OUR THIRD SECOND SATURDAY

We started off the new year with good weather, making new friends and working off the Christmas cookies by playing lots of pickleball.  We’ve had mostly sunny weather for quite a few weeks now and the night time lows are not less than 3 degrees.  No frost yet and maybe we won’t get any this winter.

There is a small group from our church that meets once a week here at Happy Trails and we’ve recently joined them.  We have interesting discussions about a variety of topics and are getting to know each other better.  Some of them play pickleball so that has opened up a new circle of friends for us.  We’re feeling very much at home here these days.

This past Saturday, we volunteered to work at a local elementary school that was in desperate need of cleaning, painting, landscaping, library books, new sports equipment and school supplies.

It is about 6 miles from here so all the volunteers drove their own vehicles to the school.  We took 3 people with us and we all worked on different teams for the 4 hour work period.

Stuart was operating a pressure washer to clean the outside of the building and the sidewalks and I worked on the landscaping which was a perfect job for me.

  I was able to dig up weeds with a shovel, rake and pile clippings and debris and even do some creative pruning on a prickly tree.  Most of the plants in the desert have thorns on them for protection so you have to be careful.

There were 360 volunteers and everyone worked hard and we accomplished much.  This is a link to the video from the event:

http://vimeo.com/83939380 

It feels great to volunteer for these events where both the givers and receivers are blessed.