We usually don't come up to Silent Valley this late in the year, so I had forgotten how chilly it can get at night. In an effort to save our propane, we try to stay warm with our little electric heater. However, the one we had bought in Truth or Consequences back in 2013 was "on its last legs" and died a few weeks ago. We had planned to replace it but just hadn't gotten around to it. As a belated birthday gift, our very dear friend Joan gave us a couple Wal-Mart gift cards so we decided to use them to get us a new heater. We chose a Honeywell 360 degree heater and it has been amazing! Thanks again Joan, for your gift card that we put to good use. It is much better than the heater we had before. It's so good we usually don't even need to use the high setting!
Many of the campers here at this time of year go ALL OUT on their Halloween decorations. Here are a few pictures of some of the decorations
near us.
Another site near us is "adorned" with numerous skulls and skeletons. Yuck. Jim says it's very eerie at night when he walks the dogs, but I can't get a good picture of that.
Jim took Millie over to see our neighbor's display, but as you can see, she wasn't really interested.
Last year I posted several pictures of one site decorated with an over-abundance of weird and eerie things. Those people have done the same set-up this year, so I didn't bother taking pictures again. We put out a few little decorations, but we don't go overboard about it. It is fun to put up some seasonal decor, but we are limited to one storage box for all of our decorations, plus our fold-able Christmas tree that we store under our bed. As I said before, it gets pretty chilly up here. Although we realize there are many places that get colder than it does here, WE choose not to visit places like that. Even Millie prefers to stay warm and toasty, as you can see here.
I hope you can see the cute little owls all over her pajamas. Even with her nice warm jammies on, she goes under the bed covers at night. Willie has a wonderful dog bed with a sheep skin lining that is very nice and warm for him to sleep in.
We have been enjoying our month up here in Silent Valley very much. The first week, my brother Tony came up and stayed for three nights. The second week Joan came to visit. In my last blog I think I forgot to include pictures of the lovely flowers that Joan brought to us. Joan, you know you don't have to bring us flowers, but these were really special. The scent was amazing and the color was delightful. In case you can't tell, the vase is plastic, and when empty, it can be be flat so it doesn't take up much space. That's just one of the unique things we find when we go to Quartzsite in January.
Our third week here included going out to lunch in Beaumont with my sister, Donna & her husband George.
We went to a restaurant called Guys Italian Restaurant. The food was quite nice and Donna even had some spumoni for dessert. Unfortunately, before we left, a large party (of 14 people) arrived, and were so loud that we couldn't carry on a conversation, so we left. It was a nice outing but it ended a little sooner than I expected it to.
Last week I saw a tiny trailer and I just had to take a picture of it. We could never live in anything that small, but I still get a kick out of seeing the tear drop trailers. This one is quite unique.
If you enlarge the picture you will see that it is very rugged and ready for off road camping! Again, not something we will ever be doing, but still very interesting. We really prefer having more living space and comfort.
Many of us take our "creature comforts" for granted, and often forget about those who must try to survive without many things we all enjoy. Not only are the holidays of Thanksgiving and Christmas coming very soon...........colder weather is also coming. Survival for the less fortunate becomes even more difficult. There is always something we can do for homeless people and animals. How often do you stop by a coffee shop and spend several dollars on a fancy cup of coffee? Could you give up your high priced coffee to use that same amount of money to buy blankets for people living in homeless shelters? You can also buy pet food for animal shelters. You might volunteer to feed the less fortunate at food banks. You can also volunteer at a local veterans hospital. Another way to help the less fortunate is to sign up to make a monthly donation to a worthwhile organization. Examples of such would include The Wounded Warrior Project, St. Jude's Children's Hospital, The Shriner's Hospital or the Salvation Army. Most of these ask for a donation commitment of only $19.00/month, which almost any of us could afford. We have also made donations to the American Lung Association and the America Cancer Society. The Humane Society desperately needs donations to keep animals alive and safe. Please let this be the year that you commit to helping the less fortunate, be they two legged or four legged friends. God has blessed all of us with so much that it's only right that we find ways to give back and help others.
Have a great day and a very happy holiday season ahead. 😊
I'm sorry it has been so long since I wrote an entry, but it has been so great being up here at Silent Valley and we have been very busy.
Before we left Wilderness Lakes, we went to Camping World intending to replace our poor old microwave with a new Convection microwave. We bought and took home a box that we thought contained the above oven. Our friend Greg came over to install it. He had built a shelf and installed it, but it turned out to NOT be a convection microwave. It was only a microwave. I called Camping World back and they agreed to exchange it for what we had paid for. Once we got here, and got all set up in a wonderful site in Silent Valley, we took the first one back and got the right one. We came up on Monday, two weeks ago, and on Wednesday Tony came up for a visit. It had been several weeks since we had seen my brother, so that was great. He and Diane's husband Jim helped us to put in the new unit.......but it was slightly bigger than the old one had been, so they had to take it out yet again, and move the shelf forward to accommodate the bigger oven.
The original microwave had a light under it to provide light to the stove below. We replaced it with a light bar we saw on TV in an As Seen on TV. It works great, and provides an amazing amount of light. I love that we can keep it plugged in to charge it up, and if we have a power outage, it is all charged up to provide hours of great light!
I also decided to replace the owl case I was using on my cell phone since it was pretty grungy, and dirty looking. So I ordered this one.
Jim picked it out and I do love it. Too cute!
Diane & Jim have been over often, which has been wonderful. It has been so much fun being with them.
I don't know if I posted this picture before or not, so here are Diane & Jim.
They have two adorable dogs that our dogs have gotten used to, so they get along very well.
Here's my Jim holding Diane & Jim's two little loves. On the left is Lucy and on the right is Daisy. It's so nice that our dogs like these two and get along nicely.
Diane shares my fondness for owls, so I have made her some owl jewelry, and she finds owls for me when she goes places.
This is one of the adorable owls Diane found for me. Can you see the golden brown glitter along the edges? I just love it!
On the right is an owl paper towel holder that I found online to hold toilet paper in the bathroom. Again, too cute, I think.
Diane & Jim shop at the Aldi market here and she found a bottle of wine she just had to buy for us.
Not only is the bottle adorable, but the white Zinfandel wine inside was very, very nice. We drank it while we played Mexican Train. I may try to make a decorative bottle lamp out of it. Maybe.
This past week my very dear friend (of over 35 years) Joan Minor came up here and stayed overnight with us. It had been over a year since we've seen each other, but we keep in touch by phone or emails almost every week. It was so wonderful to have her come visit us this week. Out of respect for her personal privacy I won't discuss all that she has been through, but life has not always been easy for Joan. Through her most difficult times, she has always been cheerful and helpful whenever I needed anything. She has a wonderful, loving husband, also named Jim, who has been very supportive during her difficult times. They have a small van camper that they enjoy traveling in too. I hope sometime, maybe this coming year, we can persuade them to come to Quartzsite, AZ when we are there too. Joan has promised to come visit us at Wilderness Lakes and stay two nights this time. It always seems like we run out of time long before we run out of things we want to talk about.
Diane and Jim live here at Silent Valley year round because he works a work camper job here. I don't know why this park has this rule, but work campers must move to a new site every thirty days, so last week they got to move over close to us! YAY!!!
Here is a photo of their 5th wheel and their car. That's our awning at the top of the picture, so you can see how close they are. I love that I can just run over to her RV whenever I want to.
We never had a chance to be parked this close before.
We don't do anywhere near the amount of decorating
some folks do for Halloween, but we do try to get
in the spirit a little bit. This guy has been hanging around for quite a while I'd say. LOL.
Here is Jim with the Furry Kids outside the RV enjoying a nice, warm day.
This is our Halloween flag stand with a Snoopy and a ghost flag. I like the orange solar lights in the side posts. It's fun being part of the spirit of the season.
I hope all of you who read my blog have taken my advice and suggestions to heart. I am referring specifically to advice about making your final wishes known, IN WRITING. None of us knows when our days in this life will end. It's very, VERY easy to say "someday I will write my will" or "I will call that person next week to apologize for the unkind things I did or said". Since only God knows when we will shake off this mortal coil, please don't put off doing the things you need or want to do. My brother Michael, who lives in Elmira, NY is in the last days of his life. His ex-wife Judy is doing all she can to help him in any way she can. Judy is an amazing woman with a loving Christian heart. She has kept me informed about Michael's condition. I cannot afford a trip back to Elmira to see him, and he told his son Douglas that he didn't want any of us to see him as he is now.
I prefer to remember him the way he was when we saw him in 2015. This is Mike at our Horseheads High School Alumni reunion. Sadly, he is angry towards others and refusing to see people who might want to offer him love and comfort. We pray he will find Peace in Heaven when he dies.
I beg you NOT to put off until tomorrow what you KNOW you should do today. If there is someone you should make amends with, please don't put it off. Please do it now! If you feel there is someone who needs your help, call them today. If you feel you need to re-dedicate yourself to your faith, there is no better time than now. Jim and I believe that the only way to get into Heaven is by accepting Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior. We have accepted Jesus and we KNOW that we have been forgiven of our sins. We know that when we die, we will close our eyes to this life, and open them to see Jesus. It is a wonderful assurance to know that our beloved Lord Jesus loves us and wants us to live with Him for all of eternity. We know that we are all sinners, and no one can get into Heaven based on any good deeds we do, so we thank Jesus every day for His sacrifice for us. I will pray for all of you, and wish you a wonderful week ahead, and life ahead too.
Another site near us is "adorned" with numerous skulls and skeletons. Yuck. Jim says it's very eerie at night when he walks the dogs, but I can't get a good picture of that. 
We have been enjoying our month up here in Silent Valley very much. The first week, my brother Tony came up and stayed for three nights. The second week Joan came to visit. In my last blog I think I forgot to include pictures of the lovely flowers that Joan brought to us. Joan, you know you don't have to bring us flowers, but these were really special. The scent was amazing and the color was delightful. In case you can't tell, the vase is plastic, and when empty, it can be be flat so it doesn't take up much space. That's just one of the unique things we find when we go to Quartzsite in January. 
