Feathered Friend

 We had a feathered friend pay us a visit yesterday.  In fact 3 Harris Hawks were patrolling the field behind us on the hunt for dinner.  This one stayed perched on our fence long enough for me to search for my camera, attach the big glass and get a few shots.  Beautiful birds and so majestic in flight.

Project update.  Framing for one window done yesterday.  Still have all my fingers.  There is a construction ban on Sundays so we went for lunch to Dana Park mall with Mark & Jan and a quick browse of a few stores and an outdoor Craft sale in the parking lot.  Now its time for a bit of reading which will no doubt turn into an afternoon ZZZZZZZ.  

Tomorrow we are headed out to the Premium Outlet Mall to hopefully beat the Black Friday rush plus pick up a few more groceries and some construction accessories.  My neighbours will shortly be longing for the quiet that they experienced last year in our absence.   

We have arrived

We made it safe and sound to GC on the 11th and the last week has been a whirlwind with greeting old friends, stocking the kitchen and finding a water leak in the bathroom.  The bathroom now has a new sink, fawcett and under counter shutoffs which were all well past their prime.  While I am somewhat handy between Youtube and a very helpful lady at Lowes who had all the right answers to my questions I managed to fumble my way through this project.  When I produced pictures on my phone of the offending plumbing she plucked all the right connectors off the shelves and I was off to test my plumbing skills.  I didn't even have to phone my son who is a plumber by trade.   

We discovered a rather large rodent hole, also in the bathroom.  This was a bit of a disturbing surprise but desert rats are common in the area (I prefer to call them rodents as the term rats gives me the chills).  There was no evidence of any furry creatures inside and the hole is now boarded up inside and out with a liner of steel wool and rodent proof spray foam.  I have also placed a few large glue traps under the unit and may be phoning a pest control company to ensure we don't have any unwanted house guests.  Other than the layers of dust in the screen room everything else was in pretty good shape considering we were away for 20 months.

We did a little pruning of some unwanted shrubs which were blocking our view and have contacted park maintenance who will be taking out a couple of dead cactus and cutting down an overgrown tree from the unit next door.  Our neighbour moved out over a year ago due to failing health and while the unit was empty and up for sale he had a flood and it has been sitting vacant since.  We are hoping that either the owner gets the place sold or more likely the park takes it back, pulls it out and puts in a new unit.  It is becoming a bit of an eyesore and empty units can become a home to neighbours we don't want.  

I have started my delayed renovation project and are now awaiting delivery of the windows, door, siding and lumber to turn the screen room into a closed in Arizona room.  I am hoping to have it more or less done by Christmas however my projects are notorious for taking much longer than planned.  Already we have faced delays as delivery of my supplies won't happen till Dec 1 so in the meantime I will do what I can and we will start looking for furniture and flooring.  Sure would be nice to have my truck.  

2 years ago we attended a Home Show and came across a booth that specialized in refinishing countertops, bathtubs and showers.  Much cheaper than replacing and the results looked very nice.  We had an estimate done at that time and have contacted them again to see if we can get that project restarted.  

I am really hoping that once this year is done the projects will be done and we can reduce the cash outflow and just enjoy.  Although Lori keeps on noticing other little things that need tweaking.   

We have been doing a 6 KM walk each morning before it gets too hot and a few dinners out with friends.  I'm going to give Pickleball another shot this year and hope my wonky ankle holds up.  Lori even bought herself a paddle and is promising to be my training partner.  

JC (my photography buddy) and I made it out to the Salt River for a little scouting trip and what did we find.  About 30 wild horses just waiting for our return.  

More verbiage later but for now here are some pictures of our experiences so far.  

Taking out the screens and framing the existing support structure for windows.  Should leave us with a better view.  Main challenge is to find a way to screw the wood framing to the existing aluminum structure.   

The picture below show the shrubs that have grown blocking our view.  
They are  now gone and we await the removal of the tree
which will open up the view.  

Out with the old.  

The grey plumbing is called Butyl b and is a predecessor to the white pex.  
Some day all the butyl will have to be replaced but for now a couple
of the proper connectors and its as good as new.  

Now for the reason we are here.  Another beautiful hot day with no
snow in the forecast. 

The horses were pretty docile.  In the early spring they seem to be a
little more rambunctious.  

There has been a local debate abut how much water to let through the
dams into the salt river.  People with watercraft want a higher river
level but it appears that they lost this battle as the river is pretty low.  

I applied a couple of textures to this shot to create a different effect and
make the horse stand out from the background.  I am not very proficient
at this technique but will keep working at it.  

  

Doing 75 in a 65 is OK, right!

First of  all I apologize for the formatting of my last post.  I don't know what happened but I think I have it fixed.

This was a 5 state day and the second 13 hour day in a row.  I am pretty much bagged.  I'm good for about 8 hours but then muscles start tightening up and basically the ol' body just starts to fall apart.  

First day was all interstate but today I decided to avoid the Toll highway which left us on mostly local highways and almost all 2 lane roads.  Its actually a much better way to see America as the Interstates avoid all towns and there is no scenery to speak of up close to the road.  

We even met a very nice young man just outside Greensburg, Kansas.  He was sporting a very dashing Movember stach and looked very dapper in his all blue uniform.  He kindly informed me that he was representing the Highway Patrol and that I was going just a tad fast.  75 in a 65.  I gave him my best "Who Me" look and handed over my drivers license.  He went back to his cruiser and got busy looking me up on his computer.  He was taking a rather long time so I suspected a ticket was coming.   He finally finished checking me out and came back to inform me that no court date or ticket was in my future but counselled me to slow down as Arizona wasn't going anywhere.  What a relief.

The rest of the day I stayed much closer to the speed limit as the highway patrol cars were everywhere and I didn't know how many warnings I was allowed in one state.  

Something that we really noticed is all the large trucks on the roads.  It seems like well over 50% of the vehicles are semi's hauling much needed goods to feed the pent-up demand of people like you and me.  

Well that's it for tonight.  Having a tough time trying to focus my eyes and the last 2 days are all a bit of a blur right now.  We hope to get into GC about 2:00 tomorrow and then it will be cleaning, laundry and grocery shopping for a few days until we can settle into a relaxing routine.  

More to come.    

Snowbird 6. Day 1

Just a quick recap of the 1st day of our first trip south without a 14,000lb 5th wheel in tow. Packing, driving, filling up with gas and the amount of fuel consumed all so much better than before. The downside is checking into the Travellodge in Platte City, Mo. It looked so much better in the pictures. The bed will be nowhere near as comfortable as the memory foam mattress in the 5er. Guess I have some learning to do on picking out hotel rooms. 

Given that the border only opened the day before we thought an early start would be crucial to beating the lineups. Up at 3:00 after 4 hours of not so restful sleep. Packed the car the day before so after a quick breakfast, completed the rest of the items on our departure check list and we drove out of the garage at 4:02. After a quiet drive to the border we were the only ones in line. Provided the passports, verbally attested to being vaccinated and confirmed we had no meat, dairy or citrus fruits. None of the usual questions about fire arms, tobacco and my favourite, cannabis products. 3 minutes tops. 

The rest of the 13 hour trip was pretty uneventful. A few fuel stops, lunch on the road and we arrived at Platte City, Mo (just north of Kansas City) at 5:00. One of the things we noticed was the lack of masks. Most employees wear them although many are neatly tucked under their chin. Very few customers are wearing masks. Must be similar to shopping in Winkler. Another early start tomorrow for a 12 hour drive to Albuquerque, NM. Hope my hotel choice will be better there. A relatively short 6 hour drive on Thursday and we hope to check into Gold Canyon around 2:00. 

Weather forecast is calling for 2 days of heavy snow in Winnipeg starting tomorrow so i think we got out just in time. This ones for you Brad. More to come I promise. 

More later