It's been exactly a month since I posted last time.
We are now through our concerts here in Colorado and only have a week left to stay here. I am back to normal again and am feeling fine. All told, we did 16 concerts or special music things.
We got a 'new' (to us) Chrysler van which is very nice. We are enjoying it lots. It looks very much like our old one but is 7 years newer and almost 100,000 miles fewer.
We feel so blessed during our stay this year. God has really been good to us.
We head north to Cheyenne WY for a short visit, then to Saratoga WY, then to Lincoln City and Salem OR, Vancouver WA, then Stockton and Lodi CA.
Our projected arrival back in Desert Hot Springs CA for the winter is Oct. 7 or 8.

Lots has been happening

Since I posted last on June 25, lots has gone on. Our grandson, Caleb, and his bride, Rachel, were married on June 27 in Colorado Springs, CO. A lovely wedding and reception after. We are delighted to welcome Rachel into our family.
On July 2, we went from Colo. Spgs to Galeton CO where gracious friends provided a lovely huge apartment for us for the summer.
On July 5, we had a Mimms Family Reunion with 48 attending, mostly our side of the family (of course, when you have 8 children, 13 grandchildren and 9 great-gramds. what do you expect?) It was held at our son and daughter=in-law's home, John and Ramona Baker, in order to avoid a daily rain storm. It's a good thing, as there was a rain. I took some pictures, but none of the groups turned out well. We had a good time and a delightful potluck meal.
We had decided to see if we could sell our travel trailer which we had lived in 24-7 for 10 years,, so we started to clean it out. You can't imagine how much STUFF you can stuff into a trailer in that time. We mostly gave it away, but saved a little and gave away a little. While this was going on, I got sick and spent 3 days in the hospital. The diagnosis was gastritis. I was one sick cooky. Really glad to get back home and recuperate. While this was going on, we did sell the trailer. I am now nearly back to normal again.

We are now knee deep in our concert schedule for the summer. It will keep us busy.

New Quilt

I just finished a new quilt for our grandson and his bride-to-be. It is totally different from all the others and I think it turned out well. I am now working on one for my granddaughter Joy.

Concerts Summer 2009:

Concerts this summer:

Birchwood Apartments, Greeley 12 July 2:30 pm

Sherwood Baptist Church, Greeley 19 July 11 am

Johnstown Sr Center 22 July 10 am

Windsor Christian Church, Windsor 26 July 10 am

Bank of Choice, Greeley 27 July 11am

Windsor Sr Center 29 July 10:30 am

Kersey Sr Center 30 July 11:30 am

Weekend at Coburn’s August 1 and 2

Briggsdale Church 9 August 9 am

Milliken Sr Center 10 August 10 am 11 am

Ault Sr Center 11 August 11:45 lunch, 12:30 concert

Hereford Church/Hereford Day 16 August 11 am

Water Valley Good Samaritan 18 August 1 pm

Bonell Good Samaritan Comm. Greeley 23 August 10 am

JOY Club, Vancouver WA, 15 Sept, 12 noon

Almond Pl Clubhouse, 471 E Almond Place, Lodi CA, 23 Sept, 7 pm

Berea Sr Potluck & concert, 4957 E Quashnick Rd, Stockton CA, 25 Sept 6 pm

Berea Baptist Church, same as above, Stockton CA, 27 Sept, 11 and 6 pm

Ashley Pl Assisted Lvg, 1321 S Fairmont Ave, Lodi CA, 30 Sept, 1:30 pm

Haven of Peace Women's Shelter, 7070 S Harlan Rd, French Camp CA, 2 Oct, 7 pm

New Schedule of Concerts

Concerts this summer: 2009

Birchwood Apartments, Greeley 12 July 2:30 pm

Sherwood Baptist Church, Greeley 19 July 11 am

Johnstown Sr Center 22 July 10 am

Windsor Christian Church, Windsor 26 July 10 am

Bank of Choice, Greeley 27 July 11am

Windsor Sr Center 29 July 10:30 am

Kersey Sr Center 30 July 11:30 am

Weekend at Coburn’s August 1 and 2

Briggsdale Church 9 August 9 am

Milliken Sr Center 10 August 10 am

Hereford Church/Hereford Day 16 August 11 am

Bonell Good Samaritan Comm. Greeley 23 August 10 am

Encampment WY Bapt Church 30 August 10:30 am

Pending:

Eaton Sr Center

Ault Sr Center

Galeton Comm Church, Galeton CO

JOY Club, Vancouver WA 15 Sept 12 noon

Almond Pl Clubhouse , Lodi CA 23 Sept 7 pm

Berea Sr Potluck & concert, Stockton CA 25 Sept 5 pm

Berea Baptist Church “ 27 Sept 11 am & 6 pm

Ashley Pl Assisted Lvg. Lodi C 30 Sept 1:30 pm

For more info call 760-220-7789

Back to Colorado

I am ashamed that I haven't posted in so long. I just got out of the habit and couldn't seem to get back to it. We are still in southern CA for a few more days and then go to Colorado Springs, CO. We'll stay with our kids there for about 2 weeks and while there our grandson gets married and we'll go to that. Plus seeing other friends and relatives in that area.
After that the first or second of July we go to northern Colorado. We just found out that we'll have an apartment in some friends' basement for the months of July and August. So we won't be living in our 32' trailer this summer. We are going to try to sell it. It is getting to be too much for Travis to handle anymore. I'll be 75 in a few days and he'll be 76 in August. An apartment looks really good to us now.
I'm still making quilts and have finished the 23rd one now and have another one more than half done. I seem to go right from one to another, always having one in the process. It is really relaxing forme and I get a lot quilted while we drive down the road. I can't read or cross stitch, but can quilt and crochet.

Off on a trip again

These are four of our eight great-grandchildren, Jacob, Evan, Lillie and Maddie.

We're just about ready to start on another trek or advemture. We leave tomorrow morning for northeastern Colorado and my youngest brother's home. We go to visit my sister and husband with him, then to Kansas to visit a friend and a cousin (well, she's a friend, too) and then to Arkansas to see our two daughters who live there. It's been two years since we visited them, so we are really looking forward to that. By now the weather has moderated some there. We'll almost be in time for the fall colors there.
I finished the king size quilt for Tammy and started on another one, this time for grandson, David, who just turned ten. I am almost ready to start the final assembling of that one.
We just had a reunion/reception on Sept. 20, with nearly 40 attending. Our oldest daughter, Connie, graciously lent her house and yard for this. Tammy and Mike who are getting married Nov. 1 were the honored guests. Also it was Kylene's second birthday. Lots of fun and visiting was enjoyed.
As usual, the last two weeks turned into a circus, with trying to see everyone we know for the last time. It isn't possible.
The weather is moderating in southern California and we are thinking about arriving back there in about a month. Doesn't see as if the summer trip is almost over already.

I finally got done with the quilt I was making for our daughter, Tammy. It took away longer than any other one has so far, almost ten months. Since I make them mostly by hand, they do take longer, and this was a king size one. Besides running into a glitch of needing to make it bigger than I started to and not being able to find a fabric to match. I had to make do with what I had, but it set me back nearly a month. Ah, well. Such is life. It is really pretty, but not to everyone's taste as it is bright colors in batik prints. When I am finished, I don't have to put it into a quilt frame and quilt it. I do each piece complete, so when I am done, it is finished, both sides. I am including pictures of both sides here so you can see. As it is king size and I had to be rather far away to get it all in the picture, it looks small, but really it is HUGE!
I finished it on August 8, but had to wait until after August 23 when we had a wedding shower for Tammy. We displayed it as a surprise for her.
I have already started on a new one, a twin size for grandson, David. It is going to be interesting as it is mixed colored flowerettes on one side and hodge podge (no pattern) in beige prints on the back side. I want it to be more masculine for him, so really had to choose fabrics carefully. So many fabrics are floral and very girly. I really enjoy quilting, as you can tell. Planning a new quilt is lots of fun and sometimes a challenge.
We got a lovely surprise Sunday. We had a concert along with the church service at Bonell Senior Apartments in Greeley and had some friends from Vancouver, WA come in to worship and visit with us. They also live in Desert Hot Springs CA in the winter like we do. It was really great to see them again. The season is beginning to wind down now. Not much time to visit family and play music before we head out again.

I've really been goofing off lately and haven't written here. We have had a great summer so far. It started off with a wonderful week on Lake Powell on a houseboat. Our friends, Hal and Dee own it and had invited us a couple years ago to join them this year. We are so glad we did. It was a completely relaxing time, with nothing to do except watch the absolutely gorgeous rock formations go by, eat (with a gourmet cook, Dee), sleep, read and swim. I also got some quilting done. We heard no news, watched no TV, although we could have, and really enjoyed ourselves. What a vacation! Usually you have to go home from a vacation to rest up, but this was not the case with this vacation. We can't say enough thanks to Hal and Dee for their wonderful hospitality. We had a ball!!!

Then we went to Rocky Ford CO for a few days, which we spent with our friends, the Gragerts, who pastor a Southern Baptist Church there. We were included in a huge garage sale, which since I didn't have to organize it, was great fun. Also we did a concert and a sing-a-long while there, and took part in a neat potluck dinner. Old friendships were renewed while there and we made new friends, too. What a good visit!

Next on the agenda was the trip back to northern CO to where our trailer was stored for the winter. Our gracious hostess, Carol Lontine, welcomed us and took us in until we could move our trailer to her property and get it set up. We are southwest of Kersey, CO. Since the Robels, where we stayed last year, are building a new house, they had no utilities available for us, so we had to move out. But at Carol's, we have 14 llamas, a dog, three cats and a turtle for company, besides Carol. We are helping her with the animals and allowing her to be away sometimes. She went to her 50th class reunion in Denver at East High shortly after we got there.

We have done a lot of concerts, mostly at Senior Centers, since we got here. Things are going well for us here. Already tho, we see the end of this season here coming.

Back in Lodi again

I haven't been very good again. We have been in Lodi CA for almost two weeks and leave tomorrow morning. We go to Tonopah, NV, tomorrow night, then to Lake Powell the next day. We'll stay on a houseboat with friends from our mobile park in southern CA while we are there. Sounds like fun to me. A complete rest for a week. I think.
It has been really very pleasant here, not too hot. We've done seven concerts or special music things already and have another this afternoon. The time has flown.
I will be offline for a couple weeks, so can't update this until after we get to CO. I hope to have a lot of pictures from the Lake Powell trip by then.

Where we are now

I realize this is way late. I haven't been updating my blog for a lonnnnnng time. Sorry. We are still in souuthern CA at Rainbow Spa Park until June 15 when we head out for northern CA and do several concerts there and visit friends and relatives. Then to Lake Powell to spend a week on a houseboat with friends. Finally after that, we go to Colorado for a couple months.

We had a few days of HOT weather, 113 and 114, but after that we had a week or so of unseasonable cool. Now it is back up to almost normal, which is 90s. It is 84 right now. We like this better than triple digit stuff. That was toooo hot.

We are dog sitting for a couple weeks with a darling little shiatsu named Candy. We haven't had a dog since we went on the road, so this is a real experience for us. We are having fun with her.

New Schedule for Summer 2008

New schedule:
June 23, concert 2 p.m. at Hampton Care Center, 442 Hampton, Stockton CA. 466-0456
June 25, concert 3 p.m. at Sunbridge Heritage Care Center, 9107 N. Davis Rd Stockton CA
June 26, concert 1:30 p.m., Ashley Place, 1321 S. Fairmont Ave, Lodi CA
June 27, potluck 5 p.m., concert 6 p.m. Berea Baptist Church, 4957 Quashnick Road Stockton CA
June 29, short concert, 11a.m. Berea Baptist Church
June 29, concert at 6 p.m., Berea Baptist Church
July 13, special music, 11 a.m. Washington Ave. Baptist Church, 909 W. Washington Ave, Rocky Ford CO
July 13, concert at 6 p.m. Washington Ave. Baptist Church, 909 W. Washington Ave, Rocky Ford CO
July 23, 10 a.m. concert, Johnstown Senior Center. Johnstown CO
July 25, 12 lunch with concert following, Milliken Senior Center, Milliken CO
July 27, 2:30 p.m. concert, Birchwood Manor 2830 27th St Greeley CO
July 29, 11:45 lunch with concert following, Ault Senior Center, 204 1st St. Ault CO
July 31, 11:30 lunch with concert following, Kersey Senior Center, Kersey CO
Aug. 5, concert at Evans Senior Center, 10:45 a.m., Evans CO
Aug.7, concert at 4:15, Greeley Place, 1051 6th St Greeley CO
Aug. 10, special music, 9 a.m. Galeton Community Church, Galeton CO
Aug. 17, concert at 9 a.m. Briggsdale Community Church, Briggsdale CO
Aug. 17, concert at 11 a.m. Hereford Community Church, Hereford CO
Aug. 17, potluck following church service, then Hereford Day, Hereford CO
Aug. 20, concert 11 a.m. Eaton Senior Center, at Evang. Free Church bldg. Eaton CO
Aug. 24, special music,10 a.m. Bonell Good Samaritan Home, 708 22nd St Greeley, CO
Aug. 27, concert after noon luncheon, Windsor Senior Center, Windsor CO
Sept. 7, concert at 10 a.m. Windsor Christian Church, 6th & Walnut, Windsor CO
Sept. 15, concert at 11 a.m. at Ft. Lupton Senior Center, Ft. Lupton CO

Fun in Texas

We spent nearly two weeks visiting Travis' cousins, Novella and Vern. They live 10 miles east of Dickens TX just 1/4 mile from where Travis was born. It is way out in the boonies. We had an absolute blast with them. They are really from Stockton CA, but moved down there to help her mother who is 96 and now is in a private care home in Spur TX. We visited her and Travis took his guitar and sang her some songs. She had remembered us and enjoyed that. While there Travis and Vern went hunting from a pickup (since Travis doesn't walk much with his bad back) and saw deer, wild hogs, a porcupine and he shot a diamond back rattlesnake. That thrilled him. He saved the rattles for posterity. I'll post a picture of the snake. We also went sight seeing in the big towns of Dickens and Spur and at the Pitchfork Land and Cattle Co. (where Travis' dad worked when he was a young man) and the 6666 Cattle Ranch. Both the ranches are right around where Novella and Vern live and both are huge. They do cowboying from horses mostly and have lots of them. Novella and Vern have a bunch of cats, all tailless Manx variety. I had never seen one live before. Just heard about them and seen a picture or two.

Concert and Sing-A-Long Schedule

November 3, 7 p.m. Sing-A-Long at Desert Pools RV Resort, Dillon Road, Desert Hot Springs CA
This is a monthly event, every first Saturday of the month through April.
Starting Sunday, Nov. 4, 3 - 5 p.m., Jam Session at Catalina Spa RV Resort, Corkhill Road, Desert Hot Springs CA
This is a weekly event. Travis plays lead guitar for it and sings some, too.
January 17, 7 p.m. Gospel Concert at Desert Pools RV Resort, Dillon Road, Desert Hot Springs CA
February 14, 7 p.m. Country Classic and Valentines Concert at Desert Pools RV Resort, Dillon Road, Desert Hot Springs CA

More to come later.

More quilts

Gosh, it's been since Sept. 6 since I updated this. Sorry. We were traveling and visiting and going to a Mimms Family Reunion. I have been busy since we got back to Southern CA with cleaning and unpacking. Also have to make a new baby quilt for our brand new great-granddaughter, Ella Marie Nietfeld. She was born 5 weeks early and I had no access to my fabrics until I got here. I'd have had it made otherwise. I tie the baby quilts, not quilt them. But you can't call them a baby tie, can you? I am getting almost finished with the quilt for daughter Connie. It is going to be lovely. The pictures show the front and back sides of it. I have also started on one for daughter Tammy done all in wild batik prints. It'll be lovely, too, but really different from any other ones I've done. I'll show some of it later.

We had a very good summer, staying in our trailer at Tim and Leanne Robel's farm near Galeton CO. We did lots of concerts and had very good visits with lots of family and friends. We had a great time with Travis' third cousin, Novella and her husband, Vern, then the Reunion was a total success, according to me. We really enjoyed seeing 'old' acquaintances and meeting 'new' members of his family. More about that later.

September-October Concert Schedule

September 22, Cowboy Church, Hasty FireHouse, Hasty CO, 7 p.m.
September 23, Rocky Ford Wash. Ave. Southern Baptist Church, Rocky Ford CO, 10:45 a.m. Special Music, 6:30 p.m. Concert
September 27-28-29, Navajo Lake Retreat, near Durango CO
September 30, Mancos United Methodist, Mancos CO, 11 a.m.
October 7, Coronado Baptist Church, Espanola NM concert, 11 a.m.

News from Northern Colorado

It’s been a while since I updated this. I have been without a computer as mine bit the dust. Ah well, it was seven years old and had done yeoman’s duty all that time. I can’t complain, except that I’ve been without a computer and it is hard not to have one when you’re used to one... I have ordered a new one and it should be here in a week or so, at least before we leave here the 20th. My son, John, is helping me with it. Right now I am using the neighbor’s computer. Thank heaven for good neighbors.
We have been really busy this summer and have done quite a few concerts. We’ve seen lots of family and friends, too. I started a new quilt for our daughter, Connie. As of now I have it nearly half done. Many of you know that I make quilts basically by hand, using the lap quilting technique which does not require a quilting frame. I have made lots of them and really enjoy it. The quilt shown here is my granddaughter, Amanda's.
Although we have enjoyed our stay here and love the place we are parked now on the farm out by Galeton, CO, we are getting ready to leave and go back to southern CA for the winter. We also have made arrangements to go to the Mimms’ Reunion in Lubbock, TX, on October 20. Before we leave here I have a 55th Class Reunion on September 15. That’ll be fun and interesting.

Back to Colorado

We have done many things and gone many miles since the last update. We spent time at Milton-Freewater OR and did a concert there. Had a wonderful time. Then we went to Kalispell MT for about a week over the 4th of July. We visited friends Roy and Judy there and had lots of fun. We hadn't seen them for several years. Traveling south from there, we went through Yellowstone National Park and enjoyed that. We didn’t see much wildlife, but lots of geysers, etc. Our destination from there was Saratoga WY for a short visit with friends and then we headed for Loveland CO. When we arrived there, we had to move our trailer from our brother-in-law’s back yard out to a farm near Galeton, north of Greeley CO. it involved quite a bit of cleaning and putting away, as we hadn't lived in it for nine months. We also had no food in the house and so had to go to town to stock up some. On Saturday, July 14, our oldest daughter and her husband had a family get-together. If I counted right there were 38 people there, all relatives. We got to see almost all of our great-grandchildren and most of our children and grandchildren, plus many others we hadn’t seen for nearly a year. I took lots of pictures. The smaller children had a blast playing in the water as it was a hot day. The picture is of all the smaller ones. The four bigger ones are grandchildren and all but one (a grandniece) are great-grandchildren. I went back with Mary the next day to her home at Holyoke CO. her husband Jesse was gone for two weeks at Annual Training with the National Guard, so I helped her and we visited and I had a good time with our grandchildren. While there, my brother Charlie and I went to Alliance NE to see my sister and her husband who are in a nursing home there. While there we also visited our granddaughter Kellie, her husband Matt and their daughter Claire. Travis came out to visit and reclaim me the next weekend. Now we are back in our trailer near Galeton for a while.

In Oregon now

After a great time with cousin Rhonda, we traveled thru Oregon and visited more relatives and friends and wound up at Vancouver WA for a few days visit with Duane and Elsie Kennedy. While there we rested and did a concert for their Senior Citizen group, the J.O.Y. (Just Older Youth) Club. What a good time we had there. We are now near Sumpter OR visiting with dear friends, Marty and Wayne Robb. They live way out in the woods and seem to be really isolated, but in reality are only 5 miles from Sumpter. It just seems like farther and they are surrounded by trees and have a lovely log house which they built. We have had a great time with them. Thursday was my birthday and our anniversary and we went to Weiser ID to the Old Time Fiddlers Contest . That was the day for the 14-18 year old competition and we saw lots of very talented young fiddlers, including our friend, James Schlender, aged 14. He was a crowd favorite. The Robbs took us out for birthday-anniversary lunch and I had the greatest hamburger I've ever had. Anybody who wants to have a great hamburger in Weiser ID, go to the Beehive Restaurant. On the way back home, at Baker City OR, we stopped for Blizzards at Dairy Queen. What a good day!! We rode the Sumpter Valley Train the next day and it was a real experience. It broke down and we had to wait for it to get up a head of steam again several times. It was fun. We did a concert at the Meadowbrook Nursing Home and one at McEwen Fellowship Church, both of which were lots of fun. We got to meet lots of new friends and sing for the Lord. The weather has been picture perfect for our whole trip. We couldn't ask for better. We'll be leaving here tomorrow for Milton-Freewater OR to visit friends, the Chinn's there and do a concert at their church. We've met so many great people on our travels. It seems as if the word great has been overused in this post, but it has been great! We go on from M-F to Kallispel, Montana, and then to Colorado for the rest of the summer. We're looking forward to seeing all our children and grandchildren there.

August-October Schedule

August-October Schedule
August 5, LaSalle Baptist, 10 a.m., LaSalle CO
August 9, Kersey Senior Center, 11:30 a.m., Kersey CO
August 12, Galeton Community Church, 9 a.m., Galeton CO Special Music
August 14, Ault CO Senior Center, noon
August 26, Briggsdale and Hereford CO concerts, 9 & 11 a.m.
September 2, Windsor Christian Church, Windsor CO, 10 a.m.
September 5, Greeley Place, 1:30 p.m. Greeley CO
September 22, Cowboy Church, Hasty FireHouse, Hasty CO, 7 p.m.
September 23, Rocky Ford Wash. Ave. Southern Baptist Church, Rocky Ford CO, a.m.
September 27-28-29, Navajo Lake Retreat, near Durango CO
September 30, Mancos United Methodist, Mancos CO, 11 a.m.
October 7, Coronado Baptist Church, Espanola NM concert, 11 a.m.