Dec. 15th

We had our annual caroling and golf cart parade last night, the carolers sounded awesome! Leading the parade was John Geer on his motorcycle followed by Brock in his Van with speakers on the back and then the carolers with mikes and the sound was really cool! Santa (Paul Sprague) looked really neat and when going by the Motel several little kids came running to the fence and put their little arms out to Santa, it was real cute. then afterwards to the hall for snacks.

Driving around the park looking at all the decorated mobiles, park models and r.v.s very lovely decorations, the nativity scene in front of the park office is so pretty!

Poor "Frosty" melted away

Dec. 8th

Good Day

Orkut Image Scraps @GoodLightscraps.com

The weather this week has been kind of crappy...some gloomy days and this morning starting off with light rain.

 I got a call yesterday from a former resident, she is 96 years old and still going strong. She did have an accident and has to have some rehab, her name is Dorothy Young. Her husbands name was Gordon, he passed away while they were still living here in the park...could be close to 10 years ago. she lives in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin.
Saw this in my friend Barb's blog from Magnolia Park:

Husband Operating System

Dear Tech Support,

Last year I upgraded from Boyfriend to Husband and noticed a distinct slowdown in overall system performance, particularly in the Flower and Jewelry applications, which operated flawlessly under Boyfriend. In addition, Husband uninstalled many other valuable programs, such as Romance and Personal Attention and then installed undesirable programs such as Hockey, Football, Golf and HBO/Game of Thrones. Conversation no longer runs, and any endeavour to upload Housecleaning simply crashes the system. I’ve tried running Nagging to fix these problems, but to no avail. What can I do?

Signed, Desperate

Dear Desperate,

First keep in mind, Boyfriend is an Entertainment Package, while Husband is an Operating System. Please enter the command: ‘http: I Thought You Loved Me.html’ and try to download Tears; do not forget to install the Guilt update. If that application works as designed, Husband should then automatically run the applications Jewelry and Flowers, but remember – over-use of the above application can cause Husband to default to Grumpy Silence, Garage or Beer. Beer is a particularly bad program that will download the Snoring Loudly Beta. Whatever you do, DO NOT install Mother-in-law (it runs a destructive virus in the background that will eventually seize control of all your system resources). Also, do not attempt to reinstall the Boyfriend program. These are unsupported applications and will crash Husband.

In summary, Husband is a great system, but it does have limited memory, is somewhat erratic, and cannot learn new applications quickly. It also tends to work better running one task at a time. You might consider installing additional software to improve memory and performance. We recommend Steak, Pulled Pork and Hot Lingerie.

Good Luck, Tech Support

Monday Dec.1st

Isn't this a great picture of the Farleys?  and to think how far Anita has come since last year!! Our favorite neighbors!! Yes it's 10:00 a.m. and no coats!!!!

We have had a week of beautiful weather, and today is supposed to be 80. But a cold front tommarrow and highs of 60. but we can take some of that...we are so greatful for our wonderful warm winters down here. It's been awfully cold up North. Our neighbors, the Krafts, from Iowa, just got here and said in Iowa, it's been very cold and windy.

I don't often recommend a good restaurant but this one is super good! It's called El Rancho Grande, it's located across the parking lot from Big Lots! right here in Weslaco, I hate to travel to McAllen or Harlingen to eat especially at the rush hour times. Their breakfast is absolutely wonderful and the decor is lovely, the best part was the service is fast and effecient.so clean and the acoustics are many times better than Tex-Mex, sorry but they get about a 3 rating from me. El Rancho Grande gets a 10, everyone who took our advice said I was right.

Nov. 24th

GoodLightscraps.com

November 17th

OMG it is so cold here today...40 this morning but the wind is gusting to 40mph. which really makes it seem worse.

I had my Winter coat on and the dogs jacket this morning and I wasn't cold at all.

Just a few days of this and back to 80 degrees in the day time!

Turkey day is just around the corner, made sign-up sheets for The Kunzes's, Chairmans for the Dinner,and also a  Volunteer sheet, I can just smell that Turkey cooking!

Good Morning Orkut Scraps

More Orkut Scraps at-GoodLightscraps.com

Rio Valley News

Rio Valley Estates Mobilehome and RV Resort --715 N. Westgate Drive, Weslaco, Texas 78596

Volume 42 NO. 22 Date: April 7, 2014

SUNDAY

8:30 Church Minister – Bob Kerr Chair -- Ken Borah

2:00– Ice Cream Not started yet

3:00-4:00 Hymn Sing Donna Perkins

4:00-1st Sun. of Month – Karaoke – Bev Telfor

5:00 -Park BBQ Begin Jan. 2015 with Argos chairing

7:00 M.T.Dominoes Mary Christianson

MONDAY

8:30 (tee time) Golf Monte Cristo Henry Hryniw

9:00 Coffee/Donuts Sandy Lenius

9:15 Blood Pressure Taken by nurse behind the stage

9:30 Club Meeting April-November

Chairperson Rex Rexroad

Vice-Chairperson Darlene Bryant

Secretary Rita Sutherland

Treasurer John Norris

1:00 Canasta Fran Hryniw

1:00 Bean Bag Bob Kerkau

1:00 Darts

6:30 Push Rummy Kay Hutton

7:00 Thirty one

7:00 Dance Next season

TUESDAY-FRIDAY -

8:05 Power Walking Catherine Donovan

MONDAY-SATURDAY

8:00 & 8:40 Aqua Exercise Sharon Sprague

TUESDAY

9:00 15 Cent Shuffling Dave Johnson

9:30 Line Dancing Next season – Bev Talley

9:30 Mission Quilting Marge Rexroad

9:30 Men’s Dominoes

1:00 Ladies 8-Ball Pool Bonnie Bryant

1:00 Bridge Margaret Davis

6:30 Fifty Six

7:00 M T Dominoes Mary Christianson & Ann Thorpe

WEDNESDAY

9:00 Mixed Shuffling Dave Johnson

9:00 Crafts – over until next season Sharon Barksdale

9:13(1^st tee time) Golf, Tierra Santa Harry Fisher

11:30 Pizza Party (2^nd & 4^th week)

1:00 Bean Bag Bob Kerkau

1:00 Canasta Fran Hryniw

3:30 Happy Hour Bring snacks, come enjoy !

6:30 Tic (be there by 6:20) Sharon Sprague

7:00 Cribbage Bill Hutton

7:00 Hand and Foot Mary Christianson

THURSDAY

8:36 (tee time) Golf, The Palms (leave at 8) – Henry Hryniw

9:30 Line Dancing Next season – Bev Talley

1:00 Karaoke(1^st week only) Bev Telfor

1:00 Bridge Margaret Davis

7:00 Pitch Bruce Wells

7:00 Euchre Sherry Cheatham

7:00 Free Movie Next season – Brock Laing

FRIDAY

9:00 – Shuffling Next season - Dave Johnson

9:30 Bible Study Bob Kerr

9:00 – 10:00 Clogging Sherry Cheatham

1:00 Bowling, Pools&Cues John Norris

1:00 Golf (signup 11 a.m.) Executive Bill Hutton

1:00 Canasta Fran Hryniw

5:00 Pot Luck Next season

7:00 Entertainment Next season – Brock Laing

SATURDAY

7:00-8:30 Breakfast Next season

9:00 Dummy Rummy Next season -L.Larson, J.Bowers

9:30 Choir Practice

7:00 Bingo – Catherine Gibbs

7:00 Single Deck Pinochle R/M Davis

7:00 Texas Hold'um

(Get names of new chairpersons to editor at Lot #103 please) when she gets here!

RVE CLUB MEETING – Rex Rexroad, chair, called meeting to order. Pledge of Allegiance & singing of “God Bless America” preceded meeting. We closed by singing club song.

Accompanist –

Invocation – Darlen Bryant followed by prayer

Secretary Report – Rita Sutherland

Treasurer Report – John Norris

***********************************************************

About 63 folks attended the first Monday meeting.

New folks in the park this year are, Dave Johnson, #409, and Carolyn, bill Welch's friend in #177

*****************************************************

You may read my blog for the Monday morning meeting news if you care to, since Mary Lou is not here yet,

donnasramblingsatrve.blogspot.com, I try to do the blog every Monday throughout the Winter, instead of on Fridays.

*****************************************************

MANAGEMENT REPORT – Reporting was manager Helen . Welcomed all folks that have come in, talked about the Valley Citrus Alert, the disease going around the citrus in the Valley is a real threat to Valley citrus. Also talked about water bills from last season need to be paid, since the meters were read after folks left and water was used several months prior to leaving

Also if you see anyone who is trying to solicit in the park call manager right away, there have been some in the park recently. The office is organizing keys left by residents for their units, check to make sure your key works in your own unit , some have gotten mixed up and don't fit in the right units. Helen is taking down the big board (Map)that has our name and lot on it, she says it's an invasion of privacy.

The gate code has not changed.

Read club website RVEWTC.com written & maintained by Judi DeKoning . Judi keeps our calendar up-to-date, her mobile is #67 (see activities schedule hanging on board in Friendship Hall). To get into “members only” on site, password is riovalley.

*****************************************************

Properties Committee Board members are Properties – Clyde Read, Dave Cochran, Ron Zoeller; Finance – Mary Lantis, John Geer, John Norris. New board takes over Oct. 1. New board members are: properties – Clyde Read; finance – Charlotte Therrien.

*****************************************************

The 2014 – 2015 season is just beginning Many activities are starting. If there are changes in chairpersons let the one doing the newletter know so they can put in the new chairpersons name

*****************************************************

Beverly Telfor places cards to be signed by residents in office area. Call her at 956-532-6033 if you know of someone needing card due to illness or death of family member. This week cards were sent to Art Voss, Heart surgery, in ICU with Pneumonia, Harry Madsen fell and broke his pelvis, in re-hab ****************************************************

Upcoming Events:

Park Patio Sale this Friday

Saturday : Biscuits and Gravy 7:00 – 8:30 a.m.

Thanksgiving will be chaired by Whitey Kunze and help from the Hickeys...requested other help also

*****************************************************

Halloween

Create your own picture slideshow

Butterfly Hatch

There's been a huge Butterfly hatch down here. There's so many colors and are so beautiful.

Orkut Scraps and Greetings

Happy Halloween everyone!

I will make a slide show of our party as soon as possible. Sorry some of you aren't down here for it.

We have some cards up to sign, one to Art Voss , he had heart surgery and isn't doing too well, Harvey Madsen fell, I don't know how bad he was hurt, also Wayne Haylen died.

One of our year-round folks passed away

George LeBeau passed away this morning, he was to have by-pass surgery . I understand he had a lot of fluid and was sceduled for surgery.

October 24

Isn't this a gorgous picture looking out of Tom and Mary Lou's window?
geez I miss the Fall. Our little few days of chilly mornings is over for now, but this morning was really nice. I am talking chilly at 59 or 60 degrees. I wore a sweat shirt in the early morning...I saw others without but I am not used to that cool of weather. Cheryl Costley had surgery, colon I think, haven't had an update yet. Talked to Mary Lou today, she's feeling great now. She said her final pathology report came in and the Drs. are 99% sure she will not need any chemo or radiation. so I am sure it won't be long and they will be on their way down here.

Mary Jean Steward has not had the best summer...she just recently had teeth pulled and infection, I think also a broken leg  which happened in the hospital,
There is a card to sign for Ratliffs, Loren's Mother, Verna passed away, Mary Lou said she's from Tripoli, Ia. 98 years old.
Also George LeBeau is in the hospital, he's supposed to have by-pass surgery

I will write more soon, busy busy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Update

Good news...no blood clot by Mary Lou's knee, injured some how during surgery. So she's on the mend!!!

October 10th

A lovely Fall morning here in Rio Valley Estates, but more like summer here lol we are still having hot weather, can't wait until Tuesday for ideal weather highs of 80's low 60's, what a wonderful week that will be. but still nice mornings and evenings to be out, misquitos are pretty bad though.

Carmen Bernier and her Mom provided donuts this morning. I didn't go up but Bobby said a nice crowd there, and plenty of donuts, but Bobby had a sugar problem and now is doing really good at watching it , he said he only had 1 donut! He walks for 30 min. every morning, I can't keep up with him.

Just heard from the Bosch's and Lillian has had a rough Summer, a hernia operation, and heart problems, her heart is out of rythym, and trying to take care of that problem, then she fell and broke her wrist and has a cast on it. She said they will be delayed getting down this year.
Also Mary Lou has had complications after her surgery.she's had a lot of pain with no let up. It's related to her knee,or by her knee, possible blood clot. I will update you on her condition when she finds out more.

Friday Oct. 3rd

This week we had a really good turnout for Social Hour, 30 people attended. We were having it in the pool room but from now on we will have it in the big hall. In the Summer we put 3 or 4 long tables down end to end in the pool room and have our coffee and donuts and social hour there.
Jan and Gary Philipp provided donuts this morning.

Our yards are looking better here in the park, one of the people who mows, lawn mower was out of commision for a couple weeks and he really got behind and some lawns looked really bad, but this happens, he said he would have some apologies to make. Otherwise he does a great job.

Pam White is still looking for someone who whould like to take Dori's dog, "Patty". She is a well trained loving little dog. Dori's Nephew has been here getting things in order. 
We were so sad to hear of Gloria Hausers passing. Ellis and Daughter were here before Glorias surgery getting the mobile ready to sell, we had a "farewell" brunch for them .
Also Mary Lou Benson is having surgery the 6th of this month, we will be thinking of her, you may wish to give her a call, email or card..

The Elks famous Chicken Dinners will start this month, the first one is Sunday, October 12th, then the first Spagetti Dinner the 15th and their first Fish Dinner will be Friday the 17th. The Elks is a charitable organization which benefits the community in lots of ways, I am going to put in my blog just some of the many ways the Elks help here in our community. You will be surprised at all they do. 

Bye the way, the we have had 2 brunches here in the park, we have a small group and Gene Koliba made biscuits and gravy for all and then we brought a dish to share, thinking a "brunch" would be nice this winter instead of pancakes some times? With a large crowd we would not have the biscuits and gravy, but just bring a breakfast dish to share, and maybe a couple people would like to bring sausage gravy and biscuits if they chose. We could do a sign up sheet for what you might be bringing. Just a thought....

We are having a "cold front" that moved in bringing a little rain today

Gloria Hauser

Gloria passed away today. I will post the address as soon as I get it if you wish to send a card.

Friday Sept. 26th

Dori Rosendahl #408 passed away this morning. she had been in Knapp, ICU the past week, then moved to hospice. Her Uncle from St.cloud is here. Dori has no children and very few relatives. She was very much loved by all who knew her and a friendly gal who loved her dog and pet sat for lots of people. The ladies talked like they would have a memorial service for her in November. Pam White #162 her best friend, has her dog and is looking for someone to take the dog.

This morning Gloria Hauser, #73, has her open heart surgery, we are waiting to hear from Ellis, Ellis was here last week loading things from their mobile and it's for sale. They have moved back to Iowa
A card was up to sign for the Eshelmans #256, their Daughter-in-law passed away.

This morning the Farleys furnished the donuts. We had a good turn-out.

A few people have come in this week. Looking for a lot of folks this coming week.

I will write as soon as I know how Gloria came out.

September 19th

You all will be pleasantly surprised when you come down this Fall. The rains have greened everything up, yards look so nice now. Our Palms finally got trimmed and look good, the pool heater was not working and it's fixed.

Donuts were furnished by Bill and Veld Lee Clement, there were around 26 people there this morning

 Dori Rosendahl still in the hospital and has a test today yet, will keep you all informed when the test results all get in. there's a lot of gossip so when we get the final word , will let you all know.
The weather is back to very hot, the high humidity is what makes it seem all the worse.

Not much to tell ya about! I may write more later.....

September 12th

I just received word of Don Gordons passing, Stan Burkinshaw sent me an email with some of what Don did in his early years and retirement..
 He was married to a beautiful lady who died many years ago in corn bin accident. they milked a lot of cows and farmed. Earlier Don was in the Army during the Korean War and crew chief on some type of Aircraft. Stan says he still owns his own plane which is somewhere here in the Valley. He once owned a big fuel delivery service business, delivering diesel and gas to farmers and ranchers. Later he had 4 or 5 semi trucks . He had a Son who died at age 50. And has another Son and Daughter living in Nebraska. He owns several homes besides the one here in our park. Don died in Creighton, Nebraska hospital. Stan says Don was atrue entrepreneur, a very generous person, who would give you the shirt off his back.
He loved playing cards here in the park and was really good at it. Bless your heart Maria Walton for all you did for Don!!!

There's getting to be quite a few Hummers showing up...there really hasn't been a lot of them this Summer.

We just purchased some "Blue Daze" I love this plant, it seems to be one of the only truely blue flowering plants, we will do a hanging basket or two and I thought I might plant some in the ground and see how they do, we can get cuttings from them after they're established.

Just looked at the stats for the blog, over 2,000 hits to it last month, which has been the norm for the past year. It's great to see that folks are reading it and hope to keep it up

We are having rain today and especially on Saturday and also rain forecasted for the several more days . The grass is really growing from the last rains so the lawn care people will really be busy.

Some of the streets are getting the tar and some are not, we heard they ran out of it???!!!The palms have not been trimmed and all the little seeds are  everywhere, dangerous to walk on, thousands in the pool each morning.

Wednesday at Social Hour we had some really good food, pulled pork, brisket, meatballs, chicken wings, and lots of other good stuff!!!

Mary Alice Eshelman had quite a scare, she has a tumor, they said it's benign and very slow growing, so that was good news. No surgery for now. Art Voss just got out of the hospital, pneumonia , and is scheduled for surgery to repair a heart valve.

Note

We have had some great rains the last few days, so far over 5 inches and more coming. We sure needed it, grass is greener already. Thanks to Hurricane Dolly which has come into about 173 Miles south of Brownsville.

Thank you all for sending me some neat pictures of what you all have been up to this Summer. So many good pictures posted on Facebook too, but I didnt think I should rob them from there but did post those sent to me. I wanted to post a picture of some newly weds  their anniversary which was in August but didnt get them in so here's the picture! Do you recognize these newly weds?

Stan and Jeannie Burkinshaw. August 3rd 1952. This was taken at Jeannies folks home 62 years ago, and they now live within a block from there today!

Also this month was the Therrians 50th Wedding Anniversary. quite a few folks who winter here went to Canada for the event. I was told the dress Charlotte is wearing was her original wedding gown? What about Hector?

Today Darlene Bryant furnished the donuts, she is still in Iowa but thought she would be here by now. She was going to ride back with the Lamps but they aren't coming back until later on, Darlene may just take Sun Country and fly on down.

Later...

Winter Texan Campout, from Mary Lou Benson

It amazes us when we realize this winter Texan get-together all began back in the mid-1990s. That was when the Griffins, Schurmans, McIntyres, Yanceys, Bensons, and Jake Schneider would potluck in Ruby Benson Baechler’s front yard, camping at Gilbertson Park in Elgin.

Jumping ahead to 2014, the weather couldn’t have been better than it was this year at our annual campout! Our registration sheet shows 106 people camped, visited or just stopped by. Temps were in 70s & 80s much of the week, only a small shower one day, but not enough to dampen our spirits. Some camping units came earlier than ever with 3 or 4 arriving on Saturday, most coming Sunday through Wednesday. Campfires were held nightly thanks to our official fireman Lavern. We filled our circle by the shelter house except for one spot. Bensons, Gibbs, Marge Reishus & Ann Johnson were able to find camping units to rent. Some rented motel rooms at Brick City Inn or West Union....while others drove in for a day or a few hours. States represented were Iowa, Minnesota, Illinois, Texas, Missouri, and South Dakota.

Doesn’t there always seem to be some mischief or excitement of some kind to entertain us?!! This year we felt lucky to have Roger & Darlene Andrews join us and we thank Lavern for traveling to Frederika to pull their 5th wheel over for them. Roger’s had some health issues preventing them from going to TX last winter. Their 5th wheel hadn’t been used in over a year. One day we heard Darlene screaming. Seems a bull snake was stuck in the 5th wheel slide-out (on the INSIDE). After much screaming & photography of the LIVE snake, it was finally extracted, thanks to Myla...she’s SO brave!

We were happy that John & Marge Whited still travel from Denison, Iowa each year. They might be the really SENIOR campers of our group & this year they had a new mini-camper rather than a pull-behind. They are always game to whatever we choose to do each day. Here’s a special welcome to Dave & Marylyn Mason who came for their first year, hoping they found enough fun that they’ll be back in 2015.

Sunday night we enjoyed Irene & John Quail’s hot dogs with chili & slaw, always tasty .. thanks to them for doing this! Evening meals were usually potluck in the shelter house except for the night we went downtown for pizza. The entire week, we had wonderful food, plenty of desserts, good Iowa sweet corn, and those delicious Illinois peaches courtesy of the Gibbs. Following the evening potlucks & even some afternoons people played “nickel”, “dummy rummy”, poker, & Mexican Train dominoes.

The fellows enjoyed golf at the course between Elgin & Clermont. Some traveled to other courses in the area as well. Ladies traveled to various towns & some fellows joined us. Happy hour was held most afternoons about 4 o’clock. It is nearly impossible to record the many trips taken throughout the area but here is a recap, possibly missing some!

Tuesday a group went to McGregor shopping, then stopped at Maggie’s Café for lunch, before continuing on to Elkader for MORE shopping. On Wednesday, a scheduled tour to Country View Dairy between West Union & Frederickburg was taken. This is a Mennonite-operated farm where they make their own yogurt. There were 27 people on this trip! Following the dairy-yogurt tour, we went on to Hawkeye as many wanted to return to K & K Gardens there. Thursday a couple carloads went to Horsefalls in Lansing.

It seemed the highlight tour of the week (surprised us!) was Friday when approximately 30 went to Calmar to tour the Northeast Iowa Dairy Foundation. Even those who weren’t farmers in their “former” lives enjoyed this, especially the robotic milking parlor. We had been told we would have home-made ice cream here. Little did we know we would be making our own. What fun, we’re keeping that recipe & hope to use it in south TX some Sunday afternoon!

Friday we were able to do a repeat trip to Peggy & Steve Kittelson’s Woodland Designs by Clermont where kaleidoscopes are made. Some of the ladies shopped at the 3-story fabric store in Monona. A small group traveled to Spillville to see the Bily Clocks. If you are in NE Iowa and have not seen this, you missed something! Schurman’s daughter Kay & granddaughter Reba came to tube the Turkey River one afternoon with Myla and Lavern. We gave Myla a “star” for her Senior Certificate Award she’d received previously.

Smaller groups took trips during the week including West Union shops & the Amish in Fairbank. They stopped at Dusk to Dawn south of Readlyn only to discover it is not open on Saturday afternoons. We found an Amish Bakery east of Clermont which is smaller than the Fairbank one, but delicious just the same. That group went on to the Amish Greenhouse only to find dried-up plants except for the climbing tomatoes. That was the day Tom’s sister Bev hit a deer doing some damage to the hood of her car!

Bensons grilled 45 chickens (90 halves) Saturday night. That was the day Marc Frana came to entertain us for good listening & some dancing. Seems as we have grown older, maybe wiser, we enjoy the listening as much as the dancing! Thanks to the Slycords who served fried onions for our happy hour that evening. We welcomed many extra visitors on Saturday including some of the Benson-Schmidt kids & grandkids.

Sunday morning we broke up camp with some eating buffet at SkipAway Lodge, some at the popular Turkey River Saloon downtown. 

Looking ahead to next year, we’ve had a request to make a return trip to Decorah and possibly do another Mississippi River cruise, so we’ll be looking into those for 2015. We have talked to Fuzzy Oakland, the well-known Clermont resident who knows everything you need to know about the history of Clermont. He may (or may not) join us for a day tour or an evening talk (who the heck knows at this point!), then maybe provide & cook some sweet corn for us with a steam engine. That’s what he told us anyway.

Put this date on your calendar .. Next year we’ll be camping Aug. 2-9. 
We are open for other ideas from our friends! Just give us a holler via phone or email!

August 29th

This morning Ken and Sue Barnhart furnished donuts.

Gene and Mary wanted to have biscuits and gravy some morning so some of us got together and decided to have a Brunch Monday, Labor Day, Gene, with the help of Bobby and Ken will do biscuits and gravy and scrambled eggs, the rest of us will bring a side dish. Hoping Ken's knee gets to feeling better, he hurt it yesterday and was in quite a bit of pain last night. He found out it was a strain.

The biggest news is the rain we are getingt today and also good chance Sat. and Sun. And I just saw that next week good chances for more rain. The trees and grass are suffering right now so this is great news. Now things will green up and be beautiful for when you all come down! I was talking to Grace Thornton from Iowa yesterday and she said it has rained and rained in Iowa for the last week or so, and the farmers are hoping that will end soon as harvest is just around the corner!

I was at the Walmart Neighborhood Market when it opened Thursday. It's on the corner of 18th and Texas. It is very nice and folks are so friendly. some freebies and a Mariochee band played for a bit in the morning. There's a pharmacy there but of course no clothes or garden center, just the food. It will be great for the neighborhood there, but since we are so close to HEB and to the big Walmart , I probably won't shop there unless they have some good bargains advertised. The pharmacy may take some of the load off the big Walmart. There are 4 of these  Neighborhood Markets in the Valley which hire about 700 people so this is great, all of these are here in Hidalgo County, 2 in McAllen, 1 in Mission and now here in Weslaco. Oh, by the way they are open 24 hours.

More next week

Friday August 22nd

I am still trying to get used to this hot weather. The weather man says 100, each day for the next week, yuk!
I feel sorry for Alex and Roberto, they started the tarring of the streets yesterday. I don't know how they can stand it. They were covered with tar and shoes too. They had to quit early as the wind got to blowing so bad. they did all of Orange St. yesterday and back in the 99's today

We sure had tasty finger food last Wednesday. Donuts provided by the Mason's this week.

The card up for signing is for former residents whose Grandaughter passed away, she had 2 lungtransplants but cancer spread in other places. The Sextons were at the Story City potluck and Teresa talked to everyone about the grand daughters condition.

I had an enjoyable drive over to the new Walmart in Elsa this morning, the roads are all 4 lane with new blacktop, very nice roads and some beautiful homes along the way, many little businesses I had never known were on that road, the store was gorgious and only a handful of people shopping.
Our little  Walmart "Market" will be opening, I think someone said the end of this month, on 18th street.

The parrots are still in the park every evening and mornings, there were about 30 of them on the electric wires on the North end of the park.

I also took this picture of the fountain Ken Barnhart made for Mary Freundshuh, she loves it and it's really beautiful.

There's been a mass of Martins coming and going at their home, they seem to be organizing for a trip South maybe, yesterday there were only 5 or 6 birds the neighbors said just before we got home from Iowa there was over 100 birds flying all around the house and most of them sat on the electric wires behind our house.
We took 2 Martin houses down already. And just this morning Bobby and Ken took the last house down.

Friday august 15th

We left Sunday morning and arrived Monday around 7:00p.m. I guess we were anxious to get back to the 100 degree weather here, yuk! Miss the cool mornings and evening in Iowa.

Ken and Cheryl Costley provided the donuts this morning. There are no cards up to sign.
Sorry I didn't get this posted until late tonight

Last day at Clermont

Marc Frana came to entertain us today! Remember he was in our park 2 years ago, he played at our "Happy Hours" in the park.

some folks came by just for the day today, Duffy's were on their way to Hobo Days in Britt,Iowa, they brought their truck, it will be in the car show in Britt.

Heidi was excited to see Pepper

Laverne and Yvonne Sherman's Daughter and Grand daughter, and Myla, (Miles Stensland's Daughter) and Lavern, all went tubing down the River.

Some danced but most everyone just sat and listened to the music and visited.
Tom Benson did around 85    1/2 chickens on the grill....and we all brought side dishes
Here's a picture of the grills with the chicken cooking on them, Tom and Bobby had to turn the chicken when they were done on one side, it was quite a sight to see them turn the whole rack over...

Yogurt Factory

 

 

Tom and Mary Lou Benson sure have made the Campout special for all of us, they did their best to find interesting things for us to do, like shopping, touring different places, finding us good eating places, they personally traveled to each of these places to see if we might be interested in going. we owe them a great big "Thank you" , here's another tour they arranged for us. A farm where they raise and milk cows, some of the milk is used to make yogurt. Several times in the past years we went on a boat on the Mississippi and all of us liked to go to the many gift and antique shops, quilting shops etc.eastern Iowa is so beautiful with its rolling hills and forests and bean and corn fields, it would be wonderful to visit eastern Iowa in the Fall to see the Fall foliage.

 

 

 

 

 

These pictures were taken at Hawkeye where we got a tour on the making of yogurt
A family in rural Fayette County hopes to put a little culture in Northeast Iowa's diet, specifically a creamy, all-natural yogurt from cows free of bovine growth hormone....
We were given a lecture on how they made the yogurt. And we had a taste of the frozen yogurt, which was very tasty, and some sampled the fruit yogurts.

A little history

Dave and Carolee Rapson's Country View Dairy has processed milk from its Holstein cows into yogurt since 2011.

During that time the product line has expanded and the consumer base has grown. They started with original yogurt and added a Greek line. Their newest product is premium frozen yogurt soft-serve mix. They continue to add flavors and are considering other products.
 
"Things continue to grow," Dave said. "We were very fortunate to get it started. It's taken a lot of effort. Marketing is huge, and you work at it very hard. There's a lot of competition but we've been moving ahead."
Country View sells its yogurt to 12 northeast Iowa public schools plus seven colleges in Minnesota and Iowa. They sell to more than 70 grocery stores and restaurants and through three distributors — including one that serves the Chicago area, another in Minnesota and one that handles only Iowa-made products. They sell at the downtown Cedar Rapids Farmers Market and through the Iowa Food Coop.
Country View Dairy will have a tent at the Field of Dreams reunion this summer in Dyersville and their products have been added to the Farmer's Pick Buffet at the Isle of Capri Casino in Waterloo. Country View products can be purchased at the People's Food Coop in Rochester, Minn.
The Rapsons moved their dairy herd from Michigan to Hawkeye in 2002.
"We don't have a lot of ground, just 60 acres tillable, and after the 2009 dairy crunch, feed prices have been high and we decided we needed to do something else," Dave said. "Ground is very valuable here and we decided to work the other end and value add."
Carolee had been making homemade yogurt for a couple of years, a product that her family enjoyed.
They met with the Hansen family at Hudson who built an on-farm creamery and were bottling milk and making cheese, butter and ice cream.
"We didn't know if we should do milk, cheese or ice cream, and Jay Hansen suggested yogurt and referred us to Sugar River Dairy, a yogurt maker in Wisconsin," Dave said. "We visited Sugar River and he was a big help. We settled on yogurt. No one else in northeast Iowa was doing a farmstead yogurt. We started experimenting and researching and doors kept opening so we kept moving ahead."
The family built its gleaming state-certified yogurt processing plant from the ground up working closely with a milk inspector.
In fall 2011, Country View started making yogurt.
"Our product is all natural and local," Dave said.
The yogurt is cup set. It's liquid when it goes into the cup and yogurt cultures set it up in the incubation room where the product sits for six hours at 108 degrees before it goes into the cooler. All the yogurt is 1 percent milk fat and non-homogenized, making digestion easier.
"We add no thickeners," Dave said. "Our product tastes good because of its simplicity. It tastes the way yogurt should taste."
Country View's original yogurt comes in a variety of flavors in six- and 24-ounce cups and three- and five-pound tubs. Flavors are are plain, vanilla, raspberry, strawberry, blueberry, black cherry, lime and peach.
The farm's line of Greek yogurt, which has nearly double the protein of original yogurt, comes in six-ounce cups with fruit on the bottom in raspberry, strawberry, peach and blueberry. They also make lemon custard. They sell plain in 24-ounce cups and plain and lemon custard in five-pound tubs.
Country View milks cows three times a day in a double-12 parlor. Cows are housed in a free-stall barn with sand bedding.
The Rapsons use about a day's milk each week for yogurt. The rest is shipped to Wapsie Valley Creamery in Independence.
When the Rapsons are processing yogurt, their rBST-free Grade A milk goes straight from the parlor to the processing plant through a pipeline. It is separated, pasteurized and the cultures and flavors are added.
They must test each batch for antibiotics. Pasteurizing and washing are recorded on a chart. Once each month, the state milk inspector comes and takes samples.
"This is very closely regulated," Dave said.
Processing generally takes place Monday through Thursday with Friday as the catch-up day when they box up yogurt cups.
The operation has three employees plus Dave, Carolee and their daughter Ambrea. Sons Jesse and Seth take care of the dairy herd. Carolee and Dave's younger daughters, Courtney and Elly, will be involved as they grow older.
"We wanted a business where we could work the family into it," Dave said.
The front of the processing plant has a retail area that they plan to develop more over time. They sell their yogurt plus products from Hansen's Dairy and WW Homestead Dairy in Waukon, and lettuce from Rolling Hills Greenhouse at West Union. The store attracts a steady steam of customers.
Sales and marketing manager Bob Howard said they are considering new products. Some day they hope to package their frozen yogurt, they're looking at a drinkable yogurt and possibly sour cream. If they make sour cream, they would like to include dried herbs from Rolling Hills Greenhouse.
Dave said Hansen's Farm Fresh Dairy, Sugar River Dairy and Iowa State University Extension have all been a great help in getting the business started. They received a USDA Value Added grant for marketing and getting product lines going.They've also worked with the Iowa Food Hub and with Teresa Wiemerslage through Northeast Iowa Food and Fitness and Farm to School.

the Dairy Tour

This morning before the tour at the Dairy we went to an Amish Bakery. We had real tasty rolls and donuts and there were lots of baking items and foods in bulk pkgs.

the back of the Amish Bakery. then we drove about 25 miles to the huge Dairy farm, owned by the University of Iowa

In the heart of northeast Iowa's dairy country, the Dairy Center sits on a hilltop just outside of Calmar, Iowa. The Dairy Center and Dairy Foundation work to bring together education, demonstration and research to foster the growth and prosperity of families who make dairy farming their way of life.

The Dairy Center is operated by the Northeast Iowa Dairy Foundation, a non-profit, grassroots organization formed to prepare young men and women to operate dairy farms, provide ongoing education for existing dairy farmers and serve as a public educational facility. The partnership with Northeast Iowa Community College allows students enrolled in agriculture programs to experience hands-on curriculum by working with the dairy herd.

The Dairy Center site includes an educational facility with classrooms and labs, a milking parlor, NEW robotic milking system, freestall barn and calf barn.

Here is a picture of the barn the cows come into to be milked, there's 8 milking stations on each side, in this part of the building

Here's a picture of the automated milking parlor...the cows come in and go out at will, they get a treat while their in so some of them just keep coming in over and over, but the computerized machines know when they were milked last and they can only give milk every 4 hours. the teats  or udders  are found by a lazer and when they are in correct position they start milking.

All the cows in this huge building eat this silage freely and can walk around any where in the building they want and there's soft sand where they lay down on.

there is another big building that house the Mother's to be...this calf is just a few hours old.

After the tour we got to make our own icecream!!! We put 2 cups milk, 1/2 cup sugar, and 1 tsp. vanilla in a small plastic bag, sealed it with duct tape to make sure it didn't leak, and put it in a large coffee can with rock salt and ice. then we rolled it back and forth on the table and in 10 min. we had icecream!!

fun at the Campout

We are still enjoying the cool weather here at Clermont. Today was in the upper 70's I think, and we usually run our little heater in the mornings for a little while.

This morning quite a few of us were going to Horsefalls and then a huge quilt shop in Monona. But my knee has been giving me fits so we did our laundry and later I went to Monona by myself. The quilt shop was downtown and I met up with a carload from the campout. But my knee was hurting so bad I just browsed for awhile and decided to leave, I got turned around as to how to get back to the highway that I came in on, and stopped and asked a guy...he said just go straight ahead to the stop sign then left, which I was headed that way anyway thinking that was the right street to take...then He laughed and said "Oh, you Texans"!

This picture and the next two were taken at Maggies diner, yesterday.

Norman Gibbs t-shirt  

This morning ready to head  out for more shopping.

We are eating way too good!