Kirsten's Visit.......

Kirsten arrived at 8:30 a.m. and we headed to Benson, Arizona where the Karchner Caverns awaited us. We had a wonderful 1 1/2 hour tour. To learn more just type in Karchner Caverns on the web address or search engine. Very educational and enjoyable. The humidity was 98% and the temp was about 80 degrees in the cavern. Outside it was 10% humidity and 95 degrees! There are actually two tours but one is closed for the summer while the bats are producing their young.

Loved this unusual plant and its bloom!



The first thing you see when entering Tombstone is the Boothill Graveyard. Lots of piles of rocks to mark the graves.

Loved the story of the world's largest rose. I've wanted to see this for the last two years but never had the chance until now. The story is that the young bride was homesick for her home in Scotland and her family sent her some native plants. Among them was the Lady Banks rose start. This has grown to cover 8,700 square feet and has beautiful white blooms.

The trunk is huge - I've heard 12 feet in circumference!!! It looks like that is true!

Papa & Kirsten posing for me.

In the pool in the late afternoon for 1 1/2 hours and again at 7:40 a.m. for another 1 1/2 hours!

Old wild west comedy gunfight. Reminded me of the Apple Dumpling Gang with Tim Conway and Don Knotts!!! These guys were Waco and Percy.

Stopped by the garden on the way home. Here is our little watermelon. It is coming along quite nicely.

Kirsten and Duchess getting acquainted! I think it was love at first sight!

Gardening Arizona Style continued.......

I got to the garden about 6:45 this morning and already the sun was warm. Good thing I decided to go early - partly I decided that because I needed to be at our church building at 8 a.m to help clean. Larry had been to the garden two days ago and harvested yellow squash, zucchini, & one tomato. I ate the whole tomato by myself and it was even better than the last home-grown one that I remember! I was facing the sun when I took these pictures (sorry about the quality) because it was still a little muddy from the last flow of irrigation. That reminds me - try to get a visual of this: When Larry went to the garden he had on flip flops and the garden was even wetter than it was today. He picked the veggies and tried to only walk on the tops of the rows. Well, his foot slipped and he got his shoes muddy so he sat on the little bridge over the irrigation ditch to clean them. Guess what? Yep, one shoe started floating downstream! And at such a swift rate he knew he couldn't catch it so he jumped on his white stallion (I mean he got into his car) and sped down the lane until he was past where the shoe would be, jumped off his steed (I mean he got out of the car), raced to the ditch and saved the fair damsel!!! (I mean retrieved his shoe!!!) My hero! Oh how I wish I could have been there to catch this on video!!!

The water is not flowing today but you can see the little bridges along the way.

Todays bounty!

When I got home I noticed our cactus in the backyard had presented me with a beautiful bloom!

Camping & fishing.........

We headed back to Canyon Lake because we could camp by the water and take the boat out easily. What we forgot was that the campsites are close together, people use foul language, people like to party, & people like to listen to loud music!! Wouldn't it be nice if all campgrounds had family-friendly areas that are free from drinking, smoking, crude language, and profane lyrics to music that blasts across the lake for all to hear - whether they want to or not?

One of my favorite color combinations - green and blue.

Our little boat was adequate for Larry & I plus Duchess. She was so good in the boat. Mostly she sat across my lap and rested her head and paws on the side of the boat. She occasionally saw another dog out in a boat and had to bark her greeting.

Duchess resting up. She didn't get many naps this weekend because there was too much to see and do!

Duchess had her first in-the-lake-water-experience this weekend. She loved the water!

Our camp neighbors brought an inflatable large screen for their projection TV. Thankfully they played G-Rated movies for their kids and any others who wanted to watch.

All Dogs Go to Heaven........

Life has been good for the little dog that wandered into our lives almost seven years ago. She liked living the life of top dog in our home. We hadn't meant to get another dog but one day I saw a stranded dog by the side of a country road with cars and trucks flying by at 60 mph and knew she wanted to get to the other side. I knew that if someone didn't stop to help her she was going to be hit by one of those vehicles or cause a horrible accident. I pulled over to the opposite side of the road and when the traffic cleared I called to her. I told her she was safely across and could venture out into the 1,000 acres in front of her. She just stood there looking at me with those big brown puppy-dog eyes! What could I do??? I told her to get into the car. She did - and sat on my lap for the few miles over to Todd & Serina's home where I got enough dog food to last a few days. After all, I would find her owners and give her back. I called the local newspaper when I got home and asked them if they had anyone looking for their little dog. I was told there was someone, she thought, and would go check. My heart dropped but I waited patiently for her to come back on the line. When she did she said she was wrong - her co-worker had found the same dog and had placed an ad to find her owners but she has escaped from her back porch. The newspaper assured me they would let me know if anyone answered the ad looking for her. Not knowing if she was male or female I decided to name her Lady if she was a girl and Tramp if she was a boy. She seemed to know her name from that very first day - wonder if her previous owners had used the same handle for her??? A month went by and no one had claimed her so I claimed her as mine. I wondered what her story was and hoped that she had had a good life prior to her life with us. Well it took Larry about a month before she wormed her way into his heart - it was interesting to see his transformation from aloofness to 100% smitten with her! The vet said she was probably 4-6 years old. I remember being sad thinking that meant less years she would be ours. Funny how those thoughts come into your head sometimes.

Snickers and Lady became best friends.

Life is good.

First meeting with Duchess. We took Lady with us to pick out the new pup.

Duchess looks pretty innocent here but the real story is is that she wore Lady out and this was the only second Duchess stayed still long enough to get a clear picture of the two of them.

These are the big brown puppy-dog eyes that got to me that first day!

Lady went deaf about three years ago. She seemed to do just fine with her silent world and appreciated our pats and loving attention.

This past year she really began to show her age and started losing weight. She would sometimes have a problem walking on our tile floors but the past few days she could not stand at all. We knew the time had come to let her go and that was probably the hardest thing to do - just making that decision. I was in the car this morning and heard a song on the radio that I had never heard of before. It was written by Henry Gross when Carl Wilson (of the Beach Boys) dog died. It was my confirmation that today was the day.

I believe that life really began for Lady on June 20, 2003 and ended today, May 1, 2010. I was able to be with her until the end and then brought her home and we buried her in the backyard. We're looking forward to having you in our lives again some day Lady Dog. We miss you and love you! Thanks for choosing us to share your last years.

Tamales in the making.......

A bunch of us got together Thursday evening to make homemade tamales. I have to admit that I really didn't have a fondness for tamales before moving to Arizona. The main reason was that where I came from they came out of a can and were wrapped in paper. They were okay but nothing to write home about. Then we moved to Arizona and I had my first homemade tamale! What a difference!!! I love tamales!!! We learned how to make the masa, put it on the corn husks, fill with one of the fillings - we had green chili & cheese, pork with and without barbecue sauce, chicken, and even strawberry tamales! We made about 120 tamales that night and each took home a boatload for our familias!! The tamales then had to be steamed for about an hour before eating. Delicious!!! (I got so involved I forgot to take pictures while making the tamales.) We also learned to make a fantastic salsa - just in time for Cinco de Mayo!!!! Ole!

December 1965..............

One night when Jacob was about five years old we were looking through our family photo album when we came upon this picture. I said, "Jacob here is a picture of your mother and father." He looked at the picture and then started to cry! I immediately said, "Jacob what is the matter?" He replied, "I didn't know I was adopted!" I looked at him and said, "This is your dad and me!" He looked at the picture again, stopped crying, and said, "Oh!"



The picture was taken at Larry's great grandparents home in Sumner, Washington. We had known each other for six months and were 18 and 16! We met when I was 15 and he was 17. (And they said it wouldn't last.)

Camping again.....

Before we could go camping we had to weed the garden. At 8 a.m. it was already getting warm so we packed up the car and stopped at the garden on our way to Dead Horse Ranch State Park in Cottonwood. We planted the garden four weeks ago - the first picture is looking out over many little gardens and the huge crop of corn planted by the owner of the farm.

Next is the zucchini which is about 1 1/2" long already! Then the tomatoes are coming along nicely!

We finished weeding - harvested about four pounds of weeds - and headed to the campsite. The first pictures are of the Verde River in the park. The water was deep and running fast.

It's refreshing to see these large trees. We didn't have any near our campsite though.

Love the hillsides with the little caves. Can imagine the Indians in the 1400's living in the cliff dwellings here.

Our new tent. It's a Coleman Instant tent. It measures 14'x10' and is supposed to be set up in 1 minute. It took us a little longer to figure it out but it still went up very quickly - faster than our little tent did! Taking it down was also supposed to be done in 1 minute and again it took us a little longer. Now that we know how to do it I think we will be able to do it in a minute!

On our way home we stopped at a roadside rest area that we've stopped at several times before. Love the views!

Duchess loves to socialize every where she goes. This little dog wanted to play but Duchess was not willing!

She stiffed this Great Pyrenees but that was it - they both went their own way. Go figure.