Oct 2018 It is a Busy Time

Grandkids have kept us petty busy.  Sammi has softball games on Monday nights, Kenna has volley ball games on Tuesday and Friday nights and Ashley has volleyball games on Thursday nights. Also a few Saturday tournaments throwed in the mix. I have been able to get to Mack Creek a couple of times doing some mowing,discing, and planting rye grass. My starter went out in the Ranger, replaced the starter motor and found out its the Bendix which is located inside gear case. Now waiting on parts.  We did grandparents lunch with Sammi one day. Kristen brought Peyton and Luke over to my Moms one day. Susan went on a quilt retreat for 5 days and I babysit (bus driver) the girls during that time as Kristi went to Dallas. I got back to Mack Creek Saturday morning. Several folks at the lease.  I did a little mowing and checked my game camera. I had a few deer pictures and strangely enough they were all daylight pictures. I moved my camera to a different location .  We had a great time Saturday night just visiting  and having fun. Sunday was a slow day. I managed to sight a couple of rifles in. Everyone went home so its just me and Callahan. I had another issues with kidney stones and so I didn't do much in the evening. I finally passed my kidney stone around 3;00 am Sunday night. Slept very good after that. Monday morning I did a little tractor work till about 12:30.Came in and took a little nap. John and Judy showed up and later  Jamie brought his trailer in and we got him set up. I cooked a pot of lima beans and sausage for supper and we had a nice night. I'm going home tomorrow. Susan has a new Long Arm Quilting Machine coming in on Wednesday morning. Also my parts are arriving Friday.Hope to have Ranger back together this weekend.

Grandparents day with Sammi

Peyton School picture

Peyton and Luke at Moms

Kenna volleyball game

Ashley volleyball game

Sammi at bat 

Mackenna, Susan at Breast Cancer ceremony

Doing some planting

Holly and Maggie

John and John

just chilling

John  Holly Mike

Sept 1-7 2018 Mack Creek and Ashleys First Jr. High Volleyball Game

I headed to the deer lease on Sunday and stayed till Thursday. Susan left Monday morning and went to Kristi's lake house  for a small quilt retreat till Thursday. It was really nice temperatures as I had rain showers all around but didn't get much rain at the lease. I got several feeders going and did some dirt work on roads. I then started doing some mowing.  In my old age I only mow early in the morning and late in the evening. After a few days my back needs a rest from all the bouncing around. I did manage to sight in a new scope I put on my lever action 44 Mag.  Both Susan and I came home Thursday morning so we could go to volleyball games.  Ashley had her first Jr. High game for Riverwood. They played Kingwood Middle School. I was surprised as we just dominated them.  They could not handle our servers. Ashley had a great night, She only served one time and racked up 14 straight points to finish our last set. She has worked very hard on improving her serves and it has really paid off.  Mackenna was playing in a tournament in Cypress , No way to be in two places at one time. They won 1 game and lost 1 game. That was their first loss of the season, the tournament will continue on Saturday.  We will have plenty of games to choose from this fall.  Sammi "s softball games will be on Monday nights, Mackenna plays on Tuesday and Fridays, Ashley plays on Thursdays,  all with a few tournaments throwed in on weekends.

Mackenna s Volleyball Picture

Ashley

July 8-August 31 Summer is over and Grandids back in school

We didn't make any more trips after we came home from Arkansas. Susan did go to a couple of quilt retreats and I just piddled around the house. Kevin came home for a short visit and then headed back to West Virginia. We went to Bryan for Peytons  5th birthday. Things stayed pretty slow till August started. Mackenna started her first year in High School, she made the freshman volleyball team. They started playing games almost two weeks before school started. They play on Tuesday and Friday nights. Ashley made the Jr. High 7th Grade volleyball team. They start next week and will play on Thursday nights. Sammi is going to softball tryouts this week and they will start playing later in the month. Peyton started kindergarten at a charter school in Bryan and Luke has to wait another year to start pre-k.   I moved the trailer to the deer lease last week, I probably will start staying up there quite a bit after Labor Day weekend.  I sure am hoping for cooler days.

Peytons 5th birthday

Maggie and I chilling at the lake

Luke Peyton

Mackenna

Kenna first day of high school

Peyton first day of kindergarten

Ashley first day of 7th grade

headed to the deer lease

Luke practicing at home

Sammi first day of 3rd grade

got the stand moved

Mack Creek

Trailer is set up for the season

Game time

Kyle Peyton Luke Kevin

Kevin Peyton

Working on the creek crossing

Ariel view of one of Kevins pipeyards

Kevin loading pipe

Vacum hoe picks up the pipe to move

After a volleyball game

July 6, 2018 Our Last Day

We had a really nice morning, Maggie and I took our usual long walk. We sat outside enjoying the birds  and the squirrel's  playing. Susan came out when she got up. I cooked breakfast outside and then we went in for a little while. We decided to go swimming and drove up to the swimming area. They have a really nice swim area here. Great picnic tables under the shade trees and easy parking. They have a pier with steps to get into the water and a platform you can swim to and jump from or lay out. We enjoyed floating for awhile. Some small showers approached us and we heed back home. They also have a cemetery inside the park, it was drizzling so I didn't check it out for more information. Later that day we got some pretty good thunderstorms. We just relaxed the rest of the evening. Tomorrow we will head home.

July 5, 2018 Lake Bob Sandlin State Park

We pulled out about 7:30 am not sure about where we were heading. We stopped and ate breakfast in Texarkana at the Cracker Barrel. I called Dangerfield State Park to see if they had a site for two nights. They had sites but none we could fit in. Next choice up was Lake Bob Sandlin State Park. The Ranger said he could accommodate us so we headed there. It took about an hour and 15 minutes to get there. They let us drive in and pick our spot. No waterfront sites we could fit in but we found a nice site. We have full shade and good cell/internet service. I couldn't get our satellite to get a signal. We wanted to go swimming but it looked as if we might get rain. It threatened but never happened. Maggie and I took a walk around the two camping loops on our end. They have two other loops but the Ranger said we probably wouldn't fit there.  I really like this park, the only drawback is satellite. We just read (Susan hand sewed) and chilled. I cooked hot dogs for supper and watched a movie. Will check out the rest of the park tomorrow.

July 1-5 Degray Lake

We got on the road to Degray Lake about 9:00 am.  It was only about a 2 hr drive over winding, bumping small 2 lane roads.  Jamie & Belinda beat us there, Our site wasn't water front but we had a water view. Shouse Ford is our park and its on the north west side of the lake. We had a nice shady site. Cell service was spotty but sometimes you could text but no internet. I finally managed to get satellite tv going. It was pretty hot for the next 3 days. We did some swimming and just chilled. We went in to Arkadelphia one morning to wash clothes.  We decided that since it was so hot we would just head back to Texas on the 5th. We can be hot there.   July 4 was the first nice day we have had. The humidity was down and we had a nice breeze all day. Lots of boats and jet skis on the lake. Maybe we jumped the gun on the weather but we will see.

6/30/2018 A Short Move Today

We have a one night stay before we get to Degray Lake. We could only squeeze 4 days of reservations there. We will meet Jamie&Belinda there as they went a different direction. We picked Lake Nimrod for our lay over. We got on the road about 11:00 am.as I called ahead to see if our site was open. It only took us about an hour and 15 minutes to get there. Our site was nice but tough to get into.  Two big pines and a narrow road. Finally wormed my way in about 10 minutes. It was a nice park but we had no cell/internet service.  I also couldn't get satellite tv.  Full shade which we like but comes with a price. Whew we are roughing it now.  Maggie and I took several walks and this is a nice little park. We cooked a ribeye for supper and watched DVD movies.