Down Time

I have often wondered what it would be like to have "down time".  It is a period of time where one does nothing - like riding on the hay wagon ride at Mortimer Farm's Corn Days Festival.  Bill, David and I went to the Corn Festival today out in Dewey, AZ.  We parked the car at the Country Store and rode the wagon down to the festival area.  There was a line waiting to get in.  There were people ahead of us who, when they reached the entry way, talked to the attendant and then turned around and left.  I wondered why? Well I soon found out why.  They were charging $10 per head to enter.  I asked what we got for the $10 and I was told, well, entry to the festival, and any of the games and activities are available for no extra charge.  Of course the advertised Corn on the Cob meal was extra - but the TV slot and Internet Web Site did not mention a price for the meal as being extra.  So we wandered around the inflated jumping houses and they were full of children, the inflated balloon thing that kids got inside and then rolled around on an artificial lagoon (read that HUGE inflated swim pool), and since I no longer qualify as a child, that too was off limits.  There was the usual artery clogging Fry Bread and fixin's  that we passed up as well as the hillbilly swing - built only to hold small children.  They had pony rides, but I am not a horsewoman and Bill probably only played cowboy when he was little.  The horses looked too frail to hold David so we passed that up as well.  They did have a live honky tonk cowboy band playing music for a while, then they brought in a new trailer full of freshly picked corn that they were selling - we bought a dozen.  It looked like a war zone when the people converged on the wagon to snag their share of the fresh picked corn.
There was a vendor there who was selling dried Gourds.  I bought a big one and David got two tiny ones.
We lined up for the Hay Ride and off we went.  That is when I decided I was having 'down time'.  riding on the trailer and doing nothing other than enjoying the green of the mountains around us and the corn on one side and pumpkins growing ready for the Harvest Festival in October.  The tractor was an International Harvester Farmall tractor - 35 years old - but still chugging with about 20 persons riding on the trailer sitting on straw bales.  There was a young boy holding a rooster that he had caught and was inviting the little children to come pet the rooster.  the bird looked none too happy and when the boy changed his hold on the bird, you could see what his perspiration had done to the chest feathers - they were all wet and disheveled.
The tractor driver stopped along the way to explain about the age of the Cotton Wood trees lining the route and the river bank.  He also invited some young children to take the wheel and drive the tractor.  That was a little scary when the little girl drove within two feet of the drop off.  The next to last stop was at a Sweet Corn field and we were allowed to go in and pick an ear of corn.  Apparently only one ear of corn grows on one stalk - a fact I did not know before this.  The farm workers were down in the center of the field picking more corn to sell to people coming to the festival or in the farm store.
We shucked the corn and ate the freshly picked ear.  I think that this wast the first time Bill had ever eaten a raw ear of corn.....not bad for a city boy.  Our crew re-boarded the trailer for the trip home, but on the way, we stopped by the brooding structure (they raise their own baby chicks), and the rooster was returned to his harem of hens.
On the way back to the start of the ride, a man sitting across from us was complaining about itching on his bare legs. Yes, he had wandered into the corn field and the 'no-see-ums' had feasted  heartily.
At the end of the ride, I went back to the gourd man and bought some small gourds from him for table decorations for Tuesday when my quilt group comes for lunch.
We got in the wagon for the ride back to our car and then we went to the Grill at the Stone Ridge  Golf Course.  At a table nearby were some very well off people.  I began to wonder at their life style and try to determine how they made enough money to live in this fancy development.
The highlight of the day was receiving a letter from the Morrison County Historical Society, and see all the Doroff genealogy they had sent me.  I hit pay dirt for Jacob's genealogy and extended his line one more generation.

The Green Hills of Home

Normally our landscape is a warm brown broken up with army green to grey green squatty little bushes here and there and of course there are the eternal cactus plants to relieve the monotony of the brown.  With all the rain we have had since July 10 (around 4 inches according to the rain gauge in our back yard and substantiated by the report in the paper), the hills have turned from warm Brown to bright green.  Everything is green - it is as if the Wizard of Oz has been turned loose making everything look green.
I went walking by Watson Lake today and to my joy the lake is full - the paper says that is has risen 2 feet and that they have opened the release valve so that some of the water can flow into Willlow Lake.  They are joined by a sluice that they open to drain one lake into the other.
I was surprised to see so many roads still closed as I drove around Prescott today.  One stream close to one of the ladies I visiting teach was closed yesterday she said, and the debris is still visible because it was stopped in its flow by the fence on the bridge.  Still, some streams are flowing slowly as they drain  the landscape.  The park near Staples was closed because of flooding.  They found a body in the creek a few days ago, and the man who reported the incident, ended up being arrested on another charge and now is cooling his heels in jail.  He also insists that he did not have anything to do with the drowning.  He said, according to the paper, that he had been drinking and had spoken to the lady, had then gone for a walk along the stream side trail and when he returned she was in the water face down.  He loudly claimed that he had not pushed her into the water.  Well, we will somehow find out what happened - that is if some sort of catastrophe does not push such stories to page 7 where we may never find it.
David is coming up to visit this weekend and already he has sent me a text outlining all the food he wants to eat while here.  He will not be here long enough to eat the entire proposed menu, but at least he will get a home made pizza - that is his absolute favorite food and it has to be made by mother.  He suggested that he be taken to Arby's for their 5 for $5 beef burgers.  I asked him if he intended to eat the entire 5 burgers and he said yes so I told him that he would then be eligible to be hired as the fat man in the circus as a result.
I checked the meal I left out for the pack rat and see that it has all been consumed and the food tray pulled into the area where he has his hideout.  At least I have not found any more tomatoes on the ground - he has been nipping them off the vines and leaving them on the ground.
I had an accident in the kitchen this week.  As I opened the door, the margarine tub fell out and I cannot find the lid.  I think it has found a new home under the fridge.  Well, I took a yard stick - our favorite tool to do myriad jobs - none of them including measuring anything - and I poked around under the fridge and could not retrieve the lid.  I did fish out some pieces of glass from the Jam bottle I dropped  and broke 2 months ago so that was not a wasted effort with the yard stick, after all.
Our newspaper offers us some insight into the social makeup of our fair city.  We live in a High End, retirement community yet in the past two weeks they have put pictures of the babies born in our area on the back page.  Usually there are only 4 to 8 babies each week but in the past two weeks we have had 35 babies born.  Twenty of them last week and 15 of them in today's paper.  Someone has been busy and you can bet it is not the post menopausal couples who comprise the majority of the population here.

The rain we prayed for

Oh yes, we have had 4 inches of rain - measured in the little rain gauge in our backyard.  I-17 has been closed at New River due to the rain swollen usually bone dry river bed - Agua Fria River.  Yay Team!
yes, you can blame it on us - our congregation was asked to fast and pray for much needed rain and in within days it began to rain - spotty at first but now in all earnestness.
As I drove around Prescott today, I could see the amount of water that was flowing into Watson Lake.  the water level has been down for the past 4 years or more but now the ducks really have enough water to swim in and their feet will not touch bottom......
The News tonight shows that one area has had over 8 inched of rain.  In Phoenix some people were in a park and the water came up so fast and stranded them on a small mound.  They had to be rescued.  Of course the usual number of Silly Drivers had to be rescued when they tried to cross flowing river beds. Ouch! that will cost them dearly.
My garden is dancing in the rain - the tomatoes have never been so bathed with heavenly blessings.  I do not have to water them today.
We have a pack rat in our little shed - had one when we came home from Maine.  Not a good scene for the rat - put out some food for him.
Bill went to work today - against doctors orders.  He was supposed to be off work for one week but he decided that they (the pharmacy) needed him............and so it goes.  I insisted that I still drive him because in the handout from the hospital he could finally see (had to be helped to see) the words "No driving for one week".  When he came home he went to bed with the ice pack on the wound.
At quilt guild on Monday, one of the ladies came up to me and started talking to me about family history.  Apparently she had been to the Family History Center, and the sister missionaries were there and they got to talking and she found out that I was on the staff there.  So we had a wonderful long conversation about her adventures in the Citizens Cemetery - it is a historic site here in Prescott. Coming up is a big reception at $50 per person to dine with the dead.  They set up a big tent in the cemetery and eat a catered meal etc. and it is a fund raiser for the cemetery upkeep.  I have invited her to be present at the Church this week for the Family History Presentation - a lesson to help teach people how to organize their genealogical materials.
I am very glad that Life in a Blender site let me in.  I hope to keep writing on this blog.
After all, life in Prescott really is like Life in a Blender.

6,000 mile round trip for a wedding in Maine.

Whenever we go anywhere, there is always this time lag.  It seems that all time expectations are in "rubber hour increments"  A rubber hour is something that essentially is "Expanded to exceed the 60 minutes allotted for an hour, and is used to cram in every activity that could ever be considered for use."  The upshot is, we are always running late because the conventional hour has been superseded by the Bill Markham Rubber Hour.  this time it was not too bad because we were only 10 minutes late in leaving - and there had been a notation on the calendar for the date and time of departure for many weeks. So we witnessed a miracle with Bill only being 10 minutes off the mark!

Our plane left on time for Albuquerque and the flight was uneventful for the most part.  In the airport managed to sit next to a lady who was crocheting Beads into a necklace.  held a long and interesting conversation with her and it really helped to pass the time.  She got off in Albuquerque but she told me of a bead camp that is coming up soon................Nirvana.

Our flight from New Mexico to Baltimore Maryland was an adventure to be sure. They announced that a sudden storm had rolled up the east coast and had snarled air traffic over and into Baltimore/Washington airport.  We found our plane doing circles over Ohio and so I took out my cell phone and set it to the compass and it was fascinating to see just how often they changed directions.  We did not worry about being in the holding pattern because we had some time between the expected time of arrival and the takeoff to Portland, Maine, airport. The holding pattern began to drag on and on but I did get some really good pictures of the thunderheads in the clouds that we flew by and through.  We finally arrived in Portland, only to find that our plane had been delayed.  Bill called the hotel to have them keep holding our room (which they did) and he could not get hold of the car rental place so we began to worry about that.  Although the motel was not far from the airport, it was way too far to walk in the dark.

When we got to Portland we found a crew of clerks waiting to help us get a car and leave.  They told us that the policy was for them to stay on duty for at least 30 minutes after the last plane lands.  They had a monitor on the wall that showed them when the planes were expected to arrive.  As they were giving us the keys to the car, the clerk said "Oh, and beware of Moose on the roads.  There have been a number of accidents here lately".  The only moose we saw this trip to Maine was a picture of two of them in a river eating and that was a wallpaper picture on the computer at the Bangor motel.

We drove to our Portland motel and literally fell into bed.  it was 1.30am.  Oh yes, that was only 10.30pm Arizona time but we HAD been flying all day.

We had to get up early and eat breakfast.  Now, eating is a challenge to me because I was 3 1/2 hours in the dentist chair in North Phoenix on Wednesday 9th having two crowns removed and having my mouth prepared to be fitted with two new crowns and a bridge so that I can have the ability to chew food again.  I had to drive down by myself, be treated by the dentist, and drive home.  Aaarrgghh!  What was I thinking?  Well, it was done and that is that and on the way home I went to the food court at Anthem Outlets and ate black beans and rice.  Unfortunately the rice was 'Old" rice and did not taste very good.  But I had not eaten since 7am and it was now 3pm., so I ate it.

We had a struggle to get up early enough to eat breakfast at the motel and get on our way to Augusta to see our friends.  We took the scenic route by the ocean through the Wiscasset area - really a pretty drive.  We found our way over this I-295 route to Mary Hitchings home in Chelsea.  She has a couple of new kittens to foster and they also have a new Australian Cattle Dog.

We left there and we went to Hannaford's grocery store in the hope that they still sold Wheatina, which is Bill's favorite hot breakfast cereal but I guess they really do not make it any more so he came away without it.  We even went up main street in Augusta to Shaw's grocery store but they did not have it either.  We then went down to Friendly's restaurant and met with the members of Augusta Ward.  It was raucous, affirming and wonderfully comforting to be with them.  They would like us to return to Augusta and be a part of their ward.  That is ok for all the seasons except Winter.  Winter is long and bitterly cold and it gets dark about 3.45pm and does not get light until around 8.15am.  Not good if you suffer from seasonal affective disorder.  Found out that my friend Rose Daigle is getting married.  Also caught up on the news of all the other members.  Sue and Martin Kader, Butch and Karinna Dawbin and children and Butch's mother all joined us for lunch.  Bill particularly wanted Clam Strips and I wanted that too, but Sue produced some coupons and if we ordered a certain amount we got a good discount.  So I did not get the clam strips but rather got a Lobstah Roll (Lobster).

We left Augusta and drove to Bangor, and we did not see one Moose.  We did see notices where the Moose are allowed to cross the highway -
Moose Crossing for next 10 miles - was the announcement.  On the road we passed the Mall; the turn off that we always took to go to Riverside Drive; and we also saw the new hospital.  They had begun work on it 2 years ago when we were in Augusta.  We arrived in Bangor and went to our motel.  It is a large motel but the rooms are very much smaller than the one in Portland.   We took a nap and then we went off to find the reception.  We got there just as the Bride was about to enter the venue.  We went in first, ahead of her, and the people gathered there were expecting the Bride to go through the door, but instead they got "The Markhams".  Ta Da!

The Wedding was a very elegant affair.  The wedding ceremony was held in the open rotunda type area with the minister officiating.  The Bride was escorted down the red carpet by her 5yr old son and he was so cute leading his mother along.  The minister asked "Who gives this Mommy to this Daddy in marriage" and he puffed out his little chest and said "I Do!"  It was so cute.  The bride and groom had written out their own ceremony and it was really nice.  After the ceremony we were all ushered into a reception area where we had canapés etc.  I wanted a soda to drink but the bar prices were outrageous.  Just settled for water. The Canapés were bacon wrapped sea scallops, spicy chicken on crostini,  and some sort of pasta wrapped broccoli and artichoke.

As soon as the bride and groom entered the room, we all clapped and then we were ushered into the Reception proper.  We had name tags to pick up and a table assignment was noted on the bottom of the card.  The decorations were superb.  The theme was Christmas in July and the tables alternated with red and silver decorations.  The silver tables had red napkins and ties on the chairs and the red tables had silver napkins and red ties on the chairs.  They had champagne flutes on the table with Raspberries in the glass and the servers came in soon with salads, followed by the main course and Cake was the dessert.  They had a toast to the couple, some last minute advice and they had a band that played wonderful music.  The sound man was standing in the audience with his little I-pad and he was monitoring the sound.  They had a photo booth where people could have their pictures taken and one set was for the guest and one for the bride and groom and we were invited to write a note beside the pictures.  a man named Micah was at our table.  He is a professor of ancient Indian culture in Maine and we had a wonderful conversation.  He has known Anne (mother of the groom ) and her husband who passed away in 2010.  The other couple at the table are old friends of Anne and her husband and they are soon to move to New Mexico.  The husband is a behavioral therapist and he uses horses in his practice to help families solve their problems.  Sounds interesting and I have no idea how his work accomplishes his goals.

In 2012 Anne, Alex (her son) and Sarah (the bride) went out to eat.  I was  impressed by Sarah and told Alex that he should think about marrying her.  I overheard him telling someone that I called it way back in 2012 and he is happy that I did.  I was not trying to play cupid - they just looked like they fit together really well and I said as much.

Both Anne and Alex wondered if we would make the effort to go out to Maine for the wedding and they said that it was really HUGE that we were there.  It was a way for us to honor them and let them know that they meant a lot to us.

We danced a little and then went back to our motel.  We are both very tired from the travel.  The bed in this motel is much smaller than the one in the first motel but we fell right to sleep anyway.  After breakfast, we went down to Portland ready for the trip home.  We took I-95 back to Portland and found a gas station  not far from the airport to fill up the car before returning it to the rental place.

Got into the airport at Portland in time to catch our plane.  The toilets at the Portland airport are really interesting - they have a sensor on the wall and when you wave your hand in front of it, a plastic tube issues from a box and encases the toilet seat - eliminates the toilet paper that finds its way to the floor and litters the public bathrooms.

Our flight left on time to go to Chicago and they announced that it would be bumpy due to the weather system headed our way.  It was anything but bumpy but when we got to Chicago, we found that our layover there was an extended one due to the fact that our plane to Phx originated in Houston was held up due to bad weather there and so we had a longer wait than expected.  The passengers were tired, grumpy and hungry and it was a miracle that tempers did not flare more than they did.

Bill and I ate at a Chicago style bistro place.  He had a sub sandwich and I ate chili.  Cannot eat much due to the dental work - have a temporary crown in place and cannot use teeth to chew anything.  I went wandering around the merchants in the airport and found a marvelous place that rivaled Charming Charlies in Lincoln.  It was a small place but had so much stuff for sale that it was a miniature Charming Charlies on steroids.

Our flight finally came - not as late as they expected and we piled on and started our final leg of air travel. Finally landed in Phoenix and drove to Prescott.  Went to bed around midnight.

Sunday, July 13 was my day to teach in Relief Society.  It went well.  I am glad to be back home but am pretty exhausted from all the activity.

 We left Prescott 8.10am on July 10, attended the wedding in Bangor on July 11 and spent all day July 12 flying from Maine to Phoenix and then drove to Prescott....a total of 6,000 miles round trip.  We are glad we went.

Fire fighter tankers and WWII B-29

Yesterday I was out in the yard and I heard the familiar droning of a heavy plane.  Recently we have had 4 mandatory evacuations in the Walker area south of town because of fires and the tankers have been flying to put water and retardant on the fires.  Thankfully the fires were put out and the million dollar homes in that area are safe for now.  However, the newspaper daily reminds us that we are in a critical fire danger position and we should be fire wise.
Well, I saw this really big plane overhead and thought that it was a tanker and wondered if there was yet another fire started somewhere.  Flying also was a small piper, probably one of the Embry Riddle students up for a spin.  I thought no more about it until this morning's paper.
the headline says - Flying in for the weekend - last airworthy WWII B-29 plane comes to Prescott.   Next to the picture is the explanation - The Commemorative Air Force's World War II era Boeing B-29 Superfortress "Fifi" is among the aircraft on display at the Prescott airport form 9am to 6pm through Sunday.
According to the newspaper, this is the only B-29 that is still in flyable condition. This plane was built in 1944 and it a big four-engine bomber and it supplanted the smaller B-17 and B24.
In years past they used to have an air show here in Prescott, but there will only be a number of historical planes on display this weekend -no air show accompanying them.
Prescott is gearing up for the 150th birthday of Fort Whipple and there are supposed to be big celebrations over the Memorial Day weekend.  I will not be here for it - makes me sad - but I will be out in Lincoln with the grandchildren.  Usually the Memorial Day weekend with its super large craft show heralds the beginning of the Summer Craft Show and various celebrations here in Prescott.  Last weekend they had the Mountain Artists Guild Mothers day weekend show. I went to it and saw some spectacular wood turnings by the Wood guild people and some fabulous hand woven pieces by the Mountain Spinners and Weavers guild.  I used to belong to the Weavers guild but could not manage two quilt guilds and one weavers guild all at the same time.  There were lots of Jewelry people - mostly people who 'strung' beads.  A true beader makes wonderful constructed bead necklaces whereas a stringer just puts a mishmash of beads together and calls it bead work.  There was one lady from California who had some Dichoric glass work that was spectacular.  Of course there was the usual painters, musicians and the ever present garlic tasting booth and roasted and sugared almond booth.  You do not have to be a member of the Mountain Artists Guild to be a participant in the show -you just have to pay a lot of money to have the booth there.  Some of the potters there have good work and some of the painters are exhibiting originals.  It is easy to spot the beginners from the experts.

Tornado, toys, insurance and walnut sized quail

Arizona is home to many creatures.  Last month, I was rounding the corner of the building at Las Fuentes Resort in time to see the Blue Heron fishing in their lily pond.  I asked the lady at the front desk if there were any fish in the pond and she said they stocked it with goldfish.  I then told her she did not have any left because the Heron was in there fishing and apparently had quite a feast.  He is a lovely graceful bird and I think he is the same one that wades in the shallows at Watson Lake.  There are lots of frogs there so he has quite a feast.  He looked at me and then fished some more and lazily got out of the pond and spread his wings and flew to the top of the roof.  He looked so cheeky standing up there staring down at me as if to say, "Ha Ha, you came well after I had a belly full of Las Fuentes goldfish.  I think I will go back to Watson Lake for a top off the tank with frogs."
One afternoon I came home and noticed what I thought was the garden hose on the front rocks.  I knew it was not the yellow/orange garden hose when it slithered away into the Rosemary Bush.  Ah yes, we have a snake in our front yard.  One warm day a few days later he was sunning himself back on our rocks and then he went over to the neighbors for a look see but soon came back to our rocks.  He is really pretty and is about 4 feet long at least.  I am not sure what kind of snake he is, but I do know that he is not a rattler.  There is also a similar colored snake that lives in the big rocks in our back yard, along with assorted lizards and Tarantulas.
The Quail family have hatched their chicks and they look like little mobile walnuts.  I watched the family pecking around the Rosemary bush and all of a sudden, there was with the adult birds, a flurry of little feather balls with legs - mobile walnuts.  They skitter so fast there is little chance of  catching a long enough  look to count them but roughly there are about 12 to 15 of them.
We have had a lot of problem with the Javelina tipping over the garbage cans.  They seemed to have zeroed on my neighbors can and it gets tipped over and feasted upon on a regular basis. That is, until last week when they went out and bought a Tough Shed to put the garbage cans in - it locks and not one solitary Javelina can break in and steal the contents.  Truly, these animals must have cast iron stomachs to eat the garbage they do.  So far they have tipped our garbage can one time - and it was a mess.
On Mother's day we were on Face time with the family in Lincoln and they were all downstairs for the night sleeping in the basement.  The sirens had sounded a Tornado warning so they grabbed food etc. and went down to the basement.  Lyla got on the phone with me and was telling me that if the roof gets blown off, all of Oliver's toys would be blown away but not to worry, the family has insurance and so in a week or so, Oliver could go out and buy new toys.  However, they did take time to round up their Devices (electronic devices including the Ipad).  I doubt if Lyla thought that the storm would be so particular as to sort out Oliver's belongings from the other stuff in the top floor and leave her stuff, Ethan's stuff and the Baby's stuff intact.  She was just convinced that Oliver would lose all his belongings.  Now that is a selective storm!
After hearing all that they took down to the basement to eat, I am sure they could be holed up for at least a week before they ran out........ha ha ha ha

We've been home one week

I think that we are getting more used to the time frame here in Prescott after our trip to Australia. It has been one week since we came home.
Tonight we went to Yavapai Community College Performance hall to see the Mikado.  It is put on by the music department of the college and was really a lot of fun.  I have seen it done twice by professional actors and that was wonderful, but this one was a lot of fun and the actors were having a great time.
Each semester the High School puts on a wonderful play and I wonder what they are going to do this semester.  Unfortunately I may not be here for the performance because I am going to Nebraska to babysit the children while Sara is still having to work.
Received an email from my cousin's husband saying that my aunt Jean is not doing well and has to move from St. Vincents Hospital to a nursing home.  She has had another bleed into her brain.  I am glad that I got to see her before we left Toowoomba.
Here in Prescott, the songbirds have returned and there are whole families of Quail in our yard.  We also have a finch nesting in the back porch light and each time we open the door, it flies off to the nearby trees, leaving its eggs to fend for themselves.  I put up a mirror and see that there are three eggs in the nest.
My Sunday School lesson for the 10 yr old girls is on Abraham.  The scriptures say that his posterity will be more than the sands so I have put together a small plastic bag with 1 teaspoon of sand in it and the challenge to the class members to count the grains of sand if possible - an object lesson in trying to understand just how many descendants there will be of Abraham.  Good luck with that one kids.