Today's Visitor

Mr. Roadrunner came by to say hello today.

For Alice

We now have two of the patio tables each with four chairs (apologize for the arrangement of the chairs). One set we are using in our breakfast nook as a dining table for the moment but eventually it will go on the front patio where we can sit in the mornings for breakfast and watch the city lights at night.

Since it does get cold here in the desert we also bought a propane heater to keep us warm and toasty and boy does it put out the heat!

Alice, the chairs are still at my sisters in Phoenix/Avondale but when they come I will post pictures of them just for you!

Still need beds, sofa, dining table, etc. and we are searching but haven't found much that excites us yet - we will eventually!

The process and discoveries

When we started to clean (myself and a couple of great guys we hired to help me) you could not see this rockery or the plants unless you really looked hard.

We transplanted atleast a dozen agaves of which this is an example.

More of the uncovered rockery.

The last two pictures are of a work in process. When we started you could not walk through this area but it was apparent that there were many lovely cacti. My goal is not to landscape this area but to leave it 'desert like' and open enough to walk through. We discovered many small cacti growing here along with some pretty good sized prickly pear and barrel cactus and will encourage them to continue to grow - with the help of spraying once in a while to keep down the grass and other weeds.

In Order of appearance:

A portion of the rockery that surrounds one end of the home that we didn't even realize was there until I was really looking one day. It still needs some more cleaning but it will be lovely when it is finished.

Three barrel cacti in the garden by the guest bedroom.

Purple Prickly Pear - we have a LOT of prickly pear!

The rockery on the street side of our home here.

What could have been called the outback before is now cleaned up and when the monsoons come there will be a raging stream on the right side of the photo.

A few of our garden residents

Fresh Rosemary, Succulents, Our entire crop of Clementines (as least that is what we think they are at this point) and a quite large barrel cactus that we didn't even know was here due to the weed growth around it.

Our First Tucson Halloween

We carved a Jack-O-Lantern, bought special candles for it, hung our decorations and of course bought the treats for the kids.

We were not disappointed.

About 30-35 kids came ranging from 3 years old to the eighth grade age group.

Some were cuter than others and Maggie who was dressed as Snow White complete with pink sparkly shoes was so cute and a character.

We had a good time.

I managed to get in to my very old Girl Scouts uniform and Michael wore his scrubs, stethescope and a scary mask at times.

More Burglary Photos

We want to thank my sister, Beverly, for taking these photos while we were both shocked and busy with the Sheriff's Department.

Our First and Only Burglary - we hope

Early Thursday, October 23rd, we drove to Tempe/Phoenix to spend 24 hours looking at furniture.

We did find some nice bookshelves and an outdoor table - but the table and chairs were out of stock so my sister and brother in law, Bev & Cliff, picked them up yesterday on Halloween and are bringing them down next weekend.

So, we'll have at least one REAL table and chairs, albeit it will be outside.

When we returned midday on Friday Michael dropped me off up at the mailbox, started down the driveway and noticed that one of our garage doors was open.

He opened the door we use, parked the car and then realized that the door to the house was propped open.

He and I entered our home (probably not smart in case the burglars were still here) and without touching anything found closets opened, drawers opened, some things moved all around and the window in the breakfast nook smashed and all over the tile floor.

We went back outside and checked the exterior shutters and the burglars had damaged two of them trying to get in.

In one case they also sliced the UV screen and broke the window mentioned above - not an easy task as it is pretty thick glass, coated and double pane.

We called 911. The Pima County Sheriffs came, drew their guns and did a thorough search of the house then they brought us inside to have us see what was missing. At that time we didn't see much missing but later found that my camera, case, lens, memory, tripod, etc. was missing and a pair of gold earrings were missing. Since then we have found that our 2 GPS's are also gone along with other items.

After the Sheriffs left the Forensic's officer arrived and found good sets of finger prints on the window and some on a crate the burglers left outside the garage. He also took an earpiece with him that was in the window sill that he thought they could find DNA on.

Since then we have been compiling a list of all the people who have been here since we bought our home and trying to find what is missing - a harder task than we imagined.

Thursday the exterior shutter company is coming to fix the shutters - they had to order parts or they would have done it sooner. After that we can have the windows replaced and proceed with fixing the other items that they damaged.

Interesting time.

The Sheriffs all thought our home looks like Fort Knox and they cannot figure out how the burglers got it and neither can we.

Our neighbors all say this has never happened in this neighborhood before - we got to be the first!

Our First Lunch Guests

Earlier this year when we were looking for a rental for April and May we knocked on the door of a home we were very interested in and met Ed and Joanne Wallach from Maryland. We liked both of them immediately.

After a bit of conversation we learned that he is also a physician. However, until we returned the next day with a bottle of wine we did not learn that he was the Chairman of the OB/Gyn Department at Johns Hopkins, has written several books and is very well known.

So, when they were visiting Tucson this last week for a few days we invited them to be our first lunch guests here in our new home.

We sat outside and had a great time catching up and learning more about each other.

Tucson Rolling Shutters and Termite Photos

A Typical Day Right now

A typical day while we are getting settled:

We started at 8 am with the 2 installers from Tucson Rolling Shutters installing our last exterior shutter and repairing under warranty one over the master bath jacuzzi tub.

Then on to Dennis, 'our pool guy'. He comes once a week to clean and monitor our pool and for a while to teach us more about it.

We had noticed a few days before some water on the ground around the pool equipment but we could not find a leak in any of the equipment so we showed it to Dennis and he promptly found that it was an irrigation leak.

So, after the man who came to give us a quote on a weed protection plan for next year we called Paul Berkely of Berkely Irrigation who had been recommended to us by a friend here.

He and his assistant, Carlos, arrived in less than 20 minutes. Dug with a pick and shovel around and under the pool equipment wall, fixed the leak and while Carlos was covering it all back up Paul taught us more about our irrigation monitor box and our system. We have 4 zones that water at different times but we had no idea where those zones were so we walked around the property with Paul and identified part of them but also found another irrigation leak.

Carlos immediately started to work again and in literally minutes had dug up the area, fixed the leak and replaced the little stone stream above it.

Unbelievable service. We will continue to use them.

Then on to some shopping we needed to do that day before the sales ended.

Oh, the day before the pest, termite and rodent man was here but we forgot to take of photo of him working so we have included a picture of a termite bait trap.

Then at the end of the day Michael made chicken parmigiana for dinner and we collapsed.

First Day of our Move to Tucson

Our friends, Larry, Randy and a new friend, named Scotty, came to help us load the truck for our move.

Larry is also traveling with us all the way to our new winter home!

So far, we have been singing and listening to Larry play the banana flute.

Spending tonight (Tuesday) in Salem, Oregon.

More and More photos