I Just Saw My First Boat RV

Yesterday evening I looked out my window and low and behold a boat was moving into an RV site across from us. "Reel Dirty" is from Florida. The owners travel and camp in their boat. What a unique "RV." Imagine, you can live in your boat on land or on water. What a great idea.

Our Feather Friend Visitor

This morning we had an unusual visitor. Polly, a parrot that lives with one of the guests at Stanton came for a visit this morning. She didn't talk much, but she loved to pose for pictures. I spent most of the day trying to get our income taxes figured out. I hope this is the last year I have to do the long form. My life must get simpler. Jack and Hazel stopped by for a visit to let us know they will be going back home to Oregon on Sunday. We plan on meeting them at Blue Bucket in Oregon in July. Blue Bucket is a gold prospecting camp near Baker, Oregon. We spent a month there last summer and really enjoyed it. And Willard recovered gold, an added bonus.

This afternoon Willard and the "boys" practiced their guitars. They will be playing after the Potluck Dinner Friday night. It will be Don's last night to play with them. He will be moving to the Guest Ranch in Wickenburg where Penny, his wife, is working. They will begin preparing for their trip back to Houston for a visit with family. We hope to meet them on the road, for we will be heading that way in April.

We invited Mark over last night for a steak dinner. The food was good and it was fun hearing about all of his experiences this past year. He is remodeling his Airstream while he is here for a few weeks. Then he will be back on the road.

We are going to Laughlin tomorrow. Karen will check on Duster while we are gone. Hope we win some money!

Polly visited us this morning. She belongs to one of the guests here at Stanton.  

Polly loves to have her picture taken. 

The Old Bath House Work Party

As you can see, the Old Bath House is leaning. So, we had a group of our neighbors over to help fix up the old building which is located at our campsite. The rock structure to the left of the building was used to heat the water for the showers. The building is now level. We need another work party to replace some missing siding in the back and on the left side. The doors actually close now. Karen made delicious donuts for us all and Judy built a fire in the fireplace to help keep warm. Later Willard and I roasted hot dogs over the fire for lunch. Judy came back over later and read by the fire, while we went to Wickenburg. Photo by Snackmaster.

Our Valentines Day Wiener Roast

"Some had to go back for more."

We had plenty of food and boy was it good. 

Just visiting. It was great seeing Mark again. He arrived today (center of picture). 

We had a Wiener Roast at our site. About 40 people joined us. We had a wonderful time visiting and eating. Alice sang Happy Anniversary to JoAnn and Dave. It was their 23 wedding anniversary. 

Willard trying to keep warm. 

Jam Sessions in front of our Motorhome.

Willard is singing at the Jam Session. They try to practice at least once a week and entertain for various events here at Stanton Camp.

Don and Hollywood Don come over for a Jam Session 

We had fun showing him Stanton. Look carefully and you will see Stanley playing on the ATV at camp

Stanley's Visit

Austin sent Stanley to visit for a few days. We were to give him adventures around Stanton then send him back to Austin in Missoula so that he could share the adventures with his classmates. We have so many cacti aroun here that the first thing that happened to Stanley was that he got stuck on a cactus. Ouch!

Stanley is helping Willard dry wash.

New Friends from the Fulltiming Class of 2005 visit.

Snackmaster & Jan and Glen & Diane Hubbard (Rollin' Hubs) visited us at Stanton.
We gave them a tour of our treasured old ghost town and shared our gold prospecting hobby. It was great seeing them again. Photo by Snackmaster.

Typical Day at Stanton?

Actually, there isn't a typical day here at Stanton. At least not for us. I never know what tomorrow will bring. Usually Willard gets up early in the morning and takes Duster for a walk. Then he eats breakfast and heads for the hills to look for more gold. I usually sleep late, something I love to do, but couldn't in my preretirement years. Today, I showered, then went for a 4 mile hike up the back road to a creek. I took Duster because he loves to walk around in the water looking for fish. No fish in this creek though. But, he had fun looking. The walk took me two hours. I stopped along the way to enjoy the views. When I got back I completed two sketches of buildings in camp. I plan on using the sketches for my watercolor subjects. I'm taking private art lessons from an Oregon watercolor artist here at camp. People kept stopping by and admiring my work. Seems I spent most of the time talking. I then practiced my clarinet for about an hour while Willard fell asleep on the couch. After he woke up he decided to play his guitar and sing to me. We had leftovers for lunch and supper. A few friends stopped by. Willard panned out his gold for the day from his concentrate. Then we spent the evening watching television. That's one day at Stanton.

Karen's and Bill's Anniversary

Tomorrow is Karen's and Bill's Anniversary. Since our Rock and Mineral Club meeting is tomorrow night we decided to celebrate their anniversary tonight. We had a lovely evening. They came over about 5:30 and we cooked steaks on the grill and had baked potatoes and salad. We toasted their anniversary and ate to the tunes of the 50's. We learned how they met and married. It was great getting to know them better. It was a good evening.

Our day was a busy one. Willard and I slept late and had a late breakfast. Then we decided to practice our music. Then we had company throughout the rest of the day. About 3:30 we made a quick trip to Wickenburg to buy groceries. Don and Penny dropped by for a brief visit about 4:30, then Karen and Bill came over about 5:30. I love this life. There is never a dull moment.

The canyon winds a blowing. It's late and I'm headed for bed. Goodnight.

Update

We have really been busy around here. We had a recall on our Tacoma and had to go to Phoenix to get it fixed. We did some shopping while we were there.

Willard took Glen out drywashing to demonstrate the process. They had a good day considering the amount of dirt they moved. The more dirt the more gold. I think Glen was surprised how much work is involved in gold prospecting. But, the prospectors around here love to go out on the desert and HUNT for gold.

I got a perm. It's the first one I've had in years.

We invited Jack and Hazel over for hamburgers the other night. We had a great visit. Willard sang one of their favorite songs for them. Jack is an artist in watercolors and has quite a few of his paintings in galleries in Oregon. He is going to give me a few lessons. I'm looking forward to them.

I'm cutting Willard's hair again. It's been over 25 years since I was the family barber. I just hope other men in the camp don't come asking for haircuts. It's really not my favorite thing to do.

Austin sent us a Flat Stanley (a paper doll) to take prospecting. Austin is in the first grade and he is to give a report on Flat Stanley's visit. We had a great time with Flat Stanley taking him drywashing over by the Vulture Mine. I took pictures of him around the camp as well as stuck to the cacti around Vulture Mine. Then I sent the pictures, a journal, and information about Stanton back to Austin. We even included a little gold and some pretty rocks for his classmates. I hope Austin and the class are happy with the information.

I don't know where the time goes. But, we only have two more months here before we take to the road.