Using scaffolding to trim palm tree

My husband uses scaffolding to get up high enough to cut the dead palm fronds off the palm trees in our back yard. I took this picture of him as he laid down to rest for a short bit. It's a lot of hard work to maintain the palm trees. I appreciate him for his ability to work hard.

Gardening in pots

This cute red and teal shelving unit I moved out front. I had it on my back porch for a couple years. My back porch doesn't get any sun so I moved it where it could be more of use.

I recently started planting Succulents in pots since my front porch gets full sun almost all day. Not sure if I'll keep these all out front in the upcoming months, especially the smaller pots. I enjoy looking at the pots through my window.


A smile bicycle planter.


Look how pretty the climbing rose bush is. Only in the spring does it flower.


My red bicycle planter has has sunflowers growing. These are the smaller varieties.


My adorable bird pot.





Aloe Vera with Baby Sun Rose.


Portulacaria afra, "Elephant Bush" with more Baby Sun Rose.






This is a pretty arrangement with a decoration from Hobby Lobby.




Lavender (smells so good).


Jalapeno Pepper plants that I forgot to water yesterday. So they were drying up on bottom.


These two pits have a mixture of things including oleander, sunflowers, vinca flower, and elephant bush.


Oleander and elephant bush.


Grow bags with lavender and some with sunflowers.


Sunflowers.


A creative way to grow more elephant bush.


We do have two large garden beds with a drip system and other areas in the back yard and front yard on a drip system. Plus many pots using a drip system. All together my husband I have spent countless hours pitting it all together. I just seem to want to keep growing things so I have many pots that I have to water by hand. I love it all but it is very time consuming and my lower back at times screams out in rebellion.

Hanging succulent

I have growing in my front yard and in many pots Portulacaria afra, "Elephant Bush". This succulent is amazing. Cuttings easily grow and can handle any weather in Mesa, Arizona.

A few years back I bought the tin with stars at a thrift store. I spray painted it red. I had it in my backyard but really had no purpose for it. I had this idea pot in my head to grow the succulent in it. 

I put sand in the bottom of the tin.

Looks cute hanging in front of my lady banks rose, my climbing rose. 

It is fun to be creative and add color to my gardens and outside my house. I like that I now have a purpose for the red star tin.

Garden decor

I love my red bike planter.

I adore my table and chairs from American Furniture Warehouse. On top is succulents. One is a blue ceramic snail pot and the other is a small polka dot water can. Both are lovely. I love lots of color.


This is my owl succulent pots in a pot from Ross.

I actually had the succulents on the table but decided to put them in the larger pot with soil to help keep them moist. Succulents may not need watered as often but as hot as it gets here in Mesa, Arizona, they do dry out fast.

Hiking at Lost Dutchman State Park

Jason was awesome and agreed to go hiking with me. We went to Lost Dutchman, which is my favorite place to hike. It’s nice to see snow where you don’t normally do not. It was a beautiful day and a beautiful hike.

Hiking Cottonwood Trail 120

Three days in a row we hiked and to finish our hiking experience this last weekend we hiked 4.65 miles and ventured a 911 feet elevation gain. We were on a trail and and merged onto the forest service road. The road was super steep at some parts that even going back down was tricky.

It was chilly so Jason were his leather jacket. He probably never thought he'd wear a leather jacket on a hike but it was the only one he had.

This picture showed part of the road we conquered with a great view of Roosevelt Lake. 

 We saw a cave that made us wish we had binoculars.

These cows were frightened by us and were going uphill to scramble away.

Jason and I enjoyed our hike. We were thankful for jackets since it was cold outside and by the time we were near done it started raining. We were so thankful it didn't start raining while we had to far to go.

Tonto National Monument: Lower and Upper Cliff Dwellings

Lower Cliff Dwellings. A short half mile hike to see them.

 You can see on the ceilings of the dwellings you can see the black from their fires from 700 years ago.

A larger room with an amphitheater.

On the right is a fire pit.

Just a pretty view of Roosevelt Lake.

 The Lower Cliff Dwellings have Park Ranger stationed there at all times while open. The one that was there was very friendly and answered all our questions and talked about the history.

My good looking husband.

This picture is from the parking lot. 

This is a model of the Lower Cliff Dwellings in the museum/visitor center.

The Upper Cliff Dwellings

A spectacular view of Roosevelt Lake.

 Most of the dwelling is protected from the mountain but this part is not. So it is being worked on. It has a temporary buttress holding up the wall. The tour guide said she misses getting to go into the rooms that are now roped off. Hopefully someday you can view that side.

A large room for gathering.

This is the remnants of a ceiling.

The tour guide said this was maybe was a way to hold water.

A Javelina bone.

The Mexican Poppy was showing off their beauty.

Jason and I learned a lot and had a good time exploring the Lower and Upper Cliff Dwellings. With the Lower Cliff Dwelling you walk up at your own pace. It is a short but steep hike up to view the dwelling. 

The Upper Cliff Dwelling was led by a guided tour and the only way you can hike up to see it. It was neat with a hike that was a little over 500 FT elevation gain. It's good for people that hike on a regular basis. Jason and I liked it but wish we didn't have to stop many times. The tour guide stopped many times to talk about plants and cactus or to let others catch up. On the way down we were able to go at our own pace and that was nice.

We definitely will tour them both again when we bring our daughters. We enjoyed learning the history of the people that lived in the dwellings.