Lay of the Land

I just returned from the annual August Diva retreat. After the dust storm settled, this was the mountain view.

A few of the Divas were asking questions about the neighborhood we live in so I thought I'd try to give some context.

Our house is the odd-sized larger lot on the corner by the arrow.  As you can see, we are one street away from the western and southern edges of the development.  Today, I took a walk to the gray path that runs from east to west along the bottom of this map.  The map shows a cut through from Hazeltine to a dirt path behind the last row of houses.  If you look to the west, there is a fence between the neighborhood and the cattle ranch.

I don't know how many animals they have at the ranch.  I've only ever seen about 6-8 steer at any given time.

The reservation lies to the south and, along the pathway, you can see the signs that this area floods pretty intensely when we get a heavy rain.  Neighbors in this stretch have posted dramatic videos of temporary, fast-moving rivers in this area.

If you walk towards the east, you get a view of the San Tan Mountains.  These pictures were taken in the cooler morning hours but the mountains look most dramatic in the late afternoon when the shadows show their character.

The map also shows the neighborhood school where Brady catches the bus in the morning.  He and Mike ride their bikes along the western perimeter path (gray line) in the mornings and afternoons.  Across the street from the school is the community pool, park, and gym.  All of the areas not colored in yet are either open dirt lots or under construction.  The empty areas have some entertaining animal watching with little herds of quail and their youngsters or desert hares chasing each other while kicking up clouds of dust.  The blog banner photo was taken at the school, facing west.  There's a canal and more cattle roaming area in that section so the sunset photo opps are usually the best from that spot.








Sherman is happy that I'm home and that he can continue to stare at me all day in hopes that I'll play with him or take him for a walk.

More of the mundane

Last week was a week of joining and following. I am still getting used to being a follower at work after relinquishing my leadership role to work from home.  There are always pros and cons so I’m keeping an open mind.

I decided to join in on a fitness challenge in our neighborhood so that I could (1) meet a few neighbors and (2) kickstart figuring out how to be active in the desert heat.  The challenge is mainly based on nutrition and macronutrients so we are using MyFitnessPal.  I have not yet made friends with this app so it continues to be a pain in the neck to track my food and macros throughout the day.  Wish me luck!  This meme sums up how it’s going so far.

I ventured out in the storms and floods on Tuesday to attend another quilt guild meeting.  I reconsidered my choice at one point when a giant tumbleweed came straight at my windshield.  Must not overcorrect.  No one at the guild meeting seemed phased by all of the emergency alerts going off but it was pretty crazy on the way home, especially in the common areas of our subdivision.  We are still adjusting to the new normal.  The meeting was good, though, so it was worth it.  I joined the group so I’ve already started getting little assignments for group projects.  They do an annual small quilt auction in November for their fundraiser (uh oh).  I helped one woman figure out how to fix the bleeding on her amazing applique quilt so I have a forever friend in her.  The Divas all know about my extensive experience with boiling water and Synthrapol.  It is good to meet new people but it is still pretty hollow.  I’m just laying the foundation at this point.

Wednesday, I tried a new salon.  Why can’t I ever find a place that is close to home?  It was interesting but my hair is definitely darker than expected (since I did provide the recipe).  I have a month to decide if I’ll go back.

This weekend, we went to a casino buffet that everyone raves about.  I thought Brady would be more interested in the lights and action in the casino but all of our preaching about the claw game seems to have paid off.  He was lecturing us that the odds are against you.  Whew!  He would have been happy to win this car, though.

Since they were predicting another round of storms for today and tomorrow, we stocked up yesterday and planned to stay closer to home … unlike last week.  While I was working, I was listening to the wind howl and debris hitting the windows.  It really is just like hunkering down inside when it is sleeting and snowing.  This was the view from my office window.  No blue skies today!

One week from tomorrow, I will be on my way to Amishland!  I am really looking forward to it, everything about it!  I’ve been on hiatus with unpacking my room since we have had a lot of competing activities now that school started.  I am trying to finish that project so I can decide/find what to pack.

Latest adventures

Brady asked to get a fish.  I told him to start with plants first.  Wish us luck.

 

 

We had our biggest dust storm yet this week.  Here are a few photos from our neighbors.  Quite a different experience.  The weather stations/warnings treat them as seriously as we treat tornadoes which makes sense because it gets to zero visibility very quickly.

 

Another neighbor posted this due to all of the whining from the non-natives regarding no cool or cold tap water.  I am happy to say that after 12 hours of temps that are just a few degrees cooler .... we have cool water coming from the tap!  The cold/rain wave should last all week if we are lucky.

Back to School Routine

Since my last post, another neighbor had a visit from one of the toads I mentioned. They are huge--up to 8" inches and 2 pounds.  They remind me of the most recent How to Train Your Dragon movie character.

Mike was suffering from home theater withdrawal so he bought a new TV for the main living area.  He got the 70" instead of the 80", thankfully.  That makes it 62" inches across--bigger than me.  Mike and Brady had a long talk about the technology and pixels and such.  It reminded me of the time when many of you saw our basement renovation for the first time and wondered about the two watching areas so close together.  It is a guy thing, that is for sure.


The unpacking in my sewing room is progressing  as I have unpacked another 14 boxes and the rest of the boxes now fit in the sewing room.  I think there are 6-8 more to go plus a couple of Rubbermaid bins.  I am far enough along to see that there are a few problems to solve.  I need to figure out the best way to sort and store my prints since the furniture that used to hold them isn't a good fit for the new room.  I have the same issue with my finished quilts.  I'm not sure the best way to store them.  I need a way to sort and store my notions and tools and also more effective ways to contain the UFO projects. Many of the UFO's were in a stack and gravity kept them together.  I think I need to do something better to keep all of the pieces and parts contained but not overly bulky.  If you have any tips or suggestions for any of these issues, let me know!  Right now, it looks like the storm before the calm ... I am focused on sorting things into piles/shelves then I can assess the best way to sort or it store it on the shelves or in the closet. 

Sherman continues to be glued to me in the home office during the day.  We still haven't decided on the best way to make that room a combo of office and guest room but, in the meantime, we moved in the comfortable chair and ottoman.  He pretty much lives on the ottoman, waking up occasionally to make sure I'm still there or bark at someone he sees on the street.  He has been taking his bone in that room at night to chew in peace.  Weird dog!  I think he was ready for Brady to go back to school because now he can sleep all day without interruption (then play too rough after school).

We are pleased so far with Brady's school and teacher and that is a relief.  We put so much time and research into the choice of school, going back to December of last year, but you can only research so much.  Last week, we realized that we didn't have the first Harry Potter book so Mike ordered it and it arrived yesterday.  When we gave it to Brady, he was so excited because his teacher has been reading it to them in class.  It is the little things like that that make us encouraged that the atmosphere and curriculum will be much better this year.  This week is Curriculum Night, when parents can go to the classroom for 30 minutes without kids to hear the teacher describe this year's plans for the class.

The PTO seems very active and organized too.  As far as I can tell, they only do one fundraiser (selling refill cups for the local movie theater chain).  Otherwise, they ask that you write a check for a suggested donation of $25 rather than doing all of the traditional catalog or cookie dough sales.  Done!  They do the same for parent volunteering.  They ask parents to donate two hours of their time or make a $25 donation instead.  We have time to donate but how nice for working parents to have that option!  We all walked to and from school for the first two days but today, Mike and Brady rode their bikes.  It is only a 5 minute ride and there is a huge set of racks to lock up bikes at the neighborhood school where he catches the bus.  The neighborhood school starts 30 minutes after he gets the bus so, by the time we are home from taking him, the neighborhood is full of walking or biking kids, parents and dogs. 

I may never get accustomed to this ...

A neighbor in one of the houses across the street found this guy in her back yard.  Actually, her dog found it but the snake was relocated without incident.  There have been several recent desert toad sightings too (highly toxic to pets).  Time to secure the perimeter ...

Ten down ...

I got 10 sewing room boxes unpacked in a couple of hours yesterday ... but who is counting when you have multiple areas like these lurking about.

I'm  making progress, I tell myself.  I will get there.  I am a little dismayed to be faced with another heavy barrage of decisions, yet again, less than a month from the move. Every time I think about that last week in Willoughby, it seems more like an evacuation than a planful move.  I still don't see how that happened since I truly was preparing for some sort of move for two years. Who knows.


After being in a creative funk/hiatus for a while (OMG--6 months?), I saw this free pattern and felt inspired.  I am hoping I have enough of the right prints to make a version of it from stash.  That will have to wait until my room is put back together and the quilting boxes are unpacked but, it will serve as inspiration to meet that milestone.


I went to my first local guild meeting last night.  I have to admit it was a bit nerve-wracking.  Many years ago, I decided I was never going to let it stop me from going somewhere just because I wouldn't know anyone there (or anything about what would be happening at the event).  When I was on the way there, driving a route and part of town that was completely unfamiliar, I started to overthink it.  When I got there and couldn't figure out which of the 10-12 conference rooms might hold the meeting, I continued to overthink it.  I lucked out and saw someone carrying a sewing machine.  She showed me where to go on the condition that I hold the door for her when we got there.  :-)  There were probably 35 members there and there were quite a few guests in attendance too.  Apparently, they have about 80 members but many are staying away from the heat at this time of year.  The group was very organized and energetic.  For their program, several members had stations set up with live demos of the Westalee rulers for free motion quilting on your domestic machine.  Check out Westalee on YouTube for more information.  I can attend two more meetings before I have to make a decision.  I think I'll give it a go.

More Baby Steps

This is probably boring for anyone else but us but we are making progress on the storage units.  I've decided to wait until they are loaded to add the doors since the doors would probably just get in the way with them all open at once.
It may not seem like a big step but this means we can move all of the boxes that are clogging up the shared spaces in the house ... into my new sewing room!  Whew!  It will be nice to get some breathing room instead of living like we are in a slide puzzle.

In other news, I got my car back from the dealer and, thankfully, the air conditioning is working again and it was covered under warranty (bonus since it was a $1500 repair).
This was yesterday's view from the next block over.  Apparently, there was some drama with calves stuck in no man's land and mama cows getting pretty agitated.