LIVING IN THE BED OF A PICKUP : Spring cleaning, spring planting…and of course, spring hiking!

Winter is over and summer is already in full swing at Nuestra Casa, our home in Mesa.

But spring is in the air at our cabin in Pine.

It's been over 100 days—and FINALLY, we are back at our cabin! We walked in the door and felt like we were home. Boy, are we happy here. We are so very lucky to have two beautiful homes that we both love. And each of our homes provides such a different experience in our lives.

We plan to spend most of our time during the hot Arizona months at our mountain cabin where the nights are cool and the days pleasantly warm. We will hike, head out for camping trips, cycle, play ping pong, dance, and have visits with our children, grandchildren, and family.

This past week week we played together and worked together to make the cabin more beautiful and ready to be truly our “home away from home.”

Dan repaired the fence that started to fall apart with the winter snowfall, and I re-stacked the wood pile that had come crashing down one day last winter.

Dan spent hours removing superfluous wires and an old security system that was no longer functioning. He striped wires from the outside of our log cabin and from underneath the house in the crawl space. Boy, it sure looks better!

Dan also removed the very ugly metal box and cut the wires that he believed were for the satellite dish the previous owners had. Unfortunately, these wires and box were for our new internet service. No harm done. Within hours the SuddenLink truck pulled into our driveway, and like magic the friendly technician had reconnected our internet. He didn’t even laugh at Dan. But he did make Dan come down off our porch to look at the new wires, and jokingly told him that these wires should not be cut.

We bought two sets of book shelves from antiques/collectibles shops in Pine, and Dan set to work organizing the shed and his model car supplies. This is now his Man Cave. He can have the shed as long as I get the cabin, especially the kitchen.

I got to try out the washer and dryer that my dear husband had installed in the shed. No more hauling our dirty clothes back to Mesa—thank you Dan!

I guess that since the washer and dryer are in his Man Cave, Dan can can now do the laundry. Hmmm.

The red dirt in these hills and in back of our cabin is clay. Hence, when it rains, we have to tread through a quagmire to get to our shed. So we had a dump truck full of rock delivered. It had to be hauled to our backyard—by wheelbarrow.

We claimed that we are too old for that kind of back breaking work, so we hired two young men to shovel, haul, and spread our new rocks in the backyard.

Our backyard before the rock:

Our backyard after the rock!

I planted manzanita, a native shrub that has tiny blossoms, in our front yard.

Manzanita grows into a large shrub with small green leaves that are a beautiful contrast to their red bark.

They grow with wild abandon in the mountain forests. Manzanita will look spectacular in front of our cabin.

Here are some manzanita bushes that we saw this week while hiking the Arizona Trail:

I also planted lupine seeds in the back yard. They are perennials and will blossom all spring and summer. Lupines are one of my very favorite flowers.

Dan worked on the Avanti model car that I had given him for his birthday. He is making an exact copy of the Avanti that he loved and drove for years. (Except this Avanti is in miniature and the engine won’t work.)

I worked on a baby blanket that I am knitting for our youngest grandchild….this new treasure is due to come into the world in October!

We relaxed on our deck in the afternoons and ate our dinners as the sun set. The young elk came by to welcome us home. Such serene sweet days and evenings….

We discovered that there was still snow up on the Mogollon Rim, and many of the forest roads were still closed.

See the snowman on the other side of the pond? Well, since we don’t do snow, we hiked on the roads and trails surrounding Pine. Pine is 1000’ below the rim, warmer, and all the snow has melted.

Candice is doing a solo self-supported hike on the Arizona Trail, 800 miles from Mexico to Utah. She is in her second week, about 100 miles south of Pine. We decided to hike the AZT near Pine in support of her effort. This is the photo we texted her.