Company

 My Vegas daughter came for a four day visit. She drove alone all the way from Vegas with the help of her GPS. Of course once she hits the ranch road, her trusty GPS just shows an arrow and no roads. I met her at the entrance and led her to our house. One of the things we did was go exploring. I took her to one of my favorite places. Ya know I love rocks!

 Here she is! She likes the our place and the ranch in general but thinks it is too far out of town for her. I took her to another place where there are lots of pottery shards and we drove around so she could get the feel of the ranch. Then I took her on a mini water run to town so she could see how we do things out here in the sticks.

 In her honor, my inner domestic diva surfaced and I made a black berry pie and a peach pie. Who am I to think I'm a good cook? That kid could out cook me any day of the week. Before she left I made her husband a black berry pie so he wouldn't feel left out.

 Gosh, I sure do miss her!

 Here is some bounty from the garden. Daughter went home with tomatoes, green peppers and some squash. The weather is really getting cooler so I may have to harvest everything and let the tomatoes ripen inside the house. Really not enough room for all the tomatoes out on the vines.

 Pa ran out of cookies. I made four dozen for him and have only eaten half a dozen myself. Ugh, I have to get back on my diet.

 This was what greeted us on our way to Reserve, New Mexico yesterday. The weather gurus were predicting 90% chance of rain so Pa decided he wanted to go buy some firewood. The trip was beautiful, lots of mountains and pine trees. Reserve is maybe 60 miles from Springerville but since you have to drive thru mountains, it seems to take forever.

 We drove thru the remnants of the largest forest fire to ever hit Arizona. Right now it doesn't look so bad because the forest floor is green but of course it was devastating.

 Doesn't this look a bit like Oregon? Mountains and pine trees? It was so beautiful. I'm sure Pa got tired of me saying "How gorgeous, how beautiful! Look at those boulders! Isn't it pretty? I'm homesick for Oregon, How gorgeous, how beautiful" and on and on. He did take the time to stop at a look out so I could take some pictures.

 Here is Pa throwing wood into the back of the truck. Even tho I stopped to take pictures, I did my fair share of work. Not too bad for two old people! We got almost 2 cords of wood.

 We had to turn the trailer hitch upside down to make the truck a little higher in the back.

 Loaded and already to go.

 Look at all the pine trees! It was so beautiful. I took this picture out of the moving truck thru the front windshield.

As we were coming back, it started to rain. We were a bit concerned about the roads at the ranch but we made it ok. The extra weight in the truck helped a lot. There was some slipping and sliding. It was so chilly in the house, we built our first fire of the season. It was so comfy. What is it about a fire to make it so homey? Now I get to spend the rest of the year emptying the darned thing out!!!  Apparently that is in my job description.
Today it still looks like we will get more rain. Hopefully it will hold off till we get the truck and trailer unloaded.  And the guest room is empty once again, so who is next? Get your reservations in quick!