Tuesday, December 15, 2015

Working Our Last Gate For 2015

We should be leaving this gate in about 1 week or less.   After having been on this gate for 2 months, we are ready for a break.  Originally we were planning on going to Quartsite, Arizona but now I think we are heading south to Mission, Texas to hang out with my sisters.  Well, actually Thela is in Mission and Stella is in Port Isabelle.  I think 80 miles separates them.  Than in February we will come back and gate guard for 2 or 3 months before heading back north. Well, so now you know our itinerary.
Me, taking a nap

I have never been one to wear hats, but I'm starting
too.  Ed had me turn it backwards for the picture.

This is our rig at night.  Reminds me of an
apartment building only skinny.
This gate has been a fairly good gate, as gates go.  Since we started working for J & G Security, most of our gates have been  busy gates.  The traffic on this one has been steady but not overly busy.  The worse part is we have to shut the gate at dark.  They have deer in here and the company man said he thought it should be shut.  At first we thought we were going to have to shut it all the time but later it was agreed upon to shut it only at night.
Isn't he pretty and no Ed hasn't
been hunting

We have 2 males but he is the larger one

This is in front of the MH.  We have  4
females that hang out here and sometimes
the males

And we also have the cows but they are across
the road

This is the walk to the gate.  At night it seems a long way
When we first got here the weather was pretty nice.  It was nice enough to sit outside during the day.  We are both up from 12 to 5 pm.  So we can sit outside and just relax and usually take turns checking in the trucks.  But after several weeks the weather turned cold and rainy.  Makes for long days.  I have had two really bad rain storms in the early morning hours when I took over.  The mats outside our door blew away,  Ed eventually nailed them down.  The wind gusts in one storm was so strong, I was surprised Ed was able to sleep.  It was probably some of the strongest we have been in.  Well maybe except for our first year.  We were in a popup camper and the wind was so strong, I thought we were going to fly away.  Stella said we could have came over to her place. Being that it was a fifth wheel, how much safer would that  have been?  I told her if we had left the ground I would have been coming.  Although I think the bath house might have been a safer place to be.

Our first year.  We had so much stuff in there Ed had
to get on top so we could latch it down.  lol  
Well, last night was another cold, rainy night.  I think the rest of the week is suppose to be nice.  I hope so.   This morning I got a visit from a dog named Bruce.  He belongs to one of farm houses near here.  They came by here a couple of weeks ago in an atv, that's how I know his name.  So I went out and gave him a treat and took his picture.  Well that was probably a mistake because he comes walking in the gate and I don't know how to get rid of him.  Giving him the treat didn't help.  Right after that I get a truck and Bruce follows him all the way down the road barking and running around the truck.  I hope the guy didn't think he was mine.  Plus the sign outside the gate says "no dogs allowed."  They don't want them chasing the deer.  I didn't know how he was going to get out because the fence is all the way around the property.  He eventually did come out, for which I was thankful.  I stayed in the rv because I didn't want to encourage him to stay.

Bruce, very pretty dog

Well everyone have a MERRY CHRISTMAS and A  HAPPY NEW YEAR.


Ed and Linda Gillespie

Thursday, October 15, 2015

Where Have We Been?

Can't believe that summer is over.  After the gate we headed to Virginia.  Met up with the kids at Ed's sister Carm.  We had a great time.

By a water falls in Shenandoah State Park

Going was easy, it was downhill, coming back was really hard

Everybody had a great time

enjoying a water park

"The Gillespie family" well sort of, some of
them are Lehman's plus one friend.
We even had time for games.  

We picked up this girl in town at the post office.  She came in to
pick up a package and was going to hitch hike back to the
park.  She was part of a Veteran's group that were hiking
the Appalachian Trail.   

A neat tunnel in the Park
We park at a friend of Carm's.  We did this the last time with no problem but this time he had us park on the grass.  The last night we were there it poured all night.  As soon as Ed tried to pull out we sank in the mud.  What a sinking feeling as you see your tires up to the rim in mud.


This is what the yard looked like after we got out.
We had to call a tow truck.
Than Ed tangled with a boulder.  Another sinking feeling.  More like horror as I stood there and watched him run over it.  When he finally stopped it was up underneath the motor home.


Rock under coach

At first we weren't sure how we were going to get it out.

This happened with the tire.
We used the motor home back jack to lift up the rear and than
put a strap around rock and pulled out with the Jeep.  This
was the tow truck drivers idea.  But realized later we should have
used both jacks.  This make the windshield lose it's seal.  
 After the tow truck guy got us off the rock and we started down the road, Ed realized there was rain coming in through the windshield.  When he jacked up the rear end of the motor home, he only did one side and it made the windshield come out of the seal and caused a gap.  At least it didn't break it.


That evening we had a blow out on the inside back tire.  We figure the rock must have punctured the tire and made it blow.  After waiting several hours, our road side service, Coach Net, was able to bring us a new tire and put it on.  The service call was free but the tire cost $800.  It was a week end so you take what they can find.
What a split
 We got to Elkhart and called the insurance company.  Found out we had vanishing deductible so no out of pocket expense  We had a tire hazard warranty on the tires and they paid for the tire.  We were thinking maybe the repairs would take about a month to do.  Wow, were we wrong.  It took a month to get the bay doors and side panel from Tiffin and another  5 weeks to get the repairs done.  We have spent the whole summer in Elkhart.  Our original plans were to go to South Dakota.  We were going to do some site seeing and hopefully some gold digging.  Oh well, we are trying to be flexible and go with the flow.
side looks good.

Well the motor home is looking good, my only complaint was how long it took.
While we were in Elkhart, we were able to get solar panels on.  This is something we have been wanting to do for some time.  When we first started traveling, we were told solar would cost about 5 to 6 thousand and that you would never recoup your cost.  Ed did it himself with the help of a friend for a little under 3 thousand and there is a tax rebate on it right now.  So that was at least something we got accomplished while in Elkhart.

So here we are, heading back to Texas.  I wanted to get there before October, so we could work a gate before heading to Arizona.   Still trying to be flexible.  


Safe Travels and see you around.


:Love Ed and Lyn    

Monday, April 13, 2015

4 Weeks left and Than Free Again

The last blog had us waiting for a gate.  Took us 3 weeks but we finally got one.  While we were waiting not much to do but we did take some short walks.  This is the area where they put you up.  It is free so we are not complaining.

our waiting place, look at the overhanging tree

Somebody wasn't watching

We were careful, so it wasn't us

Ed was surprised how this tree filled in the fork and
then it looks like a limb grew out of it.

our dog friends that met us on our walks

friendly neighbor

even though some of the neighborhood wasn't that nice, other places
had some really nice houses

another nice house

  We have been here 4 weeks.  Should have 4 weeks more to go.  Then we are heading to Virginia to meet up with the kids.  We will stay here until the gate ends but it looks like everything is coming together.  It has been a good gate.  Not real busy.

Ed hard at work, we have had some nice weather except
for lately

Our site,  We are southeast of San Antonio, Texas

This is what they call the facility, about 1/4 mile back
from us

This is where they are drilling.  Almost like a little
village.  They bring in mobile homes and some
of the guys live here.  Usually one or two weeks on
than they leave for one or two weeks and
another crew comes in.

in the distance you can see the rig

This is "the rig" sets over the place they are drilling

Spring is here and it is nice seeing the greenery and flowers.  Everything around here is brush but at least it is green and we do have some flowers.   We have had a lot of rain since we have been here but we are not sinking in the mud.  Hopefully when we get ready to leave it will be dry.




 I thought this one was very pretty
Also Texas has a lot of thorns.

Ed wanted to show you some of them




This picture is for Carm,  Ed's sister.  This is where he goes to
cut his branches.  He has to watch for the snakes.


"back scratcher material"

Mistletoe

We have cows at this gate.  A couple of blogs back we had a coyote chew the cord on the sensor and than take off with it.  This time we had a cow chew on the cord.  They usually knock them down but this is the first time one has chewed it.

We have a whole heard this time.

Ed's solution for the cows.  Don't worry he didn't
hurt any of them.

Our mangled wires

Ed was able to fix them.  Last sensor we were able too.

He ended up putting the sensor in among the thorns.
So far it has worked

This one is suppose to be hidden.  He said it seems to be the
young ones that won't leave them alone.

And of course we have our little creatures like snakes, spiders and ants.  But so far no mice.

We have ants everywhere

We have fire ants


Mosaic ant hills

and of course big black spiders
We actually haven't seen any snakes but some of the workers have

And last but not least my bird in flight.
This is an Osprey, 

Happy Trails    Ed and Lyn