Sunday was my sister’s birthday, and we called to wish her a happy one—my, but she is getting old!  After church and Sunday school, we enjoyed the peace and quiet of “camping” at Quarry Park.  It rained a good portion of the day, our 2nd day in row of much needed rain.

It rained again on Monday, keeping us inside most of the day.  We had two different sets of workers scheduled to begin work today on staining and sealing the deck and landscaping, respectively, but the rain kept them both away.  We really wanted to get these projects finished this week.  Tuesday was wet as well, but we dared not complain because we really needed the precipitation.  Kay took delivery on the last piece of furniture ordered in early spring, and I was able to sneak in a few photos of a Spicebush Swallowtail Butterfly (Papilio troilus) and Common Buckeye Butterfly (Junonia coenia), the latter shown in the photo here.

It began to dry out on Wednesday, but we were still homebound.  The landscaper did come and begin the “stepping stones” and “shade garden irrigation” projects.  We’re adding large stepping stones from the upper garage parking pad to the patio and an irrigation zone to Kay’s shade garden under the large cedar tree in the back.  (A third landscaping project is to rehabilitate the retaining wall under the steps on the front deck.)  We’ve obviously spent too much time at home the last two summers since we’re still adding to and/or modifying our place.  While the guys were working, I noticed Giant Swallowtail (Papilio cresphontes) Butterfly, and photographed it using a too short lens.  Getting a good photo of this elusive butterfly is proving to be a major challenge.

The guys came to seal and stain the deck early Thursday morning, and all but finished, and the landscapers worked late, essentially completing all the projects we had hired them to do.  As an aside, I remember my dad sitting and watching his hired help and offering instructions to make sure they did the job correctly (or at least to his satisfaction.)  I committed to never doing that, but we’ve observed that regardless of how good a contractor is, they do a much better job and meet our needs if we provide “feedback” to them; we’ve done it both ways, and except for a couple of contractors (Dennis Charbonneau and Jeff Dunn), we’ve been dissatisfied when we’ve not provided a modicum of supervision.
Friday, both contractors came back to finish, and we were very satisfied with their work.  We took advantage of a couple of young helpers and ask them to load some furniture into the Expedition to take to Jenny in Memphis, saving our backs!  We completed packing for our Wisconsin and Michigan trip, washed dirty clothes, and drove into Mountain Home for lunch and Kay’s medical appointment.  It took over two hours in the doctor’s office, and almost another hour at the pharmacy to pick up meds.

Saturday was the highlight of our week.  We drove to Memphis, departing about 4:45 AM, and dropped of the furniture at Jenny’s.  And then, we spent an hour or so at Costco’s stocking up on items not easily found in Baxter County.  Jenny texted and asked us to come to her mom’s and help with HARP while they completed preparations for her 1st birthday party.  Of course, we love to spend time with our grandchildren, and gladly agreed. It’s always a bit uncomfortable being around one’s (for all concerned), but we made the best of it.

Jenny, Brian, Vickie, and Roy did a great job getting ready for the party, and Jenny spent lots of hours making and decorating a “unicorn” cake; it looked fabulous.  At 12 noon, we began HARP’s birthday celebration with other family and friends.  She did great, and was very well behaved.  The most humorous thing that occurred during the party was HARP’s eating a piece of the unicorn cake, her first ever taste of sugar.  She made suck a mess that they took her outside and hosed her clean!

We arrived back home about 6:15 PM, unloaded the Expedition, switched cars, and drove back to Quarry Park where we visited with neighbors Wayne and Loretta who had just returned from a long RV trip to Colorado.  We got the low down on their trip, shared our itinerary, and enjoyed each other’s company.  So, considering Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday were somewhat wasted days as far as our R&R, we did end up with a good week and our final project of the year at Dunnhill were completed.

Sunday was the first in a while that we did not have to say goodbye to kids and grandkids as we had no visits this week.  So, we were off to church and Sunday school.  We are really enjoying our senior pastor’s sermon series, “Making Love Last a Lifetime”, based on work by Adam Hamilton.  It is one of our favorite series of all times!  And we returned to our Sunday school class after an almost year absence, and had forgotten what an excellent teacher Dr. Paul Wilbur is, and how much discussion occurs.  The subject of study is church history, and one of the books being used is Church History in Plain Language.

This summer has been among our worst for wasps.  Consequently, we’ve had lots of wasps and nests.  In knocking one down, I was on a 6-foot ladder using an 8-foot rod.  Assuming the wasps would not fly down to my level, I knocked a huge nest down, and spiraling in formation a group of wasps flew down in my direction.  I dodged the first one, but the second got me on the top of the hand, and it immediately began to swell.  Nothing we had would relieve the pain and swelling, and the Epi-pen was out-of-date and had been trashed.  I used topical Caladryl, took Benedryl, and went to bed, sleeping a good portion of the afternoon and evening; it remained swollen for three days, then itched like crazy for a couple more.

Keeping Dunnhill in working order requires a lot of attention, and we had visits from a landscaper to add stepping stones and an additional irrigation line to Kay’s “shade” garden, and a handyman to replace some boards on the deck, power wash it, and then stain it.  The landscaper showed up, but just to review the work order (he was supposed to have done the work a month ago), and the handyman’s “helper” damaged the deck steps.  It is really difficult to get work done in our area and for the most part, the workers are expensive and unreliable.

Despite the problems encountered earlier in the week, we had several high points. We hosted my cousin and his family for a Wednesday afternoon on Norfork Lake.  What a hoot!  Daughter and son, Phoenix and William, respectively, are such good kids, and grandchild Addy is a work in progress.  Phoenix is a very bright, cute, self-assured, and precocious 12-year old young lady; she is such a joy to be around.  William has the most infectious belly laugh for an 8-year old, and he and I played together for a good portion of the afternoon; one can hardly help laughing when he laughs.  And wondering why all the Spicebush Swallowtail butterflies were around, the Chief pointed out a spice bush and we saw the beautiful blooms.

On Thursday morning, a Giant Swallowtail was sipping nectar from the butterfly bush in Kay’s east garden, and stayed still long enough to be photographed.  And as fate would have it, the camera had been accidentally turned to the wrong mode, and all the photos were grossly under exposed.  However, thanks to Lightroom 4, a few were salvaged.  There were also a plethora of Tiger Swallowtails, Pipe Vine Swallowtails, and Spice Bush Swallowtails.  evening, we had dinner with Dick and Carolyn Todd to celebrate his 70th birthday.  Dick and Carolyn have been good friends since we moved to Baxter County.  On Saturday we made the short trip to Quarry Park for a week’s worth of camping and through Kay’s perseverance, we got the best site in the campground.

We leave you with this passage from Gail Godwin’s novel The Finishing School brought to our attention in an article by Connie Schulz:

There are two kinds of people…One kind, you can tell just by looking at them at what point they congealed into their final selves.  It might be a very nice self, but you know you can expect no more surprises from it.  Whereas, the other kind keeps moving, changing.  With these people, you can never say, “X stops here,” or “now I know all there is to know about Y.”  That doesn’t mean they’re unstable.  Ah, no, far from it.  They are fluid.  They keep moving forward and making new trysts with life, and the motion of it keeps them young.  In my opinion, they are the only people who are still alive.

We saw the kids off early Sunday morning but opted to skip church and Sunday school.  Fortunately, we’ll be able to view the sermon later in the week as it will be posted to the internet.  After the kids departed, we cleaned house, washed clothes, and collapsed…but it was sure great getting to visit with them.

On Monday, Kay began experiencing the full affects of the crud, and is stuffy and coughing like crazy, with a little bit of fever; she rarely gets sick, and hopefully this is not a repeat of what she had in late March.  While she was in bed, I continued finalizing plans for our trip to Door County, Wisconsin, and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.  We agreed on a route, schedule, and RV parks and campsites, and we’ll complete making reservations this week.

While Kay continued to convalesce, I fished a couple of hours near Ol’ Charlie’s on Tuesday morning and had a super time catching fish on dry flies using the little 2 wt. rod.  Here’s the report:

TIME: 8:25 AM TO 10:35 AM

WEATHER: Low 80s, partly cloudy, windy

WATER CONDITIONS: 0 units

LOCATIONS FISHED: Norfork River, Riffle Across from Ol’ Charlie’s and Riffle at top of Island

FLIES USED: #20 Kay’s Gray, #14 Furnace Cockleburr, #14 Pink Cockleburr

ROD USED: 7′ 9″ 2-wt Winston WT

HATCHES: Midges, occasional sulphur, occasional caddis

OTHER: I fished solo. A single fisher was fishing near the stocking chute, and had a fish on as I waded across; the area was stocked last week. Otherwise, no one else was in sight, even across from Ol’ Charlie’s and it has always been a good place to fish dries, midges, and emerges. There was a heavy mist over the water, but fish were still sipping midge emergers. I tied on a #20 Kay’s Gray, and took an occasional fish until the mist burned off. And then, fishing picked up. A sulphur would hatch here and there, so out came the pink cocklebur. Sure enough, the first cast produced a fish, and they continued taking the fly until I moved upstream at about 9:45 AM. Fish in the upstream riffle also liked the pink cockleburr, and were a bit larger and heavier than those in the downstream riffle. Some put a significant bend in the 2-weight Winston. With generation forecast to begin at 11:00 AM, I left the water early, having caught about two and a half dozen fish, all on dry flies. It’s so fun to cast to a rising fish, and catch it, or even to get a brief hook-up. It doesn’t get much better!

I met John and Ed near Rim Shoals on the White River Wednesday morning.  I wanted to run the motor and they reluctantly agreed.  Both caught fish.  Here’s the report:

TIME: 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM
WEATHER: Low to mid-90s, mostly sunny, wind
WATER CONDITIONS: 2 units and dropping to 0 units
LOCATIONS FISHED: White River, Jenkins Creek to Lower Rim Shoals
FLIES USED: Cerise San Juan Worm, #14 Super Fly, Brown Wayne’s Fly, #14 Furnace Cockleburr
ROD USED: N/A
HATCHES: Midges, sulphurs

OTHER: I asked to be the “Boat Boy” for long-time fishing friends, Ed and John. After launching at Rim Shoals Access, we motored upstream to Jenkins Creek, and then drifted down; both Ed and John caught fish. We continued this drift for another hour and a half, with Ed and John catching fish on most drifts. As the water dropped, however, the fish quit biting. We motored downstream and drifted from Upper Rim Shoals to Lower Rim Shoals, and again Ed and John caught fish on each drift. At about 11:00 AM, the fish quit biting and we toyed around with a furnace cocklebur. John had 4 fish on his first drift fishing the cockleburr, catching a couple on top and a couple stripping the fly. I left them at 12:00 noon to take care of some chores at home, but as always, we had a blast.

Along with Kay and Sandy, we all had a great dinner at Whispering Woods near the Norfork Dam.  Their apricot-glazed pork chop is to die for!

The rest of the week was quiet, except for Kay’s incessant coughing.  With hot weather, the butterflies are really flying, and I photographed these butterflies sipping on the lantana and marigolds.

Another week has rolled around in our second summer at home (since we said we’d not spend another summer here because of the heat), and we’re making it a “family” summer.  We’ve actually been able to spend more time with family than any time since we’ve been married!

Ridge became sick last week, and his parents each missed work taking care of him.  They called and asked if we could meet them, and bring him home with us for a few days after which they would come up and enjoy the Independence Day holiday and weekend.

We picked him up mid-afternoon on Sunday at Heber Springs, and all of us were off on another adventure.  We played, explored the yard, and walked.  Each morning we would drive to Quarry Park and stroll/walk around the campground road, and then play at the playground, climbing and sliding, etc.  He wore us out!  It was great, however, watching him “grow” in his walking and maneuvering around steps, rocks, etc., and in his talking and eating.  He totally did away with the booster seat and began sitting in a regular chair, and using his spoon occasionally.

WEDNESDAY:  I began smoking a Boston butt and cooking a big pot of “cowboy” beans Wednesday morning.  First to arrive Wednesday afternoon were Ron and Kaden and their dog, Beau.  Soon following were Karyn and Matt—Ridge was so glad to see his mommy and daddy.  After all had settled in, we had a great barbecue dinner, and the “cowboy” beans, modified from the Pioneer Woman recipe, were maybe the best beans I’ve eaten.

Karyn, Matt, and Kaden took the river boat to the Norfork River where Matt caught several trout, grossly overshadowing Karyn, and poor Kaden who struck out.

THURSDAY:  We celebrated Independence Day by spending a few hours on Norfork Reservoir.  We first anchored at Sand Island, but found the bottom mud to be sticky and messy, and the water a bit dirty by Norfork Reservoir standards.  We moved to a cove east of the dam, and enjoyed a couple of hours of swimming, diving, and floating in the cool clear water.  Our mid-afternoon meal consisted of a hamburger/brats cookout with all the fixin’s and leftovers from the barbecue yesterday.  Kaden proved true to his word by eating 2 hamburgers and 3 brats, all with buns, and a bowl of beans—he’s a growing 17-year old.  As evening approached, we borrowed a kayak from neighbors and Karyn, Kaden, and Matt kayaked the Norfork River, somehow ending up all wet, claiming each threw water on the other with their paddles.  Anyway, they had fun, completing another  full day of non-stop activities. 

FRIDAY:  Friday morning saw Karyn, Kaden, Matt, and me suiting up for a fly fishing foray on the White River.  Here’s the entry from Donald’s Fishin’ Journal:

TIME: 11:00 AM to 2:30 PM
WEATHER: Mid 80s, sunny
WATER CONDITIONS: 2 Units falling
LOCATIONS FISHED: White River, Rim Shoals
FLIES USED: #14 BHFB Pheasant tail
ROD USED: N/A
HATCH: A few midges
OTHER: Guided Karyn, Matt, and Kaden. The trail that I normally take to access downstream was overgrown, and I could not find it. Consequently, we bushwacked through the overgrown riparian habitat, until I found some semblance of trail. After a short hike, we waded into the still high water. Each of the fishers started with different combinations of flies. Karyn started off like gangbusters, catching two fish on a zebra midge. Kayden followed with a fish on a sowbug. And then Matt began what would prove to be a very successful day, catching fish on a BHFB PT. He is a fearless wader, and fished the entire area of the river. And he did it with only one fly, and no accessories or other flies. Karyn was outfitted with Kay’s vest and wading staff, but found the deep water in combination with the multitude of rocks strewn along the bottom to be treacherous, getting wet a couple of times, but seemingly covering the whole river. Nevertheless, she’s a good sport and still caught fish. Kayden remained near our access, and caught 4 fish. He continues to improve as a fly fisher.

As we returned home, we saw that the Norfork River was down.  We quickly ate a taco lunch, and Ron, Matt, and I headed to the Norfork River.  Here’s the entry from Donald’s Fishin’ Journal:

TIME: 4:15 PM TO 6:30 PM
WEATHER: Low 80s, sunny
WATER CONDITIONS: 0 units
LOCATIONS FISHED: Norfork River, Riffle Above the Island Below Otter Creek and Plunge Pool below Ace in the Hole
FLIES USED: #14 Pink Cockleburr
ROD USED: 9’ 3-wt custom built G Loomis
HATCHES: Sulphurs
OTHER: I “guided” Ron and Matt. On our return from the White River a couple of hours earlier, we noted that the Norfork River was unexpectedly down. After gulping down a late lunch of tacos, Ron and Matt suited up in their waders, and we drove to a neighbors for private access. Another neighbor was fishing Mill Dam Eddy, so we walked upstream and noted fish taking bugs on top like crazy. Armed with Pink Cockleburrs, the guys took one fish after another, and most were 14 to 15 inches and “hot” as firecrackers, not having had a lot of fishing pressure for two weeks. I waded upstream to the plunge pool and had some ferocious hook-ups; I called for Ron to come up and he, too, had some ferocious hits. Regrettably, his leader was too short and dragging his fly under. After rebuilding his leader, he began to see the hook-ups and took several fish. Both guys had a great late afternoon, and I was glad to that Ron was able to fly fish this trip.

SATURDAY:  After an early breakfast, Ron, Kaden, and Beau packed and departed for central Arkansas to ready Kaden for a week at band camp.  Karyn and Matt opted to fly fish, and we were on the water early.  Here’s the entry from Donald’s Fishin’ Journal:

TIME: 8:30 AM TO 11:15 PM
WEATHER: Low 80s, sunny
WATER CONDITIONS: 0 units
LOCATIONS FISHED: Norfork River, Riffle Above the Island Below Otter Creek
FLIES USED: #14 Gray Norfork River Scud, #20 black/copper Zebra Midge, #14 Pink Cockleburr
ROD USED: 9’ 3-wt custom built G Loomis
HATCHES: Midges, a few Sulphurs
OTHER: I “guided” Karyn and Matt. Hoping for a repeat of late yesterday afternoon, we waded upstream expecting the fish to be rising like crazy, but instead found several dead fish in the pool below the riffle. (I suspect poachers had been in the area during the evening.) I tied on a scud and zebra midge dropper combination on both Karyn and Matt’s lines, but hook-ups proved to be evasive, with only a few fish caught. Switching to a pink cockleburr proved to be no better, and in fact resulted in less hook-ups. Matt fished the plunge pool above the riffle but didn’t have any success. It was a slow fishing day.

Ridge had a 3-hour nap mid-day, and appeared to not be feeling well.  He went down for another nap in the late afternoon.  And, despite the already busy day, Karyn and Matt went for a late kayak run on the Norfork River; generation had pulsed so there was only moderately enough water for moving through the riffles.  Upon returning to the house, they “cleaned up” and headed out for a party while Ridge slept, again, and Kay and I rested, wrapping up a very, very busy week.

I got to enjoy Harper and her mom and dad for another half day on Sunday.  She awoke feeling much better after the long night before; “cutting” new teeth is not easy work!  After playing around the house and eating breakfast, she enjoyed the kiddie pool, and loved splashing water everywhere.  Kids really enjoy water, and don’t seem to mind cool water temperatures.  She tried desperately to catch the water drops.  She is such a pleasant baby when she’s not feeling bad.  We were sad to see them leave as we only get to visit with them a few times each year.  We will travel to Memphis on July 27 to help celebrate her first birthday a few days early, and are already looking forward to seeing them again.  She and her mom make a pretty picture!  I’m sure luck to have beautiful women in my life.

DATE:  Monday, June 24, 2013
TIME:  8:00AM TO 1:30 PM
WEATHER:  Low 90s, partly cloudy, windy

The rest of the week was slow, by our “constantly rushing and staying busy” standards with near 100 degrees Tuesday and remaining hot the rest of the week.  Butterflies were flittering around Tuesday, but slowed down considerably towards the end of the week.  I was able to photograph this female spicebush swallowtail feeding on a nearby lantana.

Happy Father’s Day all you dads.

Once again, attendance at the Sunday school class FUMC asked us to co-teach is challenging—only one couple showed up.  Kay is a real trooper, and continues to teach regardless of the number of attendees.  And, she still gives “a full measure” preparing for each class.  In our society, young adults with children in school are so busy and pulled in many different directions—swim meets, softball, baseball, soccer, lake time, vacation, and maybe a little family time thrown in; regrettably, church and Sunday school take on a low priority for most, but not all, young families.

We had a relatively quiet week.  I enjoyed some great wade fishing on the Norfork River Monday through Thursday, getting caught by unscheduled high water (generation) on Monday and having to walk/run downstream to a walk-out point.

We played duplicate bridge on Friday afternoon, and our lack of bidding knowledge proved to be an Achilles heel as we came in last among 10 partnerships.

My Father’s Day present arrived a few days late—Harper and her parents, Jenny and Brian, arrived Friday evening, and we were quite surprised at her amount of growth, increased dexterity, and inquisitiveness.  Obviously, the rest of the weekend was devoted to spoiling her. She has just begun walking and really gained confidence this weekend, walking all over the place.  Saturday saw her “cutting” teeth, and she was stuffy and a bit unsettled, and didn’t take naps when needed!  We all went to the Farmers’ Market in Mountain Home Saturday morning.  She slept when we first arrived at Norfork Lake, and as we motored to a cove, anchored, and her parents swam. 

She did enjoy some time in the lake, but the mandatory PFD appeared to be quite uncomfortable, and combined with her not being 100 percent made for a less than happy time for her.  And, Saturday evening, she could/would not go to sleep, and I ended up walking her around the house while Jenny and Brian walked and had the traditional s’mores; Harp wanted her mom! She finally went to sleep, with her parents, about 11:00 PM, and that’s the way we ended the blog week.  Despite not feeling well, she was a good baby and had lots of happy time with DD and KK.

Ridge, Karyn, and Matt left Sunday morning after a very busy weekend.

We returned to Quarry Park and the motorhome for a couple more days of cool weather.  When we arrived, our “neighbors” from Ohio were readying their motorhome to drive back, trying to get ahead of foreboding weather along the way.  We said goodbyes, gave them a contact card, and asked that they call us when they come back to the area.  We enjoyed the rest of the evening sitting under a large oak tree along the river.

Early Tuesday morning we loaded everything that had accumulated over the last 12 days—chairs, grill, propane tank, ice chest, table cloth, satellite dish, hoses, camera tripod, etc.—and stuffed it in the Explorer and Honda, retracted the slides and jacks, emptied the tanks at the dump station, and drove home.  There, we rinsed the tanks, and unloaded the motorhome of clothes, computers, and food as we won’t be “camping” again until late July.  And then, I parked it on its newly leveled pad, having had to add about 8 inches of compacted gravel towards the front axle.  Wow, did it ever make a difference!

After a haircut, we washed and dried the motorhome, readying it for its first waxing.  The rest of the week was spent arduously waxing the roof, back, front, and sides, using two containers of wax in the process.  All in all, it took about 12 hours of hard labor, but it shone like a new penny!

On Thursday and Friday, I played hooky for a part of each day and fished with Ed and John, having a blast in the process.  It’s the first time I’ve fished since November 2012 when water levels never dropped and instead increased to the point that Ed and I could not make it back across the river.  Previously, I hadn’t fished since September 2012, so in effect this was the first time fly fishing in about 9 months!

I returned home Sunday after church and Sunday school, meeting and greeting the “Old Girls” before they departed for home.  Kay is amazing regarding the large number of long-term friendships she enjoys.  After the guests departed, we cleaned house and did laundry, readying the Dunnhill “Bed and Breakfast” for next time.  We enjoy entertaining, and designed our house to accommodate guests comfortably; most say they sleep better at Dunnhill than anywhere.

Back at Quarry Park, we met our new next door neighbors, a moderately young couple from Ohio.  We visited quite a while, and learned that the husband, Scott, has been coming to the area for about 20 years, enjoying great trout fishing in both the Norfork and White Rivers.  While here this week, he hooked and released a 24-inch brown trout; of course, there were no photos, just his mother as a witness!  The wife, Christy, is a birder and our RV sites back up to large trees holding many birds.  She and I enjoyed many conversations about birds, and she was great in identifying them. 

Scott identified the Gray Cat Bird, and it was a noisy bird, singing constantly.  It hung out in a large tree behind our motorhome.

This red bird sure looked like a Summer Tanager as viewed relatively close through binoculars, but now looks like a young cardinal.  It was the first time we had seen it, and another accompanied it to the small tree behind our motorhome.

Though we’re “camping”, we return home almost daily to pickup mail, tend to plants, and use the unlimited internet.  As many of you may know, I bought a new HP Windows 8 computer in January to replace the great 2-year old Dell computer with a bad mouse pad.  It was and remains a frustrating experience using the new HP, and particularly using Windows 8.  The HP keyboard is awkward to long-time Dell users, and Windows 8 is totally new and untested (and disliked by most users).  Consequently, I decided to go over to the dark side, and ordered a MacBook Pro, switching to the Apple operating system.  It came in Wednesday afternoon, and was relatively easy to set up.  I was able to transition all the files over to the MacBook Pro by week’s end.  It will require some effort adjusting to new software, file management, and ways of doing things, but it’s got to be better than Windows 8!  By the way, Kay has a really hard time relaxing…yeah, right!  Of course, she has to check up on the grandkids quite often–thank goodness for social media.

There are several “new to me” butterflies showing up in the park, like this Mourning Cloak (Nymphalis antiopa antiopa)

 And, we never tire of seeing the Zebra Swallowtail butterfly.

About mid-week, we received a hint that Ridge and his folks might show up late Friday evening for the weekend.  A call on Thursday confirmed the visit, so Friday morning we secured the motorhome, packed a few things to take home, and left to spend the weekend at the house.  

This blog was drafted, but lost!  So here goes.

We were surprised on Sunday by a visit from Ridge, Karyn, and Matt, and one of Matt’s friends and his 12-year old daughter.  We always look forward to seeing Ridge…and of course, his parents.  Kay and I kept Ridge Sunday afternoon while they fished high water on the Norfork, catching lots of big fish, including Karyn’s biggest ever brown trout.  They brought food and we had great pulled pork and all the fixin’s Sunday evening–very good.

They left Monday morning, Memorial Day, and Kay and I did laundry and a quick house cleaning, and spent the rest of the day just hanging out.
On Wednesday afternoon, returning from duplicate bridge lessons, Kay suggested we go camping.  Upon arriving home, the RV slides were withdrawn, satellite and electrical cords unhooked, and we were ready to go.  After selecting a site and setting up the motorhome, we returned home to gather food, clothes, toiletries, and toys and returned to spend a quiet night at Quarry Park, immediately downstream of Norfork Dam.
With the motorhome gone, gravel was ordered and delivered at home to resurface the drive and build-up the RV parking pad.  The driver did a great job of spreading the gravel on the drive, but a couple of areas required significant shoveling and raking.
Kay returned home on Friday morning to receive guests at Dunnhill.  Four ladies who taught with Kay some 30 years ago came to spend the weekend, something they do almost annually.  I stayed at Quarry Park, out of their hair, and we all probably enjoyed the privacy.
I discovered a couple of great butterfly areas at Quarry Park, including the dump station where people dump their sewage, and an overgrown area near the launch ramp and parking area.  In addition, a few day lilies survived the floods and weeds in the overgrown area, offering beauty in an otherwise drab environment.

We’re still working around the place, cutting a few storm damaged trees and ones too close to the lane from the street to the house; most are Eastern red cedar, and the heartwood is really hard.  On Sunday, a couple of local high school boys came by to work a couple of hours and they were really put through the paces, piling logs and limbs.  I worked solo on Monday, cutting several more trees and piling the debris; it’s a real job!  While finishing the job, the on/off switch on the chainsaw stuck in the “On” position, so it was to the repair shop.  I’ll finish next week!  Anyway, the place looks a little bit neater now.

There are still a few butterflies and moths flittering about, offering some photo opportunities.

The duplicate bridge class is waning in attendance, but we are still going on Wednesday afternoons.  An then, on Friday afternoon, we played duplicate bridge at the Van Matre Senior Center.  It was Kay’s first time to play duplicate bridge but she did well, and we finished 5 out of 8 teams—could’ve been better, could’ve been worse.

The days are beginning to warm to the mid-80s with attendant high humidity; consequently, our outdoor activities will begin to cease, unless on water.  Speaking of which, water surface temperature of Norfork Lake is only 68 degrees.

We’re both beginning to have RV withdrawal, but no end is in sight for being homebound!  Until next week…