Cindy Has Been Busy

Yuma, Arizona           High 79 Low 54

The weather took a turn for the better. The last 2 days have been cooler and made for nice sleeping.

Cindy has been busy making quilts since we have been here. She finished 6 quilts and has worked on three others. The three, she has been working on for a while. 2 of them are called OH, my gosh! One is a hexagon paper pieced quilt that she hand sews while we are driving. One of the ones she finished is another color of Oh, my gosh. She made it into king size. The little 9 patches start out as 2 inch squares before being sewn into the quilt.

 These two have a ways to go, she plans on them being king size. one is Christmas colors, the other lighter colored than the one she finished.

 This is the hand sewn quilt.

This is the king size Oh, My Gosh.

The quarter is to give some idea of the size of the blocks.

Another one was a kit I bought her for Valentine’s Day. It was supposed to be a six month block of the month, but she finished it in 2 weeks.

The kit I got her. The white patches are supposed to be applique, but she wants fancy quilting.

This one is lap size.

Another king size.

Crib blanket using flannel.

Lap size Christmas quilt.

All this quilting is in between making pottery in the pottery shop. She can’t just sit and relax.

I almost forgot about the square dance lessons on Monday and Fridays.

I kind of am sorry our time here is drawing to a close, but I need to get some of her many quilts quilted. I’m probably only 30 or so behind.

Thanks for visiting.

Great Yard Sale Find

 

Yuma, Arizona        High 81 Low 52

The weather has been very nice. It is supposed to get cooler for the next few days.

We have been staying busy here in the Park. A lot of the winter visitors have left for colder areas already. It seems like a few leave every day. I am still playing shuffleboard 3 times a week, but the number of players is way down from a while ago. This morning we only used 4 courts of 14.

The pottery class is over for the year and so Cindy is through making pottery for the year.

We went to a yard sale last Friday and found a nice patio set for what we thought was a reasonable price. We had to have some neighbors in the Park go with us in their truck to pick it up. Saturday we found another yard sale where the man running it was moving to Australia and he had some good prices and the more you bought the lower the prices got. The neighbors that helped with the patio set had asked us to watch for some Corell plates and he had some, so we came back and got them and took them with us to see if it was something she was interested in. It was, and she ended up buying plates and some other things. So it turned out that all 4 of us were happy to have gone to the yard sale.

The yard sale we got the patio set from, the couple had just bought a furnished home and the patio set was  extra. He told us he had just purchased the cushions in December. We have sat in the chairs a few times and thy are nice and comfy.

Our grandson, Devon, is graduating from cub-scouts on the 12^th of April and we told him we would try to be there, so that is why we are leaving when we are. We both have enjoyed our time here and like I keep telling Cindy “It’s a tough life, but somebody has to do it”.

Thanks for visiting.

Fence Work

Yuma, Arizona         High 79 Low 52

It has been a little cooler here in Yuma the last two days. It also cooled off nicely at night which made for good sleeping.

Last week Penny got her hair cut and she changed color again. This time her back end is more brown than white, more of the copper color that we named her after.

We have wanted to fence in our front patio so that we didn’t feel like we were sitting on the road. We had to get the change approved by the Park Committee. At first we asked if we could go to the back of the curb and were denied, so we resubmitted showing the fence the 3 feet from the curb, which was what they wanted and were accepted.

The block layer got here Saturday, after putting me off for a while, and originally he told us it would take 2 days. But, he brought enough people that they were able to finish it in one day. He charged a lot less than I was expecting.

Today I got the bid for the powder coated steel and the price seems about right, so we are going ahead with it. He wasn’t sure he could get it finished before we leave for Riverton on the eleventh, so our neighbor might have to oversee the finishing of the project. She lives in the Park full time and assured me it would not be a problem.

We are also adding some gates to keep Penny in. She has got sneaky about going out the door when we go out. The gates will keep her in our yard and also keep the rabbits out.

We have been staying busy in the Park, but it is starting to look a little like a ghost town because of all the Canadians that have left to go home.

Thanks for visiting.

Canada Days at The Palms

Yuma, Arizona         High 79 Low 55

The weather yesterday and today have been almost perfect.

The concert Friday night was called Oh! Canada. Saturday had a parade where lots of the Canadian residents of this park dressed up and many carried banners showing several of their provinces.

Our neighbor is the one on the right hold the banner.

The parade was led by a bag-pipe and drum brigade of the Yuma Fire Department. They were quite good and everyone seemed to enjoy both the Brigade and the parade which went through some of the Park. A lot of our friends were in the parade.

After the parade the Park put on a burger bash with live entertainment. A lot of people showed up for the burger bash.

Cindy went to the pottery studio and worked on some of her pottery plates. She is getting a lot better at it than at first. And she seems to be enjoying doing it.

The tall one in the middle of the right side is Cindy's.

Last night we finished up the day with another square dance lesson. The calls seem to be getting more complex and the caller is trying to get everyone ready for the season wind up.

Thanks for visiting.

Meeting Blogger Friends

 

Yuma, Arizona       High 73 Low 48

Last night we had very strong winds here. It blew a lot of leaves around. The upside is that the weather has been very pleasant.

George and Suzie Yates had to fly home for a while and had asked us if we would be kind enough to pick them up at the airport yesterday afternoon. We were more than happy to do it for them. Their flight was right on time.

George suggested he take us to Lin’s as thanks for picking him up. He also invited Suzie’s old boss, Dave and his wife Mandy, so the 6 of us drove to Lin’s for a very nice buffet and spent some time visiting.

Dave and Mandy are staying in The Palms where we are, but we hadn’t met them before.

We had to leave a little earlier than we would have liked, but we had a Canadian Concert to attend last evening. It highlighted the music of some famous Canadian singers, Paul Anka, Michael Buble,, Shinia Twain, and Celine Deon. They were very entertaining and we enjoyed the concert. The entertainers had a lot of audience participation. 

There was lots going on today, but I will save that for another post.

Thanks for visiting.

The Criminals?

The Criminals?

Yuma, Arizona     High 75 Low 52

Last night while we were watching the news, I happened to see a picture that looked like Yuma High School, Home of the criminals. This sounded interesting to me, so I looked it up on Wikipedia, and found out I was correct.

The following is from Wikipedia:

The school was established in 1909, when Arizona Territory taxpayers voted to organize a union district from several elementary districts. In September of that year, Yuma Union High School began with four teachers in three rooms near the corner of Main and Third Streets. At the end of the first year, twelve seniors graduated. Yuma High's distinctive mascot came when the original school building was destroyed by fire in 1910. The school then used the Yuma Territorial Prison, which had been closed, for the next three years. Classes were held in the cellblocks, and assemblies took place in the prison hospital.

In 1912, the city of Yuma notified the school that the prison was needed as a city jail. The school board carried through a bond election to build a new school, at 400 South 6th Avenue (where the current campus is today). In 1914, school began in the newly constructed "Main" building. That same year, the Yuma football team traveled to Phoenix Union High School to play the Coyotes. Yuma High won the game (and the consensus state championship), and the angry Phoenix Union fans dubbed the Yuma High players the Criminals. At first, this was a fighting word to the school community, but by 1917, it had stuck, and the name was officially adopted by the school board. Yuma Union thus became the only high school in the US to use the mascot; it is also the only high school in the United States whose mascot is copyrighted.  References are sprinkled throughout; the mascot wears a blue-and-white prison uniform, the gate to the school's sports fields includes bars from the old prison, and the school's "Cell Block" shop sells themed apparel.

 These 2 photos are of the old Territorial Prison.

Cheer Leaders at the old Prison.

The gate is from the Old Prison.

We thought this was kind of interesting and hope you feel the same.

Thanks for visiting.

Riverton, Utah Trip

Yuma, Arizona       High 79 Low 50

I left Wednesday for a trip to Riverton, Utah for a quilt machine retreat. We spent 2 and a half days learning about the program on our quilt machines. It was a good class and I learned a lot about the programming on my machine. Hopefully I took good enough notes to be able to utilize some of them next time I quilt.

I guess I’ve got used to being warmer, as I was cold the whole time I was home. It got to about 60 with the low in the 30’s, which is about 20 degrees cooler than Yuma. Also it is supposed to snow there tonight. It was raining when we left for the airport early this morning.

I got a picture of the group that I had one of the people putting on the retreat take. All I can see of me is my shiny glasses in the back of the group. There were only 3 men there with about 30 ladies. Some of them didn’t have their machine yet, but wanted to see what it was all about. There were people from Utah, Nevada, Colorado, Idaho, and Wyoming. The teacher, Joan Knight, is from Arkansas. She is one of the people that helps design the new programs for Gammill. She sure knows the program, but went a little fast sometimes. But she did explain everything a little slower when we got to the question and answer sessions. 

Look for  the shiny glass at the back middle of the group.

Our teacher.

This is the main floor of the meeting building at the Riverton City Park. We were in the basement for most of it.

Joan also had an example of a quilt she designed from a picture of a stained glass window.

After the retreat got over Saturday afternoon, we celebrated Devon’s birthday. It was a little early, but they wanted to do it while I was there. He will be 11 next Wednesday. My sister-in-law, Linda, and my mother-in-law were there as well as some of the other family members. My mother- in –law seemed pretty weak.

Devon, the birthday boy.

Skyler enjoying his cake and ice cream (and cool whip).

The flight back to Yuma was delayed an hour in Phoenix, but went alright other than that. Cindy and Penny both seemed glad to have me back and I’m glad to be back.

I picked up all our tax stuff and plan on mailing it to our accountant so we can stay here a little longer than we were going to.

Thanks for visiting.