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dooley's Blog
Rain, rain, and more rain
Category: Daily Happenings | Posted: Sat Jul 05, 2008 4:27 am It has been so dry here and the scattered showers have scattered everywhere but here. Yesterday we drove through such a thunderstorm on the way up to work but it was still dust dry here when we got home. This morning we picked apricots and I washed them and sat down and cut them and threw the seed out. I put them in the food processor and chopped them, just chunky. Then, I found jars, boiled water and scalded them, boiled more water and filled the jars with water and put the lids in a pan and covered them with the boiling water. I made three batches of jam. That's six pint jars and 15 half pint jars. I thought about making another apricot pie but I had dr give the rest of the apricots to the boy across the street. I used up my blueberries and made blueberry pie instead. It got really hot in the kitchen because I turned off the big fan so I could bottle the jam without cooling it off any. It got 103 in the kitchen before I was done. Just as I was finishing the last of it, I heard thunder outside. I looked out and it was getting very black. I didn't think of my camera like Glenda does. I told dr he'd better go shut the truck windows. I didn't really expect it to rain because usually the storms go around us. This time the whole sky was black, not just a part of it. It started to rain about 3:10 pm and it's still raining off and on. But, for two hours it poured rain, heavy rain with hail in it. When it finally quit the heavy stuff, I went out to check my plants. They were still standing and didn't seem to have any amount of damage from the hail. I think they will probably double in size in the next few days. I know that you can water them every day and keep them from dying but just a little rain makes them grow like crazy. It's very muddy out now. I had an empty flower pot out there and it has about half or three quarters of an inch of water in it. I have this nice rain gauge held up by a little turtle. It doesn't ever get rained on though because I don't want it to get wet. It's really cute. Anyway, it's still raining but not so hard. Chance doesn't appreciate the rain or the thunder so she's stuck so close to me that every time I turn around I trip over her. She's in with dr now. There is more rain in the forecast for the next three days. Of course, the forecast says isolated or scattered showers so who knows if we will get more rain. We're just thankful for what we do get. I do hope the rain was widespread and the wild fire got as drenched as we did. It would go a long way toward putting it out. This morning it said it had burned about 9.835 acres. I wonder how they measure it. Probably by satellite or something. It was 10 percent contained. But, when we talked to the forest service spokesperson yesterday he said they really weren't trying to put it out, just keep it from burning toward and structures or small towns. They were building fire lines and containment areas and letting it burn up to them hoping the winds wouldn't be strong enough to blow it across them. We could see it burning when we came home from work last night. Not just the glow but the flames shooting up and large areas of sparks blowing around. It was amazing. I'm glad it's not closer than the 8 to 10 miles. I'm not sure just how far it is but it's not really close to us and has several ridges to cross to get to us, I think. We are in scrubby brush and the fire is up in altitude so it is burning the large trees and brush. Anyway, we are happy with the rain we have and hope for more tomorrow. We had to cook our steak inside but it tasted just fine. dooley This blog entry has been viewed 718 times
Apricots!!
Category: Daily Happenings | Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2008 7:42 pm dr and I picked a half a bucket of apricots. They could be a little softer but the birds and bugs have started eating on them so it's time for us to have a feast, too. I've made one pie and five half pints and two pints of jam. I normally only use half pints when I make jelly and jam but I'm giving a lot of it away to neighbors and friends. There are eight people in one of the houses in the neighborhood. I didn't think a half pint of jam would go far. They can probably even finish the pint in one day. The boy keeps coming to fence and wanting to know if the apricots are ripe yet. dr keeps telling him not yet. He can see that they are getting orange though. We lock our gates when we leave but I fully expect to find he's climbed the fence one of these days. I will give them some but want to get what I want first. After all, I'm the one pouring water on the trees and protecting them from frost and bugs. I keep the little suckers trimmed from the trunk. They should be mine to use first. Before we put the fence up we never got any from the trees along the drive. Those neighbors don't live around here anymore but they are partly why we have a fence and locks on the gates. Oh, well! I do share what I have with others. I wish they would wait for me to do it. Have a nice day! Oh, I will see if I can get a picture in a bit. dooley This blog entry has been viewed 698 times
Wildfire!
Category: Daily Happenings | Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2008 3:49 pm We have a wildfire burning near us, but not too near. It's about 8 to 10 miles. Last night it was burning south but the wind changed so it's burning north. The air is full of smoke and ash. It was started by five hikers who got lost and tried to start a signal fire. I guess the succeeded. They were using planes with a slurry on it yesterday because there wasn't men available. There are several fives around Arizona. One is on the Gila Reservation down south of Phoenix. A lot of the firefighters are in California where they have about 1,400 fires burning. Their fires were started by dry lightning. I hope they charge those hikers with starting the fire because there are all kinds of fire restrictions and they ignored them all. It is so dry here that no fires are allowed except in grills in campgrounds. Big city people have no idea of the damage they can cause on a weekend hike. Today, they are using helicopters to carry the slurry. I hope it doesn't spread too far before they can get it under control. There is a slight chance of rain but not much. Less than 10 percent for today. It will be a couple of weeks before conditions are right for the summer rains to start. The good news is the apricots are ready to pick but they will be smoked. LOL They'll sure have to be washed good. dooley This blog entry has been viewed 710 times
Long trip, Lots of fun!
Category: Daily Happenings | Posted: Sun May 25, 2008 4:24 am We had a long trip but here we are. We haven't been to bed befor 2 am since Tuesday. It's headed toward midnight now and I think we are headed toward the bedroom anytime. We've talked and talked and talked. We've taken pictures and pictures and pictures. Tonight we went out to Ryan's Steakhouse for dinner and had a great time. Tomorrow we are going to Glenda's family reunion. That's at noon, if we manage to get up before then. More fun, more pictures, more talk. I tried to get a butterfly picture today but of course the butterfly wouldn't set still. I did get a couple micro shots of some of Glenda's flowers. We are having a great time. Wish you were here. dooley This blog entry has been viewed 703 times
Picnics
Category: Daily Happenings | Posted: Mon Apr 21, 2008 9:46 pm Yesterday, we went down to Lake Pleasant for a picnic with Wannabe and my next younger sister, Maxine. But, it turned out that Maxine couldn't come because her husband, Ed wasn't feeling well. There was Wannabe, dr and myself, Dan and Laurel and Avery, and two of Maxine's daughters, Sharon and Laura and their families and later Maxine's son Eddie and his wife. So there were about 20 people there for most of the time. dr and I went down early because the picnic ramada's are on a first come basis and you need to get there early or there aren't any left. There are quite a few ramada's with only one picnic table but we wanted a larger one with four tables. We found one but it wasn't right on the lake. There was a path down to the lake but I didn't go down to the lake. The path was quite a bit steeper and rockier than I wanted to do. Wannabe didn't want to go down either. But, the kids ran up and down the path and weren't even puffing and out of breath. I told one of them she wasn't doing it right. She is twelve. She came running up the path. I told her, "Rachel, you didn't do that right." She asked me why. I told her she should be all out of breath and puffing after running up that path. She just grinned at me. Her mom says she's planning on running a triathlon this summer. I suppose at twelve I could run like that, too. Some of the kids went swimming but I thought it was a bit cold for it. I didn't even take my long sleeve shirt off. Most of the people were wearing shorts and t-shirts. But, I am usually cold. I am not a winter person at all. It was a bit windy and we had to anchor things with rocks. The kids thought that was great fun and brought more rocks than ten picnics could use. We talked, the kids swam and played and some people took pictures. I had the camera but didn't take many pictures. I took my binoculars but there weren't too many birds to watch. The kids had fun using them to watch the boats. So, all in all we had a good day. We left and come home about 4 pm. It takes a good hour to get up the hill from there. I was tired and we just had a sandwich for supper. I did take a couple of pictures but not great ones for sure. I was hurrying because talking was a priority yesterday. dooley a sailboat 
kids headed down to the lake 
a cactus on the hillside 
and packing up after the picnic. 
This blog entry has been viewed 760 times
Saturdays
Category: Daily Happenings | Posted: Sun Apr 20, 2008 2:53 am Saturdays here begin much earlier than the other days of the week. I normally get up around 8 am since I work evenings and get home around 9:30 I tend to stay up later and sleep later. With daylight coming earlier now, I do wake up earlier some days. But, Fridays and Saturdays start at 6:00 am. The buzz of the alarm clock wakes us those days. Fridays are our yard sale days and Saturdays we work. I work at the library from 8 to 3:30 and dr goes to sell at the flea market. So, this morning I woke up to the buzz of the alarm clock. I stumbled out of bed and into the bathroom. After I dressed I went into the kitchen and put the tea kettle on to boil water for tea. I dragged out the bread, cheese and meat for our sandwiches. I pack one insulated bag for me and one for dr. Sandwich, chips(100 calorie paks) a tangerine and bottles of water. Today instead of cooking oatmeal or scrambled eggs dr said we would stop at McDonald's on the way to work. So, I had time to check on the Stew before we left. I took my tea along. I usually take hot tea but today I had iced tea in a travel cup. We stopped at ate and dr delivered me to the library. He went on to the flea market. It wasn't a busy day at the library. I helped check in the morning drop box and did our holds list and shelved books. Then, I took our missing book list and went out into the stacks to look for books that have been missing for more than 3 months. These are books that the computer says are checked in but no one can find them. The list had about 50 to 60 books on it. I found ten of them today. I found more on the adult side than I found on the kids side. Kids take books off the shelf, look at the cover and the pictures and stick them back on the shelf anywhere that is handy, never back where they belong. So missing books are harder to find in the kids side of the library. After lunch, I did the afternoon holds list and helped with the afternoon drop box and shelved books. I started on the trace list. These are books that haven't been gone long enough to be on the missing list but we still can't find them. I only had the front page started when it was time to go home but I did find 3 of the items. dr came to pick me up. He said it was really windy out today and it was still windy because I had trouble getting the truck door to stay open long enough for me to get in. Of course, there wasn't much room for me to get in. dr seems to have brought more home than he took and he still made money. He bought a lot of tools and fishing tackle and tackle boxes from a man who was next to him. The man didn't want to take the stuff home with him. Now, that stack is in the dining room waiting to be sorted and boxed up for him to take back next week. About the first thing I did when I got home was say hello to Chance and chase a cat out of the wood shed for her. She's not allowed out in that part of the yard. I made an apple/raisin coffee cake to take for breakfast in the morning. We are going on a picnic to Lake Pleasant. That's down the hill toward Phoenix. I posted some pictures from there earlier this year. Wannabe is staying in Phoenix with my sister but with me working we only have Sunday's to visit with them. We went into Phoenix last week but this week everyone is going to a picnic at Lake Pleasant. We're all chipping in for Kentucky Fried Chicken and then bringing something for potluck. There will be Wannabe, my sister Maxine and her husband Ed and two of her daughters and their families and dr and I and Dan and Laurel and maybe Laurel's kids. Dan didn't think the kids were going to come but today he said Avery was coming and maybe Tim if he didn't go to his father's house. Now, on Thursday I called the park to see about the covered ramadas. They can't be reserved but are on a first come basis. I asked the man how early you had to be there to get a ramada. He said if we were there by 10 we should be okay. So, I called the sisters in Phoenix. Well, it turns out that they didn't think that anybody could get there that early. They have kids? So, us who live farther away will get up early again and drive down to the lake and camp out at a ramada with picnic tables until someone decides it's time for a picnic. I have to turn my cell phone on so they can call to find out where we found a ramada. So, after making the coffee cake to take along for our breakfast, I made two large pitches of extra strong tea that I can put in an insulated jug with ice for tomorrow. I made a huge bowl of potato salad to pack in ice for lunch. I packed up paper plates, two sizes and plastic eating utensils. I found two pairs of binoculars for bird watching or whatever else we see that we want to watch. I packed the camera. dr packed a metal folding table and a small kids size picnic table and several lawn type chairs, folding variety. I forgot, I wanted to pack some table cloths. I will go and do that in a few minutes. Then, after all this I made supper which consisted of soup from a box that we bought at Trader Joe's. It sets on the pantry shelf until you are ready to heat and serve it. This one was roasted red pepper and tomato. We had a sub sandwich with it. Chance had chicken with her dog food but she would have liked to have shared ours. I still have a few dishes to wash up but that's for later. Now, I have to go do a few other things before it's time for bed. I guess this had better be all for today. Have a nice evening. dooley This blog entry has been viewed 708 times
A mug of tea
Category: Daily Happenings | Posted: Sat Apr 05, 2008 4:26 am I started my day at 6 am with a mug of hot tea. Irish Breakfast was the choice this morning. I generally start the day with a mug of tea. It doesn't always start as early as 6 am though. Usually just on Friday and Saturday. I work in the evening and on Saturday. 13hours on the weekdays and 7 hours on Saturday. dr usually goes to the flea market while I work on Saturday. He sets up and sells things we pick up at yard or estate sales on Fridays. We are lucky in that we usually have yard sales year around. A lot of them are on Friday and Saturday. Some are on Saturday and we usually miss those. There was a long list of them in the paper for tomorrow. Today, we went to one estate sale and 5 yard sales. The estate sale people have a large following so if you want to at least see the "good" stuff you have to get there before they open and wait in line. Today, the sale was in a place called Yavapai Hills. There is a good reason the word hills is there. That driveway was almost a 45 degree angle. I hate driveways like that and would not buy a house with such a steep drive. But, with the hills and mountains around here there are many of them. There was a set of steps leading up which I used as my knee simply doesn't like steep grades or ramps. It doesn't like stairs either but these were shallow ones so doable. We bought quite a lot. Had to make two trips back to the car. We stopped for gas at the station on the reservation and then went to breakfast. We went to another sale in the high country. I made two mis-turns so it took a bit longer to get there. We didn't buy much. It was too picked over as we were late getting there. We backtracked to Prescott Valley and went to one and there was another one just across the street and one down the block. All three were bummers and we didn't buy anything. We stopped for a cold drink and continued on back toward home. We saw a sign for one and stopped and bought a few things. I got a small trunk that is really cute. The covering is torn but I think I can recover it or glue it. I need to put in a new lining. I'm not sure what I will do with it. Maybe dr can sell it after it's refurbished. I bought a metal mushroom which is a trivet but I stuck it outside with my gnomes. The last sale was out in the countryside. I looked it up on my map and plotted how to get to it. We passed by a road and there was a sale sign and I told dr we would go to that one on the way back. I should have read the sign. We found the sale the way I plotted it on the map but we couldn't get to it. The road came to a deadend. No sign was posted either. So, we had to backtrack to the road with the sale sign and follow the signs around until we were just on the other side of the barricade where we had just been minutes before. There was a large ditch that didn't have a culvert so the road couldn't cross it. Oh, well! We didn't buy much but two fishing nets on poles. We came back to Mayer and stopped at the post office and then at the library to see Dan. We got home about l pm. I went and watered the bushes, trees and flowers. Chance did not help. Whenever I get out the hose she disappears. She doesn't like water at all. That's how we discovered it was raining yesterday. Chance came in through the doggie door like something was chasing her. She was a little soggy in such a short time out in it. After finishing my watering, I got a glass of cold tea and took my book and sat at the table outside and finished it. The hummingbirds were flitting around and buzzing my head. I couldn't figure out why as the feeders weren't empty. I finally figured it out. I was wearing a bright red flowered hat. I made a chunky apple coffeecake to take to work tomorrow and while it was cooking made supper. Now, the dishes are done and I'm sitting here with a mug of tea. When it's finished I think my day will be finished, also. It's another early day tomorrow. I have a couple of projects that need done at work. The city is building us a new library, four times as large as where we are now. We currently occupy the third floor of the civic center. The library director wants me to count the number of shelves we have for each section, fiction, non-fiction, large print, etc. That shouldn't take long as I can count the first section in each row and multiply by the number of sections in the row. They are all the same in each row. Then, I have to eyeball the books author and title and make sure they are in alphabetical order. This will take some time. We do this about once a month as things sure don't stay in the order we put them in for long. The children's room is much worse though. They are always re doing their shelves. Anyway, I work tomorrow and have another day off. Wannabe is arriving in Phoenix but I probably won't get down there until Friday or maybe next Sunday. It's really to far to go down during the week and make it back in time to go to work. Have a good night. My tea mug is empty. dooley Last edited: Sat Apr 05, 2008 4:31 am This blog entry has been viewed 761 times
Another Ho-hum day off!
Category: Daily Happenings | Posted: Mon Mar 31, 2008 3:20 am Such an exciting day off we had. We put our water bottles in the car and went up the hill to breakfast. It was mostly sunny but very windy. We went to a breakfast buffet which isn't as good as it used to be. We got a late start and most places are crowded by the time we got around to going any where. After breakfast, I wanted to stop at WalMart and get a ink cartridge for my Canon printer and buy some tea bags for iced tea. I bought some shampoo that was on sale too. We wanted to look at flowers but for some reason they have them outside this year instead of in the garden dept. The garden dept. is filled with patio furniture. It was much too windy to look at anything outside. We went back to Prescott Valley and decided to stop at the swap meet. That was a mistake, the wind kept blowing my hat off. I wondered why dr didn't have a problem with his hat. He said, "Staples." Right! I forgot the staples. We didn't stay there long. We stopped at the grocery store where he filled the water bottles. I went in and looked around but didn't actually buy much. I looked at cut flowers but didn't see anything I wanted to bring home. We went to Ace Hardware and looked in their garden department. I only saw a columbine that I liked and it's really too early to plant much anyway. Back home! I checked in on the forum sites. Not much going on. I went outside and used the big magnet on the driveway area. The man who owned this house about 10 years ago worked on cars, bicycles, lawnmowers, etc. Whenever he took off a part or a screw or whatever he must have thrown it over his shoulder. Every spring or after a hard rain we have to demagnetize the driveway or we get a flat tire. Today I found an assortment of bolts, washers and a few nails. I also found a quarter which I put in my change bank. I found a spear head, too. This was once upon a time Indian territory. I have found several arrowheads when digging garden and flower beds. I went and did my exercises, then checked out the forums again. dr grilled steak on his outdoor grill and I made the rest of the supper. We had strawberry shortcake for supper. I make biscuit shortcakes with Bisquick. dr doesn't care for the cake type shortcake. He says it's too sweet. Now, it is approaching bedtime. Ho-hum! The wind has finally decided to quit blowing or at least it doesn't sound like a hurricane out there and I could probably keep my hat on if I went outside. Oh, I checked the apricot trees. The flower petals have mostly blown off and I discovered that freeze didn't kill all the little apricots so we may have some if it doesn't get cold again and the birds leave a few. Have a good night everyone. If it is not windy tomorrow I may be able to get something else done outside. But windy or not I will have to work at the library 6 to 9 tomorrow night. dooley This blog entry has been viewed 649 times
We have tickets!
Category: Daily Happenings | Posted: Sun Mar 16, 2008 3:37 am We have tickets! Train tickets! We decided with the price of gas rising daily that instead of driving to Glenda's in May we would take the train. We have in our hands now round trip tickets from here to Dallas and a rental car arranged. The price of the tickets plus the rental car is much cheaper than gas and motel rooms we would need if we drove. We only have to drive to the train which is south of Phoenix a bit. Ak Chin Casino has a shuttle to the station and they have secure parking if you rent a room. If you don't rent a room, it's $5.00 per day. But, we will be needing a room when we get back as the train gets in at 1:30 am and there is no way I'm driving back up that hill at 1:30 am with little or no sleep. The train gets into Dallas at 3:20 pm so we should get to Glenda's long before dark. That's if the train is on time. We learned in our many travels not to expect that the train will arrive anywhere on time. It's always late the minute it leaves the station. Anyway we can have a relaxing trip to and from and maybe even arrive home rested. With a room at the casino I don't expect we will arrive home with any money. Everyone knows that the chances of winning anything are rare and none. Pulling the handle of a slot machine and expecting to win isn't very realistic in my book. Sometimes I put in change and once in awhile I'll win but the most I've ever won is $25.00 so I'll just keep my money in my pocket if I don't have any loose nickels or quarters. I expect we will leave most of our money in Texas anyway, but we will have fun. This is our first vacation since we've been married that we haven't visited family members, parents, kids, etc. Sometimes a sister but not even that very often. I'm looking forward to it and will start making my lists very soon. How can you go anywhere without a list? I have always made lists for everything. When my youngest son went off to college he asked me if I would make a list for his friend Jeff. He said Jeff's mom didn't make lists and Jeff was afraid he'd forget something. The list will be added to and crossed out many times before May arrives. dr says we each get one suitcase and a carry on bag. He has to be able to carry everything because my knees will not always cooperate with stairs, etc. Heather has her plans made, too, so come party with us. dooley Last edited: Sun Mar 16, 2008 3:39 am This blog entry has been viewed 789 times
There's gonna be a party!
Category: Daily Happenings | Posted: Mon Feb 25, 2008 11:39 pm It will be the end of May, not sure of the exact date yet. It will be at Glenda's house. So far, there will be Glenda, Jubabe, Heather, Shanna, Cheyenne, dr and dooley. Anyone else wanna come? It's going to be a great time. Oh, Trey and Logan will be there, too. dooley This blog entry has been viewed 823 times
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