Birthday time

My handsome, hardworking guy Sam recently had a birthday, and the weekend before we drove a couple hours to Arivaca to visit with our good friends, Don and Linda. Plus, our good friends Gord and Linda (two Lindas!) came along and brought birthday candles and cakes!

Sam brought chicken fajita fixings, which Don cooked on his awesome grill.

We ate outdoors on the patio and were glad for nice weather. Don and Linda live in a 5th wheel like we do, and 8 people don't fit well inside! Matter of fact, Gord and Linda are now RVers, too.

Don and Linda are starting to build a house, so everyone inspected the site and talked about the floor plan.

Also, they now own La Tortuga, the tiny 12 foot redwood trailer that my Mom and Dad built about 14 years ago. Linda was happy to show Mom how well they're taking care of it.

And Mom was excited to see it again.

She met Linda's granddaughter Melody, who now uses Tortuga as her bedroom.

This fun day ended with a surprise gift for Sam.

Perfect for our Pumpkin Patch Ranch! (Special thanks to Linda K. for many of these photos.)

One day last week, we awoke to heavy fog, a very unusual occurrence in southern Arizona. We couldn't see more than 50 yards and it was rather unnerving to drive through.

A couple days later Mom and I took a long walk around the ranch.

She just keeps on truckin'.

Then Sam invited Mom up to our trailer for lunch. He fried wontons and anytime Sam makes food that could faintly be called Asian, he breaks out his collection of chopsticks. He learned to use chopsticks from our friend Fernando when they were driving a semi-truck together and visited an L.A. sushi bar. The funny thing is, Fernando is Hispanic and grew up in southern California! (Side note: we are hoping to visit this historic sushi bar on our upcoming weekend trip to Los Angeles.) But I digress...Sam wanted Mom and I to also use chopsticks, and we did just fine with the "cheater" ones that are joined at one end.

Life is never dull with this guy.

I hope you're all having a great week.

That was easy!

It's a red-letter day! We started refinishing the deck last October 5th, and today we finally reinstalled the spindles.

As a reminder, here's what it looked like 3 months ago.

What a quick and easy project! (Yes, I'm being facetious.) But as you know, when a big project is finally done, it's so worth it. To be honest, we still have a few spindles to sand, paint and install, but the deck looks finished and we're thrilled. And Mom Vae loves the colors!

Last Sunday was another red-letter day! My brother Tim and sister-in-law Josie spent a weekend in Scottsdale and drove down to see Mom, Sam and I.

Josie cooked us fajitas for lunch and we all had a great visit. (Once again, I was having such a good time, I totally forgot to take photos. Thanks, Tim, for loaning me yours!)

On the home front, did you know that cat traps come in clear plastic?

Winter on the ranch has included rain, snow and interesting clouds, but we still get more than our share of blue skies.

And colorful sunsets. I don't know what caused this cloud formation south of us. Perhaps the Southern Cross? On second thought, we're not quite that far south.

I hope your year is off to a good start.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year from Pumpkin Patch Ranch! Jan and Vae spent a quiet Christmas together while Sam worked on a side job in Phoenix.

We listened to beautiful Christmas music and I made sure we had all the Christmas goodies we wanted, which turned out to be one or two of everything in the house!

Then we went on a walk to enjoy the clearing weather and the views of our mountains and valley.

On Christmas Eve, we were invited to a gathering hosted by Pam and Chuck, leaders of a nice little community group we've been attending.

It's been good to make new friends in our neighborhood.

Meanwhile, Sam played Santa for the two boys at our friends' house where he was working. He must have done a great job, because when I spent the following weekend with them, the four-year-old told and retold the tale of how Santa brought gifts, ate cookies and milk, and Sam missed the whole thing because he was "at the store"!

The weekend before Christmas, the weather warmed up enough that we did more painting on the deck railings.

How do you like that color? See how it matches the trim on the house? We're very pleased with how it's turned out.

On New Year's Day, Dingus came for a visit while we watched the Rose Parade. His first priority was exploring all the sights and smells in the house.

Only then did he warm up to Grandma and come close enough for head scratches. As usual, Frankie snoozed through the whole morning at home.

I hope your holidays have been good ones. Sam is coming home today, so I'm excited! We both wish you a happy New Year filled with awareness of faith and the important things in life.