10/31/07 (Wednesday): Happy Halloween! This will be a quick blog (not too many bells and whistles) because I'm making use of an internet connection at a local coffee shop (and I should leave when I've finished my latte). Also, I haven't downloaded my pictures yet.

We arrived safely last Sunday. We had a wonderful trip across the country, and I still have some pictures from our travels that I want to show you, but I'll do a catch-up blog for that. The campground is lovely--it sits in a canyon with a huge lake at the bottom and high mountains all around. There are 100-year-old olive trees everywhere that were planted by an entrepreneur who also started orange and avocado groves. The trees are still bearing. In fact, Wiley now wants me to find out how to preserve them (it has something to do with soaking them in brine). The deer wander freely in the campground and are not shy at all. In fact, I almost got run over by one yesterday morning--it ran down a hill and leaped down from a hill right in front of me. Scared me witless! There are also a lot of rabbits and birds. We put out the hummingbird feeder and had black-chinned hummers within an hour!

Wiley slid down a hill face first on the way to go fishing at the lake at dawn Monday, our first day. It was steeper than in looked in the bad light. He got 3 stitches in his forehead and skinned his hands and knees, but he's fine. The good that came out of his accident is that we found a great hospital and clinic which we'll be able to use for the rest of the season.

We're having a meeting with the campground managers tomorrow (us and two other workamper couples) to discuss our duties and schedules. The people are wonderful--one of them is going to lend us his satellite dish because we can't get any channels with our antenna. So far, some of the duties we've discussed sound really fun. We'll be taking out the motor boat to re-stock the mid-lake privvies and check lake water levels. We'll also be cleaning restrooms (Wiley) and working in the gatehouse (me). They're also interested in having us do some interpretive programs with school children. There is not much activity in the campground in the winter, despite the great weather, because swimming in the lake is the big attraction of this campground.

So far, the only downside of this job that we've found is that we're in a canyon and don't get a cell phone signal. We've ordered a land line and dial-up internet (there's no wireless or broadband either). The dial-up is slow, but we'll have access to the office computers after hours, so we should still be able to blog.

That's it for this time--hopefully I'll be able to do another post soon.