Redid the color on the Motorhome

OK, this gives the RV more of the tan color I'm looking for. 

And it's not permanent. It can always be peeled back off. 

In fact, I could change the color every year if I wish to do so! 

At least it's not yellow looking anymore. 

And I thank all of you on your input! Blue was the definite winner, but I kind of wanted to try something different. 

Again, I can peel it off & go back to blue if this doesn't work for me once I do the job.

Anything is better than the old, faded, crackled decals! My brother actually thought I did a crackle finish to them -- um...could I use that excuse instead of painting them?? ;-) 


So here was what the photo program did & turned it more yellow than tan. I actually got one vote on the yellow from a friend! She thought it was bright & cheery. 

Below is the tan I'm thinking of:

Or............I could go crazy. Leave the decals blue & go for a gray body!! haha! 

Thought this was kind of cool looking, but it also looks like winter doesn't it?

Now all I need is some time for this project! Won't be happening this week. All I have to do to prepare her is wash her & tape off the areas to protect the paint from getting on. Even if the paint does get on the other areas, it's still fine because I can peel it off. 

It will be interesting to see how it holds out too. So far, it looks  good on my friends hub caps! He did his about a month ago. 

~As always, be kind to your pets, clean up after them on your travels & respect your neighbor~

Opinions wanted on Painting Ellie's Decals

Hi Everyone, 

As you know, Ellie, my motorhome is getting up there in years, but not in mileage since we sit so much!

Ever since I bought her, her decals were cracked, faded & well, not attractive. 


I heard about spray paint that is rubberized. You spray it on & it sticks well. If you don't like it, you can simply peel it off. 

I heard of this from a guy that did his hubcaps & that paint looks great on them! 

So I thought this could be an easy solution for Ellie! 

I did a mock up photo. I really want to paint in tan, but I could not get the color right on my color chart, so it looks yellow. 

But I plan on doing tan, with a little bit of red accent. The black striping oddly has not faded, so it can stay as is. 

Let me know what ya'll think please. 

Before & current photo:

Repainted image - it turned yellow, but I want tan. 

So what do ya'll think? I think the tan will brighten her up a little & the red is subtle, yet a bit of an accent. 

Happy Halloween!

 Happy Halloween 

Have a safe and wonderful day everyone!



Photo taken at a store with my phone....

Looks like it says enter if you date! """snicker"""

Nature in the back pasture

When I got the camera, I wanted to get some nature shots with the new zoom lens. 

I got LUCKY! I got this guy! 

How cool is that! It's a Pileated Woodpecker. I've been trying to catch one for 3 years now. They are shy & pretty much stay away if anyone is outside. They are actually quite big - known as the crows of the woodpecker world because they are big, kind of clumsy & very loud. Yep, that's how I heard him! I heard the noisy wingspan as he was flying to that tree. Then I heard his loud pecking at the tree. I had to be very careful to stalk the tree with minimal noise as not to scare him off. Got it! Then he flew away when I tried to step just a little closer, but I was able to catch him on video as well. I was shooting in weird light too. Against the sun, but in a very black shady area, so I'm happy that I got anything at all. 
The photo image isn't as clear as I'd like, but I'm glad I got anything at all. 

I didn't get any other bird photos...they all seem to disappear when I appear! Little stinkers. I can hear them in the front of the acreage when I'm in the back & vice versa. 

I did get a Mockingbird on the video, the Pileated Woodpecker & a really sharp image of a dragonfly. 
Oh & a vulture in flight. I have to practice up on flying birds. They are hard to track in flight! 
If possible, watch the video in HD for a better image. 

Please enjoy! 





~As always, be kind to your pets, clean up after your travels & respect your neighbor~

Google plus + my new camera

Well, Google plus really doesn't have anything to do with my camera, I just combined the subject line! 

I just wanted those that use Google Plus for their comment section, that I do read their posts. 

But. 

Since I'm not ready to join Plus yet, I can't comment....bummer. 

I'm still hanging around, just haven't been as much lately as usual. I've taken an interrupted break from blogger due to other things, but hopefully, I'm back now! 

I sure am glad I bought my new camera. Last week, my van started to idle rough. Took it in yesterday & it's the catalytic converter :-(   They wanted an arm & 2 legs to fix it! I said no & brought the van home, but they still charged me $94.00 to determine that! So I am NOT happy! That could be used towards the repairs instead! Dammit. 

So after talking to another mechanic, he suggested I buy one & take it to a muffler shop to have it installed instead. He said it's cheaper that way & it will be installed properly. So I'll talk to a few muffler shops to see what can be done. 

Always something! 

So like I said, I sure am glad I got the camera before this happened or I'd still be using my cell phone for pics! My old camera is fine, but windows 8 won't accept it. And the memory card is so huge that I have to shell out $25 to buy a specific memory card reader that can read that card. It was time for a new camera. The other is 11 years old. 

I bought a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ70. It's been so much fun to use. I can even shoot the moon with it & get craters! Awesome! 

Another example of the zoom range on this thing, and this is not at full zoom! 

So it's a fun camera. Will be really fun once I do a little traveling! I want to do a couple of state parks here to catch some different birds & such. 

I'll be sharing some of what I've caught within the next few days. 

It's a bridge camera, which means it's capable of being a point & shoot, to professional quality settings. It has a huge powerful 60x zoom lens. Lens is fixed, but you can still purchase extensions for it to attach to that lens. Seems to be the perfect camera for me! 

I'm still in therapy. I hope all this will be over soon! I'm so ready to be done with it all. 

Video from the camera is very good too. 

Later, I'll share some of that as well. Or you can check out my channel on youtube -- ReignbeauHounds to see what this camera is capable of doing. 

I hope everyone is doing well.

Guess I'd better get ready for my afternoon doc appointment & therapy. Have a great day everyone! 

~As always, be kind to your pets, clean up after them on your travels & respect your neighbor~

no blog roll again

Hmmmmm....no blog roll again.

Loverly.

Sitting at docs office and wanted to catch up blogs while II wait.

Well Boo then!

Not a whole lot is new with me. Got approval for another round of therapy in an attempt on getting the foot stronger.

I'd rather be out meandering somewhere instead....

I do have some cool news though -- got a new camera!

I needed a new kick-butt camera since mine is 11 years old and not quite up to par these days.

I played with it yesterday -- it's really cool!

It's a Panasonic Lumix DMC FZ70

You can shoot the moon with it and actually see the craters.

I'LL share pics later.

It has a huge 60X zoom range....you can spy on people with this thing. ;-)

OK, back to waiting...wish my blog roll would load.

Laters ya'll.

life

Life can change so instantly.

Another friend in the hospital in ICU.

Seems it never stops.

I've lost 3 good friends in recent months.

I feel it's a lesson for us all to get out there. Follow our dreams. Grasp life by the horns and LIVE!

I had another doctors appointment the other day. Although my situation is not at all life threatening, I am so ready to be done with it all so I can move on with life. But my foot is still weak, so they want another round of therapy. Will be interesting to see if it will be accepted or denied since I'm federal! Our crazy world is falling apart at the seams.
Betsy Ross could not sew this one up, but let's hope someone can soon!!

Anyhow, my point is, for those of you that are just existing like myself), get out there and live life! Weather will be better here soon, so I'm at least hoping to work in some camping time.

I hope all is well with every one.

I have Ewoks. Will share them when I get access to my computer again.

I did not need Ewoks, but they found me! Oh well...such is life.

I Ran Away...

Hi all, I hope everyone is doing well. 

Sorry, I've not been around much lately. 

Not much has been happening. 

Just more therapy & doc appointments. I have two more therapy sessions this week & a doc appointment on Wednesday to see where we go from there. Not healing so fast this time around & it's bringing on other complications to my poor beaten body! Good news though, nothing life threatening. My heart goes out to those that really have serious ailments. Life can be hard. 

But with not being able to get out much & such, it still works on your mind & puts you in a black space. A space that I fight from time to time not to go visit! Depression isn't fun. 

So, I thought I'd test myself & enter a dog show! I've not been to one since March of this year. At that show, I decided I could not run anymore until I had my surgery. It was just too painful & difficult. So had the surgery & decided I'd test myself in the ring this weekend. Actually, the ring wasn't bad. But I'm showing Birdie who is easy to show & the ring was not big, so it was no challenge. When I'm showing, I don't focus on anything except presenting my dogs to the best of our abilities. So any pain or anything goes on the wayside of my mind anyhow. Having said that, I experienced no pain. In the ring. 

Outside the ring, at the RV, walking all the dogs, walking to the building, doing all the RV related stuff, etc, I had pain. And bad pain. The kind that doesn't let you sleep. Last night was much better as I had nothing pending today, so I was able to take my strong pain med & sleep with a heating pad, so that helped. I actually got some good sleep for a change! 

I left on Friday, the show was only about an hour away. It hurt to drive, but I managed. Pushing that pedal is still a bit hard on the foot. I feel a difference in vehicles too. Fords hurt me more as I have to push the pedal harder & it's placed differently. On my Dodge van, it's easier to drive. But the motorhome is a Ford & that's what I took. Us fulltime  RVers don't leave our houses at home y'know! 

We won 2  second placements, so no championship for Birdie at this show. Oh well, she'll get it. She only needs one more point to finish. 

Weather wasn't the best either. Hot & humid on Friday & Saturday. I ran my generator a lot for the a/c. Saturday night, the cold front came through, so it was much better! Even though it rained for awhile, it stopped & turned very pleasant. 

Downside, the dogs picked up some bug, so now some of them are under the weather :-(  Hope it passes quickly! 

OK, now to try to catch up with ya'll! I've missed everyone. 

~As always, be kind to your pets, clean up after them on your travels & respect your neighbor~ 

BzzzzzzzzBzzzzzzzzzzBzzzzzzzzzzz

It's 2:30am.

I can't sleep.

Actually, I'm a bit nervous.

Bzzzzzzz...Bzzzzz...Bzzzzzz

And no.

That is NOT me buzzing.

There is a bee in my motorhome....

And well...YIKES!

I be allergic to bees.

I just heard gunshots.

Maybe someone out there also has a bee in their house?

Or more likely, a Coyote in their pasture.

Oh please bee, leave!

:-(  

Now the cattle are mooing.

At least the donkeys are being quiet tonight.

They bay a lot at night.

There are two catty corner across the street to protect the chickens and ducks from the coyotes....or maybe bees?

Maybe I need a donkey in my RV???

Oh crap!

Silence.

I think it's stalking me now.

Shhhhh...buzz off bee!

HeeHaw!

More silence...

Maybe it's just a fly...

Nite all.

The cows are singing again. And this darn bee fly is buzzing again.....

The Pitts

And if you think your life sucks.....


And if you think your job sucks....


Well, then I have an exciting job FULL of adventure...

FOR YOU! 

<insert evil grin here>

<insert picture below>

                                Photo untouched, unedited---because who would want to??

Yea, so this is what you get to see while driving in Houston & sitting at a traffic light. 

Aren't you glad I was in the right spot at the right time?

There's even a phone number for those that wish to apply!

Good luck!! 

(I need a life)

What's for dinner?

Shish ka bobs! And they were good! 

I marinated some boneless chicken breasts in regular old italian dressing today.

Along with button mushrooms, onion slices & bell pepper. 

My friends got a new grill. What a fiasco that was! 

But we scored a good deal! 

I went around with her yesterday looking at grills. We went to our close WalMart first. I thought they'd be marking them down by now to clear them out for other seasonal items. 

But not many places are doing that yet. 

So we looked, took pics of the grills & price tags. 

Went to WalMart, Home Depot & Lowes. 

WalMart came closest to what we were looking for pricewise & what type we wanted.

But we were in another town (towns here are all clustered together anyhow), so went to the Walmart there. They had grills on sale! Cool. One that was already assembled had a little paint chipped area that showed just a little bit of rust. So we talked to the manager of the lawn & garden department. She gave us a 10% discount. Cool! 

The grill was on sale for $158, regular price was $198. The first WM had theirs still at $198. Then we went inside to get a cover & noticed how many boxes they still had of the grill on sale. BUT, the boxes were marked $147. Hmmmm....Texas law has it that items must be sold at the price they are marked & well, they were marked at $147 from a previous sale that they didn't change back! So, they sold us the grill for $147, then the 10% discount. So that covered the price of the cover, so it was like getting the cover for free. Cool Beans! 

Last night, their friend, Aaron cooked pork ribs. 

Tonight, I cooked chicken shish ka bobs. 

Tomorrow night, no cooking -- I get a break! Even better! We have leftovers anyhow. 

Hope all is well with everyone! 

~As always, be kind to your pets, clean up after them on your travels & respect your neighbor~

How can an ice cube save you from getting sick?

Yes, that's my title & I'm sticking to it! ;-)

So now you are wondering what in the heck am I squawking about?

Well ice cubes & your RV fridge or even home fridge for that matter!

How would you know if your freezer defrosted, then refroze your food again?

Well, an ice cube can tell you that. 

Simply put an ice cube in a container that would show the effects of it if it were to melt. 

If the container has a puddle or a sheet of melted & refrozen water instead of an ice cube, then your food is probably no longer safe to eat. 

This sure can save you from any food poisoning! 

I'd like to take credit for thinking of this on my own....but I saw it on the internet. 

So it MUST be true!!

Hope all is well with everyone. 

Not much has been happening in my life. 

But I got a new toy that I'll blog about soon. 

Not a new RV or expensive toy, just one that makes my life just a little bit easier! 

~As always, be kind to your pets, clean up after them on your travels & respect your neighbor~

I got a new puppy!

Today, while I was out, I spotted this cute little puppy.

He looked at me.

I looked at him.

He was very cute!

Then I decided he could be very useful.

He looked thirsty.

I thought I could use a thirsty puppy.

So, I bought him.

The girl at the store carefully wrapped him up in a bag, using it carefully as a blanket around him.

I gently placed him in my van and brought him home..

He was indeed thirsty, so I gave him some water from my portable air conditioner.

That made him very happy and he said he wants to live beside my air conditioners over flow container.

So his wish was my command.

He now resides there to drink the excess water from the hose when I dump my overflow container on the outdoor plants.

I think he makes a nice addition to my kennel!

Ho Hum

Hi everyone, hope all is well with ya'll!

Life has been rather ho-hum lately.

I've been doing a lot of dog sitting lately, well, not only dogs, but a cat, 2 Peacocks & 1 Macaw.

Then there's my guys too. I too have dogs & cats.

I've become a kennel manager in some way. Hmmmm

So I've not been hanging out on blogger like I'd like to lately. But I have finally added my cheap, er, inexpensive camera that does videos to my netbook. The netbook has windows8 & won't take my real camera now :-(  There are no drivers for it so I guess at this point, I have to consider my old camera obsolete, which sucks. The memory card in it is sooo big that it doesn't even fit today's new card readers. Bummer.

So I will have to check out cameras out there & make a decision on acquiring a new one.

In the meantime, I've started working on videos again since I have footage that was just sitting there.

Last weekend, we did go to Brazos Bend State Park. I had no idea that it really wasn't that far away from me! It's  a really neat park, but it does have gators! My friends' grandchildren were here, so we took them there. They wanted to see gators, but none were out. So we did some walking & went to the observatory. Saw the moon all close up & personal. Saw Saturn, Venus & the stars of the Big Dipper. That was cool. Especially seeing the rings around Saturn & Venus.

I plan on going back to that park to do some camping when the weather cools down a bit. It's so darn hot. It's just too hot to go camping anywhere, which would really help with my boredom if I could. But me & the dogs would only sit inside of the RV trying to keep cool in the a/c if we tried camping right now.

Here is a link to Brazos Bend State Park:  http://wildtexas.com/texas-parks/brazos-bend-state-park
I plan on buying a park pass for Texas State parks once I do finally get out to do some camping. I also live within an hour of Stephen F Austin State Park too.

I'm still in therapy. That should finish up in the first week of September. I'm not anywhere near where I'd like to be physically. I did pay for the walking we did at Brazos Bend. We didn't do that much, but what we did do was still too much for me. But then, there was also a lot of standing around too. Especially in the lines at the observatory to see through the huge telescopes. But it was cool! Especially with the young boys, which are my friends grandsons. Their excitement of seeing these planets really enhanced our moods for sure.

But since I'm not healing as well this time around, they might put me in another program for more therapy. We'll see. I do need it, but I'm so tired of all this.....

The main chiropractor there told me that it's harder the 2nd time around on the same type of surgeries on the same body part. It just takes a lot longer to heal. I have to agree with that.

Again, I hope all is well with everyone. I'm going to once again, try to catch up on my blog reading. I finally have some quiet time for about 2 hours.

~As always, be kind to your pets, clean up after them on your travels & respect your neighbor~

Cool Lamp & Hi

Hi everyone, sorry, I seemed to have gone AWOL again!

Not much happening that's exciting right now.

Started therapy, so am glad of that. Will be even happier once it's all done!

But this time around, it's killing my knees.

I guess I'm just plain 'ol  outta shape!

I get 12 sessions, I've already done 4. So that's good. I hope this will be the end of this 3 year ordeal.

I'll just accept the outcome of how I heal & deal with it.

I can still walk, so that's good. Met one of the patients who totally dislocated her entire foot in a bad fall! Man, that's gotta be really bad. She's full of screws & plates & such. She's lucky that she still has her foot. And she can walk. She'll always have a limp, but she's grateful that she got to keep her foot.

It can always be worse.

We went to a resale shop a few days ago. A friend & me.

I spotted this cool lamp sitting outside. She was taking her daughters old clothes there to donate.

The lamp caught my eye & my subconscious.

Then my real conscious spoke to me when we went inside of the store to shop & look around.

It said "hey stupid, go back outside & take another look at that lamp". So I obeyed.

I could not believe I almost passed it up!

I asked for a price, it had just came in & wasn't tagged. They generally don't sell stuff till it's been processed & tagged.  I got lucky & they sold it to me for $20! But I had to walk inside to pay, then walk back outside with the receipt. My friend was "supposed" to be keeping an eye on it! I saw a man walking away with it & I yelled,"I just bought that!"  Of course, he was taking it inside to get a price on it & they told him I bought it, so he handed it over to me. He wanted it too!

My friend was sitting in her van, a/c running, on the cell phone, not watching. Humpf! Of course, I had to razz her over that one! ;-)

I don't really know lamps, but this one really "spoke" to me. It's a brass lamp on a black marble base. I think it's vintage, but I could not find anything like it on the internet.

If anyone knows anything about it, I'd like to know please.

I like it & think it's cool looking. Of course, not for the RV, I'll just put it in storage with some of my other things.

 

My internet has been sooo spotty lately. I've fallen way behind on blogger. I hope to get caught up. I'll read a few posts tonight till I lose my connection.

~As always, be kind to your pets, clean up after them on your travels & respect your neighbor~