Deer now next door 

Deer in backyard 

New deck 

At Home in Texas

We apologize for our laxness in keeping up the Blog. To say we have been busy is not exactly true but we have been busy for retired folks. We try to get one or two things done each day so that we are not over burdened but when I think of the things I used to accomplish each day it pales by comparison.

We have now completed our deck, except for the staining which will be done next month, and it is a welcome addition to our home. We have purchased some furniture but it won't arrive until we return from our trip to St. Louis to share in the birth of John and Christine's first baby. We have coffee on the deck in the AM and a cocktail in the evening while we enjoy the lake views and the sounds of all of the neighborhood birds.

There are deer on the property but we haven't seen them much except after dark for the past couple of months. On Tuesday, May 2, we were leaving to go to Fairfield to run errands, get Alex groomed, and have lunch. As we drove out of the property we saw three deer grazing on a grass area right across from our clubhouse. When we returned we had a deer in our backyard!! What a beautiful picture it was. I snapped a couple of pictures, see above, and then went inside after the deer ran away. After a few minutes I began to wonder if this was the deer that the previous owner had told us about. She told us about a deer that came to the backyard to have her fawn each year so I went back outside to look again and the first thing I see is the deer with a small fawn that couldn't have been more than a few days old. They were to far away for a picture but it was a beautiful sight. We certainly hope she comes back so we can enjoy them more often.

We have enjoyed the animals in our area. I have threatened to take pictures of them and post them on the Blog but so far I haven't accomplished that mission. Maybe that will be one of the things I get on my To Do list in the near future, but probably, realistically, not until next fall/winter.

We leave on May 15th for St. Louis and will get back home on the 30th. We then leave again on June 8th for El Paso, TX, Farmington, NM, Durango, CO, Las Vegas, a month in Idaho, and who knows where else. When the dust settles we will get home by the end of September. We have a couple of outings planned with the Alfa Lone Stars, an Alfa group we have recently joined with members from Texas and a couple of other nearby states. They have four rallies each year and we have scheduled ourselves to attend the November, 2006 and January, 2007 rallies. Beyond that I am not sure because we are looking at a trip to the northeast sometime in 2007 with friends from the Las Vegas/Henderson area.

I will get back into rhythm of writing about our adventures as we hit the road again so stay tuned and drop us a line to let us know how things are at your end. Stay safe.