Bath day

The spring weather was lovely yesterday.  The feeling of wanting to do some "spring cleaning" hit me.  After house cleaning, I decided to bathe the greyhounds!  Cold water didn't appeal to my ideas, so I decided to use the outdoor faucet on my motorhome in the bathing process.

 I got out a dog shampoo which claims to be a cleaner, conditioner and detangler all-in-one.  While I was washing Power, I fastened Hera's leash to a fixture nearby, so that she could observe and hopefully get used to the idea (and not panic).

After finishing with Power, I took him to the camp shelter so that he could lie on the doggie blanket, and chew on his rawhide treat!

If I'd saved the pool, bathing would have been easier!

So, next was Hera's turn. After the bath, I thought about the drying off process, and decided to tie them for a bike walk so that they could bask in the sunshine, breeze, and not lie down in the sandy gravel.  So off we went for a brief walk, a "dry the dogs" walk.  These hounds were almost entirely dry by the time we got home.

As well, I had decided to hand wash the cog collars and leashes while getting the dogs clean, so they were soaking in a basin of hot water and detergent.  After soaking for a while, a bit of hand rubbing and much rinsing giving a lot of dirty rinse water, which gradually became clear as the third rinse was done.  Then the collars and leashes were hung to dry on the bike rack which rides on the rear of the car.

So, we have two clean dogs, two clean collars and two clean leashes!  As I said, it was bath day!

Pedals for my bike

Yesterday I went to Walmart, and one of my purchases was a pair of pedals for my bike.  I never knew how they would be installed, but after getting out my wrenches and trying several things, I figured it out and got the job done!  I ended up using the adapters that were supplied in the pedal package.

Since I got rid of my bicycle shoes, I didn't need the clips that fit the bottom of the shoes.

Note the bottoms of my shoes, those tiny clips which used to hold my bicycle shoes to the bike.

Now with the regular pedals, my feet will have good support from the wider surface, even in these soft soled sandals.

I'm enjoying riding again!

A Move

Today I drove about 100 miles to Leasburg State Park, and will hope to be here  week or so.  I reserved a site for 4 days and hope a site becomes available after that.  This weekend, the park is fully booked. Therefore, I could not reserve a site for longer than 4 days.  After being here an hour or so, I decided to take my bike off the rack and take the dogs for some exercise.  Hera is getting more used to the bike.

HOWEVER, when we returned to the campsite, she got freaked by something and jerked herself lose and ran off through the desert.  I had to pursue her on foot!  She, being her royal highness, ignored me when I called, but did let me catch up with her after a while!

Bicycle greyhounds

When Karen and Steve were still here, I took my bicycle off the rack and aired up the tires. Karen had a lot of fun playing on it!

Karen having fun

Hazel with her bike and two greyhounds

Karen riding my bike broke through the mental barrier that I had about getting on the bike myself and having nice walks with my greyhounds.  I used to ride it every day, but got out of the habit when I started having so much back and hip problems.

In the above photo, I am riding with Fleur and Valentine when I was a camp host in Colorado.  This week, I did not take a photo of myself and the two present greyhounds, because we were having fun!

The Owl

A great horned owl has a roosting perch about 50 yards from my /RV, so I like to check him/her out whenever I am outside.

Sometimes he/she is seemingly asleep.

Sometimes he/she is definitely awake and winks at me.

Sometimes he/she is doing what owls do (digesting the rodents they've eaten and then pooping).

Today, I found owl pellets directly under his/her perch, alongside the poop. I decided to pick up the pellets, place them in a doggy poop bag and check them out.  

Pellets, are the regurgitated indigestible parts of the eaten food.  Many times one can tell the type of owl by the type of pellet.  A larger rodent in the pellet would be eaten my a larger owl, etc!  The indigestible parts of the meals would be the bones, hair, teeth, and skin.

After doing the above investigation, I decided to move my campsite to the opposite end of the park.  Karen and Steve had left for Wisconsin, Paula and Mel were gone, Dawn and Jim were gone, so I thought I would rather be near Patti.  I especially thought this after Karen and Steve had their crazy visitor the night before they left!  I felt uneasy being on my own down in the bottom end of the park!

So, I first moved my car, then the bicycle, then the motorhome!  The dogs ran along side the car and the bike, and then rode in royal splendor in the motorhome! After getting into my new site, I decided to get out the bicycle oil and oil the bike chain, which was quite rusty.  Then I decided to run the dogs around the park with the bike!  This was Hera's first ride/run and I could tell that she was a bit anxious!

She definitely needed some coaxing to get her out beside the bike!

Quilting after basting!

A few days ago, (during a windy day) Patti erected her "clam" shelter over a large picnic table, and the two of us finished the basting of the quilt.  When the 4 quilting ladies were basting, we basted the entire quilt from north to south, but when Patti and I basted we went from east to west with our basting stitches.

However, the basting crew had a "wannabe" quilting greyhound!  Hera kept giving us the "eye" and it was apparent that she was thinking about some action.

Suddenly she used those greyhound powers and levitated herself onto the quilt!   On the table top! She was right in the middle of our needles!

Then she just as suddenly laid down, right on our needles!  I allowed her to stay there just long enough to get the photo!  Trying to get her off the quilt and table without messing up the quilt or injuring Hera was slightly difficult!

After we finished, we rolled the sides up in such a way that I would be able to work on one section at a time.

This is later the same day, when I am busy quilting, with "no" interference from Hera!

However, it seems as if Hera has hired Chica to do her bidding!

Look at those little white paws on my beautiful Chica!

She was a BIG help!

Wildflowers

Spring is such an explosion of beauty, and I wanted to share a bit of it with you!

Don't know these plants

desert poppies

Claret cup hedgehog cactus

The desert is alive all the time, but spring and early summer are so very nice!

Really nice differences

Since arriving at Pancho Villa State Park, I've had a different way of traveling, since I met up with people I know through blogging, people I met while camp hosting, and people who know these other people.

Most of these folks were interested in seeing and helping me with the quilt and that in itself is different!

These folk knew so much more than me about quilting, and that was different also.

These differences make my stay here so nice and memorable.  Of course, the people who travel in RV's are mostly all very nice and friendly folks, so I generally make acquaintances  who can become friends as time goes by!

The volunteer who mans the desk in the museum was very helpful and nice so now I feel like he's a good acquaintance who may become a friend.

This park is nearly level so walking is nice and easy for me (I have walking problems) to walk my greyhounds.

The jackrabbits, birds, lizards are so nice to see.  I had a wonderful sighting of a roadrunner the other day!

Differences are so nice!

What have the greyhounds been up to ?

After driving across Arizona and New Mexico to get to Pancho Villa State Park, I was very tired and so were the greyhounds.  They had been nervous while we were traveling down the highway, and used up a lot of energy!

Hera is a continual queenly persona.  She thinks that she should be in the center of any situation, such as lying on the sofa!

or taking over the tiny dog bed of Patti's Chihuahuas!

Power never argues the point with her, but just does his best to get his share!

Once the shares are more evenly apportioned, napping occurs!

And more napping!

Peace reigns!

A big Effort!

Almost everyone whom I know at Pancho Villa State Park is a Quilter!

AND  they know a lot more about quilting than I do!

They decided that we needed to take over a crafting room in the Visitor center and spread out my quilt to remedy so problems!

In the above photo they (Patti and Karen are shown) also decided that all the bating and quilting stitches that I had placed had to be removed!

 We taped the backing fabric to the tabletops so that it would not slide out of position!  Note that Karen offered to and did get onto the floor to do the taping!

The quilt was then placed very carefully onto the backing fabric and the safety pins added to connect the layers together.  Then the basting began all over again!  The basting threads were lined up about every four inches and in all directions!

These are some of the hands basting the layers together.

The basting is not finished, but it is begun, and hopefully in a way that will keep the layer from bunching up and ruining the quilt!

Surprise!

While driving across southern Arizona this week, I noticed something red!  I was seeing it through the milky plastic of the box containing cacti plants.  I waited till I stopped driving and looked inside the box.  These lovely blooms were such a wonderful surprise for me to see!

These two beautiful blooms are growing on one of my miniature cacti which ride on my dash!  There are more buds working to bloom as well!

After arriving in Southern New Mexico, i was happy to locate the people that I knew who were also camping in the park:  Patti and her three dogs(Sammy, Bootie, and Tootie), Dawn and her husband and their dog( Ari), Karen and Steve along with their two Shelties (Finney and Binney), Margo and Tom, and their two cats!  
I located a site between Karen and Dawn, so I enjoyed getting to know them better!

Desert friends

When I took my greyhounds out running the other day, my neighbors came along.  They are three chihuahuas and their Mom.  Those dogs ran around also, but they came back a lot sooner than my greyhounds did!

This is "Bootie" resting in my front seat.

This is "Tootie", a Chiweenie with lots of energy!

This is Mom, keeping an eye on her babies!

This woodpecker was  enjoying hummingbird nectar

The hummers fought for their liquid energy at the feeder

Notice the rusty color on the hummer at the left...she's a Rufous Hummingbird.

The hummer and woodpecker photos were taken at Ajo, AZ by Patti who is not even a birder!

Desert friends are great friends!

Today I said goodbye to my Dingbat friends, and set "sail" for New Mexico.  I drove as far as Dateland AZ and stopped at a truck stop for a rest.  My dogs were so very nervous as we drove down the road, and panted their fool heads off.  The cat took charge and told them to shape up!  She is a great cat, but could not really make the greyhounds obey the "no panting" orders.  She tried to cozy up to them on the sofa but they began to drip their noses on her so she moved.

Power could not stay on the sofa and ended up standing beside the ship's pilot the whole trip.  At lease he didn't drip his nose on the arm of the pilot!  Power has picked up this nervy habit since we adopted Hera.  He was a relaxed traveller prior to that.

So long Dingbats!

Eureka!

Yesterday, I had a conversation with Patti, who has more quilting experience than I do.  

Patti

She and I talked about the difficulties that I was having with the quilting part of my quilt restoration.  The backing fabric was wrinkling and looking rather terrible to me, even though I was using an embroidery hoop to hold the fabric in place. 

Patti, suggested that I get some quilt clips to help hold the fabric as it is rolled up, and that I do a lot of hand basting to hold the different layers in place while I do the actual quilting.  So, I did look on the internet and order some quilt clips.  They arrived in the mail today!  

I think I am a bit confused about the basting and how big the stitches need to be, but I am going to baste and then see if it is a good size or if I have to try again!  

I needed to move my cat away from the center of my bed, so that I can spread the quilt layers out and smooth them out for the basting.  After I smoothed them, the cat got in the center again!

If you've ever had a cat decide that they want to be in the center of a project, you know that they can seem to weigh a ton when one tries to make them move!  They seem to have a mental ability to increase the pull of gravity!

My beautiful Chica is now the main quilting buddy!

Part 2 of a Different week

If you read my previous post about my hot water heater and my generator, you will enjoy knowing my part 2 of this weeks' repairs.

First of all,  I drove to the repair place for my 10 AM appointment.  Traffic was light so going into their driveway was easy.  When I went inside, I noticed that the generator guy had a HUGE RV on his lift, and the back side of the lift was taking up nearly all the space in the drive/turn around area.

Monty(the repair guy)

asked me to turn the RV around and place it on the other side of the driveway so that his air compressor would b accessible while he worked.

I therefore inched behind the HUGE RV and did a turn around in the space beyond the huge rv, then inched back around the huge rv to park my rv where Monty asked.

Monty opened up the hot water heater's door and asked me to turn on the switch inside the rv for igniting the hot water heater.  As I did so, he saw that the hot water heater started up, and stopped itself two seconds later.  this was repeated until it would not let itself continue and shut down completely.  Monty, used his air compressor and blew everything out again, and asked me to restart the heater.  It worked!  

Afterward, I asked him to please blow out the refrigerator, the furnace, and the small propane heater.  It was preventive cleaning (from my perspective).  I didn't want to get down the road a few hundred miles and need the stuff repaired but not have any repair people nearby.  Quartzsite is a great place to get repairs done, since so many people come to the area for the winter.  

 Now, I think it's okay to close the door on the hot water heater!