A Winter Wonderland In the Desert

As you may have heard on the news we had snow in Tucson last night and this morning. Around 5 pm we were having a nice rain and then at 6 pm it turned to snow. About 8:30 we decided we had better get home before the temperature dropped anymore and the roads started freezing. We discovered our car covered in a heavy, wet snow and as we drove we saw all the trees and cacti coated in snow. At bedtime it looked like it was starting to melt so I was delighted and somewhat surprised to see the winter wonderland outside my windows this morning. By afternoon it had all disappeared except on the mountains, although the weatherman says we could get another round. Of course, this was the day they had rescheduled our house painting to take place. That is twice that we've had snow when we were to paint. Should we keep trying to paint?? Can the desert take more snow?? Not only did we not get the house painted but most of the schools in the area were closed. All the bridges and overpasses were closed over night and until mid-morning. They usually spray them with a chemical which keeps ice from forming but due to the rain they had not been able to do that so there was lots of ice.

Our new spa, still under construction.

Still Working

Well it is the first of January 2007 so time to bring this site up to date. We have been in the house over a year now and the work goes on. The pictures below show some of the projects Dave (and Nick) have been working on. The big rain storm this summer really made our paint on the house look bad so we are expecting the painters to redo it any time now. (Of course the day it was scheduled last week, we had rain and snow!!) We also had garage cabinets built last week and prior to that we painted the garage floor. We almost have the whole garage back in order. But we took a break to go on a New Years Day hike with a bunch of friends. I got to use my new hiking poles--really useful when the legs get tired! Maybe tomorrow we'll finish and get some other photos.
We saw three coyotes and shortly after, three white tailed deer just up the street from us on the 26th. And nine javelinas raiding the neighbors' trash cans the next day so the wildlife is still abundant. Wishing you all a wonderful year in 2007.

Some work has been done in the foreground, but mostly this show the next area waiting for our attention. 

Another view of the back. 

Landscaping in the back of the lot. This was how we kept Nick busy for a week, hauling all this rock and placing it on the bank. 

The wider view of the wall and chimney. 

Our facia trimwork on the front wall. Done by unskilled Anglos (us!) but it looks great. 

The back stoop that Dave laid with the leftover bricks from the front.