So, during the time most folks were probably preparing to watch some big football game (or stuck in trying-to-get-to-the-snow traffic, poor guys!), I was out trying to catch some snow photos - while the clouds were clearing but before the snow all melted off (which amounted to about a 2-hr window)!

Comfort and Joy

While the winds howled, the temps dropped, and darkness fell, we all snuggled down.

We suffered along, with various candle scents filling the air (thanks Lis!) and the wood-burning stove glowing warm in the background.

As the evening wore on, the laziness reached a fevered pitch. There were shared snacks...

And traded spaces. As the saying goes, "How wonderful it is to do nothing, and then to rest afterwards." That was our night. But hey, isn't that one of the things stormy weather's good for?!

First Snow!

Rain! At last!! We listened to the awesome sound of raindrops on our yurt roof all night last night! Finally - water for our thirsty hills and storm relief for my sun-weary mind. And yes, there are more of us rain-lovers in southern Calif. than one might imagine! Later in the morning, the rain turned to hail and then finally to snow. What a beautiful day!!!!!!!!!! THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dog Days of Fall

Ouray and Senny in a sunset pose...

A Cat's Life...

You are being watched. Kitty surveillance, at it's finest in our yurt! Scrat and Tractor's newest favorite pastime - watching us all from above. Tractor can jump floor to sink to shower to top of wall. Scratty? Not so much... Our Scratty Fatty needs to be airlifted onto the wall. But once there, they both enjoy the view,

the nap,

the intial descent,

the secondary descent,

and again, the nap...

Rinse, repeat.

WAP Afternoon

My friend Kathy and I went to the Wild Animal Park to squeeze in an afternoon photoshoot before she was to run off to Australia for two weeks. While I consider most of the subject matter there best suited to a long lens, I still don't have one! So...I took Billy's suggestion and tried using my wide angle instead! Not really my style, and I only got one shot I really liked from the whole afternoon. But at least this image of a carousel zebra will provide a little variety to this blog (and thanks to Al: "blog" = abbreviation/contraction of "web log" - there! see? you learned something already! I know, I know - you already knew this...).

Forest Felines

The giant black and Engelmann oaks up here are providing wonderful playgrounds for our kitties! We let them off their leashes and watch as they climb up, up, and away!

Cleanliness is Next to Dogliness...!?!

Yep! That's our boy! Gut those toys!! Actually, Ouray must just be eager for some winter weather - looks like it's been snowing inside the yurt!

Step Two: Yurt Life

Today makes the end of our third week once again living in our little yurt (we lived in it for nine months when we remodeled our Encinitas house several years ago) in the back country of San Diego. It's near Mt. Palomar and Julian and is a one and a half hour drive from Encinitas. We love it up here! Bill likes to tell folks that we're 30 miles from the nearest stoplight! And our nearest neighbor is about a half mile down a dirt road. It's so pretty and peaceful, and there are some fall colors happening. The temperatures are perfect, although, I'm, of course, hankering for a storm!! As some of you know, we are completely off-grid up here, hauling up our water (100 gallons at a time), running off of batteries/inverter/generator/solar panel, and using a composting toilet. We built our yurt from a kit (from Pacific Yurts in Oregon: http://pacificyurts.com/). It took about 4 months of driving up several days a week. We built the deck it sits on, did the interior walls, carpeting, tile, cabinets, plumbing, etc. ourselves. It was a great project! Our plan is to stay here until sometime in Jan., when we will hit the road! But we decided we should celebrate this New Year's Eve right here, which will also be our 10-yr yurt anniversary! Our first night here was Dec. 31, 1999.

First Step: Leaving Encinitas

As many of you know, Bill and I began our RVing adventures almost a year and a half ago. We bought a used, 33ft Winnebago and took off for Colorado for three weeks. Then we spent 5 weeks on an autumn Oregon trip. And finally, this last summer saw us north to Mt. Rushmore, SD, and east to Oshkosh, WI. It was on this last outing that we decided to go for it and become full-time RVers! The first step would be to rent our house, which happened almost immediately upon our return - before we even had the chance to advertise! It was almost like proof that we were on the right path, that we were doing what we were supposed to! This must be meant to be. So, on Oct. 30th, we officially moved out and our renters moved in. Within 6 weeks' time, Bill and I sorted, weeded, gave away, threw out, sold, or packed and moved all our things. We also went to Wisconsin to look at a larger RV. That almost 43ft Tiffin didn't work out, but it did take four days out of our schedule!!! We also took two days out to go to Stockton, CA, to look at a 40ft Winnebago. We ended up buying this 2009 "Tour" and trading-in our beloved "Brave." So that left 5 weeks to vacate the house and prep it for the renters, who were very eager to get in by Nov. 1st. We did it! But just barely...

The other players...

If you've checked out my profile, you know who Ouraydog is... And the other good-looking girl in that photo is Seneca, our G shep. And then there's me - CarrieBearie. And to those who don't yet know, here is my other half - Bill, aka ElderBearie. And our two other "children" - Tractor (orange boy) and Scratty (grey girl).

CarrieBearie's GRAND OPENING!

So here it is: my blog! What a word!?! BLOG...I'm sure that must stand for something...hmm... Anyways, this should be a better way of sharing stories and photos during our travels (or yurt-stays!) than those long-winded, long-downloading emails! So, belt up! Here we go...
And many thanks to Karl Grobl for helping me get started with this! If you want to see images and info. from a truly gifted, incredible photographer with an equally incredible heart, check here: http://www.karlgrobl.com/ and for his blog: http://karlgrobl.blogspot.com/