Chillaxin' in the Hill Country

Rocky and I chillaxin

1-6-14: Feels great being back at JCRV. David is ready for golf, I'm ready for knitting and crafting, and Rocky is ready for spoiling he gets from Tom C, Mr. Ken, and Stan the Man.

walking buddy, Tom

only 2 of them this year

they follow us down the fence line while we're walking

they're nice and fat -- wondering if they'll make it beyond Thanksgiving '14

some of the unique cacti along the walking path

 According to the James Beard Foundation's Foods of the Southwest Indian Nations, the Tohono O'odham Indians regularly consumed cholla buds — a smart move considering a palm-size dollop contains as much calcium as a glass of milk. All you need to prepare your cholla in the wild is a lighter and a pocket comb. Grasp the comb and rake in a downward motion along the shaft of the plant. The fruit should pop right off and be trapped in the teeth of the comb. Skewer your cholla onto a small branch and use the lighter to spark a pile of brush. Cook until the spines char and break off. Once the fruit is clear of spikes, simply peel the skin and roast until warm. Voilà! Cactus appetizers. For a Martha Stewart touch, pluck additional needles and use them as cocktail toothpicks.

it's a cholla cactus loaded with its fruit

lots of cacti and cedar trees --- and cedar pollen counts are HIGH

Big Boy loves it when we bring him carrots

he has a nice new pasture

I'm sure this could be adding to the pollen count

Love getting back to walking the little back road behind the rv park.  It's still a little chilly here, so I have to wait til the temps come up during the day.

1-7-14:  George and Lizzy taking a stroll.  Brrrr!  This week is really cold.  But I kinda like it!

Shirlene, Vickey, Connie with their new sock critters

1-8-14:  Enjoyed our first craft time today for this winter!  Looking forward to learning some new things and sharing some new ideas this year!  What a wonderful group of ladies that craft with us. Today we made sock critters.  Thx for the inspiration, Gala1

Stan getting ready to play cards in a fluffy visor

Dawn and David

Taught our friends, Ron/Dawn and Stan/Connie to play Panties tonight.  We started at 6 and didn't finish til after 11. It's usually a 3 hour game.  Not sure if it was the language barrier (Dawn's Michigan accent), or just because we got so silly that made the game last longer.  So much fun! We played girls vs guys and the guys clobbered us.

Connie and Stan

 David, me, Ron, Connie, and Stan

David giving instructions

Ron's visor kept finding a new location on his head all night

Plenty of Panties jokes

So happy that our card game group is growing!  We will try to make this a once a week thing.  (the girls will prob play more often)

George loves a selfie

1-9-14: finally warming up a bit during the day.

Dawn, me, Vickey

the former shop

the new and enlarged yarn shop

Dawn and me inside the new shop

3 of us went to Comfort, TX to our fave yarn shop today.  What a surprise we got when we arrived! They had moved next door and it's a MUCH larger bldg.  We were in hog heaven! Or aplaca heaven.

Vickey, me, Dawn after a yummy lunch at Cocky Rooster in Comfort

Wonderful day visiting the best yarn shop ever!

Shirlene, me, Vickey, Connie at Chili's

me, Shirlene (looking sly), Vickey, and Connie

resaling

1-10-14:  Went resale shopping today with some of the girls.  Kerrville and Ingram have many wondeful consignment and thrift stores that are for good causes.  I think today's winner was Vickey -- she found a Bagallini purse that looked like it'd never been used.  For about $3!!! About a $50 value.  Connie did quite well with some tops, too. My fave find were some shawl pins that were brand new. Fun, fun day.

Chili on china

Mr. Ken looking important

1-11-14:  Had a good time at the chili supper tonight at the clubhouse.  Great turnout and the chili and fixins were yummy.

fingerless mitts Dawn made me -- can you see the owls?

1-12-14:  Dawn surprised me today with the sweetest card and the loveliest fingerless mittens she made for me. Love, love them! The patterns is called Owlings and can be found on ravelry.com.  She's inspired me to
learn how to make some.

mouth is watering while waiting on our burger

love our date days

1-14-14:  David and I took a drive over to Medina to have a burger at the Apple Store.  This is one of our fave burger joints in the country.  And today it was especially fanstastic!  They have homemade sourdough/jalepeno buns. Dropped in the new fabric store there -- not the same as it was last year (new owner). Then we drove over to Bandera and over to Boerne from there.  Beautiful drive.  David stopped at the Ranch to hit at the driving range.

front row: Kathy and Jerri
back row: Shirlene, Dee, Vickey, Darlene, Connie

front row: me, Jerri
back row: Dee, Vickey, Darlene, Shirlene, Connie

1-15-14:  Made tater bags today in crafts.  So easy and such a great gift idea.  Thx, Vickey, for teaching us!

David and Stan -- I guess if you gotta wear visors to play cards, they may as well be fluffy

manly men

we had 12 people playing tonite

serious game 

this group had some score-keeping issues

my man

sore loser

Panties! Our group is growing!  Tonite Dee and Sarah joined us and taught Vickey and Kyle to play. And Jerri was back in town, so she and George joined us. David and I played with Connie and Stan. Girls won. Badly. Go Connie!

me and my bestie

Jerri got framed

1-17-14:  Enjoyed another day of resale shopping with David, George, and Jerri.  Always love hitting the thrift stores -- kinda like a treasure hunt.

Mr. Bill always is such a help to us at the shop -- and is a master knitter himself!

Dee, Jerri, Dawn, and me

1-18-14: Went back to Comfort to the yarn shop today.  Jerri didn't know they'd enlarged the shop.  Dawn and I managed to keep it quiet so it'd be a surprise for her!  She loved it as much as we did!  Dee had never been to the shop, so this was a first for her.

found my next craft at Creations

 We took her to Creations (fabric) when we got back to Kerrville.  It's the best quilt shop ever.   Fun day!

David and I are blessed to get to spend another winter here in the hill country among true friends. Looking forward to the next couple of months here!

Love to all,

Kash Coolidge,  A Friend in Need, and Captain

Happy 2014!

David and me at Zapatas

Welp, we've wrapped up our stay in Texarkana.  This has been a month full of blessings with friends and family. Glad that we could spend the whole month of December here and celebrate Christmas with family.

and then there's this

Gus, me, Edith, and Laura - love these folks!

Fun being with Gus and Edith for a month.  And we were so happy to have Laura Lee here this last week. She had perfect weather to fly both ways.  Then she got back to a record-breaking "polar vortex" which is totally slamming much of the Midwest with dangerous cold.  brrrr!

12-28-13:  Dawn and Ron arrived from Branson today.  They're going to stay a couple of nights at Shady Pines with us and then we will travel somewhat together to Waco, then on to Ingram.

Dawn and Ron joined us at ACC this morning

our last visit at ACC for a few months

loved that the singer held his grandbaby in the choir

12-29-13:  Down and Ron went with us to ACC this morning. Loved Cranford's sermon today about starting off the New Year right.  He gave us 4 resolutions to focus on:

1. Commit yourself to forget your failures

2. Give up your grudges.

3. Restore your relationships.

4. Turn your back on your transgressions.

Forgiveness is a big part of these - of others and self.  He even said we should forgive Democrats. Then he said "sorry, Becky, about calling you out".  Other than that, it was a powerful sermon! We'll really miss the people at ACC.

Gus, me, and Laura on the day she flew back home

Laura Lee and Gus

Said our goodbyes to Laura Lee before she headed to the airport. Visits are too short!

Gus and David on last night in T-town

Gus and Bailey came out to see us off

12-31-13:  Gus and Bailey came out this morning to say bye to us. Really special since neither he nor I are morning people! Isn't Bailey a pretty dog?

Cooper, me, and Dawn as the guys get us hooked up to leave Shady Pines 

Cooper and Bailey getting to know each other

Bill and Pam named their new hooter  "Owlbert McCheesegrater"

Brooke and the boys playing Rocky Bingo (Rocky's gift to them for Christmas)

ummm..... 

Headed on out to Waco today.  Staying at Airport Park on Lake Waco for a couple of nights.  Good friends, Ron and Dawn will stay there, too, and they will join us at Tom and Dee's for NYE.

Dee and me on NYE in Waco

Dawn, me, and Dee

Ron, David, and Tom

Dee and Szu Szu

Enjoyed an evening of catching up and lots of good snacks at Tom and Dee's tonight.  Didn't bring in the new year.  At least 4 of us were starting to fade around 8:30. But were so lucky to get to spend NYE with 4 such dear friends.

New Year's Day tradition for good luck in the new year

1-1-14: Even though we didn't stay up til midnight last night, we still took advantage of a great day to sleep in!

We have a lovely site on the lake.  Tho it's certainly no Table Rock Lake, it's a beautiful view from inside the camper! haha.  Pretty lazy day!  Then Ron and Dawn graciously fixed supper for us and it was DELISH!! Pork loins, mashed potatoes.  Being from Michigan, they had never been told that black-eyed peas are a must on New Year's Day.  So we took a pot over.  Not Dawn's thing, but she was a trooper and made sure she ate a little of them for tradition's sake! Those 2 are really learning about Southern life.

Cooper shared his couch with me

It's such a blessing to travel with friends and share special occasions with them!

new Baylor stadium going up on I-35 in Waco

1-2-14:  Arrived Johnson Creek today! Good to be back to what we claim as one of our homes.

 There was a welcome sign on the office door for Rocky and Cooper and their "staff".  haha.  Both dogs remember it well and seem so happy to be here!

Stan and Connie on NYE

 And my pic is on the mantle in the clubhouse -- which I'd noticed in Connie and Stan's NYE post on fb. :) Love all these folks! It's good to be back.

Jerri found a string of prisms and beads a couple of yrs ago in Fredricksburg

this year she gave me a beautiful spiral of them to add some sparkle to the camper

Jerri and me

And I just love that Jerri and George are here again this year.  Love wintering with my 2nd grade friend!!!

Shirlene and me

1-4-14:  Took Shirlene and me a couple of days to catch each other.  So happy to see my Iowa friend!  She and Jack began coming to JCRV the same year David and I did.  This is our 5th winter here.

Jack is pretty excited about Shirlene's new hooter! It's a Hoots hooter!

Gave them a hooter -- which is prob more appropriate than anyone else I've given one to.  Their last name is Hoots!!

Myrna keeps things flowing at JCRV!  

Jerri and I played Panties with Sarah and Melinda this afternoon.  Cannot believe I didn't get pix! Next time.  We had a great time and Mr. Ken was so attentive -- kept the fire going for us the whole 3 hours. Have I mentioned that I love these peeps?!

Feels good being settled in for the winter.  David and I are looking forward to activities with friends and the beauty of the hill country!

Love and prayers for a Happy 2014 to ya'll!


Rocky and his staff