Road trip!

 In the fall, Gerald's high-school buddy, John Anderson, and his wife, Vicki, came to visit.

 They spent a couple of days at the ranch. Then we took them up to Sedona, where we rented a little cabin on Oak Creek.

 We did the usual things. The drive up Oak Creek Canyon, the visit to Tlaquepaque... It was a lot of fun.

One flue over the cuckoo's nest

 After four-plus years of burning construction scrap and pinyon pine, we thought it would be a good idea to get a chimney sweep out. The only trouble was the apparently only chimney sweep in Yavapai County didn't like the pitch of our roof. We weren't sure what to do.

But the chimney sweep said he'd come out and give the place a look when he was next in the area. He did come, and decided that he could get most of it if he did the job from the inside. I had never seen this done, and found it interesting. They basically took a vacuum-like thing and used it to clean the flue. I was a little worried about soot getting on the floor, but they were very careful, as you can see.

On the beam

With Gerald's manager back to work leaving us more time at home, we, too, got back to work... on the house. One of the projects that has been near and dear to my heart, is to finish the faux beam in the kitchen, so we wouldn't have a hole in our ceiling. We started by installing a 2x6 to cover up the hole.

 Meanwhile, Gerald worked on finishing the beam itself at the shop. It went together in three pieces. One on each side and one at the bottom. We had to use clamps to close the gaps.

 Then Gerald used ring shank nails to hold it together, and voila!

Stocking up for Winter

 Fall was definitely upon us, with daytime temps in the mid-70s and nighttime temps in the 50s, which put us in mind to start preparing for winter. Gerald spent a day splitting oak from the tree we lost, then we loaded it into our little wagon and filled up our wood racks.

 We rearranged and consolidated things so we had our wood sorted by species and size.

 The guys we paid to cut up the oak last winter had cut some of the pieces too long, so Gerald cut them on the saw and stacked those pieces on the front porch.

By the end of the day, we had made visible progress.

Progress on the Homes Front

 Coming home, one day, we saw these giant tracks in the road. We knew it was a monster piece of equipment that could leave tracks like this on a dry road. We suspected it was Steve Hampton putting in a driveway for Brian and Nora Evans. Sure enough, that's just where the tracks led.

 It was a steep climb up the roughly cut driveway.

 At the top, we found Steve's employee, Squeak, with the machine.

 There was some beautiful views up there.

 Since we were there, we decided to check out the progress of the Evans' next-door neighbors, the Shopes. Their place was coming right along.

Art and Wine Tour

 Our friend Leah is a great one for organizing adventures. One of them included an art and wine tour. She planned it on a weekend when a number of Prescott artists had opened their studios to the public. We met at noon and headed for our first stop, Granite Creek Winery in Chino Valley. It was a lovely spot, with a large red barn and a collection of smaller buildings on this lovely shady lot. The live entertainment was an added plus.

 Leah had made advance arrangements, and they had reserved a table for us on the lawn. We had a wine tasting in the tasting room, then headed out to our table with a glass of wine and a pot luck picnic which included bread, prosciutto, three types of cheeses, crackers, and fresh watermelon and cantaloupe fresh-picked from the garden. We enjoyed it so much that we took a group consensus and decided to skip the two art stops in favor of staying longer.

 So our trip became a winery tour. Our next stop was Juniper Wells. Here's the juniper and well house that gave the winery its name.

 Here is a horse that was grazing nearby.

 The grounds at Juniper Wells were not as inviting, but they did have all these wonderful juniper trees. Dan Raugh became enraptured with this tree, which stood across from the tasting room and next to the vineyard. He just kept laughing and taking pictures.

 It was such a nice tree, we all posed in front of it for a group photo.

We ended our evening with pizza at the T-bird cafe in Peeples Valley. It was a beautiful night, so we ate outside under the canopy of a black walnut tree. We lit the tiki torches at our tables, which gave the whole scene a lovely glow. The owner, Chery, and her husband entertained us.

I got the biggest kick our of this guy who was had a walrus mustache and an orange T-shirt that was so bright it practically glowed. He was sitting at a table next to ours. I could hardly believe it when he got up on stage and started playing a washtub string bass. I have to admit, it sounded pretty darn good. It was the perfect end to a perfect day.

Garden Party

The community garden's biggest fundraiser of the year has always been the "Dinner in the Garden." Gerald and I were out of town for last year's dinner and didn't know about it the year before, so it was a new experience for us. Gerald volunteered to do the lighting, which involved installing some poles to hang lights from.

 A few days before the dinner, the garden gang met in the garden at dusk to preview the lighting over a glass of wine.

 Those of us who cooked for the dinner served what we had cooked. Don and Mary Ann cooked the roast beef and au jus. My assignment was acorn squash, which I honey roasted and served in wedges. There was also a wonderful chile relleno casserole, a medley of sauteed garden veggies, a tomato and mozzarella salad, a green salad and a variety of homemade and artisan breads. Kari Flippen prepared a table full of deserts: pumpkin pie, pumpkin tart, chocolate cake, two types of lemon cakes and about a dozen different type of cookies. It was all yummy.

 A number of area musicians volunteered to provide musical entertainment. Emad, the harmonica player, is our group secretary's husband.

Not long after the gates opened, every table was full. It was a wonderful event, and we made close to $650. Not as much as the farm stand, which earned us more than $800, but not bad.