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

How Time Flies When You Are Doing Nothing.

We left the gate on Dec. 24 and headed down to Mission, Texas.  One of my sisters, Retha and her husband Ron, was going to be there visiting another sister,Thela and her husband Dave. Thela lives in Mission all year.  They use to travel in an RV and now are off the road.   I wanted to go down and visit them.  The gate actually closed on the 23rd and we left the next day.  Worked out perfect.  I had been having some health issues so it was a good time to leave for a little while.  It was determined I had bronchitis.  So we went for 2 weeks and ended up staying for almost 2 months.  But the time went so fast.

This was sort of a selfie.  I put the camera on the table and
ran back to get in the picture.  I think the camera needed to be up higher,
 looks like our heads are touching the ceiling.  lol

We were able to get a rv spot 3 places down from my sister at Twin Lakes Park.  It has an agricultural rating so they have to keep so much of the property for other uses besides the rv park.  So one of the things is they raise goats.  People bring down their scraps so they are very well fed goats.  They also have an orange grove which we went to pick some.  They were pretty bare.

Wasn't a bad spot but when it rained there
was a lot of mud in front of us.  Off to the left,
Thela's place was just 3 places down.
Nice to be able to just walk back and forth.

There are a bunch of goats, but for some reason Ed only took
pictures of these two. 

You often see birds catching a ride on the back of them.

Ed picking oranges.  As you can see the trees are bare.
He is using an orange picker so he can reach
the top of the trees.

This looks like a picture from "The Birds".  They come in like this every night.

This is just a small portion, they were everywhere.

I guess they have to roost somewhere.

A couple of other interesting things we saw while there.

If you have seen our setup, you know we haul our Ranger on a trailer.
Another way to haul it.  

Some type of dredge sitting off to the side.
Not sure what they would have used it for.

  Ed would love to have it to dredge for
gold.  Just not sure how we would haul it.

We found this place called Freebirds, a burrito place.  Inside people started making things from their aluminium foil that they wrapped their burrito in.  They were everywhere inside.  Also they were into cycles.

We weren't impressed with the burrito's.  But we did
like the inside.

These were lined up everywhere.

Some of them were very creative.

Not only did they have all the silver creations everywhere,
they had this hanging.

How many know what movie this was from.

This was the condiment dispensers.

When we can we try and find a church in the area.  We found one really similar to  Granger Community Church in Elkhart, Indiana.  Not quite as big but we really enjoyed it.  I love doing what we do but sometimes I miss not connecting with a church.

Like walking into a theater

They even had elevated seating.  Very nice church.

Thela has a beautiful garden so when the weather warmed up  we worked in the garden, cleaning it up from the winter.  I told her she almost killed me.  I am quite a bit younger then her and I couldn't keep up with her.  I don't know how she does it.

A beautiful garden, but I think it needs
to be smaller.  haha

Thela working in her garden.  There seems to be no
end to it. 

So here I am working.  Under my visor I also have a
sweat band.  I hadn't worked that hard in a long time.

I think I would rather gate guard.  But I was glad I could help her out.

When we got here  we met Pam and Lacy at Golden Coral.  I think it's Lacy's favorite place to eat.  We had a great time catching up.

And Pam always has a beautiful smile for the camera.

On our way back from Golden Coral.  A neat picture.  I was surprised
I was able to get it thru the window.

As you all know the weather has been nasty.  I know we didn't have it as bad as the ones up north. But when you are use to warm weather, anything below 60 degrees seems cold.  So during the cold and raining weather we were glad we were not gate guarding.  We have left Mission and are back in San Antonio, Texas.  We are in what they call "the yard", which is a place to stay while we wait for a gate.  Right now things have really slowed down in the oil fields because of the drop in oil prices, so we might have to wait awhile.

So here we set.  Ed says we have become
"professional waiters".

Happy Trails for now.   Love Ed and Lyn