Week nine @ BTA

Sunday January 16th, 2022

Sunday, afternoon shortly after two in the afternoon, and I just finished pushing the publish button on last weeks blog. it is a bright sunny afternoon and I’m sitting in my anti-gravity chair with the sunshine making it almost impossible to see the screen, I had to retract the awning because of a few wind gusts but the warmth of the Arizona sun feels good on this old body. I just cracked my first Sunday afternoon beer, a craft beer from a local brewer in Tempe Arizona, it is a wheat beer, which is style that I enjoy, on a warm day and this one has mandarin orange flavour added which saves the mess of cutting an orange slice that is commonly served in a lot of wheat beers. It has a good taste and I was able to purchase it at a bargain price of a buck a can, for a craft beer from the Costco in Mesa 12 wheat beer and twelve Blonde style, I will report later on the Scottsdale Blonde.

We met our new volunteer hosts today Johnny & Mila, they are from the Chicago area, and this is their first work camping position, we have not had a chance to grill them for details yet, having just met them so all I really know is that he is a retired teacher and they are still pretty green into the whole process. So as I sitting here thinking that wheat beer tasted so good that its very unfair not to test the Scottsdale Blonde beer as well, and right about now you are probably wondering who it is unfair to, well me of course, beer and blondes are a couple of my favorite things and combined, well I just couldn’t wait any longer. So snap, and we are into testing mode, and I must say after the first couple of sips, that I’m pleasantly surprised and very pleased, to find two very drinkable craft beers in one inexpensive case of twenty-four cans is very pleasing, and after seeing the octane level of some of the cocktails been mixed around here lately, this could be a very welcome safe place for me … jus’saying.

Miss Laurie is cooking up something special for dinner, and I have been catching a whiff every now and then, and I’m thinking if it tastes half as good as it smells, I’m in for a really great treat tonight. Well I’m pleased to report dinner wtasted just as good as it smelt, grilled vegetables, over chicken with hatch chilies in a curry cream sauce served over a bed of rice, delicious, seems a little weak for the description.

Hatch chillies are a southwestern delight, grown in New Mexico, near the town of Hatch, the chilies have a short growing season and are long and green in colour, they are not as hot as jalapeño peppers but hotter than California or Anaheim peppers and are most commonly roasted because of their thick skin and meaty body, where they develop a rich smokey flavour profile that makes they a hit, to compliment almost any dish. We have had roasted hatch chilies in our omelets for breakfast, appetizer dips, as well as multiple other dishes, and was one of the first purchases we made when reaching the area. We have purchases them fresh roasted, canned, bottled, and even dehydrated as flakes, the flavour profile never disappoints.

Before settling in for the night we caught up on some of our YouTube peeps, and then watched episode four of “1883”, which is about the adventures that preceded the Yellowstone series that is so popular right now, Tim McGraw and Faith Hill play leading parts in the storyline and I have been pleasantly surprised on the quality of their acting, sometimes crossing from singing to acting just doesn’t work well but so far it works.

Monday, Today is a shopping adventure day with the Savino’s, we are going to apparently a better “Trader Joes”, then to “AJ’s Fine Foods”, an “Aldi” and I’m not really sure where else, but it doesn’t really matter. I think I remember San Tan being mentioned which is one of the smaller outlying areas around Mesa. Oh “Total Wine” was the other shopping stop and it was excellent choice, I found a box of red wine that sounds like it should be excellent, and they had a number of craft beers that has peaked my interest, and for Miss Laurie who doesn’t like beer and struggles to find coolers that that are not brewed, she has picked up a number of single cans to explore some new choices, and while they carried limited liquor choices, there were some favourites on the shelves.

Just to add to an already busy day we stopped for a late lunch / early dinner at “Joes Farm Grill”. Their claim to fame is that everything they produce is from their farm or from the immediate area. And while set up like a fast food location, you counter order, and your meal is delivered to your table. This was one of the choices in the “Diners, Drive ins, or Dives”, and one of the feature items was the garlic fries, and they were as good as declared, Miss Laurie and I shared the barbecue sampler tray, ribs, pulled pork, pork chop, cold slaw, with corn bread. It was excellent and we left full, as with most places in the desert we ate on picnic tables outside under the shade sails just to complete the fast food feel.

As we headed back to Gold Canyon, we sat with Ray & Karen to enjoy a cocktail, and talk about the days experience, and our plans for the balance of the week. before returning to the arboretum.

Tuesday, and it’s a seven o’clock start to another sunny day in Arizona, it was another windy night, but my tape repair on our air conditioner cover seems to be holding. And the weather people here are talking about the chance for rain on Saturday with the same excitement that they talk about a snow storm back in Ontario, my weather app still shows the possibility of rain here at only fifty percent, and the local weather people thinks it will not come to fruition.

Todays plan is not really much of a plan, a trip to retrieve some Amazon packages from the visitor centre, then I was off for a morning walk through the arboretum, this morning I stayed on the main trail, and was amazed at how some of the trees are back in leaf after the rain a couple of weeks ago.

The Boojum trees were back in full leaf, they are native to Baja Mexico, so the climate here is cooler in the winter and they had lost their leaves by mid December.

The bottle tree which is native to Australia, was wearing a fresh leafy green display as well.

And a little further up the trail I found this one of last tree that was still in fall colour, a cottonwood tree I suspect.

And I sat near the palm grove to enjoy some sunshine and watching the wildlife, we have squirrels here but not like back home, these are called rock squirrels, because they live on the ground but on the side of the ridges, not to be confused with the ground squirrels that burrows under ground or the chipmunks that are grey instead of brown. The arboretum is so different that the normal desert foliage found in most natural desert, where trees are only 15 to 20 feet tall (5 to 8 meters) and usually covered with thorns so tree squirrels are few and far between. And of course we have the dreaded pack rats that are nocturnal and never seen during the day they also live underground.

A little lunch and we settled into an afternoon of sunshine on our little patio, the new volunteer Johnny came over to visit and we learnt a lot more back ground on Johnny & Mila, and this is their first work-camping positions. A retired teacher from Chicago, second marriage, and so on … and while great that he wanted to share it was maybe just TMI for this early.

Just finished the evening with with grilled broccoli and steak, along with a bottle of Josh cabernet, after catching up on the evening news and some YouTube videos, we filled the evening with the amazing race and Guy’s new show trying for find an operator for his new chicken franchise before turning in.

Wednesday, and almost a repeat of yesterday, another sunny Arizona morning, watch the news, great breakfast, and a trip to the visitor center to pickup some packages, I have been struggling to get some needed supplies, so they are landing in dribs and drabs, but by noon l think most items are here now, but with the possibility of rain in the forecast and going back to work tomorrow, this is looking like a next week job now. So that having been decided I’m going to open that box of red wine, kickback in the anti-gravity chair and work on the blog, I’ve got a bunch of photos from yesterday so lots to do …

… well some times the best laid plans, just go to hell in a hand basket, and this was going to be one of those days. So some of the details seem a little fuzzy but I do remember enough to know that the afternoon was filled with, lots of laughs, some stories, and multiple beverages, and a as the afternoon rolled along Tom & Kathleen, John & Karen, Johnny & Mila, as well as Lincoln joined the group. Miss Laurie was again mixing whiskey sours for everyone, I decided to just stick with red wine, but that plan fell by the wayside when Lincoln rolled out his prickly pear hooch, and that could have been an error on my part, but it seemed like the correct decision at the time. And of course as soon as the sun moves behind the coach we rolled out the fire pit to help warm the cool January afternoon.

As the group dispersed, we retired to the warmth of the coach, and I’m quite sure that Miss Laurie was feeling the effects of the afternoons beverages, and while I’m almost positive we had dinner that night, I have to admit details are a little foggy. So lets just say that I slept well and woke the next morning feeling better than I deserved.

Thursday, and back to work, and amazingly the world had changed during our time off … now masks are required for all staff and volunteers when inside of any building, or crowed areas anyplace in the arboretum. This is a decision of the management team here at the arboretum, as the Arizona Governor is a opponent to any restrictions that might help prevent the transmission of Covid, you need to understand that here in the United States that a lot of politicians that are more qualified in issues of viruses and their transmission, and their negative health issues than medical doctors, and while that may sound pro prosperous you see it everywhere through the states. These same amazing individuals usually end up calling in the National Guard to try to help the health care system cope with all the cases. It is thought that the 23,000 daily reported cases that is actually closer to 40,000 because of all the unreported self tests, in a population of less than half of Ontario, and on most days only a hundred or less citizens die each day. And when you think about the 800,000+ cases reported each day in the US, I guess it makes sense to a politician, especially ones that knows more than medically trained doctors.

So when offered the chance to work moving plants from the greenhouse today I said yes … but after a day of moving hundreds of one gallon plant pots, I’m thinking that it’s been a few months since I did much manual labour. As I was hurting by the time we made it back to the coach, and our short work day that had seemed too long today. An Aleve and a couple of hours later, I was almost feeling almost normal, Miss Laurie thought it was somewhat funny that I was hurting. Miss Laurie made pizza in the Ninja, as we keep exploring the new options, the pizza was excellent, the pizza dough is still a bit of a challenge but the toppings are as good as any pizza and way better than anything frozen. A little television and an early evening wrapped up day.

Friday, and our seven hour day, I woke this morning feeling better than I expected, and not knowing what today would bring, I decided to pre-medicate before going to work, Fridays are busy days in admissions, but they wanted to transplant some more plants so Miss Laurie decided to take on this project. And I was ok with that, and while the admission booth can be hectic at times, my sore back was still ok with working the booth. Wearing the mask for seven hours, while not pleasant is certainly doable, and if it keeps us safe from the special people it’s all good.

So let’s just say that Miss Laurie was moving about the same speed this afternoon as I was yesterday. Part of the issue is that the transplanting process is not ergonomic in any form or manner, so by the end of a shift we were feeling pretty much done for the day. So let’s just stop and think for a moment, two months in and we have had two physical days, now they were very recent so looming large, but overall not a big issue. Dinner of chicken quesadillas, and some television, just regular programming tonight, as it will be another early evening.

Saturday, our Friday, not a bright sunny day as normal, we got the forecast breeze that was warned about, but the rain never materialized, and as the wind subsided the sun made an appearance for part of the day. Saturdays are always busy at the arboretum, and today was no different, Miss Laurie manned the admission booth and I had a project of assembling a table for the admission booth to make it all flow a little better. The admission booth is not located where it was designed for, and when it was put in place the inside counter that was to be the working counter ended up on the wrong wall, so while we are making it work, it’s just not the best design, so now they are trying to find solutions to make the best of it, again not how I would have tried to fix it … but it wasn’t mine to fix, enough said on that topic.

It was a very busy day and our admission count for the day was quite high, I don’t think either Laurie or myself was sorry not to have any greenhouse duties today, as the aching back was still a vivid memory. They have a new website for the volunteers to record their hours, which seems to make much more sense than the old paper method, and I think our work schedules will become part of the site in the near future, there is an event in the arboretum in February and we were able to go in and pick the tasks that we wanted to do, Laurie picked an admission shift and I picked a bartending shift, both sounded better than set up or tear down of chairs and tables.

So Saturdays always seem long because it is our eight hour day, but I think we were both pleased that we didn’t pull for a greenhouse shift, and by four o’clock I was ready for a glass of wine, the boxed wine has been good, and I have been enjoying it, not sure Miss Laurie has even tried it yet, but it is a nice dry full bodied wine from Chile, and one I would most likely buy again. Tonight was our burger night and again it is just hard to beat a burger fresh off of the barbeque, although Miss Laurie had found a purple onion that was strong on attitude. So a little television time watching the Bills beat the Patriots, add a little golf from Hawaii, then the evening news before we settled into watch “Skyfall” the latest James Bond movie before calling it an evening.

Now you may have noticed that there was no mention of working on the blog for the last few days … and that’s because there was no work done on the blog, after that (wine induced) foggy Wednesday, so as usual I’m playing catch up, its now almost an hour after my scheduled publication time and I’m sitting in the sunshine re-living this past week, the good, the bad, and the ugly of it.

Sunday, at 5:30am and I have just picked up the iPad to catch up on this weeks blog, its not bad for temperature this morning and although still dark outside, the sky looks clear, dawn is an hour and a half away and the sun will peak over the summit at around eight o’clock. As I look back it has been a reasonably quiet week, as I have been gathering items for a number of projects, we have enjoyed some companionship from the other hosts, and another couple has just got here, and while we have been introduced to Peter & Trish, they are camping up closer to the Picket Post House, as all the spots are full down here, they are here for a couple of months only, and while we just spoke for a few moments I have learnt that they have never done this type of work before and I’m thinking their anticipation and the job reality have not met yet. Volunteer work can take many different appearances, but the reality that shines through them all is that volunteers are used for simple menial tasks that are hard to fill, and here in the arboretum many of these volunteers that think they are going to be working with one of the horticulturist, and don’t yet understand, that is just a grunt position of weeding and carrying needed supplies, like we experienced this week, so I’m ok with doing my grunt work in a heated / air conditioned ticket booth with a chair.

So as the weeks roll by it should be interesting to watch as the newbies learn the ropes, and the realities of how this whole volunteering thing works, so as I try to finish this off, it has been a week of watching storms on the east side of the country, and while I watch storm after storm roll through I’m reminded why we go south to enjoy the winter in sunny Arizona.

Be strong, stay safe, and do your part to help control this pandemic!

Day 1566

Blog 400

Week eight @ BTA

Sunday January 9th, 2022

Sunday, afternoon at 2pm, and I have got the outside chairs set up again, cause there is nothing except sunshine in the ten day weather forecast. I’ve taped up the air conditioner cover and have it back in place, and I just ordered a whack of items to resealable a number of items on the coach roof from Amazon, now I’m kicked back with one of those whiskey sour cocktails waiting for Tom & Kathleen to join us. And after the first sip, I have made the corporate decision that there will be no more ladders in my future today. As I’m thinking this one is going to need a second, or possibly a third, and now I’m starting to understand what could be the source of some of my time management issues … jus’saying.

Ok the jury is in, the second whiskey sour was just as good as the first, but I must admit I wasn’t brave enough for a third. Our gathering grew as John & Karen, as well as Lincoln joined us for a beverage, and as hard as it may be to believe Miss Laurie rolled out some liquor shots after our two whiskey sours, we also fired up the fire pit and enjoyed a little warmth as the sun has moved around the coach to shade us, or at least we had some heat, till we ran out of propane.

After an afternoon of beverages and laughter we settled in for a evening of leftovers and some television, including a few YouTube videos. I didn’t get out for my regular Sunday walk in the arboretum, but I will get out for this week’s photos, so fear not.

Monday, and the sun is just starting to peak over the mountain 7:58, as we are back over the ten hours between sunrise and sunset, but because we are tucked in between the mountains we see the sun later and lose it earlier, but it paints the mountains with such beautiful colours and shadows that it is all worth it. We we near freezing again last night, but are warming up all week as we climb to 21°C (70°F) by Friday, which will have us actually move over the average temperature for January.

In the mean time I wanted to get some more propane for the fire-pit and the barbecue so I headed into Superior where I fueled our toad and went looking for a place to refill our propane tank. Well I couldn’t find a refill station in Superior, oh almost every where had exchange tanks, but I didn’t want or need to pay for that service, but along with precooked bacon that seems to be the American way. I was also looking for information on local hiking trails in the area and had been told that the visitor centre in superior was a good spot for such information but the sign in the window said closed, no hours or anything, just closed, so a quick tour of the Main Street found a total of four tank exchange places but no one that would refill my tank.

Now I had seen a propane tanks and trucks on the way to Gold Canyon, on the north side of US-60, so I headed west, and found the spot, and it looked like they could refill tanks but the gate was closed and padlocked, again no sign with hours or any information. So I ventured further through Gold Canyon to the town of Apache Junction where I found a refill station. And there was a long line of people and propane tanks to be filled, a few cold nights and closed for New Years the main cause for the line.

Small propane tanks have always been a bone of contention with me, back home in Ontario most refill stations just charge a set price, so the cost to fill a tank or top off a tank is the same. And that always bothered me enough that we purchased of a second tank to allowed the luxury of draining the tank completely before refilling, getting the best value. Every where we have traveled since charges for the actual amount of product being sold, todays price was $2.79 per gallon ($0.72 per liter), and here in the States they call the regular small propane tanks, 5 gallon tanks as opposed to 20 pound tanks and 30 pound tanks are 8 gallon tanks. Tanks are not filled while sitting on a scale, they are filled properly by cracking the vent and being filled until the liquid shows at the vent. The same process used back in Ontario to fill a propane powered vehicle, or to fill an on-board mounted propane tank on our motor-home. So todays fill of my empty tank was 4.6 gallons of propane, so 4.6 times $2.79 plus the state sales tax, meant a cost of $14.06 as opposed to $24.95 plus sales tax for the exchange. I will also tell you that $2.79 a gallon is not a good price as it was usually just over the two dollar a gallon mark in Quartzsite. And just to annoy my Ontario friends even more, we paid under $0.80 per litre to fill the propane tank on our coach, when we left Goderich in November.

But enough of this rambling rant on propane prices, as Ray & Karen are coming to visit this afternoon, so a couple of hours wandering through the arboretum, finishing with a hike of the high trail, and I would say we have seen less that half of the arboretum. Water was still flowing in Queen Creek, in fact so much flow, that the lower crossing was still closed to foot traffic, but the sound of the flowing creek just seems sweeter here in the desert, and has been a wonderful treat. After our hike we enjoyed a cold beverage and one of Miss Laurie’s dips as a reward, with Ray and Karen escaping, just before the gates locked for the evening. Because I had got propane, I was able to barbecue pork chops for dinner before catching the season ending Yellowstone.

Ok this photo sucks but, but we have a couple of new additions to our dash, these guys were a Christmas gift from the Savino’s as a reminder us of our winters together, either here in the Arizona desert or back in the Florida swamps. Hence the flamingo and the saguaro, they are solar and move all day long, I took the photo through the windshield and got way too much reflection.

In a lifestyle that has little to no space for useless things, and even with our normal rule to only purchase consumables, items that will remind us of experience’s, like preserves, or treats, or the occasional piece of clothing, these little guys have already secured a place on Thunders dash, and have already brought many smiles each time we walk by, and what could be more fun than a saguaro with a moustache and waving his arms?

I will try to get a better picture, if time permits, but we will have to see, if I remember.

Tuesday, and for some reason I’m up at 5am, the evening was not as cold, so the electric heater has kept the coach reasonably warm over night, but we are still three hours before the sun starts to warm the coach, Mr. Sam has had his morning treats, and is napping on my lap, which is normal if I rise early, but a treat I miss out on if I get up at 7am as then he just has his treats and heads straight to the big bed. And I plan to turn on the television at 7am To catch the morning news. But this morning I finished off yesterdays portion of the blog and at 6:25 the eastern horizon is showing the first signs of light, and the beauty of the sunrises here is only exceeded by the sunsets. And it was just last evening as we watched the mountains being painted again by the setting sun, that Miss Laurie said we already have dozens of sunset photos, we just need to remember to enjoy the beauty every night we can. And as much as we dislike the short daylight hours of winter, we get to see more sunrises than we do during the summer months.

6:32 and Mr. Sam has woken and left my lap, he has made it to his food bowl, to have an early morning snack, I suspect he will be heading to the big bed for his extended morning nap, but I can now hear him trying to open a cabinet door as he makes his way to the bedroom, he is always looking for an unlatched cabinet, that he can open and explore. No wonder the phrase “curiosity killed the cat” because this is one damn curious kitty.

I’m not sure but I think today is our restocking day, because I think tomorrow we are heading to Scottsdale with Ray & Karen for a day of exploring and dinner, but for now I’m just going to enjoy the birth of another day, and think about how lucky we are to be able to enjoy these little simple pleasures that this life affords us …

7am and the red hews are starting to show through, we have gained enough light that my iPhone just took a regular photo as opposed to a long exposure photo but we are still close to an hour from the sun peaking over the mountain top. The sun peaked over the ridge a couple of minutes before eight o’clock and almost instantly I can feel the warmth, the forecast temperature today is 66°F (19°C) and for the next week the temperatures will continue to rise. I don’t want to sound like a smart alec but winter is pretty much over here in Arizona, there will be cool nights but any sunny day over 60°F (15°C) I’m ok with.

So today was restocking day a trip to Mesa, and our first “Trader Joe’s”, experience and after all the hype we had heard to call it disappointing would be an understatement. The crap some people buy “organic” mustard or “organic” ketchup, in fact the only thing I couldn’t find “organic” was the butt floss, but there was some recycled butt floss. Oh there were some neat looking, but overpriced items, things that I would maybe like to try, but common sense says no don’t do it, the same little voice that stops us buying things at Costco that sound so good but buying a family supply size bag of something that we have never tried doesn’t make any sense either. So Trader Joe’s, Costco and Bashas’ and we are loaded up for more than a week, other then perishable items.

I could talk about people not wearing masks in stores, but how would the States ever be able to set new Covid case records day after day? If people actually tried to protect themselves, like seriously let’s just let nature take its course, and if we loose a few thousand people on the way, oh well, at least they had the right to die their way. As I look at the news from Ontario and see the move to another lockdown, being brought back in to try to control the spread, here they are doing the opposite with close to a half a million cases a day, the drive seems to be infect enough people to get to herd immunity, will it work, the jury is still out, but we should know shortly.

Wednesday, just another sunny Arizona day, and today and we are off the explore “Old Town Scottsdale”, it sounds like a lot of shops, bars, and restaurants. And while it looks interesting, I’m thinking it may just be a good people watching day, especially on such a beautiful January day. We are going with Ray & Karen, and are planning dinner at a Spanish restaurant in Old Town Scottsdale, that has excellent reviews.

Well today was a day filled with a lot great conversation as Ray & I wondered around the old town area, but far as stores go, unless looking for ladies clothing, Indian jewelry, or some expensive souvenirs Im thinking that some of the bars would be the only reason for returning. Tapas Papa Frita was the restaurant that was chosen for dinner, and the group shared some tapas before ordering individual paella’s for our entrees. The tapas were flavourful and the paellas were obviously made to order, but I think Miss Laurie and I were expecting some what spicier dishes, we could be wrong in our expectations, but I had always imagined Spanish cuisine to be spicy, in the same way I would expect French cuisine to be rich and creamy, and maybe that’s because of our Mexican experiences with the Mexican use of chilies, and we both wondered if the dishes have just been toned down to satisfy the local tastes, I guess that will remain an unanswered question for now.

I understand that too often restaurants cater to local tastes rather than staying authentic, we have ran into that at restaurants in Mexico that are near the border, and they have what i would call a gringo menu for the tourists, apparently Americans cross into Mexico to order a hamburger at a Mexican restaurant, but they also have menus for the locals that are readily available to us gringos upon request. And in all reality most Americans eat very plain foods so I suspect local restaurants may just adjust to the local tastes and I personally didn’t see many spicy people in Scottsdale if you get my drift.

Thursday, back to work in our ticket booth, this working three days a week is a treat, and the job doesn’t require a whole bunch of thought process, and is actually a one person job, so I spend time watering plants in the morning and explaining the map and some of the arboretum high lites to guests. The problem is that every trip I make into the arboretum adds to the number of high lites, so I take a black and white copy of the map and with a highlighter mark the main arboretum trial and explain that it is 1.25 miles (2 kilometres) long and takes anywhere from 45 minutes up to 6 hours to walk depending on how often you get sidetracked.

So this week we took it upon ourselves to sweep, much of the area around our ticket booth, the area has trees overhanging the area, and as their leaves have fallen, no one has cleaned up, so during last weeks rain, the water was dammed up to prevent it from running to the drains because of the leaves. As we watch the amount of staff here and what actually gets done, and there seems to be a discrepancy. So far we have not been able to get a good read on the the actual staff directory of who works for whom, and how the areas are divided up. At this point we work under the direction of Lynnea, who is in charge of retail and admissions.

Friday, and today’s forecast sunny and 70°F (21°C), and as I watch the weather report for the nation, the temperatures back in Ontario that has sub freezing temperatures for the daytime highs, and I’m thinking that we’re good here in Arizona with the sunshine. This is our seven hour day, but it is a beautiful Arizona day, and with more visitors the days pass faster.

Friday dinners are normally burgers, and tonight was a burger night, sometimes it’s the simplest things that taste the best, and we are huge fans of Kirkland’s sirloin burger patties from Costco, they barbecue well, a little shrinkage but picks up lots of barbecue flavour and makes a great burger that isn’t juicy enough to run down your arms while eating, but is flavourful enough to enjoy, And after a seafood paella on Wednesday, tonight’s burgers seemed even tastier served with some plain potato chips, just simply hit the spot.

Saturday, and I’m up early again this morning, 5 am and it’s 46°F (8°C) and the forecast for today is cooler as another storm hits north of us, Northern California, Nevada, Utah areas, which is great because the moisture is badly needed, as many of the reservoirs are very low, Lake Powell and Lake Mead are down nearly a one hundred feet each, and are part of the Colorado river that is the water source for many towns and farms in the desert.

At 5:30 I crawled back into bed and slept till after seven, which left us hustling to get to work for our eight o’clock start. Saturdays are usually busy which just makes the days slip by even quicker, being our longest day at a full eight hours, if your not busy the day can drag on but today was busy and it wasn’t long until we we getting ready to cash out for the day and our work week. Tonight’s dinner was our left over paellas and were very good reheated in the microwave, way too often restaurant leftovers come out way overdone when reheated but these came out very good and if anything the flavour was even better.

Just a quiet evening, In the coach, got to watch some golf, we caught up on some YouTube videos, and took in a movie before turning in for the night. We have a new addition to the crew as the sixth work camper couple pulled in today, we have not met them yet

Sunday, and I’m sure you all will be surprised to hear that this blog is no where close to being ready to publish, and as I sit here watching “Sunday Morning” on CBC, I’m actually feeling a bit lazy, and can see that todays deadline is going to get kicked down the road a few hours. As I take my Sunday morning stroll through the arboretum, and below are a few of todays photos, again all taken in the Wallace garden section of the arboretum.

Well it’s now a couple of hours after the scheduled publication time of ten o’clock local time and I’m at least an hour away, but I’m back into go mode and charging ahead, now all I can hope for is a boring football game, so that someone will read my blog … lol

Be well, stay safe, & only 71 days till spring!

Day 1559

Blog 399