Mother's Day 2009

This is the sunset Saturday evening. Mother went out with us for awhile as Opal wanted to go. We had a good time and caught a few.

Sunday was quiet as the temp was much cooler. Roger and I went out for a short time then Steve and Pam came out and Roger took them fishing.

We were not able to talk to most of you as there is little to no phone service there. Do hope everyone had a great Mother's Day.




Monday it was to rain again so we left early to come home. Stopped in Springfield to pickup the parts we needed and came on home. Dropping Opal off at her house, picking up some tomato plants from JD then home. I spent 2 1/2 hours mowing the grass. Roger worked on the garden.

All my irises were in bloom. After getting the grass cut it all looks so good.



Tuesday am mother and I had hair cut appointments and had to make several stops on the way home to get this and that. Roger is trying to get some work done.

I received the mail for the past two weeks and trying to get all that gone through and the checks logged.

When Roger got home we worked on the garden... where the barn use to be the ground is so packed it's hard to work with. I have to dig out my onions. So Roger hauled down some sand and ashes and we tilled it up together. Then we planted cucumbers, zucchini, corn and the plants we got from JD.


I've finally finished with the two weeks of laundry, gone to his bank, my bank and ours. Picked up some groceries, mom's proscription, filled the car with gas, returned all phone calls and updated my blog so we are ready to leave again.

Mom and I won't be back till May 31st. take care

Stockton Lake 2009

The girls had gone to bed late (late for them 9:30 p.m.) so they were sleeping in. roger and I had woke up around 5:30 a.m. as it was thurndering> Needless to say he was pouting because he had missed the last two perfect days to fish and he wanted to go so bad. Our agreement is no fishing if it is lightening. we both showered and dresses. I was preparing a check roast we had thawed out. the plan was to put it in the crock pot and it would be ready for dinner. by now it was raining pretty hard. Around 7:30 a.m. Dustin comes flying through the camp grounds blowing his truck horn. I ask Roger what's that all about. His comment was "THAT MEANS WE HAVE TO HEAD FOR THE SHELTER !!!!!

I'm still in slow mode and casually tell the grandmas they need to get up and get dressed. They are leisurely trying to do that when Dustin comes through again. Now I begin to panic and it's just forget the clothes you are going in your pjs. shoving they shoes on, grabbing coats and literally pushing them out of the trailer into the car. )Getting a almost 90 and a 91 year old to do anything quick is a joke or in this case a nightmare. ) We are in the car Roger dropped the awning a low as it would go and we headed over to the shelter.

Now it's around 7:50 a.m. raining very hard.... waves unbelievable on a lake. 8:05 Dustin gets a call and the sheriff tells us the warning is over but there may be high winds. 70 to 75 mph for the next 1/2 hour. Within minutes the wind picks up... raining so hard you can't see the docks that are less than 150 feet from us. Boom, Bang, you hear the docks breaking loose and crashing against each other. Out goes the power. No lights no phones........... then crash... right in front of us 25 feet or so a huge tree begins to fall. Fortunately, it fell parallel with the shelter taking out three other trees. If the direction had been different it would have fallen through the door where we were standing and watching. Less than 30 minutes it was crazy, rain wind, hail.... most everyone had made it to the shelter.




Around 8:50 we emerge from our hole to access the damage. these photos were actually taken later in the day or Saturday.

It was unbelievable the amount of trees that were lost and no more damage than it was.

Several awnings were damaged as was ours but no cars, or boats were damaged other than a little hail.

The worst was on our friends just behind us. The tree came down and through their roof blocking the drive .

Truly it was God's grace and mercy how over 100 trees missed the cars, boats, trailers...........

there were folks stranded in the restaurant as it broke loose.

This is Ron and Donna's trailer. Had it not been parked here this tree would have came down on our boat and truck and possibly trailer.

The next 12 hours was lots of work trying to reset the docks... cutting up trees so you could drive through or around the park. Picking up branches, hauling logs... everyone helping each other.

To amuse the mothers and keep their minds occupied well the Hummingbirds helped in that area.

I can't tell you how many times through out the day we tired to do something that needed electric. How quickly we forget. We sliced the roast and tired cooking it on the grill. NOT Mother and I could not chew it. Oh well... we tried not to panic as we had a freezer full of food.... Roger was so frustrated that we drove to Carthage to see if they had the parts we needed for our awning.... guess what everything was closed as they were without power too. we did manage to pickup a couple of batteries at Wal-mart. With the batteries the refrigerator would run with gas.

We got back around 7 p.m. I"m putting mom to bed only to realize we don't have any oxygen. DUH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Roger hooks up the batteries and we turn on the hot water to gas. Roger, Opal and I decide to go fishing for an hour or so. Beautiful evening.

While fishing we remember.......... why did we turn on the gas....Duh!!! we don't have any water. We caught some fish. we unload get our our equipment to clean fish and walk all the way to the dock............. duh again.......... we can't get on the dock there is no electric what are we thinking................ we felt totally brain dead by now. We just had to laugh at each other. We go back to the trailer and Roger has a knife that works with a battery... Wow what a mess...............

Our angels were watching over us as the power came back on around 11:30 p.m.

Stockton Lake 2009

Thursday, May 7th, Roger and Opal arrived around 5:30 p.m. We had the beer on ice, hooked the suburban back to the boat, took the cover off the boat and were ready to hit the water as soon as they got out of the car. (I'm such a good little wife :)

It was a beautiful evening




Opal caught several fish but they were too small. Roger and I caught good size crappies.

Mom enjoyed the ride but didn't want to fish so she worked on her word search puzzles.

Entertainment

We bought a second feeder when we were in Springfield an it hangs just outside the dinning room window. It has been great entertainment for mother and me.

This oriole was trying to get the string I left on top of the feeder.





The hummingbirds were drawn to the yellow flowers as well s the bees. there were times where there must have been a dozen or more. Must have been mostly females as the males are very territorial and they chase each other away.





Very difficult to get photos as they are very quick.

Stockton Lake 2009

Here's miss Hollywood down at the boat ramp. Thursday early afternoon May 7. We walked out on the ramp and you could see fish swimming.

Mom's holding one of the Crappie I caught. Huge huh?

After Jerry and Mary left around noon on Tuesday, Roger and I went fishing and caught 14, each catching 7 that was awesome. As you can tell the crappie are very large this year. After he cleaned them he had to go back to St. Louis to work a couple of days.

Wednesday, mother and I drove to Springfield. Looking for an electric skillet, vacuum sweeper, batteries, phillip screwdriver, smoke alarm as ours didn't want to work, tongs for the grill and an host of other items as well as food. Ate lunch in town. Did manage to find most of the items I needed

Stockton Lake 2009

We arrived Thursday April 23rd. Once roger got the trailer parked... he went fishing with his cousin Dennis. MOther and I sat about getting the insides of the trailer organized for living. Yes even a 30' trailer with slide out, two beds, refridgerator, stove, indoor pluming is sometimes cramped but beats the heck out fo slpeing in a tent or in the back of the surburban. So we're now set up for the month.

The frezzer is outside full of food, bar b que grill, lawn chairs, picnic table and campfire. clothes line hung between two trees, humming bird feeder just out the front door.

Roger and Dennis caught 6 crappie and one white bass Thursday evening. Went fishing again Friday am. Steve and Pam arrived around 1 p.m. We had a fish friy then all went out for awhile.

Discovered we were out of proprane so mother and I went to town Saturday morning. Forgetting we were not in the big city where everyone works 24/7.. nothing open in Stockton so we drove to Boliver. Drove about 75 miles for nothing other than a nice ride.

By Sunday evening we had 44 crappie, 6 white bass, 2 small mouth bass and 2 walleye... minus the 14 we ate on Friday.

We drove home on Monday. It had rained off and on over the weekend an the temp was cool.

We regrouped, picked up what we forgot, Roger worked a couple of days, I did the end of the month billing and we went back to the lake on Thursday, April 30. Jerry and Mary came down that weekend. Roger fished with them most of the weekend. I got to go out for a little while in the evening after mom went to bed.