Sunday, January 18/2015 - Saturday, January 24/2015

Once again, it was football Sunday and we watched both games cheering on our favourite teams.  The Superbowl has been decided.  It will be the Seattle Seahawks against the New England Patriots going for the coveted trophy.  It should be a good game!!
This week, we started on the bathroom renovation. It will be a big job but it is the final one. With the completion, the whole trailer will have had a face lift. Well, except for the kitchen cabinets and that will be some time in the future.
Kay, Ray and I headed into Surprise and hit the local Lowe's and Home Depot for some needed supplies while John started the demolition. When we arrived home, John had a lot of the demo done. All that remained was the toilet, which was good because I still had one more day of grace....it was then, out to the camper!!
Kay and I made a stop at the local Habitat ReStore and found a bathroom cabinet that would fit the sink just fine. While we were there, we saw an awesome table for outside in the yard and decided to buy that too!!  Now we have an awesome place to set our beer while we are watching the birds.
We took a second trip into Home Depot, and bought a shower and some door handles for the new doors. Now, we have everything we need for the bathroom reno and the last of the hardware needed for the new doors.
The floor was pulled up and the ugly mess was revealed. Man, it was nasty and oh so in need of replacement. While John worked, he managed to somehow break a water pipe and ended up with a very chilly shower!! I had to quickly run to the main water shut off before the place got too terribly flooded. It was a simple repair however we were now without any cold water!! We had hot, but no cold!! The only saving grace was that with the floor being ripped up, it was now time to call in the plumber so hopefully we will not be without cold water for too long.

Another awesome sunset

Bathroom gutted and walls put up

Table we picked up

Trying out the height on the toilet

Sunday, January 11/2015 - Saturday, January 17/2015

We started out this week watching the two Sunday football games. It is getting down to the last of the teams and this playoff season is pretty darn good. Superbowl is in three weeks so every game is important for these teams.
The weather is supposed to be cloudy and cool with a chance of rain showers.  Well, that is better than frost!! The new plants we put out into the "north forty" gardens do not need any of that!!
We are suppose to be getting another load of firewood this week. It is coming on Monday. This will be the third cord so far!!
The cord of wood did indeed show up on Monday and in no time at all, John, Kay and I had it stacked and ready for use.  This cord had both pine and mulberry mixed together.  We have purchased all of Dave's pine so the next load will be just mulberry.  The mulberry has a yellow hue to it so we are certainly getting our education as to the different colours of the wood down here!!
John has been busy this week getting the doors to the closets, both bedrooms and the bathroom built. They look awesome so now we are "stylin"!!
The weather has actually been pretty decent.  The sun has been shining during the day so one cannot complain.  Even the birds seem to be enjoying the weather as they are singing like crazy.  The "sheriff" is still patrolling the hummingbird feeders and has been involved in several nasty little battles!!  He is possessive and mean!!  Oh, the wonders of nature.....priceless.
All in all, it has been a good week.

The girls park

Doors up

Sunday, January 4/2015 - Saturday, January 10/12015

The weather is finally starting to warm up but the recent cold snap has certainly taken its toll on the bougainvillea. It has blackened and wilted but hopefully it will return to its original splendor and not be permanently damaged.
Kay's other sister Zana, arrived for a quick visit then flew to Montana to visit their brother and then flew back to Phoenix this Tuesday. Kay and I met her at the airport, went for a quick lunch and then dropped her at her vehicle so that she could go visit their Dad, who had a quick procedure in the hospital.  Kay and I then hit Sam's Club and Walmart then headed home.
John got a bit of work done of the jeep this week so now it is starting like a charm.
John, Hogan and I took a jeep trip into Box Canyon and I was surprised to see that there were still some evidence of snow in the canyon. It was definitely chilly with the sun going down and that is why the snow still remained. I bet the water that was flowing in the canyon was pretty darn chilly too.  I did not get out to investigate that!! Hogan seemed to enjoy his run in the canyon as the soft sand is gentle on his feet.
Kay got the bright idea of doing some landscaping around the flower beds in the "north forty" so that kept us busy for a few days.

Jeeping the Hassayampa River on the way to
Box Canyon

Saguaro Cactus on the hills around the river

Into the Canyon

Snow on the ground in the Canyon

Hogan running ahead of the jeep

The water was running

On Saturday, Ray, Kay and I headed into Surprise and hit the local Lowe's Building Centre.  John has decided to build the doors for the rooms here in the trailer so that will be awesome once that is done. With that in mind, we headed into town to pick out the boards. It look a while to finally find the straight ones and when we finally got to the till, we discovered that what we thought were $2.00 boards were actually $4.00 boards but at this point, no one was in a mood to rustle through the pile again to find 50 more straight boards.

Marie and Mary Beth

Mary, Kay and Mary Beth

Had a visitor at the fire, also!

Actually, I do not believe we left any straight boards behind!!
Once the boards were secure, Ray got his stuff bought and Kay and I headed to the garden centre where we purchased a few more plants and some cedar mulch for the "north forty".  It is starting to look real nice out there and if we keep plugging away at it we will have a "park setting" pretty darn soon!!
We are getting into the final weeks of the NFL football playoffs and we spent Saturday evening watching the two games that were televised.  It was a good ending to what really was, a busy week.

Sunset

Thursday, January 1/2015 - Saturday, January 3/2015

Happy New Year everyone.  Hopefully everyone has survived the festivities of New Year's Eve and can now embrace the upcoming year no matter what issues are thrown our way.
It is still pretty chilly out for the start of the year and there has been frost warning out now for almost a week.  It looks like this cold front is here for the rest of the week.
The snow melted away over a couple of days and the weather started to warm up.  Life is Good.

Sunday, December 28/2014 - Wednesday, December 31/2014

The end of 2014 is in sight and Kay and I have decided to serve several appetizers for the occasion. No one really wants to cook and since the weather has turned totally shitty, appetizers seems the easiest.
Mitch has left us for the chills of Utah to spend New Years with his family and to start his elk hunt. Of course he is headed into some shitty snow storm but I am not sure if it is going to be any better here. There is a suggestion that we will get snow here!!
Well, the snow came and it came with a vengeance. It did not take too long before the snow was on the cacti and the ground was white. It was kind of neat to see and actually lasted for two days!! There has not been this much snow in the area for decades!! Woo Hoo and we were here to witness it. I did post a pic on facebook and I must say, we did not get much sympathy for our weathered plight!! In fact, we got several rather nasty comments!!
New Years's Eve was chilly but it finally stopped snowing/raining long enough for us to be able to start a fire. The chill was definitely in the air and the dampness seemed to seep into one's bones. It wasn't too long before I was headed into the bathtub to warm up and then I stayed in the house until it was time to set off the fireworks.
As usual, the new year came and went in amongst the spray of fireworks. I videoed the display but, with the new phone, I was not really all that great as the official videographer. The end results left much to be desired!! It too went on facebook and received a few unkind comments!!  Man, give a girl a break!!
Well, another year has come and gone and I cannot help but feel very blessed for the great family and friends that we have. I can't help but look forward to more adventure in 2015.

Life is Good!!

Our dusting of snow

New Years fire

Sunday, December 21/2014 - Saturday, December 27/2014

It is Christmas week and the weather is still holding.  The man cave is up and running and it is sure nice to be able to be outside and yet not really "be outside"!!
We have had several fires in the evenings and have even got another cord of wood.   So now we have two cords sitting in the wood pile so we should be good to go for a while.
I did the final Christmas shopping for the food and managed to get a 19 pound turkey for the big day.
John usually cooks it in the trash can but this year chose not to so it was brined and put into the oven. We had six for supper and as usual, it went off without a hitch.   There were plenty of leftovers and no one is going to have to cook until New Years!!
The weather turned very chilly Christmas Eve and MaryBeth was worried that Santa would get "blue balls"!!  I guess he didn't as there was a little "something" under the tree for all of us!!   Even Hogan got a new cuddle blanket!!
Although not really a busy week, it was nice to get the Christmas "stuff" over with and to be able to focus on something less stressful.....like New Year's Eve!!

Mitch and Hogan enjoying the Man Cave

Sunday, December 14/2014 - Saturday, December 20/2014

Another busy week is upon us as we are busy getting the "man cave" finished.  The ceiling and the rest of the walls were completed and then Kay got the paint sprayer out and sprayed the inside to match the floor.  While she was doing that,  MaryBeth and I were busy staining the trim. If you are wondering where John was during this phase of the operation, well,  he was in the trailer staying out of our way.  LOL!! He tends to get in the way and has WAY to many "suggestions" as to how we should be completing the aforementioned tasks!! It is far safer for him to stay inside. Once the painting was done and dry, John got busy measuring and putting up the trim. It is now probably 3/4 of the way done.

Kay busy with the spray gun

Marie and Mary Beth staining the trim

Ready for trim to be put up

Birds on the feeder

A nice soaking rain

And a awesome rainbow

 We will be finished this week and that includes putting the plasma TV into the wall and moving in the furniture.  Hopefully, this gets done before the Thursday Night Football game.

Man Cave completed!

Ready for decorating

The man cave got finished, the furniture placed and the area rug laid.  Thursday Night Football was awesome.  We even brought Hogan's bed out and placed it on the floor for him along with his cuddle blanket so he can be comfortable in there too.  Of course he is even more comfortable on the couch!!
We started watching the Sons of Anarchy from Season 1 in Utah and continued with the seasons here.  We now have continued with that this week.  I can certainly see why it was such a popular series.
The weather was diverse this week with us receiving a few days of rain and then the awesome rainbows.  It is still warm though and we are still in our flip flops and shorts!!
All in all, it was another good week.  Life is Good!!