Everyone and everything around you is your teacher

We had an interesting week this week. Tuesday we had to take the truck and the trailer into Camco to have the Bludot air over hydraulic system and Kodiak hydraulic disc brakes installed. We had electric brakes before. They had come unplugged once on us once coming down to Texas from Kansas, and were now needing repairs. Several of the HDT'ers were having the same system put on their trailers so we upgraded, too, rather than waste money repairing the electric brakes.

I don't know any of the technical jargon, but I do know that this was an all day process that could have entailed us having to spend the night in the garage! I wouldn't have minded so much except for the fact that they didn't have enough electrical service for us to be able to run our air conditioner. James and the boys worked hard to get us out before 7 P.M.
Here is James helping Phil back our truck and house into the garage.

I was pretty bored so I took some shots of the shop cat Tiger and some oleanders.

The best thing about loving to read is no matter where you are or what mind numbing thing you are waiting for, the time passes fairly quickly when you are reading a good book.

We did have a nasty surprise when Phil realized on the way home that the new brake system wasn't working properly. We made it home alright, but we were disappointed that we'd spend a part of another day at the shop! The problem turned out to be air in the brake lines, and was easily fixed by bleeding the brakes again.

Bonnie had been kind enough to watch the cats Tuesday but I couldn't see imposing on her again, so we put them in their kennel and took them with us. Chloe enjoyed it a lot more than they did.

The finished product. The coiled air hose that connects the truck's air brake system to the trailer's Bludot system to make the whole thing work. Isn't it "purty"?

Air tank


The guys were nice enough to build us a diamond plated box to hide our air brake actuator and master cylinder.

I got concerned about the kitties when it got so hot and they were panting. But we got them home and turned on the air, so they were okay.

One neat thing that happened is that I drove part of the way home pulling the trailer, a first for me! It wasn't too scary.

After we got the house set back up, Phil took me to Olive Garden for dinner. I was so glad to be able to have a nice, relaxing dinner after the stress of the last couple of days.

Friday was a terrific day!
Del and Berta took me with them bird watching and geocaching! They are two of the smartest people I have ever met, and I was blessed to be able to spend the day with them, even though I felt like a kindergartner in the car with two Mensa members. We went to Roma Bluffs, another part of the World Birding Center.

This center, though, didn't have much to offer, only a courtyard with some feeders and an observation deck that looks over the Rio Grande into Mexico.

I did see an Eurasian Collered Dove.

A black chin hummingbird

We went up to the observation deck.

We decided to go on to Falcon State park since we didn’t see much at Roma Bluffs.

I sure am glad we did! We got some great sightings.

A Bullock’s Oriole

A Bobwhite Quail

Pyrrhuloxia

I thought the bat condo was a nice touch.

The bird of the day though was the Crested Caracara

These are some pictures I got of him with the sound he makes added.

After all of this excitement I was ready to go home for a nap but Del and Berta were just getting ready to go geochaching.

Geochaching is a worldwide game of hiding and seeking treasure.

I think Del said he and Berta had found over 2000 caches so far.

We found two yesterday.

As soon as I got home I signed up!

people have caches hidden all over the world.

It’s pretty laid back. You find the cache and sign into the geocaching site and log your find. That’s it.

Cooking this week was not as busy as it has been.

I did make Longhorn Wild West Shrimp. It’s a copy of the appetizers they serve at Longhorn restaurants.

I use cherry peppers and Seapak frozen shrimp and a seasoning called Prairie dust.

I also made Puppychow

You make this with Crispex cereal, peanut butter, semi sweet chocolate chips ,milk chocolate chips and powdered sugar.

It’s pretty addictive.

I also made the strawberry spinach salad that I love.

Movies this week: Kiterunner made me cry. A powerful story.

Books this week: Winter. Story of two brothers growing up during World War 1 and World War 2. A good read.