Settling In

We have been here now for a little over a week, and so far we are enjoying the area. We both had some on-line training earlier this week and I spent two days helping some other volunteers clear some roads in one of the units. I am the first tractor mowing volunteer that they have had here, so it is taking a little time to figure things out to get me on the tractor. Little by little we are learning how things work here. The other volunteers and workers seem very friendly here so I am sure that things will work out well. Tuesday we are going to have a staff and volunteer Thanksgiving dinner potluck at noon. Should be fun.
We are slowly getting to know the area here, we have found a few stores and restaurants that aren't too far away. We went to a large flea market here last Saturday and spent over two hours there and didn't even cover half of it.
I mentioned getting some rope lights to keep the pack rats away from the Jeep and motorhome in my last post. Good time to buy them as Wal-Mart had some inexpensive ones in the Christmas aisles. We plugged them into the timer that I use for Christmas light so they turn on at night and off in the morning. Everyone else here is using them too. So far they are working.

Just behind our site is a border patrol station with 4 wheelers, suvs, and boats on trailers coming and going day and night.

Behind the campground is a road and an irrigation canal.

If you turn 90 degrees right from the canal road you will see this road, the Rio Grande river is about 500 yards down this road.

In front of the campground are a couple of cabbage fields, that's a lot of cabbages!

A closer look at the cabbages.

There is a bug here that eats its way all the way around the branches of the trees in the campground and then the branches fall off.  It took us awhile to figure out who kept pruning the trees and leaving the branches lay around!

There is a crop duster that works up and down the valley, Friday he was right overhead, that is our TV antenna in the picture.

We have attended a bilingual Mass the last two Sundays at The Basilica of the National Shrine of Our Lady of San Juan del Valle a few miles from here. You can see more about the Basilica here. They have had a standing room only crowd both Sundays despite having seven Masses on Sunday.