Quilting Board Secret Santa

I belong to a quilting board : Missiouri Star Quilt Company where I joined a Secret Santa gift exchange group.  Each month had a theme that we could follow-or not and our gifts did not need to be hand made nor did they have to be all about quilting/sewing.

I did follow the monthly theme suggestions, made most of mine and most can be used for quilting and or sewing and here they are.

January and February

January was to be something that reminded us of winter, I put together home made greeting cards using shots of winter scenes that I had taken.

 February was something sweet, I gave a charm pack titled Sweetwater.

March and April

March was wind-Blowing in the wind garden flag

April was Spring-Farmers Markets begin, use this little carry all for your shopping necessities

 May and June

May-Extension of Spring, A potholder for your picnic dish

June-Summer, A sleeve for your water glass filled with lemonade

 July and August

July-Pride in your Country, Region or State-This is nothing to be proud of but we are a country of Big Mac eaters (The gift is a Fat Quarter Pounder and holds 4 fat quarters)

August-Back to School Supplies, a few supplies for quilting and sewing

 September and October

September-Fall, It's getting cooler out time to enjoy a nice coffee blend (the fabric that the gift is made of) while chatting on the phone with your friends all the while keeping your cell phone safe as can be.

October-Time to get back to quilting, Here's a quilt label for your next project.

 November and December

November-Get that Christmas shopping started and 'wrap it' in this

December-Have a wine lover on your list?  If so now you have the perfect wrap for the gift.

The swap was fun to do and I am anxious to see what I receive in return.  Even so I likely will not participate next year because I find myself taking on too many projects during this time of year.....I'm a little behind oye.

Riding The Desert

These two are nightly visitors, even with the dogs raising a frenzy.  They (the burros) seem to be more curious about the yapping things then fearful.

This is momma burro right up to the our dog fence wondering where supper is I am sure

She has taught her little one well-sit up to the table and wait patiently.

Gail and Neil I posted the above pictures just for you two.

Now on to exploring the desert.  David has been out often on his own, almost daily and loves it, we both do.  Yesterday I realized that even though I thought it would be great opportunity for picture taking (and it can be) the ultimate is just the wind in my face, seeing what rock or hill we can climb-get over or go down and spending time with my best friend and husband.  Getting a picture is a bonus.

Having said that I have gotten a few.  This is one that David took while on a solo ride.  He said this scorpion was the size of his hand...YUCK I so hate spiders.

Our neighbor has been schooling us on where to go and what to see.  In order to get us to the now vacated mining town he gave us the landmark of 'you will go past horse-head mountain'.  

This is what David thought was horse head mountain-he even outlined to me what was the head of the horse...I do not see it do you?

I said THIS had to be horse head mountain.  I can totally see a horse head on the left side with an ear sticking but I couldnt explain what it's nose was connected to....

On our way back home we ran into a couple of seasoned riders who showed us where the real horse head mountain was....why yes I see it now.

We made it to the 'once was a' mining town and of course David had to waddle inside to see what he could see.  Me?  I think not-this is snake country and what a great place for them to curl up.

The bags here were sample bags taken from different areas of the mine.  We have not a clue if what is in them is there because it is no good or why they were left.

Need I say more-David elected to heed the warning with this building

It's always nice to see a pop of color this time of year and the red of these cacti was stunning.

We were also told about the grave of an old miner by the name of John Pritt who died back in the late 1800's.  We seriously just stumbled onto his grave-site having no intention of trying to find it on that particular ride.

On our way to a not so long ago but fallen down farmsted we found this.  It happens to be the Copper Canyon Reservoir that gives LA it's water.  Why LA which is so far away and not here?  We have no clue. 

 

You see alot of these-old mining shafts and of course David has to explore each and every one...good gosh man do you not know what could be lurking in those scary dark holes!  Remember that scorpion in the wash...hello!

We had no idea where we were going we were just following the trails but we ran right into a group of jeepsters (well two were jeeps two were hummers).  We crashed their party and followed them through the difficult part of our journey.  Narrow paths with canyons on either side, huge rocks to crawl over etc etc.  We were both in awe at what these jeeps could do.  These were no jeeps like we had, these babies were set up to handle the tough road ahead!  

Here is a for instance.  It may not look like much from the picture but there were huge boulders to traverse.

He had to gun it a bit but made it up-

 Again-this does not look as steep as it actually was but take my word for it.  This is the kind of stuff that is totally fun-as long as we are buckled in and helmeted up.

After we left the jeepsters in our dust (they actually stopped for lunch as did we and yakked a bit), we finally made it to the homested.  I could have spent much more time here exploring but my knee was getting sore making it hard to walk much less hike.  Jan if you are reading this, these are the times that I always think of you-this is the stuff we so enjoyed doing together.

 This was, quite likely, where horses or some other animals were kept.  We found a few of these and a pile of cement that must have been the house at one time.

You find lots of cool looking rusted out cars and trucks in the desert-they make for great pictures.

I cant remember what David said this was but Chrissy, he said Brent really needs to come on out ;) 

Yep thus far we are happy with our new toy and even I am feeling comfortable going out on our own.

And then just because I thought they were kinda cool-these are the clouds that were bubbling up from behind the mountains behind our park at sunset.

After Two Rides We Are Officially Indoctrinated

Our very first desert ride was with Dive and a few friends in the desert of Wenden.  It was a good break in ride, pretty darned dusty but no rocks or mountains to climb.

We ate Dive's dust on the entire trip-goodness knows he made sure there was enough of it ;)

Someone thought this would make a good photo op.  I guess you don't realize how tall the saguaro cactus is until it's seen in a photo like this.

David stopped long enough to let me get a picture of the desert

Just a place to stop and BS I guess.

That was our first ride and it was fun, we were ready to explore the deserts of Parker and Earp.
Our park here in Parker is sort of separated into four groups of people One group has the boat people, most are kind of uppity sorry to say and tend to totally stick together.  Another group is just your regular, 'we come here to relax and enjoy and don't really have any toys' group.  Needless to say that is where we have parked in the past and loved it.  And then there is the desert group.  They actually physically congregate at the end of the park so that they can ride their four wheeler etc across the road into the desert.  In CA you are not allowed to ride on BLM land (which is what the park is on).  The riders park where they do because it is a very short distance to the desert and they can just slowly ride rather than trailer their ATV's.  This group is also pretty tightly knit but so not 'uppity' as the boat people and it is where we parked this year hoping to break into the group.
It turns out one of the group played pool with David last year and invited us to ride with them yesterday...yay we are in but oh my what a ride.

This is how we started out-looks pretty harmless right?  Much like our Wenden ride.  Pffft do not be fooled, see those mountain-that's where we were headed.

We went up....

 

And up BTW this was not the steepest hill we traveled and by far not the roughest.

What goes up must come down-very carefully at that.  Pretty narrow and rocky but the old Cammi did just fine....here...

I say she did fine 'here' because it was on a decline-a very narrow path-ed decline with shear dangerous edges on both sides-that the Cammi's back wheels (on my side BTW) began to slip over the edge.  Good gosh we couldn't get her back on the trail and I wondered if we were gonna go down, David wondered the same he later told me.  He finally got her driven up on the driver's side edge enough so that the back wheels on  my side were back on the path.  I'm not sure if my knuckles have recovered even yet from hanging on so tight!  Once we caught up with the rest of the pack they said they thought that one was a little narrow!  Our cammi is three inches wider than their Razors and three inches means a lot sometimes.  Phew says I .

We were both surprised at how much water we ran across (and through).  

We rode to the sand dunes and in them.  The guys had to try their luck getting up this huge dune.  Too much air in the tires and not a one made it-

This is David and cammi giving it a try.

One always needs to stop and contemplate new strategies.

I didn't get a lot of pictures because I couldn't remove my hands from the safety bar much of the time.  I wasn't scared (except for tires off of the path time) but it was darned bumpy and or steep but oh so danged much fun.  The guys said, numerous times, is this really your first ride in the mountains-you did great. Apparently our leader, Bob who is 72 years old mind you, is known for taking the most challenging trails.  In fact one of the wives wont go along when Bob is at the helm.  Me, I will go anytime.

Fall Festival

Fall festival at Grandma and Grandpa's house.

The pumpkin patch did produce pumpkins, not so big and not so many but the girls were excited to pick their own and really did not care how big or how many there were.

The rain stopped just in time to head to the patch (after a great brunch at the Whiskey River).

Daddy was sent into the patch while the girls directed him to the pumpkins- 'Over there daddy over there is one'.

And then it was the ole 'toss and catch' game.  Too muddy to be walking back and forth I guess.

The last one to be had.  The patch is looking pretty darned healthy with the recent rains.  I wouldn't be a bit surprised if a few more pumpkins popped out yet..unless the weather turns too cold of course.

Deciding who is going to claim which pumpkin.

They must be washed off-down to the water spiket we go with pumpkins in hand

Daddy brings up the rear

This really was so much fun...probably more so for David and I than the girls.

Shelby has become my model, she is always willing to pose for the camera.

All washed and loaded ready for the Leonard's front step 

The girls and I had an awesome night at their house last night and today was just as fun-we so love this business of being grandparents.

St Peter Dog Park

It was during a hot humid spell and I just couldn't bring myself to walk the dogs-it's during weather like this that I am thankful for our dog park.

After a bit of hesitation, Peanut made friends with this huge but playful fella.  His owner was told that he was going to be 45 pounds max...so much for that, he is likely closer to 90 but is one big ole hunk of playfulness.

In fact he wore Peanut right out.

 They both took a few minutes to catch their breath

Peeko and David got tired just watching the two romp

 And then it was doggie pile time-the itty bitty one on the bottom, not minding at all, is Rosco.

It was a nice hour spent on a hot humid day.