The House is Quiet Again

We awoke Monday morning and prepared to go see the camper. Freedom RV was 38 minutes from our hotel between the towns of Bonham and Dodd City. We got a little worried when Waze our direction app, took the last two miles of our trip and wove us through a quasi neighborhood of acreage properties, some pretty , some not. But we popped out onto another main road and there was Freedom RV. We pulled up and the owner was working on a small trailer and like everyone there, knew we were coming. We met Brenton our sales guy and while he showed us the trailer, the owner hooked up our weight distributing hitch. Brenton showed us around the camper, but they are not a Jayco dealer so there were a few things I taught him that I learned from my reading. But in all the trailer was in great shape. So after about an hour of poking around, we went inside and purchased it. At about 12:30 we pulled off their lot and headed to Amarillo where we's stay the night. Going from a 19' pop up that you can see over and tracks exactly with your vehicle and going to a 26' hard side was a big change. The Ford pulled it great. It has a towing setting that you put the info from the trailer into and then once you switch the transmission to heavy towing, it's amazing. The other thing the dealer got me ready for was the noise a weight distributing hitch makes. At slow speeds it pops and groan worse than aunt Betty getting out of bed at the home. About 39 miles down the road we stopped and got some lunch. The highway was more full than it had been on Sunday and to make matters a bit more challenging the wind started up. So down the road we went with a 30 mph+ cross wind. Even in these conditions the trailer pulled well, but there was a learning curve. Also where I usually drive about 5 mph over the limit, now I was driving 5 under the limit. The wind didn't let up and we finally got to Amarillo about and hour later than we anticipated. Our camping reservation was at the Big Texan RV park, just a mile away from the big Texan Steak House where you can try to eat their 72 oz steak. We pulled in and found our site. Hooking up was easy, but this was my first time unhooking a weight distributing hitch. The dealer explained what to do and after a try or two it actually worked! We had the trailer set up and we needed a quick run to Walmart and to get dinner. We decided instead of going to the Big Texan for dinner we'd eat in camper. So off we went. At Walmart I bought an extension mirror to make my rear view a bit better. We bought breakfast food for the morning and some beer to go with dinner. Then it was off to get dinner. At the urging of son #2, Smooch, who reasoned, you're in Texas, you have to eat at Buc-ee's! So 2 exits down I-40, gleaming in the glow of fluorescent light was Buc-ee's. It's 108 fuel pumps beckoning low gas tanks and it's brisket beckoning low stomachs. So in we went and we came out with our three-meat sandwiches, sides and some dessert. The back to the Big Texan to have dinner in our new camper. Colin was right, with a cold beer and a hot Buc-ee's sandwich, we were in camping red-neck heaven. In The morning we ate breakfast and packed up quickly. But the wind was already ramping up. As we drove toward the Texas/New Mexico border, the wind got stronger. A few times we would cross a semi coming the other direction and the wind wall it created was intense. One I hit I watched my hood almost ripple under the intense pressure of the wall of wind. It makes you start to appreciate what a trailer goes through in it's life. It's like a house that undergoes a several hour earthquake every time you use it. One we got onto highway 87 after the town of Hartley, we were on a 4 lane highway. The wind kept getting stronger but it seemed manageable, but as we closed in on the town of Texline, yes the town on the state line, we drove into a dust storm. Buffeted by the winds and the tumble weeds were now traveling in herds. At this point the wind reached a speed where it got scary. Plus you have to remember while we getting hit by winds of almost 50 mph, we're also traveling at 60-ish mph. so that earthquake your trailer is going through has now added at times, hurricane wind pressures with the two speeds of the wind and your traveling speed colliding. So in Texline we pulled over and snuggled up between two parked semis at the only truck stop in Texline. We pulled out our computers, moved into the camper and did some work. We sat in Texline for about 2.5 hours and the wind continued to buffet us and pelt the truck and camper with sand. Texline has little other commerce, so even though the wind was blowing hard, we pulled out of Texline to make the 18 miles to Clayton, NM a larger town. We white knuckled it to Clayton. There we found a nicer newer truck stop, some lunch and a place to park where we were still buffeted by wind but no sand. By this point I was watching the wind forecast for Clayton, Raton, NM and into Colorado. Earlier that day a dust storm in Pueblo, CO had a 30 car pileup with fatalities. The highway there was closed. I got mor work done as we waited, but it looked like at 5 pm the winds would be at 30 mph or lower, the gusts would be no higher than 40 mph and they were forecast to go down the rest of the evening. As planned we headed out at 5 pm, the winds were strong but not unmanageable. I drove about 10 miles under the 75mph speed limits ad as the time and miles ticked away, the drive got better. By Raton, the drive was pretty normal and the winds on the pass were manageable. An hour later we were detoured around the carnage that was the pile-up from earlier. There were still semis and cars piled in the highway and ditches. We couldn't help but think of the people who lost their lives just trying to get somewhere. While we were 7 hours behind schedule, we still had all our equipment in good order and we were fine. Our 775 mile 2 day trip to pulling the new trailer ended at 9:50 pm as we pulled into the driveway. I turned on the heat in the trailer as the temperature was supposed to dip below freezing. On Wednesday I'd winterize the water lines as colder weather was on it's way. Now we start making it our trailer. Packing, outfitting and prepping for our next trip is the fun and hopefully we'll get out in the second half of March. But when people ask "what did you do or Valentine's Weekend?" We can respond we made a great memory driving for 4 days and 1600 miles to bring home our new trailer.

We're sitting in a hotel in Denison, Texas as I write this. About a month ago, MLW and I went to a camper show, looking for our first hard side camper. With the kids grown, our 24 year old popup, while we love it, just isn’t as warm as we’d like it to be and that limits our ability to extend our camping season. When we replaced our old truck in ‘24, we did so expecting that we’d get a hard side trailer in the near future. As we were leaving the show, we found a trailer we really liked. It’s got a Murphy bed in it so you don’t lose all the space of the bed and you get a shorter camper. We liked the camper but they depreciate quickly, so we planned to buy a used one. The problem was this model has only been made since 2023. In 2024 they changed the styling to match the 2026 that we looked at. So I started a search for a 2024 model of this camper. Before we went to the show, I used Chat GPT to help me determine the best trailer weight and size for our truck. Not just weight, but driving it at altitude, what all we normally carry, etc. I got it set up so when I went to the show I just took a picture of the weight sticker and put it into Chat GPT and it would tell me how well my truck would pull the trailer. When I put in this one into Chat GPT, it said I’d pull it very well and why. Then I compared the answers with Ford’s info and confirmed it was correct. There were not any for sale near Colorado. I searched the national dealerships with little luck other than California and Georgia and other places on the east coast. In RV Trader I found one in Dodd City, TX. As I talked more with the dealer, I found that the trailer was lightly used by the one and only owner. The tires on it were made in 2023 and had only lost 1/32nd of tread. Everything I asked him for, proved his statement that it was used 4-5 times by the one owner was correct. I even pulled the VIN to make sure it had one owner and no listed accidents. The dry weight is correct as well. So we put down a deposit and yesterday we left home with the truck and headed to Texas. Our first day was down I-25 to Raton, NM and then south east to Amarillo. We got to Amarillo about 5pm, checked into our hotel and then went out for a Valentine's dinner. That is worth a story in itself, but it turned out well and we had a nice night. This morning we got up, had our very poor free breakfast at the hotel and headed out. First stop, the Cadillac Ranch to take pictures of the 10 Cadillacs half buried in the ground along 1-40 west of Amarillo. Then we headed east toward Denison. Lunch was in Wichita Falls and we got to Denison about 3:30. As we checked into the hotel, the realization that we were here with a check and the intent to buy a trailer, and then turn around and take it back home 600+ miles, I started to get a bit nervous. MLW and I took a nice walk around a lake in Denison and my anxiety dropped. We discussed the next day with our “what’s the worst thing that could happen” method we use often with decisions. And now I’m writing this. The plan is to be at the dealership tomorrow at 11 for our appointment, and inspect the heck out of the trailer, and if all is good, head back to Amarillo where we’ll sleep in it and then head for the final leg home on Tuesday. What will happen? You’ll have to come back and read this tomorrow or Wednesday.

We awoke Friday at 7 am. Our bodies tried to convince us it was actually 11 pm, but we fought through the fog and had a cup of coffee. Once dressed the four of us were off on the search for breakfast. Our first choice was a coffee shop that was full of locals. The dizzying pace at which the Italians got their espressos and pastries, stood and ate them and then paid and left, was intimidating. We were a bit timid and really did not get enough to eat as we enjoyed or coffees and MLW and I shared a chocolate croissant, and then we were off. Our next step was to get our 2 day vaporetto tickets, the ticket to the water bus. Getting the tickets was reasonably easy and then it was time to figure out how to get on the correct vaporetto that would correspond with Rick Steve’s Venice tour that uses the vaporetto. After almost getting on two other vaporetto lines, we finally found the correct one and we were off. He comical part was that as soon as we’d realize we were on the wrong platform Angie who is, uhm, height challenged, compact, not tall, you get the picture, would just walk under the gate and go to the next platform, while the rest of us, awkwardly had to bend over, climb over or some unflattering movement to get on the other side of the gates. The vaporetto was quite busy with Venetians going to work, tourists riding it and other tourists listening to the same Rick Steves tour we were listening to. We had a great overview of the grand canal and a quick history lesson. When we were at the other end of the line, we got off at St. Mark’s Square. We had our tickets to the Doge’s palace and decided to start the tour right then. The Doge’s palace was the palace of the Doge, the leader of Venice when it was a trading stronghold 600 years ago. As we walked through the tour listening to the prerecorded tour guide, the once wealth of Venice was overwhelming as you looked at antiquity after antiquity. What I found extremely interesting was the number of times the tour mentioned that a certain piece of artwork was now in the Louvre in France because Napoleon stole it. The tour ended by going over the bridge of sighs and through the prisons. By this point, 90 minutes or so since we started the tour, we were getting antiquity saturation and a bit hangry since we didn’t have much for breakfast. We grabbed a bit of lunch and checked in for an island tour of Murano, Burano and Torcello. Once on the boat our first stop was Murano, the Venetian island known for glass blowing. Here we had about a 20 minute grass blowing demonstration. First the glass blower made a beautiful pitcher. It had a swirl design to the glass and an elegant handle. He held it up to his audience and after a clapping approval, the glass blower took the vase still attached to his blowing rod and smacked it in the oven dropping the glass back into the molten glass in the furnace. I guess they had enough pitchers! Next he made a horse. Again, in minutes, and again the glass was returned to the molten glass in the furnace. After the demo we were escorted into their showroom. We purchased a few gifts and had just enough time to walk a bit down the waterfront and it was time to get back on the boat. Our next stop was Torcello. Torcello was the first inhabited island of the Venetian islands. It’s claim to fame was a very old church. It had few inhabitants and the stop was basically a long walk to the church and a long walk back. Not much to see in Torcello. Our final island was Burano, the island known for lace making. This island was known to MLW and I because it was featured in the Hallmark “The Veil” series. It’s famous for its brightly colored shops and buildings and of course the women who patiently make beautiful lace. We walked around and I ate my first gelato. Oh my gosh! now I know why everyone told me to eat gelato in Italy. We walked a bit more and then it was time to get back on the boat and return to Venice.

Part 1. The Trip Begins

If you attend enough of my companies meetings, you’ll be shown the scene from City Slickers where Billy Crystal’s character (Mitch) and Jack Palance’s character (Curley) have a discussion where Curley explains that the secret to a happy life is figuring out your 1 thing. This movie and the concept of "your 1 thing" was a favorite of our founder Pete Harman. If you want to refresh your memory, here’s a clip of that scene, I tried shorter versions, but you really need the three minutes:

The more posts I write, the more I learn the most popular posts are about my bees. I’m fine with that because I love my bees. They spent another summer teaching me how to coexist with them and how we can help each other. As our communication improves so does their health and honey production. How did the summer go? You’ll remember I had to start from scratch this spring with 4 packages of bees that I bought as 2 pairs a week apart from two different companies. My luck with the bee packages did not go as planned. I got two “dud” queens and within two weeks they were both missing from the hive, maybe killed by her own subjects. Thankfully in May I captured my first swarm. Capturing my first swarm was a beekeeper's dream come true. My friend and neighbor Steve was telling me there was this big clump of wasps on their tree near their horses and his wife was concerned for their horses. Well I knew something was wrong because wasps all die in the winter but the queen, who has to emerge in the spring and start building a nest. So in the Spring there just aren’t big clumps of wasps. I asked if he'd show it to me and sure enough, it was a swarm of honeybees looking for a new home. To me the swarm was $150 just hanging in a tree waiting for me to give them a lovely hive to live in. I captured them and they happily accepted their new hive as their new home and then a week or so later I merged the frisbee hive with them who no longer had a queen. This hive did very well over the summer. The hive I call the Newbees also had a dud queen and they too were later joined into the hive that I captured. My most incredible hive was the Frisbees who produced two supers of honey that I could harvest. That’s 20 frames of honey. The Air BnBees produced about 12 frames and the Gumbees about 5 frames. In total my three hives produced 95 lbs. of honey or just a bit over 8 gallons. What am I going to do with all that honey? Sell it of course. Interested? You can purchase my honey at the bottom of the blog. I’m going into winter with three hives I feel really good about. In the Spring between buying bees and splitting hives I hope to have 8 hives running next summer. That is too many to have on just our property so I’ve secured a couple of locations to put hives. That of course will mean more capital investment into my bees, much of which I hope will come from honey sales. This was a fun year. I tried a number of new things. I learned how to move hives and how not too. I merged more hives and felt much more confident in the things I did. Of course the more new things I tried, I also got stung more. Some of that was because I thought I had on enough protection and then I did something stupid that made the bees agitated.. It’s funny, ”how many times have you been stung?” is a question I often get asked. Even funnier I can tell you how often I got stung. My first year, zero, my second year, 3 times, this year so far I’m pretty sure it’s been 7 times. Yes it hurts, but not as bad as I remembered and it goes away for me quickly. Unlike yellow jacket stings that just seem to burn and burn, most stings on my hands just hurt for 10 minutes and then go away. We had a very long fall, I could have had another honey harvest had I known we weren’t going to get a freeze in September or October. But it did allow my bees to store a lot of honey for the winter. So as long as mother nature cooperates, I’ll hopefully have 3 hives in the Spring. Here's that link:

Hello Everyone. As my third year of beekeeping is coming to a close, I finally have enough honey that I can offer it for sale. I ended the season with three hives that all appear to be healthy and ready to make it through the winter. Our honey harvest came in at just over 8 gallons or 95 pounds of honey. My 2025 goal is to expand to 8 hives which means I'm going to be doubling the amount of hive equipment I have and that is going to be a reasonably significant expense. I am selling my standard unfiltered raw honey in two sizes this year, 12 oz. and 10 oz. That measurement is by weight. For a volume comparison 12 oz. of honey is about 8 liquid ounces. Honey weighs about 1.5 ounces per liquid ounce. I am also excited to announce I am selling whipped cinnamon honey this year. This is made with pure raw honey, ground cinnamon and cinnamon oil. Then it is whipped to a consistency that reminds me of marshmallow cream. It's great to spread on muffins and toast or melted and poured over pancakes and waffles. It's absolutely delicious. And it has all the health benefits of my regular raw honey. 2024 prices pictures will change or you can slide them manually using the arrows on the side

Most hunters don’t like the messages sent by the movie Bambi. If you remember the movie, the hunters burn down the forest, hunt at night, and are otherwise horrible people. Most hunters I know love the wilderness and fight to protect it. They don’t hunt at night. It’s illegal for one thing and extremely dangerous. But the message sent in Bambi that is the most incorrect is that deer are just defenseless animals. I would argue that to anyone. Now if my dog Rudy could talk, he would too. Saturday morning dawned sunny and beautiful. It was a lovely morning as I sat in the kitchen looking out the window at the changing colors of the leaves, sipping my warm coffee and making plans for the future week. Shortly after, MLW got up and started a little laundry when our dog Rudy started to bark. I asked MLW what Rudy was barking at and she said oh we have a yard full of deer again. With as dry as it has been and the fact that I have been watering the lawn the deer have been very attracted to the green grass in our front yard. I had just fertilized the lawn the night before so I was about to scare the deer off of the lawn because I didn't want any of them to get sick. Before I could do anything Rudy did what he always does, which is run out his back door and goes out and barks at the deer. Normally the deer would all run away but as we are presently in the beginning of the deer rut, the does are acting much more aggressive. MLW and I have noticed the aggressive does before. We've had issues with them normally in the spring but sometimes in the fall when they get extremely protective of their yearlings or themselves. In the past couple of weeks I've had one doe that has been quite aggressive as we have been on our walk and I normally just do not make eye contact with the does and continue to walk but the fact that she does not retreat is by all means intimidating. On Saturday morning when Rudy went to scare the deer off the lawn, one of the does was not about to have it. Instead of running with the rest of the deer she stood her ground and then attacked Rudy. if you wonder how a female deer attacks what it views as a predator you need only go to youtube where there are many videos. They do it by either kicking or stomping on the animal. I was not able to see the attack. I simply heard my dog barking and then suddenly yelping from extreme pain. I ran out of the house in my pajamas looking for Rudy. Unfortunately I found him by following a blood trail that led from the front of my house across the back deck and into the kitchen itself. I found Rudy in the kitchen bleeding quite heavily. He had a v-shaped almost 90° laceration over his rib cage, each line of the v that hung open and I could see the muscles and fat below it. he also had a puncture wound and his leg that was doing most of the bleeding as well as various cuts and scratches. We immediately took him out to the deck and wrapped him in a towel while we took turns changing clothes as fast as we possibly could. He was then put in the car and taken to the emergency veterinarian hospital in Castle Rock. At the hospital they examined Rudy and found that the cut on his chest wasn't simply just a cut, it was a puncture wound where it appears that the deer's hoof actually went into the muscle space between his skin and his ribs. Only by the grace of God did he not break a rib or puncture his lung sack. After being evaluated for about an hour we got to see Rudy who had been put on a painkiller which while taking the pain away made him very disoriented and anxious. He was left at the hospital to get cleaned up and ready for surgery. It was about 7:00 p.m. when it was time to pick up Rudy. We picked him up and he looked as if he was ready for Halloween with numerous stitches holding his skin back together on his chest. The puncture wound on his leg had a bandage on it that was stapled to his leg and will need professional cleaning for the next few days. Because of the damage up in between his ribs and his skin he has a drain placed in the damaged area to allow the excess fluids to be expelled. With much of his chest shaved, both front legs shaved and other spots you can see the extent of the bruising to his poor little body. His chest gets more and more purple everyday and he is extremely sore. The vet told us that he was the third deer versus dog attack they had treated in the last 10 days. They also said he was extremely lucky, a sentiment we can appreciate but I'm not sure he feels very lucky with how uncomfortable he is. His daily long walks with MLW are done for the next two weeks until he has complete healing of his sutures. He was stitched both internally and externally due to the injuries. I was quite amazed at how they treated his puncture wound in his leg. They could not stitch it so they left it open but put Manuka honey in it. If you look up Manuka honey it comes from New Zealand and has an amazing amount of antibacterial qualities stronger than any other honey. One of the reasons it needs to be redressed by either the hospital that put it on or his veterinarian. This is because the old honey must be cleaned out. How funny a coincidence that once again I'm talking about bees and or honey on my blog. Going back to Bambi, I do always like to point out that while we often use Bambi for a female name, the deer Bambi grew up to be a male. After seeing what an antlerless deer can do to another animal, I have a new respect for deer especially around dogs. They are beautiful creatures that have amazing survival skills and are anything but defenseless. While I understand the deer was simply responding to her survival instincts; the love of my dog and the pain he’s in along with the amount of the vet bills so far and the ones to come. I suppose it’s human nature that when I go afield this year to harvest a deer, it’s probably going to be a bit more personal.

MLW and I learned an important lesson this past year. In the doldrums of winter be careful when you plan your summer, you just might find yourself chasing your tail. I’m not about to say it was not a fun summer, but as I get older, hurrying to get somewhere to relax, doesn’t really work anymore, especially when your home life is already packed with both employed and personal work As I look back at our summer we started with the Cowboy trail, then the camping trip to South Fork. In July we visited relatives in Iowa, rode the Chippewa Valley trails in Wisconsin before spending our week on the lake. Then we returned home to join my siblings for a quick family reunion in Sante Fe. August had more camping including 5 days at Dillon reservoir with our friends and family, plus a week in the San Francisco bay area for my work.. Then the 35th annual World beer party, camping again at Pueblo, CO and the Walter’s Octoberfest and finally here comes fall as we slow down a bit, but look forward to a couple of hunting trips. While all that was going on we also had the house re-sided. That included a week to put on the new siding and several weeks thereafter to get the punch list items done and all the other stuff you have to do when a project is done on your house. So whew! The number of nights on the deck where we had our “wine therapy” as mentioned before in a blog were limited. When I look back at what I’d change, I’d say the work pressure on MLW. Because I really enjoyed the trips and the time with friends. What I didn’t enjoy was watching MLW stress out while making sure she was on a call, had her computer hooked up as we drove and she worked . Now in fairness, there are times we work from the camper, but I guess what it really comes down to is time away isn’t time away if you’re still working. What would I have done differently in this past year? I would have been more cognizant to stay an extra day. Even if that means one of us would be working on their computer as we drove down the road. A 4-5 hour drive on a Friday to spend Saturday somewhere and to turn around and come back on Sunday is too much, spend the extra day and leave extra early on Monday if you have to. To maximize our time, we have to remember to discuss what each of us wants to do when you get there before we get there. That means if one of us just wants to sit in a chair with a pretty view, sipping coffee until noon, we need to communicate that. If your fellow traveler then says oh I want to do XYZ, then determine if that activity or that time with the person is what you need. If you really need that book and coffee time, bid them a happy adventure and ask for pictures on their return. Don’t forget that if they're doing something like fishing in a stream, your pretty view could be of the stream and your coffee could come from a thermos as you relax in your favorite folding chair. We are now starting to determine what we’re going to do in 2025. As we navigate our vacation calendars, our work calendars, the expectations of our employers, and even the demands of our friends and family, we’ll plan another year of activities. But how we feel about those activities and how they fit into our lives will depend on how we maximize the experience and minimize the disruption to our daily rhythm. Then we just need to remember this is a first world problem and we’re blessed to have to consider all these things.