We went to the gun show in town today. On the way to the community center, we passed a scenic overlook towards the northeast. In the foreground are the Hieroglyphic Mountains and the Bradshaw Mountains in the background. Another nice, clear 75° day in the Western Community of Wickenburg. Click on the image to enlarge.
Here is a comparison of the appearance of our retirement home one year ago versus today. It is very gratifying to look back at where we were one year ago and compare it to Damsel’s dream retirement home of today. Click on each image to enlarge.
There is a mesquite tree between the RV entrance and the courtyard. I had the landscaping crew trim this tree a bit so I could have a place for wind chimes and mobiles. I got a sunburst mobile at Big Lots last week. I think it adds a little fall color to the yard. Click on the image to enlarge.
Now that Summer is over, we expect to see some changes to the shrubs. The flowering plum (barely visible at the lower right) and the red birds will lose their leaves. The Cleveland sage bushes will keep their leaves and (hopefully) will come into bloom with fragrant little purple flowers. I will be getting some more statuary, a chiminea and a decorative southwest style bench. Click on the image to enlarge.
My biggest problem today is getting the water chemicals adjusted in the spa. I have the MPS (monopersulfate) and the alkalinity in range, but the PH balance is a little high. I went on-line to find out how to lower the PH. The answer is to add a mild acid to the spa such as white vinegar or a commercially-available granulated acidifier.
I took a photo of a couple of water test strips showing the before and after results when I added chlorine today. You can see that the second strip (closest to the container) matches colors for in-range condition for the top two pads only.
The plan is to see if our local discount store has a granulated acidifier in stock. If not, plan B will be to order some on-line.
We have had spas in the past in California, but we never worried very much about the chemical composition until now. We want this spa to outlast us, so we better take care of both it and us. 😉
We spent the weekend (extended weekend, actually) enjoying food and football. So, no significant blogging today. We hope you enjoyed your weekend as much as we did.
We took an unscheduled scenic drive today. We took the dogs to the Wickenburg Dog Park and after that, we went to the recycle center to dispose of glass, plastic and paper/cardboard.
Since it was a very nice, clear day, we decided to take the scenic loop drive north of town. At one point along the drive, I took this image of Vulture Peak with the town in front of the Vulture Mountains. In the near foreground are the local native vegetation including saguaro, creosote, palo verde and a couple of varieties of cholla. Click on the image to enlarge.
