The Pumpkin Patch

We have been busy this week around the park so we have not had time to post.Last weekend we headed to Sacramento as we were invited to go to the Pumpkin Patch with Jackie(our daughter) and grandson D.J..It was a great day. We went on the hayride.D.J. also rode a pony.And of course,lots of pumpkins.
Saturday evening we Babysat D.J.My most tiring day at work(before I retired),can't compare to a night of babysitting the grandson!Playing trucks,wrestling,bath time,and trying to get him to bed.Whew! We slept like a baby.
Sunday morning we headed out early for park sierra as we had a barbecue to go to.
With the onset of fall,the park members are
flocking back to the park.Where we only had a
handful of volunteers at the pole barn this summer,we have had 18 to 20 volunteers this week.With more people in the park there has been more activities going on.Saturday night is Halloween potluck dessert and movie night.Costumes optional.Were going as "pirates" RRRRR matie!
We have a month left here as workampers and we have really enjoyed it here.Hopefully when we come back next summer we will be members.We heard back from the rangers at Folsom lake. We are accepted and cleared to start Dec. 1st.If you are in the area Dec. to April,stop in and see us in site#54
When we were in Sac. last Saturday I took a couple of pictures of our old house.It is my Daughter Jackie and her husband Dustin's house now.They have done a wonderful job of remodeling it.They have redone the inside and out and brought the old dinosaur to code.What caught my eye as Jeni and I drove up to the house,the new paint job.It's amasing what a paint job can do.

harvest festival at park sierra

Howdy partner. Me n Jeni Lynn have been sprucing up the "ole" golf cart for the Harvest festival.Thursday afternoon we decorated the cart and had it ready to go for the decorating contest and poker run on Friday.Thats us in costume in the picture with our cart.in the back of the cart we had pumpkins,boxes of apples,pears, and tomatoes.also flowers and straw.


Well to our surprise, we won first place for the best decorated cart. We were thrilled!


We have had a ball these last three days with the harvest festival.It started Thursday with the annual meeting.Then elections for the new president and board members and a patio cocktail party at 4pm. Jeni and I didn.t attend the patio party as we were decorating the cart and the time got away from us.But we did make it to the Wii bowling tournament Thursday night. The girls kicked us guys behinds.


Friday morning we headed the cart over to the clubhouse for the poker run and deco. contest(which as I said earlier we won). I took a picture of the parking lot it was full of carts and cars.They had all kinds of activities going on in the clubhouse and outside Jeni and I were competing in the golf cart "poker run" They give you a map with 5 stations marked on it.you drive to each station where they give you an envelope with a playing card inside(1-10 jack queen king). After going to all 5 stations, you head back to the club house where you turn in your 5 cards and make a poker hand out of it. The highest hand wins.we didn't even have a pair.I think the winning hand was 3-eights.


Back at the clubhouse we were in the cake walk which I won a very nice sour cream peach bundt cake.yummy!Another event we enjoyed was the pony races.Six people held wooden horse heads (made by my buddy Gary) and stood at the starting line,then the the race official(my buddy Gary) rolls two different color dice. One color is for the number of the horse and the other is how many spaces the horse moves.We didn't win a race.I bet it all on the horse the clown was riding (see clown in pic.) but that horse must of been lame!All in all we had a great day.


Friday night they had a delicious pork dinner with mashed potato's and mushroom gravy and veges.They served over 200 people.The clubhouse was at capacity.The hard working volunteers had us all fed in no time at all.This park runs on it's hard working members and our hats are off to all of them.Jeni even volunteered Friday pulling K P duty at the hot dog stand(I ate 2 foot longs!yummy)and she played security guard at the raffle prize table for a couple of hours .
Me, I just played games and ate hot dogs.But if somebody needed something I was their Man!The guy who runs these dinners for the members is Ed George(in the blue apron)He does a great job.The pork loin he prepared for the dinner was the best I've ever tasted.The price of this gourmet dinner including coffee and dessert,5 bucks,what a deal!

After we chowed down it was time for entertainment.the members put on a variety show called "Hillside hillbilly hoedown".What a hoot.They have some very talented people at this park.

after the play we headed home very tired but with great memories of the harvest Festival of 09.

Saturday morning we went over to the clubhouse for the "hitch up" breakfast. this is the end of the harvest Festival and all the guests will be hooking up and leaving today.What a great three days we have had.

Today also happens to be our wedding anniversary. 39 years! wow it seems like just yesterday.We went to dinner at a nice little Italian restaurant in Oakhurst called Decicci's.On hwy 41.I highly recommend it. Then we headed home to watch a movie Jeni bought earlier this week.We curled up on the couch and snuggled.and enjoyed the movie.I think it was called "the proposal".Life's Good!

Beautiful Weather

The weather here at Park Sierra has turned from summer to fall.The leaves are turning Autumn colors,the acorns are falling off the oak trees,and we have crisp cool mornings here.
That cool red golf cart that we are sitting in,well it's ours! I bought that baby from one of the guys here I volunteer with. He moved out of the park so I made him an offer he couldn't refuse(actually Jeni did).It gets us around the park and even has an enclosure that drops down from the roof and zips up to keep you warm and dry when it rains.I have been driving it to the pole barn in the mornings and Jeni takes it when she works in the office.
Speaking of work; it has cooled off weather wise so the working has been easier and not as physical as during the last few weeks when it was so hot.It's something different every day so you never get bored.I also like the fact that you work with different people each day so you get to know pretty much everyone.
The weather has been so nice that Jeni and I have been having our morning coffee on our deck enjoying the birds and the spectacular views of the park.Our site is elevated so we look down over the surrounding area.The picture I took gives you an idea of our vantage point.It doesn't get any better than this!What a life we live.
next week the park is having a three day event called "Harvest Festival" in conjunction with their annual meeting and board election.They are having a "poker run" and decorating contest for golf carts,(Jeni and I are entered in both) a silent auction,games and contests,food, a Fri. night dinner feast,and movie night sat. night.It is going to be a ball.Jeni has signed up to volunteer at various venues during the festival.I will have pictures for this on the next blog for sure!
The park is filling up now as with the bad weather up north everybody is headed south.Jeni and I have been keeping busy after work as Tuesday night is "dinner out with the escapees" as the park members eat at a different restaurant in the area each week.Friday night is card night at the club house with two nice couples we have met.We play a variety of card games but I've been very lucky so far,no "hand and foot"! Saturday night we play a game called "pegs and jokers" it's kinda like "Chinese checkers" but with more twists and turns.All in all we are busy little bees,today we went in to Fresno to get some material for decorating the cart."Stay tuned" for the outcome!
Tuesday of this week we took the RV to Oakhurst to get it smog ed.Now I had called ahead to make sure this place could do it and there would be no surprises when we got up there,RIGHT! the first thing out of the guys mouth was he wasn't sure as we might have a rig that needs an "enhanced smog",WHAT! you have got to be kidding me just smog it!He would check my Vin number but everything was probably OK.YEA!,after about 20 minutes he let me know he couldn't smog it!!!.........After Jeni pulled me off the guy(just kidding) we headed back down the hill to the park.Lets see ,a 32 mile round trip,20 bucks in gas,and 2 hours shot,what a deal.another place I won't be going back to for sure.As I" steamed",Jeni reminded me of the beautiful park we are at,and the beautiful weather,I could feel the "ole"blood pressure coming back to normal. Lifes too short i'll put it behind me.OOOMMM-OOOMMM,

Timber!

Well we spent the week recouping from the wedding and I could hardly get out of my cart to work on Monday.We really enjoy volunteering here at Park Sierra.Every day is a different duty. the only thing that is the same is breaktime with cookies.Jeni has been working in the office and cleaning and raking the rental sites.I have been backfilling where we replaced the water valves, building wooden covers for aeriator pumps,replacing the plywood floor in one of the rental sheds,and my favorite, trimming trees! They have some volunteers that have been sealing asphalt cracks in the roads and they have scheduled a truck to come in next week to "fog seal" the main roads in the park. I have managed

to avoid the "crack sealing" crew so far.

One thing I did get in on this week was the tree cutting crew. There was an old oak tree that was dead in the park, and we went out and cut it down.It was pretty big and probably yeilded a couple of cords of firewood. The picture shows the final remmnants of the big oak."monster"tree.Timber! That was the hardest I worked all week.I got 2 cookies that day!

We have been trying to decide where to end up this winter and as luck would have it we will be "camphosting" at the very place we started volunteering 5 years ago.Beals Point State Park at Folsom Lake. The Ranger contacted us about needing help this winter,and when we went to Sacramento for the wedding we met with him and finalized the deal. We will be there from Dec. 1st. til may 1st. If your in the area stop in. Jeni and I think that by next summer we will be members of Park Sierra as we are 24th on the list.

Jeni is upset as we haven't been able to play cards on Friday night at the clubhouse.Friday we had to head back to Sacramento as Jeni had DR's appointments so no cards again.I don't know how long my lucks going to hold!

We came back Saturday and the weather at the park went straight from summer to winter.It was 41 degrees last night and 65 degrees today.Fall is here!