Sunday, January 17/2016 - Saturday, January, 23/2016

Wow, the weather has certainly turned to the warmer side of the thermometer and that is truly awesome.  We will be into the 70s this week and time to start perhaps thinking about that tan that is a must for the return trip home.  My goal this year is to really make Kimmy jealous!!  LOL
This week we picked up Hogan's ashes from the vet.  He needs to be interned by the campfire and John has already picked out the spot.  He will be forever warm and I know he would love that!!
It is also time for a Walmart and Sam's Club run so that is going to take a day in town.
Ray heads into Phoenix on Wednesday for his annual checkup and that too will take another day of this week.   Man, before we know it, this week will be gone.
The birds have already finished off the bird block I purchased so another one will have to be put out and I need 50 more pounds of carrots for my little piggies!!  With all this running around we have to do, I am just not sure where Kay and I are going to find the time to haul more rock to finish off the yard!!  Work, work, work!!
Lorne and Marilyn are arriving some time this month and that will be nice to see them again for a few days before they fly off to Mexico for a month or so.
Also, I heard from friends in Utah and they are planning a road trip down here in early March so it would truly be nice if we had all the yard work done before anyone arrived!!
It could happen!!  LOL
Kay's two cats are getting braver everyday.  Mogli, the male cat is way more adventurous than his sister Corinna and has been over here checking out the yard on several occasions.  He must know that Hogan is no longer around and has decided that he needs to watch over this area as well.  Kay called me into their house the other day to show me Mogli's treasure - a dead mouse!!  He had it displayed proudly on the bedroom rug for her to see!!  Well, at least we know that he is a mouser!!
Kay and I have been busy making bison jerky and once again, this year we are phenomenal!!  Man, that  is awesome stuff!!

Our "fire in the sky" sunset

The yard work continues and all the red rock will be in the yard before the end of this week.  It is going well but I do say, that stuff is heavy to shovel!!  At least we can say we are getting a good workout!!  The yard is starting to look quite nice and now the dust factor in the house should be a bit better.
We took the day off on Saturday and headed out to the trails.  Time for some R&R and with the football games scheduled for Sunday, we just might take the whole weekend off!!  Wow, Kay's and my sore, aching muscles just may have time to recover!!
We decided to scoot across the highway, down the first wash and over to Constellation Road.  From there we would decide which way to go.  John brought his new pistol along and both Kay and John decided to stop and shoot the hell out of a beer can!  With that out of their systems, we carried on down the trails.  We have not been on this trail since last year and it could sure use a good trimming as there were several evil barbs and thorns around waiting to grab what ever chunk of flesh they could.  I received a few "welcome" backs from them!!
We scooted around the many trails that surround Constellation Road and decided to start heading for home.  Kay and I were in Henrietta, and climbed this rather unruly trail and half way up, Kay felt a "drop" in the rear end, looked out to see what hole we had hit and said "holy Shit, we just lost a wheel"!!   "WHAT", I responded!!  Well, there we were, headed up the trail with our rear left tire on the ground beside us!!  Now this just can not be good!!  Somehow, we had lost two lug nuts and had sheared off the last two studs.  This was not going to be something we could fix on the trail.
Nothing much for Kay and I to do at this point except wait for John (who was ahead of us) to come back and rescue us!!  We cracked a beverage, found a suitable rock and sat down wondering all the while.....now how the hell had we managed to loose the wheel????
John returned and after a bit of deliberation, we packed what we could into Kermit, hide what we couldn't and all three of us climbed into Kermit for the ride back to Constellation Road.  Now three of us in a machine built for two was an adventure in itself but we managed to make it and contacted both Ray (to see if he could get us parts for the repair today as it is Sunday tomorrow) and Mitch (so that he could come and pick one of us up for the ride back to the house).  Mitch arrived in short time and unfortunately Ray was unable to get any parts for the repair.  Henrietta would be spending the night in the desert all by herself!!  Maybe two nights if we are unable to get parts on Sunday.
With everyone safe and sound back home (well except for Henrietta), John started a fire and we concluded the evening exchanging tales of today's adventure.
Being Saturday, it was steak night and once again..... it was yummy.   Life is Good!!

Heading out on our ride

Ya, I'm packing

Awesome views 

Everything has spikes

We called it Big Dick

Kay checking out the view

The girls drove the wheels off it

The yard work is getting done

Hogan came home this week

Sunday, January 10/2016 - Saturday, January 16/2016

This week marked Tom's fourth week with us here in the park.  His hand has healed beautifully and he has good and

Another trailer moving out

 still improving range of motion to his fingers.  It remains tender at the initial injury site but all in all, looks pretty damn good.   He had his final appointment with the surgeon this week and he too was pleased with his progress so no longer needs to see him.  That is good and will mark the end of Tom's visit to us.  Soon, he will return to the streets of Phoenix that he calls "home".
Another trailer has left the park this week and the place continues to slowly empty.  Within two weeks, everyone will be gone leaving only Ray, Kay, John and myself here.  It certainly will be quiet but we have noticed a bit more road noise now that the other trailers are moving out and our buffer zone is shrinking!!  We will have to get some trees planted to take care of that bit of nonsense!!
We continue with the general park clean up and it truly is starting to look better.  We fill the huge roll off garbage bin in only a few days and another one will be needed by early next week.
Ray took Kay and I on a "tour" of Larry's place next door and it was absolutely beautiful.  If he makes this area look anything like his place, we will be living in an incredible setting.  His area is covered with walking paths, manicured lawns, desert plants and several water features.  One being a huge pond complete with fish!!   If he makes this place look half as nice we will truly be living in an unreal park like setting.  We even managed to meet the owner of The Greenspot Nursery.  Vincent is responsible for the maintenance of Larry's property and is one of the reasons it looks so incredible over there.  He mentioned that Larry has a lot of work planned for him on this side of the wall!!
Finally, the weather is starting to warm up and that of course is a very good thing.
Mitch has been very busy looking for a house to buy before the end of this month and has decided that he really needs to find a place to rent in the meantime as the whole house hunting thing is taking longer than he had hoped.  Everyone has only two more weeks to pack up and get out of the park and a few people look like they haven't even started!!  Yikes!!  Two of those folks have what I would consider a total mess and I mean MESS in their yards.  So much junk that it is mind boggling!!
We are busy again watching the various football games leading up to the Superbowl.  Mitch and Kay have been to lucky winners over the last two weeks so we have only one more weekend for our victory to arrive!!  Superbowl is February 7th and that is only a few weeks away.
Life is good......

Sunday, January 3/2016 - Saturday, January 9/2016

This week we are once again, busy in our yard.  Tom has been busy getting the walkway set up and is now past the man cave at the back and headed towards the back door of the trailer.

Tom building us a walkway

Kay using the magnet to check for nails

John has the steps constructed on the new back deck and once the walkway ties into it we can start with the red rock landscaping.  Things are slowly coming together and I will be quite happy when it is finally all done and we can just sit and enjoy the fruits of our labour!!
There is some nasty weather moving in this week so I am not sure just how much will be done so perhaps we are all going to get a few days off!!  Looks like we will be watching lots of movies!!

Tom and Hogan having a stare off

The yard work continues and Kay and I are busy hauling rock and collecting wood.  John gets the hateful task of cutting the wood up for the campfire and the sawdust flies everywhere!!
The weather turned out to be better than we had expected and we were able to work in between the showers.  Life is good.

Fire in the sky

This week we said goodbye to our deer sweet Hogan.  His cancer had progressed to the point where it was time for us to make the decision we were all dreading. Kay and I took him to the vet and finally he was laid to rest. He will be missed!

R.I.P

Sunday, December 27/2015 - Saturday, January 2/2016

The fancy new walkway to the Man Cave

This week marked the last week in December.  We will be saying goodbye to 2015 and hello to 2016!!  Before that though, we decided that it was time to build the walkway to the man cave and Tom, Kay and I got that done on Sunday.  We got the blocks from the abandoned yards and the sand too so it was a "cheap" job with us using the materials from around here as well.  Tom is a great helper and both Kay and I put his skills to work for us.  He works for food so that is a very good thing cause we have plenty of that!!
Ray headed to Mexico this week for some much needed dental work so I sent him my list of thngs to "pickup" for me while he was there!!  He left very early Monday morning as his appt for the dentist was at 12:30.
Kay and I headed into the city for some supplies so that John could finish up the back deck.  We need stairs so had to get some risers.  Also time for a much needed Walmart run as well.   Tom had some stuff to do in town as well so once again, we piled into the truck and headed out.

Under construction

Ray arrived home on Tuesday with a very sore mouth and an aching knee.  Gosh, he is hobbling around here worse than me!!  He says it is almost time for a knee replacement for him so I'm thinking that just may be on his agenda this summer after everything settles down here in the park.

Red  landscaping rock between the patio and the wall

We are continuing our cleanup and there are a few spots now that are looking good.  The new owner has given us permission to use whatever we want from the various yards so that is great.  There is a ton of decorative rock that can be moved into the yard to finish it off.  Man, it will sure be nice not to have this fine Arizona dust flying around.  Rock is good!!

New Years

Let the fireworks begin

Looking pretty darn good

We brought in the New Year with lots of yummy finger foods and fireworks.  Once again, I was in bed by 10:30 but got up before midnight to see this years fireworks display!!  They were awesome as usual and were enjoyed by all.  Even the weather cooperated as it was quite nice out.  No snow like last year!!
New Year Day, and we were busy in the park again.  Time for some more demolition and cleanup. Mitch bought a Rib eye roast for New Year supper and Ray cooked it in the deep pit he has in the back yard.  I cooked twice baked potatoes and made an oriental salad and we ate like royalty that day!!  Even Hogan rallied enough to enjoy a few bones!!

Life is Good!!