Galveston, TX Dellenara RV Park (September 21, 2015)

We've been here in Galveston, TX, at Dellenara RV Park since September 21 and have had a great time.  We really haven't done anything important, no sight seeing etc.  We're just here to relax and do what we please.  We've stayed at Dellenara RV Park before, but in a pull thru site in the center of the park.  This year Mr. C reserved a site that backs right up to the sand dunes between the park and the beach.  Yes, we're backed right up to the Gulf of Mexico.  It's fabulous.






















We're backed right up onto the sand dunes just a stone's throw from the Gulf of Mexico.  It is beautiful here.



















We had full hook ups, picnic table, grill.  The fence helped some with the blowing sand, although we had no trouble with it.  There were only a couple less than perfect days.











We did have one discouraging thing happen, we went out one morning and our truck wouldn't start.  Fortunately we have Good Sam's Extended Warranty as well as Good Sam's towing etc.  Good Sam sent a great tow driver who took the truck to the local Ford Dealer.  In the meantime, we called Enterprise Car Rental who came to the campground and got us and took us to rent a car (which was also paid for by Good Sam).  We had to have one of the alternators replaced, but these things happen when you are driving miles and miles pulling heavy trailers.  It was fixed within a couple days and our trip went on as planned.



























































Snuffles and Bandit enjoyed their time at the beach, although neither of them particularly wanted to get in the water.

We really didn't expect to get to swim this year because it's so late in the season, but it turned out that the air temps our first week were in the high 80s and the water temps were around 84.  WOW, my kind of weather.  So we got to swim several times.  I forgot to bring our water camera so we had to get one with real film which we don't get until Wednesday so I'll add the pictures to this after Wednesday.





The water was so wonderfully warm, as well as the weather.  The water was also pretty calm, just lots of soft easy swells.

I almost forgot, although I have no pictures of it, we had some excitement.  While bobbing on the waves we were watching birds flying overhead.  I noticed and pointed out to Mr. C 2 very large black birds with what appeared to be white heads.  My first thought was "Bald Eagles HERE?"  As we watched them circling above us, trying to figure out what they were, we noticed they definitely had white heads faces and necks.




They had long black wings shaped like most other sea birds (an exaggerated V bend and pointed).  We don't to this day know what they were, but I said, I sure hope they don't decide to "bomb us" down here and just then, we saw dropping from the sky. . . YEP, they bombed us and missed us by about 5 feet, LOLOL.  I didn't think I'd ever stop laughing.  They took several passes over us before they decided to fly on.  The closest thing I could find in the bird books was an albatross, but they supposedly don't come this far up into the Gulf.  Anyway, it was a great memory.

The next day was cooler and we weren't planning to go in the water, but noticed our neighbor as well as others were in the water, about the same place we were in these pictures.  As I was watching her and wondering if we should go swimming I saw some dolphins just a yard or so beyond her.  I quickly decided to go swimming again, but of course no dolphins to be found.

We saw dolphins swimming right in front of our RV 3 different times (once further out following a shrimp boat) and twice fairly close in, but I couldn't get any pictures.




We saw some beautiful birds, this "hawk" on the ground, as well as this ?White heron? and my favorite "Spoonbill" in the ponds around the park.














































We also saw some fabulous sunsets.  I can't wait to go back.











While we were driving up and down the beach road, we noticed some odd things along the beach and in the water.

We discovered that due to past hurricanes and storms much of the beach has been washed out into the gulf.  The town of Galveston found a good solution.  The shipping lanes have to be kept clear for the ships to pass from the harbor to the Gulf of Mexico.  So they have ships that dredge the sand from these channels.  Usually they just suck it up and discharge it at sea.  But, someone thought, why don't we have the dredged sand placed here on the beach and build the beach back up again.  Since the dredging was being done anyway, an agreement was made that Galveston only had to pay for the discharge of the sand on the beaches.  They have been working on this for the past year.  They use HUGE pipes that carry the dredged sand up to the beach and then using all kinds of equipment spread it out and move the pipes to where they need more sand.  It was quite an undertaking and quite interesting to us land locked Illinoisans.

 On one of our last days in Galveston, just as we pulled out of the Campground, we saw this pretty sight right next to the road.

We were able to pull safely to the side of the road and Mr. C got out of the truck to take these lovely pictures for me.  We were probably only about 10 feet from these birds.  It was wonderful.







I'll close with these pictures, but tomorrow, will show that just because I'm on vacation does not mean I'm not working.  I get my best work done during vacations.  Until later, Smiles, Sue C

Long time NO posts. . . (Catching up from Fall 2015)

I know, shame on me, I haven't made a blog post in so long, I think my last one was in October of last year (October 5, 2015 to be exact, LOL.  Oh my, I just read it and realized I never posted any posts from last year's adventures).  I'm not sure why it takes going on a trip to get me to write a blog post, unless it's just because nothing happens during the normal day to day, work week, stay at home life.  This year has been pretty crazy, and unfortunately I've spent a lot of it depressed and not doing much other than reading (my personal escape hatch).

Let's see, briefly, the high lights of this past year:

We did take the Fall Escape from IL allergies trip and it was successful beyond our highest expectations.  (I explained in a previous blog post that I am horribly allergic to IL and especially during harvest.  It wasn't TOO bad until "our farmer" added 3 HUGE Grain bins and a larger dryer(s?) etc, right next to our home, that I really started having trouble, including asthma so bad it got classified as COPD, inhalers, nebulizer treatments, coughing and choking, and losing my voice for up to 6 months that we decided to try a regimen of leaving IL during harvest, the only problem being that poor Mr. C can only be gone from his work for 30 days at a time, due to security issues, but we found a way around that).

September 2 to September 8 we made a short trip to Branson, which was fantastic.  We stayed at America's Best Campground as usual.  I would request a different campsite next year as we were directly under some high power electrical lines and that makes me personally uncomfortable.  But, that aside, while we were there we saw our usual favorite:  Keith Allyn with a Neil Diamond Tribute concert.

 Then his wife, Diana Lynn performed with Ron Preston as the Carpenters.  We've only seen Diana Lynn perform in the past via video feed, as she has been very ill for several years and unable to perform.  This year she not only sang with Keith Allynn (their duet has been sung as Keith Allynn singing with Diana Lynn on video feed for the past couple years).  It was a real treat to see and hear them perform together.





We were fortunate enough to be able to catch a performance by Collin Raye, which was also a fantastic performance.











Following Collin Raye we were entertained by Billy Dean and Steel Horses, as well as the commedian Garrett.  Billy Dean is the consumate performer.  He so obviously enjoys what he does and it shows through every minute of his shows (this is the second time we've seen them).

We truly enjoy ourselves at Branson, every time we go there.  There have only been a couple shows we haven't thoroughly enjoyed, and surprisingly, they were "big name" musicians who were too "full of themselves".

While driving around one evening, we were "fortunate enough" to see this beauty (anyone who knows us knows we enjoy seeing and photographing critters of all kinds).  Yes, it's a Copperhead, aren't they pretty at least their pattern is pretty, I know a lot of people hate snakes, LOL.

Then we stayed home for a week or so and on September 19 left for the "Get out of IL during harvest" trip.  We had a great growing season last year and the harvesting started about a week before we left, we'll have to work on that in the future.

Just before leaving I found an exciting critter out in our apple trees.  This is the caterpillar of the Polyphemus moth and we had never seen one before.  With great excitement I placed a mesh bag around his several apple branches in hopes of seeing his hatching the following spring.

Although this is out of order, here is the lovely moth he turned into, in the spring.














We started off with a night at Tom Sawyer Campground in West Memphis, Arkansas.  We loved the campground, being right on the Mississippi River, but didn't much care for the West Memphis area as far as meals, shopping etc.










We ran into a slight snag as we traveled south.  We had tried having a hitch attached to the back of the RV to carry our bike/terra trike; however, the hitch did not make it even through the first day's travel and when we arrived at the campground we saw it hanging nearly to the ground.  We are lucky it didn't fall completely off.

Our campsite at Tom Sawyer's Campground was fantastic, we were right on the Mississippi River, and although it was not horribly busy, it was still interesting to see the river traffic and even just the river was fascinating to watch.  

 After a peaceful evening, night, and morning, we made our way to Shreveport where we had dinner with Becky and family before heading on to Galveston, TX, which will be our "home" for the next 18 days.

Trying to catch up with few posts and just the most important photos until I catch up to the present.

Smiles, Sue C

Oh MY, it's been a LONG time!!!

It's been a long time since I wrote a blog post, and a lot has happened.  Most of it was not blog worthy, though.  Let's see, a quick update (I now realize I will have to make a bunch of blog posts to catch family up on everything, but will just do the update on this one):  December 2014 was my last blog post.  Since then, I've had a  bad fall (I tangled with a puppy gate in the dark and the puppy gate won) and dislocated and chipped a notch out of my shoulder socket.  That kept me sidelined from a lot of stuff for a couple months.  I was unable to do polymer clay work at all and nothing else really interested me.  Then last summer on vacation, I was unable a step at a swimming pool on vacation and caused some major Achilles Tendon problems and couldn't walk well.
 
Finally, April 2015, I had surgery on my Achilles Tendon.  They disconnected the tendon at the heel, removed a heel spur and Haglund's deformity (a bump on my heel bone) and then stripped all the scar tissue off the tendon and reattached the tendon with anchors drilled into the "new" heel bone.  It was very painful, not something I'd wish on anybody.  I still have a lot of trouble and pain with it.  Anyway, after about 5 months I can walk, slowly and not very far, but without a cart or anything.  Unfortunately, the past year plus the limping and gimping about have really thrown my sciatica and lower back problems into a tizzy.  So for over a year now I have been unable to do much of anything.  I was hurting all the time and felt extremely useless and worthless and became very depressed.  At first, I lost interest in almost anything except for reading.

First item I crocheted, no pattern, just a picture I liked and wanted to make.

Then last summer (before I hurt my ankle/heel), due to health problems of our Daughter of the heart, we took Nick and Marti's girls with us on our summer trip to see Mr. C's Dad and step Mom in Albuquerque.  Both girls had started to learn to crochet (which is one craft I didn't do at all) and wanted to learn more on our trip.  So thanks to my generous sister, who provided the initial information and materials and tools, I learned to crochet.  I've tried in the past and could never seem to "get it", but this time around, I not only "got it" but really got INTO it.  Fortunately, it was also something I could do while I was laid up with my achilles tendon problems and surgery and recovery. I'll probably write a separate blog post about my crocheting adventures.

In the meantime, I slowly healed but couldn't get my polymer clay muse back again.  We did get a new car, a Ford Flex when we finally couldn't manage without air conditioning in the Subaru.   The "new car smell" (whether natural or something added by the dealer, which we suspect, triggered a major allergy/asthma attack and started my "fall allergy" issues early.
 I got  (autumn) extremely sick again during harvest time, with my usual allergy/asthma/copd/lost voice issues and then followed that by Influenza Type A and between the two I felt like I was going to die and didn't really care if I did.  Slowly, VERY slowly I recovered from all that by the end of February. . .



Mr. C was making arrangements for our 2015 vacations.  This year we decided to try getting me out of Illinois during Autumn harvest season and see if I could avoid the allergy/asthma/copd/lost voice extreme coughing etc. problems.  During my "laid up time" I kind of lost interest in the reef aquarium and it was outgrowing its space.  Due to the long trip we were planning we decided to get rid of the reef tank and sold them to a guy from Rantoul and found we didn't miss it at all.  It was a lot of work.

So we used a short 4 day weekend for a trip to Nashville to see Alan Jackson and Jeff Foxworthy.  We stayed at a "resort" on a lake that we'd never stay at again.  The sites were so narrow and extremely hard to back into, as well as having curbs on each side of the drive, making it next to impossible to get backed into.  After about a half hour of trying it ourselves, some very nice neighbors (one was a trucker) came down to help us.  Even the trucker had trouble getting it into the site.  We tore off one of our back mud flaps on one of the curbs as well as part of our rear fender on the truck.  We were not happy and Mr. C said if he ever mentions Nashville again to remind him it is just a place to drive through.

Then in April I had the achilles tendon surgery and was totally laid up (no weight bearing at all for a couple months).  I sat a LOT and crocheted a LOL.  I was unable to do anything else and couldn't even get out of my house for a couple months (there are stairs at both the front and back door and stairs are a real bug a boo for someone with no weight bearing and due to the notch out of my shoulder socket I couldn't use crutches. . . ).  

We used a 4 day weekend for a trip to Wisconsin to see Nick and family.  Nick and family came down to see us a couple weekends during the spring and summer.  We thought Becky and Family would be home in July, and planned to keep the kids for about 10 days, but that fell through.  We spent 5 days in Branson enjoying our favorite show, Keith Allynn as the Diamond Image (a Neil Diamond tribute show) and Keith Allynn's wife Diana Lynn in a tribute show to the Carpenters.  We also saw Raye Collins and Billy Dean.

I was still pretty down although we enjoyed all those things.  I'm so frustrated with not being able to hike, not being able to walk around to see the sights.  I keep telling myself I should be grateful, it could be worse, I could be forever unable to walk.  I know eventually it will get better (at least I hope. . . )  Mr. C, trying to lift my spirits planned our fall trip to include the ocean (well, the Gulf of Mexico).  We would go to Dellanera RV Park in Galveston for 3 weeks and then return to IL for his training week (he can't miss training and can't be gone more than 30 days at a time due to security clearance).  So one week back in IL (during harvest which kind of negates the "test" to see if being out of IL during harvest will solve my respiratory problems).  Then go to Albuquerque to see Dad and Janet, then to Shreveport, Louisiana to see Becky and family, finishing off with 2 weeks at Gulf Shores, AL.  One of Mr. C's co-workers said, since you're going to be southwest and return southwest, why not just leave your trailer parked somewhere and just bring the truck back for your training week.  It would save wear and tear and fuel costs.  We thought about that, but couldn't figure out where to leave it.  Then thought, if we could figure out where to leave it, why not leave me with it to keep me out of IL. BUT, we didn't want me stranded someplace unfamiliar. . . then we thought, we're going to see Becky and family in Shreveport, why not just leave me at the Shreveport KOA.  Becky and family and I would enjoy the time together and I wouldn't be totally stranded.  So that's what we're doing and brings us up to date.

That's enough for now, but I have to post today's quick post, so I'll do it next.  Smiles

New Reef Tank part II

Apparently I never published this:  an update for this post is that a year later, the tank is alive and doing well, actually both tanks are alive and well and about to outgrow their spaces and I'm just kind of letting them do their own thing. . . I'll post new pictures in a future post.  Smiles

The last post left you with the final "rock structure" for the natural biological filter rock in my new Reef Tank.  There are shelves and shady overhangs as well as lots of holes to plug frags into.  I forgot to tell you two things though.  Those little pickle creatures on the previous post are "good guys" they are little cucumbers who help sift and clean in the sand and rockwork.

 The Brittle starfish also survived.  Although this experience with the starfish suddenly reminded me that since I didn't have any fish I wasn't feeding anything so there was nothing in the tank for the starfish to scavenge/clean up/feed on.  So I figured out what they needed and the brittle will actually come out and take the little shrimp piece from the tweezers.  The serpent star isn't brave enough to do that.  We've also been finding what are either mini/micro starfish or baby starfish.  The majority are supposedly mini/micro starfish and they just clean in and around the rocks and sand, but one of them is growing quite large, so I'm not sure which it is.

Just to the left of center is the large skeleton of an old brain coral (the wiggly wavy thing leaning on the center white rock.  It is slightly covered with coralline algae).  I am planning to start a bunch of Zoanthids on it in the hopes that they will spread and cover it so it looks like a living coral again.  

After the Decatur Frag Swap, I purchased a couple items from people who were making their own frags and who lived fairly close to me.  I learned a hard lesson, don't agree to buy things sight unseen.  I'm not mentioning names, one was a good experience and the other only one item I purchased is actually doing well.  I got several zoas, a ricordea mushroom a piece of toadstool leather coral and some star polyps.  The surviving zoas found a home on the brain coral skeleton. 

I got a rock of blue daisy polyps.  These daisy polyps weren't what the store owner or I thought they would be.  They are pretty, but they are so incredibly tiny they are almost invisible, LOL.  There is a picture of these on the video at the end.

We ordered Copepods and Amphipods for the refugiums from Reefs2go as well as some zoas and star polyps to meet their minimum requirement for free shipping.  Here are some of the things I got from Reefs2 go:  First of all it came in really cute "treasure chest" styrofoam box inside a cardboard box.  When opened, there the bags and bags of orders, each item in a separate bag.  

There were hermit crabs, 2 different kinds of snails,  green star polyps, an orange carnation tree, 2 differently colored ricordia mushrooms, and several types of zoas, some yellow star polyps and of course the pods.

I found places for everything, you can see some of them in the top picture, although I watch them for a couple days and move them as needed depending on how they act.  I don't usually permanently attach them until I am sure they are going to open and be "happy" in their location.  Every coral has its own needs as to light/shade, water flow or no water flow.  

Then the fun began.  There was another Swap, Fragtoberfest on October 5.  Was that ever fun.  Again my sister accompanied me and we enjoyed ourselves immensely.  There were about 10 coral vendors, one or two hobbyist coral vendors, and a supplies vendor, as well as fresh shredded pork sandwiches and chips etc.  They had a couple of people who gave great talks about reef tank subjects and had great raffle prizes, of which I won several, 4 gift certificates for various shops and some frozen coral food.  The items I got are in the container still on their frags.  As you can see, some are large frags others are small.  

Everything was in excellent condition and most started opening up right in this container before even making it into the tank.  There were two items that went into a quarantine tank even after being dipped because one had something I didn't know what it was on it.  It looked like a white worm or slug but was fairly long and wrapped around the polyps and there were also some comma shaped smaller pieces.  I thought it was a polyp eating slug that is a problem, but once I removed it it didn't move any further, so I'm not sure what it was but I treated as if it was a slug as advised on a forum and then placed it in a separate tank to be sure it doesn't regrow on it.  It's the white and reddish stuff on the brown tall polyps.  

We found some really pretty and interesting items at Fragtoberswap.  In addition to lots of new zoas, we got some clove polyps, a small very pale blue gorgonian, a montipora, some neon green star polyps.  I'm not sure what the red thing similar to a organ pipe is but it has the prettiest little daisy like polyps on it.  There are several new ricordia mushrooms and several lovely polka dotted discosma  mushrooms as well as a nice bright orange slightly bumpy mushroom.

 I placed more zoas on the brain coral as well as the on the upright rock framing the flower/cabbage leather coral.

Earlier this week Mr. C and I visited a local Aquarium store and I fell in love with a Tyree Neon Green Toadstool but the store wouldn't sell it as they're hoping to eventually make frags from it.  So I asked the FaceBook groups I'm on if anyone had any of these.  First I was told usually there is a vendor with some and one of the other club members (I am a member of this club, the BNARC, Bloomington Normal Area Reef Club, and they are the ones that put on Fragtoberswap).  Anyway, one of the other club members said he had one and he'd bring it for me.  The one we saw in the store had a white body and head with bright neon green polyps that were slightly fluted at the ends.  This is it, although the polyps aren't out in this picture.  You'll see it in the video below.  There was also a vendor who said his was a Tyree Neon Green Toadstool, although the head on this one was brown, so I purchased it, too and sure enough, they both have the bright green polyps but different colored stalks and heads.

Then on Sunday I went over to Reefs R Us in Paxton, IL to pick up my Christmas Tree Worm rock.  I had the Christmas Tree Worm Rock on the bottom as the worms prefer not bright light, but they grow on a piece of Porites SPS Coral which would require light.  I had another item, a purple Gorgonian of similar size and shape that didn't seem happy with the amount of light it was getting, so this morning I swapped them and surprisingly, the Christmas Tree worms ALL came out in the bright light, no problem and by this evening the Gorgonian is all the way expanded, so apparently that swap was the right thing to do.  So without further ado, here is a video of my reef tank the way it is currently set up.  There will be a few more things added here and there, but it is almost to the point of just letting it grow out.  I hope you enjoy the visual field trip of my reef tank.  Sorry a few places the zoom went too far and wouldn't focus, but I tried to not move too fast or swoop around, so hopefully no one will get sea sick.

One more really cool thing is the number of items in the tank that flouresce under the moonlight portion of my lighting system.  I love to watch them and even night dive with a flashlight to see what comes out in the dark.  I tried to catch it in this video, but for some reason the fluorescence doesn't show up well on camera.

Thanks for coming along on my visual journey as I create a miniature coral reef in my own home.  I'll update when anything changes.  Smiles
 

2015 Polymer Clay Challenge

I haven't written a blog post in a long time, but I'm joining a 2015 Polymer Clay Challenge to create something every week.  Since I'm primarily a caner, I guess my goal would be a cane a week.  This will definitely be a challenge, as some are quick to make and others might take a full week to put together and reduce.  But I'm going to try.  I'm not sure how to put the button on here, but I'll try. . .  maybe that does the job???

These are the rules:

How to Join

1. Make a decision what you will commit to making from clay during the course of 2015.
2. Write a blog post announcing your commitment to join the 2015 Polymer Clay Challenge.
3. Grab the button below & add it to your website.
4. Leave your name & website in the COMMENTS below linking your written statementof what you will commit to making with polymer clay in 2015.
5. Throughout the year, write a blog post and tell us (the polymer clay community) how you are doing.
6. Share throughout social media using #2015PCchallenge
7. Join the FaceBook Group here.

This is a free endeavor with no strings attached! Simply challenge yourself & commit to being creative in 2015.

So that's it for now. . . I guess this means a commitment to writing a blog post a week, too. . . might be good for me to do so.  

Have a wonderful Christmas and New Year or if you don't celebrate Christmas, have a wonderful Holiday Season, whatever Holiday you may celebrate.  Smiles