Weekend wanderings

We went to Phoenix Saturday, David had a couple things he needed to do. We met Jon, Kathy and her son at Rei, a sporting goods store. Wyatt found the craziest 'shoes'! They are like latex toe socks, really. They have a good sole, but are more of a slipon footie, and fit like a glove instead of a shoe. He got the camo-colored ones, they are pretty wild. Good for running barefoot, but with a sole.

We had lunch there, then went to Costco to pick up a few things. That's where I gave out, and my hip froze up pretty bad, so we left. We went to Trisha's to say hello and drop off a couple things. We had a nice visit, then went to Maricopa and spent the night at my sisters. Sunday morning we went to Mom's, she's doing well. While looking at her garden, she gave us a bunch of fresh vegies and some strawberry plants. We were there to pick up chickens though, and we soon got to that task.

She doesn't plan to be home much this summer, it gets too hot there, and so I talked her into giving me some of her chickens. She had 9, with no-one to eat all those eggs, so I took 6 of them, leaving her 3 hens and a rooster. I plan to give a couple to Jenny, and then I'll have 9 hens and a rooster, which should give me enough to sell eggs every week. I know, I know "Elaine and her chickens!" But I enjoy them and they are sure keeping the bugs down around my house.

We were using the GPS on the way home, trying to find a JoAnn's store before leaving the city. The GPS kept telling us to turn off the freeway at every exit, but didn't tell us why until we hit the heavy traffic! The freeway was being paved or something, and 4 lanes were crammed down to 1. It was a massive parking lot! We were finally able to get off at Pinnacle Peak, and took a side road up to New River. I guess there's no good time to do road work in the Valley, and the weekend makes more sense than during the work week, but next time I think we'll listen to the GPS! If it had said- Traffic ahead, earlier, so we knew why it was taking us off the freeway, that would have helped, but oh well.

Down Week

Well, we had such a good time with the Crebas', It was hard to say goodbye. We also got to see Dakota two Saturdays in a row, which was great! I finally posted the pictures from Honanki Ruins in a slide show, I hope you enjoy them.

With all the excitement, I was of course sick the next week, so this past week has been spent getting over a sinus infection, cold, whatever. Up and down all week, but the weather was beautiful and I bought some tomatoes, peppers and flowers. Hopefully we can get them into the garden this week. David has rototilled it to perfection, the water system is back in place, and I can't wait to get things growing.

My birthday was wonderful, Dakota came over for a little dinner and party that Nic and Gina did for us. It's hard to believe I'm 55, some days I feel younger, some days feel much older. :)

Easter and Honanki

We picked up Marcel and Fran, our dear friends from Alberta, Canada, on Friday. They flew down for the week, and luckily the weather has cooperated nicely. Surprisingly, it has been pretty warm for them the last week, even though they can hit -50 degrees in the winter. Marcel reports they have had much less snow than usual too... I'm guessing the same systems that brought us a wet winter dipped low and missed them. Well, we're in a terrible drought, and need the moisture more. That's my story, though I sure hope they get a good amount of rain this summer.

Saturday we slept in, then Dakota, Nic and Gina came over @ 10, and we decorated eggs, hid them and had a lovely time. After they left we went to Honanki ruins, between here and Sedona. They are off on a dirt road, and although we saw a couple Pink Jeep tours there, it was pretty uncrowded. There was a couple selling Native American jewelry, some of it made by the lady, which was really nice.

Honanki ruins is an easy walk from the parking area, but it does require a Sedona Red Rock parking pass. It's a smaller ruin, but you can walk right up to the walls, and there are a few petroglyphs on the rock cliffs above the ruins. If you can ignore the graffiti around it, they are pretty cool. I guess the petroglyphs can be considered graffiti too, but come on, have a little respect!

The rock cliffs soar upwards for over a 100 feet above the ruins, it's an absolutely beautiful setting. I highly recommend it. Honanki is about 20 minutes from Cottonwood and the same from Sedona, and is a National Park setting.

Sunday was a beautiful Easter day, and we lounged around, watched General Conference and had a big meal- ham, potato salad, gelatin salad, lots of deviled eggs. Nic has been making a jalapeno deviled egg, and boy are they good! Megan and Taylor came over, bringing a marvelous broccoli salad. Gina made most of the meal here. After our little hike Saturday, I couldn't move, so she and Nic made most of the dinner, including Tres Leches cake. Yummy!

Ruined Writing

Well, Farmtown has ruined my writing. Really! Instead of writing in this blog, or my manuscript, or journal, I play farm town, because it's so rewarding. Useless- totally useless, time waster. But, I get to have cows and goats! and I can raise crops without worrying about water- for an Arizonan that is huge. I'm not working in Ancestry either. Hmmm it seems to appeal to an obsessive part of my psyche.

You know, if Farm town had been around a few years ago, we may not have Twilight. Stephanie may have been so busy with the kids and Farmtown that she would have ignored the dream about a vampire, and whoosh, all that vision and emotion- worked right into a little farm.....

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...