Giant Schnauzers

Our New Front Door

Well, it isn't a new front door but a new edging on the front door.  My husband is incredibly talented and it shows most every day.  We had gotten steel security doors and in the process of putting it in, he had to remove the framing and stucco  that was there since the security door wouldn't fit. The old stucco  wasn't a favorite of ours at all, so Tom decided to take this old cedar barnwood we had gotten off Craigslist from another Marine and cut it to use for the new framing of the door. 

This is the way the front of the house looked before we bought it and moved in.  Tom is at the front door.

This is the way the front of the house looks now after Tom  put up the security door and the cedar barnwood around the door.  We are thinking of doing this to all the windows in the front and then we want to put up some sort of shaded front porch.  Something Western to add more to the Western flavor the house is beginning to have.

And now the door a few days later getting ready for Christmas!  I just love the new look it has.

Yes, Virginia, There IS Water In AZ Every 3rd Year Or So!

For most of the last week, the weather bureau has been predicting rain with a severe weather alert. Now I know we have had almost no measurable rain since July or thereabouts, but a severe weather alert just for rain.  Right they were to predict such a thing.  As of this morning we have had 2.6 inches of rain in the last 24 hours.  We only get about 8 inches on the average and almost no rain in November but December is one of our heavy rain months.

Amazingly enough, the big 404 wash behind our house has no water running in it since the rain started out quite gently allowing it to soak in and give us a lot of water.  The wildflowers need one inch of rain at this time of year and two to three weeks of cold days and clear nights in order to sprout and create the artists' paintings of wildflowers in the Arizona deserts in the spring.  I have seen fields of flowers out here that waited ten to twenty years before they sprouted. 

We have water in the wells dug around the plants to help trap rain water and water the plants more deeply.

We have water where there are no wells............there is water most everywhere right now.

Now to watch for the wildflowers sprouting!  Did I mention that our less than two year old roof leaked into the dining room and that will be a mess that has to be repaired and cleaned up.  Luckily there wasn't too much that came into the house, but will have to wait and see what is up there.  Only in Arizona can you live in a house for almost two years and not know if the new roof is water tight!

The Birds Are Back......

But the birds are back only because I decided to start feeding them again.  To feed and watch the birds means playing cat and mouse games with the antelope squirrels who come over the wall to get the droppings left by the birds.  I love this one of the gila woodpecker with the seed in his mouth.  I didn't realize the gila woodpecker had yellow on their undersides.  Don't often see them in this position. 

He is quite the clown and this little house finch is brave to share the feeder with him.  I haven't managed to get a picture yet of the woodpecker hanging off the bottom of the hummingbird feeder but he can and does.

This little hummer takes off for a safer place when the woodpecker stops by for a sip of sweet nectar.

One of my favorite visitors to the feeders is the cardinal.

   

The days have been beautiful and have begun with these incredible sunrises.

 

These are followed by incredible sunsets as seen through the front door.

Sunset was followed the other night by an enormous moon.