Kay and I have been RVing pretty much since we got together—25 years. Now that the RV is gone, and there is not one in the future, what will we do next? First and foremost, we’ll stay home in Hot Springs Village more, enjoying our house and lakefront lot. We will continue to play golf and pickleball. And Kay will likely fill up her social calendar while I’ll ramp up photography experiences. If my back will tolerate it, I would like to do some yard work and gardening, particularly for pollinators. And time will be made for even a bit of woodworking now that the absence of a third car frees up a portion of the garage. Maybe, even car/tent camp. And, we will continue to travel—just not for extended times, likely three weeks or less at a time.We still have several places to go on our life list: Switzerland, Ireland, New Zealand, more of the Pacific Northwest, northern Arizona and southern Utah, and maybe even Africa. Whereas financial aspects used to be the limiting factor, now it is health and wellness, or lack thereof, so we’ll see.

Now, for this reporting period. Because of lots of rain, conditions in the Village have been wet so no pickleball and no golf.  We’ve both done a bit of cooking and baking, and I have made a couple of things in the “shop”.  Our shoes—golf shoes, outdoor shoes, gardening shoes, swimming shoes, etc.— were seemingly everywhere in the garage. So, a shoe bench seemed like a good idea. And, we had a  cushion left over from “our” first house (actually Kay’s house). Made with a “trout and fly fishing” fabric that I wanted to use. Consequently, that set the dimensions of length, width, and height. Cheap lumber was used, i.e. #2 pine; it was of very poor quality, but “good enough”. So, after a bunch of sawdust, measurement errors, and wrong screws, the bench was finished. It’s not something to be proud of, but is serves it’s purpose quite well pattern.

And then, a coat and cap rack was necessary to hold all the umbrellas, rain jackets, work coats, and caps and hats. If it’s length were the same as the bench’s, the two would look quite matched. A couple of rare pieces of clear 1 x 4 x 8 pine had been purchased previously from Lowe’s and one was used for the coat and cap rack. It was a simple design and build: cut to length, edges routed with a decorative pattern, sanded, a finish applied, and the coat and cap hooks installed.

I did manage to snap a few photos of birds the last couple of weeks, though they are the same species that have been hanging around all winter.