We arrived at our seasonal site here in Quartzsite on 19 October, and we are planning on leaving for the holidays on 4 November. Short, but between the high temperatures this summer in the Southwest and our truck problems, we just couldn’t get here earlier. But we are getting nicely settled. In addition to visiting friends like I mentioned in the last post, I have been able to go to a quilt guild meeting. I tried to go to two of them, but they were re-doing the parking lot at the Senior Center where we meet. After I missed the one, I just cut out the majority of a quilt kit I have had for probably 4-5 years! It is a nice one that uses a French Braid block design. I got the first braid done at the guild meeting this week. As you can see from the picture, that is one big block! There will eventually be 5 braids with sashing and borders. I waited to cut the sashing and borders until I know I could make this and keep it straight, but this first braid looks good.
The braid will get trimmed so as to make all those odd edges straight. This method wastes a small amount of fabric, but keeps the pieces from having to handle Y-seams on bias edges, something that should be avoided at all costs IMHO! And if you don’t know what I just said, think yourself blessed LOL.
We took a great RZR ride out to the mountains and mining area behind Dome Rock BLM dispersed camping area. This is one of my favorite areas because of the numerous historic mines, the (fewer) mines still in operations, and the scenery.
The Goldeye Mine is particularly interesting. The claim holder has subdivided the claim and rented out the pieces. There must be enough residual gold to make it worthwhile, but that particular part of the area is really busy. I should have gotten some pictures, but I didn’t.
While we had beautiful weather for our RZR ride, we had about 24 hours of almost solid rain beginning yesterday. With 1.25” being reported, this is a LOT of rain for the desert here. This is on top of the 3” or so that fell 6 weeks or so ago that caused a lot of damage at our RV park and in town. The saguaros are all fat and happy now, and the ocotillos are completely green with new leaves. The ocotillos had a big die off due to the 3-4 year drought here, and the segmented cacti (Teddy Bears mostly) are almost all dead. So it was a real treat to see them so healthy. I sure wish I had a picture of them too.
The rain made all the local washes run. Most of the ones in the area end up in Tyson Wash, a big one that runs through town on its way to the Colorado River somewhere near Parker, AZ. Here is a short video showing what the normally bone dry wash looked like today.
https://youtu.be/iQbr-WTtXFM?feature=shared
On Saturday I started attending a new ukulele Zoom group, Silver Thread Ukes. It is nice because the leader talks about what strum patterns are good with the songs she goes through. I also attend a Zoom group out of Australia, the Melbourne Ukulele Community, on Sunday afternoons. Recently he has been having short tutorials on techniques like hammer ones and pull offs. Today’s topic was slides! Good stuff. Alternate Wednesdays are the Des Moines Ukulele Society Zoom.This is the only one that gives us the chord sheets and lyrics in advance. And tomorrow I will get to attend the first rehearsal this season of the Greater Quartzite Ukulele Orchestra. Of course, I forgot my music! But since I won’t be at their Christmas concert I will just look over someone else’s shoulder for this single rehearsal. So yes, I have been playing a lot.