Not too much has happened in the last week. Doug and Brenda have left and we have the house to ourselves again. They will be back soon though, only one more week and they'll start driving their truck and a trailer full with furniture and 'stuff' down.

Which means we only have a week left to start, and finish, 'our' bathroom.
We've been waiting for weeks now for a part to arrive for the master bathroom, so we could install it and use that one while ours is worked on, but it's still not in (6 weeks later!) and we finally just decided to go for it and try to make it work. If we can get it halfway done, we can put up some plastic and still shower. If not .. we'll be taking sponge baths at the sink!

So, James started taking down the hardware and installed the coriander panels we saved from the master bath on the bare walls above the tub: 

                                                                                    

Of course I forgot to take pictures, this one is actually from Saturday when they started to install the tile ..

He also finished the den! The floorboards are finally glued down, the base boards painted and installed and the double doors reversed to swing from in to out!

And the side door in the garage had dry-rot at the bottom, and is in the process of being repaired ..

               

And while we're about half-way outside like that .. let me show the backyard.
The plumbers came for the pool!

How many pipes can a small pool need?

A lot!

Well, in hindsight, I guess we did more than I thought we did!

In the meantime ..

                              

I went for walks as usual, and I finally figured out who makes all the little holes in the mounds of the wash .. round-tailed ground squirrels!

 

A group of squirrels is called a “scurry” or “dray”.

Resembling miniature prairie dogs, they are very social animals that live in small colonies. They're usually grey to beige with a long, black-tipped tail and weigh 6- to 7 ounces.
They are champion small miners and may have an extensive tunnel network with multiple entrances, often under mesquite trees and creosote bushes.
They may sleep for a few weeks in summer until the monsoon arrives, but hibernate in the winter.
(Weird fact; although primarily herbivores, they will eat carrion!) 

Also, while digging in the yard to repair the sprinkle system, the guys found another interesting desert creature:

                                                       

It's an Arizona (Striped) Bark Scorpion. They're very common in the southern deserts and, despite what many people think, hardly poisonous.
If anything, you could go into anaphylactic shock because you are allergic to their venom. Oh well .. minor detail. It's bite does sting though!

So, all in all things are progressing nicely I would say. After the bathroom, all there is left to do are small projects here and there and some paint-touching-up.
Time to enjoy the warmer weather of lately (around 70F, although the nights are still cool) and do some more golfing!
James has played 'our' course a couple of times now and on one of those afternoons we decided to have lunch at their restaurant/bar/cafe the Anthem Grill:

           

The weather was very nice so we sat in the shade on the patio ...

              

                 And although not 'haute-cuisine' the food was excellent!

We also still have some sight-seeing to do in the area, and we better get to it too, because it's almost March and our (tentative) leaving-date is the 1st of April.

But that could be a joke, of course ..

 

The desert around Florence

Time is dwindling down for our stay here, it's going to be only 5 more weeks before we'll leave for Oregon.
We've actually added 2 more weeks to our stay, since Doug and Brenda will be here in April, and it doesn't make much sense for us to arrive in Newberg while they're not there to introduce us to the landlord and get us situated.
I've started to look at how to drive north and added Lake Havesu to our itinerary, in addition to Palm Springs, Moro Bay, Mendocino and Lincoln City. So far, because as we very well know, things might change ..

So, what's new? Last Tuesday's Mardi Gras came and went. Since we stayed in Louisiana for a while, we've got fond memories of the event and always 'celebrate' a little by remembering.
This was a weird year of course, due to Covid. Normally the French Quarter looks something like this:

           

But this year the view was a little different ..

                             

It's hard to imagine at the moment, but I sure hope hope next year everything will be back to normal!
At least we had King Cake! This year's cake turned out beautiful (I try a different recipe each year), although a little too dry to be perfect and it could have done with some more filling. Nothing a quick 'nuke' in the microwave and a little (real) butter couldn't solve!
Doug and Brenda approved!

(Just for fun, the next day, Ash Wednesday, I saw this funny story on the news. Since there couldn't be any physical contact, catholic priests in different parts of the world had come up up with these DIY ash-'kits': 

 

                  

                                   Ingenious but hilarious (I think) !   

                                                                               

Talking abou  Doug and Brenda though, they had a nightmare of a trip down here!
Due to snowy and frosty weather in Portland, their (initial) flight was cancelled and postponed to the next day. The hotels in the area filled up fast, and when they found one 7 miles from the airport they had a hard time finding a taxi who was willing to brave the icy roads!
The next day they made it to the airport and onto the plane, only to be taken off again since they didn't get it de-iced! Fortunately another plane was found, and after a short delay they finally got in the air and made it safely to Phoenix!

They were exhausted when they arrived, but a good night's sleep and a couple of days of R&R in the Arizona sunshine made everything OK again.

Which was good, because we had left the building and installing of the wine-racks for them to do ...

Well, with a little help of the master-builder himself of course!

 

And after everything was ready, the fun part was filling the racks with wine!

                                                      

               

All the racks together will hold 9a little under 700 bottles! Holy smokes, that's a lot of wine! There's still a lot of space left, but those will probably all be filled when they will be back here in 3 weeks.
They are going to drive a truck and trailer down that time, with more furniture and 'stuff', and many, many more cases of wine!

To celebrate a successful project, we went out for dinner at Valentino's. (Yes, we can still go out for dinner here in Arizona!)

 

They removed some of the tables, and ask to keep your mask on until after you have ordered, but that's all ..
You can also choose to sit outside, on the (heated) patio, but it was a little too windy to do so that evening.

It's becoming a sort of 'tradition' to go here at least once, when Doug and Brenda are in town (Oregon's restaurants are closed), and the food is always great.
This time we had the Veal and Eggplant Parmesan and the Shrimp Scampi. Both were delicious and enough for James' lunch tomorrow!
Guess what? I didn't take a single picture of us together! Again! Not during happy hour on the back porch or in the den, not during Chinese take-away dinner the night before .. not one! I don't know why, but I just don't think about it. Next time ..

OK. I think that was about it for this week. I did get my permanent crown placed, and it looks great, and James had one of them placed and another got a temporary. So far so good. We're almost done!

This picture above is of a crazy 'foam' puzzle, that stays completely together when finished! You can pick the whole thing up in one piece. Funny!
(Don't sneeze when you make it though, while the pieces are laying around, because they go flying!)

This is the next one. A crazy scene in the kitchen of a restaurant. It's by Jan van Haasteren, the dutch cartoonist, of whom I have a few equally crazy ones!
This one's even more difficult since the colors of almost all pieces are very similar, mainly brown and white.
Oh well, I can't say no to a challenge!

Here's one more shot of Merlin. He likes to sit in the front yard, in between the two pillars at the entrance to the little courtyard.
This way he can overlook his domain ..

All is well in the neighborhood ..

 

Look at that! Early February and here are the first signs of Spring! In Arizona that is ..

As much as I love winter, and boy do I wish we had a "real" one over here (snow and ice in Holland, and even in Oregon), to find these buds and tiny flowers is always a thrill!

The Red Yuccas are shooting up their tall spikes, each covered in tiny orange flowers with their yellow hearts :

I walked through a 'new for me' area, where they're still building a whole new section of the neighborhood, but already planted some huge Saguaros alongside what are going to be the new roads.

      

They have already been discovered by the Gila Woodpeckers, who are busy carving out their new 'apartments'.

Since this area is relatively quiet at the moment there's still lots of wildlife running around, quite literary, I flushed out a whole bunch of rabbits, some roadrunners, several quail, and all sorts of birds!

 

I finally got a shot of a gorgeous little Anna's Hummingbird, flashing me his brilliant colors! Usually they just show me their more 'blah' side (if you could ever call that emerald green blah ..).

 

But the most exciting wildlife discovery was this one :

 

                                                       

 I think we have 'bats in the Belfry' dear!

 

Yup! Definitely!

Oh my goodness! It turns out here's a whole colony of bats nesting under the roof tiles! 

How cool is that? Well, I guess it's not for everybody, but I think it's really great!
They're most likely Arizona Myotis, a small brown bat, weighing about 0.30 oz and 9.6" long. 

They can live for about 2 years and usually have 2 young in the summer and generally hibernate from October to March.
When they emerge in the spring, they eat a truck-load of bugs between dusk and dawn and turn this around into Guano, their highly prized and effective fertilizer excrement.

 

    

They're protected, but can be re-located if they're inside the house. Fortunately these are not inside but just under the roof-tiles and create no problems whatsoever, so I truly hope they will be allowed to stay there.
For now, we're not going to mention them to Doug, since I'm not so sure he's not going to freak out and disturb them.

In the meantime, we're installing us on the back porch around 6pm and enjoy watching them emerge and fly ..

 

                   

 

And finally, inside the house, we've finished the dining room wall and the wine cellar. The new walls were textured and painted, tiles installed on the floor of the cellar and the baseboards installed.

 

                                     

                                                          Look at that beautiful wall!

          

And here's the wine cellar.             

                                 

The only thing left to do is install the cooling unit, which will happen on Saturday when the crew is here, since that bugger weighs 60 pounds and has to be lifted all the way up to just under the ceiling where it will be installed in place.

Also, minor detail, it's still missing a door. Which has been (special)ordered but was back-ordered (a covid problem, no doubt..)

I once again cleaned all the dust and dirt from about everywhere (hopefully for the last time) since most of the 'big stuff' is now finally done, and also because Doug and Brenda are back for a visit on Saturday. 

That is, if the Oregon weather will allow them to fly, since at the moment it's slating and snowing over there with freezing temperatures of 27F! Yikes!

Ta-da! The glass in the shower is in place! And all in one piece! Thank goodness!
It took 6 guys to walk it through the bedroom to the bathroom, and lift it upon the short wall in front of the shower.

It went smoothly into the u-rails James had installed on the wall and the ceiling, with probably only 1/4 inch to spare (height-wise). Talking about a close fit!
To say I'm relieved that that sucker is safely in is an understatement!

Onward and forward! Up to the next project, which was already well underway of course, because that is the infamous wine 'room'/'cellar'/'closet'.
All the drywall is in and the holes patched, and the only thing to do (for James) is to put the texture on.

Easier said than done though, since he will need all his skill and experience to match the existing texture. At least for the wall that's facing the dining room that is, inside the cellar he can pretty much create his own. Nobody will notice that it might be slightly different.

The most exciting thing this week had to be the digging for the pool though!
It has been delayed several times now, first there was no permit, than some changes were made in the plans, than there were the holidays, than it rained and than they (the sub-contractor for the dig) were crazy-busy!
Apparently due to Covid they have 3x the normal orders for pools! (people have to spend their money somewhere, I guess)

But finally, on Thursday, as in yesterday, they started :

Unfortunately, it turned out that the meter on the side of the house was in the way of the bobcat, so although they went with a smaller one, they still had to remove the meter!
Which means .. no hot water. Which means .. no shower. And no heat. Thank goodness it was a warm week!

See? Not much room there!

So, we've been without gas since Tuesday morning! And although they should have finished today (Friday. I know, I'm ahead of myself here) but they just quit, and aren't quite done yet.

 

Oh well, my hope for a shower tonight went (literary) just out of the door!
If everything goes well tomorrow, the pool people will show up on Monday to start forming the pool. We'll see!

What's next? Oh, Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow and predicts 6 more weeks of winter! Yes, I'm happy, bring it on! (minor detail of course; he's in Pennsylvania, I'm in the Arizona desert ) 

                 

 

It's in fact extremely warm here at the moment, even for February and I've shed a layer for my walks in the morning. With the sun out and no wind, I'm actually sweating!

 

Here's my 'close encounters' of the animal kind of this week .. some cute turtles:

And surprisingly a few new birds, like this Loggerhead Shrike:

                                   

                           That's one tough little bird!

He certainly looks like the innocent songbird he's classified under, however, he has a hook-tipped bill, exhibits hawk-like behavior and has earned the nickname of “butcher bird” because it sometimes impales its prey on thorns and barbed wire fences.

This next one is a 'real' hawk, a Sharp-shinned Hawk to be precise. My first one!

 

Apparently, according to my guide, it's one of the most common (and smallest) backyard hawks, and a daring, acrobatic flier that feeds on small birds such as finches and sparrows.

Talking about birds .. it's a bird, it's a plane, it's ..

.. a Paramotor!

 

I had to look it up, but apparently a paramotor is a powered paraglider ("PPG"). No way you could get me in one of those things! Yikes!
OK. That's it. Another week gone. I'm not going to talk politics or vaccines this time, I bet it's still going on next week.
Let's have another sunset instead. This was yesterday's ..

Absolutely stunning!