2004

2004 was mostly about building.     We didn't do anything major on the home place, except to get rid of two years of weeds and junk on the outside and bring the landscaping up to snuff again.

Dick's main effort was the house in Heavener - the one that was burned out.    If you remember the photos from the previous blog, you will see the transformation of the little bathroom:

and the living room.     We had to remove the fireplace that shows up on the prior photo.     The floor was damaged and the fireplace had actually fallen down slightly into a hole.

I was especially proud of the kitchen.     It was such an unbelievable mess that I never could have envisioned that we could make it look like this:

There wasn't too much to do on the outside, but Dick did put a couple of decks on it - a small one at the back and this one at the front.    The door led directly into the kitchen.

When we had Heavener finished, Dick turned his attention to the back of our property where we had decided to build ourselves a new home.     It had a great view of the hill.     He built the garage first  - a three car garage:

I did make a trip to England again.     Mair and I stayed with nephew Ian first and were joined by Kitty.   She stayed with us for our full trip and we stayed with Gareth and Jane in Southport and also Sarah and kids in the north.  For me it was the best trip I took in view of the places we visited.     Winchester Cathedral was one of the first, a magnificent builting seeped in history.    It houses the oldest existing bible in the world and we were privileged to see it.     It's a long story on how that happened as it is isn't open to general viewing, but we happened to get talking with one of the curators of the Cathedral and I think she was impressed with the knowledge that all three of us had on English history (especially Kitty), so she took us to see it.

I personally was fascinated withe stained glass windows at the front of the cathedral.    It was spectacular and yet didn't have the usual obvious depictions of saints, and biblical happenings.     It had the look of modern art.     I asked our 'guide' and it seems that when Oliver Cromwell was in power (the only time England was without a king or queen), he declared 'war' on all of the catholic churches and his 'army' went into them and caused enormous damage.     This particular window was smashed into tiny pieces.     The pieces were kept and later created into this wonderful mass of color.

While we were in Southhampton, Martyn was our main guide (the oldest of Kitty's children).     He was retired Royal Navy and still worked on the Naval Yards.    He took us on a tour of Nelson's ship which was fascinating, and also to 'work in progress' on the "Mary Rose".     This ship was Henry VIII's flagship which had been sunk.    It was discovered by divers and raised.    They are now working on it to restore it to its original condition.     We were able to walk along a platform in the building where this is taking place and see it in its recovered form.

Ian took us to Hever Castle - that was a special request from me.     Hever Castle was the home of the Boleyn family and Thomas Boleyn was part of King Henry VIII's court.    Mary and Anne Boleyn were raised in this house.     Mary Boleyn was the first of Henry's mistresses and bore one of his children.    But it was Henry's later passion for Anne that led to his break with the catholic church because they wouldn't allow him to divorce his first wife.     Thus the Church of England was established with Henry at its head and Anne became wife number 2.     My special interest in this family, is because Dick (and subsequently most of you readers) are descendents of Mary Boleyn and her husband (after the affair with Henry).

Later in the year Dick and I took a trip to California for Debbie's graduation (Masters degree in speech pathology)

and to go the 55th class reunion of Caruthers High.    Claydean is with us on this picture.

2003

Another year of change.    This time brought on totally by finances.     We made some very bad investments, compounded with being royally 'taken' in a business scam.    Both put us seriously in debt and we had no choice but to leave our lovely home in Eldorado Springs which we had put so much work into.     But such is life and we moved on.

Before this though, we did have a major storm go through our region and Stockton, a small town just south of us had a path completely destroyed through the town.    Only one person was killed which in itself was a miracle.

Our property was covered with roofing, papers, documents, letters etc. after the storm and driving through the town made one think of the bombed areas in World War II.     Mair was with us at the time and she and I did have some great times during her visit - walking what was now over 2 miles of delightful paths through our woods, and a trip up to Kansas City and on to the Amish country.

Willie had to get in the act with this photo of Mair, Louise and I in front of the barn.

We sell the house

and buy and move into a single wide trailer in Poteau, Oklahoma.     It had lovely decks and some nice
decks and storage areas,  plus at one time it had been nicely landscaped and we could see the potential.



Louise had decided to move permanently to California, but she did stay at this home and take care of the four dogs while we made a quick trip to California.

I have to interject a story here, which I think is so typically Dick and I.     We hadn't unpacked any boxes when we left on this trip and we made better time than we had anticipated, so when going along I-40 in Arizona we saw a turnoff to Snowball (I think I have the name right).     We commented that we had never been there, so took a detour.     We kinda liked the place and were looking at homes and sites, when I turned to Dick and said "We're sick!!    We're not even unpacked in the Oklahoma and here we are looking at Arizona!"  

We made another purchase when we returned, a home that had had a roof fire and sustained major water damage in a little town of Heavener.    When we walked through it, I thought there was nothing we could with it to make it habitable, but Dick with his amazing ability to see the bigger picture, thought it would be a great project.    We bought the place for $4000.

This is what the living room looked like, and the kitchen was even worse:

The bathroom was another disaster - in fact there was no place in the home that wasn't severely damaged.

But keep these photos in mind - we'll show you the end results later on......

Jerry and Bev paid us a visit here with two of their friends they were traveling with, then returned later on their own.     It was good to have them.    

This 'visitor' wasn't so welcome.    I'm just happy I found his discard on the deck and not the filled out version.

These photos never turn out well for me, but I still had to take this photo.    I think Dick did a fantastic job and coming up the road, it looked like a ship lit up.

2002

The year 2002 was a relatively quiet one - especially after the busy, eventful 2001.     And apparently, it was a year that I took few photographs.

Louise was gone for most of the year, she spent the summer in California and the Christmas, so before she left in the early summer Dick and I did take a few days and went to Myrtle Beach.....

It was very relaxing and we played golf, look around and I walked the beach - always one of my favorite pastimes.  

It was my turn to visit Britain and spend time with Mair and this time we chose to stay with Ian in London and play tourist in that great city.     We went to the Globe Theater (where Shakespeare performed in his plays), to Westminster Abbey (saw some of the tombs of some ancestors!!), had a fantastic day in Oxford.    Both Mair and I just love that city, and both being great fans of "Inspector Morse" loved seeing the places that we would see in the shows.     We spent a day at the British Museum - amazing old history relics, including mummies; and a magic day at Hampton Court, another place steeped in history that both of us love.   

We also spent a nice day with our cousin Mary and her husband Peter:

Dick and I did get to spend Thanksgiving in Sacramento, staying with Hazel, Cody and Karen.    Bill and Frances were there too, so it was quite special.

We had a rare white Christmas that year.     It was a heavy snowstorm by El Dorado Standards, and even our dogs seemed fascinated with it.

Emma is the black 'dot' on the right.    Not even snow was going to deter her from her daily walk around the property.

Dick did a fantastic job on the Christmas decorations.    Wish I had taken a better photograph of them.

Every year I seem to have a favorite photograph, and this year it is of Dick......

The good parts of 2001

Setting the horror of 9/11 aside, 2001 was a great year for us, filled with visitors and fun events.

Jerry & Bev were the first of our visitors.     They were in their motorhome and parked it in our driveway.    

This was followed by Tricia, who helped Dick finish one of his bridges.     We always enjoy our time with Tricia.

We were able to attend the Craig Family Reunion in Arkansas, and Bill and Frances came too.    They would always take photos of each one of the eleven children's downline that attended.    We posed for the attending downline of Lowney Craig, the oldest daughter of this large family.     Bill and Frances visited us in Eldorado Springs after this and it was here that we learned of Bill's Altzeimers.

Denise and Jill spent a few days with us - Louise's visitors really, but we sure enjoyed them.    Jill seemed to enjoy fishing in our lake.

Mair was the next visitor and she and I enjoyed once again our daily walks through our woods - much expanded from the last time she was here.    Emma and Pedro would always accompany us, and so would Willie but she was always on the hunt, so we would only see here occasionally.     Samantha was too lazy to come!   Emma was funny with Mair, she would continually 'herd' her in the right direction!

While Mair was with us, Irene and Andy came for about five days.    This is the only photo we have of the three of us.    I look at this and can't believe I was ever that fat!    That's the highest I ever was in my life - I'm happy to say I am some 35 lbs. lighter now.

Our last visitors of the year were Ken and Lynda (Louise's son and daughter-in-law).

A big event we missed was Mindy's graduation with her degree in Photography.     Love this photo of Momma Grad.

And also love this sample of her work - one of Becky's kittens:  

We had some different company at the bird feeder.    This was the first time we had seen the wild turkey come so close:

And last but not least - the mystery of the year.     We have no idea how this happend.    We simply went outside and there it was.    Did the poor little thing die of fright?   Did one of my cats give their 'friend' a gift?     We will never know..................

2001

One cannot reflect on 2001 without immediately going to 9/11 - the event that eclipsed all other events of the year.

In those days, we used to go to bed with the TV on and would wake in the morning with it already on Fox News.    Dick had just gone to the bathroom and I was sitting on the edge of the bed, watching the first reactions to the first plane.     Just as they were reflecting on how a commercial airline could have gone so far off course to hit the tower, the second plane hit and slowly the reality sank in.    

We shed so many tears that week, and we lowered our flag to half mast - the only time we ever did.    I can still remember the emotions at that time, and as is normal with me, put my feelings on paper.    I wish I had kept a copy of that, but unfortunately I didn't.

I do remember writing that it was a shame that the feeling of 'country' and 'fellowship' that prevailed at that time, when color, race, and other differences fell aside and we were all Americans, would not last.    And how true that was!

We have had other terrorist attacks since then, but none with the enormity of 9/11.    I hope I don't experience that again and none of our grandkids, and great-grandkids do, but that is probably wishful thinking!.    The days of the old holy wars between Christian and Muslim are regretfully back with us.

2000

Another enjoyable year at El Dorado Springs.    Dick continued to make it a showplace.    I think one of his most inventive jobs was this chain he put in the front of our house: 

The posts were originally at the back of the house and we didn't like them there, so he moved them to the front and then built the chain to hang inbetween.    He made the chain out of wood.     We got a lot of comments on this.    He also continued expanding the walks in the woods and built bridges over the creek.    By this time he had extended the paths into both our neighbors woods (with their permission) and we actually ended up with over two miles of trails and three bridges going over the creek.     Our neighbor actually went out and bought his own golf cart so he could take his family and visitors along the paths.    I walked them practically everyday and never tired of them.

We played a lot of golf too, very often with friends Les and Carolyn.     We would go to neighboring courses together and play too.   It was fun.   This photo was taken at our local course.

Mair visited us again in the spring and she and I took many local trips and walked every day together in the woods - lots of talking and sharing experiences.    After being separate for most of our lives, we really bonded with these visits.

Louise watched our animals while Dick and I took one trip together - we headed north and drove around Lake Superior.    It was a great trip and we both thoroughly enjoyed Mackinac Island:

Louise and I also took a trip together to Kentucky.     We were on the trail of some family history, but didn't have an awful lot of luck with that.

Our lack of 'luck' on this trip was mainly caused by being on the wrong path of an ancestor of the Craigs.     This Benjamin Craig was very interesting and we learned a whole lot about him, but unfortunately he turned out not to be one of Dick's and Louise's ancestors.     We had a lot of fun together though even being on the wrong trail.     We were both fascinated driving through the Kentucky tobacco area.     Neither one of us had seen tobacco farms before.

Our daily life was full of nature with the deer coming every day, and Dick feeding the huge catfish.    The martins in their season and the Canadian geese when they were there added to the enjoyment.    It really does stack up to being one of the best places we have lived:

This is the Purple Martin housing I was telling you about in a prior blog - I forgot I had this photo of it, with one of our daily deer below.

We started the year with a snow storm, but had a really big one just before Christmas.     I still fed the birds every day and walked down to the edge of the woods to feed the deer - it was a bit of a chore in the deep snow.

My final picture this year is another favorite of Lena.     She found herself a friend on the back of the chair.

Balance of 1999

The last year of the century!    I can remember as a child, I would think about the turn of the century and it seemed so far off, I couldn't possibly expect to see it - but here we were and still feeling we have a lot of years ahead of us.

It had already been a fun year and it continued to be that way.    We took a quick trip to Mt. Vernon for Bill and Midge Jones' 50th wedding anniversay (Debbie's parents), and then Debbie, Blake and Amber visited us for a while.  

We also attended one of the Craig family's reunion (Dick's Mom was a Craig), and had a great time visiting with uncles, aunts and cousins.     Bill and Frances made the trip too:

Bill and Frances came back home with us and the end of their visit overlapped with a visit from Marie and Mindy.     We 'girls' took a couple of trips together.    One to the Precious Moments Museum and Park,

and then to the Lake of the Ozarks.

Bill and Frances left and we spent a few more days thoroughly enjoying Marie and Mindy.   I especially like this photograph that Mindy took of the four of us:

The last highlight of the year was another trip to Mt. Vernon for me to attend the 75th anniversary of the B.P.W. Federation in Mt. Vernon.    They invited all the Past Presidents to attend.     It was enjoyable and it was nice to see the women I knew again, but I found it somewhat sad to see how small the group had become.     We had over 100 members in our years, but there was barely 30 any more and apparently this was prevalent throughout the country.

One sad note - I lost my beloved Callie.    She was about 17 years old and had a cancerous tumor which was giving her pain, so I had her put down.     I really did love that cat and she had some lovely ways of showing her love for me.

A couple of favorite photos to end the blog.    The first one of Willie was taken by Mindy during her visit.     The second one is my favorite of Pedro.    He had a very shake beginning to his life so it was lovely to see the trust he showed in me.

Well nothing catastrophic happened at the end of the year.     The banks didn't all close down.    The internet didn't crash.     The government didn't come to a standstill and the electricity stayed on - we simply went from 11.59pm on December 31st to 12.01am January 1st with nothing but the sound of Dick and I sleeping peacefully!    And we entered the 21st century.