Happy 4th of July

 

Happy 4th of July to America. This picture reminded me of the story my mom told me about our arrival into the United States 64 years ago today. Our family immigrated from Germany when I was just ten months old. They traveled to New York on a ship that entered New York harbor on July 3rd, 1958. My mom told of how she held me up to see the Statue of Liberty which represented so much hope to so many. My wish today is for the people of this country to work together to make it the best that it can be!

Our remodel is almost finished. The inside is completely done, and we are very happy with how it turned out. They still have to finish putting the new skirting on the outside, install the roof over the back porch and paint the entire house. Here are some before and after pictures of the inside.

We only added about 100 square feet and raised the ceiling, but it's amazing how much bigger it seems.

On June 11th, we celebrated our 45th wedding anniversary. We went out to dinner at a new restaurant to us called Holy Smokes in downtown Yuma with friends Bill and Judy. They were also celebrating their anniversary on June 15th. It's a BBQ restaurant, and the food was really good. The décor is really cute. Some of the tables were in the back of old pickup truck beds. 

I love the pig in this old truck on the wall.

Smaller table seats were swings. So clever!

With the hotter temperatures of summer come snakes. Yikes!! They hibernate in the winter, but are out and about this time of year. Our neighbors are gone, so I check on their property occasionally. A few weeks ago, I saw a rattlesnake curled up next to their air conditioning unit. Kevin was out on the golf course, so I waited for him to come home. When we went back to look, only the tail was showing from underneath the unit.

Since we don't live in the city of Yuma, but the county; we don't have fire department coverage. We pay about $200 annually for fire, rescue and snake removal services. I texted the neighbors to see if they had the coverage. By the time they responded, the snake was gone. I've kept an eye out, but have not seen it since. Hopefully, it went back to the wild. 

About two weeks ago, our security patroller saw two rattlesnakes and a sidewinder on the roads in the resort in one night. They like to come out at night and lay on the asphalt where it is nice and warm. It is essential to bring a flashlight when walking at night this time of year!

The same day I saw the rattlesnake there was a small bull snake in the road. They are not poisonous, so are good snakes. Unfortunately, he got run over. This vulture thought he was quite tasty. We love the winters here in Yuma, but don't think we'll ever stay this late into the summer again. Too hot and snakes!!

There are many palm trees throughout our resort. They grow shoots in the spring. Some of the shoots have little flowers that come out of them. Others have berries. I never realized how messy palm trees are. The park had a service come in and trim all the very tall trees. It took three days to do them all. In this picture you can see one tree that has been trimmed and the other in process. They look quite bare when done, but it doesn't take long for more leaves to grow.

Yuma is called the winter salad bowl of the country. They grow most of the salad type vegetables that are transported all over the country including many varieties of lettuce, kale, broccoli, cauliflower, and lots of other greens. But, they farm year round. In spring, melons are grown. We have become quite spoiled by being able to stop at the produce stand and pick up farm fresh melons and watermelon. You've never tasted such sweetness. In summer they grow wheat, Sudan grass, and cotton. Here is a wheat field being harvested.  Just like Wisconsin in the summer. Irrigation comes from the Colorado river, and the crops grow very fast with the abundant sunshine.

We have still been golfing at 6:30 in the morning. It gets hot quickly, so early is a necessity. Kevin plays almost every morning with a group of guys. I've been playing about three times a week. The rest of the day we stay inside. It's been about 110 degrees with high humidity as monsoon season has arrived.  We had rain for about five minutes one day. That's it so far. We need the rain as the southwest is in a drought. Reservoir lakes are at record lows.

We have also had a few dust storm warnings. One night it got quite windy. These pictures were of the storm over the foothills. Luckily, it never made it to us. For some reason most of the storms stay on the east side of the foothills, and we are just to the west of them.

While staying inside, I finished some quilts I began in the winter. This was our quilting groups mystery quilt this season. I really like it, and am going to keep it. Usually, I donate most of my quilts I make, but this one is a keeper!

I made this quilt for our bedspread a few years ago. Last winter a mouse chewed a small hole in it. The original pattern had shown it made with leaves appliqued on top. I had never added the leaves, but decided to do some now to cover the mouse hole. As long as I was doing one leaf, I may as well do lots of them. I actually like it a lot better. This year I'm leaving some mouse poison out so the pesky little critter stays away!

The lonely leaf near the top is where the mouse chewed the hole. I have some decorative pillows that are usually on the bed, so that single leaf is covered.

We leave here on Tuesday. We have all of our reservations booked to and from Yuma. We should be back on September 25th. Then we leave October 1st for a two week Panama Canal cruise. Included in our summer travels are five national parks and the Oregon coast. I'm very excited to explore these new to us areas.

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!