Saturday, December 31, 2011
Food for Thought
As we leave 2011 behind and enter into 2012....
And remember.....
Bill and I thank you for following along with us through the years, and we wish all of you a very happy, healthy and exciting 2012!
Thursday, December 29, 2011
A Little Work, A Little Play
Monday, December 26, 2011
A Whirlwind of a Weekend!
After a whirlwind of a weekend in Georgia, Bill and I are back in Benson. Maybe now we can relax.
Although our flight on Thursday out of Tucson was delayed 45 minutes, we had a smooth flight into Atlanta. Thankfully, the airport wasn't too terribly busy, and we had no problems getting our rental car and heading out to my mama's.
Friday night was the big event: the wedding. My nephew, Ryan, married his sweet Katie. It was a small family affair, but I must say it was the sweetest wedding I've seen. Katie's daddy is a minister and performed the ceremony. It was very personal and simply lovely. I am so glad we were able to attend.
Bill and I don't dress up often. I mean everything is so casual now days. Even at church, most folks, including us, wear jeans most of the time. So, it was fun getting dressed up a little. Here is a picture of us at the wedding reception.
After the pictures and reception, the 1st Lieutenant and his bride were ready to go.
In year's past it was tradition to throw rice when the just married couple left the church. Twenty years ago, when Bill and I were married, the tradition was to throw birdseed. Now, apparently, the tradition is for the newlyweds to leave among sparklers. It was really cute and fun.
What a fun weekend we had with friends and family! Thank you God for Your many blessings.
Although our flight on Thursday out of Tucson was delayed 45 minutes, we had a smooth flight into Atlanta. Thankfully, the airport wasn't too terribly busy, and we had no problems getting our rental car and heading out to my mama's.
Friday night was the big event: the wedding. My nephew, Ryan, married his sweet Katie. It was a small family affair, but I must say it was the sweetest wedding I've seen. Katie's daddy is a minister and performed the ceremony. It was very personal and simply lovely. I am so glad we were able to attend.
Bill and I don't dress up often. I mean everything is so casual now days. Even at church, most folks, including us, wear jeans most of the time. So, it was fun getting dressed up a little. Here is a picture of us at the wedding reception.
In year's past it was tradition to throw rice when the just married couple left the church. Twenty years ago, when Bill and I were married, the tradition was to throw birdseed. Now, apparently, the tradition is for the newlyweds to leave among sparklers. It was really cute and fun.
Everyone survived the wedding beautifully, and we still had Christmas to celebrate. We all attended the Christmas Eve service at church, and then gathered at my sister's for a delicious brunch on Christmas, before Bill and I flew back to Arizona, and the newlyweds flew off to Paris.
Saturday, December 24, 2011
Merry Christmas!
From our house to yours....Merry Christmas! Wherever you are and whatever you do, enjoy this special time of year.
Monday, December 19, 2011
Our Christmas Ham
First let me say thanks for all of the recent comments and emails. Bill and I enjoy hearing from our blog readers. Many of you have asked about my job at Kartchner Caverns State Park. This is my second winter to work for Aramark, who operates the gift shop and cafe at Kartchner Caverns. I started on December 1, and so far, it is going great, and I see no reason why it should change.
Funny story from last week: I was opening the cafe by myself for the first time this year. I knew we were expecting a Sysco order. When Sysco arrived, they had the things we normally order: sliced cheddar cheese, sandwich bread, lettuce, etc. Then the delivery guy asked if we were expecting 12 cases of ham. What? We are a small cafe, and I couldn't imagine why we would receive 12 cases of ham. Plus, it was not on my copy of the order. I called my manager, and she said to accept the 12 cases. Alrighty, then.
Turns out the 12 cases were actually 12 hams that the manager ordered as Christmas gifts for all of us workers. The hams were huge, probably 15-20 pounds. Then I heard the rest of the story. Our manager ordered smaller hams to be delivered the first part of December. They never arrived. When she called to check on them, she was informed Sysco was out of the hams she ordered, and they would replace her order with larger hams at no additional cost.
I brought the ham home and put in the fridge. (We had to rearrange the items in the fridge and remove a shelf.) Yesterday after church, I brought out the ham. It was as big as I thought. I had to do something with it, as Bill and I will be in Georgia for Christmas. I used my chef's knife and cut the ham into smaller pieces and put a good bit of it into freezer bags. Bill delivered those bags to our friends, Rich & Ronda and Paul & Vickie. For the remainder of the ham, I used the Food Saver that my mama gave me when I visited back in October. Now we have lots of ham in the freezer, and I am not complaining. As we were cutting up and packaging the ham, Bill and I had to have a taste. It is delicious!
So, if any of you have some good ham recipes, would you mind sending them our way???
Funny story from last week: I was opening the cafe by myself for the first time this year. I knew we were expecting a Sysco order. When Sysco arrived, they had the things we normally order: sliced cheddar cheese, sandwich bread, lettuce, etc. Then the delivery guy asked if we were expecting 12 cases of ham. What? We are a small cafe, and I couldn't imagine why we would receive 12 cases of ham. Plus, it was not on my copy of the order. I called my manager, and she said to accept the 12 cases. Alrighty, then.
Turns out the 12 cases were actually 12 hams that the manager ordered as Christmas gifts for all of us workers. The hams were huge, probably 15-20 pounds. Then I heard the rest of the story. Our manager ordered smaller hams to be delivered the first part of December. They never arrived. When she called to check on them, she was informed Sysco was out of the hams she ordered, and they would replace her order with larger hams at no additional cost.
I brought the ham home and put in the fridge. (We had to rearrange the items in the fridge and remove a shelf.) Yesterday after church, I brought out the ham. It was as big as I thought. I had to do something with it, as Bill and I will be in Georgia for Christmas. I used my chef's knife and cut the ham into smaller pieces and put a good bit of it into freezer bags. Bill delivered those bags to our friends, Rich & Ronda and Paul & Vickie. For the remainder of the ham, I used the Food Saver that my mama gave me when I visited back in October. Now we have lots of ham in the freezer, and I am not complaining. As we were cutting up and packaging the ham, Bill and I had to have a taste. It is delicious!
So, if any of you have some good ham recipes, would you mind sending them our way???
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Southern Arizona is in the Desert...Right?
R-A-I-N! We have gotten lots of rain here in Benson, AZ., so much in fact, we have started to question if we are actually in the desert. Of course it had to rain on Monday and Tuesday, my days off. But it takes more than rain to keep us down.
On Tuesday Bill and I, along with our friends Rich and Ronda, visited the Biosphere 2, outside of Tucson. In a previous post, I mentioned we had purchased a discount book for attractions in the Tucson area. Well, with a 2-for-1 entrance coupon, we loaded up our rain gear and headed out.
Are you familiar with Biosphere 2? Do you recall back in the early 1990's a group of eight people lived inside the biosphere for two years. It was an experiment to see if humans could live within a closed environment. Depending on who to talk to, some folks saw the experiment as a success, while others considered it a failure.
Within the biosphere are several different landscapes or "biomes." Because everything was inside and close, it was very hard to take any decent pictures. But, here you go...
Here is the 1,900 square meter rainforest. At one point they had bushbabies and hummingbirds living within the rainforest. However, they got rid of the bushbabies when the hummingbirds began to disappear. Apparently, bushbabies like to eat hummingbirds.
There is also a solar panel experiment taking place at Biosphere 2. They have set up every different kind of solar panel imaginable and are comparing them to see which type is best. Of course, this got Bill's attention.
We enjoyed our visit to Biosphere 2. However, a sunny day would have been nice so that we could explore more outside the Biosphere. But, the 2-for-1 coupon made it worthwhile, even in the pouring rain.
On Tuesday Bill and I, along with our friends Rich and Ronda, visited the Biosphere 2, outside of Tucson. In a previous post, I mentioned we had purchased a discount book for attractions in the Tucson area. Well, with a 2-for-1 entrance coupon, we loaded up our rain gear and headed out.
Within the biosphere are several different landscapes or "biomes." Because everything was inside and close, it was very hard to take any decent pictures. But, here you go...
Here is the 1,900 square meter rainforest. At one point they had bushbabies and hummingbirds living within the rainforest. However, they got rid of the bushbabies when the hummingbirds began to disappear. Apparently, bushbabies like to eat hummingbirds.
There is also an 850 square meter ocean with a coral reef....
And just beyond the ocean was the 450 square meter mangrove wetland. I hadn't seen mangroves since leaving the Florida Keys in 2005.
Although the "human" experiment ended 20 years ago, research continues within the Biosphere 2. Much of today's research is focused on how plants react to water or the lack thereof.
After touring the different biomes, our guide led us to the below-ground level technical infrastructure. This is where everything happened to insure the Biosphere participants had fresh water and enough oxygen to survive.
And here is the South Lung (there is also a West Lung). This contraption, weighing 16 tons and held up by air pressure, insured there was enough oxygen within the Biosphere. Don't even ask me to explain how it all worked. : )
Sunday, December 11, 2011
2011 Bean Counting
When Bill and I had our business in the Florida Keys, I was the bookkeeper, or as Bill always called it, the bean counter. Even though I no longer keep books for a business, I still keep track of lots of numbers...I just can't help it! Anyway, I've noticed lots of bloggers starting to recap their 2011 expenses, and it got me curious about our numbers for the year.
I have never posted our monthly expenditures. The main reason is because it varies so much from person to person. No two fulltimers live the same way. We all choose to spend our money differently. When folks ask me what it costs to fulltime, I simply tell them it takes whatever you have. I'm not being a smart-alec...it's the truth.
However, I did put some numbers together that you may find interesting. I know I did.
For 2011, we averaged a per-night camp fee of just $2.48. We didn't do a lot of "traveling" this year. Basically, we went from Benson, AZ to Yellowstone and back again. We stayed on our lot in Benson, AZ for 190 nights. We have no nightly fee, but I did include our yearly maintenance fees of $592 when figuring our average nightly fee. We also worked in Yellowstone for 155 nights where we had no nightly fee.
We stayed in national parks for 167 nights, including Yellowstone, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, Grand Teton National Park and Zion National Park. We stayed in privately owned parks for 8 nights. Two of those nights were in a Coast to Coast park, and one night was in a Passport America park.
We put 17,905 miles on the truck and bought 1,383.04 gallons of diesel with an average price of $3.87 per gallon. The lowest we paid for diesel was $3.05 at Fry's in Sierra Vista, AZ on January 2, and the highest we paid was $4.34 at Conoco in West Yellowstone, MT on May 4. We averaged 12.9 miles per gallon, including towing and non-towing miles.
Looking ahead to 2012, we plan to return to Yellowstone for the summer, and a fall trip to the east coast may be in the works. If these plans come together, I know an average nightly fee of $2.48 will be just a fond memory.
I have never posted our monthly expenditures. The main reason is because it varies so much from person to person. No two fulltimers live the same way. We all choose to spend our money differently. When folks ask me what it costs to fulltime, I simply tell them it takes whatever you have. I'm not being a smart-alec...it's the truth.
However, I did put some numbers together that you may find interesting. I know I did.
For 2011, we averaged a per-night camp fee of just $2.48. We didn't do a lot of "traveling" this year. Basically, we went from Benson, AZ to Yellowstone and back again. We stayed on our lot in Benson, AZ for 190 nights. We have no nightly fee, but I did include our yearly maintenance fees of $592 when figuring our average nightly fee. We also worked in Yellowstone for 155 nights where we had no nightly fee.
We stayed in national parks for 167 nights, including Yellowstone, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, Grand Teton National Park and Zion National Park. We stayed in privately owned parks for 8 nights. Two of those nights were in a Coast to Coast park, and one night was in a Passport America park.
We put 17,905 miles on the truck and bought 1,383.04 gallons of diesel with an average price of $3.87 per gallon. The lowest we paid for diesel was $3.05 at Fry's in Sierra Vista, AZ on January 2, and the highest we paid was $4.34 at Conoco in West Yellowstone, MT on May 4. We averaged 12.9 miles per gallon, including towing and non-towing miles.
Looking ahead to 2012, we plan to return to Yellowstone for the summer, and a fall trip to the east coast may be in the works. If these plans come together, I know an average nightly fee of $2.48 will be just a fond memory.
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Back at It
Well, I am once again among the gainfully employed. I started work back at Kartchner Caverns State Park on December 1. It was great seeing all of my former co-workers, and after our hugs and hellos, I felt as if I had never left. Everything is coming back to me pretty easily, I'm just thankful they didn't change the procedures too much in the gift shop or in the cafe. (I just can't remember how long to cook the bacon for the BLT!)
I'll be working about four days a week, which is perfect! It allows Bill and me time to get out and enjoy the area. To help us do that, we purchased a Tucson Attractions Passport, a small booklet that has quite a few coupons, many 2-for-1, for attractions in and around Tucson. At $18, it is well worth it. We plan to use as many coupons as we possibly can this winter. If any of you are planning on spending time in Tucson this winter, you might want to check it out!
While I've been working, don't think that Bill has gotten off scot-free. He has found a few projects he wants to complete this winter. The first one he tackled is adding fiberglass insulation to the shed on our lot. We have a washer and dryer in the shed, and we hope to protect it from the freezing weather, which we know will come sometime this winter.
Here is Bill geared up to work with fiberglass insulation. Notice he even taped his sleeves closed to keep the insulation off of him.
It took him about three days, and the shed looks great! (I love being married to a guy who can do anything!) It's a good thing he got finished...we are expecting freezing temperatures early this week.
Our good friends from Yellowstone, Rich and Ronda, arrived on December 1. They recently sold their sticks and bricks and are fulltimers once again. They plan to stay most of the winter, so we look forward to getting out and exploring the area together.
Oh yeah, for those you working at Amazon. Keep up the good work! We've ordered a few things recently, and we've received many of them overnight, without even requesting it! You pickers & receivers are doing one heck of a job!
I'll be working about four days a week, which is perfect! It allows Bill and me time to get out and enjoy the area. To help us do that, we purchased a Tucson Attractions Passport, a small booklet that has quite a few coupons, many 2-for-1, for attractions in and around Tucson. At $18, it is well worth it. We plan to use as many coupons as we possibly can this winter. If any of you are planning on spending time in Tucson this winter, you might want to check it out!
While I've been working, don't think that Bill has gotten off scot-free. He has found a few projects he wants to complete this winter. The first one he tackled is adding fiberglass insulation to the shed on our lot. We have a washer and dryer in the shed, and we hope to protect it from the freezing weather, which we know will come sometime this winter.
Here is Bill geared up to work with fiberglass insulation. Notice he even taped his sleeves closed to keep the insulation off of him.
It took him about three days, and the shed looks great! (I love being married to a guy who can do anything!) It's a good thing he got finished...we are expecting freezing temperatures early this week.
Our good friends from Yellowstone, Rich and Ronda, arrived on December 1. They recently sold their sticks and bricks and are fulltimers once again. They plan to stay most of the winter, so we look forward to getting out and exploring the area together.
Oh yeah, for those you working at Amazon. Keep up the good work! We've ordered a few things recently, and we've received many of them overnight, without even requesting it! You pickers & receivers are doing one heck of a job!
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