Country Living at its Finest

Thursday a.m.

To say we live in a strange little town is an understatement. Every week when we receive our small weekly paper The Brown County Democrat there are articles that amaze me.
First off about hunting – Indiana no longer allows Ohio residents who own property in Indiana to hunt and fish in Indiana without an Indiana license. Why you ask? Well because Ohio just eliminated the ability of Indiana residents who own property in Ohio to hunt or fish on their property there without an Ohio license. I guess that’s fair.
Another article - in a meeting of the county commissioners that was open to the public so they could ask questions and get answers before voting to pass an ordinance dealing with animal control. The commissioners refused to let the public speak and just passed the ordinance. They have a habit of doing that. One commissioner said “He chose not to respond to the e-mails he received.” Several letters to the editor suggest the commissioners will be looking for new jobs come election time.
This poor little town makes it money on tourists. Especially during October when the leaves change. And times are tough now. So a few businesses have been trying new things like staying open later in the evening [sidewalks usually roll up here by 6:00] and providing food and musical entertainment till 9:00. Their business has pick up a little. So what happened? A quote from the paper “Bustling business irks neighbors.” But reading the article it is just one neighbor that is irked. According to her the town has laws against “prolonged sounds by people, or by any animal or bird so as to disturb the public peace, quiet and comfort of the neighboring inhabitants.” BIRDS????? Oh boy. The town attorny will be issuing warning letters.
But by far the most fascinating article was about the four main corners in town. Seems they don’t belong to the town. They belong to the county. What? Refer to picture…..

A long time ago when the town was first laid out this was the main four corners of town. Now the main Highway 135 runs through town one block east. Anyway – some how when the town plat was laid out these four corner lots (just the four grassey corners within the red square) were not included in the towns land – it remained with the county! So….because Nashville never platted those corners they are county property. All this went on in the late 1800s. Right now both entities have to have insurance on the property. And the county has to pay for upkeep i.e. water, electricity and mowing. The mowing is done by inmates in Community Corrections but lately there haven’t been enough people in that program to keep up the mowing. …..Now the county is talking about selling 3 or 4 of the corners to "generate some revenue." But not necessarily to the town. One gentleman interviewed says he is speechless. And on and on it goes…..
As I said interesting little place. Sure is different from Los Angeles or Vegas.

SUPERANNUATED - Having extra years to spend!

Wednesday p.m.
Learned a new word yesterday - seems like there is a town women in town who wants to organize a creative aging festival????? But she doesn't want to use the terms "old" or "senior" in the title She want to replace those words with SUPERANNUATED.  Huh?  She says it means "Having extra years to spend." I love this town.
Had the pest control out today - boy did we need him. Living in the middle of the woods in a damp area sure seems to produce a variety of bugs. No mice this year so far though.
Also had to make another trip over to the Alfa - picked up my camera connection, the wireless connection for the new computer (I'm going to try to get it set up before we start traveling) But the main reason we went is I forgot to put our passports in my purse - left them in Alfie [I hoped!] Yep they were right where I thought I'd left them. I like to get all our copies of everything we need for Mexico done before we leave home. Easier that way.
More rain and cold today - all day again.
Just finished watching a soccer game on TV - pretty good one. Had sandwiches for dinner. Had out "good" meal out at a restaurant earlier in the day. My kind of cooking.
Meant to write more about our little town of Nashville as per our newspaper but it will have to wait until tomorrow.

Oh Alfie, Poor Alfie! Progressive Insurance is Wonderful

Tuesday p.m.

Oh No Say it Isn’t So! I think I mention last winter while we were in Mexico and Alfie was in storage that a terrible storm hit the area where he was stored. We knew that it tore the new cover off him but didn’t think any real damage had been done. Turns out that wasn’t the case. We didn’t discover this until we took him to Elkhart last week. We noticed that there were water stains on the ceiling in the bathroom and the bedroom but thought it was because the vents were damaged. Well when we dropped Alfie off at the RV doc when we came home we asked them to check the roof. Good thing we did. Seems like the roof sustained extensive damage. And because water got under the roofing material there is soft wood in the top and sides. The storm also caused the problems with the awning on the slide. Not good news. So we called our insurance yesterday afternoon –Monday -  We have Progressive Insurance – today we went over to the RV doc and they already have the check to fix the damage – a whole new roof and repair of problems with the slide awning and the cleaning of ceiling inside. Also covered the torn up cover. Less than 24 hours and Progressive has taken care of everything. Amazing. Cannot say enough about them.
Progressive also covers us while we are in Mexico. They won’t pay for repairs done there but will pay for transporting the RV back to the US to make the repairs.
We went over to the RV doc this morning to get my glasses, jelly beans, dirty laundry and camping books. That’s when we found out the adjuster had already been there and approved the repairs. My biggest worry now is that they have to take the satellite dish off the roof to make the repairs – Please don’t screw it up. They will try to have Alfie ready by Oct 10th. The Driver is really getting antsy – especially when the weather reporter said we might have our first frost warning this week. The sun came out for a couple of minutes today so I rushed outback to snap a picture of the view.

EGAD! When I went to put pictures in computer I discovered something else I forgot to take out of Alfie – the cord that connects the camera to the computer – DAH. So had to use the card slot in the laptop, transfer pics to flash drive then to PC. Where there’s a will there is a way.
Also got found a picture I’d taken in Alfie of The Driver putting his bird together.

And another one of him working on his frames in the garage. It's so good to see him interested and busy with his projects again.

We got the weekly newspaper today and I’ll do a whole blog on this little town tomorrow – Country living at its finest. Learned a new word from it.
And I'm throwing in a picture of the pieces of the quilt I'm working on.

Ghosts and Library Books

Tuesday a.m.

Woke up to more rain and a bunch of big white trucks in the driveway and the street. What the heck? Had to go check. Oh, they are the tree trimmers for where the trees touch the power and telephone wires. Now they are busy cutting the trees back. Surprised how quiet they are.
When we go visit Alfie today think I’ll pick up the campground books so we can sort of plan our trip south this year. I know we never stick to plans – there’s that Recalculate thing again.
Off that subject – a couple years ago when we went to Gettysburg I picked up a t-shirt that has a picture of Civil War soldiers on it. Well I put it on yesterday and last night when I went in my bathroom about scared myself to death. I forgot that they glowed in the dark. As I shut the door before turning on the light – there they were in the mirror! Spooky.
Finished reading my first library book on the Nook – Will have to check today if they have anymore by that author – kind of cute story. Author is Kate Collins – she writes about a girl who owns a flower shop in Indiana and she can’t keep her nose out of other peoples business and always has someone chasing her.
Going over to RV doc now – got the news yesterday that there is a problem with Alfie.

OMG I forgot my Jumbo Jelly Beans

Sunday evening

Another gloomy and rainy all day day. The Internet is so slow I don’t even know if I can publish this. Don’t know if it’s a Hughes.Net problem or the big storm system.
Slept late this morning because every time I opened my eyes it was dark out – so rolled over and went back to sleep. Finally looked at the clock and it was 9 o’clock!
Monday evening
Lost Internet service for entire day. Big rain storm moved through. Got a couple inches of rain.
Worked on my quilt yesterday got all the strips for the green blocks sewn together, next will be the yellows. Bill was working on building frames for his wood spirits and masks. And watched the race – didn’t turn out as well as the truck race – Kyle Busch the #18 came in 11th – needs to do better than that. At least he moved up a little in the points.
Went into town this morning for errands and breakfast. The Driver was looking for pretty feathers in Hobby Lobby. And lo and behold when we came out the SUN WAS SHINNING. Even having a pretty sunset tonight. But more rain expected tomorrow.
We have to go over to the RV doc tomorrow I really need my glasses and OMG I forgot my Jumbo Jelly Beans in the Alfa too. Need them.
Had talked before about the Frequent Fueler card from Flying J – with it you get the cash price for gas/diesel plus 3 cents a gallon off. So if you don’t have one get one it is worth it. Check out their web site www.pilotflyingj.com for info.

Good Truck Race and Gloomy Weather

Saturday afternoon

Was drippy and gloomy all day today. I ended up working on the new computer getting it all set up with favorites on Internet Explorer and downloading AOL. Took me half the morning. Then because it was hooked up to the Internet my laptop couldn’t get on line. Something about having too many things drawing on the router I guess. So unplugged my PC and then got on line with laptop. Needed to do that to set up the program that will let me borrow books from our library to read on my Nook. Got it working and have been reading my first borrowed book. After 10 days it expires and goes away.
Watched the Camping World truck race at 3:00 - #18 Kyle Busch won. Led all but 5 of 175 laps. Hope tomorrow he can do as well.
The Driver is downstairs right now working on some of his leather masks and wood spirits. Guess I’ll have more work to do on the web pages soon.
Put some corn out back for the animals and it didn’t take them long to show up. The baby turkeys are almost full grown now. And the fawns have lost most of their spots. Haven’t seen any hummingbirds since we’ve been home. Guess they have the good sense to head for warmer weather.

Busy Day at Home

Friday p.m.
Busy day today I GOT MY HAIR CUT! Hooray – feels so much better. I need to remember this the next time I think about letting it grow. It is now about ½” long all over my head.
Also got a hold of the mail in pharmacy and got The Driver’s meds straightened out. They are going to send us another 90 day supply – a vacation exemption – so he will be set until we get back here in the spring. Got all the refilling etc. straightened out too.
Day started out cold and rainy and now is cool but nice and sunny.
The PC in the Alfa took a dump while it was stored so got a new one today. Right now The Driver is busy setting the new one up. Glad it’s him and not me – I hate doing that.
A couple of the Microsoft programs are a royal pain to do. You have to call them up and then it seems like you have to put in 9000 numbers to get them activated. But it’s done. Now he is just transferring all his music….

Home for Awhile

Thursday p.m.

We made it home with no problems. Left Alfie at the RV doc to get the spring in the awning fixed and one of the roof vents that is cracked and leaking. Pick him up sometime next week.
I thought I did a good job of getting out of the Alfa everything that needed to come home with us. Stuff from the frig and freezer, the laptops, phone, pills etc etc. Well I did pretty good – the only thing I forgot was my glasses. Dah! Good thing I have another pair, but they don't work real well whuile using the computer.
Took me a while to get the Internet here at home up and working. For some reason my computer kept blocking me. Finally got it though.
Rest of evening just going to sit and relax – tomorrow begins all the catching up. Have to call our mail order prescription place as The Driver’s pills are all messed up. First they email us that they can’t fill the new prescriptions, then they email us to fill them, so I do – on line, then the say they can’t fill them yet, then they mail us some of them. Don’t know what the heck is going on. Also somehow we’ve got to convince them to refill them early – before we take off to Mexico for the winter.
The trees are starting to change colors here in Brown County too.
Enough for now.

Heading towards Home

Wed afternoon.

The Driver is watching soccer on Gol TV – it is funny to listen to the commercials. All in Spanish except for certain words i.e. HotSpot, WiFi
Have spent part of afternoon fighting with my laptop and Nook – but I won. I can now transfer books I borrow from the library from my laptop to my Nook.
Alfie is all spiffed up and Joel is now starting on the Jeep. Everything is all cleaned up and looks great. So looks like we’ll be able to head home tomorrow morning.
Having leftovers for dinner to get rid of them.
Hope it doesn’t rain tomorrow – don’t like driving in the rain.
Thursday really a.m.
We are up and getting ready to hit the road in a bit. Looks like weather will stay dry until tonight. Only problem we are anticipating in leaving is the awning over the big slide. Has to be helped to roll tight. We’ll drop Alfie off at RV doc on the way home to get that fixed – hoping they can do it while we wait. Ever the optimist.
Good thing we took this trip – now we know all the things we forgot to put in here for an extended trip. And now we know all systems are go.

Shipshewana Flea Market and Meat Market and Quilt Garden

Tuesday p.m. again     Actually it is now Wednesday morning – just didn’t get this posted yesterday.
It’s 15 to 8:00p.m. and Joel is still here working on the wax job. Don’t know if he is going to do the Jeep. Waiting to see when he finishes this. (He just left 8:15 and hes not done yet.)

I don’t like the picture on the header of the blog. Will have to work on finding a different one when we get home. And haven’t been able to change the color of the font so any picture I pick will have to be a light color. Hummmmm
Like I was saying – today was a really nice day. The weather was perfect. Hope it holds till we get home. Which might be Thurday……or Friday…..
We went back to Shipshewana to go to the flea market which is open on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. The Driver is one of the luckiest people I know when it comes to finding parking places. We got one right in front of one of the entrances and the place was packed.

It is a really really big flea market. A couple of views of it.

Looking East

Looking North - Just part of it

Making ice cream.

Saw lots of women in bonnets shopping. One group of young girls appeared to be shopping for hope chests or new homes. Buying lots of basic kitchen items.
The Driver was attracted to this flag display.

He ended up buying a big bird to fly from his flag pole. The booth he bought from also sold some beautiful handcrafted Cedar Root items.

Would love to have this in our yard – but we don’t need any more “stuff.”

You can tell I’m not a pet person; I was flabbergasted when I saw these doggy strollers.

My kids didn’t have stroller any where near this nice.   And we actually saw several of them being used. I know our youngest son bought his dog boots 'cause when they take him to the lake in Las Vegas the dock is too hot for his feet. Here is a video of the dog Chicio in his sneakers  http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=1432722867504
We walked around for quite a while and didn’t begin to see everything. I was kind of disappointed though. I thought there would be more local hand made items. Very few – mostly just the stuff you can find at any swap meet. This was the most walking The Driver has done for quite a while and he didn’t get tired. I got hot though and was ready to leave before him.
From there we went to a meat and cheese market. Almost couldn’t get the Driver out of there. Bought lots of Swiss and muenster and they sliced it and vacuumed packed it for us. And I did not buy any more candy though they had chocolate cherries! Yummmm.
Wednesday a.m.
Today has dawned bright and sunny again. Alfie is almost completely waxed. We are supposed to head for home tomorrow……If – If Joel gets here and finishes Alfie and can get the Jeep done today……We’ll see…..
Back to yesterday – across the street from the market we found another quilt garden.

They are so pretty and this one had a raised platform to go up on to take pictures.

There was a working windmill here that was actually pumping water.

Just driving the highway towards home.

Just got an e-mail notice that the spring necessary for the fixing of the awning over the big slide is in at the RV doc. So our plan right now [ha ha] is to drop Alfie off there and then continue on home. Sooooo how much should we take out of him? All the food in the refrig and freezer? The electronics? Or will they keep the power on and fix it so we can pick it up the next day. The best laid plans....
The Driver wants to go out to breakfast so will stop for now.   
We’re back. [no Joel yet] I am definitely going to get my hair cut. After traveling with the car window down I look like Bozo on a bad hair day. Cannot stand it!

Bonneyville Mill and Dahlia Garden

Tuesday p.m.

Good to know that the washer/dryer works fine. So got one load of clothes done. And The Driver fixed one of the lights on the ceiling. It was flickering on and off – then off. Turned out there was just a lose wire. Was glad to see he was able to work on something above his head. Couldn’t have done that a month or so ago.
Fog finally lifted and the sun came out. Turned out to be a perfect day. So we took off – hoping that Joel would show up sometime during the day to work on Alfie.
Had some breakfast and set off for a drive in the country. When we first got here last week none of the trees were changing color. Since then they have really started to turn. Guess it was the cold weather.

First we stopped at the Bonneyville Mill – it’s been in constant operation for over 150 years. Very pretty setting
Another one of the quilt murals on the side of one of the buildings there.

The mill itself. It is in the process of being repainted so it wasn’t open for touring. But we had gone through it last year.

The building across the street and the windmill.

Repainting the lettering on the side of the mill.

Next to the Mill is a magnificent Dahlia garden. I took lots and lots of pictures of the flowers. Hope you enjoy them.  

The petals are perfect

A tiny part of the garden

Two colors

Pink, yellow and white

Yellow with touches of red

There were a lot of butterflies and bees everywhere.

Just down the street was this one room school house.

Driving through the countryside we came across these road signs. Snowmobiles and Buggies.

It is so nice to just drive around this area. It is so pretty, so clean, so neat, so inviting – after seeing it you just want to move here – until you remember about winter…….
Just a corn field with a farm in the background - blue skys and puffy clouds

An Amish home, phone booth and laundry are pretty standard sights.

A school house with children playing outside.

We were headed towards Shipshewana again as I remembered that the BIG flea market was open today. I’m going to split this blog cause I don’t want to take a chance of losing what I’ve already done.

Foggy Foggy Day

Tuesday a.m.

Still in Elkhart. This morning is very, very foggy and seems to be getting worse rather than better. Rained about half the day yesterday. Joel (washer/waxer) didn’t show up so we have extended our stay a couple more days – and will probably have to add even more if The Driver wants the Jeep done too. Hopefully he shows up today.
Watched the race – didn’t like the outcome. #18 went from P1 to P9 – had terrible pit stops and ran out of gas. What is with that!!!! Also watched the last episode of the Closer. Hope we are still in the US for the November episodes.
Did you ever notice that when you go to put a plug into an outlet the first time you try is never the right way. NEVER! How can that be 100%?
Fixed a good dinner last night and did the dishes. So much easier in here than in Jennie. Nice big sinks.
Trying the washer/dryer now. Put in a load of clothes and it seems to be working fine so far. Fingers crossed.
Downloaded the newest version of Internet Explorer…….why can’t they leave things alone? Always takes much hunting to get things back the way you had them before updates. Still can’t figure out how to change font and font colors on the blog since they updated. It used to be easy to change – now you have to go into the html to make changes.
Not sure what we’ll do today – depends somewhat on the weather and when it clears up.  

Rainy Monday Morning

Monday a.m.

Ugly, ugly day today. Lots of dark clouds and rain. And with the window tinting in Alfie it is really dark in here. Only the windshield and the driver and passenger windows are not tinted very dark. The rain and clouds have seemed to warm things up some. When it is damp and cold The Drivers leg really aches – the one they took the vein out of.
Went out to dinner last night – I had turkey, dressing and vegetables. Very good. Started to mist as we left the restaurant. Got back to Alfie and Joel was still working on waxing Alfie. He is about 2/3rds done now. But no work today with the rain forecast for the entire day. So guess we’ll be here a few days longer.
The NASCAR race yesterday was rained out so it is supposed to be today at noon.
Got a pleasant surprise as we took this trip. In a drawer are a bunch of t-shirts I have bought as we traveled. And I have never used them –forgot I had them. One from when we visited Tombstone, AZ on the anniversary of the OK Corral. Another is from a hotel in California gold country. Someday I’ll take them all and make a quilt out of them.

Indiana Amish Country is Beautiful

Sunday a.m.

Just a reminder - clicking on the pictures will enlarge them
Cold again, heater kept coming on and going off all night.
About half of Alfie is waxed – he looks so handsome. But I have the feeling he will not be finished today. So we’ll be staying here longer. The Driver wants the Jeep washed and waxed too – another couple of days. The entire job is done by hand, no electric buffers.
Don’t know what we’ll do today as I want to watch the race at 2:00 – the first race of the NASCAR Chase.
So continue about yesterday. After we left Shipshewana we went to the Guggisberg Deutsch Käse Haus – a cheese factory.

They’ve been making cheese for over 30 years. Have over 40 different types of cheese.
It was later in the day Saturday so the production for the day was almost over. Had to look through glass into the production area.

We bought a couple different kinds of cheese and got some delicious Bread and Butter pickle chips. Yummmm and some Twizzlers in assorted flavors. Got to quit buying candy.
From there we head towards home. Passing many, many beautiful farms. All had beautiful flower gardens in front.

Passed through Middlebury again – these buggies were parked and the owners were at the Festival.

Passed the Jayco Plant. It employees 1500 people and is just one of many RV manufacturers. They give tours Mon – Thurs at noon.

Just another picture of one of the farms

Now this is what I call a neat pond.

A woman taking some machinery through the field. She is wearing her bonnet

Since the cold nights the trees have really started to turn. Everyday there is more and more color showing.

Through the town of Goshen – main street. It has historical rating.

Another Elk this one at the Court House.

Just past Goshen is a tourist site – The Bag Factory and it also has an Elk.

The buildings area around Bag Factory used to be the terminal for a trolley line and manufacturing facilities.

Again lots of flowers.

Interesting building and smoke stack.

There’s a café there and some shops. Wood working – some great looking furniture and a pottery place.
Inside was this big scale – the kind with the metal plate in the floor that you can step on or weight pallets on. I didn’t like it – it said I weigh way too much……

There is another quilt garden there too. A little info about this one.

The garden. Just can’t get good pictures of them.

From there we went home – The Driver is taking it easy and so far every thing has been fine. Today was warmer and not windy so his leg wasn’t even bothering him.
Later he tried to get his new kite up – but just as he got it ready the breeze stopped. Oh well another day.

Just a shot of Alfie with Joel – the washer/waxer guy.

 And some of the flowers in the campground.

A small section of the campground near us.

And check out the size of this mushroom/toadstool. If you could eat it it would make a whole meal. There are all white ones almost this big too.

There is nothing on TV Sunday nights! With so many channels how can there not be anything?! Oh dear - Had to download another book.
Had salad for dinner using the delicious tomatoes we bought at the Festival. They taste so different from store bought. Don't keep as long though. Oops had to turn the refrig down, it is freezing the lettuce. You would think we were real newbee RVs. I think I'll try the washer/dryer later today - just to see if it works. We have to leave Alfie off at the RV doc on the way home to get the awning over the big slide fixed - needs a spring.
I checked out WordPress - Don't think I like it - but will keep exploring it. Still need a new name too.