Snow on the Hills

Well, here we are at the end of March, 2010. That seems like an accomplishment, for some reason. As I look out into the back yard, Mingus Mountain is still sprinkled with snow, even though the temperature here has been in the 70's. By the way, that's exactly the way I like snow- in the view, up in the mountains!

I finally finished the book "John Adams" by David McCullough. It is long and detailed, but fascinating. The steadiness he showed, with passion, is incredible. It really is a peek into the lives of amazing, brave and brilliant minds, including Adams, his wife Abigail, son John Quincy, Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton. Much better than my high school history class, that's for sure.

The weeds are getting knee high in the back- we bought a weed-eater yesterday to remedy the problem, but didn't get out there yet to tackle them. I put the chickens in the front yard every day, and they are doing what they can to eat the weeds and bugs there, but I can't put them in the back with the dogs! The eggs, by the way, are delicious! They are laying 4-5 daily, enough to sell a few to friends.

We got the roof fixed, thank heavens. We probably don't need to worry about leaks for a while, the rains have really slacked off, but at least it's done. Home ownership is great, but there's always so much to do...

Botanical Garden

Last week Julie and I spent time at the Gardens. It was my first time down there, and I wanted to go while the weather was good and the flowers were blooming. Julie was willing to drive, and we took it nice and slow and had a great day. There is a little outdoor grill in the garden, and we had lunch there, with the quail and ground squirrels.

The Desert Botanical Garden in Phx is a lovely oasis right in the city. There are some amazing sculptures there, I've taken some pics, I hope you can see them pretty well. The sun was shining, and life was so good! I took my cane, which came in handy, but in general had few problems. There is an Apache hut replica, a Tohono' Odom one, and a Spanish garden too, all of which were very interesting.

We stayed at a hotel overnight, had a nice soak in the hot tub and met a family vacationing from Iowa. I'm afraid they got caught in a terrible storm on the way home! Friday we went to the temple, and I was able to donate one of my books to the Family History Library in Mesa. OK, I kinda forced it on them, but they seemed happy to have it.

Organized Chaos

Well, with a lot of help, we were able to reorganize, recycle and toss a lot of stuff last weekend. Mom Farr, Nic and Best by Farr are using the same garage for storage, and it was getting pretty deep and dirty over there. Adele and Rich came down for the express purpose of wading through Mom Farr's estate, and it was amazingly successful. We waded through boxes and boxes of treasures, sent a trailer load of items to local charities' thrift stores, bagged up a lot of trash and organized everything else for further review.

Dear Farr Grandkids- please look at the quilts and furniture in pics on this blog or on http://picasaweb.google.com/elnabelms/FarrEstatePics#
and email David or Adele of the items you're interested in. David's email is dfarr73@gmail.com and Adele's is mommadorsey@gmail.com. Each item is numbered, so you can refer to it by item or by description. If by chance two people want the same thing, we'll flip a coin, or something similar, to decide. When you contact them with a request, we will tag it for you, but please make arrangements to pick up your items by the end of September, 2010, or for those that live too far away, convince your parents to help! We'd like to see the kids come by and take a look- there are several tables of items you may want as a momento of Grandpa and Grandma Farr. There are enough quilts and afghans for each grandchild, the furniture is a little more limited, but what is available is shown on the website. If you're not interested in anything, please email David or Adele to let them know, so we are clear about your wishes.

Please share this with your siblings that may not get a message, We want everyone to have a chance to have something of Grandma and Grandpa's estate. I like the handmade things to remember them by, and thought you might too.

When will the Sun Shine???

I'm harvesting romaine lettuce, broccoli and eggs. I want to plant some vegie seeds but I just don't have the energy right now, so that will have to wait. The good news is that we've had lots of rain, maybe even enough to ease the terrible drought in AZ. The bad news is that it totally cripples me, so the past few weeks have been pretty rugged. My friend Debbie is willing to walk with me, so we go around the block, slowly, but at least I'm getting a little exercise. Then she heads out to walk another 5-6 miles! Only in my dreams.....

I did trim the roses in the back yard yesterday, at least the miniatures. Hopefully I didn't kill them; but I cut them back pretty severely. They needed it, I hadn't pruned them well for a couple years.

We are dog-sitting Dean this week for my niece Megann. He is such a sweet, gentle dog. Cara is happy to have someone to play with, but she plays a little rough and he gets scared....

So is it wrong not to cook? I can't seem to get motivated to cook dinner lately. Eating is lovely, I like to eat, but it's just that I have no motivation to cook. What we need is someone to cook for us! And they could make wheat free pasta with a marvelous cream sauce, and asparagus. Anyone out there interested in the job? Doesn't pay much, but you'll have my deepest gratitude.... Well, time to get off to bed, and tomorrow I have to make dinner, the leftovers are gone, there's nothing left to do but cook. blast. Usually I love to cook, but there are those days, or weeks, that it just isn't fun, and I can't think of anything to make. blah!

Grand Canyon visit

Well, what a beautiful day! Not in my normal sense, which is nice and warm, but how can you argue with the beauty of the canyon. It was cloudy and rainy when we left, and I knew this little trip would cost me physically, but we needed a getaway, so off we went. Chris, David's business partner, had never been to the canyon, so we took him and Rachel up for a day trip.

I had never been there when it has been so snowy and foggy, so we couldn't see the bottom of the abyss, but it was still so amazing. We spent more time indoors, and went to the Hopi House, designed by a woman in the 1920's, I think. It's based on a traditional Hopi building, and is now used for a store that displays and sells Native American crafts. We also went to Verkamps, which is a mini-museum and store. Both are some of the older buildings there, and I hadn't been in them since high school. El Tovar lodge is still gorgeous, I'd love to stay there sometime. Less expensive in the winter, so maybe next year. I do better if I have a chance to lay down during the day, so that will be my excuse.

We had lunch there, and tried to see Julie Hutchin's mural at the Shrine of the Ages building, but it was locked. The nice thing about going this time of year is how uncrowded it was. There were a couple buses there, but not dozens, like usual in the summer. With the fog and spaciousness, it felt quite cozy. The road was pretty snowy on the way back, and we passed a nasty 3-4 car accident on the freeway outside of Flagstaff, but we reached home safely.

I haven't been able to walk much since we got home, but it was worth the down time, just to see the canyon in winter.