We’ve found it difficult to grow anything in the Arizona desert due to critters–packrats, gophers, mice. We lost two 3 foot tall trees to gophers eating the roots from the bottom up. Our friend Linda tried to grow peppers and tomatoes one summer and gave up because the gophers and packrats ate all the roots. The Cowboy wanted to see if he could grow lettuce/radishes and has now built himself a grow box–a very over engineered grow box–that thing is heavy! He had started seeds in plastic bins in the house and radishes had sprouted so on Saturday it was time to plant. We will see if we get lettuce and radishes–I hope so! Of course we decided to plant a garden at the beginning of a nasty weather pattern–high winds, rain and much cooler temps. May have to stick a light bulb inside the grow box at night.
The Cowboy has been busy working on the grow box and I’m not sure what I did this week other than routine stuff–laundry, cleaning, exercising. Wednesday afternoon I played Rummikub at Linda’s with Louanne and Janice. That game is so fun and I even managed to win one game!
I am working on our before and after project–creating a photo book we can have to show friends/family how this house looked when we purchased it as compared to now. I’m using the website Mixbook and finding it VERY easy to use. For years I’ve used Costco Photo with good results for projects such as having a photo transferred to canvas or metal. Their website was NOT easy to use when trying to create a book. Plus Costco has plans to transfer all their photo business to Shutterfly. So, I sat down and transferred all my photos stored on Costco over to Shutterfly. I didn’t find the Shutterfly website user friendly for book creation.
Google to the rescue–I Googled “best photo book creation website” and Mixbook repeatedly came up as the number one site. I am about 13 pages into this creation and so far, so good. (Update–the book is finished and is being printed!)
On Friday Louanne and I took a trip to Tucson to Gather, A Tucson Market. It’s a once a month, four day long market set in one of Tucson’s oldest barrios–the Lost Barrio. Gorgeous old colorful buildings on tree and flower lined streets. The old buildings have entrances at street level but once you enter you are facing usually about four to six steps up onto floor level. Steps are a weak point for me with this knee so I did my exercises that day! The Gather market is the collection of several vendors tastefully displayed so beautifully. The collections change every month. I didn’t bring anything home from the Market although this little guy almost came home with me–I all ready regret not buying him–
And, I loved this colorful painting we saw in another gallery. The price was a bit steep on the painting!
We enjoyed a fabulous lunch in the outdoor courtyard of Café a la Cart located on the grounds of the Tucson Museum of Art. Our salads were amazing–Louanne had a grilled flank steak salad and I had a grilled salmon salad with some kind of herbed dressing I could have just tipped up and drank!
And now for the scam. The Cowboy and I have been buying and selling on Craigslist and Facebook for a long, long time. We have never been scammed–until Friday/Saturday. On the way home from Tucson with Louanne I noticed an ad for a really nice LG refrigerator for a too good to be true price and several other items–some of which were reasonably priced. The Facebook profile for the seller looked legitimate–lots of profile info (more info than I would ever put on my Facebook profile) and a photo. The seller requested communication only through Messenger which in the future will be a red flag for us, she did not allow comments on her Facebook post. Scammers frequently have no profile photo or information–this lady had both.
On Messenger she responded quickly, asked me for a deposit which I declined to give and said, “OK, you can come see the refrigerator and stuff.” We chatted back and forth with me saying we would be in Sierra Vista at her house by 9:30am. Saturday morning we were on the road early with Dan’s lower to the ground ramped trailer (makes loading a refrigerator easier) towed behind our truck. I sent her a message stating we had left home and she replied. In Tombstone I requested an address and received no answer. When I requested the address again she had blocked me from her Messenger page. She let us drive almost 70 miles before letting us know she was a scammer! I was beyond furious!
I immediately posted her photo and profile on several of the local buy/sell Facebook groups stating what she had done. I received a few responses stating she had scammed them also. Before anyone says, “I wouldn’t drive 70 miles without an address” as one Facebook respondent did–it’s the way we and others do business. I don’t give out our address until I have a message stating the buyer is on their way. None of us are sure what her game was–how was she going to get people to give her a deposit?? I did have two people reply to one of the posts stating this woman was a friend and this was not their friend posting the stuff for sale–her profile had been hacked. I have no way of knowing if this is true or not. I will remove my posts from the various sites in a couple days.
So, that was a lesson learned! No more just Messenger communication and if there is something about the ad that is just not right–the price of the refrigerator, the photos looked weird as if they were taken in different locations–don’t go there!!
Life is good in spite of scammers!
Restoration Cowboy Style 
When you said Mike ‘over engineered’ the grow box I figured for sure he had come up with a surefire way to grow hamburgers and hot dogs. He’s that kind of fellow you know:))
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He said to tell you Al that he’s been raising beef most of his life. 🙂 🙂
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Your Tucson trip looked grand! Good luck witg the garden! No critters can get at it!
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We are hoping no critters are resourceful enough to get in that box!
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Unfortunately we, or the blacksmith wasn’t as lucky as you. He saw some bullets he needed for an antique gun on a gun page he follows. He talked several times to the seller via Fb messenger. The price was $70. The seller wanted it paid by PayPal using friends ( no fee taken out that way). He paid it. The next morning he gets a message that the seller wanted $20 more, because he had miss calculated postage. Hubby said no, just give me a refund. Then the buyer said no and blocked him.
Lesson learned. However the gun page then blocked the seller!
Grow box looks great! Good luck.
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I’m glad the gun page blocked the seller. The FB group page where this woman posted banned her too. People are so evil these days!
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Your day at the Tucson market looked like so much fun! And yes, you need that owl. (It reminds me of the stained glass owl Michael made.) Maybe it will be there next time? Your salad looked delicious, too.
That grow box is excellent! Definitely gopher-proof, haha.
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I’m hoping the owl is there next time but those exhibits change every month so he may be gone–maybe I can find another one.
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There are also facebook scammers out there who want you to use Venmo or want your cell phone number.
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Yes–I don’t give out my phone number although I’m not sure what they could do with it and I’m careful who I pay with PayPal. Don’t have a Venmo account.
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Hooo knew…you need that owl ! Nice job on the grow box. Feel your pain with the scammers…we drove an hour to pick up an item,only to be texted 10 minutes out that they sold it to a neighbor.
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GRRRRR–people have no manners these days! I did need that owl!
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I’m so happy you liked Gather and The Lost Barrio. And way happy to read you also enjoyed lunch at Cafe a la Cart…your salad look yummy! We have tossed the idea around for a grow box as well so I’m really interested to learn how it goes with yours. Dang scammers….sure is a bummer to know folks like that are out there just to take advantage of others. See you soon!
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Louanne and I had a great day in Tucson–thanks so much for all the great suggestions!!
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What a fun day….er, fun at the marketplace, that is. Not the scammer. I sometimes think there are a few people who never grew their brains beyond “teenage immature” status so they justify meanness to and using others as entertainment. This includes criminal behaviors, though that class of people defies description.
I’ll be interested to see if The Cowboy has the cure for small critters that eat garden roots. Here, we specialize in growing well- nourished gophers, squirrels and rats. 😕
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We are hoping no small critters can navigate those round steel poles that support the box!! 🙂 🙂 Yes, I’m not sure what that woman had to gain from her posts–was it just meanness and if so there has to be karma!!
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oops, I somehow commented on facebook, but saw this in my unread email and had to come here to let you know I do read the entire blog, not just the facebook thingy. We have discovered that growing some things in our Southern Oregon town of Grants Pass has its challenges as well, especially ground critters and summer heat, and tall ground critters called deer…and water of course. I go to the farmers market now and just try to grow flowers and such.
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The cages around our pine trees need to be removed but we are leery of doing it–the deer. And the deer are awful in Montana. I don’t plant a garden in Montana as our growing season is too short.
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Sure hope Michael has success with his grow box. Looks really great. What a fun day shopping for you ladies. You needed steps for the PT, guess you found them:) You and Michael have always had such wonderful luck finding the perfect items on Craigslist. I can’t believe the lengths people will go to for a few dollars. Good you didn’t fall for it.
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This cold no sun weather we have had the last two days is not helping the radishes in the grow box! We had such a good time–my first outing since the surgery.
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Does the grow box have drainage holes in the bottom? Getting things over-wet has been a problem in the past for me with container gardening, perhaps evaporation in your dry air makes that less of a challenge.
No contact payment mechanisms (PayPal, Venmo) tend to be a tip off for scams around here, although mailing checks is also problematic since robbery from blue mail boxes and even inside the Post Office system has also gotten to be a serious problem. Very complicated!
Glad to hear your new knee is allowing you to enjoy outings again.
Ceci
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Yes, Ceci–it has a double layer–holes in the one with the dirt and plants, no holes in the bottom layer so it doesn’t make a mess all over the porch. I wish people would put as much energy into being productive as they do into illegal activities–but that’s not going to happen is it!
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Love that owl! I would have had trouble passing it up too, one can never have too many owls, right? (expecially ones that don’t spray whitewash everywhere…..)
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The parapets of our house have lots of evidence to show the owls have been here!
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Frustrating! We use marketplace to buy and sell quite frequently as well and always check out the profiles. Thanks for sharing!
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Very frustrating and last night I noticed on our local Facebook buy/sell group they are trying it again–same list of stuff for sale, different stolen profile.
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