December in Arizona!

It seems forever since I did a blog entry but time is flying. Just realized as we flipped a page on the calendar that we have been away from Campbell River for one month already! It always amazes me how busy we are here and how quickly the time flies. We watch our BC News each evening and cringe when we see the temperatures and that many places have had their share of snow already. I am still in shorts and t-shirt and swimming in the pool every day! Most days are in the high 70's to low 80's now. Very tolerable. I just have to rub it in that we are also only paying about 61 cents a litre for gasoline also! Eggs are 77 cents a dozen this week and butter $1.97 a pound!

Our house has just been listed for sale, so we had the carpets cleaned and stretched prior to this. Here I am busy vacuuming as the furniture gets taken outside for the process. It was a lot of work but boy does it look good now. All the wrinkles are gone and it looks like new carpet!

 We always forget how beautiful our sunsets are here when we are away for 6 months. This is just an average sunset but it is still breath taking

 Because there are so many air force bases all around us here in the valley, we tend to see many interesting air formations. This evening 4 helicopters went over in perfect formation and against the back drop of the Superstition mountains and the sun starting to set, looked incredible. This is the view from our front patio. I never get tired of it

 Doug loves watching all this action as it's never the same

Our friends Kerry and Marg from Hedley, BC are now down in the valley so we had them over for a visit and lunch. Had a great catch up with them. They had us over to their RV park this past week for supper and a visit with them and our friends Chuck and Echo who are also in Kerry & Marg's park. I took my camera but forgot to take any pictures. Not doing very good this year with picture taking!!

 Time to start Christmas decorating - Doug was totally Mr. Grinch as he thought since the house was for sale we wouldn't be decorating. Ha I fooled him! Nothing beats being able to decorate on a nice warm day. Here I am putting decorations on our cholla tree

 Doug figured we needed a star on the tree (he may grumble but he does get right in there)

This is my phony saguaro. It lights up so I decorated him and call him "Pepe" Doug says I am getting tacky!

We have lovely little black throated hummingbirds we feed but this little one was a bit pissed off at all the decorations. He chittered at me all morning after I decorated the cholla tree right next to the feeder. He really entertained us as he went around inspecting every single decoration in the whole yard and then came back and hovered near our faces as though he was asking us what the heck we were thinking??

 We turned the lights on last night for the first time and I think we did a fabulous job. We had lots of people stop and tell us how great it was. They liked my tongue and cheek humour with the set up.

 A bit of a side view of the decorations

 Doug the Grinch even put a string of battery operated lights on the truck grill in the driveway! Everyone loves the little Santa sleigh and reindeer by the driveway. I picked them up for $2 at a garage sale last year.

 These are my ducks in a pond (Actually they are geese). The pond is starting to freeze around the edges because I didn't have enough blue lights to fill the pond and make it look like water but still had lots of white lights!

This is our polar bear wearing snow shoes on a frozen lake. Nothing like ice around my cacti eh? Looks more realistic in the dark! We also got the snow shoes at a garage sale down here! They always have a light decorating contest in our community and we won the first year and have got second the last two years so I am determined to win again this year as it most likely will be our last!

One night a week any lady in the park that wants to can come up to the club house and we just sit around doing what ever crafts we are working on and of course gossiping. It is called ladies craft night. Well one of the local hospitals (St. Joseph's) asked one lady that volunteers there if we could make them some baby blankets for the NICU (neonatal intensive care), so I have made two so far. I have been able to pick up yarn dirt cheap at garage sales so I figure each blanket cost about 50 cents to make! I figure I'll make a couple more in between my other crocheting and knitting.

Thirteen more days and Catherine will be arriving for 18 days. We are so looking forward to her visit. Doug has got a lot of his outside shed decluttered. I listed all his tools and lapidary equipment on Craig's list and they were sold within days often for more than he originally paid for them when he bought them at garage sales! He is only keeping a few things as he has most of the same equipment at home.

We went out this past week and got the ATV running and plan to go on a couple of rides before Catherine comes and then we'll put it up for sale. I am not letting Catherine anywhere near our ATV after her last experience with it where she tore the canvas top to shreds on one side racing through a wash with low hanging branches! We had to get a new cover made! Sorry darling: I don't love you that much!!

First week in Apache Junction

I can't believe how fast time goes when you are having fun! We had a wonderful trip down to AJ with only one spot of cold and that was as we were going through northern Nevada. We camped overnight at Wells Nevada and it got down to -10C that night. We do have a few smarts and knew not to hook up the water line so we were okay. A chilly rise in the morning though. It was a beautiful sunny day and a few hours south of there we were down in the valley just out of Vegas and I was changing to capris, t-shirt and sandals!

 This was the harbour in Victoria as we waited for the Coho ferry. The weather looks a bit threatening but it was actually a really nice day. No rain: what can I say!

 Such a beautiful spot Victoria harbour is!

 I forgot to take any pictures again until we reached Valley of the Fire State Park! It is just north of Las Vegas. The weather was lovely, sunny and warm and it made for great weather to sit out in the evening and watch the stars! Our first campfire of the winter season

 Doug having his breakfast out. Nevada was still a bit cool in the mornings until the sun reached our camp spot then it warmed up quickly

 These are the types of rocks all around the park. Make for very interesting viewing as tons of birds have nests in the rocks and I am sure some of the caves have bat colonies. You can hear the bats chirping when it gets dark

 We took a new route out of the park heading for Arizona. Our friends Sharon and Craig told us about this one. You totally bypass Las Vegas which is just fine with us as the traffic is very congested and a bit stressful pulling a trailer through that area. The new route is beautiful, hardly a car we passed and we come out right above Lake Mead and the new bridge over the Colorado River. This was one of the rest stops we stopped at and you can see how you can see for miles. You will often see me wearing a long sleeve blouse and it definitely isn't because it is cool! After my bout with a pre-cancerous skin lesion this summer, I now cover up when I am out in the sun. My hat is off just for the picture!!

 Our next camp spot before we reached AJ (Apache Junction) was in Cave Creek AZ at the Cave Creek Regional Campground. It is just north of Phoenix and slightly north of Scottsdale. We always wanted to camp here so thought it was an excellent opportunity to try it out. It was also a full moon and we wanted to sit around the campfire and enjoy it. Here is to all our ATV riding friends: we usually are out in the desert enjoying the moon rise with you all and looking forward to doing it again with everyone!

 It was a beautiful moon and so lovely and warm to sit out and enjoy it. I always forget how beautiful it is and how warm the air is until I get here. I was purring let me tell you!

 Our camp spot at the Cave Creek RV park, sitting out enjoying the campfire and the full moon. There were two great horned owls sitting in the trees hooting in the background - really neat

 Not only did we get a beautiful moonrise, we also got a beautiful sunset - what more could you ask for

 Up early the next morning enjoying our coffee and there come the hot air balloons. Kept us entertained for a couple of hours.

 I think there were eight balloons in total

 Arrived at our place in AJ just before noon November 06th. I was amazed at how much our plants grew while we were away. Biggest they have ever been. We get the gardener to prune them back to about 18 inches to 2 feet in height before we leave in April and they are never this big when we come back! They had plenty of rain this monsoon season and you can sure tell by my plants! It felt almost claustrophobic!

 You could hardly see the house next door

 Our orange and lemon trees were so loaded with fruit the branches were hanging to the ground

 This is the front side of our house and it was so over grown we could hardly see the Superstition Mountains from the deck

 There was no room to put any of my garden accessories out the bushes were so tall. This Texas Sage was so huge it had lost its shape

 Even my small palm tree at the front attacked you as you walked in the sidewalk. I forget that those darn branches have little spikes on them that have you bleeding if you get too close!

 Only a few of my aerobics group are here so far but they were more than willing to change our exercise time till late afternoon so I am not in the pool with direct sunlight. Doug came down and took our picture and I think it was about 6pm. From the left: Dennis and Sue, Beth, Sharon and Bill

 One of the things I always look forward to is the glorious sunsets we get nearly every evening

 One of the reasons I haven't had time to get my blog entry done is because Doug and I have been busy installing a new floor in the main bathroom. When we arrived, we found the bathroom linoleum had buckled and needed replacing. One of the chances you take when leaving a house closed up without the air-conditioning on in the Arizona desert!(we have the electric shut off when we are gone) Doug laid engineered vinyl planking and we were very happy with the results. For a small room it took a long time to do. Doug doesn't get up and down from the floor like he used to! He did a terrific job though. This type of flooring is snap and click type flooring with no glue so shouldn't be a problem like a glued floor is where the glue dries out!

 If that wasn't enough, the kitchen taps caused us problems. We have extremely hard water here in AJ and although we have a water softener you still can have problems over time. We had installed new taps three years ago but the cold water tap would not run. Doug played around with it for hours and finally got it to work but now it would only turn on in the off position and when turned off was in the on position! Had me in hysterics when I first saw that - I think I was tired, I don't think Doug appreciated me laughing so hard. he was taking it serious! It just seemed funny at the time to turn the water on backwards. I'm a lefty and seemed like it might work!  He ended up taking the old taps off and he had to take the whole sink out to do it as the one tap was so corroded it took forever and much grunting and groaning to finally get it off! It was quite a job when you have a garburator, dishwasher and a filtered water system all plumbed in to the sink!   We had to go out and buy a new tap set and install it, so that is the picture above. Our wonderful neighbour Rena, supplied us with supper that night as my kitchen was a disaster area. All looks good now though.

 The gardener finally arrived Saturday morning and did a terrific job of pruning all my plants. We were very pleased with the results. Doug can now get into the truck with our battling the bushes and we now have some space to park our bikes.

 My little Myers lemon tree looks so much better now. Lots of lemons eh? They'll be ready for use in a couple of weeks. I can't wait. They are the tastiest lemons and Pete I'll be posting pictures of lemon pie for you!

 This is one of our three orange trees. We'll have lots of oranges again this year. They are usually ready mid- to end of December

 This is my two year old Lisbon lemon tree. It was not supposed to have lemons until the third year but as you can see, there are quite a few on the tree. They ripen in February so good timing as the other lemons will be finished by then.

 Our one (of two) navel orange tree has oranges as big as grapefruit on it. We can definitely tell they had lots of rain late in the summer!

 What a difference the side yard is with the trees/shrubs trimmed! I was able to get my furniture and hanging decorations out of the house finally!

 Now that the Texas Sage bush is trimmed I was able to get my saguaro plant stand out and get some flowers in it - you know me and flowers: I need to have them no matter where I live!

 I no sooner had the hummingbird feeder out and the hummingbirds were back. They had been buzzing me daily wondering what my problem was that I wasn't feeding them! They just didn't seem to understand I had to wait until the shrubs were pruned.

 Doug out on the deck doing what he does best! He deserves the break though after having to do the bathroom floor and the new taps all in the first week we were here!

 All my cacti and succulents I planted out front have done well this past summer

One little hummingbird contemplating the world, sitting on our cholla tree!

We have carpet cleaners coming on Tuesday to clean the carpets and give them a good stretch. Another casualty of hot summers: your carpets get wrinkles in them! We also have a house leveling team coming December 05th to relevel the house. Since these houses sit on the ground, the heavy rains this past few months have caused most of our homes to settle unevenly. They recommend re-leveling every 3-5 years and we haven't done it yet so we are due. We have developed a squeak in the master bedroom walk-in closet and bathroom so that is an indicator we need to re-level. Always something to do! That is one reason why we are thinking of selling this year and going back to just RVing for the winter. It gets expensive having to maintain two homes. A lot of work also and Doug is finding with his arthritis, he can't do the things he has always done before! 

We sold our golf cart down here within minutes of putting it up for sale! We decided we needed to ride our bikes and walk and with the golf cart you get pretty lazy I must say. Another Canadian couple bought it from us. We have had the cart for 4 years and sold it for $200 more than we paid for it, so were pretty happy! They are from New Brunswick and bought a home in the park this past year. We now have to get out to where we store our ATV and get the battery back in it and get it going so we can go out for a ride or two before we put it up for sale. My cough started again within days of getting here. It is not nearly as bad as it was last year but obviously the dry dusty air does affect my lungs. We determined that riding in the desert probably isn't a good thing even wearing masks. We are having a hard time making that decision though so we thought we would get a few rides in while it isn't too dry before we bite the bullet and sell it. We figure once a month or so we'll just rent an ATV for the day and go on a ride with our friends. That should make it a bit more tolerable for both of us! Keep you updated.....

Leaving Brown's Bay for warmer weather!

Well here is to another winter in a beautiful warm part of the world. This past couple of weeks of  heavy rain and fog has more than got us ready to exit Vancouver island! We ended our time home with Christopher and Laila spending 5 days with us and going fishing with Doug in the Brown's Bay annual Chum fishing derby. We loved their visit and hope they make it a yearly trek! Hopefully the fishing is better next year though

 Monday it was time to finally get the boat out of the water. I was thrilled to have Christopher help as it is usually just Doug and I. I had to give Christopher a lecture though as 5 years ago when he was here and helped Doug launch the boat, he nearly launched the truck also! I told him  I was coming along as supervisor and he had better be listening when I yell stop as he backs down the boat ramp!

Boy does Doug's truck need a wash! Christopher backing down the boat ramp

You can see Doug in the distance heading to the boat, thank-goodness it wasn't raining

Laila took a picture of Christopher and I as we waited for Doug to come over with the boat

Here comes Doug and Christopher did stop when I told him to! I was in shorts and had my water shoes on so I could go into the ocean and help guide the boat onto the trailer. The water was surprisingly warm

One try and Doug had it perfectly on the trailer. I am always impressed!

Almost there! I just need to get the boat attached to the trailer and we'll be all set

Christopher gets the go ahead to head up the ramp

Doug gets to ride in the boat and gives Laila a big wave!!

This was Monday, we then took the kids to the Comox airport in the afternoon. Tuesday we worked all day cleaning the inside and outside of the boat, readying it for winter. We took the boat into town that afternoon where we have a heated indoor storage space. They pulled our RV trailer out to put the boat in. We brought the trailer home to pack for Arizona and the count down was on. Thankfully we did both actions when we did as Tuesday night into Wednesday morning was when we had torrential rain that did a lot of damage in the bay!

This is the creek at the bottom of the hill that goes between the road to the RV resort and the marina parking area. Overnight, the culvert on the upperside blocked with fallen trees, branches and other debris causing the creek to flow up and over the road and washing out the bank in many places.

This is the bridge between the marina parking lot and the long term parking that was totally undermined by the over flowing creek

A big piece of the bank above the marina parking lot washed down when a creek above overflowed its bank and created a new diversion!

Normally we don't have falls at Brown's Bay!

I made candy apples for the little kids in the bay, I found a wonderful recipe for homemade caramel and was dying to try making it so thought this was a great project. There are seven little boys that live in the bay. One little girl but she is just a baby so I gave them out the day before Halloween as we left town Halloween morning. I had enough left over to bring one for Brian and Antaya.

We got away from Brown's Bay by 11 am this morning and had a super drive to Victoria. Sunny most of the way. Brian met us once we settled in to Fort Victoria RV park and took home a huge cooler full of food from our freezer. Should keep him fed for at least a couple of weeks! We got to meet his girl friend Antaya and took them both out to dinner. We had a wonderful time and thought Antaya was lovely. Told Brian she was a keeper!! I think he was listening. Brian and Antaya are heading to Vancouver tomorrow and he'll get to meet her side of the family......sounds interesting eh?

Antaya, Brian and I after our birthday dinner - Brian turns 36 tomorrow November 01st.

Brian and I. It was so good to see him and finally meet Antaya. Was a great way to spend our last day in Canada for the next 6 months or so! We are on the 4pm Coho ferry tomorrow afternoon and on our way.