Rolling on the River (or lake??)

Over twelve inches of rain have fallen in the last ten days. I have said we are both suffering from SAD (seasonal anxiety disorder). We have caught a two day reprieve and now it looks like rain for the next two days. You should got to my Facebook page and the one for the Port of Kimberling to get an idea of what kind of damage we received. Now we have to clean up as the water recedes. We have filled this enormous trailer they have here 3 times with debris we have raked up. All a part of workamping...we never know what obstacles we might encounter. As hard as we work cleaning up, we also have our day to day chores to worry about. Plus the bosses list-which includes digging post holes, mowing, weedeating. etc. Then we have to entertain whatever the owners whims might be. Keeps life interesting, I guess. Short story long, I raked and raked this morning and then was told to dig post holes for site signs. Then the boss said to wrap that up and pitch in on storm cleanup. More raking and shoveling. Man am I tired! A LONG shift to say the least. More later (when I recover)!

Ol' Man Winter's Revenge/or Redux?

Part of workamping is working outside most of the time. As we like to say, "Camping is an outdoor activity, so don't expect a refund if the weather changes for the worse". We have a section of the campground still closed off from the winter and had plans to start cleanup. Sure enough, terrific storms blew through the nite before and 70 + degree days turned into a low 40's wet morning. Regardless we hit the closed campground and started raking, general cleaning, etc. I'm not sure if the temps bothered us more or the heavy wind gusts. We knocked off a few minutes early that day; a first for us. After one winter in the RV, we are making plans to work somewhere south in the future.

Summer's Coming

Yesterday got really hot and for the first time heat really affected our work. You have to stay hydrated in high humidity and temps near ninety. I fought wasps yesterday, who seemed just as affected by the heat as we all where. We have quite a few guests in the campground, so management called out a pest control guy to try to control them. I was assigned to help the cause by filling the voids along the roofs of the cabins with spray foam. A nasty, hot, dirty job. The foam gets on everything and its real hard to tell how much it will expand. Which means later we'll have to go back and trim the excess, plus paint the foam to hide it. We'll see if the wasps move on. Missy has been real busy in the office as the phone and Internet are busy with people wanting reservations. That's good, 'cause it pays our salaries!

A good part of the past week is that we got to take in some shows and relax a little on our days off. I think we spent less than $20 going to three shows and that was on popcorn and such. More from the workamping world later!

Expecting the Unexpected

As Workampers we have learned to expect just about any job to be assigned to us. For the last three days I've been digging in rock (literally) hard soil. One day I dug post holes for parking signs; one day I sorted through and arranged/stacked heavy flagstone around trees and planters and today I dug holes looking for electrical wire paths. Last week, I was volunteered to help out at the new hotel they're building here. So, I spent the day vacuuming and mopping up the construction mess. Talk about muscles that you didn't know you had hurting! I now look back and am grateful for the experience my mother afforded me. For about 5-6 years we remodeled houses together and I performed plumbing, drywall, electrical, etc. My father taught me the basics of using tools and how to just about tear anything apart and put it back together. Even if you don't have that wide of a background, there is still a place for you in the world of workamping. Be honest and open to learn. If you want to do it you can! I know most of you out there can run a lawn mower, wield a paint brush or just put your nose to the grindstone.