Monday, May 25, 2009

Great Week!

WOW! What a great week it's been!
Last Tuesday we finished packing for a belated anniversary trip up to the land. We were able to be there Wednesday-Saturday and loved every minute of it! The weather was perfect. It stayed between 50 and 70 degrees the whole time. It was overcast (which I loved) and we had some light rain. When we stand on our land we can see for many, many miles in all directions, so we were able to watch different storms across the sky.
We did a lot of hiking and exploring. To our surprise, as we went down an old dirt road, we saw many huge logs laying around in an area that has no trees except for some small junipers. This is the road we were on...you can see that there are no large trees (you can also see the beautiful cloud-filled sky).
We were quite startled to see large tree trunks laying around, so we got out of the truck to explore the area. As we looked around we discovered that the huge tree trunks and limbs were all petrified wood! We were amazed at how much of it there was in that one area. We have many small pieces of petrified wood on our property, but nothing even close to being as big as those logs were!
This is a picture of Don standing on one end of a tree trunk that measured about 80 feet in length.

Even the dogs were interested in exploring with us.


It really just looked like a lot of big pieces of wood laying around, but I promise you, they were rocks!


You can even see the tree rings in the logs.

There were literally hundreds of big logs laying around. It was an amazing find, and we enjoyed the hours we spent exploring the area!


I put together a slide show of 26 pictures (at the right) for you to look at, if you are interested.
We came home Saturday afternoon, cleaned up quickly, and hurried to the Bishop's office (we had a message about meeting with him Saturday evening). I was extended a calling to serve in the Relief Society Presidency. So on Sunday I was sustained and set apart. It's a blessing to serve the sisters of the Relief Society, and I am grateful for the call. I'll be responsible for the Home, Family, and Personal Enrichment Meetings and Activities, so I'm sure my life will get even busier than it already is!
This morning (Monday) Don left on a five-day back packing trip with his Varsity Boy Scouts. His pack weighed just over 50 pounds. He's really excited to have the time to go hiking, fishing, camping, etc. with the boys and the other leaders. The dogs and I will have to hold down the fort without him. This will be the first time in our 15 years of marriage that we will be apart for more than one night. I hope he has a great time, but I will be glad when he comes home!

Sunday, May 17, 2009

The New Normal

I've decided that being "too busy" is the new normal for us. But it's all good, and I'm not complaining. The housework suffers once in a while, but not the things that matter most.

We started the week with a family night activity devoted to preparing for Don's upcoming 5-day backpacking trip with his scouts. We made Logan Bread (more like a cookie) which is full of calories and includes things like peanut butter, dried fruits, grains, honey, and nuts. It will be something for Don to snack on while he's hiking.


A tray of Logan Bread.

Tuesday night Don had scouts and I worked on the service project that I'll be doing with the young women at girls' camp next month.

On Wednesday we had a Home Owner's Association barbecue (yummy) and meeting (which I had to run since I am still the president of the association). The food was great, and it was good to see friends from our old neighborhood again.


I thought that Thursday would bring me some free time, but it wasn't meant to be. We took another call. This week we took calls for 2 rattle snakes, a Gila monster, and a very cute, but bothersome, rock squirrel running around a Factory 2 U store. It took a couple of days to catch it, and then we relocated it.

On Friday we had a delightful time at a graduation party for Kaytie who is graduating from the University of Arizona with a degree in elementary education! YEA KAYTIE!!! We are so excited for you! You chose a great profession, if I do say so myself! It was fun for me to play guitars and sing with Austin (who is now in law school) and Kaytie (who has landed a teaching job for the upcoming school year). I used to teach them guitar lessons when they were much younger, and Kaytie used to teach my girls dance lessons when they were just little girls...and they are now grown. Where does that time go???



Singing outside.



Kaytie with her very pleased (and rightfully so) parents.


Austin with his wife and cousin, Billy.
We had a wonderful time and enjoyed great food. Carol is a wonderful cook!

Since Tuesday was our 15th anniversary, we took time Saturday to eat at the Olive Garden and watch the new Star Trek movie (yes, we liked it).
Today, Sunday, was a joyful day as Nathan was ordained a high priest and put into the Bishopric in his ward, and our good friend and former bishop was made the new stake president in the Rincon stake. It is a privilege to serve in the kingdom of God, and we are happy for these two remarkable men and their wonderful families.

Monday, May 11, 2009

TOO BUSY!

I thought that when I stopped working full time teaching school that I would have all kinds of time to myself...but that just hasn't happened! The weeks are so busy! No pictures this week--sorry. I just wanted to say that all is well and we are happy. For Mother's Day, the girls came over and had dinner and spent time with us, and Nathan called from Germany. The kids sure make me happy no matter how old they get! The day before Mother's Day, my sister and I took my mom out to lunch and had a fun time. Don did a back packing overnight trip Friday and Saturday with his Boy Scouts and enjoyed that. The garden is growing...finally. Now I need to go pull weeds. We worked on calls this week for bats and rattlesnakes. With the warm weather we are seeing more and more snakes.

I'll try to write more next week! Hope you all are well!

Sunday, May 3, 2009

The Never-Ending Battle

These last couple of weeks we have felt like we were having a never-ending battle with the critters who want to live in our garden. They love the moist ground and the sprinklers (that come on twice a day), the tender young plants (that they have eaten), and the seeds (that they have also dug up and eaten).

We started the battle by getting rid of the gophers. They were so distructive to the roots of the plants and to the plants themselves. Then the ground squirrels moved in. We trapped and relocated them only to have the pocket mice move in next. We trapped them and gave them a new home way out back; they, of course, returned (we know this because Don put a stripe of red paint on their tails when he let them go the first time). So, we trapped them AGAIN and found them a new home much farther away from our house. Hopefully they won't come back this time. Then the birds took over the garden, bathing in the water and eating the seeds. And now the temperature is getting hotter and hotter (we are supposed to reach 100 degrees F. this week) and the plants need to be protected from the sun. AAHHH!!!

After dealing with all of these problems, our garden looks like a fortress! There is shade cloth over the top (so the sun doesn't scorch everything), and bird netting all around the sides to keep out the birds and the crawling critters. We even had to net the side where the fence is because the squirrels were coming in through the chain link fence.

I had to plant seeds again and get them growing since most of the garden has been munched by the critters. The new seedlings are more than ready to plant, but we didn't want to put them out in the garden untill we could protect them. Tomorrow we will be planting again. We will also begin growing more seedlings. All that is left in the garden right now are a few tomatoes plants, some green beans, some corn, and some squash.

These are some of the seedlings on the back porch that will be planted tomorrow.


This is a view of the side yard with the garden as seen from the west/southwest.


Below is a view from the north end of the garden. That's an orange tree growing in front. There is also a grapefruit tree, a walnut tree, and a grape vine growing in this area. In the front of the house we have planted two peach trees, two apricot trees, and one more walnut tree.

I hope we are here long enough to harvest fruit from our trees. If not, then the people who come after us will have fresh fruit to enjoy.