SURPRISE!!! Another Critter!

Isn't he cute???  This little guy has been living underneath the table that sits over the newly planted whatever it was (gosh, I've forgotten already).  Surprise!!  No more anticipation!!

He's not the REAL surprise however.  You can bet "I" was surprised when I looked out the window, as I do a hundred times a day, and saw this baby!  A beautiful buck growing a gorgeous pair of antlers!  I had seen tracks in the dirt previously, so I knew SOMEONE was visiting, I just didn't know who.

All I have ever seen around here are does (the female kind) and if I'm lucky, a fawn or two.  

He was very wary, taking over five minutes to even come up close to the water.  He finally took a very long sip.  Another few minutes went by before he drank again.  Even though my glass door was closed, I think he could hear the click of the camera with those big ears.

He licked up every drop after each drink.  These horns, now covered with velvet, are going to be huge! You can barely see, but he has a cute little white tail, which I'm guessing makes him a whitetail deer.  A beauty to behold!!  How could I be so lucky?

There's been no more rain, but it has been falling all around me.  Yesterday was a hot 108 in Tucson, 105 where I am with a low overnight of 84.  I keep the house at 80, so there was no opening windows or doors for me!!

I discovered quite by accident there was an appliqué class going on at my favorite quilt store, taught by a gal I met at a quilt show a couple years ago.  I crashed the class with excellent results.  Sometimes you just have to put on your BOLD pants and give it a shot.  I'll explain more later.  

In the meantime, I'm watching out my sliding glass door like a hawk!!!

Am I Part Indian?

Never poo poo my rain dancing.  It works!!!  But first, I had to move that oh so heavy bed out of MY bedroom into the spare room.  I moved it an inch at a time, I'm sure the equivalent of a mile.  I had to back out once completely, to turn it around and fit it in the door.  

I expected to be very sore this morning, but surprisingly, the rain dancing not only brings rain, but gets rid of overworked muscle soreness.  Who knew??  Here's the new beauty in all her glory.  Ashley Furniture delivered it right on time and had it set up in minutes.  

It's Jessie approved, mostly because at the bottom is a 15" tall ottoman I purchased so she didn't have to jump so high.  She's taken a tumble or two in her old age.

So I'm pretty sure I'm part Indian.  I did my little rain dance yesterday, careening around the house like a crazy woman.  It doesn't take long, mostly because I run out of breath.  At any rate, in the late afternoon, what should I hear but thunder.

I checked the forecast.  YES!!!  Look at that rain heading my way.  

It poured and poured!!  Not a lot of lightning, but lots of beautiful water.

Sunset came along with even more rain.  The desert smells so good when it's soaked!

Really, I MUST be part Indian.  Maybe there was someone in the woodpile.   Just as the sun went down, lightning began to light up the sky.

That's when I remembered my lovely new bed.  I thought boy am I going to sleep well tonight.  NOT!  That little rain dance created a monster.  I woke up at midnight to sounds worse than any freight train.  The wind was shaking the house and rattling the trees louder than I've ever heard.  It was scary!

No more rain dancing for me!!  Well just one.  I woke up again at 3:00 with the worst charlie horse ever in my leg.  I had to get up and dance around a little for relief.  That's when the SECOND charlie horse hit the OTHER leg.  I never got back to sleep.  My rain dancing days are over!!

High Anticipation!!

Here's one I didn't anticipate at all.  This is the quilt I've been eyeing for the last few years every time I visited Cactus Quilts.  That's the perfect name for a quilt store in the desert!!  It's mostly hand work with scraps I have at home.  The good news is that it will take me so long to complete, I'll save a bundle from NOT buying more fabric!!

I highly anticipated the rain forecast for yesterday.  I even did a little rain dance to ensure some moisture.  I was so excited when it clouded over and I heard thunder.  Well, thunder and lightning do not rain make.  At least not here.  It rained all around me for a couple of hours, causing flood watches in Tucson, but not a single drop of the wet stuff hit here.  Temps got all the way down to 80 though!

In between watering the plants myself and watching Zoo stories on television, I finished this small quilt.  I like it so much I just might have to make a bigger one.

I certainly did NOT anticipate almost stepping on this guy.  They are usually so secretive I rarely see them, let alone get a picture.  He was about ten inches long ... a real brute!!

I decided to wait until today to move the old bed out, so that got scratched off my list, but there was a baseball game on.  Not having seen anything since the All Star Game, I was almost in withdrawal.  Now I am for sure since Fox Sports chose NOT to show the Giants game.  I realize they are in last place, but still ... you ADVERTISED it was on your schedule.  Instead, I made two pillowcases for my new bed.

Since I keep seeing people fry fish for dinner on their blogs, I thought I would give it a shot.  Boy was I anticipating THIS yummy dinner.  I picked up a piece of delicious fresh cod.  My mouth was watering.  

That quickly went out the window.  I didn't batter it because of the diet thing ... no flour ... so I just fried it.  Who knows what temperature it was ... I sure didn't.  How long do you leave it in there?  I didn't know that either.  In the end, it all fell apart and was the greasiest thing I've ever eaten.  Such a disastrous mess, I didn't even take a picture.  

I really did try to eat a piece or two.  It tasted like greasy grease.  Biggest cooking fail in a long time!  I think I'll leave the fried fish to the experts!!

On my way to the trash can, I had another visitor at the water station.  I'll leave you with a little bit of anticipation and post the pictures tomorrow.  Right now, I'm in bed-moving mode!!

Headlines: MONSOON ON VACATION

This is my favorite morning view from my patio.  Hidden underneath the Mexican bird of paradise are Mom and Dad quail, fourteen babies and two teenagers who have joined the group.

The weather guessers have predicted rain every day, albeit only 30% chance.  It's all been dumped in Mexico before it even gets close.  The cloud cover however, has kept the "feels like" numbers in the high 90's.  I probably shouldn't say anything about NO monsoon.  Monsoon floods bring scorpions and spiders.

I planted the two barberry bushes in the flower beds.  It's actually a very hard combination of rock and very little soil.  It took me 30 minutes to dig just one hole.  In no time at all, they looked dead.  I watered and watered them and said a little prayer.  PLEASE live!!

By noon, remembering they were in the shade of a tree when purchased, I stole my barbecue table and set it over the top.  Maybe a little shade will help.  In the meantime, I've watered them three times a day to keep the leaves from shriveling up.  I thought these things were hardy!!

At 9:00, I loaded up and headed off to the quilt store on Oracle Road .... at least a two day wagon ride North.  That nice dark-haired lady that works there?  She should get a raise.  I've been eyeing one quilt for about three years.  It comes from a lady who lived here during the depression.  At any rate, I came home with the pattern.  More on that later.

It was 107 when I navigated the wagon trail home.  How my poor little Jeep survives that heat, I'll never know.  After several hours on the dusty trail, I figured I'd make something cooling.  How about popsicles?  

This particular batch was lemon cream, only all I could find was an old bottle of lime.  I won't throw them away, only because I really could use those sticks for a second batch.

Watermelon ..... now THAT should be DELICIOUS!!  I cheated and bought the already-cut-up kind and threw in a tablespoon of lime juice like the recipe said.  

Super simple ... don't these just look amazing?  You would think they tasted just like that watermelon, right???  Wrong!!!  They were barely sweet and didn't taste like watermelon at all!  They taste like water with a drop of sugar.  I'm eating them just because I'm trying not to be wasteful.  Maybe there's a bottle of watermelon flavoring I can add.

Since I've been craving pizza, I decided to whip up a pizza quesadilla.  Let me tell you, it was awesome!!  It's filled with mozzarella cheese and lots of pepperoni that I nuked for 30 seconds just to get rid of the grease.  The low carb tortilla grilled up nicely and tasted WONDERFUL!  No cauliflower was injured in this preparation!

It's furniture moving day.  My old bed will be dismantled and moved to the spare bedroom (by me of course), in anticipation of my NEW bed arriving tomorrow.  A Sunday delivery?  Well that's what they said anyway.  Not only that, but a Sunday delivery between 3:00 and 7:00 PM.  

That means sleeping in the spare bedroom tonight.  Hmmmm maybe I should wait until Sunday morning for the big move!!!

This Has Been The Weirdest Weather!!

I know I've said this before, and I'll probably say it again.  This has been the weirdest weather year ever.  Remember it snowed twice in February?  Now here it is July when the monsoon season should be starting and there's been only a tiny drop of rain.

I can deal with a high of 105.  That's what it was in central California for the last two days.  The nights however, are another story indeed.  My AC unit ran all last night.  I know because it kept waking me up.  The LOW was ........ wait for it ................. 88 degrees.  That makes it pretty hard to go exploring!!

I knew the farmers market in Green Valley would be small due to the weather.  They have a nice large building which was relatively full of goodies, but their air conditioning was NOT working.  I just love all these fabulous rugs from Mexico, but their prices are WAY too high.

There was lots of jewelry, only two tables of vegetables and several vendors selling food.  OH the food!!  Huge cupcakes and muffins, cookies slathered in lemon frosting, everything you ever wanted to satisfy your sweet tooth.  As crazy as the weather, is the fact that I wasn't tempted.  Maybe a little when I saw all that homemade bread and Greek pasta.  

What I also found was this red scarf filled with the beads that suck up water.  Get it wet, tie it on like a scarf, and you're cool as a cucumber.  These actually do work, so I got one to wear around the house, or at LEAST out in the garden.

I also picked up this cute little purse.  I'm always losing receipts and "stuff" in my rig.  I figure to drop everything in this and leave it on the dash, including a pen to write down mileage.  

On the way home, I stopped in at TJ Maxx.  Unlike California, this is the neatest, cleanest store I've ever seen.  I think you could eat off the floors.  I was looking for a small pot to cook Cooper's rice in. So far I've burned it more times than not.  

THIS turned out to be the best $12 investment!!  It's got that new granite coating, plus a glass lid.  I could actually see the rice boiling BEFORE it went all over the stovetop.  I think this is the first time I didn't have to do a major cleanup when I cooked rice.  Not only that, but it came out perfect!!  Too bad it's for the dog.  

The other weird thing, and I'm blaming it completely on the weather, is that I'm not craving anything. For some reason this diet keeps me full enough that it's easy to turn down bread, pasta and sweets, especially when you know I have no self control at all!!!

On the way home, I ran into these two guys who also have no self control.  They were chowing down on a poor little squirrel.  So intent were they that I drove right by and they never moved.  That pretty much removed ALL of the residual thoughts I had about eating something.

Another scorcher is in the wings for today.  It hasn't slowed down the baby quail one bit.  I counted 23 trips back and forth across the yard yesterday with all 14 still intact.  I've set up a mini pie-plate watering station for them cuz they are so darn cute!!

I think I'm going crazy, or at least crazier, sitting around the house.  A nice drive in my air conditioned car to the air conditioned quilt store might be a good diversion.  Tomorrow I'll be in furniture moving mode because the new bed is coming Sunday.  I can't wait for a fabulous night's sleep!!

Up A Pay Grade ... $$$

All my plans seem to change by the day.  It was a lovely suffocating convection-oven 105 degrees yesterday, not that I'm complaining!!  I still love it here.  Add on a few more degrees if you were in Tucson.  So wasn't I absolutely shocked to find out how cool it was under this RV cover.  Isn't she purdy??  The inside exhaust fan wasn't even on.

No, it's not mine.  It belongs to the Chance family who were kind enough to let me park my baby over there for the time they are gone.  Every little bit out of the sun helps.  It makes me want one even more.

So with the increase in heat, I stayed indoors and decided to up myself a pay grade to Mechanic.  They make lots more money than handymen (women).  See?  Even auto-correct wants to make it handymen!!  

This is my old vacuum ... relegated to the garage ... that I decided to bring to Arizona.  It's a Hoover Windtunnel, an excellent specimen of carpet cleaning.

Every time I used it, I could smell burning rubber and the sweeper refused to turn.  I could take it to the vacuum repair shop and pay $200 for an overhaul, but why not do it myself?  It can't be that hard!!

Thank goodness for You Tube.  I really didn't expect to see a video on how to fix this problem.  After all, just how many vacuums are out there?   Thank you to all the men who spend hours teaching the rest of us how to save money.  This video was actually made by a vacuum repair company and lucky me, it was the exact same model.  They said I needed new belts, which I ordered from Amazon.

Step one, turn it over and take out four screws.  Step two, remove the old belts.  That was harder than it sounded, requiring a pair of scissors.

The second one hung on for dear life before I got it dislocated.  After thirty minutes of trying to stretch a very short belt around a very big wheel, I GOT IT!!!  Yay!!  Well that was an easy fix!

Now for the big test.  Does it work??  Heck yeah!!!  This thing almost sucked the carpet up off the floor.  Unfortunately the self propelled part doesn't seem to be working all that great (that was the second belt) but everything else is working like a charm.  

I'm upping my pay grade.  You can now address me as Ms. Mechanic instead of Handywoman.  I'm off to clean the rest of the house.  

I had actually planned a trip out to a ghost town near Tombstone, but it's going to be another 105 degree day, so I'm staying inside where it's cool.  With my luck I'd get a flat tire and die of exposure.  Maybe I should look up "changing tires" on You Tube!!!

What Do Roadrunners Eat?

It was a beautiful 68 degrees yesterday morning.  The cool doesn't last long, so any yard work has to be done by 6:00 am.  With all the plants around, I've been motivated to fill in this missing ten feet of landscape.

I'm sorry to say the nursery wasn't in very good shape.  Cactus was in abundance if you wanted to pay the big prices .. hardly anything under $50.  Heck, I can dig those out of the desert.  It's also hard to find something that won't grow tall and block the view of my water station (the most important feature!!).

The solution was Japanese Barberry.  They had two very nice specimens for $20 each.  As you are aware, I'm NOT a gardener.  I was a little taken aback when I got home and discovered (via the internet) that these plants in some areas are akin to kudzu, that awful thing that overgrows everything and you can't get rid of.  Being the miniature variety, I hope that doesn't happen.

While planting the first one, who should peak out of the shrubs but Momma Quail and FOURTEEN babies.  Good heavens ... she is a busy girl keeping all these guys rounded up.  Dad is also totally attentive as he walks the concrete fence while they meander from one side of the yard to the other and back again.

They are just so darn cute!!  That's when I spotted him.  A local guy this roadrunner, who must have smelled the babies.  He was on the fence in a flash, but not before I ran out and scared him off.  I read on Allison's blog that a roadrunner ate her baby hummingbirds.  WHAT???  Not on MY watch buster!!  At just a little over an inch tall, they need all the help they can get.

No picture of the roadrunner ... I was too intent on getting him OUT of the yard!

Two minutes later, I watched this big guy try to climb the wall and escape.  I thought it was a lizard that lost his tail.  He was FAST as he skittered along the mow strip.  

He finally stopped long enough for a picture ... at least as good as I could get before he took off again.  Turns out it was a  horny toad.  Wait ..... do they eat baby quail?????  I sure hope not!!  I'll be counting them every time they cross the yard.

Of course you can't go to the nursery without looking at all the chatchkeys they have for sale.  Although I really wanted the $50 dragonfly, I passed.   But when I saw this globe, I was hooked.  It has a solar light inside.  Who thinks up these things?  I definitely need one more, and since rules dictate things must be in sets of three, maybe I need TWO!

I'm happy to say no baby quail were eaten on my watch ... this time anyway.  What  I ate was a piece of this beautiful tuna steak.  

Yup ... I was back at it on the barbecue.  I know tuna is supposed to be eaten VERY rare.  However, the only thing I like rare is a good piece of cow.  I have to admit it wasn't as tasty as it looks.

I'm heading off to the farmers market in Green Valley this morning.  During the hot summer months, it moves indoors, meaning there probably won't be much there.  I have an ulterior motive.  The Tractor Supply store is right on the way.  They have horse troughs that can make any number of things ... like planters and swimming pools!!!

The Crazy Plant Lady

I've been called a lot of things in my long years, but Plant Lady was not one of them.  I'm really not good at this sort of thing, so the Chance household's confidence in me that all of these plants won't die, is hard to explain.

Each and every one was vacated from the greenhouse and hauled over here for boarding.  Just to help my case, I set up a brand new hose and sprayer.  If anything, they will probably die from overwatering!!

Then something magical happened!  Never in all my years have I been able to get a cactus to bloom, but looky here!!  One night these gorgeous blooms appeared out of nowhere!  Alas, they didn't last but one day.  I'd say THIS is a happy camper!

I can't say as much for this guy, although I actually was able to save him from his death bed.  I happened to go out with the puppies and saw this baby was dead dead dead!!  I'm not kidding, every leaf was brown, crinkly and draped over the edge of the pot in it's final death throes.  

OH NO ... on the job for one day and I've already lost one of the children!!  I watered it generously and put it inside the house.  At least it wouldn't die of the heat.  Wasn't I surprised next morning when I saw THIS!!  It literally came back to life after all that CPR!!  Thank goodness!!!

The two tomato plants are still alive, with the one on the right actually creating a tomato, albeit only half an inch big.  

I'm having it for breakfast!!

Here's the baby of a plant Patty and Dan got in the 80's.  The pressure is on.  They have kept this thing going for almost 40 years.  I definitely better not kill THIS one!!

Yes ... there are MORE!

and MORE!!  These are orchids basking in the bathtub.

You thought I was kidding when I said I was opening a boarding facility!!  I'm more than happy to help out since they do so much for me, like mowing the lawn and checking the water station when I'm gone.

By the time they return, I'll probably be run out of my house by the hoards I'll have to bring inside to keep alive!!  I think I'm now officially THE CRAZY PLANT LADY!!