More ATVing

Life is good!  Sarah, Sarge’s better half arrived in the wee hours Tuesday morning, seems Allegiant didn’t want to leave Montana again and her plane was two hours late leaving.  So, we had a later in the day ATV ride with Joe and Kathy joining the four of us.  We wandered around the desert (the cowboy was leading) and ended up on top of Round Mountain—a steep, rocky knoll we can see from our house. 

It was another gorgeous Arizona day and we had a great time—on the way home, the cowboy (aka, the horse) was going to the barn and we burned up the desert sand getting back to North Ranch.

Today we had a dilemma—the gang had planned another ATV ride but I had an appointment to get my shaggy locks shorn and wasn’t able to change the appointment.  This was a “haul” ride meaning Michael needed the jeep leaving me with no way to get to Wickenburg.  Barry to the rescue—Donna is still not up to riding after her tumble the other day—Barry agreed to pull our trailer and let the cowboy ride with him so I could keep the jeep—thanks a bunch Barry!!

These photos are from their ride today—Michael took them--

I had an enjoyable “girl” day—I’m 5 pounds lighter I think after seeing all the hair Kathe cut!  I ran a few errands and purchased groceries at Safeway while watching the steady stream of lottery ticket buyers at the customer service counter.  Back at North Ranch I visited with Donna for a while—they’ve been down at Yuma visiting friends and brought Emmi a present when they came home yesterday—she loved it!

Wonder what tomorrow will bring??

A Great Day For An ATV Ride

Larry and Geri have visitors—Roger and Lyn—we wanted to show them some of our ATV riding country today.  The weather cooperated and it was a beautiful day with all the gang showing up for the ride with the exception of Barry and Donna who are missing in action for another day or two plus Sandy and Tom who are braving the Minnesota weather for a grandchildren fix.  We had eight rigs and thirteen people. 

It was kind of a food oriented ride--in the past we have ridden to Dairy Queen from North Ranch and also to McDonalds.  With construction of Wickenburg Ranch—a high end subdivision near us—some routes have changed so this was an exploration ride.  We were lucky and could have had Dairy Queen ice cream at 11am but instead chose to ride on to McDonalds where we had lunch—dining outside as all of us were dressed in multiple layers due to the chilly temps. 

As  you can see, the sun was shining, the skies were blue and the saguaro were waving.  It was a challenging ride at times—a little road building was necessary in one spot—but we all made it safe and sound.  A fabulous day spent with great friends—thanks Larry and Geri for guiding us!!

I thought this rock looked like a dolphin???

Sarge bringing up the rear.

Looking down on the Hassayampa River

No, Sharon, no bird feeders in our yard, unfortunately—North Ranch has a pack rat problem and we feel feeding the birds also feeds and attracts the pack rats.  People have strings of lights under their rigs at night to deter the rats and many people leave the hoods of their vehicles raised at night to discourage the pack rats from taking up residence on the engines.  Nasty critters!!

And Bev—we are far from finished with the remodel—still need countertops plus we have some outside stuff we want to do; and the painting isn’t finished.  We are making progress but took time out to play today!

We Saw The Sun Today

When we removed walls and opened up what we refer to as the “sun room,” it seemed a shame to waste that gorgeous view on just the dining area.  Geri had a great idea to make a sitting room in one end of the sun room—we gave each other new chairs for Christmas, moved a rug, table and lamp—now we have a little sitting area where we can enjoy the view and wildlife.  Today we watched rabbits do their silly little mating dance and the other day we watched a three legged coyote as he strolled by along the fence.

Have to purchase an ottoman for the cowboy—he’s currently using a dining chair as a foot prop—my new chair came with an ottoman. 

Yesterday we made a Costco/Home Depot run.  The kitchen sink faucet started dripping, the cowboy attempted a fix which did not work and decided to go ahead and install the new faucet we brought from Montana—nope, water supply hoses weren’t long enough.  He needed a bunch of other guy stuff and I wanted to look at tile and light fixtures.  I think we’ve decided on large tile as our countertops—solid surface countertops such as granite or marble are not in our budget—we have friends who used 12x12 granite tiles with tiny grout lines making it almost look solid surface.  We found a tile and brought one home to see how it looked with everything else.

Michael installed the toe kick trim at the base of the cabinets and it really gave the kitchen a more finished look.

Just like in Montana, when we leave Costco I start a list for the next trip.  We haven’t been since before Thanksgiving so I had a lengthy list—paper goods, laundry detergent, shampoo, etc.—we had a full cart and very full jeep on the trip home.  Another reason for going to Costco was to pick up our photo order—have you ever had your photographs mounted on canvas—Costco does a fabulous job and has many sizes from which to chose.

This is a three section panel we had done—it is simply gorgeous!  We had two smaller ones created also—you can see one of them on the left side of Michael in the first photo above.

Friday night we joined the rest of the gang at the Arrowhead restaurant in Congress—this establishment struggles—one visit, the food is good, next visit, not so good.  They were busy and could not keep up with the food orders.  It was still good to visit with everyone—Larry and Geri have guests—Roger and Lyn from British Columbia.  When we all went to Alaska on the ferry system, one of our stop off points was Roger and Lyn’s driveway in Canada.  Michael’s high school friend Sarge showed up yesterday too and joined us for dinner—his companion Sarah arrives on Monday—it will be good to see her!

A Visitor And Did You Know

The cowboy comes from a very small family—his mother was an only child as is Michael.  Nat was a twin and his brother Bo had three children—Michael’s only first cousins.  We occasionally run into Pete, his cousin who lives near Big Timber.  It’s been a long, long time since we saw the older cousin, Pat.  Right before we left to spend Christmas in Montana, Pat contacted us.  He was in Phoenix visiting his daughter and wanted to come over.  Wednesday was the day—Pat came for lunch—he and Michael talked and talked—it was fun to listen to them.  Pat has two daughters—one of his daughters, Julia has a PhD in archaeology and is currently working in Mongolia!!!—the other daughter, Sarah, is an accountant in Phoenix. 

I think they look alike—as they probably should having had twin brothers for fathers. 

Whew it has rained the last couple days—we have measured about one and a half inches in our rain gauge—and this must be the year of the cooler temperatures!

Do you know about Wi-Fi assist on iPhones??  Have you seen the news article about the kid who racked up over $2000 in data charges on his iPhone?  Seems the newest upgrade to Apple operating system, IOS 9, has a Wi-Fi Assist feature which is automatically in the “on” position after downloading the update.  Wi-Fi Assist automatically switches the phone to draw on cellular service when a user is in an area with a weak Wi-Fi signal.  It turns out the teenager’s bedroom is one such place with a weak signal . So while he thought he was still connected to his home Wi-Fi while surfing the web in his room, his iPhone was eating up cellular data.  To turn off Wi-Fi Assist on your iPhone, go to "Settings," then "Cellular" and scroll down to the bottom to switch Wi-Fi Assist off. 

Yoga today then more painting/prep—I managed to tape the hallway and smaller bedroom plus I cut in the edges of the ceiling in both the hallway and bedroom.  Michael has been working on a little problem in our hallway—we just shake our heads at some of the construction methods in this house.  Seems the previous owners wanted easy access to the shower plumbing—so in both the master bedroom and in the hallway of all places, they cut holes in the sheetrock, framed them with cheap trim boards, inserted painted rough plywood and hung a very cheap full length mirror over the whole mess—hideous!!  So the cowboy—who thought plumbing access was a good thing too—has come up with a way to nicely cover the spot in the hallway.  Not sure what we will do about the one in the master bedroom. 

Snow on the Yarnell hill viewed from our house. 

We have good friends—Larry just walked in with a plate of still warm from the oven chocolate chip cookies—thanks Geri!!!

Painting and Rain

I love rain in the desert—rain happens so seldom, it’s a welcome occurrence!  This house has two skylights in the kitchen/entry area and you can most definitely hear the rain drops hitting.  Rain makes walking Emmi a little difficult although she isn’t nearly as picky as our former schuanzer—that dog absolutely refused to do any business when it was raining!

Before yoga class this morning I managed to finish rolling paint onto the bathroom walls and after lunch did some touch-up on spots I missed while painting in dim light last evening.  Michael re-installed the baseboards and then I had more painting to do!! When he removed the baseboards I painted them while they were laying flat—once he air nailed the boards back in place I then had nail holes—out came the putty and paint—I used a bright/shiny almost white and the baseboards really look great against the darker “mushroom” colored walls.  So far I am really pleased with the colors we chose!

Yoga class was great—I think we had thirteen people.  Out of the thirteen, only about four have ever practiced yoga but they are all game and work hard!

Larry and Geri are having new flooring installed in their house and I think the chaos must have gotten to them—they came over and we had a good chin wag as they say. 

I’m sorry there have been no photos lately—no ATV rides in the rain and I don’t usually carry the camera when I am walking Emmi and it is raining.  Maybe next time!

On The Mend

What do “they” say—colds usually run a weeks course—well, in my case it did.  Friday night I went to bed determined to go on the ATV ride to Date Creek on Saturday—nope, decided being out in the cold wind wasn’t a good idea and spent the day being low key.  Today, a week since I acquired these germs and I am almost back to my old self!

Saturday morning Michael, Emmi and the rest of the ATV gang minus Donna and Parker headed out to Date Creek—the link will take you to the blog I wrote in March, 2014 about a previous ride to this same area.  They rode over 50 miles and came home dusty, tired and happy!

Today Larry and Caryl dropped by—seems Caryl has a quilt show quilt which needed a resting place???  It’s a quilt she is entering in the Vulture Peak Patchers quilt show in late January; the quilt had been folded and Caryl needed a place to lay the quilt out flat so the creases would go away—hopefully.  The queen bed in the motorhome provided the resting place. We enjoyed a good visit with them—it’s been a while.

The cowboy started working on tax preparation today—UGH—time for Emmi and me to lay low!  Barry called and asked if Mike was busy—I said, “NO, come get him, take him away, anything, I will pay you!”  But Barry was no help, he just brought his CanAm over to place it in our enclosed cargo trailer while they take a little side trip in the motorhome. 

Barry and Donna’s little poodle Parker has our place figured out.  When Michael goes out the house door, he frequently leaves it ajar—Parker is fed on a schedule and he has figured out that Emmi is not, her food dish is always full and the door leading to that dish is frequently open!  Barry and Parker arrive, I am sitting in the chair and see this black flash go across the floor—it’s Parker heading for Emmi’s dish where he manages to grab a couple bites before I stop him.  I laughed and laughed—it’s amazing how smart these dogs are!

A good day in Arizona—I need to start painting again, the rest of the house is waiting!

Happy New Year

We wish all our friends and family a spectacular 2016!

A little warmer day here at North Ranch with lots of sunshine—all the Christmas decorations are down and stored plus the cowboy removed the remaining used cabinets from our front porch—sure am glad that blue tarp is gone!

The activities center was in use yesterday and last night for the New Year’s Eve party so yoga was postponed until today—in spite of it being New Year’s Day we had about 12 participants and I received a present—thank you Chris!!

We stayed home last night—not unusual for us—and were asleep by 9pm leaving the New Year to arrive without our help.  The rest of the ATV gang danced up a storm at the North Ranch party—Happy New Year to all our readers—we appreciate you!