Christmas Decorations

We (me, really) decided to go minimal with the outside decorations this year so I've posted some of what we've done so far. Mostly we've decorated the inside of the house...very festive.



This is one of the reasons to not decorate outisde this year.



 

We have one tree we like to put in our front window for the neighboors....very old fashioned.

 Here are a series of inside photos. We put garland and lights around our large mantle and Kim loves to put our animal collection in amongst the "branches".

And of course....our tree....

We have an outside trellis that does not have anything growing on it now so I decided to make a nice display that looks good during the day also. My lights in the past all look rather dull in the daylight so we wanted something for people to view as they drove by in the day.

These large bulbs are hard to find.

...of course, I had to have some supervision....

 The end result....slippers, PJs, decorations...and college football.

We have a trip planned for Tampa, Florida in December. We'll be sure to take lots of photos.....here's one Kim took from our hotel room during our last trip in the summer. Yikes !

...hope you enjoy the photos....send us your house decorations photos so we can enjoy them too.

Kim and Steve

New Side Gate

Before putting the RV in the sideyard we had to take down the old side fence then build a new gate. (You can click on the photos to enlarge them.)

Old. Fence. This is looking out towards the street.

So....off we go....

...had to take out all the nails, then remove the vertical posts that were set in concrete.



View from the street....side gate is already removed.



Fence removed....gravel put in.

I put all the old fence on the front lawn in case I needed use it for reference on how to build a new one.

First build a gate frame.

Add some nice hinges...

Meanwhile, Kim was putting the redwood boards on the large frames.

First gate done...now on to the larger one.

This larger gate will pivot from your right so we can get the RV in and out. This one proved to be heavy!

I got it all up, then found out I needed to add a wheel to roll over the gravel so I had to take off the redwood planks, put the wheel on, then put them all back on.

Almost done....notice the open frames....we thought it looked nice but decided to add latice.

Finished product. This project took about a week...had to only work a few hours a day.

While working, this balloon came over the house across the street. I heard a big "whooooosh"...turned out to be the flamed being turned on.

Next up.....front porch decorations !

...hope you enjoy this episode....we did not do any travelling because of family obligations but, after that,  then we'll post some new ones for you !

Keep those comments coming...they're great!

Kim and Steve

On The Rocks !

Kim and I went down to look at the river but it got kinda slippery getting back to land....(Make sure you have your volume turned up before viewing this one).

Kings Canyon Movie

This is a movie I took with my Droid from the Kings Canyon overlook turnout that shows part of the immensity of the canyon.....waaay off in the distance to the right lies Mt. Whitney, the highest mountain the the lower 48 states.

Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks

Kim and I took our first extended trip with our new 5th wheel to the Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. It's located in central California east of Fresno and Visalia in the Sierra Nevada mountains.

The trees are much much larger than the coastal (and more famous) redwoods located in Northern California which are taller. These are older. Those are taller. These are much older as well. Some of them are in the 2,000 to 2,500 year old range.

This is an example of how old these trees are. This one was outside the visitors center in Three Rivers (if you click on the photo, it will enlarge for you).

We took so many photos that it is difficult to put just a few here so a number more are posted here where you can view them at your leisure.

http://picasaweb.google.com/100376105788369441882/SequoiaAndKingsCanyon?authkey=Gv1sRgCOPcl_ix0fCDpgE&feat=directlink

Here are a few more .....

General Sherman tree with Kim in the foreground.

Kim right in front of Sherman tree. 36.5 feet in diameter (the tree not Kim).

President Calvin Coolidge proclaimed it the "Nation's Christmas Tree" on April 28, 1926. On March 29, 1956, President Dwight D. Eisenhower declared the tree a "National Shrine", a memorial to those who died in war. It is the only living object to be so declared.

Looking up at Grant tree.

A vista point. We are headed waaaaay down there. This is a small part of Kings Canyon.

Finally...the Kings River and valley floor.

We also took some time to take other photos.

Early morning view of the Kaweah River right outside our RV.

As always, I could not resist getting in the water.

Proud Papa, youngster and Mom.

Nattie's favorite driving location.

Paul Bunyan carved out of one of the 2,000-year old fallen trees.

Well, that's it for this adventure. I hope you get to see all the other photos at the link above and remember, you can click on the photos to get larger images.

Bye for now....next trip is to Florida in December !

NOW...where do we put this thing ?? !!

Swell, we got an RV...finally. Even went on a trip with it....but now it's sitting in front of our house looking for a home. I know, let's put it next to our house in the side yard. After all, that's what that area was designed for.

Wait, there seems to be a couple of obstacles in the way....like two tall birch trees, uneven ground, a fence and a lawn. Now what? Well, I got out there with an axe, then a hatchet. That must've looked funny....like a mini-Paul Bunyan.Fortunately, my neighbor across the street came across with his chain saw and, together, we cut them down.

These are the two remaining trees. We cut down two the same size

This is the After photo...Kim and I spent the next two days chopping all of this up.

...about one quarter of the branches we took to the local dump.

One tree trunk at the top. The other at the bottom.

...the second tree trunk....trying to cut this down to ground level was not easy.

So, after cutting down the trees, chopping up all the branches what's next?.

Ah, that fence and uneven ground.

Done with the fence...about 12-feet wide.

We had 1 and 3/4 yard of gravel dumped.

Time for a beer while washing down the dusty gravel.

Ready for the RV now.

 This side yard is about 12-feet wide. Take away the PGE meter next to the house and our rain gutters it becomes about 11 feet. Our RV is 8-feet 2-inches wide....kind of a tight fit. Well, here goes....time to back it in.

We were going to sell ticket to the neighbors to watch, but most had gone to work already.

back, back ,back...no...more to the left !

Watch out for the house !

Kim was on our walkie-talkie giving me directions and we got it in the first time.....good teamwork.

boy do I look relieved

Like ET said..."Hoooooome"

It's quite a tight fit, but we can get in and out just fine to start filling up all the inside spaces.

Becuase the winter is coming on, our trips coming up will probably be down south to Death Valley, Mojave Desert...places like that.

Thanks for following...next blog will show our new gate.