tales from a far-land

We thought the monsoon rain was the end of our pool troubles, but the rain brought an onslaught of caterpillars.  They were everywhere.  We must have had thousands -- in our pool, on the bocce court and in our backyard.  Josh spent an entire day trying to save the caterpillars from drowning in our pool.  Our dogs loved eating them and when they did the caterpillars emitted an awful smell and green goo.  It was disgusting and insane.  In fact, this was such a phenomenon, that the local news station came out to our house and did a story on the entire predicament.  The story can be found here --  AZ Family News Clip . In our pool In the yard On the bocce court On the news

Every summer, Phoenicians look forward to the monsoon season. Per the National Weather Service, monsoon season in Phoenix is June 15 through September 30, however, most of the time the storms do not start until late July or early August. This year was no exception. The monsoon rains in August were insane. Some of the craziest storms that we have ever experienced. One such storm occurred during the evening of August 13th at around ten o'clock at night. Here is the storm report from the National Weather Service for this particular evening: Storm Report for August 13-14, 2021  Impacts: Localized wind damage, widespread heavy rains, numerous instances of flash flooding and unfortunately loss of life.>Strong to severe thunderstorms moved through central and southwest Arizona during the late evening hours of August 13, 2021 and into the morning hours of August 14, 2021. An unusually humid airmass was in place, fueling the thunderstorms and allowing them to produce very heavy rainfall....

For the past ten months, our backyard has undergone a huge renovation.  We wanted to create a backyard that embodied our family's attitudes and ideals.  We want our kids to have a place where they can be kids -- to run, jump, and play all year round.  We also love to entertain, so we wanted a backyard that would fulfill this goal as well. We spent many months searching for the right contractor to create our dream backyard.  And after much negotiation and company interviews, we decided to sign a contract with  California Pools & Landscape .  So, in August 2015, the backyard demolition and renovation began.  Throughout the next ten months, our project progressed.  We did have some challenges along the way.  Our project was overseen by three different Construction Managers, which created some transitional issues as they didn't always know the entire background of the project.  We also experienced weather and permit delays.  And l...

This past March we received a couple of days of abnormally consistent rain.  As you know, we live on the side of a mountain and had recently placed some dirt/sand on the top of our driveway inour backyard.  Well, as you can imagine, after a night of full rain, we woke up the next morning to find a dirt/sand pile streaming down our driveway.  A couple of days later when Josh had time to shovel up the dirt/sand to put it back in their original piles, wouldn't you know that Aiden wanted to help Daddy with this chore.  He grabbed his toy shovel and started to assist Josh in cleaning up all of the dirt.  I am not sure if Josh found him helpful or if Aiden just made more of a mess.  Either way, it was very cute to watch a father and son working side by side to clean up the mess.

In the past two years, we have had an abundance of different animals that have visited our backyard.  Our regulars include coyotes, quail, bunnies, a woodpecker, roadrunners, and of course, a couple of scorpions that make their showing in our house. A Quail on the Playset A Visiting Coyote -- at our Fenceline Bunnies in our Yard   However, when springtime arrives, our backyard becomes more active like a little zoo.  We have a couple more visitors that like to make our backyard their home.  Plus, some of our regulars have babies and bring them to visit us as well. Baby Quails with their Mommy   About twice a year, we have a Mommy bird that lays an egg on one of our columns under our patio.  And then for about two months, she watches over her nest while we await the birth of her baby.  It is really amazing to watch the entire nature story unfold.   The Family Photo -- Baby bird born this week ...