Wednesday, October 8, 2014

October 6 - 12, 2014, AZ

Wednesday, October 8.  It's raining here this morning!  It feels good.  The windows are open and I've spent the morning cleaning to remove the light covering of dust on everything.  I'm thankful that I got all of my yard waste taken to the dumpster.  I've been working on trimming the Palo Verde trees that grew so much over the summer that they looked like Weeping Willows.  I never thought they would grow so prolifically in this climate.  Next year, I think I will not provide supplemental water and see what happens.  There was a lot rain here, so I'm sure that has had an effect.

Norah and Camille had their first birthday yesterday and I attended the party via FaceTime and had tears in my eyes the whole time.  Wow! A year old and what a year it has been.  I'm so thankful to have  been involved in their first year.

Connie and I are heading to Mt. Lemmon tomorrow to camp with Jim and Jan who are hosting at the Whitetail campground for the season.  We are just going for one night.  Since they were predicting rain today, I hooked up the Pipsqueak this morning, rather than in the mud tommorow - gotta admit that I'm getting pretty good at it.

Sunday, October 11.  Connie and I had a really nice time visiting Jan and Jim at their beautiful campsite on top of Mt. Lemmon.  It was a 4-hour drive to get there, hitting some rain along the way.  Then as we climbed to about 7,000 feet, it was sunny and nice - after that, we hit rain and it continued until late afternoon.  It had rained there since Monday, so there were waterfalls coming off the rocks and little riverlets everywhere.  They work at the Whitetail Campground - with 5 group campsites, all of them have a firepit and ramada and tent sites for 40-90 people.  Weekdays are quiet but weekends fill up.  We stayed Thursday night and came back home on Friday afternoon.

Our camp hosts, Jan and Jim.


This point was on top of the mountain, overlooking the Tucson Valley.

It is beautiful up there - hard to believe that it is Arizona.

Yesterday, I went to Arlene's in the afternoon to help celebrate her birthday.  The gathering was originally to be a picnic at Riverview Park, but she decided to have it at her house instead.  The food was great and the company was full of stories and laughter.  

This morning, I started my day with Ben and the kids over breakfast.  It was great to see them all.

After that, I got busy cleaning the patio from top to bottom.  It smells so much better out there now - I can relax and enjoy.