At the lake

We did a favorite outing yesterday: Patagonia Lake State Park. I enjoy it because it is a lake with many inlets and birds, and I love a picnic. The latter is always part of the plan because it is a two hour drive to get there.

Linda, being an Oregonian as well as a paddler, loves the water and Emma, being a Lab, loves the water too of course. To top it off, we also have Emma's sisters staying with us, so it was 3 humans and 3 dogs plus supplies in one Subaru.

(The video does not run on iPad or iPhone. Click HTTPS://Vimeo.com/140848723 to view.)

We no sooner got to the lake and had chosen a picnic table and the dogs plunged into the water. Much to my surprise one of the sisters came out of the water and tried to dry off in a pile of dirt before hitting the water again. Linda had brought a ball, and the dogs had a great time retrieving.

When they were too tired to get into any trouble we had our picnic lunch, another dip in the lake with a towel dry and we headed home, tired but happy.

County Fair

We have lived here 11 years and never made it to the Fair. There is no local newspaper, when we shop we go to Tucson, so in short, we are a bit out of the loop on county activities. I seem to usually find out about this event after it is over but I was determined to not miss it this year.

My friend Linda is visiting and we drug her along hoping that it would be fun and worthwhile. This is a large rural county, where beef is raised and crops irrigated. There used to be a lot of growing of hot peppers but most of the irrigated land is now dedicated to cattle feed. Still, this is the Old West and there are still horses and cowboys.

We watched some of the horse events, visited the vegetable, flower and photo exhibits and went through the small animal and poultry barns. We ate fair food, I got an airbrush tattoo, and we had a great time.

Tropical Depression 16E

Red skies in the morning, sailors take warning. This is what the sky looked like at 6 am, with TD16E moving in. It has been raining ever since, the kind of rain that plants love: steady, gently, and so far about 0.5 inches.

Last year around this time we had TD Odile, which gave us almost 4 inches of rain. Why does this storm not have a name?

I am not really surprised at having it rain right now: my friend Linda arrives here tomorrow. She is a born and raised Oregonian who always bring rain when she comes. We have named her The Rain Goddess.