Starting the New Year at Wikieup 01/01/10 - 1/12/10

A couple of days after the kids left, our friend (and neighbor) Dutch came from Ogden. We were sad that his wife Gail didn't come, but we were glad to see Dutch. He owns some property right next to Nettie's Place and I have known him my whole life. He was a schoolboy friend of my Dad's. He was with us on New Year's Eve and we ate dinner and played dominoes until late into the evening (I think we quit at about 9:00), when he left and then we stayed up until midnight and then went to bed! Happy New Year!

For the last couple of years, there have been these three slabs of cement that someone "dropped off" in the wash down from our place. We asked about who they belonged to and no one seemed to know. So, we told the land owners where they were that we were now "storing" them at our house. They said it was okay with them. With Dutch's expertise and help, we figured out how to pull them the mile and half along the gravel road with the Hippo. We were not sure if we could do it or not.

Well, we did it. Two of them cracked, but there was enough rebar in them that they held together. We felt a little like thieves, and there were several hunters who went by and looked at us kind of funny as they passed us. So, for the next few days, we kind of expected the cops to come visit us, but no one showed up. We made sure that Dutch got one of the slabs so that we were not alone in our "dirty deed."

We had planned on mixing our own cement and pouring slabs for a couple of RV spots on the place this year. These slabs work really nice. We got one set in place and will do the other one next time we go to Wikieup. It is really nice to step out of the Condo onto cement!

Dutch worked with a come-a-long and got his slab in place. He really worked at it, a little at a time, and after a couple of days, he had it right up to his door. He had to move quite a bit of gravel and rock, but it sure looked nice when he finished. He wouldn't let us help him much. We only hope we will be in as good of shape as he is when we get in our 80's!

A few days before we left Wikieup, our friends from Emmett, Russ and Louise, showed up. It was fun having them with us. They are birders and it is always fun to walk the desert with them. We left Wikieup together and then spent one day at the next RV park before they left to go on. Hopefully, we will meet up with them later in our travels.

Terry had a brainstorm on how to make a bike rack to fit above our motorcycle, since we have two bikes now. When we had our tandem bike with us, it fit along side the motorcycle. He used a friend's welder and made a really nice rack. I took this picture but the the cover is on the bikes and you can't see the rack, so I will have to take another picture of it sometime.

Well, it has been a great two months at Wikieup and we have mixed emotions about leaving. It was fun having company quite a bit of the time we were there this time. We got better acquainted with some of the people, especially the Church members. We are thinking that some day we may spend most of the winter at Wikieup, when we get tired of traveling around so much. But, for now, we are off on another adventure!

Fun With Kids at Wikieup, December 2009

The weather was really nice after Christmas while Ryan and Sarah and their families were with us. The kids played outside a lot. We told them they could go wherever they wanted, so long as they could still see the house (only because the snakes were not out yet.) We could see them walking all over the desert around the house. They even made a "clubhouse" in Mom's old wash room, gathering treasures to put in it from all over the place.

There weren't too many lizards out, but they spotted this one and tried to catch it, with no luck!

Sarah's kids even tried their luck at flying kites the first day they got here. They did a good job!

Cameron was a big hit with the kids. He brought his four-wheeler and took them on lots of rides. We really enjoyed having him here and hope he makes it back to Wikieup sometime.

Here is Chaz, Ryan, Lori, and Terry relaxing in the swing.

One day we went to Dazzo's (one of the local businesses) and had ice cream. Here is Sarah and Lori sitting with some of the kids.

Ryan's three kids, Wesley, Chaz, and Ryley.

Sarah and Ryan brought their schnauzer dog and one day I found Lindee in the "dog house."

One day we went to Burro Creek campgound. It is kind of traditional that we visit here and go through the cactus garden and go down by the water.

Of course, one of the favorite things to do by the water is to throw rocks in it. Ryan is showing off for all of the kids!

Burrow Creek was nice and calm. Sometimes at this time of year it is flooding. We found a really nice sandy beach area and played for a while.

Then the "older boys" got into a rock skipping/throwing contest. I am not sure who won.

Before everyone left, they did a "project." This is also kind of traditional, to do a project at "Nettie's Place" each time we come. They dug up the water line across the driveway and buried it deeper so when the vehicles crossed over it, it didn't make it leak. They also went and filled up some wash-outs in the road cominging to the place. Good job, kids!

Two Christmas's ago, we took family pictures of Travis and Shay and their families on the picnic table, with the cactus in the background. So, now we have a family picture of Ryan's family--clockwise starting at the top, Chaz, Wesley, Lori, Ryley, and Ryan.

And Sarah's family--from the left, JT, Ryan, Lindee, Jenna, Sarah, and Luke.

Christmas at Nettie's Place, Wikieup AZ, 12/2009

We had Christmas in Wikieup!! We keep a Christmas tree in Wikieup, one in the Condo, and one at home. So, no matter where we are, it can be Christmas!

We don't keep any tree ornaments in Wikieup, except we kept the angel Shay made two years ago. When we had Christmas in Wikieup then, the grandkids made home-made ornaments. They were pretty much trashed after Christmas, so we had to start over this year. So, we put all of our very best gifts on the tree--our kids and grandkids. We took a picture of each one and put them in a little "gift package" and hung them on the tree. The grandkids had lots of fun finding theirs (we made sure the pictures of the grandkids who were coming were right in front). It was lots of fun making them and they are sturdy enough (plastic canvas) so they should keep for many Christmases.

We put up bows all over the outside of the house. Ryan's and Sarah's families all arrived, along with our nephew Cameron (my brother Ron's son). We had a full house and it was great to see it full!

Christmas Eve we had a bonfire to guide Santa to "Nettie's Place." Just before we went back in the house, there was a red blinking light crossing the sky. Some of the kids were sure they saw some of the reindeer's antlers. So, they all hurried back to get ready for bed so Santa would come.

Santa did find "Nettie's Place." He filled the stockings and left presents galore!

Christmas morning, the kids were all anxiously awaiting all of the adults to get up so they could come out and see what Santa left. Ryan's kids, Ryley and Wesley, and Sarah's daughter, Jenna, are sitting on the bed. Ryan's son, Chaz, and Sarah's boys, Luke and JT, are on the floor. Sarah's little one, Lindee, was with her Mom and didn't get in the picture.

The stockings were all spotted first.

There were lots of treasures found in them. Then Ryan did the honors of passing out the gifts, trying to get the kids to open them only one at a time so we could all watch.

The kids all showed off the tennis shoe slippers from Grandma and Grandpa. It was quite cool that morning, so they were nice to wear--and they all fit!

As usual, Terry and I made a real haul. The kids make sure we have a great Christmas!

It was sure nice having Cameron with us. It wasn't Christmas with his own family, but we tried to make him feel a part of ours. He had lots of help opening all of the gifts his family had sent him. He even got a pair of tennis shoe slippers!

Sarah and Ryan were even good enough this year that Santa left them some car jumper cables in their stockings--one for each car!

Here's the gang, with Cameron missing because he took the picture. What a great Christmas at Nettie's Place in Wikieup!!!

Nettie's Place, Wikieup AZ, 12/01/09 - 12/31/09

This is a continuation of the "outhouse saga." Because the pack rat had taken over the outhouse and finished filling up the hole, we were unable to use it until we dug a new hole.

Terry was going to wait until our son Ryan came for Christmas and assign him the job of digging the new hole, but he has a hard time waiting to get a project done sometimes, so he got out the shovel and started digging. When he finished and tipped up the outhouse to start moving it, he saw a pack rat running around under it.

So, he got out his pistol and sat all morning waiting for a good shot at that rat. (You can see the nice neat hole he had dug!)

Well, after several attempts, he finally hit the rat, but it was not fatal! The rat made it inside the outhouse and ended up on the bench. That gave Terry a good shot.

Who could shoot a little face like that! Yes, I actually did feel sorry for the little thing! He really was kind of cute.

But, Terry had no trouble going in for the kill! Here he is with his "trophy."

Ron and Alice were still with us until the first part of December. Then they left because they had some issues at home and because Christmas was coming up. It would have been hard for them to stay because they have never been away from their kids at Christmas before. We hated to see them go. We really enjoy traveling with them. We played a lot of cards and Alice and I put this puzzle together over several days time. We are hoping they come back out in a couple of months.

There is a cement porch around three sides of Nettie's Place. There was a hole in the cement and it had dirt piled around it. I would sweep most of the dirt back down the hole and fill it up.

A couple of days later the hole would be opened and there would be this pile of dirt again.

I did this several times and tried to catch the varmint who lived in the hole, but never did. Finally, I just left the hole open and swept the dirt off the porch. We are thinking that maybe a lizard lived in the hole because we would see several sunning themselves on the cement.

We saw several other creatures we hadn't seen before. I was sweeping the porch on day and saw a weed laying there. When I went to sweep it away, it moved. We called it a "stick bug" but I am not sure what it is. It was gray in color, but then later we saw one on a brown board and it was brown. I think they probably change colors, depending on what they are on.

There are a lot of quail running all over the desert, but there was a family that would cross our yard in the mornings. They were a lot bigger, about the size of a small chicken. No wonder there were a lot of hunters going by our place sometimes. A couple of those would make a pretty good meal, but I was glad that Terry didn't get his pistol out again!

We have some friends who live in Wikieup named Clay and Joy Sue. Joy Sue was friends with my Mom and Dad when they first bought land in Wikieup about 30 years ago. They raise rodeo stock on their ranch and they like to compete in steer roping at rodeos and other events.

Clay is pretty much a professional roper and does pretty good at it. We went and watched them practice one day in their arena behind their house. It was lots of fun watching them.

The first of October I started a Christmas project. I have made these slippers for years, but haven't made them for the kids for a while, and some of the grandkids have never had a pair. We put zipper ties inside each one for the boys and lotion and fingernail polish for the girls. This is a picture of the last bunch I made for the kids coming to Wikieup for Christmas. I made 30 pairs in all. Then after Christmas I shared the pattern with a lady at Church and she asked for a pair to look at while she made her first pair, so I made another one! It was fun making them, but I was kind of glad to be done--and all in time for Christmas!

Nettie's Place, Wikieup AZ 11/17/09 - 12/01/09

This is a "guess what and where" picture. You know, like the ones that are in the newspapers and you are supposed to guess what it is and where it is taken. !


Well, I expect Emilee (Stokes) to be a winner! I know that she hoped we wouldn't find any "rat-infested" outhouses in Wikieup, but as you can see, we did. Here it is, Emilee, if you get a chance to read our BLOG. It was almost as bad as the first time we went back to Wikieup after my Mom died in 2005. The last three years we have left enough rat poison to discourage them, but they must have gotten immune to the rat poison!


Well, it really didn't take too much time to get it spic and span again. I have always told our kids and their families that the outhouse is probably cleaner than the bathroom in the house, I use so much disinfectant and sanitizer out there! After we got it all cleaned up, we opened the lid on the seat and found that the rats had filled the hole with dirt, clear up to the floor line! We knew that we would be digging a new outhouse hole soon, but didn't know it would be this year! Oh, well, hopefully the smell of the cleaners will discourage the pack-rats until we get ready to move it over the new hole!

Thank goodness we were able to park our RV's down by the old washhouse where there is a septic tank, since the outhouse is out of commission. It has worked out really well, with Ron and Alice next to us. We both hooked up to water (from the neighbor's artisan well) and we share the sewer hookup. With each of us having a generator for electricity, we are sitting pretty good!

We share a satellite TV system with my sister back in Emmett. It came with a promotional RV package that we carry with us for our Condo. It came with a tripod and also a permanent base, which we hooked up to Mom's. After a phone call or two to Direct TV, we got it to work on the old TV in Mom's house. We had to run it through a VCR because there was no place to hook the receiver into the TV. But, it works and we can now get the BYU station and the Hallmark station--hurray!

There are always the repairs that need to be done each time we get to Wikieup. This year it wasn't too bad. The wind must have blown pretty hard at some point, because a big section of the carport roof had bent back and all of the 2 x 4's were all splintered. But, Terry is so good at taking on projects and working at them until he finds a solution. With a few bent nails and some bailing wire, he got the roof back together again! The Arizona sun has been beating on those boards for a lot of years and they just break in splinters.

We finally had to break down and buy new batteries for the solar system this year. The last time we were here, we could only use the electricity for maybe a couple of hours in the evening before the batteries would be drained. It is so nice to have several lights on, the computer running, and the TV going in the evenings and not have to worry about running out of electricity. Terry and I spend a lot of our day at the house, and Ron and Alice come up in the evenings. We sleep in the Condo. Walking back and forth from the Condo and the house gives us a little exercise!

We all went to Payson, AZ, where our sons Travis and Ryan live with their families, for Thanksgiving. We had such a good time. Wednesday night we all went to Travis' and had ham and little smokies and played pinochle. Pinochle seems to be the pastime when the Howards get together, with the spouses being patient as they are still learning to play. It was fun to watch some of the older grandkids hanging over our shoulders wanting to learn so they can play with the adults. Our kids all learned to play at an early age, sitting on the carpet in front of the fireplace on Sunday evenings. They never thought it was quite right that they weren't invited to play with Terry's family when the brothers and sisters and grandparents kgo together and played.

We had a great Thanksgiving dinner at Ryan's, with Lori's specialty pies and rolls! We ate and ate, then we rested and ate some more. . .

. . then we played pinochle and ate some more. I can't believe we ate most of seven pies in one day!

Ryan's kids, Chaz, Wesley, and Riley, got a little bored hanging out with the adults, so they spent some time playing the computer together.

Later that evening, as we were making plans as to who wanted to get up at 4:00 the next morning to go to shopping on Black Friday, Terry and I decided to go get all of our stuff from Travis's where we were staying (Travis and his family went to Mesa to spend Thanksgiving Day and night with Shannon's family), and just sleep on Ryan's couch so we could all get up early together. Well, I didn't end up going shopping.

Well, clumsy me, I tripped on a loose block in Ryan's walkway outside, coming back into the house, and landed on my thumb, knee, shoulder, and smacked my face! This picture was taken several days afterwards when I was healing pretty good. Later, Wesley asked me if I was glad that his dad was a "doctor guy" and had taken good care of me! I sure was. He had ice and wraps all done up on me and I am sure that is why I healed so fast. I am sure that I must have cracked a bone in my cheek because when I first put ice on it with a little pressure, it would pop. And now, even more than a week later, when I touch my face below my eye, it makes me feel like I have a toothache in my jaw. It will need a little more time to heal.

Terry and I had been asked to talk in Church in Wikieup, since we were going home on Friday. I thought I would be able to get out of talking bcause of falling, but it is hard to find anyone to take your place in a small little Branch, so we showed up. Besides, we thought there might not be very many people there because of the holiday. In Terry's talk, he said he wouldn't have went ahead and talked in my condition, so he had a new nickname for me. He said he was going to call me "Timex" because I had tak'n a lick'n and kept on tick'n. Not many in the audience laughted, but I thought it was hilarious! It tells you how old we are! Anyway, these talks should keep us off of the Branch President's list for this year.

If you have been following our BLOG the last several years, and seen pictures of Nettie's Place, this picture is a little different than the last one you saw. Also, I put this picture in for my brothers and sister so they can see that we finally got someone to come in and clean up along the driveway into the house. Dad had torn down an old house and put a lot of the remenents along the drive way, plus a lot of his other treasures. Well, after sitting out in the Arizona weather for so many years, the "treasures" turned into junk. Anyway, it looks really good now!

One of the reasons we were able to talk this guy into hauling away all of the junk was to give him this old car of Dad's. It was probably worth a little money if you found the right person, but it was worth it to us to just get things cleaned up. The last time this car was licensed was in 1996, and I am sure it was running then. Now, they had to haul it off on a trailer.

Today is December 1 and we went and did laundry. Trying to save a few quarters at the laundromat, and because I kind of enjoy hanging out the laundry, I did just that. It was a nice sunny day, around 80 degrees, and we now have very fresh-smelling clothes!