Happy New Year

Whow! What a year in 2006. It went so fast I could hardly catch my breath between activities and experiences. Now is the time to look forward, but before I do that I want to catch you up on the activities and experiences we've had since my last posting.

At Stanton we had a GPAA outing. That's where hundreds of gold prospectors come to participate in a common dig and learn more about prospecting for gold. Vendors set up their tents and sold everything from jewelry to equipment. The Stanton Red Hat Gold Miners had a yard sale and made about $60.00. The camp served food, had a campfire one night, held an auction, had a raffle, and shared the gold. We did have some vandalism and one kid stole some gold, but it was recovered and the vandals were caught, thank goodness.

New Year's Eve was great! After the Melodrama of Charlie Stanton in the Opera House, we moved back the benches and had a dance to Karaoke music. Willard sang several songs and we danced to many more. We gave each other a great big kiss at midnight and wished all of those around us a Happy New Year. After a few more dances, we went home and fell into bed for a good night's sleep thankful that we'd survived another year!!!!!

We went on an ATV trip with a group to see the rare Crested Saguaro Cacti Judy and Lynn had discovered. It was a short hike to see the first one and we could drive our quads up to another one quite easily. We viewed the albino cactus from afar. After taking pictures, we took the back road back to camp. It turned out to be an exciting adventure. Later that day a group of us road our ATVs up to Jeannie's and Jon's to sing Happy Birthday to Jeannie. She seemed so pleased. It was a good day.

Hollywood, Willard and I played for the camp one afternoon. And Ken, George, Willard and I jammed another afternoon. It is so much fun playing with a group, even if we are just learning. We all benefit from those jam sessions.

On Tuesday we went to Prescott and had a Demo CD recorded. It was so much fun and a real learning experience. Spike was wonderful to us. He helped us to relax and didn't judge us. He just said that we should learn from the experience and from listening to the CD and come back next year ready to make another one. I can't wait.

Mark and Alexa came from Michigan for a few days. It was good to see Mark again and meet Alexa. They seemed happy together. We had them over for dinner Wed. night. It was a treat. Now they are headed back to DeWitt, Michigan where Alexa works in the postoffice. Mark said he would try to get back soon to work on the house he is building up on the hill above Tom's place.

I've been helping Allen with his computer problems. Thank goodness, I've been able to solve his problems. I have a love/hate relationship with my own computer. But, I'm able to figure out most dilemmas. My background is working with Macintosh, but I've been able to transfer most of my knowledge to a PC since retiring.

Greg came over today to help me select some pendants for some stones Jeannie gave me last year. They should make nice gifts.

Today I've got to wash clothes...again. Willard made bread again. I cooked a pot of beans and cornbread. They were sure good. Tonight we are going out to eat with some friends at the Mine Shaft in Wickenburg. Life is good.