Palm Tree Down

Down came the poor dead palm tree that was hit by lightning a few weeks ago.  The amazing structure of a palm tree becomes evident when you see how fibrous it is inside rather than consisting of the concentric circles like a regular hardwood tree.  The trunk also contains an amazing amount of water as witnessed by two of the photos below where you can see water dripping from the trunk as it is lifted away and by the large puddle it left on the street.  (Click on ‘view slide show’ to see each photo)

 

		Lightning Strikes VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

I hope I can next catch some photos of putting in a new tree!

 

Speaking of trees….here is a ‘before’ and an ‘after’ of the trimming process as seen from my front door.

Before

After

Speaking of trees:  We discovered all these holes in the palms by #9 pond.  Looks like Gila woodpecker holes.  Since palms are softer and more fibrous than normal trees, no one can hear the familiar rat-a-tat-tat of the drilling…but the holes remain.  The woodpeckers like to drill the holes in hopes that insects will move in and they’ll thus be building a ready food source.  Supposedly this doesn’t harm the palm tree.  I tried to research on google too.

 

Pickleball Addicts

Saw all these cars at the pickleball courts this morning as visitors from around the area come to play on our courts with our resident pickle gang.  The sport is definitely addictive and lots of fun. 

Tree Trimming

Time for the palms to get their annual haircut.

The annual trimming of ALL the palm trees in this park is a massive undertaking and is quite fascinating to watch.  I certainly don’t envy the crew whose job it is to pick up all those thorny branches though…..and what an exhausting back breaking job it must be in this triple digit heat.  They certainly earn a gold star for their efforts in keeping our park so beautiful.  I hope you get a chance to meet Jim Dawson, Fernando, and their whole crew when you return so you can let them know how much we appreciate their hard work.

Cute limerick from “The Frommes”

I was raised where we measured the snowfall.
Then I moved where we measured the rainfall.
Now I'm here where it's dry,
I don't really know why

'Cause it's hot and we're measuring dustfall.

Park Newsletter

After all the GOOD news about big business coming to Casa Grande

and the BAD  news about the insecurity of our federal government,

 

I hope conversations can simmer down to a calmer level.  Let’s get back to tidbits from around the park starting with the August newsletter.

 

Wow….in spite of all that, summer life goes on.  A few hardy cactus blossoms occasionally appear:

Wayne and Verna Sheppard hit it lucky when they planted this cactus as it seems to continually send forth blossoms year round.

 

Water aerobics continues:

Another house dons new solar panels:

Lou doesn’t like to spend time at her computer so I told her I’d post a picture to say “hi'” to her kids back home.

Don and I were out on rounds the other morning when I yelled “SNAKE”.  Upon further investigation, it was a plastic fooler but sure looked real as we were driving past.  Several folks have these plastic devils coiled up in their gardens.  It is always exciting to come upon one for the first time.  And before you ask:  No.  We’ve never seen a real snake inside the park in the six years we’ve lived here.

Whoever lives at 673 can chuckle and say “Gotcha”. 

New Vendor to introduce:

Our refrigerator’s ice maker went on the fritz last week so we had to call an appliance repairman.  Jeff from Jeff’s Appliance Repair came to the rescue again.  (He has been here before on a different repair.)  I want to add Jeff to our own personal list of approved vendors as he is such a nice young man hoping to expand his own business here in Casa Grande.  His service call was only $15.  You won’t find many businesses that will come to your house at that rate!  Jeff’s expertise is in home appliances like washers, dryers, refrigerators, microwaves, ranges, dishwashers, etc.  Keep his number handy in case you have need for that type of service.  520-431-1234     Jeff does have the liability insurance required by the park even though he doesn’t really need it since the work he performs is inside our homes.  I’ll add his name to my “recommended vendor” list at the top of the blog page.

I guess that’s all I have to write about for today so will sign off.

Day 2 of Expansion Announcement

If you haven’t been to this blog this week, you may want to scroll down and read the announcement from yesterday (August 5) first.  It is all about the big news of a huge ‘Phoenix Mart” coming to Casa Grande.  Read the instructions there also to be able to read the news articles.

 

BIG NEWS FOR CASA GRANDE!!!!

    BIG NEWS for casa grande!! 

 

TIP:  In order to read the small print, click on the picture to enlarge it.  Then hold down your ‘Control’ key and the ‘+’ plus key to enlarge the print.  OR if you have a scroll button on your mouse, you can hold down the ‘Control’ key and scroll the wheel.  To get back to regular print, use ‘Control’ and the ‘-‘ to make print small again.

Yakool Corp will also play a role at the outlet mall.

Follow this link for more details: Largest in North America

 

And……I also came across this letter to the editor you golfers may like to read.

Just More Dust

You may have heard about the lovely rain Phoenix and Tucson have been having……………..but we just get more DUST here.  <sigh>  Before the dust arrived yesterday afternoon, we could see lovely rain clouds on the horizon but they just seem to break up and go around us.  Casa Grande seems to be in a bit of a doughnut hole when it comes to weather.

I see they’ve started trimming the palm tree fronds already.  It is a massive project and will take quite a while.  I’ll try to get some better pictures when I catch up to the crew.  This morning I just snapped these photos because of the sad looking tree between sites 9 & 10 that was hit by the lightning.  I can see where the top is all splintered so I’m sure the tree will need to be replaced.  Should be fun to watch.  Hope I’m there with a camera when it happens.  Maybe if I bribe Fernando, he’ll give me a heads up when they’re ready.

BLOG LESSON

I’ve had readers ask where they can find the awesome photo of the big dust storm we had in July (donated by Diane Bedford) so here is a quick lesson on how to navigate this blog in more detail.

If you scroll down the right hand side of the blog just below the little white weather box, you’ll see the “Blog Archive” that lists the post titles by month and day and year.  If you click on the little gray arrow in front of the date, a drop down list will appear so you can see more detail.  When you see the title you are looking for, just click on it and the page will refresh and appear with the blog story you’re looking for.  In this case, you’ll see in big capital letters “MAJOR MASSIVE DUST STORM”.  Click on that and that day’s post will appear.  To save a copy of that photograph, just right click on it and choose “save picture as”.  A dialogue box will appear letting you save the photo onto your computer.  If you are using Windows Live Mail, you will easily be able to email that photo as well. 

Way up at the TOP of the home page is a small search box where you can enter a key word to help you find a particular topic.  Use “lightning” as an example.  Type in lightning, hit enter, and the most recent posts that contain the word lightning will appear.

If you feel like cruising through some other personal blogs, you can do so by clicking on “next blog” and it will randomly surf to another person’s page.  You never know what you’ll see, however, so be prepared.  Most of them are just family stories….but ya never know these days.

If you would like to comment about a particular story, click on “comment” at the bottom of the day’s post.  A dialogue box will open and you can type in a comment that other readers will be able to see.

There is also a little white envelope icon at the bottom of each post allowing you to email that post to a friend.

At the bottom of each post are three small check boxes so you can give me feedback if you found the story interesting or if it was boring.  I like to look at those.

When you want to return to the regular home page, just click on “home” at the top. An easy way to get to the top is by hitting “control” and the “home” key.

AND………..PLEASE remember to sign the guestbook at the top of the blog.  Other readers really enjoy reading your comments there too and they enjoy seeing where you are from. 

The “recommended vendors” page is strictly my input based on personal experiences we’ve encountered while living here in the park.  No kickback for posting them here….I just want to advertise their business because of the excellent service we’ve received from them.

I will be giving an instructional class about BLOGS when the computer club starts up again this season.  Come join us.  Cruising through blogs can be very entertaining.  I’ll also be presenting a session about the Palm Creek website.