Salsa and Soul: October 2010

Back in February 22, 2010, we xeiscaped our yard with mulch. Now it seems like years, we are doing it again. Just adding a little more color to the yard to accent the house and roses. Mason, on friday, Oct. 22, with the help of his neighbor, Steve and his son, Ashton hauled 5 yards of dyed black mulch from 9am to 3pm. This was all done in spite of the forecast for 30% chance of rain during the day (which didn't even happen), but the breeze was cool and very overcast. Idea day to work. Here are some photo's of what the yard was like in February (First 4 photo's) and to what it looks like now. Still Mason has to add about a yard of crushed granite to our trees and hedges and eventually cement to our stepping stones Next project as soon as we get more $ lol. Without Steve and Ashton, we saved about $200.00 in delivery charges for those 3 separate loads of mulch.

these 4 pictures are of the front of the house

we need to replace this granite

We have been so busy traveling since our last update in August. Here are a few pictures from several of our trips: Denver,CO - visiting Catherine; Cheyene WY - visiting Doug, Dee and their girls, Buffalo, NY (including Niagara Falls), Mississauga and Toronto Canada - visiting our friends Adelaide and Pasquale Maietta whom we met on our transaltlantic cruise; , New Jersey -visiting Mark's family, Little Rock - at a funeral for Mason's grandniece and w/his nephew and family; , Marengo, Ill (NW of Chicago at Audrey's farm where we did a lot of harvesting, etc. In between there Sylvia was also able to go to Belen, NM to visit w/her mom and roast and peel and chop and freeze 3 sacks of green chile and to go to N Dallas (Plano and Allen) to visit w Ernie, Kelly and kids and Simon, Alice and their kids.

We are now home and will do a little babysitting here before we set out again. Brianna will be needing me the first week of Nov as she travels to OKC and Ernie will need a little help while Kelly goes on a girls' cruise the 2nd week.

The weekend before Thanksgiving, we are going to cater a small wedding for our friends from church: Eddie and Nancy - anything goes from then on. We would still like to make a trip to San Jose to visit w/Reiad and Nancy and get to meet their new grandson.

So who said retirees don't do anything? On top of that we are working on our yard - Mason is takng out weeds and putting in mulch and trying to stay on top of things like mowing, watering, etc and Sylvia is still cooking, cooking and more cooking and now is teaching sewing to our neighbor boy (9yrs old). They have almost completed a quilt together.

So here are a few pictures: