A Successful Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk

Saturday began as a cool crisp morning at Canyon Vistas for the third Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk.

 The committee people are setting up and getting organized.

 Ladies in pink, tables skirted in pink, honoring those who have survived and remembering those who haven't...

More pink as the crowd of walkers grows throughout the registration time.

 The table of raffle baskets to entice more sales and a chance to win something from the great state of...

 The breast cancer survivors ready to begin the walk...

And they are off, all 195 walkers.

 Jane, a survivor, did her walk and crossed the finish line.

A yummy lunch to finish off the morning.

One more push for sales of assorted breast cancer items before the raffle drawings.

A successful event with more than $12,000 donated through the auctions, sale of raffle tickets, and pledges for the American Cancer Society. Thank You!

Breast Cancer Week

It is Making Strides Against Breast Cancer week at CV. I am coordinating the event for the third year. This year we added some new features to increase our donation to the American Cancer Society. Members of our Red Hat group and other resort residents brought products from their home states to create 'state baskets' for a raffle and auction.

On Wednesday afternoon 200 residents gathered at a social to bid on the auction items. First was the sealed bid auction. There were donated works of art ranging from jewelry, quilted or sewn articles, a decorated gourd, a hand crafted wooden bowl, and several state baskets. I bid $101 on the decorated gourd and did not get it so you get the idea of the kind of dollars items may have brought. Here is the gourd I did not get.

After the sealed bids were opened and winners announced, the live auction on another 10 or 12 items began. Here is a look at the baskets ready for bidding.

The baskets were arranged and wrapped beautifully, thanks to Mary of Watertown, Debra, Shirley & Cathy. Awesome work ladies!


The South Dakota basket made the live auction. Three of us brought SD products. There were two bottles of Bad Ass Rhubarb wine from Prairie Berry Winery, a bottle of Old West BBQ sauce from Mellette, chokecherry jelly from Milbank, dip & seasonings from Pierre, sunflower seeds from Mound City, salt water taffy from the Hills, chocolate covered toffee from Mobridge, a Terry Redlin print from Watertown, some other items and a large number of items donated by the Mt. Rushmore gift shop, including fudge. Here is the SD basket:

 I am pleased and honored to announce the SD basket got a winning bid of $380; the highest bid item at the auction. We are so pleased & proud. It was bought by friends from CA who are sending it to his brother & wife, both of whom have been diagnosed with cancer. Thank You Don & Nancy!

These were our auctioneers. They helped add some hilarity to the event. Chuck P, the guy in the middle wore this T-shirt

and donated another $78 for ACS by allowing squeezes and a final sale of his fake boobies. All for a good cause.

I didn't get the gourd, but Curt bid on the basket from CA. He is writing the check for the basket of wine and other wonderful goodies! Thank You Linda & Marge!

Marge and her right hand helper Linda, chaired this event for our cancer week. Their hours of planning and hard work brought in $3100 for ACS! Great job ladies! The afternoon was a huge success and you are responsible for it. THANK YOU!

Another Intruder

I noticed earlier this week another intruder had made an appearance in our neighborhood.

 Lots of feathers were scattered around the hoses of the neighbor's RV.

 Yes, lots of doves and other birds do visit the feeders, but this was too many feathers concentrated in one small area.

 This evidence implied something caught one of the doves...

as the only thing left was feathers. Maybe the hawk that visited last month? Or a sneaky coyote? Not a javelina as they are herbivores. An unsolved mystery...



And how many of you think it must be so boring down here??? Look at all the excitement just this week!

Javelina Comparison

 The photo above & below are from the javelina that visited nearby last year. Of course the camera has zoom, but the photos are from the same camera. I remember last year's critter as being larger than the one I saw this week...

 Not that I am getting really close and doing any measuring! Residents have seen a family of five marauding together; papa, mama, two yearlings, and a little one.

The desert has had very little rain, so I think the critters are entering the resort looking for food as they share the desert pasture with cattle. I certainly am not going to supplement their diet if I can help it!  I do know our site seems to be one of their pathways, like cow paths in a pasture. We just have not had them bother the feeders or bird bath in the past and those items have been there for 3 winters. Oh well...no real harm so far...

The Javelina Return, Again!

On Sunday morning when I looked out the bedroom window this sight greeted me...

 the bird bath was tipped over and something tried to chew on it...

you can see the hoof imprints in the gravel...

This is what the bird area is supposed to look like after I removed the third feeder, the one closest to the ground.

Today as we were walking home after lunch, a friend told me about the javelina feeding along the desert fence. I called Curt and asked him to bring the camera. This guy was very cooperative during the photo shoot.

This is what happens when the bird feeder is too close to the ground...

 The javelina is enjoying the bird seed from a feeder along the desert in CV.

 This is a close-up of the 'yearling'. He/she/it is not an adult.

This picture of him/her/it between the two flower pots gives an idea of the size.


Tomorrow I will do a comparison of the size of the javelina I saw last year and this one.

Missing Willa

OK, we are missing Willa. So I looked for pictures 

I did not post from our December visit.

 

Photos from our last day with Willa.

Miss you sweetie!

The Javelinas Strike Again

Well, the javelinas struck again. I had just purchased another bird feeder last Sunday for the doves hoping they would leave the finch food alone and for the finches, as it is intended. As I was sitting outside enjoying the sunshine and watching the birds the thought entered my mind that the bird feeder was really too low to the ground and would probably be a temptation to the javelinas. I had heard how the dumb beasts eat the oranges people have in the three tiered wire baskets hanging from the hitches of their 5th wheels in the resort. I should have gone with instinct! This sight greeted me Friday morning...

 That was what was left of the bird feeder. Luckily there was very little seed in it.

You can see the indentations in the rocks where the beasts stood and bit the feeder until it broke apart.

The big bristly critter even bent the lawn ornament.

I have put the feeder back together. It will hold birdseed, just not on that hook. The kopelli is back in place. I'm learning...no juicy spineless cacti and no bird feeders within reach of night time marauders.

Picking Citrus

One of the many advantages of being south in the winter is the availability of fresh fruits and vegetables, and the inexpensive cost of them. Curt went along with the group to pick citrus on Saturday morning. They picked grapefruit, oranges, tangerines, tangelos, lemons and blood-red oranges.

There is a reason Curt was told to wear long sleeves, gloves, and bring a 5 gallon pail. Anybody can take a bag of fruit once it has been picked and brought back to the resort. Resort pickers ask for a free will donation for the citrus which is then donated to the local food bank. The donation totals more than $500 so far this month.

And it takes OH so good!

A Horizontal & a Vertical Hike

Friday's schedule hike was to Picket Post, a mountain about 20 miles east of Gold Canyon. Arrangements were made for a group to climb up the mountain and another group to walk part of the AZ Trail along the base of Picket Post. Curt chose the vertical and I the horizontal.

 This is Picket Post, an elevation of 2000' and a hike of 4.5 miles.

There goes the vertical group. I had asked Curt if he had his nitro and to please tell somebody in the group where he 'stored' the pills. Ken, another vertical hiker had his nitro tablets, too.

This was part of the group that chose to hike the AZ Trail, very little elevation and a total of six miles. My plan was to hike two miles in and two miles back out.

Looked like my kind of trail, wide, no rocks to speak of, very visible, but...

it was the wrong trail. Dan climbed a hill to find the rest of our group of 29 hikers and found another group of six had also fallen behind and weren't on the right trail either.

Our group of 29 finally got together, on the correct trail, and proceeded along the base of Picket Post.

In the meantime the sixteen Picket Post hikers were well on their way up the mountain. If you click and enlarge this picture and look carefully in the center, you can find a line of people and Curt's green shirt, snaking their way up the side of the mountain.

At one point the group is scrambling over boulders on their assent. This is one of Curt's photos.

At one point on my return trip I looked up and saw Weaver's Needle to the west.

 Interesting that Curt also took a picture of Weaver's Needle from the summit of Picket Post.

 Curt and the group of sixteen returned safe and sound and without incident some three hours after the AZ Trail group completed their six mile hike. The vertical group had just made it to the top as we  completed our six miles.

The AZ Trail hike was also without incident. It was a perfect day to be out in the desert and mountains of Arizona. Much better than shoveling snow!