.  The towels on the table are examples of how to fold them plus how to fold the sheets. The meeting was informative and all the people are very nice and I think we will get along great.

I know this picture is a little fuzzy but this was our “mandatory” pot luck. They furnished ribs and brisket and everyone brought a dish to pass.  It was excellent.  Have a lot of good cooks here.  The fellowship was also good, we got to know some of the workers a little better and learned some of their names.  I was surprised, I think I counted 28 workers and these are all workampers!  The party ended about 8:30PM and we went home. When we got home we saw a person trying to set up his camper in the dark.  I went over to see if I could help. I lent him our little flashlight, then he couldn’t get the cap off the sewer so I gave him my channel locks and I went over with him and he got it off only it was part of the pipe also.  I had to break out my big channel locks to get them apart, Took us awhile but we got it.  I found out they call him Brother Bryan, he is a preacher.  We talked for a little while and he finished his hook up.

 

It has been a long day and we found out that we can get into Silver Dollar City free tomorrow.  I would like to go for a little while just to check it out and see what it going on.  Will have to see what we feel like tomorrow.  Nite yall…..

Monday May 17th 210

I think today may be a nice day.  I got up early enough to bake a couple loaves of bread but couldn’t find the measuring cup so I use a juice glass. It worked OK but my 2 loaves of bread were pretty small.  They tasted good but I really need to use a measuring cup for the water. That and the milk, other than that I just put stuff in and mix it up.

Linda and I worked today, we knew we wouldn’t be working together so Linda worked with Bernie in the laundry.

This is Bernie.  I didn’t get a picture of her husband Wilbur.  Wilbur worked with us cleaning the pool.  I really should have gotten a picture of the pool before we started cleaning it.  The rust was terrible and it was stainless steel!  David cleaned on it for a couple of days then yesterday there were four of us cleaning, so it went a lot faster, in fact we finished it and started filling it.

We are done with the pool here and even the bottom looks nice.  It had yellow stain over the whole thing and now it looks white!!  In the upper left corner you can see our camper.  Nice enough today to put the awning out.  I think this is the first time we have used the awning  The temperature only got up to about 72 today but the sun was hot!

This is a little oak is tree right outside our window and the leaves are the shiniest I think I have ever seen on an oak tree.  They shine like the leaves of a magnolia tree. Very interesting.

This will be another lazy night. Going to stay in and take it easy. We don’t work tomorrow but we have training at 11AM and a pot luck (mandatory) at 7PM.  Supposed to be the nicest day this week.  Then going to rain again on Wednesday and probably the rest of the week.  Oh well, such is life.  See yall tomorrow…..