Golfin' In The Rain - Again

Here we are again getting the first 9 holes in before the sky decides to let loose and give us beautiful rain (but not when we are out in the midst of it). But this time I was smart enough to put our rain jackets in the bags. Drove up to our cabin yesterday after Jim got home from work, smooth sailing and arrived at 7pm to enjoy the evening out on the deck listening to the quiet. This morning we did some yard work then decided to play golf even though the forecast was for some rain. So after lunch we headed over to Bison Golf Course. We had played this course a long time ago but it must not have impressed us because we couldn't really remember the course. They have changed it around some in the past year.

 It's a tight course, but very pretty nestled in the trees. But there are houses on both sides of narrow fairways, so us amateurs have a hard time keeping it down the middle. We did make it through the round without hitting a house.

Some pretty flowers along the way.

 It started raining on the 9th hole then quit, so we just continued on. Not really bothering us too much. Then on the 12th hole it decided to give us a downpour, so we took cover under some trees for awhile to let the thunderstorm pass. Finally went onto the 13th hole playing in the lighter rain as best we could. Trying to putt through water is quite difficult. Here is Jim hitting off the 18th hole.

Here is Jim's ball finding the stream created by the rains. I won't even tell you what we shot.

We finished that is all that counts. A little wet, but had a good time. Now our clubs, bags, and towels are drying out in the garage. Hopefully they will be mostly dry by tomorrow. Maybe another golf day?

Cabin Again

I know - I've been quite remiss in my postings as of late. So will go back and recap what has been happening.

The end of May we were back up to the cabin and again cleanup around the cabin was in order. We needed to get all of it bagged up and out on the street for pickup before 6/15. So this was our last chance to get this work done. Here are some of our piles we needed to bag up.

 After we got all the pine needles and pinecones picked up we needed to cut down new growth oak trees we  didn't want to grow into mature oak trees.

 This is our fruit of labor - I sure was glad when we got that finished and could just relax and enjoy our time at the cabin. The weather was beautiful. We found out that there are an influx of a lot of people to this area over holiday weekends. We made the mistake of going to Safeway on that Friday afternoon. It took us forever to buy the ingredients for our making our cookies to satisfy our craving, the checkout lines were at least 15 deep. Won't make that mistake again.

 For something to do, we took an overnight trip to Phoenix where we stayed at the Sheraton Downtown again. Went to a car show at the convention center which turned out not worth it, all low-riders (nothing against them, just not our cup of tea). But we did have dinner on the 24th floor of the Hyatt which is a revolving restaurant. Had an enjoyable dinner which was quite good, we chose an excellent bottle of wine and watched all the sites of Phoenix.

 It takes about 1 hour to make one revolution, and we made it around probably 1 1/2 times. This was worth the trip to Phoenix.

Enjoyed breakfast the next morning at the Sheraton then headed back home. Nice to get out of 107 degrees in Tucson to experience 112 degrees in Phoenix.

OK, now we are up to date. Here we are back up to the cabin over the 4th of July extended weekend. Came up on Thursday afternoon, got some work done around the yard on Friday, grilled a turkey that evening and had a wonderful dinner. Then Sat. afternoon Jamie and Eddie came up to visit us. We took them of a tour around the area and ended up at The Cattlemen's Steakhouse for dinner, pretty good. Enjoyed our dessert of homemade apple pie out on the patio. Sunday morning we went for our 4 mile walk around the area. They headed back home after we had lunch at the Torreon Country Club restaurant. It was so nice to have them visit us so we could share our little bit of paradise.

 This morning we were back at it again! It never ends.

The temps at the cabin have been a bit warmer than usual - the upper 80s to low 90s, so a little sticky sitting out on the deck during wine hour, but still a relief from the Tucson temps at 107. It's been such a hot June and July is just continuing on. We'll be heading out early tomorrow morning to head home hopefully before all the traffic.

Escaping Tucson Heat Wave

A heat wave of upper 90s to low 100s was expected for Tucson Wed. thru Sat., so where do we head to prevent sweating through those miserable temps? The cabin of course. Took off Wed about 1pm and got up to the cool country at 4:30. This is our first trip since we closed the cabin last Thanksgiving weekend. The cabin endured the winter just fine, except the TV and receiver were on (probably switched on with power outages). Guess I need to unplug all the electronics even though we have surge protectors on them all.

After our walk Thurs. a.m., we started the yard cleanup, raking all the pinecones and pine needles in the front. Worked 4-5 hours and then finished up on Friday for a total of 17 big black trash bags full. The back will need to wait till our next trip. Jim cleaned out all the gutters before cleanup. Those pine needles love to stick in the gutters.

 After all that work on Thurs., we decided to take a break and go fishing Fri. morning. We hit Show Low Lake bright and early eagerly getting our lines in the water to catch a bunch of trout. Well we sat and waited and waited, but the fish were not hungry. A guy was fishing next to us and he caught a 12 inch trout which he gave to us because he said he didn't want to clean it. So we did share one fish for dinner. Hopefully next time we will be a little bit more lucky to cover the cost of all the tackle. But it was a nice break from the yard work, which we went home and continued working.

 

We are at an elevation of 6440 and the temps run 20 degrees cooler than Tucson. So we are enjoying the perfect temps of 70s-80s. With the cooler weather spring is still in existence with wildflowers still in bloom.

Brought up my first bear painting, 24"x24" and got it hung, but it needs more along side of it. I have a series of bear paintings planned, but this is the only one I have finished. Hopefully by next trip I will have another one done so this bear won't be so lonely. Any authentic cabin needs bear paintings.

Today, Sat. is relaxation day. Did a 4 mile walk this morning (and you have to understand we are in the mountains and it's not flat). Don't plan much for the rest of the day except sit out on the deck and watch the pine needles and pinecones fall (forecast windy). Tomorrow we will head back to the warm country, but it looks like we have dodged the heat as cooler temps are forecast.

Enjoying the Beautiful Weather

Came up to the cabin on Wed to enjoy probably the last of the beautiful weather and it will probably be awhile before we make it back up here. It's cooler but still getting into the 70s during the day. But with just crystal clear blue skies.

Thursday was work day with blowing off decks and driveway, picking up pine cones, cutting unwanted oak tree seedlings and Jim getting up to clean pine needles out of the gutters.

 Since it was such a beautiful day, we took a break in the afternoon from work to drive to Fools Hollow Lake about 3 miles from the cabin. We've heard that the fishing is good there, so needed to do a drive thru for a check-out. It's a pretty small lake that would be good for some walking around, but no so much for fishing. The bottom is completely covered with weeds - I know my tackle would get caught and loose it. Plus it is an AZ State Park so the entrance fee is $7.

Friday after a few chores in the morning, we took a drive southeast towards Sunrise Ski Area to take in the fall colors. And did we come across them. I didn't realize there were so many Aspen in the area.

 We hit it at just the right time, all the trees are in the process of turning and very few have dropped their leaves.

 The base elevation at Sunrise is 9200 feet, so the nights are getting cold which is turning the trees to their beautiful colors.

 We continued on to Greer to stop at our favorite restaurant there and had their Friday Fish Fry special - it was good.

On our way back we checked out Show Low Lake, which we heard was another good fishing pond. We liked this lake much better, no weedy bottom and plus there is no entrance fee. Come spring you know where we will be - sitting on a rock waiting for the "big one" (and waiting, and waiting, and waiting).

Tomorrow's forecast is for rain, so we will need to come up with some projects inside to work on to keep us busy. But for right now, sitting on the back deck, 70 degrees, looking at the pine trees and a few golfers teeing off.

North Woods Get Away

We've been busy since we returned from Oklahoma. Before we left on that trip we put an offer on a cabin in the Show Low, AZ area and the close of escrow was on 9/8. So between all the paperwork for escrow and purchasing needed items for the cabin, it took most of our time. We took possession on the 8th and was busy getting everything set up the way we wanted it.

We had found a place where the furnishing were included, which was quite nice, so not too much was needed. Although we did find out some things were not what we wanted, so needed to replace, such as all the TV's which probably dated back to the 60's and boy were they heavy. Here is the living room with a nice fireplace which we tested out last night. After our first trip to the cabin, we figured out what we needed for a total AV system because there are speakers built-in through out the cabin. It only took us all day Thurs. and most of Friday to get the system up and running. Needless to say, we are not AV specialists. It's still not totally correct (unable to get the surround sound to work properly), but it works fine for what we need at this point.

Here's Jim enjoying our fire pit we put on the deck. We wanted a cabin with a built-in fireplace on the deck, but we settled for purchasing a fire pit. It works great.

 There are walking paths where we take our daily walks. At over 6300 feet, I'm puffing but still beautiful place to walk around.

Here's the front of the cabin.

Jim replaced all the outside lights today. The previous ones were quite rustic and cheap. So here are the new ones on the garage.

 From our back deck there are plenty of trees, mostly secluded except when golfers are teeing off on the 9th hole. We look out at the 9th tee box and can see a little down the 9th fairway.

 We ordered a cord of oak firewood that will be delivered tomorrow, so here is Jim stacking up our current inventory so we can get the new cord stack beside it.

 Here's the back of the cabin.

I believe we have most of our projects done, so tomorrow we can sit back and enjoy. The main reason for this North Woods Get Away is to get out of the Tucson summer heat. There's about a 20 degree difference in the two places. But we will be set up for cold weather also if we wish to come up. It's already getting cooler as last night it got down to 36 degrees. As I'm writing this I am being warmed by a blazing fire in our deck fire pit. Hopefully we have most our project completed on this trip, so the next time we come up we can go out and explore and enjoy the area.