Girl Scout Annual Meeting and a snake

Today was the Girl Scout, Arizona Cactus Pine Council Annual meeting. I have been a delegate for my Neighborhood for the past 4 years. They do the meeting in two parts; the first is a volunteer session and then we have a business meeting.

Today, Dr. Lattie Coor spoke to us about The Arizona We Want. The adults and girls in attendance broke into small circles and had a discussion about how can we obtain the Arizona “We” want. The thought that came up from a lot of the groups was that we don’t know each other, as neighbors, like people did years ago. How do we fix this? Sit in the front yard in the evening instead of the back yard and greet neighbors as they walk by. Have Girl Scout (and Boy Scout) troops hold community events so people can get to know each other. Start small and have it grow over time.

Another cool aspect of these meeting is they have the Gold Award projects on display. The Girl Scout Gold Award is the highest award a girl 14 and up can earn. It takes a huge amount of work and the project has to be sustainable in the community; they cannot do a one time project.

After the business meeting, they has a luncheon for the volunteers and give out awards to outstanding volunteers. They also gave out pins to the amazing women who have been Girl Scouts for 45, 50, 55, 60 and 65 years. I am totally in awe of these women who have given themselves to an organization like Girl Scouts. What a wonderful recourse to have in any organization.

When I got home, my son said the snake was missing. Excuse me, what snake? We don’t have a snake. Cats, rabbits, rats and a tortoise, but no snake. Apparently, he saw a young bull snake crossing the road and stopped and caught it. He put it in the tortoise tank (that does not have a lid); told the 20 year old son (who was totally engrossed in his video game) to keep an eye on it. Hubby left the room for a couple of minutes and the snake got out of the tank. We think it is behind some book selves and will keep an eye on the cats to see if they can give us a clue to the snake’s location. Great, just want I need… a snake loose in the house.

My mother is getting ready to her cabin for the summer

She has a cabin in Forest Lakes, AZ, which is on the Mogollon Rim at an elevation of 7700 feet. The cabin is on a half an acre with lots of ponderosa pine trees. Last year she stayed up there full time just to do it. Last winter it was not nearly as bad as this past winter. I am so glad she was not up there this winter.

Here is a photo the fire cheif took of the major storm in January.

Because of the altitude Forest Lakes is at, it can be 30 – 40 degrees cooler in the summer then in the Phoenix area. Any time we have a long weekend, I am there. My youngest daughter spends a lot of time at the cabin. Even as she gets older, she still really enjoys going up.

Mom's cabin

Today when I got home, my son asked if he could go up with my mom to help her get settled back in. Heck yes, he can go. I hope my mom makes him work hard… cutting the grass, raking pine needles. The dynamics of the house completely changes when one person is not there. My only questions to him are how you getting there, when are you leaving, how long will you be there and how are you getting home. He has not really answered these yet.

As the tempatures warm up the allergies grow

This week our temperatures have hit the low 80s. For the past couple of weeks the weather has been great and with wonderful weather in the Phoenix area, comes the dreaded weeds and other pollen producing plants introduced to the area.

I have had allergy issues forever. I have lived where it hot since 1964 when I moved to Florida. I have also lived in the Panama Canal Zone (it was still US property when I lived there) and in the Philippines and then Arizona. Because of these warm climates I live with allergies. At least once a year, I seem to end up with a dreaded allergy headache. When these headaches come on, I can only get rid of them by going back to bed and sleeping. Today was one of those days. I left work early and come home and went back to bed.

My First Weekend Off

I was in charge of our Girl Scout encampment at Camp Friendly Pines at the end of March. We had 160 people attend this year which is a lot less then the past three year where we had about 200. It was a great weekend; temperatures were perfect during the day and chilly at night. The girls got to participate in a low ropes team building course, horse back riding, a climbing wall and the older girls got to do a high ropes course.

We did have one incident – a horse slipped and fell with a girl on its back. The horse landed on the girl’s foot. Mom was called and she came and picked up the girl, took to the ER and her foot ended up being fractured.

The other thing that happened that freaked some of the younger girls out was a baby elk that had been killed by a mountain loin or coyote near the fire circle. My daughter went walking around on Friday when we got there, with the other two older girls and they did not see it. On Saturday they discovered it. She told me it looked like it had been dragged there and there was not much left other then bones and fur. Later in the day some of the girls talked to me about it with some other leaders; we just said it was probable sick and the larger animals need to eat too.

Last weekend was my first weekend off since Valentine’s Day weekend. I worked 10 cookie booths, did an archery rectification class (I am an archery teacher for Girl Scouts) and had the encampment.

Last weekend I just did nothing much, just caught up on laundry and put away a bunch of Girl Scout stuff.