Christmas Bush

Papa and I hiked last Sunday and I found a long dead manzanita bush that I loved.  I brought it home and we put it in a bucket.  I decorated it with homemade ornaments, birds I made from calico prints for Christmas 1979 and Christmas balls that Claire decorated with gold and white swirled paints a few years ago.  It's a special Christmas bush!

Derby Pie

I spent much of the morning making Derby Pies as gifts.  The recipe is a family favorite that is very well known in my home state of Kentucky.  It is almost always served on the first Saturday of May, Derby Day!

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 stick butter, melted
2 egggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup chopped pecans
1 cup chocolate chips
1 9-inch pie crust

1.  Mix the sugar and flour.  Add melted butter, eggs, and vanilla.  Then add nuts and chocolate chips. 
2.  Pour mixture into prepared pie crust.  Bake at 350 for 40 to 45 minutes or until set. 
Enjoy!

Holiday Planning

Papa and I are very excited that our girls will be coming to visit the week after Christmas.  We will celebrate Christmas on the 29th, when we are all together.  It will be grandson Toby's first Christmas.  I enjoy the advance planning in anticipation of their visits.  This morning, I went through lots of recipes to put together our menus for those days we will be together.  Family favorites include peanut butter chocolate kiss cookies, chocolate fondue with fruit dippers, forgotten meringue cookies, and pecan pie.  We love our sweets!

We are going to have a family photo taken by our neighbor, Newton. The boys will play golf one day and the girls will get facials at the spa.  We hope to visit Desert Museum, do some hiking, visit the Center for Creative Photography, and play games.  I love family time!     

Tucson Marathon

Son in law, David, ran the Tucson Marathon this morning.  Papa dropped him off around 5 a.m. at a shuttle pick up.  The shuttle bus drove him toward
Mt. Lemmon and the Marathon started at 7:30 a.m.  We drove to the 19 mile mark with Claire,
and waited for David to pass.  We cheered him on then drove to the finish line. 
He ran the marathon in just under four hours.  Was fast to us!

Titan Missile Museum

 

We are happy for the arrival on Thursday, of daughter Claire and her husband David for a 5 day visit in Tucson.  Today, we visited the Titan Missile Museum, south of Tucson.  It is the only publicly accessible Titan II missile site in the nation. We toured the underground missile site with a guide that worked there for several years when the missile was active.  Was a very interesting tour!

Cave Dwelling Discovery

This afternoon Papa and I went hiking in the mountains on our ranch.  Our goal was to check out an area around Javalina Peak where there is a natural spring.  A couple of years ago, we found a single cave dwelling with a rock wall inside in this area.  As we were hiking today, we saw what looked like cave dwellings.  We hiked over rough country and through a wash with fresh bear scat, up the side of a solid rock face, and there it was... a four room cave dwelling. 

Photo Gift

Last night we had Colter, Carly, and Colter's parents over for dinner to celebrate a successful roundup this week.  We gave them a 16" x 20" framed photo from the roundup on June 26, Colter's first as our ranch manager.  They loved the gift! 

Winter Roundup

Papa worked with Colter, Colter's Dad, Grandad, brother, and cousin, over the past three days to round up all the cattle on the ranch (over 200).  They separated calves from their mothers for weaning, hauled the calves to another corral, and pregnancy checked all the mother cows.  For Papa, this was record timing as compared with his roundup experiences prior to working with Colter as our ranch manager.  He had a great time!

Season's First Snow

The first snow of this winter season occurred on the ranch earlier this week.  Love the swirling clouds over the mountains!

Stormy Sundown

Storms were all around all day yesterday and they were most dramatic as the sun was going down.