Mea Culpa for my errors

Just a short note to admit my errors and apologize.  I don't know what made me mess up on the days of this most holy week.  As Almita pointed out in her comments, Thursday was the Last Supper and the betrayal by Judas.  Jesus died on Good Friday, and on Easter Sunday He defeated death by His resurection, and walked among the people who were witnesses of His eternal life.  By his death and resurrection, He proved to one and all that He is the Son of God.  It was Jesus who ascended into Heaven and sits beside His Father and prepares the way for all of us who truly believe in Him and ask Him to be our personal Lord and Savior.  He IS the way and the Light.  Thank you Jesus for our salvation, despite all of our sins.

Easter is Coming

Hi everyone,

I started typing this, and had four or five paragraphs done when I remembered I had not yet downloaded some pictures from my phone.  I sent them from the phone to my email OK.  Then I opened my email to retrieve them...............without saving what I had written.  Will I ever learn?????  Anyway, so far only one picture has come through, but maybe while I write......and save.......more of the pictures will come through.

People say time flies when you are having fun.  Guess what?  It also flies when you are doing anything else too.  Some days I just don't know where the hours went, and before I know it, it's time to make dinner and feed the dogs. 

Anyway, on March 17th we invited Ric and Mary over for a traditional dinner of corned beef and cabbage with all the "fixins" and Irish soda bread.  Since he had a wedding to do that night, we had our dinner around noon.  I also baked a nice lemon cake, which I tinted green.  Dinner went very nicely and we gave them a round loaf of Irish soda bread to take home with them...........and Mary told Jim she loves him. 

 I guess the wedding went well, but we heard Ric got himself into trouble when he tried to auction off the bride and groom!  Only Ric could get away with a stunt like that.

The next day Janice had a St. Patrick's day pot luck dinner for the folks here in the park.  Lots of good food and good fellowship.  As a fun game, Janice filled bird feeders.  A couple had jelly beans inside, one had assorted candy, one had Tootsie Rolls inside and one had pinto beans in it.  The object was to guess how many each feeder contained.  The person who was closest won the bird feeder and its contents.  Hidden inside the candy or beans, some had money and one had a necklace.  I won the hummingbird feeder with pinto beans and a one dollar bill.  It was a very nice day and I think everyone had a good time.  Janice is a great person, and she goes out of her way to make us all feel like part of the family here.

Last Monday we drove all the way to Anthony, Texas to go to the Camping  World store there.......a round trip of 167 miles.  Lots of people around here drive even farther, to El Paso as if it's no big deal.  Anyway we bought what they called an "omni-directional antenna".  It was supposed to pick up all kinds of stations, and take the place of Cable TV or satellites.  We spent all afternoon trying to get even ONE station to show up on the bedroom TV...........to no avail.  We thought that if it did work well, we'd get another one for the living room TV and then we could drop DirecTV and save a bunch of money each month.  Instead, on Thursday, we made the drive again to Camping World to return the antenna and get our money back.  Alas, I guess there just in NO TV signals to be picked up by antenna around here.

Last Saturday Mary and I went to the swapmeet (or flea market, if that's what you prefer to call it) in TorC.  I am going to try to include a picture of a car we saw there.  We thought this was a hoot!  You just wouldn't believe some of the home made or personally decorated vehicles we see around here.  There are quite a few tiny vintage trailers, probably from the 1940s to 1970s that we see here in this area.  Anyway, this amused us.  Mary bought me another owl to put outside.  It's meant to stick into the ground and stand up, but we put the mental spike through a small hole in the picnic table so it stays upright and next to Freaky Frieda.  Now they can keep each other company!  Our owl outside that is motion activated to light up the eyes and hoot has attracted a live owl to the area at night now.  We were so surprised when we hear ours hoot, and another owl answer it!  OMG.

 On Sunday we were surprised when we got to church because everyone was looking out the back door at something.  When we got there we saw what they were all watching.  A couple from Canada were outside playing music on a pair of Alpine horns.  It was amazing to see and hear.  Later they did bring the horns inside and play for all of us.  I video recorded it, but was not able to download the video for this blog.  The man on the far left in the picture is Pastor Dudley Bristow.  He is from Texas and we get a kick out of his heavy accent, but he is a really good pastor.


We spent Sunday afternoon with Mary as she was set to leave for her trip back to California on Monday, then after some appointments she will be heading north to see her dad in Idaho, and work some pow wows and then go to Canada with a friend of hers.  We played Mexican Train, and drank wine and then we got all kinds of emotional.  It was hard to say good bye the next day.  Sadly she has had some serious mechanical troubles with her van and has been stuck in Lordsburg while the Ford service garage is searching for the parts they need to fix her vehicle.  It's going to cost her a fortune and set her back several days to get it fixed, but she has no other choice.  


I'm sure you have all heard the phrase "when life hands you lemons, make lemonade."  Mary always manages to do that.  She will make use of the down time to make more jewelry to sell at the pow wows, and rest up for her travels.  She is a very upbeat person, and many of us could learn from her on that point.  Some people would wail and moan and say "why do these things happen to me?"  In all the years I've known her, I've never heard her complain or feel sorry for herself.  Many years ago she was a homeless mother with children living out of her car, but she always made the best of whatever she had.  Her family camped in a tent when the weather was warm enough, and slept in the car when it was too cold outside.  She always worked hard to provide for her family, and never complained about how hard her life was.  She learned to live on less and save as much money as she could for what is really important for her family.  To this day Mary is frugal and saves as much money as she can for emergencies and to help her adult children if they need it.  


Many people I know waste precious time and energy on feelings of envy of what other people might have that they don't.  As I have said before, our Heavenly Father KNOWS what we actually need, and if you just ask it, He will provide for you.  Most of what we may wish we had, we just don't need.  All that STUFF just clutters up our lives and keeps us from appreciating what is important.  Tomorrow marks the day Jesus died for our sins.  He could have done otherwise, but He loved us so much He was willing to die to save all of us that will accept Him and His sacrifice on our behalf.  Friday is the day He rolled the stone away from the door and walked out of the tomb.  Easter Sunday, after many people witnessed His victory over death, He ascended into Heaven to make a place for us in the house of His Father, God Almighty.  I can't imagine a better reason for all of us to rejoice in this promise.  But as Pastor Dudley said last Sunday, this is also a time for tears, for all the people who will miss the opportunity to accept this incredible, amazing, awesome gift that is our only chance of Salvation.  I will pray that all who have turned away from God or don't know Him will be lead back to the only one who knows all about us, and loves us anyway.  I pray for our country which has gone terribly wrong in so many ways.  I pray that our leaders will  ask Jesus to show them the way to truly "Make America Great again" as only Jesus can.  Happy Easter, and may God bless you all.

March has Been Windy and Chilly

We are still enjoying our stay here in Arrey, NM, but the nights are still quite chilly.  Since we get our DirecTV from California, we know it has been colder than usual there too.  Makes you wonder about this Global Warming........

We did well on the Yard Sale here on March 3rd, and are still getting orders for more magnetic jewelry and some requests for Jim's amazing home made breads.  Janice is planning to have sales twice a month on her property next door.  We might give it a try.  I used to make some wonderful jellies that I could sell along with Jim's breads and my magnetic jewelry, and maybe I could bake some quick breads, like banana nut bread or cinnamon raisin bread.  We shall see how it goes.

On Wednesday Ric and Mary picked us up (with the two dogs) to go to Pie Town.  The reason for going on that day was because the date was 3/14, and of course everyone knows that the numerical value of Pi is 3.14, so March 14th has to be Pie Day!  The dogs behaved so well Mary said she kept forgetting they were with us.......one can't say that about Ric.  He was in his usual humorous form and kept us laughing most of the day.  He could have simply driven north on NM 25 to Socorro and then west on 60 to Pie Town, but Ric did that last year, so we had to go by a different route this time.  He drove west on 107.  OMG, before long we were on a bumpy dirt road.  But on 60 we would not have seen these free range cows that came right out onto the road!
Can you believe this?   We had to wait for them to cross before we could proceed.  Later I got this shot  of some antelopes on the hillside next to the road.  It's simply amazing the sights you can see if you just slow down and look around you. 

Eventually we did get back onto 60 in the town of Magdalena.  From there on we had a nice smooth road to ride on.  Farther down the road we approached the VLA area.  In case you don't remember from my blog last year, that stands for Very Large Array......with a second a, not an e as in our town.  We could say we live in a very small Arrey.  LOL.  Anyway, the VLA are giant listening devices set up to listen for sounds from outer space. This is just one of many of these devices.  I would imagine that these must have cost many millions of dollars, and maybe even more to continue to monitor for sounds.  You can get an idea of how large these are by the comparison to the truck in front of it.  My point is, our government denies the existence of aliens, but I have to wonder why they would spend all this money unless they KNOW that there are aliens out there somewhere.  Years ago we took a short trip to Roswell.  In a museum there we saw pictures of the aliens that came to earth in area 51.  Someone asked me if the aliens were so smart, why did they crash to earth?  My answer was that maybe they didn't crash; maybe our military shot them down.  Just something to think about.  Here's another little thing to think about:  among the people born in 1947 were Demi Moore, and Hillary and Bill Clinton.......some people have speculated that some of them might have an alien parent.  The government kept everything about area 51 all hushed up and secret.  Makes you wonder, doesn't it?

Before going to Pie Town we stopped for lunch in Datil.  The Eagle Ranch Cafe is an unusual  little place.  They have bumper stickers, license plates and other unique stuff on the walls.  If I figure out how to send pictures from my new phone to my computer, I will include pictures of this place on my next blog.  Anyway, we finally did get to Pie Town, and were surprised to see how many others had shown up for Pi Day.  The place we went to last year was packed, so we went to another pie place.  It was crowded, but we were able to get in.  At the other place they sold slices (last year the price was $5.79 per slice) and whole pies (I can't remember that price).  The place we went to this time sold mini pies for $10.95.  You selected the flavor you wanted, and then they heated and served you half of your pie, with the rest boxed up to take with you.  Jim got an apple pie and I got caramel apple.  Really yummy.  Here's another interesting thing about where we went this time.  There was a sign by the door which said:
"GUNS ARE WELCOME ON THE PREMISES.  PLEASE KEEP ALL WEAPONS HOLSTERED UNLESS NEED ARISES, IN SUCH CASE, JUDICIOUS MARKSMANSHIP IS APPRECIATED."  And some of the people we saw were carrying holstered hand guns!  It made me proud, and I felt safer for the presence of an armed citizenry.

Anyway we drove over to see a place called Dream Catcher's Gift Shoppe. 

 
Mary and Ric and Jim went inside.  I decided to stay with the dogs so I didn't get to hold the young Nubian goats that the owners had out front.  There were two of them and they were so small that the were in what I would call a  medium size dog carrier.  So cute that Mary wanted to take one home with her, but she didn't.  Jim bought me some hand made owls to add to our decor.  Tiny and cute.  He also gave one to Mary and she named him Hootie Hoot.  She is like me and likes to name her stuff.  She told me that she has a cat at her house named "Cat" so when she got a second cat she named him "Other Cat".  I just absolutely love her sense of humor!!!!!  She is a wonderful person and just perfect for Ric!  In a good way, she's as crazy as he is. 


On the way home we passed a place called The Owl Bar & Cafe. that Jim and I still want to visit.  We were going to go there last year after we visited the Trinity Site, but it was too crowded with others who had the same idea.  So we still have not gotten there yet....but we will.  Maybe our friend Mary Iron Elk will want to go there with us before she leaves at the end of the month.  OR maybe WE will take Ric and his Mary there later.

In my last blog I share Pastor Dudley's sermon about putting Jesus first in your lives instead of putting your ego first.  He spoke of people who may be afraid to give their lives to Jesus because they might fear what could be asked of them.  I just want to say that for many years of my life I was in that group.  I definitely believed in God, (so does Satan I hear) but I didn't think I needed to make any personal commitment to Him or to ask Jesus to be my personal Lord and Savior.  I thought a belief in God was enough of a commitment.  I WAS VERY, VERY WRONG.  I thought accepting Him into my life would make my life much harder on me.  AGAIN, I WAS VERY, VERY WRONG.  After my mom died, we found Pastor Paul to do a memorial service for her.  We were impressed with him, and his marvelous wife Aiko when we went to their church.  It is called New Hope Community Church, and New Hope is what we found there.  In a short time I realized that I not only wanted to, but NEEDED to ask Jesus to be MY Lord and Savior.  What is truly amazing is that once I KNEW He was my personal Lord and Savior, I realized I had nothing to fear!  He is watching over me every day.  Nobody else can do that for me.  If you haven't read it, read the 23rd Psalm.  It will give you strength and comfort.  We ourselves are all flawed, imperfect, and on our own we ARE doomed.  There is no way on this earth that we can protect ourselves from our own weaknesses.  Jesus knows us, and He loves us anyway.  Easter is coming soon.  Let this Holy season remind you that HE died for your sins and for mine.  HE alone paid the ultimate price to save us.  No one else can do that.  And all He asks in return is your love and faithfulness.  Some days I wonder how I ever found the courage (or foolishness) to get out of bed in the morning back before I knew Jesus was watching over me.  Now I know I don't want to even imagine one single day without the love and protection my Savior provides for me.  Don't ever be afraid to accept Him; be afraid only if you do NOT accept Him.  Have a blessed day, God loves you.

Life in Arrey, NM

Hello dear friends,

We have been here now for a little over three weeks, and time just seems to be flying by.  The daytime weather has been mild, but the nights get colder than I like, some down into the 20's.  Today it is a beautiful, sunny day in the 70's, so we are enjoying it.

The Sunday after we arrived, Janice hosted  a welcome brunch and we got to meet some other campers.  We chatted with a couple named Russ and Jan, and and his mom Donna.  They have a huge 5th wheel and also like owls!  They are very nice folks and I hope we will keep in touch after they leave here.

Now I will share with you our little tale of woe.   One night, about five weeks ago our propane monitor (in the hallway down near the floor) alarmed around 3 am.  Jim got down on the floor and reset it, and we went back to bed.  This occurred again in about three days, and continued every three nights for about a month!  It seemed like we should do more than reset it, but alas, we didn't.  About ten days ago it went off (again at around 3 am) and it would NOT let Jim reset it.  After several minutes, he removed it from the wall and took out the battery so it would stop.  The next morning we called the RV sales and service store in Hatch and reported our problem.  He said that he had replacements but for us to bring a picture of the one we have so he could give us the right model.  Of course it  turned out to be the most expensive one!  But we brought it home and Jim promptly installed it, and our sleep has not been interrupted by that alarm since!  Here are some pictures I took at this place in Hatch.

This little fella stands in front of the shop, holding a motorhome on his hand.   We both laughed when we saw this, but to an owner, it would be a nightmare!

I'm not sure what fast food place she used to be at, but now she's in front of Franciscan RV offering her best burger and drink.  
They also have some vintage cars for sale there.  Then we went inside to get what we needed.  

These are the characters we saw inside.  One does not expect to see a pinball machine in a place of business!

The travel trailer is cute........but not with a huge tarantula on top of it!  I could NOT have worked in an office with that sitting right behind my head.


The park was having a yard sale yesterday from 8 am until 2 pm.  We had a lot of good stuff we wanted to get rid of, to free up space in our RV, so we knew we wanted to set up to sell.  I asked Janice if Jim could sell some of his wonderful home made breads and she said "sure, why not?"  So Jim was baking for three days before, and I baked two dozen muffins too.  It started out cold in the morning, but warmed up before long.  We sold most of the things we wanted to sell, and were quite pleased.  Afterwards I began getting more orders for my magnetic jewelry, and today Jim has already gotten orders for more loaves of bread!  This just might turn into a nice little addition to our bank account.  Maybe, just maybe, I will add home made jellies next month.  We shall see.  

Our friends Sherrie and Willie (we met them here last year and have kept in touch since) arrived last night.  They left Louisiana on Thursday night, and stopped to rest in Shreveport that night.  They really hauled it to get here by 9 pm last night.  We just can't travel that long in one day anymore.  Our longest driving day was from Quartzsite, AZ to Tucson last month.  That was about 259 miles, and we prefer our travel days to be less than 200 miles/day.

Our friend Mary Iron Elk got here about 10 days ago.  It's been nice spending some time with her.  Tomorrow she will take her van and her travel trailer to Hatch to get the vehicles registered here, and to get her New Mexico driver's license, so she can be a local too.  Like a tee shirt I have says, "Not really New, Not really Mexico".  

Last week we returned to the church we attend here, and I was amazed at how many of the people remembered us from last year!  It always feels good to be welcomed back and treated like part of the church family.  I am already being identified as "the owl lady".  LOL. 

I can't remember if I showed you my cuddly, warm owl blanket on the couch.  His name is Owlie North.  The pillow above Willie's head shows a hammock and at the bottom it says "Daydream".  That's my inspiration, to learn to relax and daydream sometimes.

Here's Millie learning to daydream too!  She's wrapped up in a fleece blanket that a friend made for her a few years ago.  

I wanted to also include our new garden flag for this month.  Our friends Pastor Ric and Mary are coming here for a early dinner of corned beef and cabbage with all the traditional fixins and Irish soda bread on St. Patrick's day.  We get in the mood right from the first of this month!  

Pastor Dudley gave a terrific sermon today.  He asked us what is your most precious possession.  He talked about how some people might say expensive cars, paintings, jewelry, designer purses or other things, but the Bible says your most precious possession has to be your soul.  THINGS do not last forever.  God always was and always will be, but things cannot last forever.  There was a time when each of us did not yet exist, before we were born.  But once we are born, our souls will live forever.  Isn't that an amazing thing to realize?  Now that you know that your soul will live on forever, you need to decide HOW you want your soul to spend all of that time.   Each of us must decide who is on the throne in our lives.  Is it our ego?  He also called that EGO as "Edging God Out".  Or is God on the throne in you life?  Are you ready to accept and proclaim that Jesus IS your personal Lord and Savior?  If you can say that, from the depth of your heart, then you are saved for all of eternity.  That, to me is the greatest blessing I could ever imagine.  I have told you before that I think most people use words like amazing and awesome all too often.  For me, those words can only apply to those gifts we get from our Almighty Father in Heaven.  He is truly awesome, and all of His gifts are totally amazing.  The decision about how YOU want your soul to spend eternity can only be made by each of you.  However, I will pray that you will choose to accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior, and put your lives in His extremely capable hands.  Pastor Dudley talked about some people not wanting to make such a long term commitment right now, but I would like to remind you that none of us knows what will happen tomorrow.  Only God knows.  We can make all kinds of plans for the future, but we do not know if they will come to pass.  However, most of us know, and accept, that at some point in time, our physical bodies will die, and life here on earth WILL end.  It gives me great comfort to know that whether that happens tomorrow or ten years from now, I know where my soul will go after that.  I hope you will think about it and make the right choice before it is too late.  Wishing each of you all the blessings God has in store for you.