Welcome to Quarry Pines

I played Quarry Pines last year a couple of times and really loved it, so this course was one of my "must play" courses for Tucson this year.

I marvel at the creativity of taking this old gravel pit and transforming it into one of the most challenging and beautiful golf courses in Tucson.  It reminded me of how our favourite "Butchart Gardens" in Victoria was once a rock quarry that was redeveloped into a magnificent garden.

Lush fairways wind around in a place where nothing grew... it was once just a place to get sand and gravel for construction.

A lake and water feature adds to the beauty on a couple of holes.

Since our tee time was right at noon, we packed a gourmet picnic lunch... a turkey sandwich, an crisp apple, a Fuze drink, baby carrot sticks, corn chip scoops, trail mix and granola bars.  There was plenty of time to enjoy our lunch as the pace of golf turned out to be about 5 hours... and we started out as a twosome.

Part way thru the round we invited Jack and Donna, a couple who were following us, to join us... and that helped to get  us more in sync with the pace of the course.

Notice the Palo Verde in full bloom behind our new golfing friends.

There was plenty of time to take pictures and not cause any delay in the game.

On the 14th hole this hummingbird watched us all tee off and never flew away... so I took his picture at least 20 times.  He put on quite a little show for us, sporting the red feathers on his neck.  But after looking at more than 100 different kinds of hummingbirds online I could not find the name of this make and model.  Can you help?  Maybe my birding friend Stanley well tell me later today when we get together.

Here are a couple more of my shots of this hummingbird that may help.

Our round here at Quarry was the best round so far this year for both Lorne and me.

It was my first game under 100... I shot an 88... with two 8's on a couple of par 5's.  And Lorne shot 81... finishing with a birdie on #18.  He drained a 40-foot put from off the back of the green!  Truly an awesome way to finish the game on an awesome course.

There is nothing like a good round to keep you coming back.

I have decided to adopt the Golfers Diet:  "To live on greens as much as possible."

Ever Heard of Pickle-Ball?

What a glorious new day to play a little Pickle-Ball. At the end of this street are a couple of Pickle-Ball courts as well as a couple of tennis courts... and I have been playing Pickle-Ball almost every day since arriving here.  It has become my holiday substitute for walking or jogging.

As another day begins the clouds are painted with sunlight and the palm trees look pretty good in  silhouette.  You can't tell in this picture that most of the palm frawns are brown, killed by a previous cold snap here.  But new leaves are coming out of the very top, so most of the trees look like they will recover.

Wow, this looks like another really good day to play a little Pickle-Ball.  Since it happens outdoors here, the wind can become a major factor if it gusts  very much.

Here at the Rincon Country East RV Resort where Lorne and Gail spend most of the winter, the popularity of Pickle-Ball has far surpassed tennis.  Never heard of Pickle-Ball before?  Me neither.  It combines the best of tennis, badminton, and ping-pong.

The game is played with a paddle just slightly larger than a ping-pong paddle... and the ball is a hard plastic wiffle ball, which is a tiny bit bigger than a tennis ball, but with holes and it is very light.

The court is the same size as a badminton court, with the net set at 36 inches high.  It seems to appeal to the more senior population and is steadily gaining momentum.  I have not seen anyone use any of the tennis courts here... but there is a growing number of guys who come out here every morning and play between 8 and 11 AM.  Some of the guys are in their 80's and it is amazing to see them so active and having fun.

This game was invented on Bainbridge Island in 1965.  Joel Pritchard, a US senator and Bill Bell, a successful businessman, came home after golfing one Saturday afternoon and their families were sitting around complaining there was nothing to do.  So they looked around for some sports equipment.

An asphalt badminton court was already set up, but most of the rackets were damaged and no "bird" was to be found. They found some ping pong paddles and a 3" plastic ball with holes in it that they could use instead of a shuttlecock.  They first tried to play a game with the net at badminton height... but it was too hard, so they dropped it to 36 inches and developed a game much like tennis on this smaller court.  The ball bounced really good on the asphalt.

The ping pong paddles seemed a little light weight for the larger ball, so they went into the workshop and cut out four paddles from a scrap of plywood with a little longer handle and wrapped some tape on it.  A pretty logical solution.  Then they developed some rules that have evolved into what has become the standard for today.

Do you know how Pickle-Ball got its name?  The name Pickle-Ball, comes from the Pritchard's dog, Pickles. Pickles would hide in the bushes and chase down errant balls.   You see it was Pickles' ball!  Thus Pickle-Ball was "born."
 
To find out more about Pickle-Ball Google it up... or click on this link for Pickle-Ball Canada.

"Necessity is the mother of invention." 

Golfing in the Desert

Welcome to a very different golf photo story.  Welcome to the Arizona National in Tucson.

There was not a single hole on this course that I did not take photos of either the views or the flowers.  One must be very careful about getting too close when photographing cactus or their flowers... they have been known to jump out and get you!

Sunday I golfed with Lorne and Ted at Arizona National... one of the area's most beautiful desert golf courses... designed by my favourite golf course architect Robert Trent Jones, Jr.

I had played here many years ago when it used to be called The Raven.
Notice the red flowers behind my friends above...

Please tell me the name of this flower, if you know it.  I tried to Google it up... but no cigar.

Thank you Shelby... you get the prize!  This flower is aloe saponaria fireworks.  The name fits... it looks a lot like fireworks.

We saw these orange-red flowers in bloom along the fairways and tee boxes.  I thought they would compliment this spectacular view from the Par Five 18th tee box, so I climbed around some cactus and thorny bushes to get behind them to make this shot.

I only wish my tee shot from here would have turned out as good as this picture did.

Immediately behind the lake is a first class club house facility.

There are some unique hazards when you go golfing in the desert... it is a little different playing around cactus compared to playing around trees.  Your golf ball doesn't bounce off the cactus like it does from most trees.  Look closely at the largest Saguaro cactus in the foreground.

It is very difficult to play your second shot when your ball is driven right into a cactus.  It is also pretty tough to play anywhere except on the fairway.  A search for a errant ball could have you in a confrontation with a rattle snake.

The golf course is home for thousands of the cutest little jack rabbits... often we came upon whole families of these cuddly little bunnies munching on the fairway grass.

The Arizona National lies in the Sabino Canyon... with a backdrop of spectacular mountains, where cactus abound and mountain lions hide.  So far they have hidden so well the only place I've seen them is on warning signs.

After 18 holes I paid off my golf bets, which confirmed this quote by evangelist Billy Graham...

"The only time my prayers are never answered is on the golf course."

Making Models of Our New Addition

The last few weeks before we both left for a little holiday I have been pushing to complete a model of what our next renovations will look like.  We are planning to build a carport to connect our house and garage... and put a studio 22 x 36 feet above.

We want to be sure that this "addition" will tie into the existing residence and garage and not look like an "add on" but rather give the impression that this was the way it was designed to be from the very beginning.

I just recycled old cardboard bankers boxes... we had plenty of these left over from our Acorn Homes days... so I selected some white boxes for this purpose.  They were white on one side and the normal brown cardboard colour on the other side.  The brown cardboard in this photo is the 1/4 inch scale footprint of our existing house around which I will attach the walls.  With a black marker I outline and darken the windows.

I discovered that using a charcoal stick on the corrugated cardboard I could very quickly achieve the effect of the vertical channel cedar siding on our house.  Here I am colouring the last section of walls to be attached to the floor plan in the foreground.

Once all the walls were in place I cut out the roof pieces and attached them.

Before gluing the model of the house to a base I shot the levels of our existing house and garage.  The garage slab is 24 inches below the main floor of the house... so that meant I needed to raise the house 1/2 inch before attaching it to the base so the model would reflect the true elevations... hence the 1/2 inch cedar foundation you see here.

Here the house and garage are now positioned at the right distance apart and at the correct height in relation to each other, ready to receive the model of the new addition.

But first I must make the new pantry, the stairs to go up to the new studio and a generator room.  Later we learned that we could not have a gas generator attached to a residence, so we had to delete this room or use it for something else... like maybe a larger closet for our master bedroom.

This is Plan A... the first effort to show what I thought was the best solution for the studio and loft over the carport.  My primary negative reaction to this plan was the high vertical ends on the studio walls.  This plan had a loft over the right end of the studio with stairs to loft that followed over the first flight of stairs.  I did not like the feeling of entering the studio with a 7-foot ceiling for the first 12 feet or so. The lower ceiling was because of the loft over which came up to the large window seat dormer.

To overcome the feeling that this studio/carport was an add-on I thought it might help to extend the studio over the top of the garage about 6-feet...

And I really liked the way this idea worked out.  I also came up with another way to tie the roof over the new master bedroom closet (which I show with stone facing).  This became Plan B.

As much as both Shirley liked this plan in general, I told Shirley that I would still make another model with the roof following the same angle as the main house, instead of at right angles as Plan A and B are.

With the post and beams for the carport in place, it is pretty easy to interchange the different modules.

 So here is Plan C.  We really liked the feeling of the way the roof lines complimented the original house.  This plan has a great feeling as you come up the stairs and enter the studio... you see the high vaulted ceiling immediately and the loft is across the back half of the studio, opposite the big studio front windows.

Major disadvantages of this design are that it does not have any clerestory windows, so doesn't tie in as well to the original house.  The symmetry of the roof forces me to move the the support posts closer to the existing garage so that they can carry the central beam at the top of the roof... and that makes access to the left side of the carport more restricted... likely too tight to get our F-350 truck in and out.

So, it looks like we will still have to make another model and try to correct the deficiencies.

This is Plan D... the drumroll please.  I tired to correct all of the deficiencies of all the other plans.  It has clearstory windows protected from the brightest sun (north facing windows.)  It is a good marriage to the existing house... the roof lines are a continuation of the main house roof line.  The studio overlaps the garage 6-feet.  I will be able to lift the studio roof enough to take that notch out where it intersects with the garage.  One of the nicest things is the great feeling upon entry to the studio... where you will immediately see the total vaulted ceiling upon stepping into the studio, since the loft is primarily to the rear of the studio, with a small section of loft over the stirs and bathroom... making an L-shaped loft.  Access to the loft will be with a library ladder that will be moveable as required where needed... so that will save the area previously needed for stairs.

This is the other side of the studio addition.  We plan to have a door onto a small deck, which is really the roof of the new pantry.  The circle near the peak is a 3-foot bubble window in the loft.  We think the grandkids will love it.

With the roof removed you can see the sleeping loft, which is basically 10 x 10 with a height of from about 6 to 9 feet high and have adequate handrails.   It will be separated from the storage part of the loft which is over the stairs and bathroom.

Here you can see the stairs coming up from our front entry steps.  The bathroom is immediately to the left, over our new master bedroom closet.

The bottom line is that both Shirley and I are really pleased about the way this plan feels and works.

Our last day before leaving on our trip away from our island I had a meeting with the building inspector on site to get an understanding of the requirements here to get a building permit.  Later in the day I had a two hour meeting with our local roofer and he educated us in the pros and cons and costs of several possible options.  We plan to redo our entire house and garage with the same product we pick for the new addition.

Building something new is always exciting... and this summer things will be very exciting for us on Mayne Island.

"The doors we open and close each day decide the lives we live." -Flora Whittemore

What A Day!

This morning we were both awake before 4 AM... you know how you don't want to be late when you need to catch the early ferry?  We arrived in Sidney at least two hours before we had to be at the airport, so while Shirley was buying some seeds at the nursery I took a walk around and captured a few colourful blossoms... like this Gerber Daisy.

When I was shooting this Calla Lily I had no idea how screwed up my day was going to be.

With plenty of time to burn we did a little exploring and found Island View Beach Regional Park... a place full of people walking their dogs... a great place to walk along the shore and get a little exercise.  That island with the prominent bluff is James Island.

When we went to check in at the airport the lineup was crazy... and when we got to the ticket agent we found out why.  My flight to Seattle was cancelled due to mechanical problems... but they would reroute me thru Vancouver and I could get connections to Phoenix directly from there.  US Air had plenty of room but they told me that I would have to go to the US Airways ticket counter to get my ticket reworked and a boarding pass.

I had about 90 minutes before my connecting plane would leave, but it wasn't enough... they left without me.  You cannot imagine the run around that I got, and even after they printed my boarding passes for the remainder of my flight, they took them back and asked me to go to Alaska Airlines and have them reorganize my itinerary.

Time was slipping away... and after going to Alaska and explaining my plight yet again, they scratched their heads and said that they could not do it either.  And they tried to send me back to US Air.  That is when I got a little impatient.  I told them I was going to miss my connecting flight with all this running back and forth and no one accepting any responsibility to help me get rescheduled on a plane that was soon to depart without me.

I got the attention of a sympathetic ticket agent who grabbed the bull by the horns and walked with me back to the US Air ticket counter.  She told the girl there how the cow ate the cabbage, picked up a phone behind the desk and called their agent at the boarding desk, telling them that I was coming.  So they reprocessed my boarding passes and Kim, the kind lady, walked me thru the security check, met me on the other side and guided me thru to Customs.

That was the straw that broke the camels back.  The lineup there was sooooo looooong at Customs... and moved so slow... so many stipid questions.  When I was just about thru Kim came back to tell me that the plane had closed it's doors.  We missed it.  Damn.

But she told me that she had figured out a routing that would still get me there today... a little later... but it was the best she could do.  I just had to go to Gate 96 and she would have my revised itinerary sent there for me.  And it was there.  It was amazing how fast she got things done and buy the time I got thru Customs and walked clear across the airport to Gate 96 the lady smiled and asked to see my passport and handed me a package all neat and tidy.  Done.

So I was soon on a plane to Portland... where I am now writing this blog.  I called Lorne and told him that I would be later than planned.  My new arrival time would be 12:32 AM.  So if all goes well, I will be there just past midnight.

I know my kids thought I was a little crazy for driving to California a month ago... 4 days on the road with only 4 days there... but airline travel is not all it's cracked up to be.  Such is life.

Maybe tomorrow I will forget about all this hassle once I tee up that little white ball and drive it over the green!  It will be a whole new set of challenges!

Heck Hill Community Driveway

After several years of wanting to upgrade our road, no one feels better to see gravel from top to bottom of Heck Hill than those who have worked the hardest to get the project done.

Thursday we had Michell's Excavating deliver about 30 yards of gravel and spread it on the last section to complete the new gravel to connect us to the Tinker Road entrance.

Getting this last section ready for gravel was a team effort with our neighbours Noreen and Richard Lucas, who are here trimming the salal, small cedars and fir trees out of the ditch so we could more easily clean out and widen the ditch.  Just to clear out the vegetation took us about 30 man hours together.

They piled the trimmings along the side of the road and later I came with my tractor and bucket extension and picked up and burned it all.  Normally we would have picked this up the same day...

But we had tickets to the Victoria Symphony for the Sunday matinee... something we haven't enjoyed since leaving Kelowna.

With just two bolts I can attach a 28" extension to the bucket which greatly helps to carry larger loads of trimmings.  I've lost count of all the loads of trimmings that we have picked up and burned, but just this last section of road took seven full tractor loads plus a heaping pickup load.

Richard made a couple of passes with the angled blade on his tractor to re-establish the ditch.

To prevent the loose material from sloughing back into the ditch I cleaned it all out, deepening and widening the ditch, one 4-foot bucket at a time.

I then cleaned up the edges of the ditch by hand with a shovel, throwing the excess material into the bucket.  It took from Monday afternoon to Thursday morning just before the gravel arrived to get this process completed.

I loaded the excess material into the truck from the back, pushing the dirt forward as the box filled up.  Eight loads of debris were removed from the ditch. It sure would have been nice to have a dump box.  Hand shovelling to unload it all took care of the need to do "stretches"with Shirley this week... who also helped unload almost every load.

When the truck drops the gravel while driving forward, it falls thicker in the middle and less to the outside... so Richard and I did a lot of hand raking to pull the material to the edge of the ditch, without putting any into the ditch.  Ask me if my arms were sore by the end of the afternoon?

The raking was worth it.  Notice the nice straight line along the ditch.  Today when the sun came out I did a walk about and took a few photos of the just completed gravelled road.

I still need want to put more gravel where needed in a few places... like this corner...

And along the side where the road base is the widest midway up this section.

And we ran out of material right at the front entrance due to the flare at this intersection... it will be an easy fix.

Someday we will hopefully get a new entrance statement with rock posts, iron gates and proper signage.  What do you think about that?

"A job worth doing is worth doing together."