Fun at the Tucson Zoo

We decided to purchase a zoo membership since it was about as cheap as just going once.  Whenever we went to Tucson we would go to the zoo.  Pa went to this same zoo when he was a boy with his grandma LaVona Jones Hawkins who lived in Binghampton (which was the LDS community in Tucson back in the day) not to far from the Zoo.  We had talked about taking Pa to the Zoo with kids for a couple of years.  We picked a lovely day for it, and the animals were very active.  The Tucson Zoo is a perfect size and you can get quite close to the animals.

Part of the Zoo Party

McCoy, Zany and Archy getting a closer look

 Archy loves of animals of all kinds and was very excited to feed them.  When Archy gets excited he does flappy arms (his elbows are bent and his little hands and arms flap up and down).  Zany does the same thing but for her its when she is scared.  McCoy, Archy and Zany got to be a part of the feeding giraffe experience. 

Here is the experience in Archy's own words:

We wait in line, then we give them the token, Then we got our carrots, then we go to feed the giraffe. The giraffe was walking to us. Then he got a little closer, then the giraffe stuck his tongue out and he wrapped it around the carrot. Then he ate it. Zany was scared because she doesn't want to feed the carrot to the giraffe.  Dad help her to feed the giraffe. We pet the soft skin on the giraffe's side.  It feeled soft.  McCoy did it too. He feed the giraffe too.

Interview with Mom (Rhiannon) and Archy, again in his own words

Me: Archy would you do it again (feed the giraffe)?

Archy:  Yes

Me:  If you could feed any other animal at the zoo which one would you feed?

Archy:  Well the lions would be scary, but I want to feed the lion. Wait, would the zoo helper help me?  Would I have to climb in or get in to feed the lions?  Wait, I have to climb on the glass and drop it?

Me: They probably have a back door

Archy: Will I probably just throw it in?  I don't want the lions to get out.

Me:  What would you feed them?

Archy:  Lions like meat. I will feed them meat. I think they eat any kind of meat but I think deer meat.

Me: What is your other favorite animal at the zoo?

Archy: Peacock, because when you're eating french fries and walking it will follow you.

Me: Archy if you were in the zoo and people could feed you, what would you want them to feed you?

Archy:  French Fries and carrots, a ham sandwich, that's my favorite food

Getting carrots to feed the giraffe

Archy and Zany waiting for the giraffes

Brave Archy feeds a giraffe, while Zany and Eddy watch

McCoy's arm feeding a giraffe

McCoy (left to right), Archer, Declan, Zany and Eddy with a giraffe

We just love the penny stamps souvenirs and usually get them when we see them at various attractions. They are fun to crank and a cheap souvenir too.

McCoy cranking out his souvenir

Archy with a Zebra finally on display, most of the time the Zebra is in a back pen and Archy is disappointed but not today!

Zoo pals: Archy, Declan and Quinton who happen to match

Maybe next time we will see if Quinton and Declan are brave enough to feed a giraffe!

Pa and Lord of the Rings inspired Gauntlets

My favorite movies ever are the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. I have always loved the books as well and have read them countless times. Though I can't speak elvish.  I have always wanted to dress up as Eowyn but have only got as far as buying a pattern.  (Maybe 9 years ago- sometimes mind projects take a long time to become actual projects). Every once in awhile I re visit my plans and look how people made it. Trouble is I want to complete the project that is currently above my skill set. One day while browsing the wonderful thing that is google images, I saw some LOTR leather gauntlets. I offhandedly said to my Pa "Pa don't you want to make some super awesome cosplay Lord of the rings gauntlets?" And he being the talented fellow that he is decided to whip up a pair. They are really big. In amongst his crafting of this he has also completed at least 5 pairs of spur straps and is working on some cowboy bracers. Oh to be so talented.

Here is the inspiration for his Gondorian gantlet. This is a photo I found the exhibit they had of the Lord of the rings costumes. 

He whips a pattern, out of his mind.

Cuts them out of leather.  He made them Pa size so it took about half a hide of leather. 

both pieces

Stamped out, but not textured or dyed

Sewing them together

Should he embossed the tree White, Silver or leave as is?

A fellow comrade in arms. Hopefully Pa will get to sport these at the AZ ren Fest

Mustache, Mohawk, and Violet Spikes

When I was in high school, homecoming week would have daily dress up themes and each class (freshman, sophomore, junior, senior) would compete with the other classes to see who could have the most kids dressed up.  Nowadays, it is red ribbon week in which the kids dress up to celebrate say no to drugs and drug awareness. Most of their dress up days are pretty ho-hum, like wear red because I love myself, as a opposed to dress like your favorite villain, which they have never done but I think would be fun.  Two of my favorite days this week were mustache day and crazy hair day.

Declan is a planner.  He is the kind of kid who likes to always wear a watch (see below) and wakes himself up every morning with his own alarm clock (he has been doing this for years while his bigger brother has to be literally drug out of bed and woken up several times by a parent).  Several days in advance of the actual mustache day, Declan wanted to have several conversations about what kind of mustache he would sport.  The night before Declan wanted me to draw ten different mustache styles so he could pick which one he wanted.  Luckily for Dec, my dad (Pa) has had many different kinds of facial hair over the years and so I was easily able to come up with ten different mustaches.  Declan chose the Pa as we labeled this mustache.  I always like drawing mustaches on kids even before mustaches were all the rage. It gives you a glimpse of what they will look like when they are men.

Pastache

Declan with Pastache

Archy was always my dark baby.  He was born with black hair that never lightened like his brothers hair did. I wasn't sure how his black hair would take to color but the purple showed up quite well.

Archer in kindergarten

Archer sporting violet spikes 

and his uneaten breakfast that was destined 

to be dropped in the road on the way to the bus

McCoy hair is much lighter so I decided blue was the color for him and since his hair is usually considered crazy we stuck with his daily Mohawk.

McCoy front view

McCoy's blue mohawk side view

Luckily, I picked up some half price halloween hair spray so I will be prepared for next year's red ribbon week but let's hope they do something really crazy like dress as your favorite villain day!

Sisters Birding Hike to the Gila River

Ashlee has allied herself with a Duncan birding group and wanted me to take a birding hike with her to show me where they are going to put in a bird watching site.  Before we went on the hike I made Pa and his progeny take a few photos with some lovely wild flowers. Pa is always willing to take a photo or two and he can make the best expressions.  Ashlee often spray paints this metal chicken different colors.  

Pa and his progeny

Pa and his grandkids in front of the old Granny Hawkins Building

It was nearing dusk when Ashlee and I started our hike and we had to sometimes wade our way through waist high weeds. Being an Arizonian, whenever you step where you can't see out in nature you always worry about stepping on a rattlesnake but thankfully we didn't encounter any poisonous reptiles.  We made it to the Gila River  and to the future site of the bird watching bench.  We saw maybe a Sandhill Crane but as it was flying away into the trees it was hard to be sure.  We patiently waited all of five minutes before we decided to move on, Ashlee says we have to quietly wait a lot longer to properly bird watch that may be hard for us as we tend to laugh and cackle when we are together. Ashlee and I are rank but enthusiastic amateurs when it comes to bird watching and actually probably a handful of other things too. On the way back home we did see several Turkey Buzzards which are common around here especially in the summer with all the dead rabbits and snakes on the roads.

Ashlee hikes into the sunset

Turkey Buzzards on a fence

Ashlee by an abandoned building

The weather is perfect here now for hikes; during the day it is in the 80s but it cools down to the 50s at night.  We may have to go on some more birding hikes and take advantage of this lovely time of year.  Wish us happy bird sightings!

Odile and Duncan

Recently in the weather there has been much ado about the remnants of Hurricane Odile. Normally storms like that do not come our way, but this one did. There were places in  SW that got many inches of rain. Our town and others in the county were preparing for the worst. It rained all day Tuesday but we were spared. Hopefully the rest of the SW will be alright, Texas was hit hard. We are very thankful it wasn't too bad here.

View of a misty mountain, Steeple rock.

On Tuesday we had a downpour of rain. The Drain can't drain fast enough and it backs up in what we call our patio.  (which needs a good once over)

Here is the street view of that same moment. 

I hate wet dog, so I do indeed force him to wear a rain slicker.  Most of that day we had a fine Irish misty rain.

In Rhiannon's neck of the woods the town set up free sandbags to help in case of flooding.  The weather service was predicting severe flooding so Eddy and Quinton went a got quite a few sandbags to barricade around the doors of their house. Quinton had to go straight from football practice.

Quinton (white pants) surveys the area

Quinton zip ties a bag, while Eddy lugs a bag to the car

Eddy makes it look easy, 

thankfully we got some nice rain but not the severe flooding.

Here is some of the many sunflowers that are about currently.
Thanks to all this rain we have lots and lots of greenery and plants. 

PA Project: WWII edition: Sniper Rifle boxes

I had the inkling to take a picture of this project a couple of days ago, but alas didn't. It started out as just some old 2 x 4 and various scrap wood he had around. Quick as a shake of a coyote's tail,  he was finished, so I got no pictures of the boxes in progress. He made WWII replica boxes for the shipping of sniper rifles.  Here is the finished products. He did all the leather work, painting, and building, without any plans just his own mind. I too have lots of projects in my mind but unlike my dear old Pa they never turn out quite like I want them too. (I'm looking at you Dalek Cake)

The Allied version, even made the old label.

Here is the inside of the box, with the rifle inside.

Always being a fair minded soul he made one for the Axis.

It doesn't stop there. Here he is making a WWII style scope cover out of leather.

Bonus lizard photo. I have been trying to take a picture of 1) A cardinal that hangs about our house 2) A falcony hawk bird that can be seen about. To no avail. After sitting out side camera in hand I decided I needed a picture of something and this guy crossed my path.

Pa Project

In a case of seeing your new car everywhere, I have been thinking lots about accordions. Lil Q may not remember but when he was a tiny guy he really wanted to learn how to play the accordion. I asked Rhi how he knew about accordion, but who knows where little people learn things.Recently Rhi told me she really liked the song "Come with me now" by the Kongos because it had an Irish sounding section in the middle of it. (well she didn't know the name of the song or band but I was able to discern them). Its a really great song and can be added to my ongoing cleaning, running list. In fact I was going to use it as my favorite song for September but have decided to post it early. Well I think it is due to to the fact that there is an accordion in it.

In first for Pa, just the other day, someone requested straps for the accordion!

Here he is clamping the shoulder pad to strap so he can sew it.

While the strap was being commissioned,  the fellow spotted this wee fellow and wanted to use him as his color inspiration.

Close up of the progress

 Here is a Happy Pa, you would never know he is in the Slytherin house! We also learned that unlike Guitars, accordion's use two straps.  Alas he didn't make a pattern after he finished the first, but of course he was still able to make another. One is finished and the other is almost there. Pug photo bomb to boot. Sometimes I wonder if it hard to be that talented.

Pa's Endurance is Tested

Every couple of years we (Ashlee and I and this time Quinton as well) tag along with Pa to Tucson for his eye check up. Pa would prefer to drive the three hours there have his appointment and immediately drive home.  Since we accompany him and we love to shop he ends up going places he would never go like thrift stores and the mall.  Poor Pa.  He is threatening in two years when his appointment comes up to go once again by himself.  What did Poor Pa endure?

We began our trip uneventfully but awfully early and so we stopped in Willcox, Az at a trucker's gas station that has all kind of things you would never see in a gas station like two glass curio cabinets with crystal animals and other knick knacks. I rarely go into gas stations and never trucker kind so I like to look about a bit much to the annoyance of Ashlee.

Rhiannon and Ashlee in front of glass cabinet at trucker gas station

(Sometimes I do appear in my own blog)

Continuing on our way we arrived at Tucson and dropped Pa off at his appointment and Ashlee, Quinton and I went for a shop at Target and then Ross. Pa's appointment took forever which really put his nose at out of joint since he relishes eating at his favorite restaurant Claim Jumper and he missed lunch entirely. By the time he was done and we got to the restaurant it was three o'clock. We were famished and Pa finally got to order his favorite restaurant meal: Meatloaf and Mashed Potatoes. Quinton had steak tips and mashed potatoes with roasted vegetables, Ashlee had a vegetarian calzone (she has been a vegetarian since college) and I had the Widowmaker Burger. I am not a burger kind of gal but it just sounded really good the bacon, onion ring and avocado on it may have convinced me.  It was the best burger I have ever had!

Quinton and Quinton (Pa) enjoying lunch at last

After lunch we all went to Savers (thrift store) then the two Quints went to the movies to watch Planet of the Apes in 3D. Meanwhile Ashlee and I tried to go to as many thrift stores as we could before their movie was over. We would have loved to go to more but before we knew it, it was time to get the two Quints. By now it was eight o'clock and the other stores we wanted to go to were closed (we can never get to all the stores we want too, sadly). We stopped by Five Guys to pick up a hamburger for Eddy (who stayed home with the other kids). Then we made our journey back home.  Too late for Pa's liking.

Ashlee's best find at the thrift stores we went to were these pewter like mugs and they were a real bargain at seventy cents each!  She is planning on having a theme party with them possibly Viking or Hobbit, not sure yet but you may be seeing them again on this blog.

Lovely metal mug

Ashlee got seven of them

I am currently obsessed with sewing and sewing notions and what nots. I have been working making a sewing room in my laundry room since that is the only possible place for it.  I have been gathering and organizing all my fabric and notions and of course decorating it. While I am a complete novice at sewing, I did have a part time job in college (Eastern Arizona College) for two years cutting out patterns for all the costumes. I am hoping to try my hand at sewing clothes, quilting and so on.  At the thrift stores now I always look for sewing stuff especially buttons. I had been thinking about buying a pair of proper embroidery scissors (I saw some at Walmart for fifteen dollars) when what did I find in a baggie of sewing stuff at Savers? Embroidery scissors. In the bag were also a leather/metal thimble, leather finger thimble, plastic thimble, sequins, mending kit with mirror, vintage needle book, thread, and a 24 karat gold plated needle. The gold needle according to the package is a real pleasure to sew with due to the gold. There is a note on the back of the card telling a Karen that she might enjoy the needle. It has been through a few owners without ever being used maybe I will break that streak and find out if a gold needle is really a better needle. If it is where will I ever find another?  Well I do know a guy going to Tucson again in a couple years maybe I will stow away! Shhh, don't tell Pa.

All mine for mere $1.40, yes, only a dollar and forty cents-- I just love a bargain!