Another week gone past

Category: Daily Happenings | Posted: Tue Oct 10, 2006 5:38 am

I can't figure out where the weeks are going. Another one is gone and a new one started. There were a lot of things to do and I didn't get them all done. I don't go to work until evening so you'd think I'd get things done during the day. Last week I got my zucchini jam done and was going to make zucchini marmalade but that didn't happen. I grated the zucchini and put the brown sugar on it but then I measured it into freezing bags and put it in the freezer. I will use it for zucchini during the winter. I think people must be preparing for winter and reading more. We were busy last week. I had a day off on Friday and we went looking for a new stove. The front burner quit working on the old stove. DR took it apart and the wiring was bad so he said it wasn't safe to use and we should get another one. We went through five stores before I found one that I liked enough to buy. It's a Hotpoint. I didn't want one with a selfcleaning oven. They use too much electricity. The extra insulation also makes the oven smaller. I didn't want one with the glass oven door. I had one like that once and we walked past it going out to the laundry room and the glass cracked and it all fell on the kitchen floor in little square pieces. It was safety glass and it shatters instead of breaking. For weeks I was finding these little square pieces of glass on the floor. We started home with it in the back of the truck and wouldn't you know we passed through a rain shower. It didn't get too wet and dried off before we got home. I had to check out the oven so I made an apple coffecake and on Sunday I made an apple pie.
Sunday, we went down to the valley to take pictures. I didn't stop at my sister's house this week. I need to call her. She was going to get a cat scan instead of an MRI and I want to know what they decided. She is going to physical therapy. She said they want to loosen her hip joints. They are freezing in place. Sounds great. She thinks they are trying to break them. She has exercises to do. Anyway we went to the Sunflower Organic store and bought fructose and 9 grain cereal (for hot cereal) and some plums so I can make some plum jam. We stopped and ate at a Chinese buffet. Then, we started for home. We don't like to be on the road when evening comes, especially since we have to come up the hill. It starts at about 1,500 feet and goes up to 4,000 feet in seven miles. Lots of twists and turns. You never know when you come around a corner if there is going to be a slow moving truck in the way. They have to keep right but they don't always do it. Just before we reached the top we got behind one that was trying to pass another one. Good thing we were about to the top. The pictures were taken after we passed the rest area and were headed for our exit. Saguaro cacti do not grow above about 2,500 feet. After that altitude, it's too cold for them. When they get the arms it's like a little ball coming out the side. Each year the ball gets a little bigger and then you notice it's a little elongated. It takes three or four years for it to turn and start growing up. It grows up and out but mostly up after it turns. We had four of them growing along the front fence when we lived down the hill in Black Canyon City. The owners of the property had them moved there when they were only about four to five feet tall. They grew straight up for about ten years before they started to get arms so they were already old. It can take them ten years to get to the first foot. There are some that have so many arms they can't support them all and they twist and bend. They are so beautiful when they look like that and very old. They don't know exactly how old they live to be but some have been estimated at 500 years. There is a Saguaro National Park down by Tucson. There is also an organ pipe cactus park down there. Organ pipe cactus grow in clusters of very tall, very thin cactus and sway in the breeze. They are in danger now because immigrants are cutting through there and doing great damage to them.
One time when we lived in Black Canyon City a big dog got in the yard and was stalking our chickens. DR went out and it briefly thought about growling and tackling him but DR started yelling and waving his hands and the dog decided to leave. But, we had a five foot chain link fence at that point so the dog went up the chain link with one foot and used the cactus to climb with the other foot. Then it was a hurt and sad dog because it had those sharp thorns. It went off down the street. I don't know who's dog it was either. I hit my arm on one of those and it just poked it a bit. It didn't stick in it and it hurt for a week. I hope that dog's owner got them all pulled out. That dog could have just went out the gate where it came in. It didn't need our chickens anyway. It didn't look hungry.
Cactus wrens are funny. They will make nests in just about any kind of cactus. They like the saguaro because they are so tall. But one year, they made a nest in a huge area of prickly pear that was in one corner of our garden. Then, they proceeded to use the garden as their dinner table. I covered the whole garden with netting. They found a way under it or through it. I covered the cactus with the netting. They found a way through it. I used alunimum foil plates strung on cord throughout the garden. Didn't faze them one bit. I finally resorted to spraying them with the hose everytime I saw them. They really didn't like getting wet all the time and finally they moved elsewhere but not before there wasn't anything much left. Maybe that's why they moved. They had eaten everything they liked.
I made chicken and noodles yesterday after we got home from Phoenix. Not soup, it was too thick. We had the leftovers for supper today. It rained last night and it was really cool today. I wore a sweatshirt to work over my sweater. Tonight I moved a lot of plants up close to the house and under the tree so if it does frost they will be protected. I hope this is just a cold front moving through and it won't be cold for another month. There were lots of bees on the flowers today. They must be getting ready for winter. The weather service says a warmer than normal winter this year, but what do they know. If they predict rain we have a dry spell. If they predict sunshine it rains.
Oh, well it's bedtime. Dooley

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glendann wrote on Tue Oct 10, 2006 6:01 am:

Your right Dooley our days are just flying by.I love reading about your days they are just so interesting and mine are so dull.I think the little birds just ate themselves out of house and home and moved on.LOL.

pondlady wrote on Tue Oct 10, 2006 10:53 am:

Zucchini jam??? Well, OK, I guess. Do you use pectin to keep it together?
Sounds like you two have much on your plate to keep you busy and entertained. We humans do always think other people have better lives, but I think you two have made yours spectacular.