Working out in my garden and sitting on my deck to see it grow.

Deanna Waltens

Watching baseball and the Pittsburgh Pirates. I live the Rangers, too.

Rick Dimit

Bicycling. I’ve got a road bike and a cruising bike I ride around the trails.

Hugh Osborn

Just coming out and volunteering.

Kenneth Tolle

Dear Savvy Senior, What’s the best way to find good, trustworthy, qualified people who can help seniors with home chores or small jobs? Looking for Mom

Dear Looking,
Getting help at home for any number of household tasks is a lot easier than it use to be thanks to a number of web-based tools that can quickly and easily connect you and your mom to a wide variety of skilled, carefully vetted workers. Here’s what you should know.

Finding Qualified Help
One of the best ways to find qualified, reliable, trustworthy people that can help with home chores and other small jobs is through referrals from people you trust. But if your friends or family don’t have any recommendations, there are a number of online companies you can turn to now like TaskRabbit.com and Takl.com.
These are on-demand service companies that can quickly and easily connect you to skilled workers to handle a wide variety of household chores and small jobs, like cleaning and housekeeping, moving and packing, lawn and yard cleanup, handyman tasks, grocery shopping, running errands, furniture assembly, picture hanging, closet organizing, and much more.
TaskRabbit currently has more than 60,000 Taskers (workers) in 47 U.S. cities, while Takl currently serves 75 U.S. cities with around 35,000 workers.
All you need to do is download their app, or go to their website, and select the service your mom wants done and set a time when she would like the worker to show up. The software then matches your request and provides you a list of qualified, feedback rated workers (including their hourly rate) from which to choose. Once the job is complete, payment is done through the company’s app.
You should also know that all TaskerRabbit and Takl workers have to go through a thorough vetting process before they can join their respective company including extensive background checks.
If, however, you can’t find a skilled worker through TaskRabbit or Takl, or if they don’t serve your area, another option is Amazon Home Services at Amazon.com/services. Like TaskRabbit and Takl, Amazon will connect you to qualified workers that handle dozens of household chores and other small jobs.
Amazon also screens all workers through media searches, online interviews, reference checks, and background checks. And all experts need to have licenses and insurance.
To purchase and book a service, you can either buy a pre-packaged service with a fixed price (like two hours of cleaning) or you can submit a custom request and receive estimates. When booking, you select three different dates and time frames and the pro confirms an appointment. All payment is done through your Amazon account.

Need a Tradesman
If your mom primarily needs of a tradesman like a plumber, electrician, painter, roofer or carpenter for home repairs or remodel projects, you should also check HomeAdvisor.com and AngiesList.com. Both of these sites can connect you with prescreened, customer-rated service professionals in your area for free.

Senior Specific
Another option you should know about is AskUmbrella.com, which is a fee-based membership service for seniors 60-plus that provides qualified, vetted workers to do small jobs in and around the house for only $16 per hour. Currently available in New York, they are expanding nationally over the next year.

Lower-Income Option
If your mom is on a tight budget, you should also contact her nearby Area Aging Agency (call 800-677-1116), who can refer you to services in her area, if available. For example, some communities have volunteer programs that provide chore and handyman services to help seniors in need. And some local non-profit’s offer residential repair services that offer seniors minor upgrades and adaptations to their homes.
Send your senior questions to: Savvy Senior, P.O. Box 5443, Norman, OK 73070, or visit SavvySenior.org. Jim Miller is a contributor to the NBC Today show and author of “The Savvy Senior” book.

The Oklahoma City Lion’s Club gifted $6,000 to the Metro Tech Foundation, funds that will be utilized to cover costs outside tuition such as uniforms, tools, certification fees and equipment.
OKC Lion’s Club Board Member Tom Springer said historically the club has supported college scholarships for area high school students and had a desire to help adult students pursuing technical education as well.
“Many of the Lion Club members attended vocational school at some point in our lives and wanted to support students who graduate with a trade and might need a little help getting started in their career. Welding tools, nursing accessories, certification test fees – we don’t want any student to miss an opportunity due to lack of funds at the beginning of their career,” Mr. Springer said.
Metro Tech Foundation Executive Director Ashleigh Gibson expressed gratitude for a gift that will allow the Foundation to remove financial barriers from student success.
“These financial gifts often make the difference between giving up and succeeding for students who are working hard to achieve their dreams,” Ms. Gibson said.
Metro Tech is an Oklahoma technology school that offers free tuition to Oklahoma City Public Schools, Crooked Oak Public Schools and Millwood Public Schools students. Full-time and part-time training is offered for adult students, as well as customized Business & Industry training.

Photography and Text by Terry “Travels with Terry” Zinn [email protected]

When I visited Albany, New York, I just had to explore a little farther north to the Lake George area. There I found the small town “Festival of the Lake,” in progress next to the southern end of the expansive lake itself.
My home base was the Fort William Henry Hotel with an upper story lake view. It’s so nice to wake up and go to bed with the ever-changing view of water and distant mountains. The hotel offers several styles of accommodations, but staying in the main historic building was optimal, and the prime location for viewing the weekend fireworks over the lake from the room.
I had an unpleasant lunch at the little snack bar café on the waterfront where the manager was almost rude and not accommodating to this paying customer. But with that unpleasantness aside, the rest of my tourist visit to Lake George was very pleasant.
Up the lake side road is the legendary and historic Sagamore Hotel, where you must stop in for a tour or definitely a lunch. The Sagamore opened its doors in 1883 with luxurious Lake George accommodations that attracted a select, international clientele, and quickly became the social epicenter for the wealthy residents of Green Island and Millionaires’ Row. Twice damaged by fire in 1893 and 1914, The Sagamore was fully reconstructed in 1930 through the efforts of Dr. William G. Beckers of New York City, one of the hotel’s early stockholders, and William H. Bixby, a St. Louis industrialist. Together they financed the cost despite the period’s bleak economic climate and The Sagamore continued to thrive, hosting the National Governor’s Conference in 1954, which was presided over by Vice President Richard M. Nixon and Governor Thomas E. Dewey.
A staff member of the Sagamore, suggested I travel, if time allowed to go a bit farther north, to the northern most part of Lake George and visit the Fort Ticonderoga area. I had always heard about this revolutionary war locale and it was enlightening to tour the reconstructed fort and see its importance for guarding the waterfront. Approaching the Park area I came across a fox hunt, complete with riders and hounds in progress, temporarily halting car traffic. It was as if I was transported back in time.
Another dining treat was the Algonquin Restaurant at Bolton Landing, near the Sagamore Hotel, where locals take their boats, docked them by the water front restaurant, enjoy a meal or cocktail, and then retreat to their lake homes via the water, before the sun completely sets. Boating to them is as casual as taking the family car out to dinner ~ so quaint and a hint at the local lake culture.
I enjoyed dining at the very popular Lake George’s Marios Italian Restaurant, and at the Lake George Dinner Theater, where the play was well done and my congenial extemporaneous senior citizen ladies table mates, was more entertainment. The Lake George man street plays host to a number of assorted shops and eateries, including the wine tastings at the Adirondack Winery.
They say you must get on the lake to experience Lake George and the Lake George Steamboat Company fills that order. With several specialty cruises or a casual noon time cruise, you get a different perspective of the Lake and the mountains. Establish in 1817, the Company has been operating on Lake George for over200 years. They offer a number of boats including the Minne Ha Ha, The MV Mohican or the flagship, Lac du Saint Sacrement.817, the Lake George Steamboat Company has been operating on Lake George for over 200
While I was at Lake George in late September, I found I was at the end of their season, so you may want to arrive earlier in the year, go now, or plan now for your spring/summer upstate New York getaway. America and upstate New York has so much to explore and enjoy.
Before you go check out:
www.fortwilliamhenry.com
www.adirondackwinery.com
www.thesagamore.com
www.lakegeorgedinnertheatre.com
www.lakegeorgesteamboat.com
www.thealgonquin.com

For Patti Townsend, her entire life could be described by these two words.
After enduring the drought of the Dust Bowl, Townsend’s father, an Oklahoma farmer and coal miner, decided to move his family west to California during World War II. There was a need for work in the shipyards because of the war, so he was certain a better life would await them there.
“My father just threw up his hands and said, ‘This farming is not worth it right now,’” she said.
Townsend grew up in San Francisco, a much different sight from the New Mexico cattle ranches she would soon call home.
After marrying Gayland Townsend, the two began ranching together in Albuquerque and then Roswell. They raised commercial cattle before incorporating Brangus into their herd, eventually owning nearly 800 head. The Townsends moved several times while in New Mexico, each time to a bigger ranch, before relocating to Oklahoma in 2004.
“I was chief cook and bottle washer,” Patti Townsend laughed, pointing out that she worked more than everyone else because she had two jobs: ranching and cooking.
She added, “They counted on me being out there helping them with cattle and then having dinner on the table too.”
“I wasn’t a hired hand,” she laughed. “I was a free hand. Let’s put it that way. I was out there working cattle and then having pot roast in the oven.”
She would have beans on the stove and cornbread in the oven while she worked cattle.
“They’d send me up there about 10 minutes before, and then I put everything on the table,” Townsend said. “They ate. I cleaned up. I was back out there in the corral.”
While the Townsends ranched in Roswell on the “home place,” Patti Townsend became heavily involved with the New Mexico Cowbelles. She served on the board, as secretary and as president.
“I did everything they asked me to,” she said.
Townsend worked beef cook-offs, helped the New Mexico Beef Council – where she also chaired the board – at the state fair, and helped put on the beef ambassador contest. She traveled to each region of the state giving workshops, ran booths at the state capitol, and visited schools to teach children about beef cattle. She also led farm tours to show the public more about the industry.
She recalls one lady being so excited – and scared – to give a cow a shot for the first time.
“She did it. She ended up giving that cow a shot, and then she raised her hands up and just thought that was the greatest thing in the world that she gave that cow a shot,” Townsend laughed.
It was the education and promotion of agriculture, specifically beef cattle, that drove Townsend.
She was involved on the local, state and national level. She was named the 1999 New Mexico Cowbelle of the Year and served as president. She also served as region director of the American National CattleWomen for six years and was president of ANCW in 2003.
Townsend, who “to this day still can’t believe it,” was named the 2011 ANCW Outstanding CattleWoman of the Year.
“It was the best honor I could have in my life,” she said.
The “home place” or “family ranch” as Patti Townsend calls it, is where the Townsends lived for about 21 years and raised three sons: Philip, Charles and Steven. It is also where Townsend started her sheep herd, which grew to nearly 600 head over a 20 year period.
“The boys had them [the sheep] for ag,” she said. “It was an ag project, and course they showed sheep too. The oldest one took off to college, and he had to sell his part of the sheep to the other two. And when the second one went off to college, he had to sell his part to the youngest one. And then when the youngest one when off to college, there was nobody to buy them but Momma. So I bought his share, and so those were Momma’s sheep now.”
“There was a herd of them by the time we finished with them because they can have triplets,” she laughed.
Her sons were all heavily involved in FFA, showing cattle, pigs and sheep. All three received their American FFA Degrees, and Charles was a state FFA officer.
All three also grew up to pursue agriculture. Charles is a veterinarian, Philip is a rancher and fishermen’s guide, and Steven runs the ranch, which is now located in Milburn, Okla.
“We started getting bigger on account of the youngest son [Steven] wanting to be a rancher, and so that’s the reason we sold the family ranch,” she said. “He’s always wanted to be a rancher since he was 3 years old.”
The Townsends moved to a bigger ranch outside of Roswell first before moving the cattle to Oklahoma.
Why would a successful ranching family decide to move 500 miles to begin the challenge of raising cattle in a completely new state?
The answer can be found in one word: drought.
After year five of what would be an eight-year intense drought, the Townsends were at a crossroads. Their time in New Mexico had set them up for success in Oklahoma.
“A man walked up to us and wanted to buy the ranch,” she said, “and my husband said, ‘Sold.’ So we bought a place here in Oklahoma, and that’s where we are now. We still have Brangus cattle. We raise about 600 head here.”
As the ranches got bigger and more help came in the form of her sons, Patti Townsend wasn’t needed as much. However, she never got too far away from the ranch.
“I stayed involved with the cattle, and when we culled cows and stuff like that my husband wanted me out there working to make sure I was satisfied with what they sent to the sale and what they kept for heifers. They didn’t sell my pets. Let me put it that way,” Townsend laughed.
She became very involved with the Oklahoma CattleWomen and was slated to become an officer here too, before deciding she was needed more at home to take care of her husband after his heart attack.
“I’m getting back involved with them again, but I am not moving up to be president so leave that off your list,” she laughed.
She has truly loved the ranching life – where she spent her entire career – and is hopeful that her grandchildren and great-grandchildren will pursue it.
“It is a beautiful life for a family, and I would suggest it for any young couple that wants to start living on the ranch to try it,” she said. “Get them out of the city. Put them on the ranch or the farm, and it’s a hard life. I’m not going to say it’s an easy life. We had some rough times. We had some big rough times, but we made it. We just stuck together and made it. I wouldn’t trade it for a billion dollars, or a trillion.”
It has been almost 50 years since the Townsends first started ranching together.
“It was fun days. I enjoyed it. I really did. It’s just something I did, and I was young enough to do it. Don’t ask me to now,” she laughed.
Patti Townsend, now nearly 78, reflects back on her days on the home place and says every memory was great – whether it was good or bad. She would certainly love to be working underneath the Oklahoma sky.
“I wish I was 10 years younger,” she said. “I’d be out there hand in hand. I’d still be the chief cook and bottle washer.”