Sunday, January 19/2014 - Saturday, January 25/2014

This week we jumped in the jeep and took Marybeth (another neighbour) on a trail ride to Wickenburg Mountain.  She has lived here for 18 years and has never been on this trail.  She loved it and now we have another trip planned for Box Canyon as it has been years since she was there as well.  We all enjoyed the trip and had several beverages along the way.
Kay had brought her pistol and John shot it a few times and managed to hit the target at least once!!  Man, the noise was deafening and ear plugs are a must for next time!!
We met John's Mom at McDonalds on Tuesday for coffee.  The tour bus was on time and we spent 30 minutes chatting with her and Georgie and two of Georgie's sisters.  It sounded like they were having a ton of fun.
Lee, our local contractor finally arrived this week and has now started measuring the yard for the cement pad for the garage/man cave and the patio.  Hopefully, that job gets done over the next few days and we can start controlling some of the nasty ass dust that insists on coming into the house.  The sooner we cover this dirt up, the better!!
The forms were laid and the placement of the fence posts discussed and it sounds like the cement will be poured next week.  Hopefully he meant Monday!!

Vulture Peak in the distance

Deer watching us

Marie in her thinking pose

Marie, Mary Beth and Kay

Another great sunset on the way home

Forms for Man Cave and Patio, Just waiting for rebar and cement

Sunday, January 12/2014 - Saturday, January 18/2014

We finally finished cleaning and raking at the Aztec.  Woo Hoo!!  We used 150 big trash bags and most of that was for leaves!!  NO, I wasn't counting the bags but we had bought three boxes of bags, each containing 50 bags!!  Man, my arms should be "guns" by now…..no more "granny" flob hanging off them!!!   LOL
John's Mom left this week for a month long bus tour.  The bus will be stopping here in Wickenburg next week at McDonalds for a coffee break so we will have to go meet her for coffee.
Kay and I took Hogan back to Box Canyon this week.  The weather has been so warm and beautiful so we just couldn't miss a chance to take Hogan for some fun in the canyon.  We took the side by side and Hogan rode in the back and seemed to enjoy that.
We have had a fairly quiet week and it is a good reprieve from the fairly steady work at the Aztec.
We did manage to watch the football games on TV.  We are getting ready for Superbowl but first have to get through all the division finals.  It is a rough job but someone has to sit there watching with a beer in their hands!!

Kay fuelling up for the ride to Box Canyon

Hogan enjoying the ride

Throw the darn ball

Sunday, January 5/2014 - Saturday, January 11/2014

This week, we continued to clean at the Aztec RV Park.   There were three shed that required a good cleaning and organizing so Kay and I concentrated on that while Ray dealt with other issues in the park.
We met several of the campers and chatted with lots of the permanent residents as well.  It is always great to chat with the folks and we got so many compliments on how good the park was starting to look.
Ray and Kay had met one of the campers last week while assisting her with an issue on her RV and it turns out that she is a pretty famous artist from the Phoenix area.  She does a lot of "cowboy" art but also enjoys painting animals.  She showed them some of her dog portraits and Kay told her about Hogan and his terminal illness and she said she wanted to meet him and perhaps paint him!!  Well, this week, Hogan went for his photo shoot so now Lori has several pictures of him so she can now start on her little "project".  Hopefully she is able to get it done before we head back to Canada.
She also gave both Ray and Kay and John and I a few of her prints so that was very kind of her.  Now we need to go get them framed.  She was even nice enough to autograph them making them even more special.
We have been having several campfires in the evenings and have blown through the stockpile of wood we had when we arrived.  Today, we got another cord of wood from the same fellow we bought from last year.  He said he may have a line on some eucalyptus so I ordered a cord of that as well.  It is not cool to be without wood for the campfire!!  Hopefully that comes before we are out of this wood we got this week!!

More awesome sunsets

Out our backyard

Full Moon

Wednesday, January 1/2014 - Saturday, January 4/2014

Happy New Year to everyone and may this year bring every hope and dream you have to you.
This week, we continued with the clean up at the Aztec and so far have filled 100 huge garbage bags with leaves.  Wow - they are everywhere and while these huge big cottonwood and eucalyptus trees provide much needed shade in the summertime, they in turn, make quite a mess in the fall.
We attended one of Kay's  dad's ball games in Sun City this week.  "Pops" is 92 years old and is the team's pitcher.  It was certainly good

Kay's Pops pitching

Sunset on the way home

Laundry room done

Sundogs

thing to see all these seniors playing ball.  They are definitely getting their exercise!!   Anyway, Pop's team lost by 7 runs!!  He was glad we took the  time to come watch the game and it was good to see him again.
John now has the laundry room done so it was time for me to paint the trim boards.  Kay and I had gone to Home Depot earlier to get the paint so that job was done this week as well.  I even managed to get the fancy new door painted and painted the trailer door as well.  I was a painting fool!!
Another busy week has come and gone.  No grass growing under our feet, that is for sure!!

Sunday, December 22/2013 - Tuesday, December 31/2013

Christmas is almost upon us and of course that means Trash Can Turkey.  I had picked up the turkey last week when it was on sale so at least that was done.  Keith and Charlotte (who have spent the last two Christmases with us) won't be joining us this year as Keith is still recovering from  a spinal abscess and they are sitting in an RV park in Tucson, Az.  I will miss them (and Charlotte's stuffing) but at least Keith is improving so that is the best thing for him.  Perhaps next year……
It was most definitely time for me to get a hair cut and since my hairdresser Dee was tragically killed in a motorcycle accident this summer (may she rest in peace), I had to find another one.  Bronda ( yes a rather unique name) agreed to take me on and I finally got my hair cut….just in time for Christmas.  Now at least I didn't look like a shaggy old dog!!
Christmas came and went and soon New Year's Eve was upon us.  We decided to do snacks for the evening.  That way we could "graze" throughout the evening.  I was not feeling well so had a little sleep on the couch before midnight.  John and Kay set up the fireworks and once that was done, woke me up so that I could enjoy them too.
We brought the new year in with two boxes of Saturn Missiles.  Wow…..we had fireworks shooting into the skies for at least 5 minutes!!   One could say we brought the new year in "with a bang"!!
Goodbye 2013 and Hello 2014……..

Hogan's new coat that Kay bought him for Xmas

Hard to see, but thats a Bud sign 

Turkey cooking

New fire pit, Thanks MB

Saturday, December 14/2013 - Saturday, December 21/2013

Mitch, one of our neighbours, headed back to Utah this week to participate in the annual elk hunt.  He will be there with his family until after Christmas.

John got busy this week and wired the storage shed so now we have lights and working plug ins both inside and outside the structure.

I started helping Ray and Kay this week cleaning up at the Aztec RV Park.  They kind of look after the Maintenance down there.  There is a ton of leaves that need to be raked so we have several days or raking ahead of us.   I help them so that I can get exercise……it is a good thing!!

Hogan went for his surgery on Wednesday and I brought him home on Thursday.  Once again he had a huge dressing around his neck and he looked rather sad  but was happy to see Kay and I that morning.  He was more than ready to leave!!  The surgery went well so hopefully we have bought him a few more years.  Thyroid Cancer can be rather "iffy" so we will keep our fingers crossed and hope for the best.

When we went to pick Hogan up,  the clutch on the jeep was acting up and by the time we arrived at the vet clinic, it was pretty much toast.  Long story short….Ray came to save us and John ended up taking the jeep in for repairs.  Yes, the clutch slave cylinder was toast.   Shit, Oh Dear…Bitches be breaking the jeep!!  I had mention to John a week ago that something wasn't quite right with the shifting but…..what the hell do I know!!!!

John decided to build me a laundry room so he got busy on that little project.  It went up quickly and will now house the upright freezer that I got from Mitch (it cost me a 30 pack of beer!!) and a washer and dryer (which is on the agenda for next year).  Mitch has once again offered the use of his washer and dryer to me this year.  

We headed to Quartzsite this week and ended up having to buy a new controller for the system.  So much for a cheap fix but I was tired of heading to McDonalds for their WiFi every time we had to do some banking!!   No internet service is NOT an option so,  $550.00 dollars later…..it was fixed!!

Now, I can get back to keeping track of our many "kids"!!

We have to build a fence this year (park rules if you have a dog) so John got busy and figured out the material we needed for it and a new front step and Kay and I headed into Home Depot to pick of all the stuff.  We are now waiting on Lee (a local contractor) to come and dig the holes for the fence posts and cement them in.

It has been a busy week again, but we did find the time for a quad ride.  We scooted across the highway and entered the trails just down form the park entrance.  We travelled the San Domingo Wash, crossed under the highway and the train bridge then made our way to Wickenburg Mountain before finally coming home.  It was a great day for a ride and it was good to once again be riding in the desert around here.

Life is good.

Heading out

Going under the hi way

Heading to Wickenburg Mountain

Hogan snoozing

Another awesome day