We are making progress!

 

Friday January 1 the RV cover was finished and Saturday Jan 2 the solar fellows showed up and they finished putting up the solar panels on Monday January 4 but that doesn't seem to mean much as here we are at February 1 and all the inspections still are not done! Perhaps by March 1 we will be back in place and everything will be done??

                                                 Putting in the inverters for the solar

                                       Lift to get both the panels and the workers on the 16ft high cover

                                Workers on top of the cover getting ready to put the solar panels on

                                                          Solar panels

I met with a friend for lunch on Jan 7 at Cracker Barrel and learned on Jan 9 that she had been exposed to someone with Covid so we cancelled our appts. until I learned on January 12 that my friend had tested negative. Better safe than sorry.

January 14 we once again became AZ residents getting our AZ drivers' license and registering the car. We had to have an appointment due to Covid and picked at great time of 1 PM as we had no wait. There was a line when we left almost an hour later however.

Larry made arrangements to have a steel gutter made for the RV cover and it was delivered January 18. Larry worked on the gutter sealing it and then painting it. Unfortunately we were not able to get it up before we had quite a rain storm on Monday the 25^th. We even had hail and a bit further north of us snow! Larry was able to get piping in from the house to the back of the property to help keep the water from the roof off of our RV pad and it worked well.

                                               Gutter for the back of the RV cover

                           Larry on the lift putting in the pipe to take the house rain water to the backyard

                                                        Hail on the driveway

I had a wonderful birthday as Todd came for a three hour visit and then the gutter fellows showed up and it was installed rather quickly and Larry was SO relieved to get it up finally! We went to Olive Garden for supper. Larry worked on getting the pipe from the newly installed RV gutter over to our rain harvest tank and finished Thursday at dark the 28^th.   On the 29^th we were able to 'test' the gutter and pipe as we had an afternoon of steady rain and it did a good job as we now have water in our rain harvest tank. That night we went to Red Robin with Dawn and Vince to celebrate my birthday, returned to their place to play Train and have angel cake and ice cream. The 30^th we received a deposit on our HydraLift from a fellow from Tacoma who has a Harley and loves to ride and wants to see all of America and is buying a motorhome for that dream to come true. It really was a full exciting week! 

 

                                                   Drain pipe into the rain harvest tank

                          Larry using the backdoor of the trailer to put his ladder on to reach the top of the cover

                                          Backing the trailer into place under the new RV cover

                                         Drain pipe from the new gutter to the rain harvest tank

Sunday Jan 31 we moved big rocks (that we put in four years ago!) from beside the pad to the front beside the driveway to help stop erosion and make way for smaller rocks beside the MH so they will be easier to walk on. We both are extremely sore and are looking forward to our afternoon appointment today with the chiropractor.

                                                 Where we removed the rocks

                                                                 Size of the rocks

                                                        Another beautiful AZ sunset!

 

 

Happy New Year!

 

December started out with the post holes finally dug for our RV cover. The concrete was scheduled for Dec 11 and of course the only rain we've had in months happened the day before so it was postponed due to two feet of mud and water in the holes!   Finally on Dec 21 we had concrete. It had to sit for seven days and then the fellows really started working hard and late, often until 6:30 PM, well after dark.  Dec 29 we had a structure and today, Jan 1, they are again working to put the top on and it is looking good!

                                              Painting the posts

                                              Putting on the cross beams

                                              Pouring concrete

Post holes with water and mud in them after our rain

                                                 Getting the top in place

December 19 my cousins and I had another Zoom meeting and this time all my cousins were able to attend. It was great catching up on all of them.

Since Bethany was not able to come back to Phoenix until Dec 29 we didn't celebrate Christmas with Dawn's family until Dec 31 and we had a great day. We also celebrated Dawn's birthday, played Spicy Uno (which was a lot of fun and with seven of us was a real hoot!) and ended the day with fireworks in the driveway. A great way to end 2020 and a new beginning for 2021.

                                                      Colby, Dawn and Bethany

                                                          Dawn's birthday cake

                                                       Larry opening his Xmas gift

                                             Getting ready to pig out                                                

                                                    Fireworks to start the New Year
                       

Sorry but for some reason all the pictures loaded backwards meaning the newest ones first and I'm not computer savvy enough to figure out how to fix it.

December Already?

 

The 'cages' for the post holes were delivered the first week of Nov. and then on the 10^th it was decided the holes could not be dug with a Bobcat since they hit caliche around 4 ½ ft down which is what Larry had told them back in April when they came out to draw up the plans. When the 'big rig' came out the operator said he could not dig because the holes would be too close to the house and any hard rocks and such could jolt the digger up to three feet and that would hit the house, not a good scenario! After three weeks of trying to figure out what to do next, on the 30^th they brought out two Bobcats and taking it easy, have made some headway without having to go back to the drawing board. At the rate we are going, I'm just hoping it will be finish by next April!

                                                         The cages that go in the post holes

                                                       One post hole finally done at 6 ft deep

                                                          Both Bobcats going full steam

                                                                          Larry helping
 

Our granddaughter, Bethany has moved to Colorado Springs, CO and we had a going away party for her on Nov 13.

                                                               Loading Bethany's car

                                                        

                                                    Bethany saying goodby to her niece

We had a quiet Thanksgiving with just the four of us basically eating and snacking most of the day and we ended up by playing Mexican Train.

Larry has been to the VA several times this month and seems to be getting his health in order. His new dentures are working good and he definitely is enjoying eating again! I had another dermatology appt. and this time no cutting which is a good thing. I did have several spots frozen on my arms.

 

                                                           One of Larry's latest projects

Since the weather has finally cooled down to decent temperatures. I'm backing to walking again regularly and enjoy getting out. We are making the best of the present situation and feel blessed.

One of our neighbors shared a picture of a hawk that likes to sit in their backyard. Such an awesome picture of wildlife in the desert!

Finally!

The month started out the same as it has been basically all summer, with doctor and dentist appointments followed by visiting the grocery store before heading back home.

Our ballots arrived and we have them mailed off hopefully in plenty of time since that happened two weeks before election day.

We had a surprise cool down of 23º in one day and actually turned on the heat for two nights. That means I have been able to walk during the day for over a week now which is really nice. I discovered a house being built, almost done, that wasn't even started when I last walked during the day in late April.  It has been way to hot during the day to walk all summer long.

We have been waiting over six months to have an RV cover put over our pad and finally were told they would be coming out on Thursday, October 29 and that we needed to move the motorhome before they arrived so Tuesday October 27 we moved the MH out in front of the kid's house.  On Thursday when Connor came out we learned because of a hard dig with the pool, they cannot use a bobcat as planned and will use a well driller type rig so we had to move the trailer also, something that required putting the tires back on and a lot of moving things around. That was completed yesterday with the trailer also in the front driveway. We are so thankful we have the truck to move the trailer instead of using the MH as it was a chore to get the MH positioned!   God is good all the time!!

                                                               Our 'new' site for awhile
 

                                                        Putting on the tires to move the trailer

                               Getting the tires off the front of the trailer where they have been stored

                                                           Amazing how big our 'pad' is!

                                               Getting ready to pull the trailer out with the truck

                                                           The trailer's 'new' home for awhile

                                                              Great AZ sunset picture!

Will Summer ever end?

 

September has been my least favorite month ever since we moved to AZ in 1977 because it is supposed to cool down when the kids go back to school but it doesn't and this year was no exception. So far in 2020 Phoenix has had 133 days at 100º or above and we are still counting!!  The all time record is 143 days and we just may tie or break that record.

After four months, Larry finally (on Sept. 30) has his new dentures with the bottom attached with four implant posts so he is learning how to eat food all over again. It means I have to start cooking again as during the four months he was without teeth he put his food in the VitaMix and I ate salad.

On the 10 of Sept. we had a wind storm that tore the awning on the Man Cave is two and Shade Pro came out and put up a new one on Sept 18. We went with a lighter color (gray instead of black) and Larry likes it a lot better. When taking the old awning down we discovered the arms were not as they should be so that was fixed also.

We had a late birthday party on Sept.19 for Larry, thinking he was going to get his new teeth but that didn't happen. We had the party anyway and Larry had to VitaMix his burger as we had take out from Red Robin (his choice). The birthday card from Dawn and Vince says it all!

Same old, Same old

 

August was a really slow month for us but really hot too.  So far this has been a record hot summer for Phoenix on many fronts. The monsoon has been a 'nonsoon' but finally on August 29 we had a nice rain of ½ inch.  No pictures because it was at night.

Another rainbow from our "nonsoon"

Larry finally had his Inspire surgery the 27^th and is staying quiet to heal. We had planned to go on an Alaskan cruise to celebrate our 60^th anniversary but all cruises to AK were cancelled in April because of Covid 19 so instead we stayed home for Larry to rest from his surgery. I was able to re-connect with the Chaplain who married us at Bunker Hill AFB in Peru, IN.  We had a nice visit.  I was glad he is still alive.

                                 1960  Isn't he handsome?!

                            60 years later 2020