Week Five

 Week Five

Week five is a wrap! I thought it might be fun to start the post with a little desert foliage information. Now, I may not have all my facts correct, but I did fact check everything on Google, so it has to be correct, right? 😄

Let's start with my favorite, the Saguaro Cactus. What an amazing cactus! They grow extremely slowly, like an inch every TEN YEARS! It can take 50-100 years to grow ONE ARM! Honestly, it kind of boggles the mind. Some of these beauties that I am surrounded by could be over two hundred years old!

The next cactus that I love is the Joshua Tree. It is actually not a tree or a cactus. It is a succulent. These also grow extremely slowly, although a bit faster than the Saguaro. From what I have learned, these gorgeous plants can live to be over 500 YEARS OLD! When you have a minute, read up on the Joshua Tree, it's history is pretty cool. 

The Ocotillo is not the prettiest plant out here, let me just tell ya. BUT, from what I have read, in early Spring they have beautiful red flowers that attract hummingbirds. Well! What do you know? Now I know what attracted my little friends to this area!

The Blue Palo Verde is all over the place out here. The burros love them for the shade they provide. At least, I think they do. I see them under them all the time. I also think they like to eat the bark. Most of the trees that I have seen are missing quite a bit of bark, like something chewed on it. Just a guess. 

Now, the beast of all cactus! The Jumping Cholla. Be aware! If you click on that link, it's a bit scary! These blood thirsty cacti are vicious! They have barbed spines that "jump" onto people and animals, and if you don't have some needle nose pliers, good luck getting them off of you! It will literally fight back when you try to dislodge it from whatever body part it has sunk it's "teeth" into. My advice...STAY VERY FAR AWAY FROM THEM! YIKES!

OK, that's it for the foliage lesson this week 🌵.

Let me give you a brief run down of what we were up to (other than running around the desert taking pics of all my favorite desert plants!). Sunday was a football day, obviously. On Monday, I cleaned. And let me tell you, one of my dear friends told me before I left, that she was jealous because I wouldn't have to spend forever cleaning in the fifth-wheel. WRONG! The amount of dust and dirt out here is astronomical. Go figure, we are living in the desert 😎. I cleaned for at least three hours and still did not get everything done. 

On Tuesday we drove to Parker (again) to wash our comforters and sheets and do some shopping for Christmas dinner. 

The washers in the laundromat were not big enough to handle our comforters, so that was a bust. We drove across state lines into Cali (home, sweet home!) for a hot minute. We may be heading that way for a longer visit after the first of the year (yay!). Saw a cool railroad bridge that we had seen on YouTube with a guy we follow, RVERTV. He has really good videos about boondocking AND he makes us laugh. 

The rest of the week was pretty non-eventful. We did go to Wickenburg on Thursday to make a quick (four hours!) grocery run and Gary needed to go to the hardware store. 

Sage is doing so good! She is really getting good around people and loves to make new friends. I wanted to give a little plug for her harness, which I love! She is a BIG girl (98 pounds when she was weighed at the vet after her "episode") and this fits her perfectly. She is very easy to control when we have it on. I bought it on Amazon and here is the link.

The other collar that I absolutely could not live without is the Vizpet glowo in the dark collar! So awesome! It is PITCH DARK out here at night, and when Sage has to go, Sage has to go! This thing is a life saver and super affordable!

Dillon flies in on Monday and I am counting the days! It is going to be so awesome having him here with us for Christmas 💓.

Okie dokie, that's it for now. I sure miss everyone! Hope you all have a Merry Christmas and I will talk at ya later. Please share with anyone you think might enjoy reading about our Big Adventure, and leave a comment. Remember, I don't have a lot of people to talk to out here! I'd love to hear from you! 

Thanks for reading,

Gary and Lynn