PROGRESS on SEVERAL FRONTS

We finally got our chairs! When Daughter Deb was here seven weeks ago, we three made a trek to Sierra Vista (35 miles away) to find just the right chairs for our living room. We figured on visiting a few stores, finding the chairs, buying them and having them delivered. We stopped at La-Z-Boy first, then planned to move along. With Deb’s patient encouragement, we must have sat in two dozen or more chairs at La-Z-Boy until each of us found just the right fit.

We also found just the right fabric for the upholstery, a rich red-brown that would go well with our blue carpet. The saleslady told us that we could order the chairs exactly as we wanted them, and that delivery would take up to eight weeks. Eight weeks! We were using folding camping chairs to sit on. They were OK for a short time, but not any good at all for relaxing, so for seven weeks, we couldn’t relax. The chairs came earlier than projected, and we have been relaxing for a few days!

Here’s Julio carrying in part of one of the chairs.

And the two chairs together.

Suzy’s chair is a “wall hugger” that leans back but doesn’t rock, while mine is larger, leans back and does rock. Oh my, what comfort!


While we are relaxing, we are picking up on our reading. We have discovered Dan Brown, and have both finished his Angels and Demons. Suzy is currently racing through The DaVinci Code, and I’ve just finished Digital Fortress. Each book is compelling, and extremely hard to put down.


Outside, we have built a new planting area next to our casita. There’ll be no cactus or succulents in this planting spot.

We put in an old favorite, Indian Hawthorne, to the front,

and a new favorite, Red Bird of Paradise, to the rear.

They both are tolerant of full sun, and the Bird of Paradise will get quite a bit of that; the Hawthorne not so much.

In the “finished” picture, we are not really finished. We need to scrounge more concrete pavers, then get the walk area leveled and even. But you can see the idea.

These pictures of a mature Red Bird of Paradise show what we hope to see of our own before too many years pass.


This little froggie seems to have shown up in time to be part of our garden!

Out front, our Texas Rangers (a variety of sage) were blooming brilliantly in response to the Monsoon rains!


One of the things Suzy does very well (and there are so many, how can I single out just this one?) is cooking. And she uses lots of different herbs and spices. You may recall that I built an extra spice rack in Rosie, our motorhome, to accommodate part of Suzy’s seasoning supply.

Here in the new home there is so spice rack at all. How could the previous owners have survived? There are two nice spaces right near the stove that will hold spice racks, but there are none on the market that would fit those spaces. We contacted a company we found on-line that would be delighted to custom make two racks, at a cost of about $200. Yikes! I don’t mind spending the right money for the right solution, but that’s too much.

So, I’m setting out to build two spice racks myself, to fit those two specific spaces near the stove. Here are the raw materials, mostly red oak.

There, now I have committed myself, and I have to do the job! The last alibi I have left for not starting the job is that I don’t have a dado set I can use to make nice little slots to help hold the shelves in place. Suzy tells me we are stopping at Lowe’s on Tuesday (before her surgery for carpal tunnel) and we can buy one.

You remember we were having trouble with our new iPod. We could “shuffle” all the songs, but not specifically those within a single playlist. I lamented that fact in our last blog. To the rescue came Harley Affleck, the young grandson of our former neighbor and avid blog reader Alexa Affleck. Alexa told Harley about our problem, and he emailed us the exact procedure, which he had found on page 28 of the iPod User Manual (available on-line from Apple.com). Works like a charm! I guess I’ll have to download the user manual myself.

Suzy’s crocheting hook is really racing now. Encouraged by granddaughter Renee’s appreciation of the baby blanket and caps Suzy had made for “Boss,” our future great-grandchild, my lady is hard at work on a matching three piece set – jacket, cap and blanket – that will take up all her spare time for a few months.

Even the cactus in our RV park is making progress: take a look at the size and quantity of the fruits on these prickly pears!




Thanks for following along on this progress report about … Our Life on Wheels.