We had one of those weeks that was very busy, but later you wonder what you were so busy doing? I think that once we retire we seem to learn more and more ways to be very busy, even when doing nothing!

We actually had some excuse as last weekend our kids from Dallas were up and we spent several days with them, visited some local attractions and took in the Four Winds Faire, a local Renaissance Fair. Should you ever be in the Tyler area when it is going on, I would have to say that it seems to be one that is in decline. The facilities are larger than needed today and are showing need of maintenance. The booths are not all filled and the attractions are a bit second rate. Crowds are down and it is debatable if today's show is worth the cost. We had a good time, but were a bit disappointed with it as it was not up to what we really expected. Our grandchildren had fun so that was the main thing.

Sunday the kids returned home, but our grandchildren stayed to spend some time with us. With Andrew 6 and Harmony nearly 5, they do manage to keep grandparents busy. We had a lot of fun, but by Thursday when it was time to take them home, we were ready for a break. What is most amazing, we returned home to discover that peace and quite do still exist at our house, they had just been in hiding for several days!

I did manage to get one or two things completed this week with the main one having been completion of the mounting of our TV antenna. It is nice to have as we now get the major stations from Dallas and also from Tyler. I believe that the count is 35 stations, although some of those are of no interest to us. Since we dropped our satellite TV service a couple of years ago, it is nice to have a wider selection of stations once more. We had the antenna in service, but it was not high enough to get many stations.

Now I can get my news fix and Pam has her favorite shows. I still miss the history channel from the dish, but not a lot else. With the prices that they charge now days, I'm not so sure that we will ever go back to one of those. It does take a special antenna to get the new digital signals, as they just do not travel as well nor as far. The one that we have uses a signal amplifier, just as those in our RVs do, but seems to have a much better signal collecting ability, even when not as high as it is now.

Did you even dig for water? Well, I guess I didn't dig a well, but I did put in a water line to supply us with well water for washing cars and watering plants! Each lot here has a supply of well water in addition to the city water supply to each home and RV. The well water is just a connection to the supply that has a shut off valve and a place to connect a water line for the owner to put in his own hydrant in any location that they wish. I laid about 50 feet of water line to get the hydrant handy to the front of the house and to the back door. Being as this is a retirement community, we only work hard for a few hours a day and so it took several days to get this done! But or flowers and the new trees will surely be happy for it! That project was completed on Monday.

Today was also the day for Muffie's annual spring haircut. Pam does the barber duties for her, and for me as well. Muffie is a really great pet, but she does shed and her long, black hair can be a real pain so we always keep her trimmed for warm weather.

I have also joined a group of men here who spend a couple of afternoons each week doing construction work for a nearby charitable organization. We spent this afternoon hanging sheetrock for a new recreation building. We get some work done but we also get to know each other better and we manage to have a good time while doing it.Most of the men here are involved in some type of volunteer services to the local community and many of the women do this as well. They are a really great group of people.

Oh my aching back! I think that my body is reminding me just how many years it has seen!

Today I put in a mounting post for our TV antenna to fasten to and to make things more solid in this very sandy soil that we have here, I decided that I should pour a concrete base around the post as well as the concrete that is around it to keep it in the hole. This was the day for that project as the weahter is beautiful, but slightly cool. I believe that we got to the low 70's in midafternoon.

I had set the post last week and found that it was not as solid as I thought that it should be in order to be sure that wind would not damage it. After some figuring the plan became to add a length of angle iron to the post to keep it rigid as well as to add strength and I added a four foot square pad around the base or the post. This morning I began by constructing a form fo the pad and I attached a section of rebar to each side of the post that would extend out 22" beyond the corners of the post on all four sides to tie it all together. Construction of the form was easy and the rebar was little challenge either. Pouring that much concrete when mixing it by hand in a bucket, turned out to be a much bigger project that I had expected. The other part was that I sorely underestimated the amount of concrete required. I stoated with five, 80# bags and had to go back to Lowe's and get three more in order to complete the project. It was a lot of hard work that would have been much less with a wheelbarrow and a hoe, but all of those things are long gone with the sale of our house before we went on the road. The mixing was done in a 5 gallon bucket, using a garden shovel. One thing that I know, before I take on a project of this much work again, I will get myself more proper tools! In any case, the pad is now poured and tomorrow the forms should be able to come off and it won't be long until our TV should be improved with an antenna that is up above things, where it should be.

We are finally starting to see clear signs of spring arriving here, or at least the early stages of it are. It has been rather cool here today and tonight is expected to be in the low 40's to high 30's, but things are beginning to show green, the live oaks are shedding and replacing their leaves and other trees are beginning to show just a hint of green. The earliest of spring wild flowers are starting to bloom and the early bloom the earliest of trees and shrubs have begun to bloom. Spring is always a beautiful time of year here and most years it is a fairly long season as well. Thunder storms can be a nuisance, but the flowers are spectacular and are particularly so after the brown times of winter.