Hope all is well with you and yours. It’s been a while. Summer was a blessing and a curse: We received a wonderfully productive monsoon that blessed us with much needed rain, but the humidity! Oh my! The wind! Good grief! Our little Q Town got hammered with damage; trees down, trailers blown over, washes impassable. Tyson Wash on our end of town was closed four different times. They’d just get the mess cleaned up and holes patched and in would roll another storm …
But another summer is gone. Fall is here! Cool nights perfect for good sleep. Warm days perfect for getting caught up on all the things left undone during the heat of summer. THIS weather is why we desert rats stay.
I never did get those promised posts/photos on Mesa Verde National Park and the Aztec Ruins accomplished. The heat saps me of all ambition and I’ll just leave it at that. While the cost of everything has gone up, up, up The Chiweenie Brothers and I have resigned ourselves to the very real possibility that we may have to spend ANOTHER summer here on the homestead in 2023, but we’ll manage if that does happen. It’ll be ugly, but we are learning how to deal with it.
In the meantime, we’re hoping some very local mini adventures may be on our agenda and worthy of sharing with you, and it might be fun to relive some of our past travels and also share those with you. Not every one, of course, but those that were special in one way or another. Before we do that, though, here’s a run down on what’s been happening in our little piece of Arizona.
. One especially viscious monsoon thunder storm threw a bolt of lightning that must have been cloud to cloud and right above our kool cover. Close enough that the strike and the thunder were at the same instant and loud enough that it broke the ear drum of my left ear. It’s healed and no damage done, thankfully, but I think in future I’ll pass sitting out in the Arizona Room watching the storms.
- It took four years, but I finally saved up enough moola to get the front of our lot fenced. It’s not completely finished yet, and I’ll spare you the details, but it will get done at some point and The Chiweenie Brothers will have more room, a safe area, to get in some good exercise.
- The cacti and shrubs are looking fantastic after all the monsoon rain. 4 1/2 inches in total—the average is 4—and I have several big tubs filled with rainwater that was caught from roof runoff with which to pamper my potted plants and hopefully grow a few greens this winter.
- I took and passed the ham radio test so now have a small handheld unit and am getting involved in the local ham club. We’ll be able to communicate if the grid ever goes down, and it will come in handy while traveling.
- Fries had some trouble last year with a lump on his back and one under his right eyelid. The vet said they should go away after a round of antibiotics given when Fries’ foot became infected after stepping on a thorn from a fallen mesquite tree branch, but that both lumps would probably return. They did and Fries had surgery to remove both. Dr. Montgomery said the challazion under Fries’ eyelid was the biggest one he’d ever seen. Glad that’s gone. He was such a good patient. He didn’t paw at this eye much and couldn’t quite reach the stitches on his back so he wasn’t “coned” but for just one day. We’re both grateful for that! As you can see, not much happened this past summer. Too hot and humid and the littliest movement caused drenching sweat (YUCK!!), but we’re busy now that the weather is cool playing catchup. Best part was the visit from my oldest son and his lady the first part of November!
Happy trails and keep those tails wagging,
Shawna
2DogsTravel.com 