Finishing Projects

 We began the month of April by finally getting the solar panel up to power the automatic gate opener.

Putting up the solar panel for the gate opener

We enlisted Vince and Dawn’s help to lift the pole up. Larry rigged it up so it went up fairly easily and

then he, on top of the ladder, put the U-bolts on to hold it in place. He also fixed it so the panel can be

moved so it gets the maximum amount of sun. 

Larry put a sun shade over my garden and the plants seem to like the shade as they are really beginning to grow. The beets look great and I love the colors of the squash plants as they bloom. My tomato plant is doing well also.

   Squash plants in bloom

       Beets under the sun shade

Tomato plant between the squash plants

Larry saw that the structure moves in the wind so he took down the water pipe and put it against the

house where I thought it should have gone in the first place. We found a new Chinese restaurant after an incident at the old one and across the street from the new restaurant is an Ace Hardware which had a downspout (nobody else in town seemed to have them) so that gave Larry everything he needed to move the pipe and downspouts and he was able to finish that project too.   When we were at Loews looking for something else, we found some nice looking stepping stones so Larry put them down

between our side and the kid’s backyard. Larry did a great job of laying blocks down and Dawn liked

them so well she wants to use the same stones for her walkway. 

    Finished with all three downspouts

       Working on the downsprouts

                           Larry being a block layer

Finished with the path between our place and the backyard

We both have lost weight and Larry has lost so much his pants keep falling down so he got out his

commercial sewing machine and re-did his belts to keep his pants up. I’m so grateful he is so talented!

We have had many doctors appts. one of the many results of getting older, but all in all we both are in

fairly good health thankfully.

Larry sewing to made his belts smaller

We continue to play Train on Fridays but have changed the time to earlier in the day so Dawn can work outside in the evening and early night as it is just too hot in the AZ sun to work out there during the day. Her project is coming along nicely.

We also finally have one of our Christmas presents

up where it can be seen.  Thanks Rosie for your awesome gift!  

Lastly, we had a roadrunner visit our fence.  Not the best picture but he was very close.

        

Getting back in the Groove

We started the month of March out by having the diesel tank delivered. Once it was off the truck and

the delivery fellow had gone, with Vince's help we were lowering it down onto the roller cart when the

extension bar on the Port-a-Crane gave way and dropped the tank onto the cart! God is SO good as it

was only a foot from the cart, no one was hurt and neither was the tank. PTL!!             Once Larry painted the

back side of the tank, all four of us worked to get it into place. It took some 'doings' but we got it done.

PTL!      We were able to get the fuel delivered and Larry worked diligently to get the fuel line in place

and hooked up. He moved the fuel filter inside the bay on the driver's side (it was on the passenger's

side) and has both the furnace and the generator now hooked to the red fuel tank.

                    Bent arm that gave way

               Lowering the tank down

Hanging in the air after the truck left

              Taking the tank off the truck

                 Where we put the tank

                        

 

    The fuel filter in the drivers' side bay

     Protecting the fuel line under the MH

 Putting the fuel line in the crack Larry made across the driveway

Todd came to visit on Saturday March 12 and we had a wonderful visit!  He stayed six hours.

Dawn has been busy landscaping their back yard but it is taking her much longer than she anticipated.

Once she is finished it will be really awesome! 

                  Sneak peek at what she is doing

I've been walking almost daily once again and my ankle seems to be doing better each time I walk.

Larry decided we needed to put 'Soft Starts' on the A/C units so we can actually run two A/C's on 30

amps. Hopefully they will help with the electric bill this summer. Dawn and Vince had them put on

their A/C units and the units run quieter now and don't make a big 'thump' noise when they start or

stop. Our units seem to run quieter also. 

            On the roof putting the Soft Starts on

We have once again begun to attend church in person and going out for Chinese afterwards. It is good to get out and about!

We have had some really nice weather and I again leave you with a beautiful AZ sunset.  

Moving Forward Finally

 We started off the month going to our friend Tom’s 75th birthday party. This year only 50 showed up while for his 65th birthday, there were 150, perhaps due to the ongoing Covid? We had a good time and I won one of the ten door prizes, a huge cup filled with chocolates. I ate the chocolates and Larry is using the cup as he has been looking for a BIG cup for a long time now. We both were happy.

          Big cup from the birthday party

                 Tom and his wife Adele

    Larry and some of the party goers

The furnace started giving us a three blink code saying it didn’t want to work anymore. Larry investigated and found we needed a new fuel nozzle so he ordered one from OR and then he set the bay up so he could get into it from either side so he could replace the nozzle and also clean the burner mirror of soot. He was able to fix it just in time for a cold spell where the high was only 45º and the low was 36º, the coldest we’ve been this winter. God is good all the time!  

         Larry in the drivers' side of the furnace bay

Since we are not going to be mobile anymore and have the MH up on blocks, we decided to put in a 500 gallon diesel tank and have it filled with red diesel to run the furnace, water heater and generator. It took longer than we had planned to get the tank built since the fellow who is building it for us got Covid but we should have it soon so Larry bought cement blocks and set them up to hold the tank. He also cut the RV pad so he can run the fuel lines from the tank to the furnace. He was able to widen and deepen the crack that was already in the RV pad, using a saw he bought at the pawn shop and a drill/ jack hammer he purchased at the pawn shop some time ago. God is so good at providing for our needs! 

     

 Blocks set up for the fuel tank

                           Crack for the fuel lines

    

     Widening the crack with the jackhammer drill

The next project is to put up a solar panel to power the gate opener and I helped him set the tall ladder up so he can start on that project as soon as the diesel tank project is finished. You know he isn’t happy unless he has a ‘project’!  So grateful he is doing so much better and back to nearly normal after three months of fighting Covid. God is good all the time!

Many celebrations

 We started the month of January with ‘another’ Christmas on Jan 4^th to celebrate Bethany coming home to AZ for a few days. This time Larry was there too. 

We celebrated Dawns’ birthday by going to Red Robin and back to Dawn and Vince’s for birthday cake. Since Dawn eats Keto I made a Keto Lemon Cheesecake for her birthday cake. It turned out surprisingly well and Dawn loved it eating two pieces that night. 

I had to make several appts. before my surgery on Jan 25 to remove the longest screw out of ten in my ankle. It was connecting both bones which made it difficult to walk properly but helped in healing the bang up job I did on my ankle back in July. No pain after the surgery nor none since and I’m walking fine.  I did have to wear my boot for a few days but that is a thing of the past now.

For my birthday the four of us went to Olive Garden and then Dawn baked an Angel Food cake for me.  Still my very favorite cake as it is light and fluffy and I can eat a big piece! She even frosted it with my favorite frosting.  

Dawn has been wanting to learn how to use many of Larry’s tools so he gave her a lesson on using the circular saw and she did a great job! 

Yesterday I had my ‘first fruit’ out of my garden, a radish. Dawn gave me some Miracle Grow recently and that made several of the veggies take off, finally.

Last night Larry and I went to Red Robin for my free birthday burger and Dawn joined us since Vince was gone. We had a very nice time. 

Happy New Year 2022!

December has been quite a month, nothing like anything we have experienced before and hopefully never again.

The 2nd I started feeling funky and then two days later Larry followed.

Dec 10 Larry had Vince take him to the ER because he thought he had

pneumonia and it turns out he had Covid. He came home the same night.

He didn’t get any better, but felt worse as the days progressed.

On the 18th I shared a Zoom call with all my living first cousins which was

good and informative. We learned more about our oldest cousin who passed

away in July. 

              Screen shot showing seven of my nine first cousins on Zoom call

December 20 Larry went by ambulance to the ER but unfortunately they sent

him home. He again went by ambulance to the ER on Dec 21 and this time

they admitted him with pneumonia and he was there three days, coming

home at 11 PM Dec 24 when they kicked him out with no way to get the

meds they prescribed until Dec 26 since all the pharmacies were closed

Christmas.  Prior to Larry’s coming home on the 24th, we had the family

Christmas dinner at Dawn and Vince’s. I think we all had a good time and

many talked to Larry so he was ‘somewhat’ included in the festivities.

Since coming home, Larry has improved daily but it will take some time

before he is 100% again. When he started talking about ‘doing projects’ I

knew he was feeling better!

We have had several days of much needed rain during December but I

personally don’t like gray days! I want my sunshine.

Hopefully 2022 will be better than 2021.