Sailboats

As you can see we had nothing but sailboats coming through. There were 7 big ships waiting to come through, they probably came through Sunday morning while we were in church.

We had a soup supper in the den this week and a ice cream social tomorrow night. Jam session tonight but Dad wouldn't go.

I have to get the motor home cleaned up for our company coming the 8th can't wait to see them.

THE PUFFINS

Here we are crossing on the ferry and yes some things never change. There he is at his post. He does a good job we have never been mugged or robbed crossing on the ferry.

Be sure and double click on these pictures. They are not your every day sea gull, they are Puffins and they are really pretty with their orange beaks. This is the fist time we ever saw them. The Gulf was as beautiful as ever. I just love it.

Here he is waiting for a handout. This is the jetty where our fisherman brings us our free fish. He goes over there to fish every morning.and brings back his limit. He tells us these were swimming 1 1/2 hours ago.
The gal that lives with him is my Euchre buddy they are from Tibbles Landing at Marblehead at Lake Erie OH. She is a couple years older than me and we have a ball together. We play Sunday, Wednesday and Friday nights.
Did you know long before they had cattledrives to Kansas they drove cattle through our area to New Orleans and shipped the cattle north on ships. They were the longhorns. They had a 5 foot spread on the horns. They think they probably cut the horns off so they could get more cattle on the ships. A steer would bring 5 dollars in Texas but 35 in New Orleans. After the Texas Revolution, with Texas under new ownership, the veterans of San Jacinto rounded up cattle abandoned by the retreating Spanish rancheros and drove them east for sale. They became known as "cowboys". They would drive 1000 head cattle and one 20 year old man was in charge his name was Shanghai Pierce. When the men would go on these cattle drives the women and kids would stay together to survive till the men got back. Pierce in later years became one of the big cattle ranchers in Texas. Remember the Commanche Indians were still all through here too.

Murphy Givens does an article once a week in our paper about history in our area. We enjoy reading them.

RAIN

No pictures this week. We had another busy week. We had an Italian dinner and I took Lasagna. Just needed to scrape the pan when we got home. Well Lowell did that as I was playing euchre in the den. We have been playing 6 handed and trying to get 2 more players so we can have 2 tables going. Maybe someday we can get Lowell to play but not holding my breath.

Had sloppy joes at 2:00 this afternoon and they were good. We had bags of chips, all the sloppy joes we wanted and cake for dessert. Cost us 4.00 each can't complain just took a paper plate and fork.

Have the most of the taxes about ready and I'm glad it is taking my time from playing cards every night and every afternoon.

Lowell had a meeting with the RV repairman that comes to the park. He comes and answers questions to all the men. They are a good company, we really appreciate them. He had that Saturday morning and learned some things.

I could learn how to bead and do other crafts too beside play cards, but I don' have time. I didn't go to the women's lunchen either this week.

Well we have had some much needed rain but it has warmed up and had a few hours of sunshine too.

The jam session was really good last night too.

WINTER TIME

This is our palm tree. We never realized how much work they are. They trim off the bottom leaves so they don't turn brown. This will sooner or later kill the tree. You can see on the trunk where they have been cut off. Joe works here and he said the water gets in the cavity and rots the trunk. You can see he is cutting the stubs away and literally unwrap the trunk. Just thought you might enjoy this.

This is Cracker every time we go someplace with Chan and Frank Cracker goes and sleeps in their pickup. We went to Rockport to a gospel festival with them it was very good.

Then we went to bed Saturday night as usual. We heard there was a storm coming in. WOW it was a storm and a half. It hit at 4:22 AM. I awoke to the horrible noise of didn't know what. I thought I was dreaming but I was awake. Dad was already up but it was horrible. We were having wind and hail and of course rain. This is a picture of the ice balls. We had no wind damage some did in the park.

It was 65 when the storm hit and 52 when we got up and this is what was left of the hail. We heard there were people killed in the towns on each side of us. They said they had tornados. We had a banana split party this afternoon at the den.
Had another busy week here and I've got to get to working on the taxes.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

This was second prize in the park. It was a very busy time in the Captain's Den. We were there every night and eating goodies every night. We received so many wonderful presents from home too. We have got to get back on our diets, this is terrible. But oh so yummy and I didn't bake or make anything.

This was the first place winner. The pictures didn't do them justice. But we had a wonderful Holiday and it was great hearing from everybody from home. Hope your Holidays were as good as ours. We know they weren't as warm as ours but that's why we are here.

HAVE A VERY HEALTHY AND HAPPY NEW YEAR.

REMEMBER AN IMPORTANT PART OF PRAYING IS A WILLINGNESS TO BE PART OF THE ANSWER.