Saturday in the desert

We had an unusual day at home for a change. Since we both work all week and serve every Saturday at the Mesa, Arizona Temple, we seldom get a free day to do what we need to do around the house. When out subdivision was built, it was an grapefruit orchard and some of the old trees still grow in the yards. But time and re-plantings have changed the nature of the neighborhood and it doesn't look anything like an orchard. Some of the older trees are dying and being replaced from time to time. The first settlers in the Salt River Valley used the existing Indian canals rebuilt to water their crops. Eventually, the ditches and laterals were put underground. Some of the people in the neighborhood still water their yards with underground irrigation. The house we bought has a sprinkler system but the irrigation has been blocked off. Or, mostly blocked off. After living here for a while, we discovered that the old underground irrigation pipes are still there. We found them when holes opened up in flower beds and other locations that were essentially drains into the old pipes. 

So, this morning the first item of business was to block the most bothersome of the holes down to the old pipes so the sprinkler water wouldn't run down into the ground and disappear. That took just a few minutes but then the job began to expand to include enlarging the basins around the new citrus trees in back. We are used to having a huge variety of citrus and when we moved into this present house, we only had tangerines, oranges and grapefruit. So, one of the first items on the agenda when we moved in, was to plant more citrus, this time a navel orange and a tangelo. We have learned by observation, to buy the trees small and let them grow. A smaller tree will be more healthy and produce more fruit earlier than a large fully grown tree. It takes the larger tree a lot longer to get established and produce fruit.

Expanding the watering basins progressed to knocking down cobwebs and cutting a few bushes back. All this was happening as the temperature continued to climb to over 100 degrees. I put the pictures of the two saguaros at the beginning to remind you that I am writing from the middle of one of the hottest large cities in the world. We made a detour to the hardware store to get some screen to fix two torn window screens. Fixing the screens was done later in the day and we suffered mightily from the heat by that time. I have decided not to fix window screens for a profession. I imagine it would be easier to do if you had somewhere other than the floor to work on, but sitting on the floor and trying to get the screen straight is pretty sweaty work. I decided to take a break and watch the Prologue to the Tour de France. I got the program on just in time to see Lance Armstrong come in fourth. I doubt I will see much of the race since we seldom have time to watch anything on TV. This is the first time I remember them having all of this classic bicycle race on TV that we didn't have to pay extra to see.

It is always nice to get a few things done before the heat gets to you and you start to sit around and drink lemonade.