Dehydrating

I cut up some of the apples from Mom's tree and dried them today. I put cinnamon on some of them, yumm!!

Another beautiful sunset . . in the east! I just love when the sky gets this beautiful pink and blue coloring!

Snow Day

We got snow during the night. Not much, just enough to cover the ground and make the roads slippery. John had to drive to work on the icy roads this morning. Yuck, but only 3 more days, then he won't have to worry about snowy roads!

The free class I'm taking from Jessica Sprague started this morning and I've already completed my first assignment, a cover for my journal. I'm still waiting for my order of presentation paper to get here, so I just printed it out on card stock to see how it looks and I'll print it on the right paper and glue it on later.

Wintery Weather

We woke up to the sound of the wind howling! About 11, I noticed it was quiet, so decided if I was going to get a walk in, I'd better go. I went out to get John and noticed little white flakes coming down. We went anyway and got snowed on lightly. By the time we got to the end of the street, the wind was back, so we walked home with the wind in our faces, burrr!!! I'm so ready for summer now.

John is working on a commission. It's a Christmas gift, so shhhh, don't tell that I let you have a sneak peek!

Walking and Creating

We ventured out for a walk this morning. Burrr, it was cold out! I almost bought a Cody Lundin hat the other day at Wal Mart and I was so wishing I had today! Next time we go its on my list! No more cold ears! We've been seeing lots of deer tracks in the road and today we actually saw the deer!! I managed to catch them as they ran away. Of course my camera was turned off and slung across my back when we spotted them, so it took me a few precious moments to get ready to shoot and they were well on their way by the time I took this shot.

John has been working on his new horse today. It's looking pretty cool! Love the neat gears and gauges he added.

Black Friday

This was our recorded low for last night! The sensor is close to the house, so it always reads higher than the real temp, so it was COLD last night!

Black Friday and can you believe we didn't go out to do any shopping today! Andy did pick up a couple things for me at Wal Mart, my printer died on me the other day and he found a good bargain for me. He's always looking out for a good deal for me!

John got these wire spools yesterday from the junk pile at work to make a headboard for the studio bed. We've just had a mattress on the floor and picked up a box spring and frame the other day in Showlow and we needed a thin headboard. Years ago, we made one from a spool and it looked so cool! We gave it away when we got a bigger bed and it was too narrow. It's going to look good!

It's Here! (Thanksgiving and snow!!)

It snowed during the night! We noticed it when John was leaving for work, it was dark and we couldn't see the snow falling, but the sky was pink so we knew it was snowing. Here's what my flash showed up.

Here's my lunch, isn't it festive!

Here's the yard about 2 pm. The snow didn't stick around for long!

I heated up the turkey dinner and we had a second Thanksgiving feast this evening. John got a Prime Rib dinner at work that he said was excellent! They have been having cookouts and dinners at work all week, so he said he's getting pretty stuffed! They are using John as their excuse, as going away parties for him. He got a card signed by his co-workers with some $ in it this afternoon. Nice of them to think of him!

Wednesday

Yikes, tomorrow is Thanksgiving! I wasn't going to do a dinner, but decided even if it is just me, I was going to get a turkey and cook it. Here's my cute little turkey and the fixings.

Cold Weather is still with us!

It was cold and breezy again today. The wind is blowing pine cones and a few branches off our trees.

Here's John's new horse, he's using lots of stainless steel, so it's going to be shinier than any other he's done.

The weather outside is frightful!

We walked this morning, it wasn't bad until we got way down the road by the windmill, then the wind suddenly picked up and the temperature dropped dramatically and it was hard making it home walking against the wind! I just realized the other day while walking here, that the land in this photo used to belong to my great-grandfather and my grandmother was born not far from here!

John had today off for his Thanksgiving holiday. He has to work on Thanksgiving day, bummer! He's started working on another horse sculpture, we need one to take with us to our January shows. The customer that purchased Rocky called and wants Farm Boy to give her daughter for a Christmas gift, so we are out of horses.

WIND!

It's been a horribly windy day! Jessie spent most of the day with us, she painted with John and made an autograph book with me. We had a good time! She told me the meaning of her painting, the heart with the circles around it represent the safety of family and all around it is the chaos of the world.

We saw the burned area as we took her to meet her Dad, lots of black. I'm thinking that a control burn got out of control and ran away in the wind.

We got a bit of moisture on our trip, not much. Susan is on her way to pick her Mom up in Payson and called Andy and said she was hitting some heavy snow and could hardly see! Hope she makes it okay!

We had a beautiful full moon tonight.

Work Day

Work day at Mom's. We took Jessie down with us and Andy and family came over and Susan and the kids helped Carleen and Mom mulch and rake up the leaves and bag them and clean her yard. Mom fed us a yummy lunch of BBQ burgers, salads and chocolate cake for dessert.

While the kids were cleaning up the leaves, John and Andy rerouted her internet cable through the attic, it's been going through her window and she couldn't close it completely!

I did a bit of decluttering on Mom's computer and Andy removed some programs to hopefully help it run faster. Robbie came down and we had a good visit with her and I showed her how to do some things she was wanting to learn on her computer. I brought home a little photo to scan for her, a cute little Robbie when she was about 3.

The wind started picking up after lunch and by the time we headed for home it was pretty strong. A storm is headed our way with wind and maybe some snow.

On the way home we ran into an area of thick smoke and wondered what was going on, then we started seeing fire, quite a large area on both sides of the Springerville to ShowLow highway with spots of red fire showing! It was about 5 or 6 miles from town. Glad the wind was blowing the smoke away from town! Hope they get the fire out before it gets to any houses!

ShowLow trip and a visit from Jessie

John and I got up early and headed out for ShowLow to do some shopping. We saw this herd of antelopes and I was lucky and got the camera out and turned on in time to capture them! Whew!

We came home up over the mountain so we could drive through the forest and see if there was any snow left and there was a bit on the ground in spots.

Jessie was planning to come home with us tomorrow from Grandma's house, but decided she'd like to come a day early, so she called to see if that was okay with us. We met Andy and Susan at the midway and picked her up. Here we are on our way out of town.

Last Night Shift

John worked his last night shift last night! Only 7 days shifts left to go.

I went for a walk while he slept and added a bit to my distance. I went up the hill to a cattleguard before turning around. The hill is covered with loose dirt and stones and I fall down easily, so I had to slow way down coming down the hill. So, I don't think I'm going to venture up it on a daily basis.

Here's what the Paved road surface I walk on looks like up close.

I'm Back!

I've been without internet access since Sunday afternoon, my modem died and it took until this morning to get a new one! Frontier's call in tech support is bad, if they can't fix it over the phone and have to call someone out, I think they send the request all the way from Florida to here by way of pony express!!

It's still cold and I didn't walk again, mostly because my ankle is bugging me, it got injured yesterday and is still sore and achy.

Seeing Red

I have more chili's ready to pick. Yumm! There are also new flowers, on the plants. I hope they will make more chili, but I'm not sure if they will self pollinate.

John started his last set of night shifts last night. Only 2 more to go! I didn't walk this morning, I overdid it yesterday and my calf is really sore! I've been seeing lots of ravens flying around lately. They like to land in this tree.

Cold and cloudy

Our internet went out Sunday, so I'm catching up my posts later.

We went for a short walk this morning. It was pretty cold and windy, so we only went across the highway. But it was lucky for me, I saw another penny! Makes me wonder how they were lost?

Glanced out the window and saw this tumbleweed tumbling down the street.

John took a pie to work and brought the leftovers home. The crust wasn't quite done, so we fried it today. Turned out pretty good!!

I thought it was going to snow this afternoon, it was cold and cloudy and we did get a bit of rain, but no snow.