The joys of living in Laveen, Arizona

Livinig in Laveen means living around dairy farms and miles of crops. Driving up to our house we have a mile of crops on our street, and we always wonder - what's growing there? More than likely it is probabaly corn. However, as of two weeks ago, we no longer have to wonder whats growing on a section of that mile - we are the ones planting the seeds. That's right folks, Jason and I have become farmers!!!

OK... so that's not totally true. Our ward, the Gila River Ward, has borrowed some land to make a ward garden. Each family was assigned to bring a packet of seeds, and to help water the garden. Last Saturday, I had the grueling tasks of watering the garden. I say grueling, because it was. We had to wait for the irrigation water to flow into the back yard, flood the grass, and eventually flow into the section of our garden. As the water is flowing you have to create and break dams throughout the garden so the water flows down each row. Some rows filled with water nicely, while other needed to be dug deeper.



Our ward decided to do this in preparation for our ward Christmas party. We planted: corn, zucchini, green beans, carrots, and a couple other things I can't remember. Everything should be ready to harvest the first of December - just in time for the christmas party. The garden is new to the ward, so we will have to see what comes from it.




In addition to the garden, we have a ward pig!!! They told us we can't name him, so I call him bacon. Each family signs up to take him scraps of food, gives him water, and makes his home nice and muddy. Along with the veggies in our garden, "Bacon" will be part of our ward feast too. I know - I know, makes me a little sad and sick as well, but I guess that is the circle of life. I'm just not sure if I will be eating pork that night.










On our ward farm we also have a unigoat (he's missing his other horn), chickens, two other pigs and some cows. The owner of the property takes care of these animals, we just get to look at them.

Ragnar - ANYONE?

Calling all runners who would like to run a portion of 182 miles. A course from Wickenburg to Mesa. The relay race is Feb. 27-28. Jason and I think this would be a awesome experience and need 10 more people who are willing to run the ragnar.

What a HABOOB!!!

It might be another reference to weather, but hey - it's crazy to see and be in the middle of. A haboob, for those of you who don't know, is basically a massive dirt/sand storm. They are lovely, especially when you walk outside for a 1/10th of a second and your eyes fill with sand. I guess it is all part of living in Arizona during the monsoon season.

The first picture shows it rolling in, and the second is in the middle of it. Normally, they sky is bright blue with maybe one or two puffy white clouds.

Rainy Days and Painter Bob

As you can read from our blog entry title, things are a little boring around here. However, if you consider monsoonal rain and hail exciting - you're in for a treat. It seems the 2008 Monsoon season has been more active this year than in years past. I can't remember a time when I have seen so much rain. The monsoons, although sometimes scary, are fun to watch and always refreshing. It's not every day Phoenix sees hail - so of course I had to document it. The video I took is the beginning of the storm. My camera was getting to wet to record any more.


The second part of my 'oh so boring' blog entry is Painter Bob. I have to give a big shout out to painter Bob. Jason and I were tired of our hospital white walls and we really didn't want to paint it ourselves, so we asked Bob. He came highly recommended by Staci and Bacho. Bob did an amazing job, he was cheap, and he was fast. We didn't go crazy with the color - just a nice, neutral oatmeal throughout the house. I have ideas of how to spice it up later.

Is anyone else having this problem

As you can see my background has changed. I was trying to update it and it deleted all my links and now I can't edit my page to add them back. I am trying to figure it out, but if anyone has experienced this or knows how to fix it, let me know. Otherwise the blog will be in construction mode a little while.