When your number is called.....

 8:30 am - Friday - January 2nd - TWW - 43% F, humidity 81%,wind 5 mph out of the west by southwest.....partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 50° F.  On this date in 2013 TLE and I were awaiting our breakfast orders at Kona Joe's Island Cafe.....

....in Cedar Key, FL.....they served, obviously, Kona Coffee.  This was one of our favorite hangout places that did not survive the hurricanes.

As we have done all of the years of our marriage, we began New Years day watching the Rose Parade in Pasadena, CA.  For the first time in 20 years it rained on New Years day in Pasadena.  My family moved to Pasadena in 1963, and TLE and I lived there until 1985.  In those 22 years I only remember it raining on New Years day one time.  I came of age there, held the hand of a girl for the first time there, learned how to drive there, TLE and met there, and were married there, and all 5 of our kids were born there.  As a teenager I loved being on Colorado Boulevard on New Years Eve watching cool cars slowly rumble up and down her length.  My friend Tom Carrozzo and I rode his 1965 Honda S90 up and down that boulevard until the early morning hours one year.  I attended numerous Rose Bowl games with my father over those years, which most often featured the USC Trojans vs. the best team from the Big Ten that year, usually Michigan, or Ohio State.  I have a lot of fond memories from that time, and Pasadena will always hold a special place in my heart.

It was also raining here at The Wilson Wilderness as we awakened New Years morning, and continued to do so on and off all day long, so we spent 99.9% of our time enjoying the warm confines of our 1982 Newell Classic.  That reminds me....I received a text message from Patty Ward, the wife of good friend Steve Ward, who sold Phyllis his 1982 Newell Classic (sister coach to our Newell) just a year ago.  She advised that Steve had passed unexpectedly just before Thanksgiving.  To say I was shocked is an understatement.  I had just talked with him on the phone for about 45 minutes a week, or two earlier.  Wow, you just never know when your number will be called, do you?  Happy New Year Steve from this life into the next life!

With the current rain storm our captured water at the greenhouse is increasing.....the IBC tote on the east side is half full (it has more water in it than the westside one as when we depressurized the house a couple of times while fixing the pump leaks we added that water to the east side one), and the IBC tote on the west side is 1/3 full now....amazing!  Our blue barrel at the shed receiving rain water from the shed roof also 1/2 full as of this morning (January 2nd)....that's 6 gallons of water we would never have seen, or been able to use watering plants.  When Charles and Phyllis return next week we will finish installing rain gutters on the house to capture rain water/snow melt in the future months.

There were three NCAA football playoff games on New Years Day.....#4 Texas Tech vs. #5 Oregon in the Orange Bowl (Florida).  We expected a competitive game, but received a lopsided 23-0 game with Oregon as the dominate winner.  Didn't see that one coming.  The Rose Bowl game (Pasadena) featured #1 Indiana vs. #9 Alabama, which ended up being another blowout of epic proportions.....38-3.....great job selection committee....lol!  The nightcap featured #3 Georgia vs. #6 Ole Miss (Mississippi) in the Sugar Bowl (NOLA) which finally gave us a competitive game.  It could have gone either way, but in the end Ole Miss was the better team winning 39-34 (the last 5 points on a field goal, and a safety) as the last second expired....that last second took 10 minutes to play....you had to see it to believe it.  So now the semi final matchups have been determined.....#10 Miami vs. #6 Ole Miss (January 8th), and #1 Indiana vs. #5 Oregon to be played in a week....January 9th.

The final game didn't end until 10 pm, and thus the first day of 2026 came to an end.  Life is good as we enter the year 2026, and we are looking forward to what life will bring in this new year.

Happy New Year, and thanks for stopping by!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

 8:42 am - Thursday - New Years Day 2026 - TWW - 42° F, humidity 92%, wind 7 mph out of the south by southeast.....heavy cloud cover today with a forecast high of 47° F...rained all night.  The view this morning.....

......and on this date 10 years ago we awoke to a Post Apocalyptic world.....

....in Ocotillo Wells, CA (near Salton Sea).....lots of dust in the air from all of the offroad toys running around all night.

When we went to bed Tuesday night we expected rain early in the morning, but when we woke up it was not raining, and the forecast had changed to showing rain in the late afternoon.  Originally we were going to wait until Friday, or Saturday to haul some more dirt/rocks out to that low spot on the driveway, but since we had a reprieve with the rain we decided to haul one more load, and get it spread out and compacted.  From beginning to end it took a little over an hour, and another 10 feet of the low spot were filled, and compacted.......

....the area in the red rectangle is what we added Wednesday.  It never really got 'warm' Wednesday with the high temp being in the low 40's, but we made the best of it.  

Our dirty clothes hamper was beginning to overflow, so TLE gathered together all of our laundry and headed into the house to do three loads of wash.  Have I mentioned how nice it is to not have to go into the laundromat in town to wash and dry our clothes?  While TLE was thus engaged I made a few minor repairs around the homestead, then headed inside to watch some NCAA College Football Bowl games around 2 pm, just as it began to rain....as always, perfect timing....lol!  

The main game of the day was the College Football Playoff game at 6 pm between the Ohio State Buckeyes (#2), and the Miami Hurricanes (#10), and it was  a great game, especially if you are from Miami like TLE.  The Hurricanes started strong leading at half time 14-0, then in the second half Ohio got on the board with 2 touchdowns, but still trailed 17-14 with 6 minutes to go.  Miami made a game winning, time consuming 75 yard drive scoring a touchdown with 55 seconds to go to lead by 10 points, and that is how the game ended....a win for the ages by the Miami Hurricanes.

We rarely, if ever, are awake when the clock strikes 12 midnight on New Year's Eve, and this year was no exception.  I did wake up around 12:06 am, and wished TLE a Happy New Year...she happened to be awake, too.  It rained pretty continuously all night, stopping just before 8 am this morning (Thursday).  Happy New year to one and all from the Hockwalds....

.....2017, Grand Canyon National Park near the east entrance (Watchtower).

The new 2026 calendar is on the wall.....

Thanks for stopping by!

A passing 'grade'.....

 08:29 am - Wednesday - The Eve of a New Year - TWW - 34° F, humidity 32%, wind 6 mph out of the east.....partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 57° F, and rain later this afternoon.  The view this morning.....

.....and on this date in 2012 TLE and I experience one of the most amazing, captivating, beautiful sunsets we have every seen to this day.....

.....at the Tiki Bar at Low Key Hideaway in Cedar Key, FL....the water was so glassy it perfectly reflected the sunset.  We were about 10 months into our first year as nomads.

On Monday TLE and I began hauling rock out to the low spot in the entry driveway....two Yamaha Rhino utility beds full, to be exact, so Tuesday we fired up the Ford diesel 420 loader to scoop up a few loads of lava rock which is about 50 feet from the driver side of our Newell.  I noticed this pile of small lava rock last year and figured it would come in handy in the future, and Tuesday was the day.  I managed to haul two more bucket loads of the lava rock out to the same site, and then the hard work began....spreading it out, and then compacting it with the Ford diesel 420....

.....we wanted to get this rock spread out and compacted while the dirt was still soft from the recent rains, and it worked out better than we expected.  We'll be hauling some more rock after the next rain  (12/31/25 and 01/01/2026) passes through the area in the area in the foreground of the picture above.  We'll know soon enough if this new effort at firming up, and raising the elevation of the south side of the driveway in this area works.  At this point we are cautiously optimistic.

As has been the case for the past few days it was breezy, and oh so cold, but we are slowly getting acclimated to working in colder conditions just as we did last year.  It would be easier to just sit inside where it's warm, but then we would never get anything done.

We finished with the grading project a little after 12 pm, and took a break.  After putting the tools away we had been using I spent time topping off the Jeep battery, and then taking it for a 15 minute drive, before putting it away again.  By the time I finished it was after 2 pm, and getting cold fast as is most often the case this time of year.  

Thanks for stopping by!

"You kill it, we cook it"

 08:01 am - Tuesday - December 30th - TWW - 34° F, humidity 22%, wind 10 mph out of the east.....partly cloudy skies today with a forecast high of 56° F.  The view this morning.....

On this date in 2012 TLE and I were in Cedar Key, FL.....

....watching our first sunset.  We spent 5 weeks there.  It was magical.  Over the course of 5 weeks we had acquired enough sunset photos to fill 10 calendars.  It was our first year on the road, and we had just finished our first stint working at Amazon in Campbellsville, KY, which was also our first workamping job.  This was our second visit of 2012.  We first discovered Cedar Key in March of 2012, but we only spent a few days then.

We knew we had mail at our PO Box in Seligman (our new 2026 calendar), so we made plans to head into Seligman around 11 am.  It was far too windy to do anything outdoors, so we remained inside for most of the morning before getting dressed for our hour round trip drive.  We left a little after 11 am, and were in Seligman at the hardware store (Route 66 General Store) by 11:45 am.  We needed to get three 5 gallon propane tanks topped off (took 11.4 gallons), and to buy some pipe insulation for the water line which runs from the pump house to the greenhouse.

Next we stopped at the Post Office to retrieve our mail, and then next door at the Family Dollar store for a few things.  On our way out of town we decided to have lunch at 'Road Kill Diner' whose motto is "You kill it, we cook it"....not really, but it is funny.  We haven't eaten there this year yet, so it was time.  TLE and I split their French Dip and fries....

A giant Dr. Pepper (refillable)

.....just the right amount of food. We lingered there for the better part of an hour talking, and enjoying our French Dip and fries before making the 30 minute return trip to TWW.  The 1968 Ford Explorer, by the way, is running great, and we can make the 7 mile drive out to Route 66 in 10 minutes, or less.  In the VW it takes 25-30 minutes....a big, big difference.

After arriving home, and putting away the groceries I headed out to the pump house to install the pipe installation on the water line running to the greenhouse, so we don't have to turn it off at night to keep it from freezing.....

....most of the water line is underground except for the hose bibb in the greenhouse, and where it exits through the wall of the pump house.

By the time I finished it was after 3 pm, and you know what happens after 3 pm, right?  It gets cold very quickly, so I put away my tools, and headed for the Newell.  

Around 6 pm I make a quick trip out to the greenhouse to turn on the catalytic heater, and on my way back I caught the afterglow of the sunset.  Sometimes the best shots are 20-30 minutes after sunset.....

Thanks for stopping by!

When life interferes with plans....

 08:13 am - Monday - December 29th - TWW - 33° F, humidity 23%, wind 18 mph out of the east by northeast.....crystal clear, sunny, windy skies with a forecast high of 50° F, and winds in the 20-30 mph range all day long.  

.....similar to Sunday, but the sky is a deeper shade of blue.  On this date in 2018 TLE and I arrived at Cedar Key, FL for the third time in our nomadic wanderings.....

.....after working at Amazon in Campbellsville, KY for the third and final time.  Sadly, we have not returned to Cedar Key since then, although we think about it often.  The most magical time we spent there was for five weeks in  early 2013.  After 3 hurricanes causing extensive damage in the interval between 2013 and 2018 it was not the same.  Almost all of our favorite 'hangout' places had gone out of business.  As they say, "You can't go home", and sometimes that is true.

It was cold, and windy Sunday, and we did not get dressed to do any work outside until around 11 am.  Over he past 12 months TLE and I have raked a lot of smaller rocks into piles on the north side of our site, and we wanted to load them into the Yamaha Rhino and move them out to that low spot in the entry driveway we worked on a week, or two ago.  Unfortunately, the Yamaha was being cranky, and wouldn't start.  I ended up spending well over an hour trying to diagnose and fix it, and I did.  One of the fuel lines had a crack in it, which allowed air to enter the sealed system, which is not conducive to starting and running.  Once that was fixed we began loading 6 of the many small piles of rocks into the Yamaha.  When we had a full load we took them out to the driveway not far from the entrance, and dumped them along the side of the driveway.  We'll rake them out in the next day, or two, but we've still got 6, or 7 other piles to load and move.  By the time we finished around 2 pm it the temp was dropping rapidly.

As you will recall we set the timer on the diesel heater in the greenhouse to run for 12 hours Saturday night/Sunday morning (8 pm to 8 am), and the temp inside the greenhouse got as low as 32° F overnight (the outside low was 24° F).  We decided to have it run from 7 pm Sunday night to 9 am Monday morning, and that seems to have done the trick.  When it came on at 8 pm Saturday night it was already down to 33° F outside, so by starting it at 7 pm Sunday when it was only 40° F gave it the head start it needed.  At it's highest last night it had risen to 52° F inside the greenhouse, and when we got up this morning (Monday) it was still 45° F inside, even though it was 29° F outside.....much, much better.  All that being said, the plants survived Saturday night/Sunday morning just fine.

The Sunday night NFL game between the Chicago Bears and the San Francisco 49ers was a barn burner with the 49ers winning 42-38.  Win, or lose, it was a great game to watch.

The last days of 2025 are slowly slipping into the rearview mirror as I write, and as that transpires we are getting to the cold/breezy part of the winter.  We're in much better shape this winter than last, and not worrying from night to night if we can keep our water bay warm enough to avoid anything freezing, or get our batteries recharged.  Those ceramic heaters in the water bay are working better than okay, and with the added solar panels for the house batteries they are getting a full charge most of the time.  We're getting our house and shed batteries recharged via solar input virtually every day it is sunny.  The only exceptions have been the heavily overcast, rainy days, which is to be expected.  We're still looking at a new wind turbine option to help out on those stormy days.  The best thing so far is we've had NO snow that has stuck.

Thanks for stopping by!

Too cold to watch paint dry.....

 8:27 am - Sunday - December 28th - TWW - 28° F, humidity 48%, wind 6 mph out of the east by northeast....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 48° F.  The view this morning.....

....and on this date in 2024 TLE and I were enjoying an amazing sunset at The Wilson Wilderness....

By Saturday morning the blustery, sometimes high gusting winds had disappeared, but left a day with a forecast high of only 45° F.  We wanted to paint the last five furring strips Charles and Phyllis had delivered last Tuesday, but temps under 50° F are not conducive to good painting results, so we turned our attention to things we could do, such as temporarily reinstalling the corrugated metal roof on the pump house.   I didn't know where it was at the time, but TLE was able to find the two pieces in the barn.....

.....it didn't take more than 30 minutes to screw it into place, and since we were only doing a temporary install until the pump house is expanded, I didn't want to re-caulk the seams, so I used red duct tape instead.

Next we tackled rearranging the 'furniture' inside the greenhouse.  There were two more folding tables to position, and TLE wanted to move one of the hose hooks we use to hang the many garden hoses we have....

We have many new plants growing....you can see the diesel heater in the lower left of the picture....it is doing a bang up job of keeping things above freezing!

....we didn't venture outside to do anything until after 12 pm, so by the time we finished with these two tasks it was after 3 pm, and getting cold fast.  I had to return to the greenhouse around 5:30 pm to adjust the start and stop times on the diesel heater.  We ran the heater for 6 hours Friday night, but with the overnight low forecast at 24° F, and the temp already down to 34° F outside I increased the run time to 12 hours (8 pm to 8 am)....with a full diesel tank it can run continuously for 18-20 hours.

As I was returning to the Newell I saw a beautiful sunset taking place, so I took a few minutes to memorialize it.....

....would have loved to have a sunset fire, but it was already in the low 30's, and I knew TLE would not be up for that....lol!

Thanks for stopping by!

Leak no more......

 8:33 am - Saturday - December 27th - TWW - 38° F, humidity 74%, wind 7 mph out of the south by southwest.....heavy cloud cover today with a forecast high of 43° F.  The view this morning....

Heavy cloud cover and some minor rain

......and on this date in 2023 TLE and I were taking a 2 mile out and back walk at Glamis North Hot Springs....

.....this was our second winter working for Colorado Outback Adventures renting their Polaris RZR's.

Charles and Phyllis left for Phoenix around 8 am, and once again TLE and I were by ourselves.  I've been waiting for Charles and Phyllis to leave so I could pressure down the house water system in order to make the final repair on the leaky water pump outlet.  Once I had turned off the water pump, and closed the water inlet from the water tower I had TLE drain the pressurized water into one of the IBC totes by the greenhouse to relieve the pressure.  That took about 5 minutes, then it was time to cut the 1" pressurized line so I could remove the old PVC threaded union.....

Water is still running out of the 1" line as I get ready to install the steel replacement

The old PVC assembly, and the new galvanized steel assembly

Done!

.....I applied pipe dope to all the threaded connections, and torqued them down tight. It only took about 3 minutes beginning to end to repair the final leak. Just like the threaded PVC fitting on the 1.25" inlet, this one was also just hand tight as the Teflon tape had deteriorated resulting in the leak.  With this final fix we can now take the pump offline by disconnecting the two compression couplings.  Before I put the insulated wall back on the pump house I used Charles and Phyllis' Shop Vac to vacuum out the floor.  After working on the various leaks over the past year there was a lot of debris scattered from one end of the floor to the other....

.....maybe we can freshen up the paint a little in the near future.

Since we have 4 consecutive days starting the 27th of sub 30's temps overnight I reprogrammed the diesel heater to begin running at 1 am, and turning off at 7 am to keep things from freezing in there.  Once we get past those four days we can return to the existing 4 hour run time from 3 am to 7 am.

Later in the afternoon I reinstalled the folding cover for the Magic Chef stove top.  You will recall I had to reglue the stainless steel a few days ago....

.....TLE has acquired a lot of cast iron cookware over the past few years, and what you see in this picture is a 5 cup casserole she uses quite frequently.

And with that another TWW day came to a close.  We are going to be pretty much 'cabin bound' Saturday as it will be raining on and off most of the day, but there will be many NCAA College Football bowl games being played.....it is that time of year again.

Thanks for stopping by!