2.5 Days Off

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: September 10, 2023

It has been a day for sure. This morning it was a short looping walk around the soccer field, ice skating rink and part of the biking trail we normally walk. The path was chosen to keep a restroom as close to the exercise route as we could. The route looped past two of them and we never needed either of them and got in two loops for a bit over two miles at a slow pace. For the last two days the OFM has not been but about 60% at the best. This morning was the same but we never found out the trouble. Stomach was somewhat upset but the rest of the digestive system worked just fine. Anyway a bit after lunch the OFM decided he just had to lay down and rest so he set an alarm for a half hour nap. Sometime during the nap the alarm went off and the OFM never heard it. When we did get awake and upright all the miseries we had been having were gone. And we are back at 100%. Wow what an adventure.

We did get one benefit during the slower walk this morning. The OFM feet kept objecting to being walked with. After several stops to check his feet and shoes, we realized the replaceable inserts were wore out at the forefoot area. So later after the miracle nap we changed the inserts and went for a gentle walk to the dumpsters and back. Yep that was definitely one of the trouble spots in the OFM world. Now we should have better walking fun for a while.

We need to be in good shape as we have two grand daughter PIPER events to attend this week and the OFM wants to be in grand shape for them.

Pork chop stoup was supper tonight and it was wonderful especially with a well body to hold it. So every one have a great night and do your best to try to have toooooo much fun tomorrow. We definitely will do our best.

What Is Next?

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: September 9, 2023

A rough sleep last night and a miserable morning time lead to no walk and back to bed to rest some more. The day was nice but something was not right with the OFM. We piddled around most of the day just feeling lousy and hoping we would do better pretty soon. By about 1500 this afternoon the OFM was doing much better with still no idea why the rough time today. But we will take it and walk with it. This evening we got going good enough to take a short slow walk around part of the Point Mallard park behind the campground. Here is a nice picture of part of the walk area we went into.

It is a very nice place to meander around before supper and just flat out relax.

When the mail finally came today we went down to the office and got our mail. In the mail was the last step to having the Castle being legal to roam the country again. The license tag we paid for three+ weeks ago arrived and was soon installed on the license plate.

Now all we are needing is for the major check/repair of the rolling gear of the Castle to be done. Monday we plan to check with Andy's repair shop to see what the backlog seems to be like now so we can begin serious thinking of the future for the Teams. The last we knew about it was late September/ early October as the time frame for our turn in the shop. Unless something is really bad wrong Andy feels that we will be in the shop less than a day for the usual check and repair including the water pump replacement of our onboard water system.

So things are happening but the backlog was huge. Sierra is fully ready for rolling as far as we know. Now we need to figure out if and where we would be interested in rolling to for a few months. Last fall we found out due to the OFM eye troubles that this area is very nice until just about Christmas. January and February are their actual cold weather time with chilly weather starting about Christmas and lasting until mid March.

That is about it for news. So everyone relax and sleep well tonight. We plan on it.

Snakes

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: September 8, 2023

First the walk report. It went very well. Here is a pic of the trail today with the nice early fall temperatures.

The spectacular news is that the one hole loosening on the OFM belt left us with no pains at all in either hip. We even made better time today without strain at all so we are calling that error corrected and over.

The walk itself was a continuing nice picture opportunity the whole way out and back. Here is one pic we did take of a heron hunting back in the area of some downed vegetation. That bird can hold more still that a concrete post. They are amazing to watch as they wait for food to be just right before they waste and energy going for it.

So now the OFM is meandering along on the path next to the vegetation. Then suddenly he sees two large snakes about two feet from him all tangled up.

When the OFM finally calms down and looks again it is just two tree vines enter tangled. Sometime his imagination is his own down-falling. Pitiful when he cannot tell a tree vine from a snake.

At another spot the bush there has a small limb that cannot seem to tell what season it is. It has a limb with leaves to cover all the seasons of the year. See for your self.

Which Season Today

We have finished another coloring. We want to let it rest for a day or two to see if the OFM still thinks he is finished with it. The outline that was printed in the adult coloring book was not oriented just right to the finished coloring and we want to consider other options for it right at this time.

In the mean time everyone rest well for trying to have tooooo much fun this weekend. 

Stump Rabbits

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: September 7, 2023

It has been a day of events for sure. Let us start with the walking troubles. We did make the entire 3 mile loop but we had to sit and rest twice to give the hips a rest from the pains. Now for the big surprise. After sitting for a few minutes again the second time, the OFM shifted his water bottle to his right leg pocket from his left leg pocket where he has been carrying it for years. And for some reason he loosened his waist belt a notch. Surprise the hip pain all but disappeared. Must have been an irritated nerve from the belt being too tight is our guess but you can be sure that he will be paying close attention to details tomorrow.

This afternoon when he wanted a break from painting a new picture, the OFM dug out the yard blower and extension cord and gave the whole site a good cleaning as well as part of both neighbors. The tree leaves are beginning their autumn fall out with vigor already. They are likely weakened from the extra hot August we had.

This afternoon the OFM got busy with the new pot of stoup with the pork chop cubes. In went the cubes, corn kernels, white beans, Lawlers BBQ sauce, fresh onion and black pepper. When it was finished cooking the OFM filled four storage containers with a meal each for later enjoyment and then we had the fifth one for supper tonight. We have no idea why these stoup meals taste do good but we love them.

And now we get to finally see Stump Rabbits. This is the second time the OFM has done this scene. The first one was an all colored pencil set more in the middle of the day. This one is a colored pencil and water color pencil set in the evening. Both were a challenge and this one was a whole set of totally new experiences in shading, fading and color control. It definitely taught the OFM some new lessons in coloring artistic drawings

For certain there is very little boring about art efforts but they can be a great way of trying to have tooooo much fun.

 

New Hip Pains

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: September 6, 2023

The morning walk went well except for the half hour of rain and both hips having a new pain. The hips started to pain us about half way through the walk. About the same time the nice rain got going soaking the OFM. No problem since we always shower and put on clean clothes after the morning walk.

The new pain is a concern until we figure out what caused it. New pains are always a worry until they are defined and resolved in some way. At least it did not get any worse as we went along in the rain.

Today did finally give us the chance to start preparation of the big pot of pork chop stoop we have been planning on. This afternoon we got the fat sliced off the chops and the chops diced into 3/4inch cubes. Microwaving them at 1.5 minutes with the chosen spices on it with stirring every time the microwave finished its cooking session. It needed three sessions and now it is in the freezer to age a bit until tomorrow when we plan on producing the completed effort for future meals.

The picture we are working on is going well and we are enjoying using the water color pencils to do the painting. We think our readers might like the painting pretty well when it is finished because it is going to be really colorful and bright. But we have a good while to go before we get finished we think.

Pork chop stoop is on the agenda for preparation tomorrow as well as hip resting and recuperation. We will see how it all works out. We also have the small odds and ends of a couple of other small projects in the works just to keep us busy.

Everyone have a great time getting ready for tooooo much fun tomorrow.

A Snippet Today

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: September 5, 2023

The OFM remembered the drinking water this morning and WOW did we ever need it. We still got in about three miles but the hot humid still conditions put a stop to any hurrying. Meandering our way back to the Castle by 0940.

Then we spent most of the day inside either cleaning or working on a new painting. We are using water color pencils for this work. Our water brushes are our way of smearing the paint around and work well after we bothered to get on the Internet and learn how to manipulate them correctly

We thought we should leave a small clue as to the new painting so here is a snippet from the painting to help you guess what in the world is that?

We did hit up a store once today but it was hot enough that we mostly stayed inside in the AC and worked on learning how to use water color pencils correctly.

Everyone have fun tomorrow. We intend to do a bang up job of it ourselves. 

Remember The Water Dummy

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: September 4, 2023

A very ordinary day for most of the day. A walk got started this morning and was going along well as we meandered along. A little past the one mile post the OFM reached down for his bottle of water that was waiting for him back at the Castle. Then he looked at the dead calm water and dripping humidity and the 87F temperature and turned back to the Castle. Nope not today without water and as we got to the Castle we knew for sure that going ahead without drinking water would have been a very bad choice.

Nothing special happened for the rest of the day but the OFM did get in a lot of coloring and peacefulness. Then tonight when he started reading the other blogs he found that his old friend the Boondork had something to say about the OFM's age in defense of the OFM. We suggest you go over to his blog for tonight and check out the friendly exchange in his comments section. Here is his blog address and it is supposed to be clickable. http://www.theboondork.com/mainphp/its-time-to-relax and check the comments for an explanation of how old the OFM is in reality.

We are hoping to finish the current art effort in the morning and get it published that night. And tomorrow we will remember the drinking water for our walk.

Food Clearing Day

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: September 3, 2023

It was an unusual day today in some ways but still a wonderful day of sunshine.

After a restless night of miserable sleep the OFM hit the floor feeling like walking would be wrong so he and the walking team skipped a walk today.

For the last few weeks the OFM has been using up cabinet food and refrig food in order to get the older food used up. Rotating food out for a full timer is a continuous effort to keep the food fresh and tasty. We were down to a can of beans in the cabinets and about two meals of sliced chicken in the the refrigerator so we tackled the Walmart Local Market and made it have a major day of sales. A good bit over $50 got us resupplied with staples and a not normal jar of Honey Peanuts. They are a nice break.

We also found that this Walmart stocks a few varieties of mixed vegetables all chopped and ready for stoop or stir fry. We are trying out the broccoli bag mix with some center cut pork chops tomorrow.

Hopefully we will end up with a great tasty meal from that mixture.

The OFM never did get to feeling decent today and as this is being typed (keyboarded?) he is doing OK so maybe the grandkidding wore him a bit.

The coloring was fairly fun today and the campground was actually fairly quiet all day. We plan on an early bedtime and a nice restful night tonight. You know we have to be ready for another day of trying to have tooooo much fun.

Grand Kidding Day

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: September 2, 2023

Good Evening. It was another wonderful coolish walking day but the OFM hopped out of bed and prepped for a GRAND DAY OF GRAND KIDDING. We got rolling to their house on time and from then until we got back to the Castle it was full time fun of one sort or another.

One of the fun things was a new to the OFM BBQ place we went for lunch. Jim and Nicks BBQ in Huntsville was good food and they have several types of meat and catfish for your pleasure including brisket. And when the waitress asked the OFM if he wanted it trimmed or leave the fat running through the meat the OFM knew he was in the right place. And he was. YUMMITY YUM YUM.

Then it was back to the house and more enjoying living. A wonderful day it was.

Back at the Castle in late afternoon the OFM found out he was tired but not sleepy. He just needed to rest for a bit and a bit and a bit more. Finally after supper tonight he was fairly rested so he worked up this blog entry. And now it is time to put in some real resting time to be ready for whatever comes our way tomorrow.

Labor Day Preparations All Over The Campground

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: September 1, 2023

Good Evening. It was another wonderful coolish walking day but the OFM body was recalcitrant so we took it a bit easy and spent a few moments now and then searching for new header pictures hidden in the foliage around us. A few months ago we started an effort to have a new header picture on the blog at the start of each month and so far the OFM has been able to produce a new one with no real trouble.

When we were near the fishing bridge we caught a picture we thought was nice so it went into the header pic bin to wait its turn. Usually the bridge has enough folks on it that we skip getting a picture but today was scarce for folks on the trail or in the campground until after lunch and now the crowds are here.

The campground has been getting ready for the Labor Day Crowds. A golf cart decorating contest was announced and usually in the past a lot of folks decorated their carts and roamed the campground. It is a nice time. We will attempt to get a few pics of the decorations.

We will hit the grocery early in the morning to stock up to stay away from the crowds that usually happen starting near lunch time. The OFM has plans to be a home body during all the free-for-all fun around us.

While we were messing around at the fishing bridge we grabbed a few pictures of some floating leaves. This one is pretty neat and we are thinking “new painting” as we worked the picture over with the computer paint program.

It might be interesting to see how it turns out if the OFM tries it. No promises from over here OK.

Time to get busy resting to be ready for all the kid activities happening all around us for the next couple of days. The short term camping section went from nearly empty to totally full of campers with at least 37 screaming and giggling happy kids per site while the teams went for lunch.

Every one relax and enjoy the trying to have tooooo much fun around you.

Wonderful Walking Weather

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: August 31, 2023

It was a very busy day today. This is what the beautiful day sky looked like this morning.

And it got better during the day. The 65F air temperature and nice breeze made the OFM want a long sleeve shirt after we had been walking for a while. The pace was brisk and he kept on going after we arrived at the planned turnaround distance marker. The OFM was really feeling good in the bright sunlight and cool environment. By the time we got him stopped and turned around we ended up with 3.5 miles total walk. In addition we got a few nice pictures we plan to be used for blog header pics in the future.

In addition here is the pretty white flowers we mentioned a day ago that were really covering the area.

If you know its name please tell us.

It seemed like every one that planned to leave after this September was wanting to have discussions on where to go and when to be there. So we got to hear a lot of opinions. The trouble for us is they all wanted to get advice or information about expensive places instead of remote boondocking locations. For example where is a great RV park in San Antonio Tex and what good restaurants and sights and things are there to do in San Antonio Texas? ( or Houston or Dallas or

EL Paso).

We do not know that sort of information. If it is a big city we try to stay away. So anyway it was a nice day to visit a bit and play with our colored pencils again.

We missed all the hurricane weather but the folks that did get it got smashed it looks like on the TV next door.

Everybody relax for the weekend and try to have tooooo much fun.

Water Color Pencil Attempt

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: August 30, 2023

This morning weather was the topic of several Good Morning exchanges since it was so wonderful on the trail. The temp was nearly just right and the humidity was lower by a good bit too. In fact it was so good that the OFM body wanted to run but the OFM knew better. However we did put in 3.2 miles in a bit under an hour with no trouble at all. We think that the heat/humidity of the last three weeks has been the biggest trouble to the exercisers on the trail. This morning the trail population was about quadruple of the last three weeks average walker count.

This is what a nice morning start should look like.

Even the scenery along the trail seemed a lot nicer to us. All the vegetation seemed to be enjoying the cooler temps also.

On the way back we encounter this egret hunting over Flint Creek. The day was so nice it did not even budge as we stopped about fifteen feet away for the picture. Normally we cannot get within fifty feet of an egret up here in the woods.

On the art efforts we tried out using watercolor pencils on this next partial painting.

Obviously it is a different way of putting color on the paper and the OFM needs to practice a lot. But it is fun to do something different now and then don't you think.

With the big weekend coming up day after tomorrow and the whole 259 sites campground to be full, we are planning a low profile until Monday morning and let the legions run rampant in the area while we lay low.

Sounds like a good excuse for a nap or four to us.

Egret Stalking Coloring

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: August 29, 2023

An amazingly comfortable day today for a change. The walk started about 0900 this morning with a warm but not hot air temp and a bit of a breeze. The OFM was able to set a good pace at a moderate aerobic rate and hold it for over two miles to our surprise. By the time we were back to the Castle he had a nice sweat going and was ready to sit and cool off. The camera was with us but the OFM had forgotten to get the memory card from the computer and install it back in the camera. The only thing we wanted to get a picture of was the huge all over the place explosion of four petal white flowers. It was dramatic so hopefully tomorrow we can try again.

We did a bit of clean out of the Castle and got it all into the dumpster and gone. There is a lot more empty cabinets than cabinets with stuff in them in the Castle now.

Late this afternoon the OFM remembered it was stuffed baked potato sale day at Lawlers so we took a quick run over there to get one for tonight and tomorrow night. $8.52 for two suppers is not bad these days.

And today we finished a coloring that we have named Egret Stalking.

We hope you enjoy it. It was somewhat modified from the original drawing that was in the adult coloring book to meet our wants. Then the colored pencils went to work for a few days. It is a 4”x6” in size per our choice.

That is about it for tonight and we plan to have an easy night tonight and ease back a bit on the trying to have to much funnnnn by one n tomorrow.

 

Natural Pruning

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: August 28, 2023

Let us talk about Natural Pruning of trees tonight. The wonderful hike and bike trail here at Point Mallard park is well maintained for the surface of the trail but Mother Nature takes care of the tree pruning. The winds that whip through here often keep the bad branches etc pretty well blown out of the vegetation. However the vegetation gets to go any where it pleases when it comes down from the trees.

And yes it does fall on the trail frequently.

See the top of the tree gone. See all the dead stuff at the bottom. That stuff was originally on the trail and a couple of walkers like the OFM got it moved off the trail. And yes that happens fairly frequently along the miles of this trail. Only the large trunks get to wait for the maintenance folks to chain saw them up and carry them off. And yes in windy weather a person on the trail had better watch for limbs getting knocked out of the trees and whaping you walking by. Usually it is the 3 inch limbs and smaller that get broken loose and fall in usual wind speed when walkers are out here.

But we have seen much larger chunks of trees come down also.

The trail crosses and runs along a lot of waterfront area. Along the waterfront dirt you will see trees leaning out over the water at many locations. Eventually you will see one go down while watching.

The OFM has seen it twice in our 12 years of coming here. We quit counting the number of smaller limbs we have seen hit the trail.

Still, this is our favorite set of trails in all of our travels for exercise walking or just great pleasant scenery and nice HELLOS from the other walkers.

One other thing, by choosing your enjoyable trail section carefully you can safely and comfortably navigate with crutches, wheel chairs, baby carriages and other mobility assist items thanks to the paved sections of the trail system.

The OFM often talks of the back entrance to the campground for bikes, golf carts, walkers etc. But not motor vehicles. Well today he remembered to take a picture of that entrance to show you what he means.

This entrance opens right behind the big soccer field in the park and is very convenient when walking to a soccer game or the water park or other fun things to do in the main park areas.

Everybody be safe and try to have tooooo much fun tomorrow.

New Guard Cat

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: August 27, 2023

The first thing we noticed when we stepped outside this morning is that the neighborhood guard cat was on duty. We do not know where it came from but it started showing up a couple of days ago just wandering the area. Now that we think about it, the old neighborhood cat has been missing for a few days. Hmmmm what is going on?

The weather was moderately cooler today so we attempted a good walk. It turned into a 2.5 mile walk that was nice with a bit of breeze the whole time for a change. We started from the back of the campground next to a drainage ditch that has vegetation in it fed by the runoff from the well maintained soccer field across the maintenance road from the ditch. We were hoping that we could crop the picture to make it a nice pic for our readers to enjoy.

When we got to a place the OFM body considered far enough we turned around and headed back on the golf course maintenance road.

It was nice ambling on it during our return trip to the Castle. The trees did a good job of keeping the strong sunlight off us walkers.

After showering to be presentable, we headed to the grocery store we forgot about yesterday. Shopping was good and we walked out of there with two small plastic bags of food with about $27 added to our credit card account. OUCH AGAIN.

We just could not pass up the discounted pork chop center cut meat today. So it is in the freezer relaxing for a while until the OFM decides what to fix them like. The OFM sure does like his cubed pork fixings.

We got a surprise when we opened the fridge door this evening and found a nice container of stoop of pork chop meat, rice, croutons, onions, and a bit of other tidbits just calling out to be supper. Wow it was good.

Oh We nearly forgot. Some more time was spent on planning an attempt at making our own image of some things we have seen recently instead of just doing coloring book coloring. We will be having more details on the effort in the near future we hope.

It was a nice day of moderated temperatures and we hope the predicted storms for tonight will not be bad ones. A good nights sleep would be wonderful before we have to get busy trying to have tooooo much fun tomorrow.

Too Hot To Be Out And About

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: August 26, 2023

We did not even attempt an outdoor walk today. Later on a trip to Walmart we put in about a mile of good paced walking inside in the AC. The morning was spent trying to get the computer to allow the OFM to send and receive emails again. Something about it not allowing JavaScript to to load. That effort will continue tomorrow. We hope to soon be able to send and receive emails on the computer.

Laundry turned out to be a good item to do today since the laundry room was totally empty of others the whole time we were there. Ahhhhh clean sheets tonight.

The day was very hot and wet so folks were not as out and about as a normal weekend. Just walking from the parking spot to the store door at Walmart was a roasting experience.

Thats it for the blog tonight. Just trying to have tooooo much fun in the excessive heat of Alabama.

Lunch With Jerry

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: August 25, 2023

We came back from the walk at 0814 with the OFM being a bit too hot. When we left the temp and humidity was low enough that it did not even have a spot on the heat index chart. When we returned from the 1.5 mile walk the heat index was 97 on the chart. WOW the situation changed fast. Our route was a shady one for all but a quarter mile at the last. That was the big time for the day.

The rest of the day was a lot less exciting. Lunch was Burger King with local fellow/friend Jerry and we yakked for over two hours.

The rest of the day was spent playing with colored pencils and making mistakes on the drawing we were trying to color decently.

That was the whole day. The bad news is unknown and the good news is that getting older is a good thing. Everyone please take very good care of yourself in these HOT days so we can soon get busy having tooooo much fun again.

Butterfly Wreath Coloring

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: August 24, 2023

It was one year yesterday that the OFM tried to knock his right eye out of his head and started all the eye troubles that have been going on since then. The right eye is still showing signs of improving but it is slow going for sure.

Today was again too hot early for a walk so after breakfast we headed to Walmart and got in about a mile of decent paced walking due to a strong absence of shoppers. We saw 101F on the truck outside temp gauge this afternoon.

Therefore we did a lot of inside in the A/C coloring and completed (sort of) Butterfly Wreath. The OFM is not content with the appearance of the coloring. It seems to him that it is missing something. Until then this is what we have.

We shuffled through our library of coloring books and found another scene we started on this afternoon. Gotta do something to stay a bit busy or just go nuts.

Everyone get lots of rest during this HEAT so we can go nuts trying to have tooooo much fun when it cools off in a couple of weeks.

Butterfly Colors

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: August 23, 2023

A big nothing for today. It was too hot by the time we finished breakfast this morning for a walk. The Heat Index here in the swamp was 98. So we spent a lot of time in the AC in the Castle just piddling. Lunch was at Burger King where the OFM verified that their burger patties are grill cooked. The grease drains to a pan under the grill and is not used in any of their cooking. The chicken is cooked in a vegetable oil blend.

The rest of the day was colored pencil time. We hit a point that we have to color a few butterflies playing with the flowers.

Butterflies have been the subject of some internet pictures today and now we have choices to make about the coloration of the flutterbyes.

Speaking of heat, we just checked the heat forecasts for the near future. This is the normally hottest week of the year in this area. And the heat index predictions for the next seven days are about 95-100 by 0800 in the morning. We think there will be more inside a store walking in our near future. Now we need to work on some butterflies.

Keep cool while you are out trying to have tooooo much fun tomorrow.

Paint Eraser

 

Adventure Location:

Decatur, Alabama

Date: August 22, 2023

Good news from the morning “walk”. We got on down by the river in the medium warm morning with a nice breeze. Just as we made the first turn to head for the goal of the day of 2.5 miles The breeze quit and Flint Creek went totally flat mirror style and the heat jumped a bunch. The OFM chose to reduce pace and keep going. It was not a bad decision yet but by the next quarter mile he stopped in a shady spot and drank a big slug of water and decided we were going to head back to the Castle and the AC. This was a very wise decision because by the time we took the short cut to the Castle and got back it was really hot, dead calm and miserable. Back at the Castle, after we got cooled down, the OFM decided we would go ahead and give the new pad a good work out. We cleaned everything we could from belt buckle height on down. Why belt buckle and down?

Because the OFM found that he could not kneel down on the ceiling. Any way, the pad proved to be just the thing he has been needing to have for a few years to protect his body parts that hurt when pressed against the floor or other places like cabinet edges.

The day continued with cooking meals for putting in the freezer. It is nice to have good flavorful meals waiting for a microwave episode for when you need one.

The fill in activity of colored pencil efforts finished of the rest of the day. However we had a major realization to report tonight about our coloring effort. In colored pencil art a continuous trouble is to keep the lines that put down the color from staying separate lines and to get them blended together. Today we had time to really work with that trouble and found we had a good solution on hand already but we could not recall the name of it.
So this afternoon we went to Hobby Lobby where we bought our first set of PAINT ERASERS and purchased a spare set. They are rubber do hickeys mounted on wooden sticks that we use to rub the colored pencil line into a smooth color. They also help to blend color transitions into smooth transitions.

The rubber tips do not wear down like an eraser. They have stayed just like when we first started using them several month ago. They replace the twisted paper sticks that we had been using that are called tortillions. And they do a better job for us.

Here is the latest art effort in progress using the erasers for blending and smoothing.

Tonight we ate a third of the stuffed baked potato we purchased this afternoon. That leaves us two more meals ready to go whenever we get ready for one. Sleeping well should come easy after all the work done today. Tomorrow should be another great day of trying to have tooooo much fun.