November 4th

Our first club meeting We have coffee and donuts before our Monday meetings which start at 9:00 a.m. This Monday the donuts were furnished by Mark & Linda Engleman in memory of their Daughter who passed this Summer. Anyone may purchase donuts for Monday meetings, if no one volunteers they will be bought by the Club _________________________________ Ice machine is down and has been down for some time. Understand that Dan is going to charge for the water and electricity to run it. discussing some about buying a new one or getting this one fixed. It was said the drain is plugged, so I dont know a whole lot about it, we will table discussion when more folks get back. We were told by a repairman that if the ice machine sits outside it will only last us 3 yrs. and no way will we be allowed one in the Hall, Dan said ___________________________________________ Nov. 16th Ken Barnhart says we will have a Free Hot Dog and Marshmellow roast, it will be where the extra golf cart parking is, a D.J. will be here and a pass the hat to pay him, otherwse all is free Also Ken said we will have a Chuck Wagon Party Jan. 30th so bring your Western Duds and get ready for a really fun time ___________________________________________ Thanksgiving will be chaired by Craig and Cindy Laakkomen, they are new and would like some help with this.It will be buffet style so we all need to bring a dish to share, details coming soon and a sign up sheet with food columns to help you decide what you might want to bring, such as, salad, vegy, dessert etc. ___________________________________________ We will be needing a new Chairperson and also one on Properties and one on Finance ___________________________________________ I wish to thank Alice Skillern for doing cards this Summer. If you know of someone who could use a card besure to call me at 956-968-6684. Cards up to sign are for Mardel Blom, her Son, Bruce passed away suddenly and a card to Dean Ricke, his wife Millie died ___________________________________________ My blog now has a mind of its own in that it decides when I should start a new pragraph,if I dont use lines to try to seperate paragraphs it will just run all the paragrahs together _________________________________________ Maybe I will need to start a new blog

October 29th

So sorry to hear about Mardel Blom in 148 her Son passed away and she will head back to Minnesota she just had stints put in her heart not long ago and is still recovering from that, so praying for strength and safe travels back home and back to the park soon ______________________________________________________________________ Sorry I did not do a blog this Summer as I was in Minnesota most of the Summer. getting back here to the park its not easy to find out anything that would be of interest to report to you all. I do know no drinks or no smoking in the pool area, but The Mgr. found some guys smoking so everyone had to get out of the pool and the gate to the pool got locked with a huge chain and paddlock and I saw the lock still on the next day. ______________________________________________________________________ The new gas station should open soon, they're pouring cement for the drives and a huge 8 ft. fence was put up between the station and our park, I think it looks real nice. ______________________________________________________________________ I am doing the cards again but was greatful to Alice for putting up cards this Summer for me ______________________________________________________________________

This machine being pulled by Al Jacobs golf cart LOL He pulled it up to work on it, I think it rakes the newly mowed hay into rows to be bailed....I have learned a lot about farming Ha Ha ______________________________________________________________________ I know now that a farmer has to be a very smart guy to know about cows and calves, fertilizers, and fixing machinery etc etc. _________________________________________________

I got to view the Fall foliage for the first time in over 30 years. When I went to Iowa it was always in the summer, so never got to see the changing seasons for years ___________________________________ Well, I dont call my blog Donnas Ramblings for nothing and I have rambled long enuff, so wont bore ya'll any more. Happy to be back in the Valley with 90 degree temps almost every day compared to 70's and lows of 20's and 30's in the mornings _______________________________ Our first meeting will be Nov. 4th and there may be much discussing about our ice machine, need a new one. Most used by workers to fill their coolers in the Summer, some parks dont even have an ice maker, Southern Comfort does not have one as they said it was outside and broke down all the time, also at Ranchero Bingo a guy said they dont have one there.lots of people have icemakers and they still make icecube trays lol buying a few bags of ice for some of the events would sure be a lot cheaper than paying to keep an ice machine running. My opinion only ___________________________________________________________

Happy Halloween

My husband,Bobby loved Halloween, he always came up with some of the coolest costumes, he actually started making up his costume 3 weeks before our Halloween party and he took 1st prize several times during our years at the park, (32yrs) This year the Halloween Party sounds like a hoot, first off a golfcart parade, , fun games, costume contest, Karoke, 50/50 draws, folks bringing finger food, pop corn, Iced tea and Lemonade

Sept. 19, 2024

So sorry to hear that Ione Hayungs (Ritter) passed away, she was on lot 245 __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ This Friday I will furnish donuts.Jack and Donna Haney furnished donuts last Friday. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ We are going to do another park photo directory. We have so many new folks and it's due. I wont start taking appointments until mid Nov. or so as the first photo session will be on Dec. 3rd. Now if you wish you may use your picture from last time. I will set you up an appointment to come in during one of the photo shoots to do that, you may wish to order an album and pay for it then. no credir cards only check or cash.Be prepared to pay for your album aand cd when you come to be photographed. Please let me know if there are any changes in your info from the last directory, such as phone nos. emails whatever. the photo albums will be $20.00, if you would like extra pictures you may purchase a cd for $20.00 and take it anywhere and order what ever pictures you wish. Getting your photo in the directory is free, and you dont have to buy the directory. Hopefully I will get the list of new folks and all their info so I can put it in my data base.

My Yorkie "Mia" is Queen of everything. Having a terrible time trying to get her a spade appt ____________________________________________________________________________________________ There are 4 cards up to sign: To Marlene & Dan McKinnon who live at lot 407, there Daughter passed away A card for Emily Armistead, lot 406, knee sugery A card for Ed Sanders, lot 292 Hernia repair A card to Patty Lamp, lot 86, knee surgery____ --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mike Nichols in lot 224 has been doing mobile home washing for folks, I just talked to him and he is doing 2 over in Ranchero Park today, I am going to have him wash mine If you would like to try him, let me know. I just saw that his No. is not in the book ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Enjoyied playing Mexican Train with a new lady in 227, her name is Viola, "Vi" and I am fixing her husbands picture for the Veterans wall I know there are quite a few of you that were Vets and need to give me a picture for our "Veterans Wall" So bring one with you this Fall!!! _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________As of right now I think we will have a photo album this year, I just need to get with our Photographer, Rod Grayham and decide what days would be good for taking pictures. We got some nice rains but no flooding that I know of around Weslaco _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ I am having problems with writing my blog, it won't do paragrahs so trying to seperate with lines, helps some until I can figure the problem out

Potluck on Labor Day Nice turnout for the potluck When I got home after being gone 2 months, I was curious as to what some interesting things may have gone on in the park. One thing is just before I left the pool was drained and it appeared they were sanding the pool and thats all I saw, so when I got home, went to the office to maybe ask what had gone on while I was gone, was just told go look at the pool, take pictures if you want for your blog, well, so I went to the pool, looks just like it always looked so no info about what was done or a dang thing. Some other people said they finally got the message that the pool and steps were slick and decided they needed to repaint and texture the bottom and steps. No other improvements were told to me. I do know every time they hire the palm cutters, they only remove a few frawns and in know time the palms are all shaggy and earlier when they were trimmed, since they only trimmed a few, seed pods were coming out and spewing seeds all over. I just came from a park I go to a lot and they only keep about 4 to 5 frawns and cut all the rest, I asked one time why they didnt cut off more and was told the Mgr said he wanted them cut like at 3 o"clock. Meaning very few got cut, just the lower ones this was several years ago so dont know what mgr they were talking about.

June 7th

Former resident Virgil Mittleberg passed away, June 5th. Virgil and Aileen first came to our park in 2004 and were on J-9, then the next year bought park model #423. They owned park model 423 until 2021 or 2022. they were from Quincy,ILL Address is 6331 Ellington Rd, Quincy, ILL. 62305. I hope this is still a good address for Ailene if you would want to send a card.

I remember them working at Don Wes Flea Maeket selling popcorn, then opened a little building at Don Wes, called the "Bean Barn" I am blessed to have Aileen's wonderful recipe for Bean Barn Corn meal muffins, a very sweet corn bread recipe.