N Y Eve In AZ

Happy New Year!

Louise and Duane

Picture

Start

Finished

The color by sticker process is a little tedious for me, but the finish is very satisfying.

No getting bored for me.

Louise and Duane

New Diversion

Now that all of my projects are done here in Tonopah, AZ, I have time for relaxing fun.  My latest find is coloring by stickers.  The picture is filled with odd shapes.  Each shape is marked with a letter and a number.  The colored stickers have corresponding letter/numbers and matching shapes.  The cool thing about this is that if I get the sticker on crooked, I can just remove it and tweak it into shape.  In the picture of a fox head here, I started with the eye. 

I have it half done now.

Louise and Duane

Warm Pooch

This sweater needs a dog in it to show it off.  The cuff at the left end goes around the neck, the front legs in the holes in the middle, and the right end ends on the back at the tail.  I’m looking forward to a pic of the pooch in her new coat.

Today was a beautiful sunny day, but too chilly to do anything outside other than physical exercise.  Duane bundled up for a short bike ride, but I found it perfect weather to finish this project, the very last.  Now I can have some fun with a jigsaw puzzle.

Another cold day tomorrow.

Louise and Duane.

Mixed Bag

Work and play occupied our time today.  We played pickleball this morning, then worked on laundry.  After lunch we rode to town with Gene and Barbara to pick up a few grocery items we forgot yesterday (see Guys’ Day Out blog), and a couple of other places.  Back home Duane worked on a carving of an ornament he’s thinking of making for the grandkids’ 2019 Christmas ornament.  I worked on my present project—a dog sweater for my sister’s dog.  I’ve never made one before, but the pattern is easy to follow and I made a lot of progress.

I have progress far beyond this starting row.

Weather wise we were more down than up.  We had a bit of sunshine here and there, but as the day progressed dark gray clouds covered the sky and a cold breeze kept us in sweatshirts and jackets.  We had no sunset this evening, just a solid cover of gray.  The temperature is unusually cold also.  We’ve had to have heaters running all evening.  The forecast for the next week calls for daytime highs in the mid to upper 50’s and the nighttime lows in the upper 20’s to low 30’s.  Brrr!

Trying to keep warm  ,

Louise and Duane

. 

Guys' Day Out

Life after Christmas here at the Saddle Mountain RV Park (AZ) continues to bring new stuff to do with our long time friends from Ohio, Gene and Barbara.  Today Gene took me out in his desert buggy for an all day ride with the group from the rv park, while Barbara and Louise went to Buckeye for shopping and lunch.

Our 50 mile ride took us out across the uneven desert flats, and down and up across gullies and washes toward Wickenburg, looking for interesting stuff to see,

including these free-range cattle at the fork in the road,

and this weather station.

A short stop for lunch, and we were off again.

After lunch we started for home but got lost twice and turned around twice before we ended up back at our lunch spot.  From there we found our way home without any further mix-ups, but without seeing anything interesting either. 

A long dusty ride, but fun to be out without the girls for a change.

Fun for the girls too.

Duane and Louise +-6

++

Christmas Dinner?

What?  Travel America Truck Stop?

Christmas dinner at the Country Pride?

Yep!  We joined all of the other people from the Saddle Mountain RV Park who didn’t go somewhere else or cook at home.  We met at the truck stop restaurant to make new friends and enjoy the buffet with our old friends, Gene and Barbara  (front left).

Gene and Barbara enjoyed their Christmas gift giving before they came here.  We opened our gifts this morning.  Sometimes we are glad we let all of our six children live through their teen years!

Thanks Kids!

Always fun  on Christmas at our house!

Louise and Duane

Merry Christmas!

Duane and Louise

Dream Come True

Concept

Tools

The reality—sparkly and soft.

The last sewing project.  Now all of the sewing equipment gets put away.

We get our house back.

Louise and Duane 

In The Mood

Our friends Barbara and Gene are spending their first Christmas away from their families.  Barbara says that it’s just not Christmas.  I told her that she needs to do something to help set the mood, such as put up some colored lights, play some Christmas music, watch a Christmas movie or two.  She finally bought a tiny tree for her table, and I made a little tree skirt for it.    Tonight we didn’t play cards because they decided to watch National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.

At our house I put up decals,

display Christmas cards (the ones on the left were made by our grandkids, the ones on the right we received in the mail),

and hang ornaments—all here shown in the soft glow of colored lights strung around the top of the walls.

My movie choice for tonight was A Christmas Carol with George C. Scott.  This is my favorite Christmas story.  Every year, in addition to watching this movie, I read the story.

We’re ready for the big day.

Louise and Duane

Enjoy!

Louise and Duane

Goat Hunting

One of the most active groups here in Tonopah, AZ is the desert buggy lovers.  These people go out in their two or four seaters rolling around in the scrub enjoying the nice weather, looking for interesting stuff or testing their vehicles on tricky terrain. 

Someone told our friend Gene that there were some goats sighted out there.  He and Duane took a buggy ride to Saddlle Mountain to see if they could see any goats or any other wildlife.  They saw wide open spaces,

rock formations

a couple of saguaro

and an interesting wash or two to conquer,

but no goats.  I asked Duane if they looked at each other.

He didn’t answer.

Louise and Duane

Skulls N Tulips

In 2008 I made my daughter-in-law Beth a couch throw with her favorite flower—tulips.  This year I found that she had worn it to tatters.  I also learned that she has developed a liking for this art form—decorated skulls.  Time for a new throw.

The back is a very soft plush called Minke, in her favorite color.

To keep it together in the washer, I sewed the two pieces together with little tulips.

I aim to please.

Louise and Duane

First Of The Last

Well, I’m down to my last three projects here at our winter home in Tonopah, AZ.  I was down there before, but my projects have a way of multiplying, so that I have three left again.  I have 1/2 of the first done, but probably won’t complete it tomorrow. We are going shopping in the big city (Phoenix and surrounding towns)  with Gene and Barbara (our next door neighbors and long-time friends from Ohio). 

Pictures when I get it done.

Louise and Duane

He’s Back!!!

Goofin’ Off

After pickleball this morning, our newest friend Lisa decided that we needed to go to Texas Roadhouse for lunch.  That we did, for three hours.  We returned home in time for Gene and Duane to play pool while Barbara and I played Triominos.  When the guys returned we spent the rest of the afternoon/evening playing cards.

It was a pretty good plan for a chilly Sunday.

Louise and Duane

Found It!

Dec. 9th

Dec 15th

Ahhh!

Louise and Duane

At Last!

I made my last Christmas gift today.  Now I can get my house in order and relax.

We spent this evening playing cards with our friends and next door neighbors, Gene and Barbara. 

To play cards we had to move their Christmas tree, with the tiny tree skirt I made yesterday. 

Looking forward to goofing off.

Louise and Duane

Sewing’s Done

These are the Christmas gifts I’ve been sewing: 

a hooded towel for a granddaughter (kids love these)

a tiny Christmas tree skirt for our friends Gene and Barbara.  This is their first Christmas away from family.  They bought a little 12” tree for their travel trailer.  The tree needed a little something to make it complete.

This bigger tree skirt is for my sister who just bought a new 31” tree.

I always make them double sided for changing moods.

Now that my sewing projects are done, I can put away my machine and get out my beading stuff again.

Only two more gifts to make.

Louise and Duane

Slowing Down

With just a few more quick Christmas presents to make I am not pushing myself as much as I have the last two months.  Today my morning was taken up by pickleball and preparing lunch.  After lunch Gene and Duane went rock hounding.  Barbara cleaned house.  I made another present then prepared another box for shipping.  When I was done, Barbara and I decided that we had done enough work for one day.  She drove us to the post office to mail my box, then to the Dollar General Store for supplies.  Back home we wiled away an hour or two with a very fun game called Triominos.  We topped off our day with card with the guys in the evening.

I’ll have a more involved project next—after laundry.

Louise and Duane

Cold Flying

Several layers of clothing did not keep us warm this morning as Eagle took us on a long flight today. 

Straight west we flew on I8 past 85 miles of mountain-lined desert.

At Quartzite we turned on AZ 95 and flew straight south through the same scenery

until just outside Yuma.  There we crossed an irrigation canal that turned this area into farmland.

We passed miles of fields green with hay, vegetables

cotton

and citrus orchards. (For some reason the trees in this area are not pruned, but left to grow naturally.)

At the KOFA Escapees RV Club park we landed for an afternoon visit with our long-time biking buddies Brock and Leola.

They ride a Spyder.  Brock gave us a hug but disappointed that we haven’t seen the light and still have the Harley.  Leola couldn’t wait to give us a hug.

We were there not only to visit but to start to flesh out some details of our planned bike tour together up the west coast next summer.  We also wanted see if we wanted to put the rv park on our list of possible places to “settle down” sometime in the future.

We walked the park, enjoyed the delicious lunch Leola cooked for us, made some concrete plans, and had a nice chat before we started our three hour flight back the way we came.

We were cold flying home too, but enjoyed watching the sunset turning the mountains red

and the clouds pink.

As we turned into our rv park back in Tonopah in the dark, the quarter moon peeked out of the clouds to say goodnight.

Back to normal tomorrow.

Louise and Duane