Happy Spring

Happy Spring!  Papa and I enjoyed seeing signs of spring all over our Tucson neighborhood 

this morning.  I hope you enjoy spring wherever you are.

Won't You Be My Neighbor?

When our girls were very young, I would let them watch Mr. Rogers on tv after their naps.  

They thought Mr. Rogers lived in the tv and was their friend.

On our way to Tucson yesterday morning, we passed a billboard with a photo of Mr. Rogers and the words, "Won't you be my neighbor?  Friendship.  Pass it on."  

The Missing

Papa and I don't watch a lot of tv, but we have a few favorite shows.  A recent favorite is 

"The Missing."  It is filmed in various places in Europe and is fast paced, with intrigue, 

international spies.  It reminds us of a trilogy of favorite movies, The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy, and The Bourne Ultimatum. 

Blurb Book

I have spent the past two days working on a Blurb photo book of our trip to France last fall.  As I have over 1400 photos from the trip, fitting them into a printed book is no easy task.  I'm up to 92 pages, with several more days of the trip to cover.  Looking through all the photos has been a reminder of what a wonderful trip we had.  We loved the trip!

Indian Paintbrush

Papa did a little fence work at Schilling yesterday, so I hiked over to meet him.  It was a beautiful day on the ranch, and I saw the first blooms of Indian paintbrush.  A herd of deer was standing on top of a dirt tank near the road.  They bolted as I got close. 

Saturday Afternoon Hike

Papa and I hiked from our house to our ranch gate on Saturday afternoon.  It was a beautiful afternoon, with clear blue skies and a light breeze.  We enjoy our views in every direction.

Cows All Around

Papa helped Colter round up all the cows on the ranch in January.  Along with several of Colter's relatives (Dad, Uncles, Grandfather...) they separated the calves to be weaned from the mother cows.  After pregnancy checking, they separated them further, mother cows that stay on the ranch, steers and heifers to be sold, and they sold the mother cows that were not pregnant right away.  They held back 53 first year heifers, to grow on the ranch for another several months until ready for breeding.  All the steer calves and some of the heifers were sold to a beef company in Minnesota in early March.

The 53 first year heifers are in the pasture nearest our house.  There are also 19 new to the ranch, mother cows in the Buck Knob pasture, near our house.  We see cows every time we look out the window or go on a hike.  We have cows all around!

Good Morning

While having coffee this morning, we were greeted by a herd of deer.  I took photos from the back of the sofa.  The deer were curious, coming up to the porch, within 14 feet of me.  There was a really nice buck in the herd.  Love mornings like this!

Ranunculus

I often buy flowers for our living room on the ranch.  I bought ranunculus this week.  They are delicate and colorful. Whitney carried a bouquet of ranunculus at her wedding.  

Courbe'

After building and selling five houses rather quickly in 2006-2007, I purchased a 28 acre parcel, worked on plans, and started a new spec house in early 2008.  I named the house Courbe' because of the big curve in the roofline.  The house is two story, has 2356 square feet, with wood floors, three bedrooms, two and a half baths plus a half bath in the detached two car garage.  The house is energy efficient, has over 800 square feet of deck with views of several mountain ranges... My timing couldn't have been worse!  I had a quick offer that drug on for months before the "buyer" eventually admitted they didn't have the funds to close.  In the meantime, the economy got worse and worse and the politics of Arizona didn't help sell real estate in the southern part of the state, with Cochise County losing the highest percentage of its population of any county in the US.  So here I am in 2012, and Courbe is still for sale!  Papa and I spent a couple of hours there today and 

enjoyed a picnic on the front porch.