The Grove

A beautiful day for Jack, Katie, Melanie and me to play at the local park.

We found lots of interesting stuff at the park.

These are statues of children.

Look at these beautiful trees!

Here are some gazebos.

Across the street from the park we found a creek to explore.

Look at this cool rock I found—it has a rock heart.

This crawfish is bigger than the ones in Ohio or Texas!

Who will win the hedge apple race?

We hope you enjoyed sharing our adventures!

More adventures tomorrow!

Jack, Louise (and Duane)

680 Miles In A Day

Doable if you start at dawn,

are several miles down the road by sunrise,

and gain an hour when you cross the border from AZ to CA.

You make better time when the weather is dry and traffic is light,

than when it pours and traffic is really heavy as, say, around LA.

The rewards can be awesome.

The last 20 miles can take a while as they wind around and around hills,

but you can still arrive in time to get reacquainted with grandkids,

and watch your son prepare tomorrow’s sourdough bread dough before dinner.

The fun’s just starting.

Louise and Duane

Californy Bound

Tomorrow we are heading west to visit the California kids for early Christmas.  The family celebrates (granddaughter) Katie’s Dec. birthday by picking out their tree and decorating the house. This allows us to celebrate Christmas with them and return in time to greet our long-time Ohio friends when they arrive and park next door to us for the winter.

Duane is not worried about leaving the house here.  The neighborhood watch has been alerted and one of them has a key in case of emergencies.  We will miss pickleball, and will probably gain weight.  Son Matt likes to cook and is very good at it. 

The next several blogs will be featuring our activities and family.  Get ready for some fun!

A long drive ahead.

Louise and Duane

Nothing New

We all enjoyed another beautiful day here in Saddle Mountain RV Park in Tonopah, AZ.  After pickleball practice we opened all of our doors and windows and let the cool breeze air out the house.  Duane goofed off all day before he went to Buckeye to play pickleball with the big boys.  I finished my purple scrubbies and started work on the red ones. 

All in all, a very nice, laid-back day.

Louise and Duane

Busy Work

In the interval between finished Christmas projects and Christmas shopping, we messed around with some items from our to-do lists.

I patched my denim shorts,

and am ready to mail all of my Christmas cards.

Duane started carving a piece of cottonwood tree bark.

The fun never ends.

Louise and Duane

Sundown Show

Today’s sunset brought to you by pink and blue.

Always beautiful!

Louise and Duane

Nixed! Next!

This was to be my next Christmas gift project—cutting out and sewing together these four boot Christmas stockings.  I had started on this project today when Duane showed me a Facebook picture of the kids who were going to receive these.  Seems the family had just spent the afternoon making new matching Christmas stockings.  Ok, forget this project for now.  On to the next.

I make these scrubbies every year for our family members.  I start with different colors of coarse netting such as the green. (bigger holes than the stuff that makes veils).  I cut the stuff in strips, then connect the ends and roll them into a ball (purple).  The balls get crocheted into scrubbies (blue).  They can be used on all kinds of surfaces from cars to dishes, removing stuck on stuff without scratching the surfaces. 

I’d better get busy.

Louise and Duane

Black Friday

Back to normal today for us here in Tonopah, AZ.  After enjoying an entire day off yesterday with nothing to do but stuff face and visit, we moved through our normal routine today:  pickleball, eating right, working on Christmas presents.  Today I checked another project off my list—a couple of Christmas fabric panels that I made into a table or mantle runner.  Next I plan on getting the grandkids’ cowboy boot Christmas stockings put together.  Duane is done making his biker Santas and has been inspired to start a new carving project.

Pics in the future, I promise.

Louise and Duane

Thanksgiving Dinner

We hope everyone had as good a dinner that we did.  Our friends Doug and Jan (who loves to cook and entertain), invited us to dinner and to judge their turkey contest.

  Jan took a traditional approach and oven roasted her turkey stuffed with dressing. 

Doug declared that his slow smoked turkey would be better.

While we waited for the birds to cook, we teased our appetites with a few snacks.  Egg nog was served in the moose bowl and cups.

The winner was….both!

Many thanks to our friends for making this one of the best Thanksgiving Days ever!

I’ve already wrangled an invitation to Christmas dinner.

Louise and Duane

Another Beautiful Day

The weather continued to be perfect today, with a cool breeze coming in open doors and windows making the house very comfortable.  This morning after our daily pickleball workout,  we boxed the quilt that I made and the grandkids’ ornaments that Grandpa carved for them and sent them on their ways to their new homes.   Other than that, it was a pretty laid back day here in Tonopah, AZ.

Dinner with friends tomorrow.

Louise and Duane

Day Off

Today I took a well-deserved (I thought) day off from projects.  The real reason was a migraine, which makes my judgement wonky, but I still deserved one and decided to take it today.  This doesn’t mean that I was idle.  I made beef stroganoff for lunch, and photographed, laundered and packed my quilt project for shipping.  Then I goofed off.  Duane didn’t take a day off.   He worked on his project, but took off to play pickleball in Buckeye this evening. 

The weather here in Tonopah, AZ has been perfect.  With highs in the mid to upper 70’s, and nighttime lows in the upper 40’s, hot sunshine tempered by a few clouds and a cool breeze, we have been enjoying every minute of our stay here.  The house is a little chilly in the mornings, but we practice pickleball every day at 9 am in shorts and tees.  During the day open doors and windows are usually enough to keep the house comfortable After sunset we have several hours before we need any heat in the house. These temp are about 10 degrees cooler than normal for this time of year, which makes me wonder if the winter is going to be cooler than usual, but for now we’ll just enjoy what we have.

Back to work tomorrow, hopefully.

Louise and Duane

Onward

Quilt’s done, except for washing, photographing and shipping.  I’m ready to move on to my next Christmas present sewing project.  Duane is hard at work on his new carving Christmas present project.  We’re still working, but not as hard or as fast as on our original projects. 

One of these days we’ll publish pictures of them.

Louise and Duane

Yay!

At last I’ve finished quilting!  I still have to go over the whole thing cutting off stray threads, but the actual work is all done.  Tomorrow I will measure, cut, pin, and sew the border, then sign my work and box it up for shipping. 

Duane sprayed the last finish on his ornaments.  As soon as they dry completely, they will be wrapped and shipped also. 

Looking forward to  a visit to the post office.

Louise and Duane

Just A Little Bit More

The idea of quilting is to fasten the three layers (backing, batting and top) together, usually with a decorative design.  I have finished quilting the constructed squares of my latest king sized quilt.  Now I have to put something into the plain (between) blocks to fasten them together. I plan to use little symbols that I designed for each member of our family.  This also makes the quilt a kind of hidden picture puzzle.  To someone who isn’t a quilter, this may be hard to imagine but, as the Magic Eight Ball says, “All will be made clear,” but not until after Christmas. 

Sorry.

Louise and Duane

Snap, Crackel, Pop!

The best channel on satellite!

Very relaxing!

Louise and Duane

Closer

We made a lot of progress on our Christmas projects here in Tonopah today.  Duane tweaked the design on another ornament he’s working on, and used the saw in the park woodworking shop to cut out several.  I finished sewing around all of the squares of the quilt I’m making.  Tomorrow I can anchor the centers with some creative stitchery.

Not all of our sunsets are this dramatic, but I really enjoy them when they are!

Looking forward to getting everything done.

Louise and Duane

Quilting

This morning after pickleball, we rode to Sun City (Phoenix area) with Kenny and Lisa to help them pick out pickleball paddles.  They are new players but have decided that they like the game and will keep playing, and wanted to own their own paddles.  After they were satisfied with their new purchases, we ended up at IHOP for breakfast/lunch before heading home. 

This afternoon, Duane relaxed, but I still have work to do.  I took my quilt to the craft room at the Activities Center.  I laid out  the backing, added the batting then the top, then stretched and smoothed it as I crawled along pinning it all together.  That way it will not move or pucker when I wrestle it into my sewing machine for quilting, which is the process of sewing the three pieces together in a decorative pattern.  I decided to stitch in the ditch, which means to outline each square by sewing on the seam between the blocks.  I started in the middle, sewing downward, then moved to each seam to the right, a total of 5 seams.

To destress, I like to use brightly colored markers to color by number.  Below is an example of how a picture starts,

and ends.

I like watching the patterns gradually emerge.

Sewing and laundry tomorrow. 

Louise and Duane

Parade

With friends Kenny and Lisa in tow, we took time off from working on Christmas projects to take the bikes out for some exercise. 

As we rolled out of Tonopah headed for Congress (AZ) we passed the interesting sites of the desert floor—green grass from the recent unseasonal rains,

the interesting saguaro,

creosote bushes in bloom,

Old Glory in a brisk breeze.

In Congress we picked up more friends—Doug and Jan and their neighbor Arnold.

Away we rode up Yarnell Hill (part of the Weaver Mountains).

One of the things we like about riding this mountain is that from a distance it looks like barren rock, but up close it’s really covered in plants.

Our parade strung across Peeples Valley.

Instead of continuing on AZ 89 toward Prescott, this time we turned at Kirkland Junction and rode AZ 96 through Kirkland to Bagdad.

Main St. Diner, our turnaround point.  Duane is in front, then Kenny and Lisa, Arnold, and Doug and Jan.

Since we had to sit at two tables, we ladies sat at the little one while the guys shared the larger one.  L-R Duane, Doug, Arnold (whose wife is out of town), and Kenny.

Lisa, Jan, Louise

After getting acquainted over lunch, we rode back the way we came,

eventually going back down Yarnell Hill.

At the bottom in Congress, we waved goodbye to Jan, Doug, and Arnold.  Kenny, Lisa, Duane and I continued on for another hour back to Tonopah, once again enjoying the area with the most interesting saguaros.

I don’t have enough time to take the whole day off.  This evening I pieced together the back of my quilt.  I took a piece off one side and sewed it onto another to make it square, then I was tired.

Back to pickleball tomorrow.

Louise and Duane