kissalostsoul

I find December 31 a good time to take stock of what happened in my life in the previous year.  In some ways, 2011 was very different for me, and in other ways it was the same.  As I did last year, I will share some of these remembrances with you. I spent the first two weeks of January 2011 finishing up my stint at Anahuac NWR.  One of my proudest moments came when I was honored with The President’s Volunteer Service Award.  I still have that letter signed by President Obama.  The middle of the month found me at Thibodeaux’s Premiere RV in Scott, Louisiana, having my new residential fridge installed and some other work on the rig.  Little did I know that this would start a theme of residing in repair shop parking lots this year.  While I was waiting I tried my first shrimp po-boy, and toured a number of places in this Cajun area. Then it was on to Gautier, MS, for a three month volunteer stint at Mississippi Sandhill Crane National Wildlife...

As I gazed out the window above my bench table this morning, I was surprised to see a cowboy in the field rounding up the doggies.  That could only mean one thing.  It was time for a cattle drive.  I was hoping I would get to see another drive before I leave. About an hour later, three mounted cowboys trotted past the rigs, and not far behind… came the herd.  My estimate was about 300 head were being moved to greener pastures. Since Emma was going berserk, I put her inside the rig and went out to the fence to watch the parade go by. As the cows flooded the road, I could have reached out and touched them.  There were upturned horns, and downturned horns, and no horns at all.  And last, but not least, was the rear guard cowboy making sure no cattle wandered where they weren’t supposed to. A cow herd of this size doesn’t move very fast, and they certainly pave the road with lots of cow pies in their passing.  I waited another...

I received a thought provoking, for me, email today from one of the readers of this blog.  I’ll include a portion of it here: Hello Judy, Mice, mosquitoes, wind storms, few visitors at the VIS, wet, cold and dreary days. You really don't make Anahuac sound like a nice place. Yet you have returned 5 times! Is this all part of your plot to make it sound bad so that no one else will go there and you will always have an open spot? :-) Seriously, why do you keep coming back? I can assure Grant that it is not a plot to turn people away from volunteering here.  Each refuge, or national park, or state park or hatchery that I have volunteered at has its own set of challenges for volunteers to overcome, but these challenges have never detracted from the overall enjoyable experiences that I’ve had at each assignment.                            ...

Aw shucks!  It was another wet, cold, and dreary day today.  That makes six in a row.  I find I am less and less interested in doing anything the longer the dreariness persists.  I’ve only taken three pictures in the last three days, so tonight’s photos are retreads from my time here at Anahuac.  My original ‘Plan A’ was to leave here today, and take my time getting to Mississippi Sandhill Crane NWR (MSCNWR) by the end of the year.  I scrapped that plan several weeks ago. ‘Plan B’ was to leave this coming Friday and caravan with my friends, John and Diana, to MSCNWR.  They will be volunteering there also.  It turns out that Diana has to stay in the area longer for some physical therapy, so I scrapped that plan too.  In the meantime, I made an appointment for Emma to have a spa day for a bath and nail trim for tomorrow.  That meant I had changed my plans once again to leave on Wednesday.  That would be ‘Plan C’. Well ...

It’s been wet and overcast for days now, so this weekend was pretty laid back.  I actually spent yesterday afternoon watching the entire Lonesome Dove mini series to the sound of rain on the rooftop.  That’s a pretty boring day for me.  Emma has been so bored that she ripped apart her stuffed duck.  She’s had that for a couple of years, but it’s in the garbage bucket tonight.  I think even the wild barn owls are tired of this weather.  One of those owls sits under the eave of the community building and coughs up its pellets onto the cement area in front of the door.  These pellets are usually like small compact eggs consisting of indigestible bones and hair.  Well, this morning’s deposit was a only slightly digested mouse.  Yuck!  Bill and Carol saw a barn owl sitting on a post just next to my rig last night.  I wonder if that’s why I’ve had a decrease of mice in the rig this week.  I hope it perches there each night. At le...

I don’t know about the rest of you bloggers, but for me my time outside with Emma in the late afternoon is a good time for me to review the happenings of the day in my mind.  It’s also the time when I decide if the day is worth blogging about.  Sometimes, my biggest challenge is coming up with a title for the post.  Today was one of those days.  Quite a bit happened, and yet, none of it was earth shattering.  I also want to say that it has been very enlightening to have fellow bloggers staying here for more than an hour or two.  I have really enjoyed reading about Roxanne’s and Annie ’s  perception of our shared experiences.  It just reinforces how each of us in this world perceive happenings through our own personal window on life.  Anyway, on to today’s little adventures… This morning, the Good Luck Ducks joined me for part two of the wildlife refuge tour.  We visited both the VIS and the new Visit...

2 sons of Archduke Carl Christian of Austria and his wife Marie Astird, née Princess of Luxemburg announced their engagement on 22.12.2011 in Brussels. Theor odlest sonm Archduke Imre is engaged to Kathleen Walker and his younger brother Archduke Christophe is engaged to Adélaide Drape-Friché. http://www.tageblatt.lu/people/luxemburg/story/Verliebt--verlobt--verlobt-28886156  

Countess Agathe zu Ortenburg, née Countess of Schaeberg passed away on Coburg on 20.12.2011. She was born on 14.03.1925 as youngest daugher of Count Joseph of Schaeberg and his wife Ghislaine, née Comtesse de Berlaymont. On 21.10.1954 she married count Alram zu Ortenburg, who died in 2007. Together the couple had 4 children.

In less than the blink of an eye, I went from deep sleep to total awareness last night at 3:17 a.m.  A wind blast hit the rig so strongly that I sat right up, and my hair was standing on end!  The two slides were moving in and out, and the sound was deafening.  I flew to the front of the rig to grab the keys to turn on the motor so I could pull in the slides.  I’ve never rearranged things so quickly to pull in the slides as I did last night.  Emma and I huddled together.  I thought the slide toppers were ripped off for sure.  That wind went on for what seemed like forever, and then the lightening, thunder and rain began.  We had a real windy downpour. We survived with no damage to the rig, but I had to hunt for some of my outside furniture in the morning.  It seems everyone in the volunteer village has been up since the wee hours today.  I thought of going to the community building for safety, but wasn’t sure I’d be able to get the doo...