Thanksgiving

The table is set to have dinner with our neighbors. We jokingly called it our first Block Party.....we are the only two houses on the block. I used the cross-stitch placemats my Nana made and got some new plates at Target...wish I had gotten more as I really like them. The gourds were grown in our garden.

We started the meal with margaritas on the west deck....it was sunny and 70 degrees!

The turkey is ready to be carved. Randy used the "Cooking for Engineers" classic roast turkey recipe. The unique thing about this recipe is that you roast the turkey upside down to cook the breasts at a slower rate. Starting breast side down gives the legs a head start on cooking. This is desirable because drumsticks and thighs need to be cooked to a higher temperature in order to remove any trace of pink flesh. The breast would become very dry if cooked to temperatures as high as the legs.
You also roast the turkey for 15 minutes on each side and then rotate it so it is breast side up for the last 30 minutes.

We had a delicious meal......mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry, acorn squash, carrots, green beans with bacon and onions and our neighbor's special southern dressing. Our neighbor also made a superb pumpkin cheesecake for dessert.

Randy made soup the next day.....got this whooper of a carrot out of the garden. We still have lots of carrots.

This is a bad iPhone photo of Randy and Cooper post-Thanksgiving meal. Yes, Cooper got some turkey too. Someone should tell him he is too big to be a lap dog.

Blue Point Beach

Our photography class drove 60 minutes south of Payson to Blue Point Beach.

This is the lower Salt River Recreational Area. It's a great place for hikers, bikers and tubers.

Don't you just love this saguaro? I bet it has stories to tell.

Wildlife in the area consists of coyotes (I saw several), mountain lions, foxes and occasionally herds of horses from the Salt River Indian Reservation located nearby. Several tarantulas kept us company on the trail.

A Sprinkling of Snow

We woke up to a sprinkling of snow this morning. It was 23 degrees so we may be saying goodbye to Fall.

They say that the pansies will make it through the winter.....hope so......we put them in all of our window boxes.

Maybe it's time to put the umbrellas away........hard to know as the sun comes out and it's lovely to sit on the deck even in the middle of winter.

Fire Wise

We are in a drought period in AZ. Many fires get started from lightning strikes. Our local fire department wants everyone to be fire wise. We need to cut and rake out the dry grass.

Randy weed whipped the front portion of our lot. It looked so much better but we needed to do more.

The back section of the lot is difficult as one has to climb over and through lots of rocks.

We got a permit from the fire department so we could burn the brush instead of hauling it all to the dump.

Weed whipping definitely helped but we needed to hire someone to prune the trees up 13 feet from the ground and take out some of the manzanita.

Guess who supervised?

The next photos were taken after the pruning was done and manzanita was taken out.

You can see the rocks now and our lot is more clearly defined.

This shot is in the front of the house, facing the street, to the left of the driveway.

We also got a cord of nice oak to burn this winter......half the price of a cord of wood in CA.