Now what?

Why is all this stuff on the patio instead of in our basement storage? It can't be good.



It wasn't. The last couple of times we turned on the furnace, there was a screeching sound, not a blower operating normally. It isn't time for heat, but we thought it was better to get it fixed before the need arose.

We thought the folks doing the repair might need to access the back of the furnace compartment, so John took out a good part of the things we store in the basement and removed the partitions between the storage area and the utility area. Look at all those wires and pipes and stuff!



And look at this! Behind all those pipes and stuff, below the floor, John found a space filled with pine cones. Where on earth did those come from?



We still have no idea. We found mouse dropping behind the partition, but these look too big for a mouse to carry around. Squirrels, maybe? Anybody have other ideas? Wherever they came from, John twisted and and reached and picked up most of them.







Then he used the vacuum to clean up as much as possible.



Desert RV arrived at 8:30.



Ron and Lauren listened to the furnace motor,



said we needed a new one, drove back to the shop, returned with it and installed the new one. In the process, they found a dead mouse in the furnace. Yuk.



By 10 am, everything was repaired. Good service, good work. Before they left, we asked them to order a new cover for the air conditioner that we damaged in the RV wash in Haines in August.

It has been an expensive week. We wouldn't mind being nickel and dimed, but it has been $300 here, $300 there. I hope it stops for a while.

Winding Down

We have been here at Lathrop State Park since late May and now we have only one more weekend to work. We will be leaving just after Labor Day. We will miss our great site. We have great views, privacy, quiet.



We will miss our cute cottontail rabbits.



And the hungry humming birds.



And certainly the deer in the yard.



We won't miss checking for mice every morning.



Or goat heads. They are the seeds of a nasty plant that grows around our trailer here. These wicked seeds look like pictures I have seen of kidney stones, but smaller. They stick on the bottom of our shoes, then we track them inside. If we forget to clean them up, we find them with our bare feet later. That is no fun.

We won't miss the constant threat of hungry bears. For the past few weeks, that has meant I am afraid to go outside after dark, even to get in our basement. I am putting smelly garbage from dinner into the freezer until we can take it to the trash the next morning. We love seeing bears when they aren't too hungry and they aren't too close to our home. We don't want to encounter them looking for food right here.

When we are parked in one spot for quite a while, there is always a lot of stuff to put away before we can drive down the road. We have started by putting away stained glass pieces we hang in the windows and John's carved figures that sit on the desk.



There are outdoor mats, the BBQ grill and stand, wheel covers and chairs to put away. And the basement to re-organize. We have three days off this week and next Tuesday to get this done, so it won't be that hard. But we are getting anxious to move on, to take a few months off from volunteering. It is time for a change of pace.

Our Front Yard

This is our last week at Lathrop State Park. We work through Labor Day, then leave on Tuesday for Chatfield State Park near Denver. We really like Lathrop. We have been coming here for years and have had even more time to explore the park during our two stays here as volunteers.

Part of what we enjoy so much is what we see out of our front window. Last month two of the buck deer that live nearby came up here to feed in the evening. This was our most recent visitor.



Earlier this two-point buck came to feed on the vegetation.



Not all the wildlife is that big. We have quite a few cottontail rabbits. This is one of the adults. It seems obvious that the adults have been doing what rabbits do best, based on the number of young bunnies we see around.



I set out two hummingbird feeders and we have really enjoyed all the birds they attracted. I think we have had at least three different kinds. It is really difficult to get a picture of these fast-moving birds without them just be a blur.



Of course, we have even smaller visitors--especially the mosquitoes. We've had one mouse--yuk. And nearby we have seen bull snakes and bear scat. The black bear we saw our first evening here is the only one we spotted this season, but we do know they have been around.

When we parked our rig, we found the previous volunteers here--who had to leave early because of family illness--had planted some tomatoes. Here is what the plants look like today.



As you can see, some of the fruit is getting ripe and we are enjoying it. We also think the resident moles are enjoying the plants--thus the shriveled leaves you see. There is also a pepper plant there, but it just bloomed in the past two weeks so we won't see anything from that plant mature to the place we can eat it.

We also have a day lily plant that is blooming, in addition to the native vegetation.



The sunsets here are also impressive.



We plan to return to Lathrop next summer, assuming the same jobs are available to us. We never know for sure what will happen, but we do enjoy our time here.