Sunday, March 9/2014 - Saturday, March 15/2014

The week started off with Kay being bitten by her cat Turbo.  He is usually a friendly sort but has,  over the last few weeks developed a bit of an attitude.  He tried to bite me a few days ago but did not break the skin so I thought I had better just leave him alone.  Obviously, he did not want to be patted!!
Well Kay apparently picked him up to move him and he latched onto her right forearm and gave it a good bite.  She showed me the marks (the little shit got her good - all four teeth marks displayed in a rather large bite mark) and I told her that cat bites can be quite nasty so we would have to watch it real close.  I told her she had about 24 hours to see if it got any worse.  If it did, she would have to have it checked out at the hospital.  Through out the rest of the day, it had a lot of local swelling and of course was sore but nothing unexpected…..
The final for the Briar Curling was on Sunday and we all watched that as well this week.  I was cheering for British Columbia and John Morris's fancy green shoes but,  to no avail.   Alberta beat then rather badly so I guess the green shoes just did not do the trick in this final game!!  John was cheering for Alberta.
Monday rolled around and Kay's arm was much more swollen and there was evidence of pus at all four puncture sites so her and I headed off to the emergency department of the local hospital where the staff took one look at it and started an intravenous for some antibiotics.  Needless to say, I left the hospital by myself.  Kay was admitted for 48 to 72 hours of antibiotic therapy…depending on the extent of the infection and how the arm responded to the treatment.  Hopefully it won't be any longer than that!!
When I arrived back home,  John had been busy tinkering around in the garage and had built a little roof to sit across the big door so I helped him attach it to the building and now he has declared that his building for this year is now complete and we can perhaps start getting the camper ready for our departure from here in a few weeks.  Wow,  he really does not want to be involved a two day crash course in getting the camper ready for the trip home……kind of takes the fun and chaos out of things!!  LOL!!
Kay was discharged late Wednesday afternoon and was more than happy to be home.  I think she paced the wax off the floor in her hospital room!!  Kay was really worried about the possibility of Turbo biting one of the little kids next door so it was decided that he "had to go" so Ray was elected to put him down.  He is now resting peacefully and I am sure he is frolicking in Cat Heaven chasing all sorts of little creatures.

Garage door and "roof" above.  Now just needs some paint on the
little roof.

Lorne and Marilyn arrived this week from their annual Mexican vacation so we will be spending some time with them over the next couple of weeks.  I am so glad we are done with all the building.  Now we can just sit and relax and enjoy their company.
We managed to get into Sun City and watch another of Kay's Pop's ballgames.   They won this time so everyone was happy about that.  At the ripe old age of 92, he does pretty well out there.  He is the team's pitcher.
Kay's brother Neal was down for a few days to visit.  He had some time off so flew down to get out of the chilly Montana winter.  We met him at Pop's ballgame.
Lorne and Marilyn came to watch Pop's game as well and then we worked our way back to Wickenburg via the local watering holes.   It was fun and we got home just in time for Kay to head on down to shuffleboard.  Lorne, Marilyn, John and I continued our bar hopping and finally ending the night at the Mecca where we all hopped into a cab for the ride home.  It was fun!!
I took the time to spray the weeds in the yard and that was a good thing.  They were getting a bit out of hand in the back yard so now that nasty little job is done.  I had some spray left over so decided to spray the weeds in the neighbour's yard as well.   I also sprayed some out in the open field just as a precaution against fires.  One never knows!!
The Paralympics continued this week and we managed to watch a bit of that as well.  The Sledge Hockey events were interesting and Canada took the bronze medal while the USA took the gold.
Ray poured his cement pad this week for his barbecue and his chili roaster and it actually turned out very well.  It looks good.  With his different chill pepper plants growing, he is hoping to get lots of chilies off them and use the roaster to preserve them.
The World Women's Curling started this week and we now have more sports to watch.  Kay has really gotten into the game so she often comes over to watch the games with us.

One corner of the yard.  

I have started to throw a few little cactus plants out into the "North Forty" and Kay and I took a short trip into the desert to find some "easily relocated" plants.   We found two hedgehog cactus and one little barrel cactus that were suitable so hopefully they didn't mind the "relocation" and will flourish in their new spots!!  Time will tell.  Eventually, I want to get some desert friendly flowers out there as well so that when Kay and I sit in the yard watching the birds, we get to also look at a sweet flower garden as well.    Once again…… time will tell!!

Another awesome sunset

Full Moon

A bar we stopped at on the way home

Full Moon

Pigs at the Bar

Nice carving

Especially in summer 

Buggy

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Marie getting her hair right

The pose

Marilyn

BBQ  anyone

That just about sums up this week.  Another one filled with adventure, fun and frolic.  I am keeping up my nursing skills too as Kay needs daily dressing changes on her arm which, by the end of this week is really starting to look good.   Woo Hoo!!

Another corner of the yard.  The deck is behind the fence.
Hogan is not impressed with the fence!!  His freedom has
been greatly curtailed!!

Sunday, March 2/2014 - Saturday, March 8/2014

Sunday found me headed to Mexico.  Glen (Kay and Ray's friend) wanted to head down there to pick up some cheap medication so I was asked to go.  Being that I had never been, I jumped at the chance and what an adventure that was!!  Ray, discovered that his passport had expired so he was not able to leave the USA so he dropped us off at the border where we simply walked out of the USA and into Mexico.  Man, it is a whole different world in this little border town called Los Alcadonas.  The Federales were in plain view with their loaded weapons and it did give one a sense of insecurity.  Wow, I think those weapons were loaded!!
We made our way through several of the open markets with everyone hawking their wares trying to make sales.  It was something to see.   Since we were down for medication and of course a litre of alcohol each, we made our way to the pharmacy/liquor store.  We made our purchases and then walked back through US Customs and into the USA all within an hour.  Short and Sweet!!  Now I can say I have been to Mexico!!
The rest of the week was spent on constructing the remainder of the garage.  The doggie door was put in for Hogan and I am not sure he is too impressed by it.  It is a good thing he is a "people" dog because I am sure that is the only reason he uses it!!
The big door was constructed and I must say the tongue and groove looks real nice on it but it was a real bugger getting it together.  Now all that is needed is some weatherstripping along the edge and it is good to go.  Finally…all the big projects are now complete and we can spend the last few weeks just tidying up and getting ready to head home.
The hummingbirds have provided us with much entertainment this week.  They have been battling each other and carrying on something fierce.  They really are quite nasty and most definitely territorial!!
The red tail hawk has been sitting in the mesquite tree a lot lately hoping to snag a dove for his meal as well.  He darn near caught on the other day.  He must have figured out that they are fed daily out by the tree.
Glen left this week.  His vacation is over so is now headed back to the chill of Salt Lake City.  He did manage to get a tan on his legs though!!  Ray and Kay drove him back to the airport and then did some shopping.
The Briar Curling was on all this week and we spent a lot of time watching that.  We have even got Kay interested in it.  There were some awesome games.  The final is on Sunday so will have to make sure we are available for that.
While sitting out by the fire one evening, John noticed a huge spider on the side of the shed.  Kay got up to investigate and realized that it was a baby tarantula.  We thought it was probably the one that had been in the cocoon (in the shed) all winter and sure enough, it was empty.  He had finally come out to play.  Kay stuck her hand out and it crawled onto it and then she transferred it to John's hand.  Me….ya well, I was not having any part of that foolishness!!  They finally put it back on the side of the shed and he took off hopefully, never to be seen again!!
That pretty much wraps up this week.  The weather has been great so nothing to complain about there and next weeks weather looks to be much the same.  Woo Hoo!!

The Romaine Lettuce I am growing in the kitchen window,
Started from the core of a romaine heart.

Baby Tarantula

On Kay's hand

There he is on the end of the wood

His Cocoon

Even John had to have him on his hand!!

Hi - De - Ho…..Neighbour!!
Kay and MB looking over our fence.

Javalina

Sunday, February 23/2014 - Saturday, March 1/2014

Man….another very busy week has come and gone but the work is getting done and soon what was scheduled for this year's remodel will be complete.
Sunday was the final day of the winter Olympics and the gold medal men's hockey game was scheduled to be shown at 4:00 a.m. and I was determined to get up and cheer our Canadian boys on.  According to the schedule, coverage was to start at four but by five it still had not started so I decided to head back to bed and wake up in an hour.  As it turned out, they had dropped the puck a few minutes before I finally was able to watch it but I did manage to watch the whole game!!  John got up for the second and third periods and together we watched our boys bring home the gold medal.  It was an awesome game.

Hummingbird rescued

Another awesome sunset

Quad ride

Kay and Glen

Lizard came to visit

Stop at an old well

Old mine site

The sun going down

Marie and Kay's roofing

Another shitty job done, (Doesn't she looked thrilled)

Kay came over to watch the closing ceremonies with me (John went back to bed!!).  They too were pretty impressive!!
Once we got that over with, it was time to get back to work and over the next few days, we got the siding up on the man cave/garage.
Kay and I took some time to jeep into the desert to dig up some of the local flora and transplant it into the open desert outside the fence.   I want to look out there and see flowers so we have started on that little project.  Eventually, I want to plant some cactus out there as well.  I am tired of looking at just the messy mesquite trees!!
We managed to squeeze a quad trip in this week as well.  All work and no play makes for very cranky people.  We took Kay's friend Glen up to Wickenburg Mountain then took a rather circuitous trip through San Domingo Wash and back home again.  Of course it ended up being a night ride as the trails at night are a lot different looking than during the day and our previous flagging was very lax in some places.  According to Mitch (who also joined us) we took 1500 wrong turns before finally finding the right ones to get us home!!  I don't think it was quite that many but it was a few!!    Anyway, long story short…it was a long day but it was fun and we all made it back unscathed!!
We had a short adventure this week with a wayward hummingbird.  He somehow managed to get himself trapped inside the house and we had to do a rescue as the poor little thing just could not find his way to the door.  He finally found the window and this is where I was able to capture him.  I put him out by the feeder and the little thing must have sat there for 10 minutes before finally regaining its strength to fly away.
I sprayed the weeds in the yard today.  It was time.  It was not too bad in the main part of the yard but the back was a mess.  There are some pretty nasty little pokies back there but I manage to get them all sprayed so hopefully they all just die an ugly screaming death!!  I even took the saw to the hateful mesquite tree in the back and gave it a haircut as well.  Now it stands pretty much bare.  I hate all the nasty pokies around here…. hell everything wants a piece of you!!
Kay and I took a trip into Home Depot this week and got the supplies needed for the roof and we managed to get it nailed down and ready for shingles.  With a  quick trip to Johnson's lumber here in Wickenburg, the shingle material was purchased and Kay and I spent Thursday putting down the tar paper and then the rolled roofing.   Man, what a hateful job.  Remind me NOT to come back as a roofer in my next life!!  I managed to only smash my thumb once with the hammer and Kay managed only on giant sized bruise on her leg!!  We did good but were exhausted after that nasty ass job.
Friday brought some rain and it was very cloudy.  There is a promise of a huge rain fall for Saturday so I guess the new roofing is going to get a testing!!  It absolutely poured all day Saturday and the roof held up beautifully.    It was a movie day around here as there simply was nothing else to do.  Captain Philips, Escape Plan, The Lone Ranger and Bad Grandpa were viewed as the torrential downpour happened outside.  There was a lake in our back yard and Hogan was not impressed at all!!
Kay was telling Glen about how good my cabbage rolls are and he has asked several times this week about when I was going to make him some so I did manage to squeeze in some time to do just that and they were enjoyed by all.  Even Mitch liked them!!  Woo Hoo.    He had never had a cabbage roll in his life!!   WHAT!!   Now who goes through life never eating a cabbage roll?
Anyway, it has been another busy week and our time here in Arizona is coming to an end.  Time sure flies…….six more weeks and we are headed home!!