WE MANAGED TO GET SOME FLOWERS IN THE GROUND TODAY

JUST ONE CLUMP OF OUR NEWLY PLANTED WILDFLOWERS THIS MORNING

One of the first things I do every morning after stepping outside it is to walk around & see if the rabbits have chewed up any cactus.  So far so good since planting a bunch of new cactus pads a week ago.  My adobe brick barricades seem to be repelling all wascally wabbit intwuders so far.

Feeling a bit energetic & while our morning air was still cool I waxed (Meguiar's) the front end of our motorhome & part way back on the south facing drivers side which  bears the brunt of Arizona’s hot sun every day.  Before waxing I decided to remove some black streaks with some Meguiar’s black streak remover.  Brand new plastic bottle & I had never used it before.  Walking around a front corner of our rig the slippery plastic bottle just slipped right on out of my hand.  Soon as it hit the ground one whole side just busted right out.  I stood there & watched $14.00 worth of Meguiar’s black streak remover drain away into the ground.

We knew it was going to be a warm day (mid 70’s) so Kelly & I hopped in the Jeep about 9 & headed around the corner to our neighbors.  Lew was working on a vehicle but pointed out where all the flowers were we could have.  Said to take as many as we wanted but we didn’t want to get him in big trouble with his wife Shirley who was at work so we were careful not to be greedy.  Came home & planted maybe 25 groups of daisies & poppies at various locations around our property.  Some were already going to seed so that is good.  With a bit of luck we should have some nice spring flowers growing next year at this time.

Finished my latest paperback book by Bill Bryson.  What a great read One Summer: America, 1927 was & I would recommend it to anyone with any kind of interest with America’s history.  Bryson has a knack for intertwining people, places, & events in such a way as to make it all so very interesting.  No dull moments.  What I like about reading non-fiction is the learning process that goes along with the reality of what I am reading.  As often as not facts can literally be stranger than fiction.  All the era’s mystery & intrigue are in this book along with many colorfully real characters from the past.  If your looking for murders, trysts, record breaking accomplishments, natural & man made disasters, shady characters, who, what, & why the stock market crash of 1929, inventions that changed our lives, Al Capone, American Presidents, Babe Ruth, who invented what, the not so clever Henry Ford, & how did Charles Lindbergh go from America’s greatest hero to almost one of America’s most looked down upon characters.  What did he have to do with Adolph Hitler & his Nazi party?  It’s all in the book of course & how different today’s society form then till now.  Oh we still have all the main ingredients of course with greed & lust being just two of our many human familiarities & frailties but oh what a different mind set today from yesteryear.  

Cool enough in the house this morning to have my little electric heater going beside my chair.  Hot enough in the house this afternoon to have the big cool ceiling fan in my room going.  Mid 70’s this week heading for low 80’s next week.  Arizona’s warm spring weather is upon us.  Nice:))

Headed off to Wickenburg for groceries at Safeway earlier today.  Surprised at the steady stream of traffic heading north on 93.  Figure it’s the Phoenix crowd heading for a Las Vegas week-end get-a-way in Nevada.

<<< SEED PODS CAN BE SEEN HANGING DOWN

After 3 years of leaky taps dripping water it is sure nice to have ourselves two new sets of faucets.  One at the kitchen sink & the other at my bathroom sink just off my bedroom.  Always bothered me seeing those taps drip, drip, dripping knowing of the water waste involved.  Not to mention we pay for our water here too.  Our handyman Les had tried putting new washers in the old 50’s taps but to no avail so Kelly picked up 2 new faucet sets awhile back.  Les in his busy schedule found time Thursday to hook them up for us.  Not something I was going to try.  We’ve all seen the cartoons of husbands fixing plumbing stuff then seeing water coming out of light sockets or spraying all over the place like a geyser on steroids.  Well I’m the guy in those cartoons & if I’ve learned anything in life it’s not to mess with certain mechanical things.  I do not have a good ‘handyman’ track record:((    

SOME FLOWERS WERE DROOPY FROM BEING TRANSPLANTED

A couple readers asked about watering things like flowers & trees during hot summer months when we are not here.  We have nothing planted which requires water.  We tried some shrubs a couple years ago but they never made it because we were not here in the summer to keep them watered.  These Spring flowers we are planting now will only bloom for another week or two then they are dormant until about the middle of next February when winter rains once again begin their growing process.  No watering required on our part.

With our bird feeder now in a new location I figured I had better see if I could find myself a new position for bird photos not too close to the feeder.  Sitting in the shade of our shed I was able to grab a few shots this afternoon.

CARDINALS HAVE THE PRETTIEST OF SONGS

 

LIFT-OFFS

  

A SIMULTANEOUS TAKE-OFF & LANDING

Here’s a question for readers.  Does anyone happen to own a mid-size pick up truck quad cab 4x4?  Dodge Dakota’s were popular a few years ago & if anyone has one I’m curious to know what they think of the truck & whether they like it or not.  What’s good about them & what’s not so good about them.  Nissan also builds a mid size 4 door quad/crew cab as well.  I know Chrysler stopped production of the mid-size Dakota’s a few years ago.  Just curious. 

GROANER’S CORNER:(( A man goes to a doctor for a routine physical. The nurse starts with the basics.  "How much do you weigh?" she asks.  "Oh, about 165." he says.  The nurse puts him on the scale. It turns out that his weight is 187. The nurse asks, "Your height?"  "Oh, about six feet," he says.  The nurse checks and sees that he's only 5 feet 8 3/4 inches. She then takes his blood pressure, and it's very high.  "High!" The man explains, "Of course it's high. When I came in here, I was tall and lanky. Now, it seems I have somehow turned out to be short and fat!"

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While practicing auto-rotations during a military night training exercise, a Huey Cobra messed up and landed on its tail rotor so hard that it broke off the tail boom. Fortunately, however, the chopper remained upright on its skids, as it slid down the runway, turning in circles.
As the Cobra slid past the tower, trailing a brilliant shower of sparks, this was the radio exchange that took place . . .
Tower: "Sir, do you need any assistance?"  Cobra: "I don't know, Tower. We ain't done crashin' yet!"

SORE MUSCLES SLOWED MY DAY DOWN

Jodee in a comment on my Wednesday post said ‘About the time you've completed the projects for the season you'll be back in Bayfield clearing through all the broken branches and winter-thrashed shrubs!’  Well she is right of course & I’m expecting it to be a big clean up again this year after the terrible winter.  Tree limbs down all over the place for sure with heavy snow loads this year tells me our place will be a big mess.  Shrubs bent over to the ground & everything looking it’s absolute worst for the entire year.  Luckily for me I have never minded that big clean-up simply because it gives me something to do soon as we get home.  Have always enjoyed cleaning things up to make things look nice & at this age the exercise involved in the clean-up is very much needed & looked forward too.

Spent another hour or so this morning working on my flower garden project & now have it dug in around our patio.  Happy to say our backyard birds are adapting well to their new feeder location.  I didn’t take any photos today simply because I think we’ve all seen enough dug up dirt for awhile.  Today’s photos are pictures I took last year about this time of our neighbors flower garden & as it turns out this is where some of our flowers will be coming from shortly.  Neighbors told Kelly for us to come on over & dig up some of their African Daisies & transplant them at our place so we’ll be doing that within the next few days.  Already put in some California Poppies plus African & English Daisy seeds up by our main entrance gate a few days ago.  Les, our handyman guy installed 2 new sets of faucets for us today & said for us to come over to his place at the end of the month & we can have a bunch of his flowers as well.  Said he’s got way to many.  We will likely wait till Fall before planting anymore seeds though.  Said on the seed packets Autumn is the recommended time to plant them.  Next year at this time we should definitely have some colorful flowers blooming.

I wrapped up my garden project about 11 this morning & spent the rest of our day just relaxing & reading.  I had kind of overdid it Wednesday & my stiff muscles have been giving me more trouble than usual.  The constant stiffness in my legs is not getting any better & I think the medication I have been taking for that problem these past 15 years or so has run it’s course.

Saw Kelly carrying out a few things to the Motorhome this morning.  ‘NO’ this does not mean we are heading home yet it just means we are in the early stages of getting things organized.  Same as when we leave in the Fall it just takes awhile to get everything stowed away.  More so for us because of things traveling back & forth from house to house.  No departure date set yet but our travel insurance & 182 day U.S. stay limit will run out about April 10th.  Unless southwestern Ontario experiences a monster heat wave in the next 4 weeks we will be going home to piles of ice & snow.  It’s happened to us before & it’s just one of those things we will have to deal with when we get home.  We are certainly no strangers to the ways of harsh winters.

Tonight’s full moon is the smallest of the year & is referred to as a mini-moon.  Smallest Full Moon Of 2015.  Not wanting to miss it I will again be standing in our front yard cactus garden watching it rise over yon distant mountains.  By next months full moon we may very well be on the road……………….

 

GROANER’S CORNER:(( A friend and his wife were considering traveling to Alaska for a trip that the husband had long dreamed of taking. He kept talking about how great it would be to stay in a log cabin without electricity, to hunt moose, and drive a dog team instead of a car.  "If we decided to live there permanently, away from civilization, what would you miss the most?" he asked his wife.  She replied, "You."

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- 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.

THIS MONTH’S FULL MOON WILL BE OUR LAST FULL ARIZONA MOON UNTIL NOVEMBER:((

NEST BUILDING IS WELL UNDER WAY AROUND OUR HOUSE

Biting cold north wind first thing this morning had us in our winter duds.  Couple hours later our Arizona winds died down & it was short sleeves & sitting in the sun time for Kelly.  I busied myself planting a few more pieces of dead Saguaro skeletons we have picked up in our desert travels.  By the time it occurred to take a picture of them they were already on the shady side of the house.  Tomorrow.

PUTTERING ABOUT IN THE YARD TODAY

Put a small cement brick border around our water faucet which is now in our new flower garden & moved the birdbath & bird feeder into that same area as well.  This will bring the birds closer to the house where we can see them better & closer to a water supply for keeping the birdbath topped up.  Because of Palo Verde tree roots I do not want to dig a small pond into the ground so I have to keep an eye out now for some kind of large shallow container to hold water.  I will then blend that container in using dirt, rocks, plants, pieces of desert wood, etc.  And I want to keep the pond under the tree for shade purposes which means the pond will be in & part of the flower garden.   Needless to say I am feeling much better this week now that I have my teeth into another project again:))

  

MINUTES AFTER I HAD RELOCATED THIS FEEDER OUR BACKYARD BIRDS WERE ALL OVER IT

POND WILL GO ABOUT WHERE THE RED SHOVEL IS

We had a tiny water leak in the main part of the house from our recent rains so I was up on the roof today with some tar patching a small hole I found when an older tar job had dried out & cracked.  Took a few photos from the roof while I was up there.

FRONT YARD

 

GOOD VIEW OF BIG EEE’S ROOF & SOLAR PANELS

Not often we see Arizona’s Grand Canyon or Hoover Dam from the air but Darrell from Goza’s Wanderings & Wonderings hopped himself aboard a 20 passenger sightseeing plane & took some aerial photos over the dam & canyon.  Must say I am amazed at the quality of photos this fella consistently gets from his cell phone.  Check out Darrell’s Aerial Exploring.  And the Furry Gnome from way up there in frozen Ontario Canada is still getting out most days taking lots of great freezing cold snowy scenery photos.  I have memories of many beautiful winter days but I have only a handful of digital photos but that’s OK I don’t mind at all if someone else braves freezing cold days to show the rest of us the beautiful side of winter.  Hogg's Falls………Winter Fences.

A BIT BLURRY BUT IT’S A GILA WOODPECKER IN FLIGHT

 

MR & MRS GILA WOODPECKER

ANOTHER REASON FOR LOCATING THE POND THERE IS BECAUSE OF THE CLOSE WATER SOURCE

<<< LITTLE MISS GAMBLE’S QUAIL

Gene in Ohio had a Shout Box question asking how long it took me to dig that section of flower garden in our back yard Tuesday.  I took a couple breaks doing it but I would say about half an hour to dig, edge, & rake it out.  A half hour enjoyably spent I might add.  And someone else asked awhile back if I had painted our inside front door yet.  Answer is no & that is because I simply had forgot about that.  Thanks for the reminder.  Another little project for me.  And I think someone else asked if we would be planting native wildflowers & the answer is yes.  Same kinds as our neighbor has blooming right now.

I’M HOPING TO GET OUR YARD LOOKING LIKE OUR NEIGHBOR’S YARD AROUND THE CORNER

Watching tonight’s Moonrise it occurred to me this will be our last Arizona full moon for the next 7 months meaning we’ll likely not see another desert moon until November later this year.  I so much look forward to each full moon every month here in the southwest & so enjoy how it’s soft glow bathes this mystic desert landscape we live, love, & travel in……………….

TUESDAY NIGHTS NEARLY FULL MOON WITH A TOUCH OF CLOUDS

GROANER’S CORNER:(( I was driving my father and grandfather down a rough country road. My inexperience in handling Grandpa's four-wheel-drive vehicle made for a particularly bouncy ride.  Embarrassed, I offered a lame excuse, "The sun shadows through the trees make it hard for me to see all the potholes." "Don't worry," Grandpa said. "You're gettin' most of 'em."

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As the passengers settled in on a West Coast commuter flight, a flight attendant announced, "We'd like you folks to help us welcome our new co-pilot. He'll be performing his first commercial landing for us today, so be sure to give him a big round of applause when we come to a stop."  The plane made an extremely bumpy landing, bouncing hard two or three times before taxiing to a stop. Still, the passengers applauded.  Then the attendant's voice came over the intercom, "Thanks for flying with us. And don't forget to let our co-pilot know which landing you liked best."

KIND OF IN A REFLECTIVE MOOD TODAY

How nice to see a sky full of stars when Pheebs & I stepped out early this morning.  Started our day under sunny skies but by late morning we were again under a band of heavy dark clouds.  But no matter, I was anxious to take my new shovel (Big Red) for a test drive so it wasn’t long before we were tearing up the back yard.  Decided to start with an area beside our cement patio & make a wildflower garden.  After our rains of the past couple days I knew the ground would be perfect for digging & time was a wasting.  I was surprised by the fine quality of soil so figure wildflowers will do well.  Photos below show only the first phase of the flower garden.  I plan to extend it right around the patio.  Have also had it in the back of my mind for quite some time to put in a small shallow pond under the shade of the spreading Palo Verde tree in the pictures below.   Pond would have a pump & re-circulating waterfall.  Kind of a bird sanctuary place.  Maybe next winters project:))

GETTING STARTED…GARDEN TOOL IN THE FOREGROUND IS MY ‘EDGER’

NOTICE HOW MUCH BETTER THAT OLD PALO VERDE TREE LOOKS NOW THAT I HAVE INCLUDED IT IN THE FLOWER GARDEN

And by golly did you know Congress Arizona made Triple AAA’s magazine Highroads.  Short article is entitled, Quirky Congress & it’s got something to do with a frog:))

STARTED OUR DAY IN SUNSHINE, SPENT MOST OF IT UNDER CLOUDY SKIES & FINISHED IT UNDER MORE SUNSHINE

Years ago while ranch sitting near McNeil Arizona Kelly & I spent several months each winter over the course of 3 years taking in many sites & activities in Arizona’s Cochise county.  Some of our best memories are centered in that region & our time on the ranch will go down as some of the best times we have ever spent here in the great southwest.  Many of my archived posts cover those memorable days beginning with our first ranch sitting day February 5th 2009 The Bayfield Bunch Arrives At The Arizona Ranch to our last ranch sitting day on January 15th 2012 entitled Back To The Land Of Giant Saguaros.

 

NEIGHBOR’S PROPERTY TODAY & KELLY IN HER BEDROOM TALKS TO HER MOTHER ON THE PHONE MONDAY

Looking back over a few of my blog posts from our ranch sitting days I felt a sense of happiness knowing that I have kept up my daily blog posts from those ranch sitting years & the years preceding that time & these years since that time.  My memory is such that I would have no recollection of probably 80% or more of our past 9 RVing years had I not recorded it all through words & photos right from day 1.  As yet I don’t look back often on my old posts but who knows, someday I just might & it’s a comforting thought to know I have the option of traveling back in time if I should ever decide to do so.  It’s all there nearly a decade in words & pictures.  When the day comes & all is said & done our life & times may remain floating somewhere forever in cyber space long after I’m gone.  And if I’ve accomplished nothing else in my life I will be content knowing something I have created & stuck with for a change will hopefully remain & maybe for a time be remembered………… 

A FOGGY MORNING ON DARBY WELL ROAD NEAR AJO ARIZONA…JANUARY 23RD 2012

GROANER’S CORNER:(( This guy goes to the doctor and says, "Doc, I ache all over. Everywhere I touch it hurts."
The doctor says, "OK. Touch your elbow."  The guy touches his elbow and winces in genuine pain. The doctor, surprised, says "Touch your head."  The guy touches his head and jumps in agony. The doctor asks him to touch his knee and the same thing happens. Everywhere the guy touches he hurts like hell. The doctor is stumped and orders a complete examination with X-rays, etc. and tells the guy to come back in two days.
Two days later the guy comes back and the doctor says "We've found your problem."  "Oh yeah? What is it?"
"You've broken your finger!"

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The patient who came to my radiology office for abdominal X-rays was already heavily sedated. But I still had to ask her a lot of questions, the last one being, "Ma'am, where is your pain right now?"
Through her medicated fog, she answered, "He's at work."

SNOW BIRDS ARE ALREADY BEGINNING TO SCATTER

Guess I had better start off Monday night’s post with a correction to my Sunday night post.  Kelly informed me this morning that ‘yes’ we did have permission from the realtor to move our motorhome onto the property.  I had no recollection of that.  So the realtor did know we were there but didn’t know we were in the house.  Good thing I have someone here to keep my memory on the straight & narrow.

A RATHER SOGGY START TO OUR MORNING

 

With heavy overnight & morning rains at times our backyard lake materialized once again in the southwest corner of our property.  Fortunately none of that pooled water comes anywhere near the house & soon drains away. Would be a great temporary place for ducks to paddle around if we had some.  Our rains finally did wrap it up about noon & I was able to slip out in late afternoon & snap a few photos during a brief sun splash.  And as I write this tonight sky’s are showing some promising signs of at least partially clearing for Tuesday.

  

First time I ever heard of the JoJoba Hills SKP RV Resort was way back in 2008 when a friend we had met in the desert near Borrego Springs first talked about it.  ‘Butch’ a native Californian & long time winter boondocker said there was only one place he would ever consider settling down some day in his latter years & that was over on the other side of the nearby mountain ranges at one of the Escapee Club’s own RV Resorts.  He described how nice it was & how different it was from other Resorts.  Butch was/is not a resort type person by any means so we figured this resort must definitely be something special.  This morning I read a post by Marianne from frugal-rv-travel.com which explains very well why this resort is indeed so much different than many others.  Be sure to read her review of JoJoba Hills RV Resort.

SO NICE TO SEE SOME OF OUR FRONT YARD CACTUS PLANTS COMING ALONG SO WELL

Well here we are at March 2nd already & Snow Birds are beginning to take flight.  Wandering Willy is already home back in Canada tilted back in his big comfy recliner watching his big screen TV.  I think Ivan may be rolling north shortly if he already hasn’t begun his trek & I think Jean & Skip will be packing up & headed out very soon as well.  Due to a family emergency a month or so ago George & Suzy are already back in Ontario toughing out the brutally cold temperatures.  Our Bayfield friends Dianne & Harry owners & operators of Stormrunner RV Sales & Service had to return a week or two ago to get things geared up for another busy season in the RV recreational field.  Yes many Snow Birds are definitely beginning to flex their wings & scatter off north to far distant destinations called home.  It’s always a tad sad in a way because one never knows if all the Birds will make it back for another season or not.  Always lots of changes going on with this type of RVing lifestyle & surprises are not uncommon………..

 

And before I forget I would like to thank my book, my lap top computer, our Sirius satellite radio & our television for helping me through these past few rainy stuck inside days:))

GROANER’S CORNER:(( A mother takes her 5 year old son with her to the bank on a busy Friday. They get into line behind a rather obese lady wearing a business outfit complete with a pager. As the mother waits patiently her son looks at the women in front of him and observes loudly, "Hey, Mom, she's fat." At which the lady looks at the boy, makes eye contact with the mother and gives an understanding smile. The mother quietly reprimands her son. After a minute or two the boy spreads his hands as far as they will go and loudly says, "I bet her butt is *that* wide." At this the lady glares at the little boy and his mother and the embarrassed mother severely scolds her son. Again after a couple of minutes the boy states loudly, "Look how the fat hangs over her belt." The lady turns and tells the mother to control her rude child and the mother threatens him with his very life and existence. Things in the bank are quiet. The lady gets to the front of the line when her pager begins to emit its distinctive beeping tone at which the little boy yells in panic at the top of his voice, "Run for your life Mom, she's backing up!!!!"