Chain Saw Mama and Rewards

Where the heck have I disappeared to? Well I have been mega busy and there was a wonderful reward at the end. The insurance company told us we needed a defensible space for our house in case of forest fire. Well we do live in the high desert environment of the Southwest and frankly our house could go up in flames if there were a big fire. So for the last two months I have been busy clearing that defensible space. One hundred feet out from the house in all directions and the crowns of the trees needed to be 100 feet apart. Let me tell you that is a lot of trees. Mr Enchanting bought me a small chain saw that I could handle and I cut down and apart all the smaller stuff. He tackled the big stuff. I have been at this for what seems like forever! No quilting, very little housework, not much of anything. Yes there was a deadline and we made it. So Mr Enchanting's cousin invited us to cruise with them. We have never done a cruise as we are of the hiking and backpacking and camping kind of folks. Let me tell you though I will definitely cruise again.

We took the Carnival Dream out of New Orleans for seven nights and it was AWESOME! They had to cancel the visit to Belize due to rough seas............yes we were rocking and rolling! We did go to Isla Roatan off the coast of Honduras. It was a rough day but after one false start we ended up on the other side of the island and did some awesome snorkeling right off the photo below. I saw more beautiful fish than you can imagine.

The other port of call was Cozumel. Everything was perfect that day, beautiful weather, great snorkeling, great food and sightseeing. Just look at the amazing water in the photo below and yes it really is that color and clear as a bell. Watching a shark swim underneath you 30 feet below was a new one for me but I managed to remain calm.

There were about 5 or 6 mega huge cruise ships in Cozumel that day and lots of people sightseeing.

Our motto on this cruise: "It's five o'clock somewhere"................cheers!

Every night we would come back to our cabin and our bed would be turned down and there was always a new folded towel animal. Those were so cool. I went to a towel folding class on the ship with a ton of kids and a few other large kids like myself. One morning the crew filled up every longer by the pool will animals of every description.

Sunset from the hottub on the Serenity deck (21 and older only)...............Yep I will go cruising again for sure.

Now that my forest has been tamed back  I will just be burning firewood in the fireplace I can get back to what matters.................quilting!