Volunteering

What Makes People Do This?

February 28, 2011 Karen 3 Comments

volunteer on public lands — A truck load of trash

Last week Rob and Belinda (the other camphost couple here at Payne Lake) and FabGrandpa and I went over to the shooting range on the other side of the county for a clean up day. This shooting range is on Forest Service property, and has no use fee. People can just go there and shoot at targets.

Joe, the resource manager was there too, so there were a total of five of us working. We picked up FOUR truckloads of trash from this property, that was maybe 1.5 to 2 acres in size. Joe said the last time they had a clean up day there was two months ago. Now, I know that this place is probably used mostly by hunters, but what does this say about the people who live in this area? I just don’t understand why they feel like they can just trash the place. It is public land, and belongs to all of us. Shouldn’t we ALL do our best to keep it clean?

volunteer clean up day — Another truck load of trash

The Gate

February 27, 2011 Karen 4 Comments

payne lake campground — That is one heavy gate!

The forest service has temporarily closed the campground where we are volunteering while they do a timber harvest in the area. It was done for the safety of the public, who may not realize the loggers will be in there. What this means is that every time I go somewhere, whether it is to go to the entrance kiosk to perform my volunteer duties or to the grocery store, I have to move that gate.

I know you can’t tell by looking at it, but that thing weighs about 50 pounds! It is making my back hurt moving it. Today I have to move it six times! And every time I do, I feel like this:

I hope they get this timber harvest finished real soon!

13 For 10: Handmade Reversible Apron #2

January 28, 2011 Karen 1 Comment

My online friend, Sally, donated two of her cutie cute handmade aprons for the cause! This one is green and blue, and oh! so cute:

Apron number 2 purple — Green and blue reversible apron

Sally makes these aprons, and I think they are just soooo cute! And because it is reversible, you get two looks in one:

And here is a pic of the blue/green print to give you a better idea of how it looks:

Apron number 2 print — Blue floral print

Bidding starts today and ends on 1/31/2011. I am starting the bid for this item at $10. All proceeds from this auction are being donated to The Oral Cancer Foundation, a national public service, non-profit entity designed to reduce suffering and save lives through prevention, education, research, advocacy, and patient support activities. To make a bid, just leave a comment here with a dollar amount that you wish to bid. The auction winner is responsible for paying shipping from Washinton zip code 98223.

See the auction rules here.

More information here.

This auction will close on Monday, January 31, 2011 at 11:59 p.m. Central Standard Time. The highest bidder will win. The winner will be responsible for paying postage to ship the item. If you have any questions about this item, email me at fabgrandma @ gmail.com

If you’d like to spread the word about this auction to benefit The Oral Cancer Foundation, and to help educate people about oral cancer, please tweet about it, post about it on Facebook, or write about it on your blog. I’d really appreciate it! and you could be saving someone’s life!

10 For 10 Auction: Stainless Steel Grand Canyon Water Bottle

January 5, 2011 Karen 2 Comments

07 gluten free jim and karen at point sublime — Me and Jim at Point Sublime

There we are at Point Sublime. To get there, you have to take a four wheel drive vehicle about 20 miles out on one of the roughest roads I have ever been on. The view at the end is stunning! That drive was nothing compared to the months of treatments and recuperation Jim went through after being diagnosed with oral cancer in January, 2001. I am so thankful and grateful for every day we have together, because not everyone makes it to the end of that road.

I am doing this auction to bring awareness of oral cancer to as many people as I can reach. The screening for oral cancer is a simple “in the doctor’s or dentist’s office”, non-invasive proceedure. It only takes about 5 minutes. So, this year when you have your annual physical or the next time you go to have your teeth cleaned, ask your doctor or dentist to screen you for it.

The item up for bids this week is a genuine Grand Canyon National Park stainless steel water bottle:

water bottle 02 — Grand Canyon Water Bottle

This is a nice bottle, with a plastic screw in stopper that has a hole in the top for attaching to a lanyard or belt clip. It is lightweight and easy to hold on to.

water bottle 03 — Grand Canyon water bottle

Oh, and I have signed the bottom of it:

water bottle 04 — FabGrandma's signature on the bottom

I am starting the bid for this item at $5. All proceeds from this auction are being donated to The Oral Cancer Foundation, a national public service, non-profit entity designed to reduce suffering and save lives through prevention, education, research, advocacy, and patient support activities. To make a bid, just leave a comment here with a dollar amount that you wish to bid. The auction winner is responsible for paying shipping from Alabama zip code 36744.

See the auction rules here.

More information here.

This auction will close on Sunday, January 16, 2011 at 11:59 p.m. Central Standard Time. The highest bidder will win. The winner will be responsible for paying postage to ship the item. If you have any questions about this item, email me at fabgrandma @ gmail.com

There were no bids on the last three auctions,so i am leavingthose items up for bids until someone bids on them. Please place a bid of $5.00 to make one of these items yours:

Decorative Photo Box The Decorative Photo Box auction has closed with a bid of $5.00! thanks, Beverly!

3 Gluten Free Cookbooks The Gluten Free Cookbooks auction has closed with a bid of $20.00! Thanks, Ali!

4 Art Cards The 4 Art Cards auction has closed with a bid of $5.00. Thanks, Cindy!

10 For 10 Auction: Lot of 3 Gluten Free Cookbooks

December 18, 2010 Karen 1 Comment

UPDATE: This auction item has closed with a bid of $20! thanks Ali!

The auction for this item ended on December 26 with no bids. I am leaving it open until the first bid of $5.00 is received. All proceeds of this auction are to benefit The Oral Cancer Foundation.

07 gluten free 01 — Gluten Free Cookbooks

While FabGrandpa does not have a gluten intolerance or celiac, he does eat mostly gluten free because I do, and I am the cook. He has been so supportive of my efforts, even when I was first learning how to cook with different grains. He will be the first to tell you that there is not much he will not eat, but there have been days when he has said, “Once is enough”.

These three books were among the first ones I bought, and were all very helpful to me in the learning process of re-learning how to cook. The first one is The No-Gluten Diet by Kimberly A. Tessmer, R.D., L.D. It retailed for $12.95

Next is The Gluten Free Gourmet Cooks Fast & Healthy by Bette Hagman, retail $18.00

07 gluten free 03 — The Gluten Free Gourmet Cooks Fast & Healthy

And last is The Gluten Free Diet by Shelley Case, retail $23.20

07 gluten free 04 — Gluten Free Diet by Shelley Case

These three books are all in great condition, and have very good information on the gluten free diet, and plenty of delicious recipes. To bid on this item, leave a comment with a dollar amount indication the amount you want to bid. Comments without dollar amounts are not considered to be bids. The opening bid for this lot of books is $5.00. You can bid in 1 cent increments. Thank you for taking a look! The proceeds from this auction will be donated to The Oral Cancer Foundation in January, in celebration of my husband, Jim Eidson’s 10 years of survival of oral cancer, and in honor of Michael H. Yeaw, who lost his battle. Read more about The Oral Cancer Foundation here.

This auction will close on Saturday, December 26, 2010 at 11:59 p.m. Central Standard Time. The highest bidder will win. The winner will be responsible for paying postage to ship the item. If you have any questions about this item, email me at fabgrandma @ gmail.com

Ah, The Perks Of Volunteering!

December 14, 2010 Karen 5 Comments

This is our second season volunteering at Payne Lake Campground. Payne Lake is in the Talledega National Forest, south of Tuscaloosa, Alabama. We liked it so much last year that we decided to come back. The forest service really knows how to make us volunteers feel welcome and appreciated!

our site at payne lake — Our campsite at Payne Lake

Our duties here include staffing the entrance station on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. There are two camphost spots, one on each side of the lake, so we agreed with the other couple that we would staff the booth all day every other weekend. During the week, we drive around the campground a couple of times a day, doing the site checks, and checking the bathrooms to make sure they are stocked with toilet paper, and that the heaters are working.

payne lake road — Payne Lake is gorgeous!

We also pick up litter and clean out the fire rings on the campsites. Theyask for a total of 32 hours a week of work. We don’t have to do anything that is really hard, and we don’t have to clean any bathrooms. It really is a good volunteer gig.

PC140002 — Me, Fabgrandpa, and Joe, the resource manager (our boss)

In exchange for the work that we do, we are given a full hook up campsite, propane, and satellite internet service. (Verizon Mi-fi also gets a good signal here) They have also put a washer and dryer and a small freezer in the maintenance shop on the property for us to use. AND, several times during the winter, someone comes by and puts venison in the freezer for us to eat. Last year, they gave us some very nice jackets with a “Forest Service Volunteer” patch on them. Then when it was time to leave last year, they had a cook out and gave us more presents!

PC140007 — Forest Service Christmas Luncheon

Today they had a Christmas luncheon at the work center. It was a very nice party with lots of food, and time to talk and get to know many of the forest service employees. They were all so nice!

Oh, and did I mention that they give us this nice truck to drive while we are on forest service business? Classy! There is a golf cart, too. Because we have business we need to take care of next winter in Georgia, we have already confirmed our volunteer job at a Georgia State Park. That means that Joe is looking for someone to replace us next winter. So, if anyone is interested in taking this spot, we’ll be leaving around April 10 to head back west for the summer. He needs someone during the summer, too.

Payne Lake Recreation Area has two campgrounds–one on the west side (which is the one we ae assigned to) and one on the east side. The West Side Campground has 18 campsites, 8 of which have electric and water, and 10 that have just water connections. The East Side Campground has 35 primitive sites. There is a day use area, a nature trail, a boat ramp, and a dump station. There aren’t many campers during the week, but on weekends during hunting season, it is full much of the time. You don’t take any money–the visitors fill out their own passes and drop the money in a pipe safe. We are here pretty much to prevent theft and vandalism in the area.

If you’d like more info, you can email me at fabgrandma @ gmail.com and I can send you Joe’s phone number and email address.

10 For 10 Auction: Set of 4 Art Cards

December 11, 2010 Karen 3 Comments

UPDATE: 1/23/2011: This item closed with a bid of $5.00! Thanks Cindy!

The auction for this item ended on December 18 with no bids. I am leaving it open until the first bid of $5.00 is received. All proceed of this auction are to benefit The Oral Cancer Foundation.

At one of the first workamping jobs we had, we met an amazing guy named Chet Mazza. Chet’s career job was taking photographs of jets while flying through the air. After his retirment, he worked at campgrounds while traveling in an RV with his wife. His photography was beautiful! FabGrandpa and I had many wonder evenings with Chet and Ellie. One night, while sitting around the campfire, we swapped our handiwork–he took several bars of my home made soap, and we got a handful of his notecards made with is beautiful photographs.

Jim workamping at Stone Mountain, Georgia

Each notecard is numbered by the artist, and has been stored in a plastic sleeve. The auction to benefit The Oral Cancer Foundation this week includes 4 of these beautiful cards. I am not setting an opening bid for these, as I have no idea where to start with them.

Four beautiful art note cards, numbered by the artist

03 art cards 06 — Pumpkin Patch, Canby, OR 34A/12

To bid on this item, leave a comment with a dollar amount. Comments without dollar amounts are not considered to be bids. You can bid in 1 cent increments. Thank you for taking a look! The proceeds from this auction will be donated to The Oral Cancer Foundation in January, in celebration of my husband, Jim Eidson’s 10 years of survival of oral cancer, and in honor of Michael H. Yeaw, who lost his battle.

See the auction rules here.

More information here.

This auction will close on Saturday, December 18, 2010 at 11:59 p.m. Central Standard Time. The highest bidder will win. If you have any questions about this item, email me at fabgrandma @ gmail.com

Can I Get A Woooo Hooo?!

December 10, 2010 Karen 3 Comments

I have been sick for almost a week and sleeping most of the day. I have gotten up long enough to take my medicine, do only the most necessary tasks, then back to bed. Finally, I am feeling better. Strep throat is no fun.

I have so many things I have wanted to write about, so this first post is going to be about some good things that have made me say Wooo Hooo! lately.

First, our friends, Lynda and Charlie were here for not long enough, only two days, but while they were here, I showed Lynda my rash, that YES, unfortunately has come back and was still itching. I knew if anyone would know what the heck it was, it would be her. And sure enough, she did. She took one look, and said, “Kid, that’s ground itch.” Now, I had never heard of that, but looked it up, and it does sound like what I have been experiencing. And the first doctor I went to in Flagstaff prescribed something that is recommended to cure it, so he was paying attention when I went to him in April. Lynda said to paint it with clear nail polish. So, I painted the area with nail polish and it has cleared up some. Talk about old fashioned remedies! but, by gosh, WOOOO HOOOO! it is helping me.

snow in north georgia unicoi — Camp hosting at Unicoi State Park

We had been talking about looking for a volunteer position in Oregon for next winter, but we have also been talking about buying a little house in Georgia. After talking with several lenders, we have come to the conclusion that if we are going to buy a house in Georgia, we’re gonna have to BE in Georgia for a little while to pull it off. So, we started looking for a winter volunteer spot in Georgia, and last week we confirmed with the volunteer co-ordinator at Unicoi State Park. We’re going to be there from November 30, 2011, through April 10, 2012. And before we head up into the mountains in the north of Georgia, we’ll be spending the month of November at an RV park in west Georgia near our daughters. So, there ya go, another WOOOO HOOOO! Actually three of them, one for BEING in Georgia, one for BEING NEAR our kids, and one for having our volunteer spot BOOKED for next winter already!

I have always loved hair combs–not the kind you use to comb your hair, the decorative kind you put in your hair to be pretty. It may be because I always admired the way they looked in my Aunt Ada’s hair,but, my hair is thin, and combs have never stayed in. A couple of weeks ago, I found this cute little hair gadget at the grocery store. It has two combs that are attached to each other with elastic strands. You put them in and they sort of pull on each other to keep them in place. I am LOVING them. They look so pretty to me.

When we went to Georgia the last time, we were in Best Buy, so I decided to upgrade my phone on my “new every two” with Verizon. So, I picked out just a regular cellphone. It was a decent phone while we were in civilization, but the farther out in the country we went, the less signal it had. By the time we got to the trailer, I had no signal at all. My old phone would at least make a call here. So, the next week, we went to Tuscaloosa and tried to return the phone. Because I didn’t have my old phone with me for them to reactivate, I couldn’t do it. So, a week later, we went back up there and took the phone back. I told the guy at Best Buy that that phone wouldn’t get a signal if I was sitting under the tower! After that transaction was completed, we went over to the Verizon store, where I got a Droid X!

I never thought I would be the person who had one of these things. All I ever wanted my phone to do was make a phone call, period. But I have to say, this thing is great! I can get my emails, Facebook stuff, look things up on the internet, play games, and on and on and on. I walked out of the store not even knowing how to make it make a phone call! It took me about a day to figure things out, but Wow! This thing will even get me on the internet with my laptop through a USB connection! And, if I wanted to pay an extra $20 a month, it can be a 3G wireless hotspot! WOOOO HOOO! to that!

While I was at it, I upgraded my Wireless Aircard to a MI-Fi. This little thing is about as big as a credit card, and lets us both get on the internet at the same time! And,even when the phone doesn’t get a signal, this does. I am so amazed by it! I was sitting in the woods, in the middle of nowhere, updating my status on Facebook. Now THAT is connected! WOOO HOOO!

That’s about it for now. What Woooo Hoooo moment have you had lately?