We started out the month of November with Josh and Josiah's birthdays. Josh is stationed in Japan, so we saw him on Facetime. 

Josiah had his 12th birthday!

He was really sick on his big golden 12 years on the 12th, but had a belated party a week later. 

Arianna has not been feeling well, so has had a few days here with me. When she was feeling up to it, we sewed, we baked, we did homework. One day, she decided she needed to assess my shoes. She pulled them out and lined them up to her favorites and worst. What a way to pass the time!

Mom and I donated blood. It was her first time. As it turned out, she was just below the line and it just stopped filling, so we are not sure if hers was used and I received a phone call that since we had been to Tanzania in September, my blood is not going to be used because of the malaria going on there. We were assured that it will be used for training purposes, so it won't go to waste.

I really like getting to see the awesome sunsets from this place.

John finally found a way to see his new grandson! It seems that Beau loves him! How could he not?

Abby sent this one of the boys. How can we slow these kids down from growing up so fast?

Josiah started basketball. Nice to see how much the kids improve from one season to another.

He even made his first in game shot!!!  (shot below top corner) I didn't think he or any of us were ever going to stop grinning!!! 

Lina is the self appointed half-time entertainment with her cartwheels and splits.

I put the Halloween pumpkins in the flowerbed by my front room windows where I could see them and cracked them open. The squirrels and birds have loved them.

My Christmas cactus was its best ever. 

Mom has just not been able to do her usual cooking of the meal for everyone on the holidays, so she asked me to do Thanksgiving dinner. I have always wanted to have the whole family gathered at my place for a big holiday, but this sure isn't the way I wanted to get that honor.

We ended dinner with a birthday song for Mom and Matt.

Mom's actual 85th birthday wasn't until the following Monday. I took her for a pedicure and shopping and then John and Dad met up with us at Salty's for dinner. We arrived a little early and cracked open some champagne before the guys arrived. 

I barely left home in October. But that doesn't mean nothing got done. It was a great month for before and afters. A lot of hard work, but it sure paid off!

Beside the house was a huge ivy plant. We all wondered what was under it. Since there was this river rock coming from it, some of us thought we might discover a water feature of some sort. Instead, it was the remains of a fallen tree. 

It sure made a difference getting rid of the shed and ivy! Same spot for both the above and below photo. I still have way more I want to do there, but it was nice to get a start.

Next, John knocked down the old fence. Wow! It sure opened up the whole place!

The whole place was full of overgrown shrubs. I think it was more play than work for John to use his truck to pull them out. We started a burning pile that grew and grew. I wasn't sure we would ever see the end of the burning.

Can you believe the difference? Even the neighbors made sure to stop and comment on how great it was looking. 

We found a trunk and car door behind that brush!

Before and after the patio awning. Already, it was an improvement.

At first, I wanted John to put down a stone patio, but as we thought it over, we decided to have aggregate concrete poured all around the house instead. The concrete was cracked and a mess, so we had it all redone, widening out the entry way too.

Josiah helped Grandpa tear out the old decking.

The concrete crew found the water line. It didn't take long to get it fixed and they were back to work again.

The new patio! I can't wait for summer to put my pots around and start using it!

And the long awaited burning season began! It took a full week to get it all burnt, from the awning, shed, fence and all those shrubs we tore out. 

The kids thought a hot dog roast would be fun...until they tried to get close enough to roast them. We ended up cooking inside. It was pouring rain anyway.

We also had new windows installed in the whole house. The existing ones had a line all around them that looked like security bars, plus sliders that just took up the view. It is so much better to have a full window!

The one room of the house that I have not been happy with since moving in was the room I decided to turn into a dining room. I think it is supposed to be a 'family' room, but I needed a larger area for my table than what was intended here. The way I felt it had to be arranged just looked messy to me, so I moved it all around and now it really looks like it should be a dining room now. I am headed out right now to buy myself a new chandelier to be the needed finishing touch.

I need to learn about persimmons. We have a huge tree full of them. Right now they are still hard, but are slowly turning yellow-orange. 

Here is a sunrise from our place. We get to see both the rise and set of the sun from here.

Josh was sent to Japan for 6 months.

Beau, Emily and Matthew

The mountain ash tree was loaded with berries. It is so amazing how the birds ignored them and the berries just hung there for weeks until suddenly the birds flocked in and devoured the berries in just days. Mostly robins, but there were plenty of flickers and waxwings too.

And the month ended with grandkids dressing up for Halloween, even Beau got dressed up!

The biggest thrill of the year was the birth of 

my first Great-Grandson! 

Welcome to our lives, Beau!!!

We can't wait to meet him in December. Wishing so much that they lived close-by! I can't wait to hold him in my arms.

September went so fast, I am not sure we even had one!

Two huge events happened, so I know that really, we did have a September.

Roane Travel was so understanding when we had to cancel half of our trip when the tragedy struck last January. We had not purchased  travel insurance but they gave us a credit for the unused portion of the trip anyway. They checked on us, they sent a gift basket of cookies, without even asking her to, Elizabeth took over the emergency flight arrangements for me.

The doctor said that it would do John good to go on our planned return to Africa trip, so we decided that we should go and finish it. The closer it came to going, the less I wanted to go. It was bringing all the feelings of last January back again in full force. I wasn't even sure if I could fly. But the day came and off we went.

 It was hard, but I think it was a good thing to go. It was a sort of closure to the trip that I think we needed. I know people say it all the time after somebody passes, but I think in reality, Cyndi would have told me to go.  That is what I kept telling myself. 

We stayed at a migration camp for the first two nights. The goal was to see the wildebeest river crossing. 

It is no guarantee that you will see it, you have to time it right. When we arrived, our driver Tito said that it was late for the crossings this year, but most likely we would be able to see it. Not only did we see it, we saw it two times! and almost a third! The third time, they were all bunched up, going up and down the cliff, over and over and then suddenly, instead of jumping in, they all just turned around and left! In a single file line headed to another place, I guess.

The wildebeest start congregating in an area, coming in single file lines, running or walking. They pile up and finally start going down to the river's edge, then back up again, until one of them finally jumps in and away they all go, fast and furious. It is loud! Some of them get washed down the river and drown, others are caught by crocodiles. I didn't look in that direction, but kept focused on the action ahead of me instead.

One little guy got stuck on some rocks, he tried and failed to get up over and over. All of us in the jeeps that were piled up to watch the crossing were cheering for him to survive. Finally, he made it and you should have heard the cheers then, as he ran up onto the bank in front of us.

Here is one that was not as lucky!

The camp was so awesome! We had a flashlight in our room that we had to shake out the door of our tent if we wanted to go out after dark. Then a guide would come and walk us up. We also had a whistle that we were to use in case of an emergency. 

One night we woke up at 3am to the sound of a herd of wildebeest munching on the grass in front of our tent!  

Great food, as always, and a few guests this trip to talk to and compare safari notes for the day by the campfire. In January, there were no other guests because of covid. 

Dining tent

He stoked the fire and kept watch for animals.

hot water bottles in our bed each night

lunch for one after I returned late from safari 

We saw more cats on this trip. That is because they were following the migration for their meals. 

There were a few animals that were new to us. The Oribi is in the antelope family and is only 25" tall.

The other is the Klipspringer. It is also in the antelope family, but is only 20" tall.

Even though we had seen the animals before, it never got old seeing them day to day.

Hyrax, a type of rodent. 

Vultures and Marabou storks cleaning up while a hyena waits his turn. 

I think these lizards should be called Spiderman lizards.

So many great birds, some new, some old!

Gray headed Kingfisher, a new one for me

I learned that male ostrich necks and legs turn red in mating season, the female dances for him. She lays her eggs in a communal nest and the females sit on the eggs by day because they are light colored and the males take turns at night because they are dark colored.

I think we saw more baby animals than before. I am just posting them here without words because they speak for themselves.

John was not up to doing all of the safaris because of his head injury, but I went out every time.

After our first two nights, we headed across the Serengeti, 2 hours by jeep, to our tented lodge, Taasa, for the next 7 nights. Again, it was an awesome place! Hard to believe that it was actually a tent. Except first thing in the morning, it was so cold, you knew you were not indoors. At night you could hear lions roaring in the distance and one night a zebra ran right between our tent and the next. Each morning, we would ask the night guards what they protected us from and they would tell us about shooing off a herd of water buffalo or elephants.

Every time we came back to the lodge after a safari, we were greeted by singing, warm washcloths and a drink. This is Wilson, our host, he made sure that there was not one thing we wanted that we didn't get. He served our meals, and brought us drinks and snacks whenever we were sitting by the lodge. One day, I took a pair of John's safari pants up to him and asked for scissors to cut them off. He said, "just a minute" and took off with them. Five minutes later he showed back up with them cut off and hemmed! 

The view from our room was ever changing. Elephants, zebra, wildebeest, baboons and giraffes, so close, others in the distance.

Almost every day I did a safari sometimes even two, one day it was a walking safari, one night was a safari after dark. Sometimes we had breakfast in the bush. 

The bouncing of the jeep was not good for John's brain injury, so he only did one safari a day. Dominic our guide worked it out so that John would ride in the jeep up front with him, it was less bouncing and that helped. Up until now, we had always had a private jeep, but now, at Taasa, we shared it with two other couples from Ohio. I wasn't happy about that at first, but it turned out to be a good thing.

Topi

This baby giraffe was so new that the cord was still on!

Eland and Hartebeest

I like that the horns on the hartebeest are kinda heart shaped.

One evening, after our safari, we were headed back to the lodge, but instead of turning in, he drove up the hill behind our camp, supposedly for us to shoot the sunset.  Well, we did shoot the sunset, but they also had a barbeque set up for everyone. There was a fire, a full bar and Masai traditional dance. 

Most of all, at Taasa on safari, was lions. One set of lions were mating. Embarrassing! Especially when I was told that they mate every 15 minutes for a whole week!  The two couples we were with thought it was so amazing and we had to wait through three matings! ugh! I will spare you the full photo. Here is that couple and a bunch of other lions too.

One of the things offered was a Masai village trip. I had decided before leaving home that I would not do it. I felt like it would be artificial and I didn't want to gawk at their way of life. But in order to get to the school, which I really did want to do, I needed to do the tour. I am so glad I did! 

It turns out that our tracker, Loyer was showing us his very own boma! We met his wife and 6 kids! He and our driver/guide were both dressed in their typical Masai clothing that day.

The only shopping I had while in Tanzania.

 After Dominic showed us the way they keep their goats, Loyer's wife invited us inside her hut. A hut that she had built herself, as all Masai women do. It was so dark and had an animal smell.

 When you first enter, there is a tiny door. That is where they keep the baby goats for the night. They don't want the babies to nurse all night and then not have enough milk for the family. In the day, they allow the baby goats to nurse on only one side while they milk the other. We were given small stools to sit on in front of the area where she cooks. Behind that is a mud platform covered in animal hides where they sleep. She uses a tiny solar light when she cooks over her fire in the middle of the hut. 

At the school, we visited the 6th grade class. So many kids packed into that room, sitting 3 deep in rows at shared desks. They sang us "If You're Happy and You Know It". It won't attach at the moment, I will try another time.

After the song, they asked us questions. When John said his name they all started laughing. It turns out that there was a John in the class. That poor guy! He was so embarrassed! John would have been just as embarrassed at that age. When we were all done, 
John walked over to shake the boy's hand. That did that poor kid in, he almost crawled on the floor laughing.

I am so happy that we did the tour, especially the school. It made me picture the 'half-orphan' kids we send funds to in the Congo. Their fathers were pastors and were killed when the government changed over from being Zaire. They have to buy their own uniforms and books in order to attend school. Their mothers can barely find the money for food, so they would not get to attend school if they didn't get help with uniforms and books. Seeing these kids in class just made me so happy imagining the 'half-orphans' doing the same.

One day we went on a walking safari. We had to have a ranger with us with a gun and our tracker followed behind with his speer.

A hard day for me was Dan's birthday. I went on the safari without John that day. The other two couples in our jeep were there. We stopped for breakfast overlooking the grassland. I was sitting there alone thinking of Dan, when a airplane came flying past.

 In all our time in Africa this trip and the one in January, we had not seen a plane on our safaris. (Dominic said it was a ranger plane looking for poachers) It circled the whole area and left, then circled back and flew right in front of me and away. What timing in the middle of my birthday thoughts of Dan. I don't think that it was them or anything like that, but it sure did bring on the tears!

Our night safari shots were not very good. Shooting in infrared light so that the animals don't see us was not very good. But you can make out the tiny little African kangaroo.

The destruction from the elephants is like a tornado went through.

Sunset safari. Here is Dominic our guide and Loyer our tracker

Morning safaris were even better with hot water bottles. I can't believe how cold it was! I thought Africa would be hot.

Zebra stripes are different on every one, just like our fingerprints are.

Wildflowers were in full bloom since the short rainy season had just ended.

On our last safari morning we were surprised with an all camp full on breakfast. 

The week blew past so fast. I thought we might regret so much time in one place, but we were not bored for one minute. We had plenty of time to relax, safaris and special activities all the time!

If you have ever thought about doing a safari, I highly recommend it! Start saving up now and go...now! It is indescribable!