SUMMER HEAT HAS FINALLY ARRIVED!

 We started the month of June off with a visit from our granddaughter and her husband. They were in AZ for a wedding and their children were staying with Grandpa and Grandma while they went to Prescott for the wedding. As I am typing they are on their way moving from ID to OR. 

                      

Larry has been busy wiring up the solar panels so we can utilize the

solar we are producing. He still has more things to do but is slowly

getting it done. It doesn’t help that summer has finally hit so he

has been working at night when it is cooler.

 June has been surprisingly cool for Phoenix.

                            

Todd visited several times this month which we love. He even

brought us breakfast one morning!

For Father's Day,

 our wonderful daughter-in-law LaTia, made lasagna, Dawn made

salad and garlic bread and I baked a cake and bought ice cream so 

we had a really special Father's Day!

Vince, Shane and Milli went for a swim but the water was still kind of

chilly as the nights have been really nice and doesn't allow the

water to heat up like usual.

  

                                       

                                            Four fathers for Father's Day

Two of our A/C units quit so we quickly ordered new fan motors as

we cannot be without A/C in Phoenix in the summer!

Larry is having a hard time with the heat now (he used to like the

heat) so in order for him to get on top of the MH to repair the A/Cs

we took the big fan with a mister and hoisted it up in the air so it 

would blow on him while he worked.  He told me I had a really

good idea with the fan as he would not have been able to stay

on the roof to fix the A/C 's had it not been for the fan.  When I

moved the fan I discovered 13 quail eggs under it.  I have  not 

seen a mama quail but when the air temp. is 100º or more she does

not need to sit on the eggs.  Just at night when it is below 100º.

I've been keeping an eye on the eggs and will keep you posted.

                                 

                              

We've been enjoying okra, squash and just recently cherry 

tomatoes out of the garden.

                            

We ended the month with 113º predicted for the very near future!!

Another project finished!

Last month I was so excited to see the quail chicks but unfortunately they got caught between the plastic and the wood side and I didn’t find them for 24 hours.  There were seven still alive and we carefully put them in a drain pan under the garden where they hatched and hoped Mama would find them.  They peeped their hearts out but Mama never came.  We tried to give them water and food with an eye dropper but were not successful.  The last two lived 56 hours and because they fought so hard Larry buried them in the garden.  But God is good as I have seen a quail mama and 10 chicks in the neighbor’s back yard several times most recently watching her show them how to scratch for bugs.  They are so cute!

                  Great granddaughter Millie holding one chick

          Larry trying to give water to a chick

Todd came to see me/us for Mother’s Day on May 17 and to get his birthday present.  We had a good visit and Larry showed him how to sharpen his lawn mower blade.

Flowers Todd gave me for Mother's Day

                        Mother and son

             Todd opening his present

  Sharpening Todd's lawn mower blade

For Vince’s birthday we went to Texas Roadhouse and then back to their house for cake.  We had leftovers which is always good.

               Vince's birthday cake

Vince and Dawn at Texas Roadhouse

Since we had some 100º days and the forecast was for cooler weather, Larry worked 10-12 hours a day (until 11 PM because it was cooler) for basically two weeks to get the last two solar panels installed.  He finished them on May 31 and they are hooked up and working.  Yeah!!  He is now taking a much deserved rest before starting on another project.

          Solar panels up and running

The jack assembly to raise and lower the panels

  The frame for the solar panels

  Another view of the frame

  The first forming of the solar panel frame

Larry’s older brother passed away May 23 after a month in the hospital.  He has been fighting prostrate cancer for 24 years which recently metastasized everywhere.  Larry was able to Facetime him May 9 and they talked for 24 min.  Usually when they talked it was for 1-2 hours but he was having trouble holding the phone.  He is now with Jesus and has no pain.

              Beautiful double rainbow

 

WE HAVE BABIES

 Last night around 6 PM I went out to water the garden and found we have Gambrel's Quail chicks!  I only saw three but all but one egg (out of 12) hatched.  I was able to get a pic of one baby and a rather nothing video but you can hear the chicks peeping and mama calling them. This morning they are all gone, somehow getting out of the raised garden in spite of the fact they had to jump up a good six inches.  I am so grateful they finally hatched as mama was so faithful to sit on the nest almost a month now. 

                                                 One baby chick

         

Early on in April I started doing the taxes and got so stressed I made myself sick and my immune system went down and I had allergies like I never have before!  Dawn then told me about FreeTaxUSA.com and I went to that and filled everything in (and ended up with what I had figured) and after filing electronically on Sat. had the refund from AZ in the bank by the following Wed!    Guess I will use that website from now on!

Larry started working on the frame for the new solar panels and ws able to get it finished for three of the panels and they are working well.  He now is working on a frame for the other two panels but hasn't figured out just yet where he will put them. 

          Hooking up the cable to the back of the solar panels

  

   The solar panels on the modified frame with an old panel on the       right

                                     The modified solar panel frame

One day when I was walking I saw these picky pear cactus in full bloom like nothing I've ever seen before!  I am awestruck by how beautiful they are!  

Our TV has been acting up since we updated it several months ago so we ended up buying a new bigger one which meant Larry had to modify the cabinet in the front of the MH.  It also meant he needed a table saw.  I found one at half price at Lowe's and he had to put it together but he is happy with it and the TV looks great!

    

                                                    New TV on place

                                             Using the new table saw     

  

                                    Putting the new table saw together

I had trouble with my computer and had to re-install everything and now I cannot get into my blog so this is in a 'new' blog.  Hopefully I will be able to put the two together in the future!

 

WHEN IT RAINS, IT POURS!

 March started out with a bang as we awoke to find our refrigerator hot. It

seems the defrost mode went on sometime after we went to bed at midnight (I

had ice then) and the compressor never came on so everything was defrosted!

What a mess!! I felt like we were living in the 1800's. Dawn has a small

refrigerator from her work days which we set just outside the front door and

we put some of the “frozen” food in her extra freezer in the laundry room.

We had to wait a week to get someone to come out and the big problem was

either we had to cut the side of the MH out to get the old one out or repair the

old one (now 20 years old) from the access door (24” x 18”) from outside the

MH. In 2008 we had a problem with it and the repair man stood on the

picnic table to repair it as it was still in warranty by one month! PTL!

We were in Cheney, WA when that happened. Thankfully it wasn't summer here

as much of the food was left outside in bins for the week we were without a

regular frig as it was going down into the high 30's at night. We now have a

thermometer for both the frig and the freezer with an alarm and an outside

visual screen so we can see what the temperature is in both. 

Larry working in the access hole behind the refrigerator

We've had an inch and a half of rain this month so the nearby fields are

beautiful with yellow and purple! Of course that means we will have lots of

fuel for summertime fires as well as we are suffering from allergies. 

On my walk showing the beautiful yellow flowers

Next we were without hot water again so Larry ordered another pump from

Rixen in OR and after he put it in (again working in a very limited space) it

was so quiet we didn't even know it was working! It is nice to have hot water

knowing this time it should work for a long time. Larry is planning on

replacing the brushes every two years so we won't have problems down the road. 

Larry again in the small bay fixing the hot water/furnace

On March 22 Larry set out the replace our 10 year old Induction cooktop

which I discovered had several long cracks in it. It was the same model and

brand but in 10 years they changed the size a bit so he had to cut more of the

countertop. Then one week later, after I had used it only once, Larry

discovered a crack in the new cooktop so we have ordered another one. We

also bought a large wood cutting board to put over the cooktop to protect it

when not in use. In seems when it rains, it pours! 

               We have lost two good friends this month, one March 1 and one March 13

but both were good Christians so they are with Jesus and have no more pain

or suffering and we will see them again.

Recently I went out to take everything out of my garden to prepare for the

spring planting (which I did on March 29) but to my surprise I found a

Gambrel quail's nest under the huge Brussel sprouts leaves with 7 eggs in it. 

   Beets from the garden

        Carrots from the garden

                Seven quail eggs

Of course I couldn't remove the sprout leaves and now there are 10 eggs.   

                                          I

am excited to see the babies in a couple of weeks.