February 25, 2020, Tuesday

Ron and Gloria arrived on time Friday afternoon.  We took them to lunch at Caldwell County BBQ . Then we came home to settle and visit.

Ron & Gloria

On Saturday we had to deal with rain.  It rained overnight and most of the day on Saturday. The temperature was only in the 60's all weekend.

 Rain clearing on the Superstition Mountains

The weather wasn't very good last year either when Gloria came.  But we made the best of it.  We headed to the Olive Mill in Queen Creek. It is a destination for all tourists. https://www.queencreekolivemill.com/
 

Olives and Oils for sale

It is a restaurant with outdoor seating, but the rain kept us inside. The food was good but the experience was dampened by the weather.

Then it was back home for a short time and out again to the Boot Barn in Mesa, AZ. Ron wanted to buy a hat and boots.  https://www.bootbarn.com/  He did manage to buy what he wanted.  His boots have a camouflage flag top and square toe.  I thought he bought some good stuff.

We tried to go for dinner at San Tan Flats, a destination restaurant, but it had an hour and a half wait at 7:30 so we went to plan B which was Serrano's our favorite Mexican place.  The wait was ten minutes. Then home for early bedtime as the kids were still on Central Time.

Sunday was the Tucson Rodeo.  We had seats near the center of the arena, directly across from the chutes.  It was a really good rodeo as there were several world #1 and 2 ranked cowboys and bucking stock.  I didn't know they ranked the stock as well as the cowboys. A top ranked bull is worth as high as $500,000.  The weather was still mostly cloudy and temps in the 60's. The parade was earlier in the week.  We were not present

Below are some of the pics and video we did during the day.

 Cowboyin' up!

 Gloria & Ron

Once inside

Gloria found a pair of boots she liked

 Ron & Gloria

 Lela & G'pa

 

  Mini Horse

 Rodeo stock

 Bulls

 Rodeo Zamboni

Crew follows picking up rocks.

Rodeo Clown

 12 year old wrangler. He worked the arena all day

 clouds on the Catalina mountains

Dinner at Chen's Chinese on the way home

Then it was Monday AM and time to leave for the airport.

 Gloria, Lela and G'pa

 Cowboy Ron, Lela and G'pa

 If I can get them to upload these are some of the video from Sunday.

                                    

sold out arena

 

 Bareback bronc rider

 

 Steer Wrestling

 

  Saddle Bronc Riding

 

 Rope and tie

  Women's Barrel Racing

Bull riding and overall cowboy champion for 2020 Tucson Rodeo.

Notice the bull gets all four feet in the air.

Rodeo clowns showing off

Closing ceremony of flags

February 21, 2020 Friday

It has been brought to my attention that I have neglected the blog.  I have been having power issues regarding charging my laptop.  I hope the issue has been rectified.

We are awaiting the arrival of Ron and Gloria this afternoon.  Our weather has been in the high 70's and yesterday 82.  However there is a storm (?) coming in tonight to bring 60's and rain for the weekend.  Last year when Gloria was here it turned cold as well. Maybe the forecast will be wrong.

I'm trying to recall past events over the past two weeks. I played golf in the league twice and once at another course. I seem to have found my game a little bit.  I am consistently in the low 80's on par 72 courses.

Johnson Ranch GC 

mostly desert course

Lela has been going to her exercise classes in the mornings.  Those sore muscles are a sure sign that they are effective.

Peggy, Helen and Carol

(luncheon buddies)

On the neighbor's deck.

Amber

Mary

Marilyn

Saturday there was a yard sale in the park. Lela picked up a couple treasures from other people's junk and I bought, for ten dollars, a beat up smoker.  It came with charcoal and flavoring chips. I think the charcoal was worth ten dollars.

smoker waiting for the first test

Last Sunday we were invited to Ross and Laura's home for pizza after church.  We connected with a friend that we hadn't seen this year, Kevin.

Kevin

We finally gave up on the Sissoo Tree in front of the house.  I cut it down and dug out the stump. Actually I had a lot of help to get the stump out.  Ross claimed "I can get that out."  He came Wednesday while I was golfing and worked a couple hours and gave up

Ross

. Yesterday I started digging again.  When my chainsaw became dull, Ray (neighbor) came over and sharpened it.  Then he got in the hole with a sharpshooter spade and wouldn't give up until we managed to get it out.

5 trunk stump

Ray (retired farm guy)

stump finally in pieces

empty stump hole

I poured a gallon of Roundup in there to kill roots left behind.

New look

Larry and Amber our next door neighbors are not returning next year for health reasons. They have more family support in Iowa where they are from. Larry gave us a couple of his yard ornaments that we have been coveting for some time. We are really going to miss them next year.  They have one of the friendliest deck gatherings in the neighborhood.

Mexican 1

Mexican 2

Patio ready for sunshine

How do you get from this

to this?

Ana on ice.

February 6, 2020 Thursday

I guess I can start today with the weather report.  The folks back home have been warmer in the morning hours than we are in AZ.  We went from79 degrees on Sunday to a  high of 51 on Wednesday and 70's are not expected again until Saturday. However there is no snow in our forecast.

I had my regular golf league last Wednesday and played poorly once again (89).  My swing seems to have deserted me. Maybe if I had new clubs I could play better, but somehow I know "it's not the arrow, It's the Indian."

Friday we went to a great BBQ place in Gilbert, Caldwell County BBQ.

  It is a Texas style BBQ and the setting is quite unique.  Our friend Louise drove us there.

 Lela and Louise

https://www.caldwellcountybbq.com/
Check out their website and look at the picture tab.  Their smokers are used propane tanks repurposed for cooking.

 Propane tank smoker

All the brisket and pork is smoked for at least six hours at 250 degrees and basted regularly with pickle juice.

 I think I'll have the ribs next time

The head cook took me on a tour of the smokers and explained how they cook their meat..

Head cook

Saturday I played golf at Las Calinas again.  I played better, although my iron play was not very good. I shot 40 - 41 total 82 on a 72 par course. I'll take it but there is still a lot of room to improve.

Sunday was Super Bowl Sunday.  Paul and Christy invited us to their party to watch the game.  It was pretty exciting at the last six minutes as The Chiefs came roaring back to win.  Nic was bummed out as he rooted for the Niners.  It was great to see the family, but we really missed Zack and Ben. Zack and his wife Thaliya are both stationed in Washington State, and Ben is on the USS Ronald Reagan, CVN-76 based in Yokosuka, Japan.

Zack and Ben USN

Wednesday, yesterday was golf league at Western Skies GC, as usual.  The weather wasn't "usual" as  we waited 45 minutes for frost in 35 degree weather.  I wore four layers of clothing, Tee shirt, collared short sleeve shirt, wind shirt, and a hooded sweatshirt topped off by a stocking cap to keep my tender ears warm.  I shot a poor 44 on the front nine, but recovered on the back nine as the weather warmed to a balmy 51 degrees and I was able to shed the sweatshirt at the turn. On the back nine my swing seemed to reappear.  I was three over par on the back with seven pars (44-40=84.  I finally seemed to find my irons swing.  Praise God!

It is still cold here, 29 overnight.  Lela bundled up and walked to the clubhouse for the exercise class this morning. This is not what we expect in AZ.

We received some pics from Genevieve.  It seems that today is the 100th day of school for Ana. The kids could dress up to celebrate.  Ana decided that she wanted to go as a 100 year old woman.  Lela and I were in stitches as we face-timed with her on the phone.  She walked up and down the hallway bent over with her cane.  It was hilarious.

 Such a sweetie!