Heading South Where it's Warmer

We HOPE! Last year there was a snowy event there in February. I took many nice photos to remember the excitement of it. May and June are nice for taking flower pictures. September and October are great for the fishing efforts of so many friends. "If you're lucky enough to have a place by the sea, you're lucky enough!" YES!!

Every year since 1999 we have traveled to our alternate home and back THREE times - to the beach in SC. It's a 38 foot park model trailer permanently set up in a campground ON THE BEACH! There are lakes within the park and gorgeous live oak trees and cactus and plantings at the individual homeowner's sites and wondrous wildlife! The campground has been in business for over 50 years. It's GREAT! I can explore and perhaps find more "treasures" both visual and touchable. Our dog, "Pal," and so many other family pets are welcome there and seem to enjoy the change of scenery as well.

I certainly intend to do some more exploring with my camera. (After that I will go to the indoor heated pool and whirlpool.)

The campground has Wi-Fi available but I DO NOT take my large table model computer and don't have a laptop or ipad either. It's a break from exercising my head and switching to body work!

Now I have to notify all of my e-mail buddies that they will need to hold messages until we return in April. That will take some time, but I send out the good news so all can anticipate some relief from my meanderings and such. They get a break too!

Hmmmmm.......there is just something about the salt air!

(The photos here are all my very own photomanipulation "creations.") The shark didn't get to eat my husband - so far!

Frozen Pipe

Well, this morning was interesting. When my husband went to run the kitchen faucet early (before I got up) he realized the water supply was frozen - somewhere!

While still in bed I heard him going out and back in the side door several times. I then got up to learn that the pipe coming out of the holding storage tank at the bottom, in the outside shed, had frozen during the night. We knew it was going to be cold but not THAT cold! Well, it was -10° at 7:30 AM so we don't know how cold it was between 10 PM and morning. What to do? He determined that the heat tape on the pipes was still working but that the pipe at the bottom of the tank was frozen at its connection. Usually we trickle water in the kitchen sink so this wouldn't happen! USUALLY. We didn't. I got out the hair drier, and the little one-and-only ceramic heater and he set them going. He had to rip the insulation off of the entire bottom pipe and it took two hours before we had water again. Luckily nothing major broke or was permanently damaged (We hope!) and we're back in business again. By the way, around 10 years ago we gave our salamander heater to our son-in-law for his garage work. It would have been a big hassle to get it back but it was a "last resort" plan. Now he has gone to town for more foam pipe insulation to replace what he destroyed. The ceramic heater cord was smashed in the shed door and that will have to be repaired and the kitchen heavy duty utility scissors were broken - no big deal! Whew! Now I can use the "facility" and have a certain flush!

He's been fussing about having nothing to do!

P.S. I took the thermometer photo around 8:30 AM. It's still -7° and the sun is shining. The next time he opened the shed, I got a photo of the its interior which better explains what all it contains and what was involved!