Still quarantined from church via doctor’s orders, Sundays are much like other days. I have been neglect in watching services online, and need to catch up! God still exhibited His wonders as sunshine and warm temperatures brought a few creatures out to pose for photographs.

Kay asked that a photo be made of her blooming hibiscus, and I accommodated her Monday morning. The shrubs are now four or five years old, and we have kept them alive despite dry weather, winter, and now the deer. They are kept in the crawl space under the house during the winter, and somehow manage to survive and green out again each spring.

I played golf Monday afternoon, and scored pretty well for a duffer. Kay attended a pickleball lesson Monday evening.

Tuesday morning, the motorhome was readied for the trip back to home at Hot Springs Village. There was surprisingly little traffic, making the trip a pleasant drive through the Arkansas countryside. After arriving at the storage facility, the motorhome was unpacked, and we made our way home, to continue our abnormal normal life.

Wednesday was a special day for Kay as she celebrated her ??th birthday.  It was a relatively quiet day as Covid-19 has upended any sense of a normal celebration. The pandemic has heightened our awareness of debilitating viruses; consequently, we made sure to get flu and pneumonia injections. Kay received both injections, while I got only the pneumonia shot having received the flu shot last week. To formally celebrate Kay’s birthday, we dined at Diamanté Country Club, only the third time we’ve eaten out since mid-March.

We were back to our routine on Thursday, as Kay had lunch with the “Old Girls”, a group of women with whom she taught many years ago, and I played golf, though not so well!

The season for hummingbirds in our area is quickly drawing to a close. The adult males and females have left, leaving only juvenile males to make their journey south. We’ve been blessed to have a half dozen hanging around the feeders, each guarding and defending his small territory. With a couple of branches off dead trees as props, they provided the perfect opportunity to make photographs. Meanwhile, Kay played golf with her Friday group, comprised this day of 7 foursomes. 

Despite feeling uneasy about it, Kay and I traveled to Maumelle to watch Ridge play soccer. Interestingly, a large signed at the entrance to the field warned of Covid-19, and strongly urged people over 65 to not attend. We met Karyn and Aker, and while masked, did our best to socially distance. Ridge’s team was a bit undersized and outmanned, but he played well.

After breakfast, we drove to Mountain Home for a rare shopping trip (at least for me) as there were some items I needed/wanted from Home Depot and Harbor Freight. After a quick trip into these stores, we drove through Mountain Home for a look at any changes that have occurred since we left the area 5 years ago; there weren’t many, except for several bank closures. The we left in 2014, there were 26 banks in Mountain Home; at least 5 of those have closed. Loretta brought pizza and salad for an early dinner, and our visit continued. We sure do miss our connection with them, and I particularly miss having coffee with Wayne every mornin and fly fishing many, many days—such a dear friend! Those were the days…

We awoke to 47° this cool Sunday morning—wonderful! It was a great morning to stay in bed and catch up on news and social media. As Kay says, we “lolly gagged” most of the morning away. 

We had a simple brunch of eggs, country fried potatoes, bacon, and toast. Wayne Bodenhamer visited and we continued to “catch up” on all the happenings in and around Norfork, and talked a little about solar energy. Loretta soon joined and it was almost like ol’ times.

Excusing ourselves shortly before 3 PM, we vacated the 30 amp site for a 50 amp site with water. Since we were only connected to electricity, packing up and moving proved to be fairly easy. After settling in, Richard “Dick” and Carolyn Todd visited. The Todds were very close friends during our 10 years living in the area, and we did much together. We had not seen them since leaving. Again, it was great getting current on mutual friends and happenings. We are so blessed to have had such close friends and neighbors. 

Five years ago we were in Hot Springs Village looking for a new place to live, having received and accepted an offer on our house in Norfork, Arkansas. The Norfork house was my/our dream house in the woods, Dunnhill.  I spent almost two years designing it before deploying to Iraq in 2003.  And then, upon return, a fabulous builder constructed it over a 10-month period.  We moved in on May 13, 2004, on a rainy day.  With almost 5,000 square feet under roof, ceilings as high as 19 1/2 feet, and located in the woods, we loved living in it. But, life happens… Please allow me to get a bit melancoly as I look at the following photos.

So, today, September 19, we returned to Norfork for only the second time since leaving. The RV site awaiting us a US Army Corps of Engineers Quarry Park campground was soon filled with the motorhome and toad. With only 30 amps of electricity available, the front air conditioner was turned on despite the cool weather. One of my dearest friends and former neighbor, Wayne Bodenhamer, was notified and he immediately drove the few miles to visit. We had last seen him and Loretta in December 2018 in Mission, Texas, where we both wintered. Though we talk on the phone often, it was so good to see him. We talked solar energy and configurations, and he did testing on various solar components I recently purchased. With his advice and counsel, I plan to build a 200-watt solar suitcase system. Before he departed, Kay loaded him down with chicken tetrazzini, and several desserts.

With smoldering campfires all around us, the motorhome was kept closed. We ate leftover chicken tetrazzini and a green salad for dinner, and streamed British TV show before turning in for the evening.

“Life” has finally caught up with us. Most of our retirement days are like a vacation, but occasionally time has to be allotted for appointments, meetings, and household chores. We do pretty good at scheduling these things to allow for summer and winter travel, but in doing so, the “life” items tend to accumulate, particularly since we are away most of the winter and several weeks in the summer—our time has come! This week we were busy with church activities, club meetings, personal care appointments, medical appointments, and hosting friends for dinner; little time was available for golf and pickleball, though we each got in a few matches.

The shortening days accompanying changing seasons mean fewer butterflies, dragonflies, and wildflowers, and birds have not yet begun migrating. These are things I like photographing, so only a few photos have been made this week. The Ruby-throated Hummingbirds are still here for another couple of weeks, and are swarming the feeders. A few photos of a dominating juvenile were made.

Over the course of the week, the bed platform from the RV has been rebuilt. As a consequence, the absence of a small air compressor and hose were noticed; someone apparently came into the garage while a door was open (I often leave one open while working in the back), and took it. Also, a set of miniature drivers was missing—lesson learned! The thin plywood skin was removed and glued and stapled to the frame—using a new air compressor and air staple gun. And then, a 1” x 2” board was screwed and glued to provide extra lateral support; my engineering education and practice is paying off, though structural engineering was not a strong suit. Kay and I reassembled the bed in the motorhome, and hope this is a final fix.

Kay has been cooking “sweets” to put in the freezer, and I have begun a new project: a 200-watt “brief case” solar system. Various parts, pieces, and electronics have been ordered (thanks, Amazon), and are being delivered almost daily. This means straightening up the shop side of the garage, an overwhelming task made easier by having moved the bed platform back to the RV.

A cold front is making its way into Arkansas, and will provide relief from the overbearing humidity the last few days. Maybe it’s time to go glamping and visit old friends!

This morning’s caterpillar count was down a bit from yesterday, 23 caterpillars were observed.  

As Arkansas’ highest point, Magazine Mountain and the surrounding area offers cooler weather and lots of blooms and butterflies. With that in mind, Dan Olson and I traveled the almost two hours to find cool air and fog surrounding the mountain, even though it was just past 12 noon. Approaching the State Park, a photographer was observed on the side of the road photographing a wildflower. We stopped and as coincidence would have it, he was from Hot Springs Village as well, and a major contributor to finding rare and unusual wildflowers in Arkansas. We chatted with him about thirty minutes, taking a few photos along the roadside. There were a number of wildflower blooms in the state park, and conditions were good for photographing them, though I’m not a very good flower photographer.

Butterfly ”season” is winding down as fall approaches. We are seeing fewer species and numbers. By the time we made it to near the top of the mountain, fog was rapidly lifting revealing overcast skies. The Visitors Center had few blooms, so we did not stop there. We drove to near Brown’s Spring Picnic Area and walked the gravel road for about a mile towards Mount Magazine Cascades, then looping back along the north ridge edge to the Picnic Area. Several species were observed, but not all remained still enough to photograph, including Carolina Satyr, Clouded Skipper, Common Wood-nymph, Crossline Skipper, Eastern Tailed Blue, Gemmed Satyr, Little Yellow, Northern Pearlyeye, Red-banded Hairstreak, Red-spotted Purple, Black Swallowtail, Pearl Crescent, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Zebra Swallowtail, American Lady, Common Buckeye, Red-spotted Purple, Red-banded Hairstreak, etc. Even a Thread-waisted Wasp made an appearance.

I vowed to repair commodes before going out today. Two out of three commodes in the house are malfunctioning: the handles on both are not engaging the flush valve. Numerous half-assed attempts to repair these have failed. This morning I was determined to repair them, even if it mean rebuilding them. Beginning in the guest bathroom, I partly disassembled the commode, removing the broken handle, unscrewing the tank float, and tearing the flush valve apart. The only apparent problem was the handle. With an extra handle mechanism on hand, I rebuilt the handle/valve combination and reinstalled the float. So far, it works well. Next, I tackled the powder room commode; the handle will operate but has a lot of give and is hard to push down. In several past attempts at repairing it, I “jury-rigged” the handle mechanism and the flush valve. So, as a beginning, I removed this, and reinstalled the handle the way it was designed to be used. It seemed to work okay!

Kay and I have been monitoring Monarch Butterly caterpillars in one of the back “yard” beds. Wednesday’s (September 9) Monarch Caterpillar count was 23. And then Thursday morning (September 10), we counted at least 33,, our highest total yet. One was even on a small solitary plant about 4 inches tall that grew voluntarily. They have really eaten the Butterfly Weed leaves, with some plants totally bare. As yet, we have not seen any chrysalis.

After the caterpillar count, Kay was joined by Pam and Sue for a trip to Little Rock to meet with a financial advisor. He was taken aback that three ladies were going to participate in the discussion, but they prevailed, nevertheless. Meanwhile, I went to the motorhome storage, turned on the generator and then the air conditioner, and extended the passenger rear slide. Forgetting a fresh-brewed cup of coffee left the house, I made a cup in the motorhome. I then proceeded to strip bed clothing off the bed and move the mattress to what little space was available, The bed platform was then torn apart;’ it has been sagging for years, and the storage boxes we use to keep it flat are taking up unnecessary space. Of course, there were lots of screws. For hinges, lifts, etc. When some of the platform grid was exposed, it revealed a number of staples having missed their mark during assembly; pretty shoddy workmanship, and I really expected better from Winnebago. I loaded the platform into the SUV, drove home, and unloaded it in the messy garage. By then it was too hot to work on it—maybe another day! Hopefully, the photos will help in remembering how it goes back together.

Heat and humidity has returned—or never left—Hot Springs Village. It’s very uncomfortable to participate in outdoor activities, particularly ones that involve a lot of exertion. As fate would have it, I played pickleball Wednesday night and golf Thursday afternoon, coming home soaking wet both times. In fact it seemed to me that Wednesday afternoon golf was played in the most uncomfortable weather this year, resulting in a heat headache and soggy golf paraphernalia (gloves, etc.).

NOTE: While finishing this on Friday morning, I was one day behind on dates. This COVID-19 pandemic has totally screwed up my world.

We look forward to our morning Monarch caterpillar count. I thought the number was down a bit from yesterday, but Kay’s keen eyes found about a dozen more, with the total counted over 20+.  She only had a HSV Lady Duffers Golf board meeting today, and spent the rest of the day reading. The Lady Duffers Golf League’s main focus is making new friends while enjoying a fun-filled game of golf. Their game usually consists of 9 holes played on Wednesday mornings at Coronado Golf Course, HSV’s executive course.

Based on information from and a recent find of Dan And Samantha Scheiman, Dan Olson and I traveled to Alum Fork Natural Area in an attempt to find the elusive and somewhat rare to central Arkansas Ocola Skipper butterfly. Alum Fork NA is only a few miles from Hot Springs Village as the crow flies, but about 40 minutes by highway and gravel road. We arrived about 11:30 AM, parked and ate chicken salad sandwiches made by Kay. Trees had been felled across the old logging road to prevent vehicle access, but allowed walking with some bending and other bodily contortions. We carefully looked at thistle and other blooms for nectaring butterflies.

Carolina Satyrs were seemings everywhere.

Several active blooms then drew our attention.

And then, a number of Northern Broken-Dash Skippers were observed.

A wasp apparently tangled with something it could not handle; the Robber Fly won and enjoyed a hearty lunch.

On the way from home to Alum Fork NA, we talked about the absence of Fiery Skippers at our usual “haunts” around Hot Springs Village. We found them to be plentiful at Alum Fork NA.

And then we hit the motherlode. The long forewings, the rear 1/4 darkening of the outer wings, and the light colored veins were indicators that we found the Ocola Skipper. Dan and I took lots of photos, from almost every conceivable angle.

Making our way back to the car, Red-banded hairstreaks, Eastern Tailed-Blue, a nectaring Red-spotted Purple, and an Orange Sulphur were observed.

Back at home a refreshing gin and tonic was followed by restful evening.

In what has now become a routine after watering plants in the back, we checked the Butterfly Weeds for Monarch caterpillars. Several large (5+ cm) cats were observed, and there was a plethora of small (1-2 cm) ones beginning to nibble on the leaves. This is a real thrill for us!

Though it was early this morning when a butterfly check was made, only one Dun Skipper was observed.

Kay, Pam, and Martha enjoyed the new Hot Springs Village outdoor swimming pool this afternoon, and I played golf with the Monday group, doing well the front nine but collapsing on the back nine!