More snow

April 12. We watched as the sun tried to shine through a cloudy dawn and then little snow balls started falling. Burr, it's cold outside!

Gardening Workshops

What a weird day! It started out with snow, then the sun came out, then more clouds and snow.




This was the day of the Gardening Workshops and Mom and Carleen came up to go to them with me. We got some good information about seed starting and growing different kinds of gardens. Usually, most of the workshops are outside, but a few of them moved inside and we were so glad of that, it was a cold miserable day. We froze out at our last stop and left early, we were just too cold! Here's a picture of the cool light stand Patty made for her seed starts.

Spring blooms

John mentioned to me yesterday that there was a little tulip blooming out by the road. It's left over from long ago when the yard was arranged differently. The poor little thing never gets watered, but it keeps on blooming away. One day I'll remember to dig it up in the fall and replant it in a better place.

And more snow

It was quiet when we woke up this morning, so we knew it must be snowing and we were right, more snow. The good thing about snow this time of the year is that it doesn't stay around long. By midday, it had all melted away.

Wind and more wind!

We've gotten lots of wind and snow lately. The wind will howl for a day or two, then we hear the silence and we know it's going to be snowing when we look outside. Today was a day of wind, I caught this shot of the plastic covering my garden trying to blow away. Spring where are you? It's been such a cold spring so far.

Las Tusas

April 7. John worked a short day today and since it was a gorgeous day, we drove down to check up on the Las Tusas Cemetery after he got home. We got permission and materials from the State a couple years ago and fenced it and changed the drainage that was going to wash away graves and we wanted to check and see if water had inflicted any more damage. We found the wattles we'd placed in the drainage still there and the dirt was piling up against them and the diversion to the drainage up above the cemetery was still in place and there was no damage to the fence. All is well at Las Tusas tonight!

We went to St. Johns today so John could make some repairs on Mom's roof. We visited the courthouse while there so we could look at the historical photos on display. I copied a few of them, thought they were going to make me leave with my camera, but when John told them we just wanted to take pictures of pictures, he let us in with it. Boy have things changed, we had to go through a metal detector to get in and John had to leave his leatherman with the guard!


This is one of the photos we saw, St. Johns in 1911.

John's grasshopper

John is building a grasshopper! No, not the insect kind, this is a tool to help move big heavy pieces of steel.

Josh turns 12

Josh turned 12 day before yesterday and had a birthday party today. We were there along with other family and friends. Wow, how time has flown, Josh is growing up so fast!

Kerry Summers and a Blizzard!

Wow, what an adventure we had tonight! We've been hearing Mom talk about Kerry Summers for a year and a half now, she saw him on her New England cruise and became one of his biggest fans. Mom's wish came true tonight when Kerry performed in St. Johns. We braved the horrid wind and drove down to see the show and I'm so glad we went! We went early and got to meet and visit with Kerry before the show, he is such a nice person! The show was two parts, first he did magic tricks, he's a great magician and the kids totally loved this part! He invited several of the kids to come up and help him with tricks. He had us all laughing as his magic was inter-spiced with jokes. He also sang a couple of songs in the magic part, a Roy Orbison song and he played the trumpet and sang a Louie Armstrong song, that was so funny, he put a mask of Louie in front of his face while he sang. He also had puppets and is a good ventriloquist, he had a rabbit puppet and then a sock puppet that was so funny, he had a little girl in the audience come up and kiss the puppet and then said, did you realize you just kissed a sock? Too funny, then he had a guy in the audience come up, he said he couldn't get his big puppets on an airplane to bring with him, so he came up with a puppet face he put on people. It was so funny, the face was only the lower part, mouth and jaws and he had a string tied on and Kerry would pull the string to make him talk and sing. He did several songs, he was Roy Rogers and Willie Nelson and at times he'd ask the puppet if he wanted to sing another song and Larry would shake his head no while Kerry was saying yes I would for him. He had us all cracked up, it was so funny!

After the magic show we had a short intermission and then Kerry came back on as Elvis and sang several Elvis songs. He picked a person out of the audience to help with one song, said he could hear him singing along with him and wanted him to come up. He put an Elvis mask on him and told him to sing a part of the song, Kerry would sing, then stop for him to say "I'm all shook up" It was so funny, he got so into the part and was really hamming it up.

Like Elvis, Kerry had scarves he'd put around his neck and give out while he sang. And like on the cruise, he sang to Mom and gave her one and I got a pix of him kissing her on the cheek!


He acknowledged that she was instrumental in getting him to come to St. Johns. He made her feel like a queen and I could see why she likes him so much. We stayed after the concert and got autographs, I got one of his Elvis CD's and we visited again with Kerry and got a photo of all of us girls and Mom with him.

Then we had our second big adventure of the night. We left the auditorium and found a blizzard blowing! We dropped Mom and Carleen off and headed out for home. It was a white world and we could see only about 5 feet in front of us! Thankfully, the road was still clear and we navigated by the yellow and white lines on the road! Then as we got to Lyman, the road was white too and we had to feel our way by traveling along the rumble strip! Luckily, visibility got a bit better after that and the road went back to black. What is normally a 30 to 40 minute trip took us over an hour at about 35 mph!

John's horse

One of John's favorite things to sculpt are horses. They are also one of his most popular. This one has spent the winter in our yard and now his time with us is limited. One of the guys at work wants to buy him, so I went out and took a few pictures to remember him by. I love this guys face.

John's boat shelves

John loves sailing vessels and people have given him several models of boats. I put them on shelves for him after we remodeled and here they are.

Snow again

We got snow again! The wind blows and howls, then we get a snow storm. John and I rode up Water Canyon road to look at the snow and I took a few pictures. It was beautiful, but didn't last long, by afternoon the sun was shining.

Blooming

I have a couple plants that friends from the Barn gave me last fall. Both are blooming right now and here's a flower from the one Gracie gave me.




This one is a geranium that Monna gave me, it's filled with red flowers right now and looks so beautiful.

Seedlings

My little tomato seedlings are coming along and I transplanted them to larger pots today. It's been a long time since I started my own plants, it's fun to watch them grow!

A Cold Snowy Dawn

We didn't get any new snow during the night and some melting had already started when I got up. Here's a picture of our cold snowy dawn.





And the yard early this morning after the sun came up.

So this is Spring?

Wow, what a day! It started out windy and just got worse and worse! We stopped in at Andy's to help install a part John made for his tractor, and the guys about got blown away and ended up with dirt in their ears and eyes! Then we rode over to WalMart to shop. The Suburban, heavy as it is, was feeling the strong gusts of wind and on our way home we noticed the sky was dark and blue towards Andy's and Mom's houses. We checked for Norman on our way past his birth spot, but all the cows were gone, so hopefully they found him and took him to a warmer place! Shortly after we got home Andy called to tell us it was snowing a blizzard at his house. Then it hit us, and by nightfall we had 4 inches on snow on the ground. Wow!



Ever wonder what horses do when it snows? I heard the pounding of hooves and went out to see what was going on. The 3 horses across the street were racing back and forth in their field. I wonder if they were just warming up or if they were playing and having fun? You can see how hard it was snowing, I could hardly see the horses and when they were at the back of the field, I could only hear them, not see them!

Our ponderosa tree all covered in white.

Traveling and the Miracle of Life

March 25. We traveled to St. Johns today planning to visit the Great-grandma's, but didn't get to visit with either. One was sick with a cold, and the other wasn't home. So, we stopped at Fina for pizza and headed for Jessie's house.





I think Jessie was glad to see her folks, she'd talked to them every day she was here, but it's just not the same as seeing them in person. We got to see their huge garden plot all plowed up with Allis' old plows and Jessie was excited to show them the seeds she got for them here at the drug store.





On the way home from Andy's John saw a cow giving birth so we stopped to watch. The mother was all alone in a field along the highway and was close to the fence where we got a good view of the event. This is the first time I've ever see a cow give birth and it was so cool! The calf was still at first and we worried that it was okay, but with lots of licking from the mom, it soon started stirring. Its attempts to stand had us laughing, he tipped over and fell flat the first few times. We named it Norman and cheered him on in his attempts and soon he was up and searching for his first meal. Here he is doing a headstand as he falls over on one of his first attempts.

And here he is after he was able to stand. It's amazing to me that this took such a short time.

A Busy Day

We helped John pour sidewalk this morning. It was COLD on the shadowed side of the house! We got it all poured and I only had to shed a tiny little bit of blood scraped off by a rusty bolt to get it done!

Then Jessie and I played a few games and devored a batch of yummy kettle corn. We helped John wash the pickup, Jessie inserted the coins in the machine, turned the knob and stood by in case Pa needed any help. I took this shot of her from inside the warm vehicle, looking through the pink soap!




Love this shot of our little glamour girl! No, she's really not wearing dark lipstick, it's just dark chocolate, LOL!

Spring is here!

The weather continues to be cold and breezy and so we went for a ride to find us some spring! We saw this gorgeous tree in bloom and stopped to take a few pictures of it.



While on our ride, John created a new game to play with Jessie, he asked her if she knew where we were when we'd been riding around for a while and if she could guide us home. After showing her north, south, east and west and she'd spotted flat top, she started guiding us down and across town until we ended up at a location where she recognized where we were and knew her way home. She did a good job of finding home! I think it's a great way to teach a child directions!

This afternoon Jessie and I made some jewelry while her "kids" took a nice long nap. Here she is checking on them and they were still sound asleep. She's making sure I don't make any noise while taking my picture and wake them up!

Jessie's Visit

Jessie is on spring break and came to spend a few days with us. One of her favorite things is to play the organ. She makes up her own music and comes up with some really good sounding creations!



The weather was cold and windy today, so we went shopping for seeds and then spent most of the day inside playing and watching TV.

5th Anniversary

Some of the family got together today in honor of Dad and the 5th anniversary of his death. We visited his grave and cleaned a bit and replaced the old faded flowers with fresh new ones.



Then we all gathered back at Mom's house for BBQ'd steaks, cooked by Sharla's fiance, Jaron. Yumm, were they good!


Mom had some excitement recently at her house, she came home to find the back yard and her woodpile and beautiful apple tree on fire! A call to 911 soon brought the fire department to her aid. Her neighbor had been burning weeds and I guess a spark got away and ignited the woodpile next to her fence and leaped up to start the apple tree on fire, then spread out across her lawn. Luckily, the house and her sheds didn't catch on fire!



The poor tree looks bad and Andy pruned some of the worst looking branches. We'll have to wait and see if any life is left in the remaining tree. The wood pile is a loss but the lawn will recover.

Poinsettia

My little poinsettia plant that I got for Christmas is still growing and looking pretty. I was trying to get a good picture of the tiny little tomato seedlings that just came up and they are sitting right next to my poinsettia so I shot it too. The camera refused to focus on the tomatoes, the dirt looks good, but the plants are all blurry so you get to see the poinsettia instead of my seedlings.

New Fence

We've decided to replace the open picket fence next to our house. We're going to put in a solid brick wall, about 6 feet high. The need for a sound barrier brought us to this decision, hopefully it will block the noisy dogs next door a bit!

Food for the Soul

We made our annual pilgrimage to the 20' falls today. I love to go there when the snowmelt is coming down the stream. The awesome roar of the water and the sheer force of nature at work as the water plunges down the sheer drop is always amazing to me and I love to sit and watch and listen. Awwww, food for the soul!

The first picture is taken from down below the falls. The water isn't at its highest peak yet and I was able to get up pretty close to the falls and could feel the spray on my face! The second picture was taken up the hill at the level where the water falls off the cliff.

We rode home through the woods, the same road we tried to come in on when we tried to get to the falls on March 8. Most of the snow has melted since then, although we did hit a few spots where there was snow on the road and some pretty muddy spots. Thank goodness for 4-wheel drive! We had a fun trip, it seemed so good to be able to get to the woods again! I'm looking forward to some camping trips this summer!

As we got to the turnoff to our street we could see flashing lights approaching from New Mexico way and stopped to see if it was more of the big trucks. Sure enough, it was another group of three and this time I got a picture of the truck as it went away from us and you can tell more just how huge the load the truck is carrying is!

A craving for squash!

Mel and Ruth gave us this winter squash last fall and I have been saving it for a moment when I just had to have some fresh squash. That day came today and we cut it open and I cooked a bit of it to eat some for a snack. Yumm, a little butter, salt and pepper and it was perfect! We had more of it later that evening with our supper. I'm going to save the seeds and try planting them this summer.

Where are they going?

We've been spotting a lot of trucks like this one traveling through town lately. They pass through in groups of three hauling thse huge things. John thinks they are blades for wind power generators, and they do look like that's what they are. They are really big, so huge that part of them hangs off the back end of the truck! Wow! We met this group of three on our way home from a trip to Show Low to see Dr. Flake. I wonder where they are headed?

Trip to New Mexico

March 15. John and I had cabin fever today and so we got sandwiches at Subway and rode out to Red Hill, New Mexico. We found the old house there remodeled and lived in and the old station has been turned into a land sales office. I always thought the place looked like it would be neat to live in, even though it's so far from any civilization. Now, everywhere we looked we could see signs of habitation, new homes going in and mailboxes set up by the highway, Red Hill isn't in the middle of nowhere anymore!

On the way back home, we stopped to look at a rock garden we found and visited years ago. It's such a cool place, it sits on the top of a hill and is surrounded by trees on the hill below and it's hidden from your view until you top out on the hill and suddenly you are there among all these beautiful rocks. Here are a few pictures I took, I think this first one looks like the face of a bearded man.

Charles sent us this picture of Nikki this morning. She is on a Girl Scout mystery trip this weekend. The girls loaded up in a bus late Friday night and drove all night and ended up at Disneyland! What a fun surprise this must have been for them. Can't wait to hear all about the trip from Nikki! Someone took this picture with their cell phone and sent it to Charles.