Driving Miss Allis

Nice weather is back today, yea! Some of my beans were nipped by frost while we were gone, probably Saturday night when it was so cold at the barn. I replanted the nipped ones in case they don't recover and we watered this morning.

John replaced the gas in Allis and he and Jessie took her for a ride this morning. Jessie got to drive, she drove a couple blocks and John said she did a great job! Yea Jessie!

Jessie and I ran to the store this afternoon to find a repair for my soaker hose that is leaking and went by the high school on our way. The area in front of the school is open now and lots of people were stopping and taking photos. We noticed that a couple people had brought flowers for the family killed in the crash and so we got some flowers and a butterfly and went back and left them. By the time we got back there were several groups of flowers and a guy from news channel 12 was there and asked if he could film us putting our flowers down. I told him he could Jessie, but not me, LOL! So he shot her putting our flowers with the rest of them and when I went to fasten the two together so the butterfly wouldn't blow away, I think he got me, too! Wonder if we'll make it on the news tonight? We found out from the newsman that they have identified the people in the plane, it was a family, father, mother, and two daughters. So sad! They still don't know the cause of the crash.

Burrr, is it Summer or Not?

It got pretty cold last night and we had to turn on the furnace to keep warm! It felt like winter! It's still cold today, not as windy as yesterday, but when the breeze did blow, it was a cold one!

Jessie worked on her painting this morning, Monna gave her some tips and helped her a bit. They both said it was a hard paint by number and there isn't enough paint to finish it up.

Alan and Vicki had to leave early, so Jessie and I watched their booth for them.

Valerie set Jessie up with all the stuff to make a bracelet, so sweet of her! Jessie loved being able to pick through Val's bead stash and made a cute bracelet!

While Jessie was sitting out on the back porch, she saw a squirrel make itself at home on one of Matt's chairs! She borrowed my camera to take some pictures and went hunting to find the squirrel, she got several shots and had fun stalking him.

We had to go back to the barn to get some stuff I'd forgotten and decided as long as we were so close, we'd get a Little Caesars Pizza for supper. Yumm, it tasted good! Jessie continued spotting wildlife for us on the way home! She spotted two elk grazing among a herd of cows. This time John and I were quick enough to see them too.

Is Winter Back?

We checked out the crash area on the way to the barn this morning, the area is still roped off so we couldn't get close, but we could see enough to see some of the devistation of the burned area. So sad!

We spotted lots of wildlife on the way to the barn today, here's a prong horn we saw. Jessie is good at spotting wildlife, she spotted several animals we missed, including a nursing baby deer. It was cloudy and the road was wet in spots and we even saw a bit of snow along the road side!

It was so COLD and windy today. We all about froze! I was dressed in short pants for hot weather, and was cold all day! It felt like winter was back. I heard that the low was 38 last night!

Braving the cold and the wind, Jessie and I went out on a golf ball hunt, she spotted some on the way in to the barn and wanted to see if there were more. She had a great time, she said it was like an Easter Egg hunt, she found 17 golf balls! I think they are stray balls from the practice range across the street in the golf course. I'm surprised no one has ever been hit by one flying across the road!

We had more people today than I expected, even though we couldn't put out signs in Pinetop. They are getting strict and told us we can't have any signs within the Pinetop city limits.

Jessie and I went shopping this afternoon to find some crafts for her to work on to keep her occupied this weekend. We found a few things that she liked. Well, okay we did make a few other stops just for fun.

Tonight, we tried out the propane BBQ grill we picked up at Walmart yesterday and BBQ'd Hot Dogs for supper. Yumm! Then we watched a movie on Hulu. Pretty cool to be able to have a big choice of movies to watch!

Disaster Strikes Our Town

At about 2 this afternoon a small plane crashed into our high school. The two people in the plane were killed, either on impact or when the plane exploded shortly after impact. No one on the ground was hurt. The plane was sighted wobbling and flying low by a homeowner out in his yard, who said it was so close to him, he instinctively ducked thinking it was going to hit him. He saw the pilot waving his arm out the window as he approached the soccer field, maybe trying to get the people on the ground to run out of the way. He then crashed into the roof of the high school. Five hours later, the fire is still burning with smoke pouring out of the building.

We started our day by going to Show Low, where John had an appointment with the dentist for x rays to check his jaw bone to see if it is dense enough to insert the implant. It's not quite ready, so we made an appointment for another x ray in July to check on it. We went to Wal Mart to shop, I'm beginning to hate going to that store, I can't find anything, they moved everything around in the remodel and I go here and there searching for the things I need. They're going to break me of going there if they don't hurry up and finish. The parking lot was a mess today, they are resurfacing it and most of it was roped off so all the cars were scrunched into a little space. We got that ordeal over and headed for home to finish up things we needed to do. As we were heading downtown to wash the car and take Jessie to see "Grandpa Steve" we saw the smoke and investigated to see where it was coming from. We were afraid it was a forest fire. It ended up being as bad as that! We could see that the fire was at the high school, but didn't know the cause until we saw Steve and he told us. Jessie was so glad to see him and was full of hugs for him. I think he was just as glad to see her! He has finished painting the mural on the north wall and the one on the east wall. They look awesome!

Windy

The wind started early this morning, I watered while it was just a bit breezy, now it's picking up. Wonder if it will blow in some rain? The last couple days, I've noticed a good smell when I'm outside. I wonder if it's the locust tree? It's strange, when I go up to the tree and smell the flowers, I can't smell anything, but that good smell tantalizes us on the breeze. I thought it might be these flowers, but when I get close to them, they don't have a smell that I can detect.

After John got home from work we took a sign he made over to the Floy Cemetery. He learned about it recently from Andy and wanted to make a sign as the only one there has faded until it's not readable. There are a few headstones there, I think they are newer ones, replacements placed later. I wonder how many graves are unmarked? This is the headstone of two of the children of my Great-Uncle Edward and his wife.

Jessie came home with us to spend a few days.

Why's the Wind Coming Back??

Spent the morning outside working. I cleaned up our outdoor living area, can't wait to sit around a fire and roast some hot dogs.

I had planned to roast hot dogs there for supper, but the wind came up and it was too windy to start a fire, so we BBQ'd them and ate inside. Wind, wind, go away!

John noticed Steve's car parked at the drug store so we went down to see his mural. John saw him a while back and he told him he was going to be painting one. It's awesome!

My Seeds Are in the Ground!

Feeling better today. Lots of water and electrolytes fixed me up. I planted corn, lettuce, carrots, the rest of my onion sets and beets this morning. I have only one of my half barrels left to plant now.

A Puny Kind of a Day

John and I are both feeling kind of puny today, the after effects of having a bit of heat exhaustion yesterday, I think. It got hot so quickly this year that we haven't had time to get used to it. And the Art Barn was so hot!

As if that wasn't enough, I'm having trouble with a couple of my external drives. One won't start up, I did a bit of trouble shooting and I think the line after the transformer is dead. I thought I could find another cord to use, but none of them have a matching hookup that will fit. The other one was making a funny sound when I turned it on last and I'm afraid the drive is going bad. I wonder how much it would cost to send it to get the data recovered from it?

On a happier note, my plants are looking good, the tomatoes and peppers are growing like weeds inside their little protective walls, the square foot gardens were a bit dry, but the plants up look okay, so hopefully the seeds that haven't sprouted yet didn't get too dry. I have a few plants popping up, I see cucumbers and lettuce! And look at my Virginia Creeper, it's looking good!

HOT!!

We took a backwards route through the golf course on our early morning walk today, we started out on the highway and took one of the cart paths where it intersects the road. I looked for the little goose family, but didn't see them today. They live on the shores of this lake.

John started on a big pueblo scratchboard today. It's looking good! We had a visit from two of our old customers, it was good to see them again and catch up on how they are doing.

It was HOT today! Summer is finally here! I'd forgotten just how hot the Art Barn can get. There is nowhere to go to get cool and by the end of the day I had a mild case of heat exhaustion. Not good!

We took a different way home, John found out about it from one of the guys at work, it's a fire escape road, in case they have to evacuate the area around the barn due to a fire and other routes are closed. It was a narrow dirt road, but was a scenic and beautiful drive. It tied back in to the highway at McNary.

We got rained on on the way home, good to see the rain come!

Look at our gorgeous sunset!

It's Getting Warmer!

We enjoyed our early morning walk through the golf course this morning

and spent a quiet day at the Art Barn. Show Low Days is going on this weekend, and so we had light traffic.

We ate pizza and salad with Monna for supper, then ran to the store to find a cooler shirt for John. We were expecting cool weather like last weekend and didn't come prepared with cool clothes and it was hot today! We checked out the movies on Hulu this evening, several of us went in on high speed Internet for the barn, so we can get connected easier. We watched a bit of a Flintstone movie, Viva Rock Vegas, I think it was called. I didn't know we could watch movies and TV on the computer, what fun!

Cow Tipping?

I found one of my thundering herd tipped over this morning. Do we have cow tippers here?

I got everything ready to go and when John got home from work, we headed for the barn. We had another meeting of the artists to go over some things that didn't seem to get understood at our last meeting. It went pretty well. After the meeting, we BBQ'd steaks, they were yummy! Here's the lighted path to the barn, it looks pretty cool at night.

Our Locust Tree Says Spring is Finally Here!

Our Locust tree says it's finally spring! After a spring when it leafed out and then froze, it waits until it's sure it's safe to put out leaves. It has suddenly leafed out in the last few days and is sporting its beautiful yellow color. Shouldn't be long until it blooms.

Worked in my garden this morning while it was cool out. It's looking pretty good!

After it got hot out, I finished scanning John's scratchboards. I still need to rescan one that we scanned with the old scanner and it need redoing, then I'll be caught up until he finishes up the ones he's working on now.

Gardening

I got most of my gardens planted today. A couple of the tomatoes I planted have blossoms already! I ran out of corn seed and need to get more and I have a few squares in another box left un-planted. I'm sporting lots of green walls-o-water!

My grape vine looks good and there are lots of little grapes.

I also finished scanning John's scratch boards today, now I need to stitch and clean up the scans.

Wow, It's June Already!

Saw the doc today, my thyroid levels are in the normal range now, so I'm to continue on with the same dosage and get my blood tested again in September. He said once it's stable, I will only need to be tested once a year.

John had today off, since he was off on Memorial Day, today is his holiday. He made green chili beans for supper, yummm!

Carleen and Mom brought Carleen's tiller up and John fixed her starter rope. It wouldn't retract last time she used the tiller. I had a fun time tending Ani while Carleen helped John. She was so good and calmly laid in my arms, except for the times when she decided my face needed licking, LOL.

Memorial Day

We walked again this morning. We took a path until it intersected a road and followed the road back to the barn. We saw this interesting rock that looked like an animal.

Last day of the festival. One of the vendors was wanting photos taken of her jewelry so she could get juried into another show and Alan asked if I'd be interested. She has some cool stuff, it's fused glass like Diane does. She even paid me to do it! Cool.

I bought one of the cool hats that most of the vendors have been wearing, mine is blue, I love the style of the hats, very cool!

Closing time was 3 pm, but as usual, we had a flurry of last minute lookers and a bit of rearranging to do before we left. All the artists put something out in the aisle, we put the 2 spools with sculptures on them out. First thing I did when we got home was check on my garden and water everything. It all looks good, my onions are getting green tops now, yea!

Memorial Day Festival Day 2

We saw this cute little family out looking for breakfast on our walk this morning. It was cold, we even saw a bit of ice on one of the benches on the golf course! My ears were frozen by the time we got back and I wished I'd brought a knit cap to wear.

One of the visitors today was riding this cool looking bike. Someone said it was made by Schwinn and is circa 1917. It says Excelsior on the bike, so I'm not sure he is right about it being made by Schwinn. It was so loud and spewed lots of smoke, I thought it was because it's so old, but apparently they were like that when new. I watched the rider start it, it has pedals that he spun with his feet and then the engine started. I wonder if you can pedal to go and not start the engine?

We're Open!

We started the day with a walk through the golf course. There are lots of different paths that we can take and we tried out a different one today. As we get tougher, we will venture out on the longer paths.


We all take turns cleaning the barn and we signed up for this weekend, so we swept and cleaned when we got back. This was our opening day and lots of people showed up! The day started out slow for us, but we did get a few people stopping in and had a couple of people interested in custom scratch boards. One wants a car and another is interested in a horse and rider. Cool. We made one big sale today, one couple bought 3 originals and a giclee print! John spends his time in the booth working on new scratch boards. People like to watch him scratch and are interested in how it's done.

The Beginning . . .

We started our day with a walk in the golf course. I'm looking forward to a summer of our early morning walks there, it's one of my favorite things about being at the Art Barn!

We finished setting up and made a run home this afternoon to get a few items to add to the booth. Everyone in the barn is set up and ready for the big day tomorrow. We stopped and got photos of a couple things we'd noticed on our trip over on Tuesday, I spotted an interesting group of cut logs and John saw an old concrete mile post. It was different from what we were expecting it to be, there are no raised numbers on it. Guess they made different styles over the years.

The outside vendors were starting to show up when we got back and things are lively and hopping at the Barn!

I BBQ'd chicken for supper, I tried out a new recipe for a rub that I turned into a marinade and it was so good! We invited Monna to eat with us, she supplied a salad to go with our meal, yumm!