Wickenburg Statues, The Donkey

Hello Family & Friends,
We met Mickey and Brad a few weeks ago in Wickenburg for their Friday Fish Fry at the American Legion.  Wickenburg has several "art displays" around the town and it is quite the walking tour if you visit the town.

Of course Darrel though the Donkey was a great find with the old miner hauling his tools.

We both decided that we would follow the back half of the donkey!

They are very detailed and you can see all the tools they carried to do that gold mining and prospecting.

I think the poor donkey got the worst part of the deal.

I haven't taken the other pictures as I don't always have my camera with me but there is one of a rattle snake that seems pretty real, a gila monster, other people that were important to the development of the town -- very unique and there are audio explanations like a museum tour.

Maybe I will get productive and snap a few more to add to the blog.  Until then, hope all is well with everyone at home.

Take care and sending AZ weather to the Midwest and beyond,

Susan & Darrel

Back Road to Prescott

Hello Family and Friends,
Another post! and probably a 3rd one, too -- it seems like I found some pictures and I try to post relevant to the content (yes, 31 years of teaching will keep you focused on content!).

We took the back road to Prescott -- and it was a beautiful drive.  Here's a few pics we snapped along the way.

Yes, we are still in AZ, although at times going to Prescott can make you feel like you are in CO!

Beautiful scenery with Pine trees and mountain views!

Looking over the valley we traveled up.

A beautiful blue sky to greet us

The road is primitive, dirt and with the rain and snows, we had some water run over.

Susan says Hello from the trail, it was chilly around 42 degrees as we climbed higher.

Darrel is headed up the trail for a better view.

Of course, the sky is usually dotted with jet vapor trails, sometimes they make the most interesting patterns, criss crossing the sky.

It was a beautiful day and we had great travels.  

Sending our blessings,

Susan & Darrel

Taking Care of Business

Hello Family & Friends,
Whew, we've had a busy couple of days, wrapping up the week of March -- Darrel's birthday was Wednesday, the 27th and we went shopping in Surprise and had Pizza for his lunch, plus a birthday cake from Mickey (German Chocolate with lots of icing, delicious).

We spent Thursday and Friday doing some odd jobs around the RV -- the backsplash for the 1/2 bath (or garage) arrived and Darrel decided to get it up and it looks wonderful.  The pattern is very similar to the full bath, but a little more gray, I think!

After the bathroom came the temporary brake loom for the RV (which is a recall from Keystone, and we will get it "official" fixed when we return to Kansas).  It is always interesting to get under the RV especially for Darrel.

I guess there is more room than under a car or truck, but I usually have to had him some tool he has forgotten to take with him!

But now we are "safe" until we get it totally repaired when we head to Kansas.

Of course, laundry happens every other day or so with our small washer/dryer combo.  Sometimes it is just easier to hang from the gazebo to avoid the dryer wrinkles.

So with our household chores caught up we now can find something fun to do!

Sending our love and blessings from AZ,

Susan & Darrel

March is wrapping up!

Hello Family & Friends,
Well last week flew by as I expected.  We did have a busy week working in Woodcarver's Event, doctor appointments and misc. shopping trips.

The weather has warmed up so the days are really warm when in the sun but the nights still cool off so that starts the morning really pleasant.  We have been using fans inside the RV so it is tolerable and of course, you can catch a breeze under the awnings or under the gazebo.

I took this one from under the gazebo and even though the sun is brightly shining, it does keep the direct sun off the RV sides which helps reduce the temp inside.

We even have the back awning up to help keep the heat off the ramp. We haven't dropped the patio yet as the nights are still cooling off to the upper 40's and the furnace still kicks on to keep it at 66 degrees in the early morning hours.

Bumper lemon crop so I spent today juicing lots of lemons -- we freeze the juice and thaw when needed.  Darrel likes to add it to his water or Diet Pepsi.

This electric juicer does the trick, you can see my seeds gathering in the tray.

Next, comes the orange juice!  Talk about "fresh squeezed"!!!  Mickey and Brad donated their oranges from their tree in their backyard.

You can see the juice filling up the bowl.  Talk about spoiled, fresh squeezed juice in the morning!

Windshield woes -- Darrel was trying to polish the windshield of the UTV and it made it worse.  He was using one of the headlight cleaning kits from Harbor Freight.  Obviously, not for this type of plastic.  He wore his poor arm out with a buffing pad on a drill -- not really sure what went wrong.

He spent today (Monday), undoing the damage with a Buffer and better polish he borrowed from Brad.  He has a little ways to go to get it to a better visual.  We will probably need to replace it but those darn things cost about $250 - $380 to replace Yikes!!! Next year!

And with a smaller washing load, I try to keep up on the laundry every other day....today was bath towel day and over the weekend chore clothes.  It works pretty well, but I do have to pay attention to wrinkles if I let the dry cycle go too long.

Guess that is all our news for the past week.  Darrel's birthday is Wednesday, we don't have big plans, meeting Brad and Mickey in Wickenburg to get their car out of the repair shop.  I am sure we will find some fun and food -- plus a piece of birthday cake to celebrate.

OBTW -- Here's my newest FitBit Badge -- kind of keeps you motivated when you get these random undates!  2500 miles since I've been wearing my FitBit -- I think I started wearing my FitBit in November 2016 -- 2 years and 4 months!  

Love to you all, sending happy blessings your way,

Susan & Darrel

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Hello Family & Friends,
We finished the weekend and St. Patty's Day celebration with putting up the kitchen backsplash which turned out pretty awesome.  It was much simpler than the bathroom since we had a bigger space to work and a straight shot without any side walls.

Here's the finished project (and I forgot to remove the towels for a better picture drop!

So here's a better picture without the clutter.  It will keep the wall dry from any sink splashes.

A couple of weeks ago, Darrel built a key holder that he mounted on the window valence.  We now have a place to hang the keys (and his readers) so we don't lose any

We went to a St. Patrick's Day gathering and on our way back we saw an amazing rainbow over the Weaver mountains and me without my camera --- so when we made it home and was closing up outside we had beautiful pink clouds right outside our door.

Here's a picture with the moon (yes, it was the moon) starting to shine.

Amazing pink clouds over the mountains in the background

You can see the pink reflection in Beau's windshield and hood -- that is what caught my eye, I was trying to figure out where the reflection was coming from.

Next week is a busy week with Ladies Pistol practice, Appointments in Surprise (most of the day) and the Woodcarvers event that showcases lots of different wood carver masters who will be in the park for the week.

We are sad to see our neighbors, Ernie and Sue depart for Montana.  We will miss them and wish them safe travels to home -- until next year, as they plan to be back.  We will start to see a lot of neighbors depart for their homes up north as the winter turns to spring and summer.

So next week might be slim pickings for post shares but I'm sure we will have some adventure to share.  Until then,

Love and blessings,

Susan & Darrel

Rainy Day(s) Project

Hello Family & Friends,
Well, with 3 days of rain and clouds (yes, here in Arizona), we decided to work on an indoor project to put up backsplash in the full bathroom.  We actually thought we had bought enough to do both the full bath and the garage 1/2 bath, but we found out that we didn't 😒 -- so the full bathroom got the backsplash and we'll look for either additional sheets or something else.  In keeping with the Pendergast's "limited budget for remodeling" (remember the kitchen and breezeway remodel days), we found these in the discount bin at either Lowe's or Home Depot.

It wasn't too bad of a project (mostly Susan goes and fetches, and I am really good at putting down the blue tape for caulking purposes) -- it really looks nice.  Of course, Darrel makes that magic happen with his handyman talents.

A little camera crooked here, but you can see it from a front standing view.

Better camera shot, shows from the bedroom pocket door access.

You would think peel and stick vinyl would be a snap but you can see we had an outlet to contend with and very little headroom plus the sink faucet is about 7 inches tall so trying to work behind without catching your arm or turning on the water full blast was a challenge.

Darrel then put down the silicone caulking to make sure we don't have water links so with 24 hour dry time, we were brushing teeth, etc. at the back bath sink or the kitchen sink.  Minor inconvenience.

So we now have the 1/2 bath to finish (it will be much smaller) and the kitchen wall behind the sink which the biggest challenges are the outlet which it isn't flush to the wall but in a "box" which sets out from the wall and there are edging strips that connect the wall panels.  We will keep those as accent lines as we cannot remove them or cover over them.  I think it will look OK.

I will keep you posted on our progress -- we have finally gotten to sunshine and warmer temps and I think the winds are suppose to diminish, too.  We will want to be outside and NOT in the RV.

Also this weekend is the Spring yard sale day on Saturday (what will Darrel find this time???) and the weather is suppose to be absolutely beautiful, too beautiful to stay inside.

Hope everyone is doing well and we send our love and blessings to you all,

Love,

S & D

Devil's Nest Mine, we think!

Hello Family and Friends,
After a busy week of fixing things and working in the RV, we took a ride in the desert with Bob and his friend, Candice, and of course, Ruger.  We headed toward Stanton and went further up the road to turn off towards the mines in that area.

We saw the claim notice for an active mine called Devil's Nest mine, so that is what I am calling the area we visited.  It was a nice day, coolish and partly sunny and mild winds.  A perfect day to explore.

On the trail, not sure what we were looking at but we had stopped to look for finds!

Susan at the back of the UTV, smiling at the cameraman

Looking at the scenery of the mountain peaks

Things are starting to really green up for the desert.  The stringy looking plants are Ocotilla and they will green up.  We even saw a few that had little blossoms at the very tips.

We found a pond full of water run off from the snow melt.

A closer shot of the pond, nestled in the mountain valley!

Devil's Nest mine (we think, we aren't entirely sure) -- what a beautiful day, blue skies, a few clouds and back drop of Weaver Mountains!

A closer shot of the mine shaft -- we tried to find the air vent but no luck.  Checkout the craggy rock outcropping -- must have taken some time to dig into that vein!

Ok, here's the back of Darrel in his "snakepants" -- with the Rattlesnakes starting to wake up to the warmth, we are trying to gear ourselves by wearing the correct clothes.  Of course, Susan doesn't have a pair yet 😛  There have been several bites already this year with the warmup and good sunshine.  With the temps cooling off again, we hope they stay away for a few more weeks.

On the journey back, Bob took us on some pretty good trails with some moderately challenging climbs.  I was driving most of them and it was a good thing he couldn't hear my thoughts!  He informed me it was a skill building day, yeah right!

We left at 8:15am and returned around 3pm so a long day!  After we got home we wash the UTV and the front of the truck since it has gotten bugs on it....and then collapsed in the RV.  I was ready for bed at 8:30pm and dreamed most of the night about driving the trails!

So until the next adventure or mis-adventure, 

Sending our love,

Susan & Darrel

NOTE:  If you read this far congrats --- Heads Up, Daylight Savings time will going into affect on Sunday 3/10 and remember, Arizona doesn't do DST -- so 1 hour to MDT, 2 hours to CDT, and 3 hours to EDT --- I will try to make my calls between 5:30pm - 6:30pm to not awaken any of you!

So on the reverse, if you call us too early, you will most likely get our voice mail 😝

March Warm Up!!!

Hello Family & Friends,
Most of you have freezing temps and lots of snow, but we have at least found Arizona weather!  Of course, after we got the non-working, working furnace back in, the nights have been above freezing and the lows have been around mid-40's Yea!!!  Now that we have had the warmer temps for the last 5 days, I will send some warm your way ---- just don't send back cold, please.

So the furnace is in and we need to seal up the outside, and caulk around the exhaust plate.  We washed the very dirty truck and then of course, on Saturday we had light rain -- but it evaporated by early afternoon and we didn't drive the truck to get it dirty.

OK for our news --

We now have a UTV (Utility Terrain Vehicle) -- a Polaris Ranger 700 XP (we figured Bob would get tired of hauling our butts around 😉) -- he actually helped up locate it at North Ranch.  It had 4 previous owners (Bob being one of them) and we now can go in our own UTV.

Darrel cleaned it up and gave it a good going over, it has a back bed to carry "stuff"

Even Susan drives it!  Drives much like a go cart or here I am dating myself, but if you remember the cars at Worlds of Fun, of Six Flags where you could drive them on a track with the metal rail in the center to keep them on the track, much like that...but you better hang on as the trails do NOT have a metal rail to keep you on them!

We keep it locked to the 5th wheel tripod which sometimes I worry slightly that someone will come along and try to drag it off the rocks and pull the 5th wheel??, but then I think, crazy, right?  But a couple of week ago someone stole one in the park and drove it off into the desert at 10pm at night.  So you do have to keep them under lock and key.

Another good find at North Ranch has been a Splendide washer dryer combo at a very reasonable price.  We got it hooked up and again, Darrel went over it with a fine tooth comb.  We did find out that when we ran the first load, that our washer hookups leaked and we spent a week or so getting replacement "o" rings and shutoffs to stop the leaking.

The sucker weighs about 200 lbs and you should have seen Darrel and me load it at the curb into the truck.  We used a 2 wheeler to get it into the garage.  We have done about 4 loads and we finally purchased anti-vibration pads to help with the spin cycle vibration.  It is an older model and don't want to put much $$ into it as who knows how long it will last.  But it is nice to have laundry available in the garage and not have to travel to laundry facilities.

Oh, one more thing and then I will let you go -- You see the most unusual trees, shrubs, etc that in the Midwest.  There is a tree that produces these pods, and if you crack them you get "red beans, or seeds".  I have been cracking the pods (we found a tree in Surprise at one of the Chinese restaurants we eat at) and I have been stock piling them.  Not sure I what I am going to do with them???

I did a little research today (librarian, remember?) and I found that the tree is call the Texas Mountain Laurel or a Mescal Bean tree -- and these red beans are poisonous....!!!! Mickey told me that someone she knew drilled holes in them and strung them to make a necklace for his wife.  Yeah, I don't see Darrel drilling holes in these little beans 😏  So until I find a use for them, I just crack the pods and save the beans, you can see the color variation, really are pretty!

So I guess that catches you up with the Pendergast's -- the snow is all gone in our area and the skies have been blue and clear.  We hope Spring makes it to the mid-west soon.

Blessings and sending much love,

Susan & Darrel

PS -- Here's a picture of Ruger in his desert gear.  Bob's goddaughter was concerned about Ruger getting dirt in his eyes and "ear" burn, so she sent him this cute trail riding gear!  I was the photographer and let me tell you, he didn't care for the getup!

Ain't he a cool dude?