2/7/18 Day of rest and oranges

We thought we would take the day off today and catch up with other things.  I did laundry, wrote postcards, played with some design ideas I have been thinking about and Dave put out the trash and did some wood carving on the back patio.  While we were outside, I noticed the orange tree had a number of ripe fruit.  Last week at the Habi-store, I mentioned that we had seen lots of orange trees, but no one seemed to pick the fruit.  Charity told me that was because these are sour oranges - as sour as lemons.  So . . . I picked a few and squeezed them, added some sugar as I would if I were making lemonade and voila - a delicious sweet, yet tart drink!  The only picture I took today was of the tree.  We have decided to go to the movies this afternoon and then go out for dinner.  We are hoping to see Jumanji.  We saw the original with Robin Williams, but we heard this one was also good.

2/6/18 University of Arizona

Today we decided to go towards downtown to see the University of Arizona as Alex has gotten an acceptance from there.  He doesn't know where he is going yet as he is waiting for other acceptances to come in, but while we are so close, it made sense to check it out.  It has a very nice campus.  Even though the city is all around it, when you are on campus, you don't feel like you are in a city.  There are about 44,000 students here - undergrad through PhD so it is not a huge school.  It is situated on 380 acres and there is lots of green here (more grass than we have seen in all of Tucson so far).  When we first arrived, we stopped to see the Arizona History Museum on campus.  It was a general introduction to the history of the area and its people.  We were lucky to see some of their quilt collection.  They also had exhibits on mining, local Native Americans, and an exhibit of rooms in a typical house of the Territorial period of Arizona's history.  We wandered though the campus and chatted with a few of the students.  They were all very helpful in giving us directions to various places.  Picture number 4 is the back of a chuck wagon.  The last shot is for Alex - it is the School of Business.

2/5/18 Saguaro National Park

We had a lovely day today.  We traveled to the eastern portion of Saguaro National Park - the Rincon Mountain District.  This is not the area we camped at in 1986 so we though we would start our visit here.  As we got to the Visitor Center, we were just in time to join the cactus garden walk.  We learned about many of the desert plants and cacti and ways in which they can be used as food, shampoo and medicine.  We got to taste the flour made from the pods of creosote tree and jelly made from the fruit of the prickly pear cactus (delicious by the way).  It was a short walk, but very informative.  There is one saguaro in the garden that was started from a seed in 1916 and given to the park for their 50th anniversary celebration.  They do not get arms until they are 60-70 years old and 6-10 feet high.  We then joined up with another ranger-led drive and walk tour to see crested saguaros.  Scientists are not sure what causes this, but it happens in many plants (see the photo of the strawberry).  It may be genetic, mutation, environmental factors or some other factor which causes the growing area to develop oddly.  Many of the photos today show the result.  We went on the 8 mile driving loop and stopped several times for 1/4 mile to 1/2 mile hikes to see these cacti.  It seems to occur rarely in the saguaro as the ranger has identified only 50 of the half million saguaros in the park as having this anomaly.  It was delightful 2 hours.  Some of the other pics of are many armed cacti.  We found a chollo with a birds nest in the top.  I took another pic of a damaged chollo to show what the "ribs" or frame looks like.  On the way home, we stopped for a late lunch and we are skipping dinner as we are still full.

2/4/18 San Xavier Mission

Well, best laid plans and all that.  We were sure that our neighbor said that Camao Ranch was open every day, but apparently not on Sunday at this time of year.  So we had a lovely 45 minute drive south of Tucson only to find that the ranch was closed.  Not to have a total waste of a day, however, we stopped at the San Xavier Mission.  It is the only remaining intact mission in Arizona and is an example of Mexican Baroque architecture.  The mission was first founded in 1693 by a Jesuit missionary, Father Kino, who traveled throughout the northern part of Mexico and the southeastern parts of the U. S. bringing Catholicism to the indigenous peoples of the area.  The mission is still a working parish for the Tohono O'oodham people who live nearby.  There were simpler structures built on the site earlier, but the current building was begun in 1783.  With the labor of the local villagers, the work on the mission continued for 14 years until the 7000 pesos borrowed from a rancher from Sonora ran out.  The master artisans from Mexico could not afford to work without being paid, so the east tower was left with bare brick and no dome.  In 1978 a group was formed to raise funds to restore and preserve the church.  They raised $10 million and brought in restorers from Italy to work on the statuary and stabilize paint pigments.  Even though baroque is not my favorite architectural style, they did a wonderful job in their 6 years of work.

There is a wooden statue of San Francisco Xavier reclining in the west wing of the church (pic in the case under the saint in red).  People come to touch it and lift the head as supposedly only someone good of heart is able to lift it.  The cloth over the body is filled with Milagros (miracles) which we have seen in churches in Europe.  They are small "charms" representing body parts that need healing.  For example, if you have a lame leg, there is one shaped like a leg.  The saint is supposed to heal the leg.

Out in a courtyard, I took some cacti shots and then we chatted with some lovely folks from Minnesota.  They leave home towards the end of January and don't go home until April.  I can't say I blame them - the weather when they left was -25!

2/3/18 Funny sign

Sorry I didn't post last night, but we were both brain and body dead after working our shift yesterday.  Dave worked like a dervish unloading trucks and getting merchandise out on the floor.  I ran around helping customers and making sales until 3.  The manager asked if I could man the phones and the volunteer there had to leave.  OMG, I would so much rather be running around than sitting at a desk for two hours.  Boring!!!!!!!!  So Dave was the body dead and I was the brain dead.  We did have a good sales day though - $7750!  Earlier in the day we took the mile walk to CVS to buy Dave a new battery-operated toothbrush.  We bought replacement batteries on Friday, but it still wouldn't work.  I think he has had it for about 15 years so it didn't owe us anything.  On the way to the store we passed some cool birds - they look like quail, but we are not sure if that's what they call them here.  I also had to take a picture of a sign I have never seen before - very strange - I am trying to picture the set-up . . .  Today we are off to Canoa Ranch.  Our next door neighbor here works there and said it was quite interesting.

2/2/18 Habi-store

We had the morning shift today so we had breakfast, packed a lunch and headed out the door.  Life is so much easier now that we have discovered the frontage road.  Even though there are a few stop lights along the way, it is much saner than the interstate.  I took us 5 minutes longer, but when we looked over and saw the mess on the highway, we were so happy that we had made the decision not to be on it.  During the little before-we-open meeting, it was announced that we made $5200 yesterday - not bad.  I did a lot of selling today, but also took pictures of interesting items for their Facebook page.  Everyone again was very nice and the time just flew by - not that we weren't happy to get home and take our shoes off!  One of the ladies brought in heirloom tomatoes and we had a lovely salad with our chicken tonight.  Not too much else to tell: the dishwasher is running and the wash is in the dryer so all is well.  We still don't have TV, but since the only thing we would watch is the news (and who wants to watch that anyway) and the weather (and every day is the same - lows in the 50's and highs in the 80's), I guess we are not missing much.  We are plowing through a lot of books - thank goodness for the Kindle and my library connection!  I am including a few pictures that I took at the end of our shift just to show you the types of things for sale.

2/1/18 Habi-Store

So we have signed up to volunteer for three half days at the Habitat Store.  We would have signed up for more, but some days are volunteer heavy.  We chose to work when they need the help so we are working Thursday 12:30-5, Friday 8:30-1, and Saturday 12:30-5.  This will give us lots of time to explore the area.  This morning we did a load of laundry and took care of a few things around the house before having an early lunch and then heading down to the store.  I don't know if this was a typical day, but Dave spent most of his time unloading trucks and putting furniture on the floor after it was priced.  He said that most of the furniture is very nice.  I help to rearrange shelving on a glassware unit in household goods and then spent the rest of my time helping customers.  I get the feeling that not too many of the volunteers know how to "sell".  I managed to sell a refrigerator, a couch, a desk, office chair, filing cabinet, 2 bookcases, and 3 paintings.  They are very organized here and I was able to contact the cashier over a walkie-talkie to tell her when a customer was still shopping, but wanted to purchase an item.  This way, there was a hold put on it until he/she was ready to go to the register.  Everyone there seemed very nice and they all loved the brownies we brought in.  They were all gone by the end of the day.  No photos today, but I will try to take some of the store tomorrow.  This is a medium sized store - not a large as the Florida one, but many times bigger than the one in Colorado.  The weather is very pleasant - 50 to low 80's each day and never a chance of rain.  I can see why some people retire here, but it is way too busy for me.  I think we found a different route on the way home today.  We will try for a similar one tomorrow on the way in because I-10 is a nightmare - always busy, but bumper to bumper this afternoon.  We took the frontage road for about 5 miles so could see the snarled mess on the highway.