IS IT TIME TO DOWNSIZE YET??

CACTUS WREN & A SILVER CARDINAL IN OUR BACK YARD
With our recent spate of cold weather & below freezing nights we have decided to make some changes for next week.  Our company arrives from Rochester Monday & we originally planned for Kelly’s brother Peter & wife Leslie to stay in the Motorhome.  I think we will now have them stay in the warmer house & I will stay in the rig.  I am familiar with how all the systems work.  Furnace, propane heater, etc.  Plus, Pheebs & I will be as snug as a couple bugs in a rug in there & I do like the adventure of camping out.  It will kinda be like boondocking without leaving the driveway.  Besides, every young boy & his dog need a Fort:))

 
NEW ADDITIONS ON OUR BLOCK…THESE 2 LAMBS ARE LESS THAN 24 HOURS OLD
And, speaking of the Motorhome.  Been a little talk going around here at the Bunch again about downsizing our Motorhome to something smaller, easier on gas, & just easier to get around in. Something less costly to transport us between Ontario & Arizona. We have driven our Motorhome to the southwest 5 of the past 6 years & our last trip here a few months ago cost us about a thousand dollars for fuel. Also looking for something Kelly will be more comfortable driving as well. We had briefly considered the truck & trailer route last summer but we’re back to a self contained motorized vehicle again. Something under 24 feet. Been looking online at some of the Class B+ units. Chinooks or one of those Leisure Travel styles. Maybe a small Class C or a Winnebago Rialto. We would either trade in our 2003 33’ Damon Challenger, sell it privately, or maybe find someone with a smaller RV wanting to move up to a larger RV & do some kind of trade. We ‘might’ take a Jeep drive over to Quartzsite in the next couple of weeks just to see what’s out there & give us an idea of what we might be looking for. Some of the bigger RV Dealers will be set up there for ‘the big show.’
TOOK OURSELVES OUT FOR A SHORT JEEP RUN THIS AFTERNOON
Four of Kelly’s five children are located in Cambridge Ontario. When she goes over to see them in the summer she likes to stay for a couple days but would like to have her own quiet place to stay. With a smaller RV she could easily zip over & conveniently park in a driveway.

THIS POOR OLD SAGUARO WAS JUST PLAIN POOPED
Tires, exhaust systems, shocks, brakes, etc are less expensive on a Class B or C chassis as well. No troublesome hydraulic levelers to worry about. Don’t have to worry about ripping the roof off under low bridges or low tree branches, etc. A smaller unit is easier to keep clean. And, we would definitely stay with a gasoline engine rather than diesel. The list goes on. Just something we’re thinking ahead about again.

FOUND SOME PETROGLYPHS ON THOSE DARK ROCKS
Having been in our southwest house now for the past couple months we already know this has been the right time & the right move for us. We have really enjoyed our boondocking travels these past 6 years but we also know that era is likely behind us now. With our home base established in Arizona we no longer need a large Motorhome to live in for half a year at a time. We still intend to travel & boondock but not for long monthly periods of time anymore. When in Bayfield for the summer our Motorhome sits unused for 6 months & now with our Congress house it will be sitting for longer stretches once again. Class A’s are more expensive to maintain than smaller rigs so it doesn’t make a lot of sense for us to have a large aging Motorhome sitting in our driveway anymore if it is only used to travel between Bayfield Ontario & Congress Arizona. And, of course, shorter side trips.

Had us a real icy wind blowing this morning so it was a short walk.  Our coldest morning since arriving back in November.  Figured I’d better wait until the sun got up a good ways before resuming my outside projects.  Meanwhile, it was a good opportunity for catching up a few inside things.  Now that we have a new roof on it was time to repair my bedroom ceiling.  Hauled in my big ladder, did a little scraping, a little painting & the ceiling is looking good as new.  Kelly slipped out to do a little browsing over at the CONGRESS DEPOT where a week-end outdoor flea market was underway.  By 11 a.m. Pheebs & I were dressed warm & back outside working on our crushed stone project for awhile. 

CRESTED SAGUARO
All you 5th wheel drivers out there might be interested in this.  I know I would be if we still had our truck & fifth wheel.  Check out what happened to JIM & SANDY.
<<< WE HAD A FEELING WE WERE BEING WATCHED TODAY
Wickenburg Jim had told us of a spot on the way to Stanton where we could find a couple Petroglyphs, so with a quick stop at the Congress Depot first, we headed off in search of the Petroglyphs.  An old mining road leads off in the direction of the Weaver Mountains & we knew exactly where the road was because we had been up it before & found us a CRESTED SAGUARO CACTUS last February.

 
TWO VIEWS OF A CONGRESS DEPOT WINDOW…LOOKIN IN & LOOKIN OUT:))
Found the Petroglyph’s right where Jim said they were.  It’s a wonder he ever found them in the first place because they are very faint compared to some we have seen.  Had us a little rock scramble & headed for home.  Rock scrambles are better for me in the mornings now.  Legs just aren’t up to the challenge for later day scrambles.

TWO INDIAN PETROGLYPHS
GROANER’S CORNER:((  While enjoying an Early morning breakfast in a northern Arizona truck stop, four elderly ranchers were talking.  One gentleman turned to the fellow on his right and asked, "Roy, aren't you and Bea celebrating your 50th wedding anniversary soon?"
"Yup, we sure are," Roy replied.
"Well, are you gonna do anything special to celebrate?" another man asked.
The old gentleman pondered this for a moment, then replied, "For our 25th anniversary, I took Bea to Mesa. Maybe for our 50th, I'll go down there and bring her back."
-------------------------------------------------------------
- Tourists see the world, travelers experience it.
- Home is where your pet is:))
- "If having a soul means being able to feel
love and loyalty and gratitude, then animals
are better off than a lot of humans."
(James Herriot)
- The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails -William Arthur Ward
- The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...AL.
- It is not so much having nothing to do as it is not having the interest to do something....AL.
- OUR PHOTO ALBUMS -https://picasaweb.google.com/117858411710794543295/
stargeezerguy@gmail.com

WELL, DID WE GET SNOWED ON TODAY??

 
 
OUR FRONT YARD

YEP, THIS IS OUR PROPERTY ALL RIGHT, BUT NOPE WE DID NOT GET SNOWED ON TODAY…’JANUARY FOOLS’…TOOK THESE PICS ON MARCH 19TH LAST YEAR:))
Wonder of wonders, I managed to sleep in till 5 a.m. this morning.  Good thing I was up a few minutes before Kelly or she would have thought I had expired.

We are in the midst of some below freezing nights.  No problem for us in the house but we have had to leave some heat on in the Motorhome to protect water lines, taps, & drains.  Again, we are so fortunate not to have had any winds of consequence in these parts.  Freezing temps driven even lower by freezing winds can really do a lot of damage.  We seem to be in some kind of low wind area here in Congress & especially out here on Ghost Town Road.  Aside from a threatening overcast sky Thursday morning, the weather folks have basically mis-predicted our weather.  They were calling for a chance of snow today but we had a bright sunny day with not a cloud in the sky.  Outside temps in the low 40’s were great for working outside.

<<< BEEN AWHILE SINCE WE’VE SEEN THE SHADOW COWBOY
A year ago now we were still at the Ranch near McNeil Arizona & it was a great week for us. My Aunt Jean from Sarasota Florida was visiting for a week.  It was a time of travel, memories, & a chance for Aunt Jean & I to finally spend some time together.  We hadn’t seen a lot of each other over the years.  It was the internet that first brought us together back in the late 90’s.  We emailed daily for years.  Jean is 85 now & ran into some unexpected health problems late last summer but we have our fingers crossed she can make it out again this year sometime around the end of February.  Jean is a very strong willed independent person & if there is a chance she can make it this year, she will be here:))
 
AUNT JEAN ARRIVES AT THE TUCSON AIRPORT
  
JEAN MEETS THE PHEEBS & STROLLING TOMBSTONE ARIZONA’S
MAIN STREET
 
JEAN READS THE BLOG EACH MORNING & A TRIP TO FORT RUCKER IN THE CHIRICAHUA MOUNTAINS
 
FLAT TIRE ON THE JEEP & ATOP TOMBSTONE CANYON
 
BREAKFAST IN BISBEE & A STARGAZING COLD NIGHT CAMPFIRE
 
ATOP CORONADO PEAK & JEAN SAYS SO-LONG TO THE RANCH

SAYING GOOD BYE TO AUNT JEAN AT THE TUCSON AIRPORT
A leaking anything in an RV is never good news.  In a contained vehicle, a broken water pipe or leaking water heater has no way to drain away.  Water just sits & slowly eats away at floors etc.  The folks over at RV LIFE ON WHEELS recently discovered a long term hot water tank leak.  They were in for quite a repair job!!

OUR DESERT PLAYGROUND JUST A BLOCK AWAY
Some folks may wonder why we are putting all this crushed stone down around our house.  Looks nice maybe, well yes, but that is only part of the reason.  The desert floor is made up of sand, clay, & a fine gritty gravel & is easily tracked indoors where it becomes sand, clay, & fine gritty gravel all over the floor.  Almost like a sandpaper.  But, that’s not the worst thing about.  Add water to the equation & you have ‘hell on shoes’!!  When the desert floor gets wet, it quickly turns into a quagmire of gripping gumbo glue that sticks to boots & shoes like fleas on a wooly dog.  Surrounding our house with crushed stone helps knock off the sand, clay, & fine gritty gravel before we enter the house.  I don’t even have to tell you the advantages of having a layer of crushed stone around on a rainy day.  In Bayfield we have something similar to our red crushed rock called pea stone gravel.  Same advantages.
 
Ever notice sometimes when doing various things, long ago memories are triggered.  For example, every time I am using my garden rake to level anything out whether it be dirt, gravel, or sand I hear a familiar voice saying to me, ‘ya missed a high spot there’.  It is the voice of my first wife’s Father.  Art owned his own small landscaping business when I first met him back in the late 60’s.  I worked for Art a few summers doing a lot of ground prep, sodding, & planting of shrubs etc.  He had a contract with a local developer in the Kitchener-Waterloo area of Ontario to landscape new housing developments.  That landscaping mainly consisted of sodding.  It was a physically tough job.  Before sodding, the ground had to raked out perfectly level & I spent many sweaty summer hours with large 2.5’ wide aluminum rakes doing just that…raking.  When I first started, everything already looked perfectly level after Art had gone over the ground with his tractor leveling out the high & low spots, but of course it wasn’t.  I would get busy with my rake thinking I was doing a perfect job but Art would come by & say to me, “ya missed a high spot there”.  To this very day, nearly 45 years later, every time I set a rake on the ground, I can hear Art over my shoulder with those very words…“ya missed a high spot there”.  Every time………

I LIKED PHEEBS SHADOW PROFILE
GROANER’S CORNER:))  Joe, John and Bob were moving furniture. While Joe and John were struggling with a particularly heavy oak wardrobe. Joe noticed that Bob was nowhere in sight.
"John, where's Bob?" asked Joe. "He should be helping us with this thing."
"He is helping," said John, "He's inside holding the clothes hangers in place!"
-------------------------------------------------------------
- Tourists see the world, travelers experience it.
- Home is where your pet is:))
- "If having a soul means being able to feel
love and loyalty and gratitude, then animals
are better off than a lot of humans."
(James Herriot)
- The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails -William Arthur Ward
- The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...AL.
- It is not so much having nothing to do as it is not having the interest to do something....AL.

ROOF IS DONE, NO RAIN, BUT MAYBE SNOW ON FRIDAY:((

SUNRISE FROM MY BEDROOM WINDOW

Up at 3 a.m. & right away checked the sky.  With stars visible I knew the incoming inclement weather front possibly carrying rain, had not arrived yet.  My bedroom may not become a swimming pool after all.  Kelly, Pheebs, & I were just heading out on our morning walk when Terry Dresher, the roofing company owner, & helper Jose rolled in.  It was 7:40 a.m. 

  

EARLY MORNING DESERT HUES

Didn’t take the fellas long to hoist up 10 sheets of 4 x 8 plywood & get er all nailed down.  I did crawl up their ladder & take a few pics.  Terry spotted a hole in our brick chimney & siliconed that for us.  Also did the seams on the section of metal roof that butts up against the new roof.  Fixed another small hole near the peak.  Nice when a contractor goes the extra distance to make things right for a customer.

  

Knowing bad weather was heading our way we hopped into the Motorhome & headed over to North Ranch to take care of the holding tanks & top up our propane tank.  Stopped in Congress & threw $80 worth of gas in the tank as well which put it up to well over half.  Generator won’t work if the gas tank drops to a quarter tank so we wanted to be sure our Rochester guests next week could run the generator if they had to.  The rig is plugged into shore power but just wanted to be sure we had auxiliary power if needed.

SOME OF THE NEIGHBORHOOD DOGS ARE NOT AS FRIENDLY AS PHEEBS WISHES THEY WOULD BE

I pretty much kept myself on the end of the wheelbarrow again moving gravel.  Terry called me up the ladder a couple of times to have a look at what they were doing & I was able to grab a few more pics.  I think this is going to be a good quality roof from what I could see.  All materials seemed to be very heavy duty & the fellas certainly knew what they were doing.

 

Skies became increasingly overcast as the morning went on.  Our computer weather map showed a rain bank far off to the northwest headed our way.  Winds picked up & temperatures dropped.  I gathered up all our outside stuff including lawn chairs, tables & garden tools, putting them in the shed.  Would the fellas on the roof finish the job in time?

 

I kept plugging away with my wheelbarrow & they kept plugging away at their roofing job, & in the end…..the rain never came.  The roofers finished up their job about 12:30.  Couple hours later the sun was shining.  Dark skies to the southeast so the storm had gone around us.  I actually wouldn’t have minded some rain to soften the ground slightly underneath the 3/8 crushed stone I was working with.  Could have used the Jeep to pack the stones down.  Wished I had a water filled roller, oh well, I don’t….so quit wishin.

  

PHEEBS KEEPS AN EYE ON ROOFER TERRY

BIG BOSS KELLY CHECKS OUT THE FINISHED ROOF JOB

When Kelly, sitting at her computer this morning, uttered the words, “it’s hard to copy & paste without a mouse”, I knew exactly what she was talking about.  Imagine the blank stares of people just a few short decades ago.  Why would anyone want to paste a mouse on anything & why would anyone in their right mind want to copy a mouse.  A lot of folks got enough of the darn things running around their house as it is!! 

PHEEBS KEPT A CLOSE EYE ON THE WEATHER TODAY

Been literally drinking gallons & gallons of Cranberry juice for over a year now.  Not crazy about the Cranberry taste so have mixing Ginger Ale with it.  Makes for a great drink & has enabled me to cut down on drinking so much milk.  Kelly brought home a couple jugs of Cranberry Lite mixed with Raspberry juice a few days ago & ‘Walla’ I no longer have to add Ginger Ale.  Cranberry/Raspberry juice straight up.  Good stuff:))

MAYBE TOMORROW I WILL HAVE SOME SNOW PICTURES

GROANER’S CORNER:((  You're in incredible shape," the doctor said. "How old are you again?"
"I am 78." The man said.
"78?" asked the doctor. "How do you stay so healthy? You look like a 60 year old."
"Well, my wife and I made a pact when we got married that whenever she got mad she would go into the kitchen and cool off and I would go outside to settle down." the man explained.
"What does that have to do with it?" asked the doctor.
"I spent a lot of time in the great outdoors."

-------------------------------------------------------------
- Tourists see the world, travelers experience it.
- Home is where your pet is:))
- "If having a soul means being able to feel
love and loyalty and gratitude, then animals
are better off than a lot of humans."
(James Herriot)
- The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails -William Arthur Ward
- The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...AL.
- It is not so much having nothing to do as it is not having the interest to do something....AL.