Hair today, gone tomorrow - in most cases

This taken on the sly photo doesn't quite due justice to this fellow wearing a toupe.  I had to take his photo because it was so unusual to see so much black hair on an older man.  Half the men here at SB are bald and the other half are gray.  What was he thinking?

When Saddlebrooke gives you Lemons...

you make lemon meringue pies, lemon bars, lemon chicken, lemonade, and lemon bread.  Now that I have exhausted all the regular lemony favorites I am branching out into alcohol.  My niece suggested making Limoncello.  So I put a lot of lemon zest into a jar of vodka.  I guess after a few weeks I will strain this and add simple syrup to make a nice liqueur.  If this works out I may try a grapefruit variety too.

Citruspalooza

We've waited patiently for the three and a half weeks we've been in AZ to get our piles of citrus.  This morning we went to the home of a kindly fellow Trivia player and thinned his many citrus trees of fruit that were too hard for him to reach.

Dave could only be happier if there was a cat on his lap admiring the fruit with him.  After the harvest Dave spent about two hours juicing in order to get 2 gallons of juice.  There is still tons of fruit untouched.  However, in Dave's zealousness, he burned out the little juicer and it's a goner. 

                           

Southwestern Projects

I don't know if a rustic headboard for the guest room counts as Southwestern, but it's certainly not Asian.  Rather than use pallets I ended up buying "common boards".  The pallets were just not easy to procure.  My uncle used his table saw to slice up the pieces and I then put them back together is a random way. Then drilled, sanded, stained, and screwed.  And it's up!!

Cactuspalooza

I like how this Saguaro has a wiggly look to the center growth.

This is the famous, and rare, Crested Saguaro Cactus.  Really neat to see.

We discovered this hearty cactus basically growing out of a rock.

Friday's hiking group taking a lunch break after two hours of hiking with a few dicey areas.  At least dicey to the 77 year olds.

First Owl Sightings of 2016

It's nice that we can rely on "our" pair of Great Horned Owls to not move to a new nesting site each year.  First we saw one, then a few minutes later the mate joined up.  Dave saw three coyotes today and one Roadrunner.  A good animal spotting day which may coincide with the sunny and warm weather we are having.

Big Rock Dome

Today we took a 5.5 mile hike very close to Saddlebrooke called the Big Rock Dome.  This was a hike that was also shared with ATV type vehicles.  The reward was getting to the top to see the great view below.  There was also a sprinkling of Saguaro which we always love to see.

During our hiking break Dave is attempting to figure out his Garmin hiking device.   He's going to a workshop in a few days to learn how to use it better.  At least he is outfitted in all the fashionable hiking gear.

I think this is where our house is, looking at it from the Big Rock Dome.

At 5pm tonight we saw a coyote run up a hillside in the neighborhood.  Unfortunately my phone camera photos were too poor to upload onto this blog.  A few seconds after the coyote went into the "bush" five Saddlebrooke deer came out.  We were surprised how close these "enemies" were to each other.

Tucson Oddities

While my daughter Gillian visited this past weekend we wanted to show her some off-the-beaten-path highlights of Tucson.  Since she has been her many times during her childhood she had already seen the Desert Museum, Biosphere, and Old Tucson.  But she'd never seen Rattlesnake Bridge (nor had I).  It took a bit of wandering around but we finally found it and it was worth it!  This is the entrance and you can see the eyes and fangs.

                               

 This is a pedestrian/biking bridge.  Our favorite part was the Rattlesnake tail.  The tail greets you as you exit the "body".  There is a motion sensor that makes a loud rattle sound as you exit.  The tail does not move, but the sound is pretty neat!  It looks like the spine and eyes light up at night which would be great to see.

Hiking Club 1st Hike

This morning we headed out to Alamo Canyon which is a trail in Catalina State Park.  Relatively close to where we live.  Sunny and into the low 60s made for a perfect condition for the 6+ mile hike.  There were a lot of rocks and boulders underfoot, but one of our hiking members was an 81 year old man who had no problem.  We aspire to be like him!

Our view as we got to the top.

The O’odhams greatly respected the Saguaro and considered them nearly human. According to legend, each Saguaro represented an Indian warrior and the arms his wives. A drooping arm signaled a bad wife, but if it turned up again, it meant the husband had straightened her out!  This Saguaro represents a really, really bad wife!

Recent Natural Experiences

Well the only wild animals we've seen lately are the Monday Night Bingo players.  All 197 of them.  I think our odds of winning the lottery were better than winning any of last night's 11 games.  But it was entertaining and there is a certain level of stress and excitement when playing Bingo.  It would have been more exciting if someone at our table (me) got to yell Bingo.  At least they served Mike & Ike's and watered down punch.

Finally Getting Out to Hike

It has definitely been winter here in Tucson.  Our snow is long gone but the nighttime temperatures are still hovering around freezing.  The sun did come out today and low 60s are in the forecast.  We're still patiently waiting for some warm weather.  Today we walked from our house into the "wild" a few miles.  This river is due to the rains and snow melt of late.  We couldn't cross and had to hike in some scrubby areas instead.  We did see a Jackrabbit!!  I didn't believe such a unique animal existed and he was very fast.  Too fast for my camera.

Well it is Winter

Here is our first coyote sighting of the year!  He came out during our blizzard and was walking down our street when I spotted him and chased him down.  Yes, it's a white out around here today!

Our snowy front yard.  

It's Good to be 94

Our plan is to always arrive here in Tucson in time to help celebrate my step-father's Jan. 5th birthday.  This year we had his 94th birthday party and then played the game Quirkle The game turned out to be a big hit with the 80+ year olds in the group (thank you internet for telling me about the most popular game at senior centers).  And actually, the under 80s enjoyed it a lot too. 

View from the Top

A nice afternoon walk to my Uncle's house.  It's all downhill until it's time to head back.  Sometimes we see "old people" who are resting and catching their breath on the walk back up.  That is not us, yet.

Three days in

Some things we have learned in our three days being back in Tucson:

1.  If you forget your computer monitor in Durham you can get a really good replacement at Goodwill for only $7.99.

2.  Paying $1.69 for a gallon of gas makes the 20 minute drive to the grocery store not quite so painful.

3.  Cactus really do grow!  And fast!

On the Road Again!!

                           

If you see us heading down I-5 make sure and wave.  You'll know it's us because we have a lovely plastic cactus wedged in amongst all the boxes.    I don't know how we need so much stuff but apparently we can't function without it.  Next up will be photos with actual sunshine!!