Sunshine

It’s always so quiet here in the desert at night. I awake hearing only the soft breeze through the open window by my face. There is no traffic noise, no rush of people off to work, no animals save for the occasional hoot owl, and most glaringly for me, no continual background roar of the ocean nearby. For the first time in more than a month, I have started missing the sea and the green evergreens with their jagged tops and thick, silent brooding.

What got me thinking about it was that Marc and I applied for long term jobs here yesterday. We’re probably safe in that it is fairly far along in the hiring process for this organization so our chances are very slim. They are opening a new Indian casino/resort and the top positions have already been filled. Not that there’s anything wrong with the “little” people jobs like busser, dishwasher and housekeeper, but it’s career level jobs we’re after and for that we must be willing to travel anywhere to live.

The desert can be a nice and close second to the sea, so we will continue our efforts here as long as we can. After all, it would be a huge advantage to us to be able to live on our own land free of charge. As I suspected all along, I have indeed missed it. I think sometimes as an RVer it can get tiresome that we always trod someone else’s patch of dirt since typically we’re on public property or in an RV park. There is just something special about knowing that this patch is mine, to do with as I please with no rules, that make me covet it more. It’s a wonderful respite from RV parks.

The quietness of our neighborhood is very seductive. We tiptoe out to use our spa every morning while the skies are black with pinpoints of starlight we rarely see at the coast. Sometimes we’re in it long enough to see the mountain to the east blaze with the orange and mauve of the coming sun, signaling another gloriously clear day in this sunniest spot of the entire United States. My face and arms are growing darker with color—it’s been years since they’ve worn a tan and my endorphins have been on high alert with their overdose of Vitamin D. Life in the desert, for now, is very good.

The Party's Over

After saying goodbye to our wonderful tenants on New Year’s Eve morning as they and their cat Lucky pulled out headed for California, Marc and I hitched up and moved the fiver to our side of our lot. Our friends arrived within minutes of each other and we had everyone set up and settled in by 3:30 p.m. After much catching up, eating and wine toasting into the evening, we settled in around our fireplace to enjoy the night time Arizona desert skies. Some of us made it till midnight and some of us didn’t.

The next few days were a blur of activity, great feasting and conversation on the patio. The guys often were gone during the day out four-wheeling or target shooting and we girls talked and shopped. It culminated on Saturday with a party we threw for our block neighbors and visiting friends as we hosted an appetizer affair that featured crab brushetta, barbecued chicken/bacon roll-ups and Wisconsin summer sausage and more goodies as everyone arrived bearing a dish.

As the wonderfully warm weather we had thus experienced disintegrated into clouds and a chilly wind, folks bundled up into the evening hours and huddled next to another roaring fire where we continued to exchange stories and got to know each other better. From all reports everyone had a rollicking good time and our patio was a huge success.

Special thanks go out to fulltimers Susan and Bill who graciously decided to attend our party not knowing a soul here. I have followed their lovely website http://www.cooljourney.net/index.html

for some time and decided since they were in Yuma to invite them. It was great to meet them finally!

Eating

We celebrated Christmas with our neighbors across the street, Bill and Rosemary, plus other neighbors Pete and Betty as we all gathered in Bill’s new home. Bill is a great chef and he outdid himself with a succulent turkey and ham topped with freshly made raspberry glaze. Of course, their “to die for kitchen” didn’t hurt the efforts at all either! They also graciously invited our tenants, Dallas and Lawanna and this couple from the Oregon beach melded seamlessly with the group.

The next morning bright and early Marc (with help from Dallas) decided it was time to drain and move the spa onto its new pad. Refilled, we had to wait a day for the water to heat up enough again to use it. We have made it our new habit to spend every morning early dipping our old bones.

Last evening, antsy to try out his new barbecue Marc finally made his beer can chicken as a treat for Dallas and Lawanna. We had wanted to have it earlier but the Yuma weather has not been cooperative lately with its low temps and wind. We finally gave up and decided to get fortified with plenty of wine to offset the low wind chill temperatures as we ate al fresco. That’s our story and we’re sticking to it!

Coming up this week, we will be joined by Marc’s long time friends from high school days, coming to visit and stay awhile in their RVs. In honor of (mostly) completing the work on the lot, we are throwing a big party on Saturday so stay tuned for the rollicking good times.

From the desert...Christmas Wishes

From our desert abode, we wish you all a very happy holiday season, filled with friendships and joy.

Ya Win One, Ya Lose Another

I should have figured it out when I was allowed to win the window episode, that the price to pay would be an even bigger win for what Marc wanted-ha. I soon found out however, when he and the neighbor drove up with a new barbecue in the box. I will admit that the corner of our courtyard was just begging to be filled with one, but I had hoped to skip the expense this trip given that we are out of work.

The paver-laying projects are finally completed. Wanting to use up all the pavers if we could, Marc decided to extend the work around the new spa pad as far as they would go. He finalized all the cuts necessary on the front patio portion and also laid some edgers around the palms. With the exception of completion of the palm irrigation our courtyard patio is complete for this stage. Eventually years from now, we have hopes to build an outdoor kitchen. Meanwhile, I’m pleased as punch! It has turned out better than I envisioned so many years ago. Outdoor entertaining? Bring it on!

Speaking of parties, they have started in the neighborhood, where last evening we stepped across the street to good friends Ron & Jan’s new home for some Christmas spirit. It was great reuniting and catching up with friends we haven’t seen in years. Thanks for a great time, Ron & Jan!

Blue Window or White?

The days go marching on to a beat played totally by how much work is on tap and how our backs and Marc’s leg feel. Actually, we’ve made quite a bit of progress but much of it is little piddly stuff that only shows if one is aware of the “pre” state of our lot. Things like cutting off our third sewer connection to ground level and connecting up the electric which runs from the newly installed outlet on the wall all the way over to the electrical post a good sixty feet away. And lots and lots of digging for some odd reason.

My fountain arrived on Friday—a fiberglass twenty pound affair which was simple for Marc to hang; wasn’t too costly on the pocketbook, and will be easy for us to remove into the storage shed when we leave. Luckily however, it makes a soothingly loud melodious sound which was what I was after. Once Marc gets a ground outlet installed (instead of using the wall plug) the cord can be run straight down to it and covered with a plant and it will look much nicer.

It sits next to the old leaded window which he also temporarily installed. I purchased this window, reputed to be over 100 years old (and likely is since the glass is wavy) off EBay in 2005, when it arrived heartbreakingly broken due to poor packing. After several go-rounds with the seller and threats of negative feedback, she refunded my money since she had also received an insurance payoff from UPS. It didn’t seem fair she should get paid twice while I was stuck with a broken window. Marc is fairly certain he will be able to repair the window, albeit the design will have to change since we will likely add colored wavy glass and only keep the original beveled portions of the inside of the design. But that is for a later time. Meanwhile, it brings me joy to see the hole in the wall completed as was meant even though if with a broken window it appears a tad rustic.

One side of the window is chippy, old, full-of-lead white paint and the other side is chippy, old, full-of-lead blue paint. Marc wants it all painted blue, which would lose the character of the piece I think; I want the one side to remain white. Since it was my original idea to begin with guess who is going to win this one?

The major accomplishment this week was getting the new pad poured and finished for the spa. Right now the spa occupies one corner of our main patio but we determined it took up too much space so we are moving it to its own pad which abuts the patio. Since we are planning a major party the first week in January having the additional patio space will be crucial for entertaining.

So, we end the week with Marc finishing up the paver project next to the privacy wall, cutting the final pieces with a rental wet saw. No, Marc is not a lazy man as he sits here doing this; with his knee operations he is now unable to kneel or squat so his only choice as he works is to sit. Next will come some type of edgers to surround the palm. But that’s next week.

The Aches of Planting the Palm

Early the next morning we started digging the hole to plant the palm, all 3’x3’x3’ of it through the deep layer of rock-filled strata that passes for sand here. There’s no shoveling this stuff; it is pick work first, and then shovel. Marc and I took turns as the pile of soil on the patio grew. Finally tired of being bent over and picking, Marc sat down and went at dislodging the rocks with a claw hammer. Much easier on the back although within an hour I came to find out my work had thrown mine out. Later, it would require sifting to remove the rocks, leaving nice loamy sand.


Once we had the hole complete, Marc placed about one third of the soil back in the ground around two sewer PVC pipes with drilled holes run deep into the soil. This forces roots to go deep and is a great landscaping tip for transplanting any kind of tree. They thrive with this system of irrigation. Marc positioned the pot on some two by fours and slid it down into its hole, turning it to face the way I wanted and thence commenced snipping off the container. That done; he then buried it in a combination of palm soil and native soil and finally watered it thoroughly using Vitamin B1. So far, all our palm transplants have been successful and even though this type of palm can have problems with transplant shock, we expect none. For one thing, not many people are willing to dig an adequately sized hole for trees but we need have no worry about that. My back told me so for the next two days!