Appreciation

Last night, we had a good surf and turf dinner in the Canyon Vistas ballroom, courtesy of the Sales Appreciation event for those of us who have purchased houses in Superstition Views. The table decorations were elegant. Notice the open bottles of red and white wine, as well.

We took our plates to the serving line to pick up the steak, shrimp, potatoes, green beans and mushrooms. From there on, the sales and resort staff members served us, refilling our wine glasses and getting more wine when we ran out, clearing the dishes and bringing the dessert. The food was delicious and we really felt appreciated.

We got acquainted with some of our neighbors: Cheryl and Jeff and Theresa and John.

If you are coming through the East Valley of Phoenix and are interested in checking out Superstition Views, let us know. We will give the sales staff your names. If you take a tour, we get some free rent. If you buy here, we get a year's free rent.  We really recommend this place. We have a very nice lot, with on-site full-hookups for our RV right next to our house, nice neighbors and a quiet location. Come check it out.

Fountain Cleaning

Last Saturday was Spring Cleanup Day at Church of the Epiphany. It is always good to spend time getting better acquainted with other parishioners and we enjoy helping spruce things up before Easter. John and I were assigned to the team that cleaned the fountain in the church courtyard.

The first step is to remove all the river rock surrounding the cross in the center of the fountain.

We then removed the screening that covers the iron grate supporting the rocks. Next, it was time to cut new screen wire to fit the grate.

The same screen material is used to protect the pump housing.

John used a shop vac to pick up all the gunk that had accumulated on the bottom during the past six months or so. The gunk is mainly mud and pine needles. I used a hose to wash that stuff off the sides and into piles so he could vacuum it up,

Next the grill and screen were replaced, then the rocks distributed around.

After the fountain was filled with water, I was given the job of turning on the pump.

I hope you can see the water flowing over the large rock platform in this picture.

On another note, remember this picture I posted earlier?

Unfortunately, we think the dove abandoned the nest. Hopefully it was only for a few minutes. This is what we saw the next time we walked along the same path.

Family Activities

Swimming and eating weren't our only activities with our family. Both Kylie and John do workouts with their swim teams and one of Kylie's first questions was, "do you have a place here where I can work out?" We said yes and Monday morning all of us but Eric went there. He did a load of wash for his family.

John helped Kylie set up the chest press machine.

Here, John is helping grandson John use the leg curl machine.

Liz didn't need any help doing her workout.

John and I got a few of our regular exercises in, as well. We usually do weight training three times a week.

The day didn't end when we finished working out. In the afternoon, John and Eric and the grandkids went to the shooting range at Usury Mountain Regional Park to shoot their pistols. It was a new activity for Kylie and Eric, but they turned out to be excellent shots.

The first step was to don eye protection and ear protection.

Here, Eric is helping John shoot one of the guns.

The man shooting next to our family, had an AR-15, a semi-automatic weapon. He offered to let the two young people try it out. Here is Kylie and John shooting it.

It continued to be a busy time after they returned from the shooting range. Kylie, who is not quite 16, is now taller than I am.

Eric is taller than his dad.

We showed them around the resort, including the clip board room where residents learn about resort activities.

And the library here.

I wonder what our parents would think if they could see Kylie, Liz, Eric and me all looking at our iphones?

We had such a good time during their visit. We are glad we will spend time with them again when we go to Colorado in June.

Family Comes to Visit

Sunday, our son Eric, wife Liz and children Kylie and John came for a two-day visit. In the past, they have had to sleep on the floor of our RV, in their tent outside, or in a nearby hotel or resort. This time, they slept in our house and we moved to our RV for a few days. It all worked! This is one of the reasons we bought this house.

We had a busy couple of days. The pool was a favorite place to visit.

We played a little water volleyball. It isn't any easier than the game played on solid ground. I'm still not any good at it.

Kylie and John are both competitive swimmers and they showed us what they are able to do. Really impressive. Such great form and strong strokes.

The weather has been great and we spent a lot of time sitting outside in our "yard," eating and drinking and talking.

Eric did some wash in the resort laundry room.

And grandson John was the first person to try out our hide-a-bed. It gets good reviews from the grandchildren.

There was a lot more crammed into the two days they were here. More of the activity tomorrow.

It's Spring!

Today is the first day of Spring. In Gold Canyon, the prickly pear cactus are showing spring growth.

Birds are nesting. We suspect this dove is sitting on a nest. We didn't disturb her to find out, but she (or he) didn't move as we edged closer to look. Several years ago, a dove built a nest in our RV hitch about this time of year. Unfortunately, we had to move the 5th wheel before the eggs hatched. John carefully carried the nest and eggs to a(relatively) safe place for them. We have no idea what happened.

This bug appeared. I have never seen one like it and have no idea what it is.

I don't know if the weather is related to the beginning of Spring, but just before sunset, the sky turned dark to the east while the setting sun was still shining.

We could tell there was moisture in the air because this rainbow appeared. The very top of the bow was missing.

We did get a brief rain out of those clouds, in addition to lightening and thunder.

Creating New Storage

On the whole, our RV makes very efficient use of the available space with shelves and drawers wherever a small bit of space can be found. One spot there was wasted space was in the cabinet behind the dining room table. There were no shelves in that space, so I had to pile things one on top of another. We also bought a small metal shelving unit that gave me two shelves in one area. It wasn't very stable and wasn't as deep as the space, so things could fall off.

When we were at the factory last summer, they gave us brackets to hold adjustable shelves, as well as some shelving material. We bought a compact jig saw to use in cutting the shelves. Here is John inserting the blade and beginning to make the cuts.

Isn't that nice wood? Unfortunately, it seems I flunked measuring class and the resulting shelf was too small--in both directions! We were off to Home Depot for a piece of plywood.

We both measured this time and the resulting shelf fit.

The factory also gave us the wood to make a lip on the front of the shelf. John attached the lip to a small square dowel, then spread some glue and put it on the front of the shelf. The space under the table is really awkward to work in.

He added clamps to hold everything together till the glue dried.

Here is the finished shelf. It will really make that space more convenient to use. And, like I said in the last blog, it isn't a mistake unless you can't fix it.