April has been a busy month

Here's some pictures of that funny cactus in bloom. I think this is the first year I've seen it bloom. And my rose bushes are really putting out some beautiful roses. The pictures don't do them justice.....





My sister in Seattle decided she would like to have a stainless steel copper clad Revere Ware coffee percolator, like the one our mom used way back when we were kids. She found some on eBay but asked me if I'd ever seen any at the estates sales I often attend. I have, so I set out on a quest to find another one. I was just about to give up when I came upon one at a Estate Sale Resale Shop in Sun City. for $1.50!!!! The glass top knob wasn't an original one and didn't fit quite right, so I then set out on a quest to find a good replacement knob. I found one at a Sun City Ace Hardware store. The small hardware stores often have odd items the large stores don't carry. I boxed it all up and mailed it off to Susie. She should receive it in a few days. I think if I ever come across another one I will buy it for myself.



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A few weeks ago mom and I participated in a community yard sale. We paid $10 for one parking stall, which included one table. We barely squeezed into the space, but luckily no one set up in one of the stalls next to us, so we overflowed a little bit. We had worried about it being too warm, but it turned out to be very chilly most of the morning and early afternoon.

Here's a picture of most of my stuff boxed up waiting in the backyard for the sale...


Here's a picture looking down the road to the north of us.


Here's our stall...



We had a FREE STUFF box. It was very popular. We kept adding to it all day. At the end of the day we were announcing that half our stuff was FREE!! Some of it we couldn't even give away. We donated a box full to a thrift shop and I took a box full back home. We cleared about $200.00.


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I've been busy getting my laundry room updated a little bit. I painted the block walls, laid down new linoleum flooring, had a new laundry sink installed and had the positioning of he sink and washer rearranged. I'm pretty happy with the results so far.

Here's a couple pictures of how it looked before....




And here's an after picture.....


Maybe someday I'll have a nice new matching washer/dryer set.


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And last but definitely not least, here's some pictures of my new TOY. Yep, I sold my Harley and bought a golf cart. I named her Harley, so I can still say I'm taking my Harley for a ride. I'm having fun driving here around Sun City to the market and yard and estate sales. Golf carts are allowed on all the streets around here that are posted 35 MPH or less. Sometimes I have to do some creative routing to get to my destination, but I see it as one big adventure.

Here's Harley in her garage, where the real Harley used to be parked. It's actually the far end of the laundry room.


Here she is on her driveway.....



Check out her fancy license plate frame....


My plan is to take her up to Concho for the summer to get around the neighborhood to Happy Hours, Pot Luck Dinners or just visiting the neighbors.

It's been so long since my last post I've almost forgotten how to do this. Maybe it will all come back.


I have been busy. Here are some of the things I've been up to.


I had a huge crop of grapefruit this year. I personally hand picked and delivered close to 500 pounds of grapefruit to a local food bank. They seemed happy to accept them. I was happy to get rid of them. I ate what I could, gave away what I could and threw away a lot of too small and not very pretty ones. As a last resort I put an ad on Craig's List announcing FREE GRAPEFRUIT on my porch. I had one guy show up and take away two small bags of grapefruit. I still have quite a few in my refrigerator. I'll squeeze them soon into tasty juice. It's the next best thing to an ice cold beer on a hot day.



I've spent all year trying to get my rose bushes looking good and producing some roses. This picture doesn't show all the new buds about to bloom, but they are finally acting like blooming rose bushes.


I've had issues with my shower head for two years now. The arm coming out of the wall is so low I had to bend down when washing my hair. I had a shower head I liked so I bought an adjustable arm and attached the shower head, but the tube on the new adjustable arm was so small the water coming through it was so restricted. It wasn't much fun taking a shower with such little water pressure so I never took one. Oh, I'm just kidding!!! Anyway, I finally decided the solution was a hand held shower head. They mount a bit higher on their own little bracket. So, I went shopping yesterday and came home with one that looked pretty good. Here's a picture of it all installed and not leaking. = ) I've only used it once so far but I love it!! I can't believe all the water pressure coming out of that thing. I actually got all the shampoo and conditioner rinsed out of my hair for a change.


Friday April 8th I'm participating in a community yard sale at one of he Sun City rec centers, so I've been busy going though every drawer, closet, cupboard and storage cabinet collecting unneeded stuff to haul over to the sale and hopefully sell off and make a little money. Here's a picture of some of the stuff. In addition to this I have some cans of paint, some clothes and a bedspread. Oh, and a shower head with an adustable arm.




After being assessed as having damage to my roof from last October's huge hail storm, I set out on a quest to pick out the best replacement roof color that would compliment my way-to-bright (in my opinion) yellow house with the odd colored brick across most of the front. Here's a picture of the new roofing materials up on the roof waiting for the roofers to arrive and remove the old stuff and install the new stuff.




I was hoping to get a roof about the color of the palm tree trunk in the front yard. I think I did a pretty good job. It matches pretty good.



Here's a close-up of my new "house jewelry" bird houses and the green "plant." I think the bird houses, the green plant and the new roof help tone down the bright yellow. I still wish the color was a little more muted, but for now I'm not thinking about repainting.


My next project is the laundry/motorcycle/golf cart storage room. I've started painting the walls and putting down new flooring. Hopefully it won't be as long until the next post with pictures of the updates, including a new laundry sink and a new toy to park in there.

Annie and Maizie

Maizie knows that big green thing is nothing to mess with.


Cute little Annie



Maizie's little Yorkie ears should be standing up straight, but they seem to need a little help. I read about this technique on-line and thought I'd try it. I wrapped each ear with masking tape, then taped the two together with another strip of tape.



She doesn't seem to be bothered by this beauty enhancement treatment. I read to leave the tape on for about a week.




Meanwhile back in Annie's little world, she's waiting for me to through her bottle for her. She can spend hours chasing it around.


She's such a happy little girl when she has a bottle to chase and destroy.

Bee at Quartzsite

Mom and I took Bee to Quartzsite for two weeks of camping and shopping. The crowds and vendors seemed a bit less this year, but I still managed to find lots of cool things to buy.

We had to deal with a few water leak issues in Bee, and one little electrical issue, but nothing too serious.








We came home on Saturday, Jan. 29th with an additional passenger. Maizie, my great grand dog was having potty training issues so I brought her home to see if I could have some luck training her. After just 3 days Maizie is getting the hang of doing her business outside instead of in the house. I have the carpeted areas blocked off leaving her lots of non-carpeted area to romp about on. Annie seems to be tolerating this new little intrusion into her life pretty well.

I hope to post some cute pictures of Maizie and Annie soon.

Introducing Bee, The Argosy

9 Days Left

The little Argosy had a great adventure. She spent a few days at R&D Family RV for installation of one 150-something Watt Solar Panel and a spiffy control panel. Now her one little battery stays all charged up from the free rays of the sun. I haven't taken a picture of the panel yet, but I will soon. We removed the unneeded TV antenna to make room for the panel.

Ron, at R&D, also installed a gas line for a catalytic heater, a few new light fixtures, hooked up the three existing 12 volt sockets correctly, and installed a brand new water heater. Also, to my great delight, the Argosy now has a brand new hand crank jack. The old one was so hard to crank even when there was no weight or resistance. The new hand crank is so easy compared to the old one that it's almost like having an electric jack. ALMOST!!



Hand Crank Jack



The bathroom is coming along. Hopefully this coming Tuesday and Wednesday our carpenter, Jim, will be finishing up the bathroom and refrigerator. Time is getting short and we still plan to set sail for Quartzsite, AZ on the 17th.


The Argosy has three stabilizing jacks. She used to have four but she lost one sometime during her life. One of the "feet" was terribly bent. I removed it and tried to pound it back into proper shape but I was unsuccessful. So, I stopped by my friendly neighborhood RV dealer and purchased one new "foot." Now she has one shiny new "foot" and two old, rusty looking ones. Maybe someday she will have three more shiny new "feet" along with a forth stabilizer jack. In the meantime, we will use one of those portable jacks. Also, the three jacks got, probably their first ever, a lubricating dose of WD-40. They are working much better now, with less squeaking.


Portable stabilizer jack.


In the meantime, I'm working on the porch light. I finally got the whole assembly unscrewed, un-caulked and removed. I removed the old 12 volt light bulb socket and now I'm trying to figure out how to install a new socket so we can have a lighted porch area.