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Ron and Terry go fulltime

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Sunday October 29

(by Ron)
Ok here we go again... trying to grow tomatoes in the winter in AZ, 
but now we plan to do it upside down. 

What do you think of the bracket off the front 5er hitch? Think we can hang a tomato from it?
And you ask why? Might work better for a clothes line but for now it's for growing hanging plants. 
I came up with hanging a plant from the hitch and Terry came up with the design.
(Notice we lock our stabilizer 5er hitch so you can't just back up and drive away with our home.)

First need to cut a hole in the bottom of the bucket. Insert the tomato plant and 
fill with potting soil. I had Terry spray paint the bucket white so it would look better. 
We will add the bucket lid later to keep the water evaporation in check. 
Never know it might rain in the desert and flood the roots.

The poor tomato plants (we used two) look a little sad blowing in the breeze, hope they recover. 
The two plants are Early Girl with fruit about 2-3 " and ripen in 52 to 62 days. 
Will need to get a wind shield placed around it real soon. Can't wait to see the blankets we drape 
over this contraption when it gets cold next month. Last year we had to take our regular upright standing 
cherry tomato plant indsie at night. What a pain that was.
See how it hangs from the above bracket. Don't worry if you just don't get what we are doing. 
Many more pictures in days to come you can be sure. 
If you missed our tomato growing stories from last year go below and click 
on GO HOME and go to last years winter posts. Also lots of info on Q in last years posts.

For more info on doing this upside thing go to: Growing Tomatoes Upside Down?
 An Alternative Garden Plan    By Kathi Morristo 

Monday October 30

We made a few adjustments to our hanging tomato plant setup. 
I noticed today that it was not getting late afternoon sum.  Sooooo.
We added an extension so it would hang a little futher out to get more sun. 

You should see the people who drive by and look, wondering what the hell is protruding out in front of our 5er. 
All they have to do is stop and ask!   You just have to find ways to have fun in the desert!
Great weather gets old. 


 

Looking good, even starting to bend for the sun.

As you can see we are ready for that first great campfire when the campfire ban is lifted on Nov. 1.
Can't wait to light our three new TIKI torches!!!  Need to get to town and get more pallets to add to our firewood pile.
 Can't have enough firewood... except last year we did give several away when we took off. 
Not this year I intend to have great campfires. We also have a bunch of regular firewood we collected 
on the way down from abandoned state park campsites where we stayed. 
I love the picnic table, it adds SO much to the comforts of the site. 
The Palo Verde tree adds much needed shade in the afternoon. 
Terry is checking out why the hummingbird feeder is leaking. I took a little super glue and that was that.
Now it hangs in a close by branch. 
On Tuesday AM we are going on a field trip with the rock club to see if we can find agate, jasper, and petrefied wood. 
They make a day of it, and we take lunch and drive back into the desert outback where this stuff can be found.
Some of these trips have up to 60 vehicles in the caravan. Very popular events.
Last year on back desert roads we got a rock between our dully back tires and had to buy a new one. 
Ouch! Over $200 bucks. We take it slow and easy now and check for stones between the tires at every chance we get.

Check out one of the filed trips we took last year. 
Or more links to other trips on the main rock club site.

The weather is perfect and just getting better...  How can that be??? 
Might be a tad bit warm in mid afternoon. But nice all night long. 
In December it will cool down when the sun goes down, so this is fantastic. 

Tuesday October 31

We are staying inside tonight, to Scaryout there for us, after a great sunset and now watching TV. 
Here in Q the town gets the kids together and takes them around town in school busses to places 
that had signed up to receive them. Police cars and fire trucks with lights flashing go along with them. 
A fun tradition in this town. 
We took several bags of the NYTimes summers top selling books to the library today. 
They were busy decorating the place for the kids to wander through for a haunted house. 
We love giving to the Q library our summer reading collection. A great resource for this community. 
I am able to experience new reading materials and explore new authors all for free. 
Visit the Q library web site. One big reason I come back to Q for the winter season.
Terry is into the rock club big time and I started the rock club web site (now he can update it also).
We have met some good people, and it just feels like a winter home should.
I (Ron) am not that into gems and minerals, like Terry,  but the library is a BIG deal for me. 

Don't eat too much candy... share!
 

Wednesday November 1

Had the first campfire of the season tonight,  fire restrictions were lifted today, and we made the most of it.
It was a georgous day,  temps in the low 80's during the day, and very pleasant into the night.  We started our
fire about 5:30 and sat outside till well after dark.  The atosphere around the campfire was enhanced by the 
waxing moon, which is only a few days away from full, and it gave a lot of light on its own.

Picked up another load of firewood palletts today,  can't risk running out.  Now all we have to get done
is cut them up to uesable sizes.
 

Thursday November 2
 

Another perfect day in Quartzsite, A few high clouds, southern breeze and temps in low 80's,  we could get spoiled 
by this,  and probably are.  Looking like another night for a campfire,  must enjoy them when we can.  There is 
something about a fire that warms the spirit, and soothes the mind, staring into the heart of the fire and watching the
flames dance amoung the pcs of wood. We sat out most nights  last November with a fire, but got out of the habit
when things cooled off in December and Jan.  Could have had fires in Feb and Mar, but by then we were out of the
habit, it was our loss and we regreted it during the spring and summer.
 

Ron did his good deed for the day and fixed a friends computer, had to clean out an unwanted virus that hitched its
way in as an attachment.  That and a disc clean program and the lap top was up and running as expected, and Ron
is a hero for the day. Reinforces the number one rule of e mail-  never ever ever open attachements when you do not 
know for absolutly certain what is inside.

Friday November 3

(Ron Here)  We like Fridays I know,  I know, I am retired but it still seems like Friday is the start of the weekend.
We drove over to Blythe, CA for groceries and $90 bucks later we looked at each other in the parking lot pushing 
the cart to the truck and said we came for a few items and here we are with all this STUFF. 
We are running out of storage space for the can goods.

When we got back we helped our camping neighbor install his new DirecTV system. 
He also just got a new 2000 Honda generator. 

Had a small fire and now inside getting ready for Bill Maher on HBO. 
Another great day in Q. 
Also just sent an email to Bill Adams with INTERNET ANYWHERE and told him we wanted to upgrade 
our DataStorm internet system to the new HN7000s modems. 
 

Saturday November 4
by your roving reporter Terry

Things now change a little bit each day with the arrival of more vendors and Winter Arizonans.  Riding the bike 
about town today I noted that K & B Hdwe has opened for business.  They were still trying to get al the stock
out of the containers and on the shelves, but they were open.  They are one of the first to set up , and the last to 
close.  They carry a lot of hardware and rv items along with a lot of Chinese import stuff.

We've gotten a few items form them in the past,  not a lot, we have lowered our needs, but they come
in handy.

Behind K & B there is some construction activity,  looks like someone is getting ready to pour a concrete pad 
for a new building.  We will keep watching the progress and report back.  The light steel framed buildings 
that they use here in Quartzsite go up real fast, after the concrete is in.   What I am assuming will be the new building 
Diamond Pacific tools went up in two days from bare slab to complete building. 

Along Business 10 the antique/junk dealers are moving in.  Still a lot of room for more, and they will be arriving in
the next few weeks.

Since it was Saturday,  it must have been A Prairie Home Companion on Public Radio.  We do not have a 
public radio station in Quartzsite, but can get a web cast of the radio show from Minnesota Public Radio.  Using a
low power FM transmitter we can sit at our late afternoon campfire and hear the stories from Lake Woebegone
on the radio.

We lingered for some time at the campfire as dusk turned into night, and the full moon rose in the eastern 
sky,  We will have a full moon tonight and Sunday night, will be a chance for another relaxing campfire. Topped 
the evening off with a light simple supper,  cheese burgers, homemade potato salad and canned baked beans,
nothing gourmet, will have to do better tomorrow night.
 
 
 

Upcoming posts... Interviews with venders and local shops with pictures and their story.
The venders always came back year after year? Are they coming back this year? 
Many seasoned venders we know have gone to other loctaions. Is the climate in Q still friendy 
to the seasonal vender? Great change is going on in the vender areas, and Quartzsite overall. 
We plan to ask the questions and post what we find.  Stay tuned...

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