Wednesday - Paving Begins!

Happy Halloween!

It is always exciting to watch the flowers being planted.  It is like planting the seeds for another fun filled adventure at winter camp for us seniors.  A fresh beginning of another season.

 

Our landscape crew never rests.  Now they have a new ballfield to help maintain.  Here is a worker edging the new grass so it looks even prettier.

 

 

More excitement!  Paving begins this morning.

 

The hot asphalt arrives by the truck load and is spread and compressed.

 

Rolled and compacted.  

 

Electrical boxes for the whole complex are being installed.

 

Here's Ryan again......chief cook and bottle washer for this whole project!  He's pretty camera shy but I'm persistent.  

 

Ryan says his wife saw my comment about a good looking young hunk and now gives him a hard time about it.  Glad to hear it!  She should be very proud of her catch as he has done a fantastic job on this massive project.

 

Watch Don's video showing how the paving is done.  His video editing skills are becoming quite polished.

PAVING BEGINS!

 

 

 

Speaking of good looking young men...........say hello to Ashton!  I was elated to have the chance to tell him how much we appreciated his investment in our "home".

 

 

Finishing the wall construction over by the dumpster area.

 

This is the first time I got to watch them SAW the bricks to make exact fit.

 

And then there is my daily FUN photo or cartoon.  As we drove down Oasis, we saw Manson working on his fancy golf cart.  It must be annoying to be one of my friends because you never know when I'll show up with camera in hand.  Smile Manson.

 

 Have a Spooky Fun Day!

Tuesday

It was actually pretty quiet out there this morning.  Most of the work now is cleaning up and leveling off.  The asphalt trucks are due to start pouring the streets later today or tomorrow.  

Today they poured concrete where the dumpsters will be located.

 

 

We could see someone out on the ballfield measuring the distance to the bases so we walked out to see what was going on.  (We still have Jim's permission to walk out on the pickleball courts for photos but don't try walking out there or you'll get chased off.  Strict safely rules are being understandably enforced.)

We met Ken Ziediel.  I immediately knew he was from Canada when he spelled his name with a "zed" instead of a Z.  Ken explained how the bases were installed.  He also mentioned the special kind of soil (gravel, grit or whatever its called) that will be spread along the warning track.  It will be similar to the infield mix but not nearly as expensive.  The posts for the dugouts are now being installed.

Ken is very camera shy so don't tell him his picture is on the blog.
(Hi Ken)

 

Monday night was the first bingo session of the season.  We had a nice turnout for October.  Congratulations and thank you to Flo Fillipi for all the work she has done in acquiring an additional license for Palm Creek.

 

Cute little MaryAnn Brown got to yell BINGO twice last night including the final black out game.  I wonder what she had for breakfast that morning that made her so lucky!

 
*****************

There may still be tickets available for the October 31 Halloween dance.  Costumes are not required.  Dance starts at 7pm with DJ Larry Pazier.  FREE popcorn.  

Here come the flowers!

Yes!  When you see a truck like this one in the parking lot, you know it has to be a good sign.  Here come the flowers!

Trays and trays of flowers to make our park even more beautiful.

Once they're planted, they grow quickly stretching up to soak in our Arizona sunshine.

I popped in to say hello to the Mahjong players last week.  I tried to learn this game at one time but gave up after a few tries.  The tiles have weir names...bangs, sticks, bams....or something like that.  Once you know how to play, it seems to be addictive as the participants certainly enjoy the game.

 

 

 

The gardens are doing really well.

 

 

 

The first 12 pickleball courts are drawing near completion.

 

Future drinking fountain.....there will be three of them.

 

The ballfield is a beautiful green.

 

 

Now we're just prepping for the asphalt trucks to pave the streets.  Everything seems to be right on schedule for the November 8 opening.  Congratulations to everyone involved for a massive team effort on such a huge project.

Painting the stripes

Here's Don's video so you can watch how the white stripes are added to the pickleball courts.

Striping the Courts

Friday

Whoa....fall is high season for spiders as we all know from the volumes of them climbing around on our houses.....but look at the monster we found out on Cole Circle this morning.  I hope Jane and Howard Dinsmore have a leash on this critter.  To Jane--thanks for sharing the decorations and putting us in the holiday spirit.

 

 
The railing is up along Cottonwood.  Looks like they're ready for asphalt on the street.

 

Surfacing work continues at the courts.

 

Here come the stripes.

 
Don will post some video later today showing how they do this so check back later.

 
Softball field back fence.  Careful fellas.  Looks kind of scary for the guy working below.

 

 

 

The back nine is really looking lush and green.

 

And look at this temperature!  What a beautiful morning!!!  I love it!!!

 

Don and Carol Hirst from Site 646 sent this photo.  The roadrunner hops up on his railing and pecks on the glass door to say Good Morning.  How awesome is that!!  

 

I copied the next two photos from the Palm Creek Facebook page.  This is the portable food station Linda Balzan and staff will be using out near the new pickleball courts and softball field.  

 
This portable unit will work just fine until a real concession stand can be built.  We'll just have to rough it for this season. 

 

Here's more of the behind the scenes maintenance work that we never think about.  Neil and Luis tackle the job of cleaning and maintaining the lighting systems.  Thanks, Guys!

 

 

***************

Those of us in the pet section may enjoy this cartoon:

Have a great day......but don't drink and fly!