Baby Steps

We're taking baby steps, one at a time.

One trip to the dump. Check

Take all recycle off to center, and organize left overs for yard sale.  Check

Bags of shredded paperwork ready to go to recycle.  Check

Everything left in living room is for sale.  Check

Mean while my friend and I have finished the new floor in the motorhome.

Still haven't moved moms bed and chair back in but will do that next week.  Check

Also took out bed over cab area and put in a piece of plywood covered with canvas painters cloth.

That added more storage room. Check

These last three pictures are what I'm leaving behind. 

Early morning fog on my mountain.

Early morning sun through the oaks.

Rudolph taking a break under my apple tree.

Hope everyone had a safe and happy Christmas.

Evie and Joy

Undertaking a Project Like This Isn't for the Faint of Heart

I'm continuing to sort through all my things.  Busy shredding personal papers and taking that and other stuff to the dump.  Today I did the dinning room.  I just went from cupboard to cupboard looking at the things and saying good by to my treasures.  I'm not keeping any of those things.  

Full moon.

The next closet I need to tackle.

Pile and piles.

Yard sale stuff.  See empty shed?  A friend will take away the 6 bags of plastic recycle things.

More yard sale stuff in almost empty shed.  

Dump pile.

I think I may have neglected to mention that when we got home I ripped out the flooring in the motorhome.  I thought there was a water leak because there was a growing soft spot in the floor.  The good news is that there is no water leak.  The soft spot is caused by the plywood sub flooring joint not being over a floor joist.  The joint is just floating over nothing.  So when I step on it,  it moves/sinks.  So my handyman and I have been working on that little project too.  Except it hasn't stopped raining since we ripped the floor out so the putting it back together part is taking a really long time.  This is causing things that need to go into the rv to pill up all over the house.

Another layer of plywood goes on before the new flooring.  Yes, that is finished plywood.  I was just going to put that down and paint it but now have decided to put down Allure flooring.

That black hole is where the coach batteries are. 

Going to leave the carpet on the slide floor.  The slide is "in" on this picture.

Stay tune.

Evie and Joy

Sorting and More Sorting

An update on out progress.  We have decided to NOT put anything in storage.  We are going to make a clean break of it and sort through everything, throwing away all personal things, for example pictures and that kind of stuff, and selling all the rest.  So in early Feb. we will have an estate sale inside the house and everything that doesn't sell will go to the local senior center thrift store.

We have piles everywhere.

Kitchen sideboard (printer on top) is empty.  Everything in those other cupboards is for sale.

It doesn't look like it but the office area is almost done.  Gave computer away.

The poor kitchen is catching all the overflow.

But look, the book case is almost empty of books, the rest of that stuff will stay for the sale.

So as you can see we are slowly making progress.  One step at a time, but this process feels GOOD.

Evie and Joy

I Got An Email From A Friend

Yesterday I got an email from a friend asking where we were.  That's when I realized I haven't updated the blog in a while.

We are home.  Got home last week and we are busy packing up the house, taking tons of stuff to the senior center thrift store.  Some of our stuff will go into storage, and I have piles hear and there for different friends and family members.

Our plan is to be out of the house by the end of January 2015 and get back to southern Arizona by early February with a stop at The Slabs in southern California to have a solar system installed on the motor home.

So for the next two months I'll be sorting and more sorting and packing and moving.  I will keep you posted from time to time on how our progress is going.  We are very excited to be making this change in our lives are looking forward to getting back on the road. 

See you soon.

Evie and Joy

Hoover Dam

On our way home we went towards Las Vegas, NV.  Highway 93 use to go right across the top of Hoover Dam but since 2010 it goes across a new bridge.

New bridge with top of dam in foreground.

The multistory brown building near left side is new parking garage.  

Note the brown high water marks on intake towers.

When Lake Mead is full only the tip of this island is visible. The white area would be under water.

High water mark is white.

Over flow tunnel.

I love taking pictures of road signs.

Onward toward home.

Evie and Joy

A Study of the Saguaro Cactus

The Sonoran Desert has received over 22' of rain in this monsoon season on 2014.  The Saguaro cactus benefits greatly from that rain, as does everything else.  If you look closely at the skin of the Saguaro you will see that it is like an accordion.  When water is plentiful the cactus sucks it up and its skin expands for more storage.  As the dry season progress and the cactus uses its stores of water its skin folds in .  I have never traveled through the desert at this time of year before and have never seen the Saguaros so plump and healthy.  It was really something to see.

Wikipedia says,

"Saguaros have a relatively long lifespan. They may grow their first side arm any time from 75–100 years of age, but some never grow one at all. A saguaro without arms is called a spear.

The arms are grown to increase the plant's reproductive capacity (more apices lead to more flowers and fruit). The growth rate of saguaros is strongly dependent on precipitation;  saguaros in drier western Arizona grow only half as fast as those in and around Tucson, Arizona. Some specimens may live for more than 150 years; the largest known saguaro is the Champion Saguaro growing in Maricopa County, Arizona, and is 13.8 m (45.3 ft) tall with a girth of 3.1 m (10 ft). These cacti can grow from 40 to 60 ft tall. They grow slowly from seed, and never from cuttings. Whenever it rains, saguaros soak up the rainwater. The cactus will visibly expand, holding in the water. It conserves the water and slowly consumes it."

If you would like to read more about this fantastic member of the cactus family click here.

I made a few of these pictures extra large so you could see the detail better.

Until next time.

Evie and Joy

Bisbee, AZ We Will Be Back

We love Bisbee and we will be back again soon.  I have a cousin living here and she was able to take the afternoon off work and take us to lunch and drive us around in her cute little car.  She took us up streets that looked like peoples driveways.  It was a blast.

My cousins home.  Second story is at street level, you enter stairs between yellow mums and pink mums, going down to main floor front door.

Mom with cousin Jana.

View from second story porch.

We'll see you again soon.

Evie and Joy