2013 Hikes

I was off work yesterday for Veteran's Day, for the first time in over 25 years.  Turns out our local Veteran's Day parade goes right by my office and the whole street is blocked off for most of the day, so my boss texted me that I should stay home.  I'm not one to argue with an unexpected 3-day weekend!

It was a beautiful day, so I grabbed my camera backpack, hopped on my scooter, and spent a couple hours in a park a few miles east of home.  I'll post those photos in a minute.

First, here are a few from other hikes Sam and I took earlier in the year.  Last January, I hiked up Ventana Canyon in the Santa Catalina Mountains.  The trailhead is only about 7 miles away.

Saguaro cacti climb the mountainsides.

In March, I wandered around in Saguaro National Park East (5 miles away) and found some cholla cactus.  I love the purple ones, but it's always hard to get a good photo.  They're weird!

I don't know the official names, but this next one I call a regular cholla, as opposed to Teddy Bear Cholla or Antler Cholla or the purple ones above.

In May, Sam was home and one weekend we drove east on the freeway to Texas Canyon for a picnic and hike.  It's another weird, cool place, with about a 15 square mile area of huge boulders jumbled up and down the hills.

Those red-orange flowers are ocotillo blooms.  When monsoon rains come in July and August, the stick-like stalks grow green leaves almost overnight.

Well, that's it for our past hikes.  The rest of these photos are from my excursion yesterday to Agua Caliente Park, on the far east side of Tucson.  Agua Caliente means "Hot Water", and there are natural springs.  It was the site of a soldier camp in the 1860-1880's, and a ranch in the 1900's.  I think it must have been the ranchers who planted the palm trees.

There's also a large grove of native mesquite trees, with a nice walking path.

Benches and picnic tables.

This one's for Sam.  These are the kind of mesquite trees he wants on our ranch, with interesting, multi-branched trunks.

There's a big pond with real water, then 2 perennial ponds.  In the dictionary, perennial means "present at all seasons of the year".  In Arizona, I think it means "dry, except when it rains".

I even found some fall color, though we have to be creative in looking for it in the desert.

I think these are a type of tamarisk.  We had some at the Mission where I grew up, but I don't think they turned this golden color.

This one's more traditional!

The real pond is beautiful, and over the years I've taken many photos of it as a whole, but yesterday I only saw the wildlife.  Ducks (no good photos), Turtles.....

And this Great Egret.  Quite a sight.

He was hunting for fish, and caught several while I watched.

The dive.

With a victory flap when breakfast went down the gullet!

Cool, huh?!

Merry Christmas 2012!

Christmas is a good time to catch up! We've been out of touch for awhile, so here's a review of our last year. About a year ago, Sam sold the Gold Wing. We haven't had time to ride, and it's not good for a motorcycle to sit idle. With some of the proceeds, we bought a new camera and a new laptop computer – fun!

I've enjoyed several photo excursions this year, and wish I could get out more.

In January we spent a weekend in Phoenix for Sam's birthday. The weekend getaway has become a tradition, but this year we took our bicycles and rode 30+ miles on bike paths along the canals. Sam loves his new recumbent bike and has ridden it many miles around Tucson, too.

Last spring, and also this fall, we enjoyed many spontaneous gatherings with friends here at FHTV (Far Horizons Tucson Village). We also saw long-time good friends, Jon & Jan Payne, as they visited several times last spring, then moved to Gilbert, Arizona last summer!

We took them to the Pumpkin Patch Ranch, of course!  That's Sam wearing his sunblock hat.

Jan and Jan looking at the view.

We go down to see my parents in Benson as much as we can, and loved seeing my brother, Tim, and his sons, J.C. and Kevin when they golfed in Tucson in October.

In June, good friends loaned us their timeshare and we spent a week in the Utah mountains.

The 2-day drive seemed to tax Sam's navigational skills.

Our “short cut” over the mountains became a detour when the highway closed, and the alternate road went over passes almost 11,000 feet high!

Park City, Utah was our destination; a fun little town and worth the drive.

The Sundance Film Festival has been held in Park City for years, but unfortunately I didn't spot Robert Redford anywhere!  One of the other quirky residents welcomed us the first night.

We visited Olympic Park, home of the 2002 Winter Olympics, which were officially in Salt Lake City, 30 miles west.

Rode the ski lift to the top of the mountain.

Where we went on a hike and explored old mine buildings.

We also drove down to Salt Lake City and visited the Mormon Temple.

It's always more fun exploring with friends! Bob & Shelly, our neighbors the last few winters at FHTV, were spending the summer working in Salt Lake and showed us around.

We visited a brewery, where Sam helped out by running the bottle labeling machine. Yes, many people do drink beer in Utah, but it's more regulated than anyplace else we've seen.

Bob and Sam rode 55 miles one day, and we ended up on Antelope Island in the Great Salt Lake.

It's connected to the mainland by a causeway and is prettier than you would imagine.

On our way home to Tucson, we stopped at two of the most beautiful places on earth.

The first was Bryce Canyon.

We hiked a 4-mile trail down through the spires.

It seemed much longer on the way out!

The next day, we drove into Zion National Park from the east.

Temperatures were in the high 90's, so we followed the advice of a bicycle shop owner and waited until it cooled off a bit to explore.

As evening approached, we rode our bikes from Springdale, Utah, 9 miles up to the end of the canyon.

We saw over 15 deer, wild turkey, a fox, and not a single other biker. The road was closed to all but shuttle buses and a couple of cars going to the lodge.

It was an incredible experience!  Even the ride back down, which was mostly in the dark!

Last May, our good friend Don drove to North Dakota, and soon had a job in the oil fields. Sam started thinking of making a change, and after weeks of planning, left his job with Far Horizons and landed in Williston, ND in mid-August. In true Sam-style, he made many new friends and was offered several jobs driving semi-trucks. He worked a week or two, but his lack of recent experience (he owned his own truck in 1999) hindered a job with the better employers, so after 5 weeks in the north and many new adventures, he returned to Tucson.

Within a couple of weeks, he had a job with Swift Transportation in Phoenix. He spent several weeks acquiring a TWIC card from the Transportation Safety Administration, allowing him to haul containers into U.S. ports around the country.

In mid-November, after a week of orientation, he began driving with a great mentor, Fernando, and has already driven over 6,000 miles from the west to the east coasts, and loves it. He spends a weekend at home every week or two, and will be getting his own truck in January.

While Sam was home last month, he got our 1996 Yamaha Riva 125 scooter into shape, with new tires, drive belt and LED lights. I found a “ladybug” helmet at the scooter store, borrowed Sam's new motorcycle jacket, dusted off my leather fringed chaps, and started riding the scooter to work! It gets 85 miles per gallon! I took a motorcycle safety class 7 or 8 years ago, and definitely practice safe driving, but it's great fun!

The highlights of our year wouldn't be complete without our two loyal homebodies, Pumpkin and Dingus. They love their people and are great companions (as long as we feed them)!

So Merry Christmas from all of us, and have a great New Year!

Summer 2009

Meanwhile, back at the ranch . . .

In July, 2009, with the help of our friends, Richard and Dianna, we installed metal fascia covering on the well house. (As always, I’m using “we” in a very loose sense here. You see who’s doing the work.) We could have painted the beams, but the fascia covers are way more durable and long-lasting on the parts of wood most exposed to wind, rain and storms.

You just slide the covers under the metal trim and nail them down. Richard is a building contractor and recommended this method. He has been a big help and a sounding board for Sam.

For the last couple of years, Richard and Dianna hoped to buy part of our ranch and become our neighbors, but recently their plans may have changed. We would love to have them as neighbors, but we know sometimes things change in life, and we know God is in charge, whatever happens.

A few months later, in September, we spent a weekend painting and closing in the eaves.

We cut long strips of pressboard, which I painted the same color as the fascia coverings.

These were to cover the exposed beams under the eaves. We also installed vents, to allow a little airflow in and out of the building, and Sam used a foam sealer around all the seams and holes.

For the gable ends, we chose a nice bright shade of green. I used to be afraid to use bright colors, but I’m tired of being boring! For now, we’re going to leave the blocks their natural gray color. Having grown up with painted block walls, I know how the paint flakes, chips and fades after a few years. Stucco would be nice, but for a well house, it’s probably not worth the extra effort, time and money.

Our final project that weekend was to evict several families of mice who had taken up residence in the well house over the previous year. We had to drag almost everything stored in the building out onto the dirt driveway – 5 shelf units (4 shelves each) covered with building materials and boxes of stuff, furniture, lawn chairs, just tons of stuff. Much of it had to be vacuumed out and washed of mouse droppings or shredded paper nests. What fun! Sam wanted to kill every mouse he could find, but I voted for letting them run free into the desert to find new homes.

Sam propped the huge water storage tank up on blocks, then washed down the floor with bleach and water, which made the inside smell nice and fresh again. This took most of the day, and we barely got everything cleaned and reinstalled before a late monsoon storm hit.

We spent that night sleeping on our air mattress on the floor of the newly cleaned well house, intending to close off the last few inches of open eaves the following day. At 3 a.m., we woke up to high-pitched squeaks and beady eyes peering at us from the top of the block walls. Sam’s loose translation of mouse-speak was, “Hey, guys, they cleaned the whole condo, it’s time to move back in!” For the next hour, we attempted to get back to sleep, while watching these amazing mice flatten themselves against the block walls and run straight up and down them, no problem. Sam agreed to buy mousetraps at Walmart in the morning, and I no longer had any opposition to that. Around 4 a.m., I mumbled to Sam, “Is that Walmart in Benson open 24 hours?” Within 5 minutes we were on our way, and Sam bought 4 mousetraps, a jar of peanut butter and a box of plastic spoons. (I was asleep in the car). As he paid, the checkout lady looked puzzled at his choice of items. Sam’s southern drawl kicked in, “My bride thought the mice were cute . . . until they came back!”

In the year since, we’ve found only small lizards and harmless grandaddy-long-leg spiders inside the well house, and we can live with those. The lizards eat whatever other bugs may be around.

Back at the ranch, after the storm of the night before, the morning air was clean and beautiful. This is our view looking northwest from the well house.

And this is our view looking northeast, toward the spot where we hope to build our house, just beyond the electric post.