Karin Bartsch's Journals

The more nature is around us the more we are "in the boondocks".....Hopefully I can post a few words here before I get cut off.....I will post some pictures when we are in an other location, were I have all signals on computer (and phone). I could have bought WiFi for $ 2.oo per day but I had other ideas how to spend 42 Dollars.....

All around us lots of greenery and shrubs and old oak trees. Right now in spring the lawns are full with wildflowers - yellow, white, blue, red, rost  - and butterflies galore.

The temperatures are summerlike and the wind is hardly felt here, it is broken by the woods.  We observed deer grazing, squirrels racing through the tree tops,  all kinds of birds, of course, and racoons. Dieter spotted 3 young racoons in the very big and high dumpster, when he opened the lid to dump the trash bag. They were not able to come out by themselves, Dieter observed them trying. He found a 2x4 in the neighborhood and placed that piece of wood into the dumpster - - sure enough - from afar we both observed all racoons climbing out of there and disappearing into high grass. They learned their lesson but one did not. The other morning he was sitting in one corner again and Dieter had to bring the wood again.  Typical example of human dwellings expanding into wildlife regions.

When we crossed the ship channel via ferry every time we went shopping in Aransas Pass we could see schools of bottlenose dolphins playing and hunting in the channel, white and gray pelicans, cormorans( snake birds) and seagulls.  Common Crackle birds, which we simply call blackbirds, are the clowns... the entire ferry fleet of 6 active ships is their playground. We always had fun to observe them, they are smart.

Leaving Mustang Island and our hosting work behind, we start to relax now. We sleep better and longer. But it was very strange to drive our unit without having Susi sitting in between us. It is 6 months already since she died. Dieter is certain that she is around in spirit. He claims he can feel her laying on his shoulder when he sleeps or sometimes he says to me: "Susi just pushed my leg, she is here."  I did not have that experience eventhough I thought that I am the very spiritual one.

We had nice neighbors when we arrived here and I invited them to Ham Dinner. They contributed to it with a Bean Casserole and Red Wine. They travelled with one dog and 3 cats, all were on the leash and very well behaved. Neighbors are getting sparse here, most of them leave to head home to their states in the north or to Canada.

In the meantime we switched back from Dish Network to DirecTV and had that service installed. We also had approval from our trailer insurance to replace our cracked slide-out seals and had someone already working on the desk slide-out. He installed the wrong size and now the right ones are ordered and will be installed before we leave here.

Till next time -