sarahzona

Geo Chaching

2009-10-13T08:54:00.001-07:00

In case you haven't heard of it, Geo caching is like a treasure hunt. You can look up the locations on their website. People hide boxes with little trinkets all over the world. You then use a GPS unit and enter the latitude an longitude coordinates from the website. My sister sent the boys a special Geo Coin, that can be tracked by computer. So we left the coin in a box in CV with a note, hoping that it will make its way back to Anchorage. Great way to explore!!! This is the Summer Solstice coin that Cathy sent the boys. We left it in a cache pretty close to our house.

The flip side... Someone had left a travel bug in the CV cache, so we took that, and put it in a cache in Sedona. The travel bugs can also be tracked on the website.

After parking the car on the side of the road, we hiked to the cache, with help from Louetta, our trusty GPS unit.

Found it!!! Just some junky little items that people leave in the boxes. We found a Chicago Wolves button, that we will move to our next cache! If you're interested in doing some geo caching, check out their website.. www.geocaching.com

Unexpected Visitors

2009-10-13T08:34:00.000-07:00

Yeah, yeah, yeah, another picture at Cathedral Rock, but It's one of my favorite places in Sedona, and makes such a nice background for pics with friends! I ran into Karyn and Carl this weekend, while doing an art fair in Sedona. They had no idea we had moved here, it was a total chance encounter. I worked with Karyn years ago at Mindscape Gallery, in Evanston, and hadn't seen them in at least ten years. The whole day worked out well. They were going to Cathedral Rock anyway, and I was taking the boys geocaching(next post) right near by, so we were able to get a nice hike in and catch up a little on life's events. So, after this picture, we hiked over the creek and through the woods, to the 'back side of the rock, and climbed almost all the way up.

LOVE this prickly pear pad!

View from the other side.....

This is the picture Carl was taking.

This is the top of the spires in the middle of the first picture. We didn't go all the way up this time, as we were pressed for time. October is the perfect month for hiking, so I'll be going all the way to the top real soon!!

Pricly Pear Fruit Jam

2009-09-30T08:30:00.000-07:00

Our neighbors have a TON of prickly pear plants lining their front yard. I thought it would be fun to try and make some jam with the fruits. I took the boys over last Sunday to pick a peck. These are five gallon buckets, each about half full. You couldn't even tell we had picked any off their plants when we were through. Very prolific!

Cleaning and cutting up the fruit was A LOT more work than I had anticipated. Our first attempt, we were wearing heavy gloves, slicing the fruits open, and scooping out, first the seeds(to scrap), then the fruit pulp out of the skin. Two hours later, we had enough for a batch that we ended up burning. Back to the drawing board!

I had done a little reading up on the prickly pear fruit cleaning, and read that you could first burn them to get rid of the hairy prickles. So, we put them in the forge for a few seconds, holding them with tongs, and rolling them slightly. Perfect, and WAY quicker!! Now we could cut off the ends, score the skin, and peel it off. Then slice lengthwise and remove all the seeds. About 60 fruits ended up with a four jar batch of jam.

After the fruit was all cleaned and ready, we put it in the blender to make it nice and smooth. Sugar, lemon juice and rind, and a little grated ginger, and into the pot to cook for at least an hour. Doug is quite the little chef, and was really excited when our second batch turned out good.
We still have a ton of fruits left, so we can make prickly pear smoothies, pancakes, oatmeal, and maybe some more jam! Don't know how long they'll keep, so I think we'll clean and blend, then freeze. We might try to make some dye with all the seed stuff and peels. I'm looking into that ;-) Prickly pear tie dyes!

Turned out pretty tasty!!! A little too lemony for Max's taste, but I thought it was awesome over some Haagen Dasz 5 Ginger ice cream ;-) I probably could have cooked it down a little longer to thicken more, but I was paranoid of the burning. A few more batches, and I should have it down :-)

Red Rock Crossing with BOYS

2009-07-29T11:51:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, we went to another well travelled spot in Sedona, Red Rock Crossing at Crescent Moon Ranch, or as i like to call it, Cathedral Rock. I did not photograph Cathedral Rock yesterday, we were a little farther down the path, so we had a side view. Lots of crazy boy energy yesterday, since I had four of them with me. This was actually towards the end of our day, in between rope swinging. The boys found the cat tails quite entertaining, in a few different ways. After they held them in various perverted positions, they proceeded to shred them and throw the fuzz in the water. Doug referred to this as 'pollinating'.

When I wasn't throwing the rope to people, i was chilling on this nice rock in the water, snapping pics, and enjoying the sunshine, nice breeze, and fabulous view :-)

Fun at the rope swing! We spent most of the day here, but took a couple snack breaks and some little hikes. There used to be another rope swing in the woods upstream a little, but there was just a broken rope yesterday...:-(

I'm still playing with the new camera. I had it on sport mode here.

Doug had some good air!

They climbed up this rock face for a little out of the water time.

Lifeguard poses...

Rick found a little dead trout that they named Hank, and had a little fun with. Hank was good for at least 40 minutes of pure entertainment.

On our way back throught the woods to the car, Max caught Jorge, who was also a great source of entertainment before we said goodbye, and left him in his woodsy home by the creek.

Jorge was very accomodating when the boys wanted him as living jewelry.

Another great field trip in AZ in the books!

2009-07-29T11:14:00.000-07:00

Last week, we took a little field trip to Slide Rock State Park, in Oak Creek Canyon. Yes, it's touristy and crowded, but the cityfolk in us doesn't mind that once in awhile :-) We took a short hike upstream, and there was noone around :-) You have to get there on the early side, or the parking lot fills up. the day we went it was cloudy, adn rained a little, so we spent most of the day out of the water.

Takin a litlle hike, and searching for lizards.

Found this old house...

Good lizard catching here.

We found this little secret spot with ripe blackberries! My lens was wet, but I thought the shot looked cool.

This century plant looks like it had tipped over before blooming, but the flower stalk is reaching for the sky anyway.

Nice view on the way back to the car. Dairy Queen for lunch on the way home made for a fab summer day!

visitors

2009-07-29T11:07:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago, our long time friend Andy came up for lunch and a quick dip in the pool. It was great to see him, and another friend's daughter Amanda. They came up from Tucson that day.....No time for cathedral rock, where I usually photograph visitors ;-) Kid Chileen's Bad Ass BBQ, in Black Canyon City. YUM

A little dip in the pool. My friend Mary came up from Phoenix that day too, for a mini reunion.

Williams

2009-07-29T10:36:00.000-07:00

Once in awhile, we take the boys up to Williams, the last town on Route 66 to be bypassed by Interstate 40. Ther's an indoor skatepark up there, so they go there, and Eric and I explore the small town a bit. Next time, we might venture out and take a hike somewhere. Ther's only so many souvenier shops to see there... Bill Williams, a mountain man who settled in the area sometime mid 19th century, I'm a bad retainer of info, but maybe you can read the placque if you click on the photo....

Look at that sky!

We haven't eaten here, but I liked the cow...

We did have breakfast here one day before the skate park. Good pancakes!

The three amigos...

skatepark....duh

Met some friends up there one day...conected through, you guessed it, Facebook :-)

Playing with my new camera on the way home....you can see the train passing the other way here.

Night time on the highway. There was an awesome lightning storm, but I couldn't capture any on 'film'.

I took a ton of these pics. I think they're the coolest. Light and movement......

underwater

2009-07-29T10:19:00.000-07:00

Not a great shot, but we were chillin in the pool, playing with my new camera, and a Bald Eagle flew right over us, chasing after another bird! we watched as it chased for awhile, then it actually circled back and was able to click a couple shots. Then we lst it as it flew up, up, and up. Very cool!

I got a new camera a couple months ago(probably mentioned that already). Well it's waterproof, and I'm still having a hard time believing it! This was awhile ago, playing in the pool. I'm tryin to get caught up on the bloggin afte slackng for awhile, so the post might be on the random side.... The camera even has a few macro settings!

Underwater portrait setting...

That was kinda cool. In the water, looking out :-)

more Road Trip

2009-07-29T07:40:00.000-07:00

Facebook has been taking up all my computer time, so it's taken me a really long time to post these pics of our June road trip back to Chicago/Evanston. We left AZ June 5(I think) and got home around the 27th. We had a crazy busy time and lots of fun visiting with friends and family. First pic I took of our trip. We are on Interstate 40, heading towards New Mexico. I thought the clouds looked cool.

We had no DVD player, and one PSP, so, we found other activities to pass time in the car. I think this was the only time Max got the Sharpies out.

First rest stop just into NM. Saw some really cool belt buckles, but did not buy one. i will now be on a mission for sandcast belt buckles....

Between the camera, Louetta(our GPS), and The band game, I'm thinking of an animal/celebrity, we did pretty well in the car. We spent a total of seven whole days in the car-three on the way there, and four home.

This was probably in Oklahoma....The Western Hemisphere's Largest Cross. We didn't stop.

St Louis Arch. We didn't stop there either. We were on a mission....

We made it! I completely lost the previous two days of driving when we got onto the 294. Not a bad drive at all, and only about three and half tanks of gas!

First things first, to the skate park with some friends. The boys spent a ton of time hangin with their old homies. Lots of fun was had by all.

I spent a lot of time meeting with long time friends, usually over some food of some sort :-) Our places to eat list was pretty long. Marcia and Danny at soem bar in Glenviw. I met them out there with a few other peeps that were having a party planning meeting. Fun night!

Bob and Eileen.

Marcia and Jean.

My niece Carly, graduated from eight grade while we were there. Look out ETHS....

My dad turned 85 on June 1st, so we had a family night to Ravinia. We rode in a private bus, owned by a friend of my sister, Meg's. It was a fun night and Ramsey Lewis was fab!

Our spread on the Ravinia lawn.

We sang Happy Birthday, and ate cupcakes and smiley face cookies!

Sister Cathy, and Danelle

Sister Meg and moi.

I was so comfy laying on the lawn under some blankets.

Next was the Wells St. Art Festival. Meg and Cathy helped me set up Saturday morning, which was rainy and chilly. I forgot to bring my signage, so i woke Eric up to pick some photos off the computer, had him email them to Kinko's, where my mom picked them up a few hours later. thanks everyone!!!

The Sunday morning ride to the show. It was a beautiful day!

My long time friend Katy, helped me at the show on Sunday. Back in the day, she would do shows with me, so we had a blast!!! THANKS woman XOXOX

My dear friends, and former next door neighbors came to see me at the show. I so miss having them next door, and keep mentioning that the house next door here is on the market.....

In addition to the Ravinia night, we had a Birthday lunch for Dad, with about 30 of his friends.

Doug and cousin Pauly. Doug thought it would be fun to eat his steak with his hands.

More visiting with friends. Karen, Marcia, and I sat at Portillo's for about three hours.

Marcia is a photographer, and had to have a shot of the greeter at Portillo's. Nice shot!

Gelato in the park with Heidi and Tracy. Kids too :-)

David Taylor and I tried to get a little Lincolnwood reunion together, but the weather did not cooperate, so it was the two of us :-) We headed over to the Mark II, where we saw Angie and Marty(in the backgroud).

It was a really fun trip, and Facebook hooked me up with a bunch of people I had not seen in a very long time. Sorry I did not have pics of everyone!!

Road trip camera 1

2009-07-29T07:04:00.000-07:00

The first stop on our ride home was the Wisconsin Dells. I thought we would stop for an hour or two, play some mini golf and ride some go karts. Well, the Dells has become a water park heaven, so we ended up at a huge water/amusement park for about five hours :-) Luckily, I had discovered five hour energy shots, so another five hours of drive time to the western edge of MN wasn't too bad. Pirate's Cove mini golf.

Mt. Olympus go karts. It was almost worth the 45 minute wait in line :-)

The boys had a blast at the water park part of Mt. Olympus. From then on, we looked for places to stay with water parks. Found a good one in Rapid City, SD

Crossing the Mighty Mississippi into MN.

My co pilots were pretty accomodating when it came to clicking pics. "Quick, get a picture of the sunset!!"

The camera also helped pass the time in the car :-)

While in Wall, SD, we walked through a wax museum. I thought this sample of barbed wire was the coolest thing EVER. Who knew there were so many different varieties of barbed wire?

Couldn't pass up "The Blacksmith" The anvil was fake.....ha

Another shot of Crazy Horse from inside the visitor's center. The small sculpture represents the finished product. I think it will be many years before completion of the big 'un. Did I mention that all of Mt Rushmore could fit into the small space behind his head? Amazing

Road Trip-South Dakota on the Olympus

2009-06-29T07:22:00.000-07:00

OK, since I'm working backwards, and with pics from two different cameras, these posts are probably all over the place. This is my first post of our trip. Bear(?) with me. These pice are of our leg through South Dakota. We left Chicago on Sunday morning, and drove to the western edge of MN, so we got into South Dakota Monday morning.

Our first stop in SD was Mitchell, home of the Corn Palace. More pics on another post....We stopped at the Corn Palace, and a few souvenier shops. We also ate at a cute little coffee shop, where I traded jewelry for our meal. Great to meet you Vonda and Laura!!!

On to the Badlands National Park. Nobody wanted to get out of the car but me, so we kind of just powered through. The Badlands reminded me of The Painted Desert and Petrified Forest. The grasses or whatever was blooming smelled SO good, and I envied all the bikers riding through the wonderful smells.

I was remeinded of the Indian Wars that went on here and thought about the people that called this land home as we drove through.

Towards the end of the badlands National Park, there were a bunch of cars pulled over on the side of the road, and I wondered why, there was nothing! A closer look revealed a prairie dog town! The boys were willing to get out of the car to check that out :-) We watched as a badger came sauntering through, and all the prairie dogs started talking to each other....Very cool. One of our favorite moments of the trip.

As it happens, the Badlands Loop ends up right in Wall, SD, home of WALL DRUG. We were in no mood for a souvenier shop fest, but ran through right quick anyway and made a couple purchases :-)

This is the downtown area of Wall. We also checked out a wax museum while we were there. We spent the night In Rapid City, at a Hotel with a water park. The boys were in heaven and had a blast!

Spent the morning waterparking, then...........

Next stop, yeah, you guessed it Mt Rushmore! This is a shot after we left the park, from the side. I had more pics on the D70. Again, noone wanted to get out and take a little hike, but I managed to stop at a trail to get a cool rock ;-)

This is Crazy Horse, another favorite stop we made. All the heads of Mt Rushmore can fit into the space behind Crazy Horse's head. Amazing! We saw a little movie about the making of Crazy Horse, which was very impressive.

We wanted to tour a cave after Crazy Horse, but the scheduling wasn't right, and the boys were tired and crabby, so we drove through Wyoming, and ended up spending the night in Ft.Collins, CO.

So, This should be ending up at home, since in the blogging order it's at the end, but oh well. Kind of Naked Lunchish....

2009-05-08T12:13:00.000-07:00

Last weekend was the Verde Valley Fair. The kids actually got Friday off of school, so we went on Friday. typical carnival, we got the kids bracelets, so they could ride all they wanted. of course, this jumpy thing was not included with the bracelets, so an extra $5.00 per kid. I think carnivals are one the fastest ways to empty your wallet. We did get out of there without playing any games...

OK, I had never seen these before...Frozen pickle juice! I thought they were gross, but Max's friend Chance liked them, and had at least two.

Didn't have any famous lamonade, but Max got a deep fried twinkie.

In addition to the Twinkie, Max had curly cheese fries for dinner. Eric and I had BBQ pork sandwiches, Doug had nachos, and Chance had a giant pickle. He was on a pickle binge :-)

That's the deep fried Twinkie. They also had deep fried Oreos and Snicker bars. You gotta love carnival food!!

Max and Chance finished out the night on The Zipper. I recently got a new camera, so I had to check out the night time setting. Not bad. It is waterproof, so stay tuned for some underwater pics....

Long Time Friends

2009-05-08T11:47:00.000-07:00

Our latest set of visitors were Marcia and Danny. Long time friends I hung out with in Junior high and high school, and hadn't seen them since high school. We all reconnected through Facebook, which, by the way, if you haven't joined, i highly recommend, but that's another post. Anyway, Marcia and Danny came out together, leaving both their spouses at home, and becoming travelling buddies for the weekend.
We had a BLAST reminiscing, eating, shooting, and siteseeing. Our sightseeing day began in Sedona. This is Bell Rock. We didn't climb it that day, too much to do :-)

These are out of sequence, but whatever. Saturday, we began our day with a little shooting lesson. Danny is shooting the 9mm here. Eric is a certified instructor.

No visit would be complete without a trip to Cathedral Rock! Danny actually went swimming that day. We did all our sightseeing in one day. We spent Saturday haning out by the pool :-)

After Sedona, we drove up the hill to Jerome, and got some killer chocolate cake From the Haunted hamburger. Marcia took all the pics, so none from Jerome this time ;-)

The Century plants are blooming now. Part of the Agave family, they bloom once in their lifetime, sending up a huge shoot that produce clusters of flowers. the shoot takes all the energy out of the plant, eventually killing it. The plant then tips over and spreads it seeds, beginning the process over again.

I'm gonna start collecting century plant pics, stay tuned...

Cahills and Schaffers

2009-04-26T08:57:00.000-07:00

We had an awesome time with our great friends from Chicago and Wisconsin a few weeks ago. Five boys, three men, and two moms..... Kris and I took the boys rock hunting near the old salt mine one day. They found some cool lizards and we got some good rocks!

A little walk by the river didn't produce any lizards, but the boys and I had fun!

Kris and I got to play with fire one morning....

Eric and I lent out the bikes , so our guests could get some nice rides in.

Chuck and Charlie had some good bonding time!

As one friend on facebook commented, a "motely crew". LOL

Over the river and through the woods, for a picnic at Cathedral rock. I don't know why they thought their feet would stay dry...

The big swing in the woods is always a good time!

Grand Canyon day was chilly and windy!

What a fun time we all had! I needed two days on the couch to recover....PHEW!!

Before and After in the Kitchen

2009-04-26T08:41:00.000-07:00

Wow, it's been quite awhile since I posted.. We had a little wave of visitors, so things got crazy. In a good way.
So we were planning on putting some rocks on the backsplash to match the fireplace, but it hadn't happened yet, so I decided to put up some paper instead, before our visitors arrived. The below is the before pic...nice, huh? Funny what I start noticing when I start looking at the house through other people's eyes. Ta Da! I got some hand made paper and just glued it up there! It cost like $20.00, and took about three hours. Not bad. The switch plates took me a little longer. I sawed them out of some copper sheet I have had forever, then heat treated them to get the cool reddish colors.

New Additions

2009-03-29T11:30:00.001-07:00

Apparently, after we had to give our two roosters away, we told the kids that we would get two hens in the spring. i had forgotten this, but the boys had not. Max decided on a duck instead, so last weekend, we got a little chick and a duckling. The chick went missing yesterday, and Doug was quite upset, so we got two chicks yesterday. The duckling was lonely and needed some company ;-) The two chicks are California Leghorns, and will be white with black spots. At $1.50 each, we couldn't help but get two!

Daisy the duck is very cute, and likes to snuggle.

I think the three of them will be great friends. They were out of ducklings at the feed store, so we might have to go back on Friday....

Half pipe

2009-03-29T11:15:00.001-07:00

Eric is ona a break from school, so has been keeping himself busy with various projects around the house. The kids now have a half pipe to skateboard in :-) Between the dirt bike track, halfpipe, and pool, they will never want to go anywhere! Except maybe shopping....

Max and his two friends slept on it the first night :-) Doug slept over at a friends house.

Tigris Chronicles

2009-03-29T10:56:00.000-07:00

Our juvenile cat, Tigris is ALWAYS into something! I happened to have the D70 nearby when she thought she needed some grapes. That is a guilty look if I ever saw one :-)

I'm not sure she likes to eat them, just play with them. I saw her come out from under the couch with a grape in her mouth after this. When they were gone, she grabbed the stem out of the garbage...Never a dull moment :-)

A Little Landscaping

2009-03-29T10:43:00.000-07:00

We have been thinking about what to do landscapingwise around the pool, and finally came up with an affordable, relatively easy solution. Gravel and a few desert plants, that are not cactus. Last fall, we had put some landscaping fabric over all the evil grass that had sprouted out of control around the pool. I finally broke down and sprayed it Round up. So much for the organic certification, but I'm not growing any food there...

The guy at the AZ Botanical Gardens and landscaping center sold me some jeweled aloe, an agave that doesn't get super big, couple of native yuccas, anda bushy palm of some sort. Minimal watering and partial shade....

If this Palm thrives, it should cover this whole area... We think it's a HUGE improvement. I might have to give that evil grass another dose of Round Up, but i guess I can live with that.

Cathedral Rock

2009-03-29T10:24:00.000-07:00

No visit would be complete without a trip to Cathedral Rock in Sedona. It is the most photographed rock formation in Sedona, and Red Rock Crossing, is pretty well trafficked, but it is still one of my favorite spots. It's not too crowded in the summer, so they boys and go a few time...It's kinda like going to the beach...

Doug had spit his pants earlier in the day, but that did not stop him from stacking rocks, and throwing rocks into the creek. i couldn't take enough butt pictures ;-)

This was the viwe from the other side of the creek, near the rope swing in the woods.

The water was not as cold as i thought it would be, but i did not swim :-)

The rope swing attracts fanilies from all over the place. The visiting boys will have a good story to tell about the boy on the swing with his butt hanging out of his pants!

Another fun day...

Spring Equinox

2009-03-29T10:21:00.000-07:00

It is rumored that only on the Equinoxes, you can stand eggs up on their ends, so this is how we celebrate the longer days. Happy Spring!

Petrified Forest

2009-03-29T09:44:00.000-07:00

My Brother in law, Jeff, and sister in law, Laura came for a little visit in mid March, so we got to play tourists for a bit :-) The longest of our touring days began with a drive to the Painted Desert and the Petrified Forest and finished at a really fancy Italian restaraunt is Sedona. In between those, we did a lot of riding in the car, short hikes through the park, and we stood on a corner in Winslow, Arizona. This is the painted Desert, at the north end of the National Park. I think there are a couple trails that will lead you down, but we stayed on the rim that day. The weather was perfect for hiking. Not too hot in the sun. There was NO shade.

The boys were not into hiking, so they waited in the car. The paths were short, and the car was visible almost the whole way.

I had always pictured the Petrified Forest as a forest with petrified wood laying under the all the evergreens. HA, was I wrong! Petrified wood and cool rock formations fill the Petrified Forest. Not a tree in sight. I am so bad at absorbing geologic info, but basically the forest was formed 250 million years ago, when the forest ws turned into a lake or ocean. The combination of water, pressure and various minerals actually transformed the wood into stone. Many of the logs have been revealed by wind over time, but many are still buried in the Park, and surrounding areas. i have a good rock hunting book with some spots to dig...

As wew were returning from this mile hike, we noticied a ranger's car near the minivan. As we got closer, we realized ther ranger was talking to the boy, who had waited in the car. I'm imagining I'm gonna get a bad parent ticke for abandonment or something, but it turned out she was very interested in all the rocks she saw in the back on my car! The boys had opened the tailgate, so she could see right in. Max said she came over and started asking all kinds of questions about where the rocks came from..."Ohh, that one looks cool, can i see it?" Things of that nature. TOO funny! I knew better than to take any rocks from a National Park, especially that one. We all got a good laugh about that one, and bought some rocks at the gift shop on the way out...

Pretty colors!! After coming out of the park, near Holbrook, AZ, there was a HUGE rock shop, the best ever, with tons of petrified wood. Big pieces!! We will have to find one or two for the garden...

These rock formations are called teepees, and the different colors are different types of minerals, including hematite, iron, and some other stuff I can't remember.

Every time I see this, i get the song in my head. Winslow, AZ is on historic Route 66, and i'm sure before Interstate 40 barrelled through, was a booming town. Pretty dead looking town. A couple souvenier shops on this corner, and that was about it. Pretty depressing. The state prison is nearby, so I'm guessing that's what the major employer in the area. There was a coal fired power plant too.

It was a long, fun, andventure filled day!!!

Scorpion

2009-03-15T07:30:00.001-07:00

Found this nice little speciman on the floor this morning. It was dead, otherwise i would have totally squished it. I think this is the fourth Scorpion we've found in the house. Not bad. I'm pretty sure this variety is not very toxic, with their sting similar to that of a bee. I'm not interested in finding out first hand though.

Eggs

2009-03-15T07:27:00.001-07:00

I know I've posted pics of eggs more than a few times, but the color assortment of these was so cool, i couldn't resist. It's like an Easter basket every day! The hens slowed down on their laying during the shorter days, but they're back laying with more hours of sunlight.

Macro Grass

2009-03-15T07:15:00.000-07:00

Our grass/lawn is starting to green up(as much as it will without watering), but looking closer, most of the green is not grass at all. I've had the macro lens on the camera for awhile, taking jewelry pics, but the lawn made a good subject too. I don't know the names of these little flowering plants, i will have to look them up. The pink flower is about a quarter inch in diameter. Those are the big ones! The little heart shaped leaves to the right of the flower are cute too. The macro lens really allows one to see things in a whole different way. There is a whole forest growing in a square foot of land.

The little white flowers are downright teeny, but a little taller. The stems get to be about 6" tall.

The yellow ones are teeny too, but show up nicely even when you're just walking by. If I had it, i could really spend a lot of time getting up close and personal with the lawn, and other little worlds around here.

Spring

2009-03-03T08:07:00.000-08:00

Well, I do believe spring has sprung in the Verde Valley. The nights still get chilly, with the coldest time right before sunrise, at about 30. Afternoons have been in the balmy 70's. When we ran out of propane, we realized we did not really need the heat on anymore :-) Around noon, I open the windows to warm up the house. Our plum tree in bloom. No plums last year, so hopefully it will be prolific this season.

Took the boys rock hunting at the old salt mine over the weekend. I got a rock hounding book, and this spot is supposed to be a good one for some various minerals. I am so not a geologist, but like to collect the cool looking specimens :-)

The boys had fun with the shovel and picks.

We found a bunch of cool crystals. they were hard in the soft salty powder, and had to be dug out. When we got home and washed them, we realized they were salt crystals! LOL The boys were a little disappointed. They had high hopes of selling all the stuff on Ebay. Plenty more opps for riches in the future :-)

Mining in Jerome

2009-02-28T05:58:00.000-08:00

Another artist at the Co-op told me about a public azurite claim in Jerome. Yesterday, Doug and I went to check it out. Doug enjoys going on adventures :-) I posted the pictures in the reverse order from which i intended, but oh well. After we drove around a little and then asked a woman walking her dog how to get down into the big gulch, we found blue stuff all over the palce. A few different minerals containg copper have formed around here. Azurite, Chrysocolla, and Malachite are the three most colorful. I think we found mostly Chrysocolla, which is often mistaken for turquoise, but is much softer. The above hunk of rock broke really easily with a couple whacks of my pick.

This is what it looked like after the whacking :-) I'm trying to get jewelry worthy pieces, so I was looking for smaller, flattish pieces of rock. I do not cut the stones. I like to use them as they come out of the ground. Ok, I guess whacking counts as altering...As I was whacking, I actually realized that I prefer to find the rocks already out of the ground. Doug enjoys the whacking :-)

This little pile was all soft and crumbly. I could use it in inlay work...

Cool big rock! It was too hard for us to get anything off of it with our little picks. We were in a little wash here, and found lots of cool stuff.

From the road, we could see where we needed to go, but getting there was a bit of a challenge. The only trail we saw was chained off with a sign that said "Stay out and Live" The dog walker said go ahead and use the trail, nobody minds. Gotta love Jerome :-)

I think that must be an old mine entrance. We stayed away from that....

Here's the trail we took down to the lower right side of that big gray wall under the Douglas Mansion. Must have been a little blasting going on at one time. We had a fun day, and got some cool rocks. I'm gonna double check with Brice to see if we were actually in the right spot :-) Doug thought our adventure made a good beginning to a horror movie...Going down a trail that said stay out and live, then in the movie, the people would have gone into the old mine to find some old miner zombies with picks..... Hard to swallow for me in the bright sunshine :-)

Douglas Mansion

2009-02-24T07:35:00.001-08:00

Sunday, Doug and I took a little field trip up to Jerome and the Douglas Mansion. It was the residence for Mr.(I forgot his first name already) Douglas, founder of the Daisy mine, back in Jerome's heyday. I'm not good at retaining details, but we learned a lot about Jerome's history and some of the mining that went on there. I had the macro lens on, so I couldn't get panoramic views. Doug is standing next to a bunch of different little mining carts that brought the ore up from the mines. Gold, silver, and copper were all found under Jerome, which was once the third largest town in AZ. Doug was hoping to get in for free, since he shared the name :-) We had to pay the dollar anyway, and were happy to do so.

Unfortunately, the State of AZ is cutting their budget, and the Jerome State Park, of which the Douglas mansion is now part of, closed as of yesterday. We went on the last day it was to stay open. Hopefully, it will reopen when the state is in better financial condition.

This is the view towards Flagstaff and Sedona.

Old mine shafts run all over the place under Jerome. Jerome is a National Historic Landmark now, so the buildings that haven't fallen down the hill are all historic, and have been, or are being restored. Way cool town with a colorful past. You can visit www.azjerome.com for more details.

The Buttes

2009-02-24T07:23:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I was picking the boys up from the skate park, and the lighting was looking vey cool. Luckily, I had the D70 with me! The following pics were taken along Montezuma Castle Highway, the road that takes us to school. Past school is Montezuma's Castle, an old Sinaguan Indian cliff dwelling, then the Casino ;-) We go bowling there. It was cloudy for most of the day, but the sun peeked through just long enough to click a few pics. It was about 5:30 in the afternoon, so the sun was about to go behind mingus Mountain. These pictures are looking to the eastish.

This is our view every morning on the way to school. It's 3.5 miles from the house, and an eight minute drive, but who's counting...

Beaver Creek runs along the road, and is very high right now, with all the snow up north melting. Sometimes it's completely dry at this spot. Tried to get a shot, but it didn't work in the car :-)

2009-02-10T07:14:00.000-08:00

This morning, there was actually SNOW on the ground in CV!!! That was a first here for us. While it was just a dusting, it was exciting nontheless :-) I planted collard greens the other day-hope they survive!

The wall around the pool...

I love the Mesquite tree out in front. Endless photo ops! I'm 'collecting' bark on film-more later...

Looking towrds Jerome. I'm on my way home after taking the kids to school. I think that's a goose flying by.

One of the three stop lights in CV. I'm about to turn left heading home.

Snow on the car!!

For some reason, we brought our snow shovel with us when we moved. It's good for shoveling Mesquite mess. i don't think we'll ever have to use it on snow :-)

Arizona got dumped on yesterday, with huge storms all over the state. Flagstaff broke a record for snowfall in one day, with over a foot falling in town. There was even hail in Scottsdale. OOO, I made a rhyme :-)

2009-02-08T05:24:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago, I was on my way to the Enchantment Resort in Sedona, to drop off some jewelry. I could see it was raining in Sedona from a good ten miles out. I've been on the run so much lately, that I've taken to aiming the D70 out the window while I'm driving. Don't worry, i don't look through the lens, just point and click. This is on Highway 89A, just coming into town. Coffee Pot Rock is on the right end of the formation.

On the way to Enchantment. It started snowing right here, while i was still in the sun...Very cool!

I was still in the sun here too, but headed into the clouds.

SNOW!!!!

In the snow here too. It only snowed for a few minutes, but it was cool anyway.

FRESH egg

2009-01-24T07:52:00.000-08:00

The egg on the right is the one i saw her lay this morning. I am pretty easily entertained, but I thought that was one of the coolest things EVER. YUMMMY!

I actually SAW the hen lay this egg this morning. It was still warm when I took this picture! I went to open up the coop, and she was sitting there, up on a shelf, making some little grunting noises. I watched for about half a minute before the egg just dropped right out. A first for me, it was pretty cool.

Sledding

2009-01-12T05:33:00.000-08:00

A twenty five mile drive took us up near Pine, AZ, to the sledding hill yesterday. Warm and sunny, the hill was almost as big as Wimot "mountain".
Here is Doug, getting some good air.
A nice little workout, having to walk back up and all.
Here's Max getting some good air too!
Doug and i went together a few times, and took some nice wipeouts :-)
Down the hill and through the woods...
After sledding, we took another little drive to Mormon Lake, the biggest natural lake in AZ. Cute little town with cabins and camping. Had dinner at the Mormon Lake Lodge-Awesome! We will have to check this place out in the warm weather and do a little fishing.

2009-01-11T06:54:00.000-08:00

The full moon is about to set behind Mingus Mountain. The January full moon was the biggest and brightest it will be all year. Last night it was really light out all night. Very cool. With no street lights, The moon is really noticable. I am much more conscious of it out here.

Not a bad sunrise in the front yard!

2009-01-11T06:48:00.000-08:00

I took this picture a month or so ago. The moon, Jupiter, and Venus were the closest together they will be for twenty years or so. I still don't know why I'm getting "ghosts" when I photograph at night, but I thought it was a pretty cool shot anyway.

Cats

2009-01-10T07:49:00.000-08:00

Tigris, our new kitten is very busy all the time. When I'm on the computer, she likes to sit in front of the monitor, in typical cat fashion. As you can see, Facebook is on the monitor. If you haven't signed up for facebook, I highly reccommend it. I've been connecting with tons of people there. it is a lot of fun catching up with old friends, and staying in touchwith poeple.

Joe is very tolerant of the crazy kitty, who attacks him whenever she gets a chance! They still have little love fests, and last night, they were sleeping together on my bed.

2009-01-07T10:55:00.000-08:00

This is not the greatest picture. I took it with my cell phone. Anyway, I had an appointment at The Enchantment Resort in Sedona yesterday. The buyer for the boutique there saw my jewelry in Tempe, and placed a nice order! After our meeting, I decided to take a little hike down the Boynton Canyon trail, which was a half mile from the resort. Since it was an unplanned event, I only hiked for about an hour. I had left the water bottle in the car. It was chilly, but refreshing, and there was snow on the ground in the shady spots. I was sweaty and feeling fab by the time I got back to the car. Gotta remember to do that more often!

the house

2009-01-03T12:37:00.000-08:00

I have been slacking on housework lately, getting ready for the art fairs. Now that they have passed, I can focus a little on the house as well as the jewelry. I started a clean sweep of the house a few days ago. We will have a LARGE yard sale when I'm finished. Maybe in a month or so :-) After the laundry room was clean, I moved into the pantry, which is like a hallway off the kitchen, leading to the laundry room. The shelves were pretty ugly-white with country blue contact paper on the shelves. Maybe not ugly to all, but definitely not my style. They needed cleaning, and since they were empty for wiping down, I figured I might as well do something with the.

Here is the after shot. I had some 'mango madness' paint leftover from the "juicy room". I put that into some white trim paint I had laying around, and this is what came out. I covered the shelves with some handmade paper(also had that laying around waiting for a project). They will do for now. Now I will have to paint the rest of the pantry, but I'm going to continue my clean sweep first.

2008-12-21T05:50:00.000-08:00

Well, I remembered to bring the D70 for morning 2, but left the memory card at home-HA We spent the morning watching a demo and then I started another smaller blade with the leftover piece of steel from the handle of this one.
I removed all the scale off the blade with the belt sander and a 36 grit belt. Next comes the handle. We had some cherry wood left over from our mantle, so I'm using that. Eric cut me some nice little handle sized pieces.

After drilling holes for rivets(I'm using silver), I traced around the blade handle, then cut out the shape using a hack saw and band saw. Not the way you might think, going around the traced edge, but we had to cut little "rays" in from the edge all the way around the shape, then go back and trim them off. The wood is too thick to just cut like a jig saw, the saw blade would have broken.

After that, I went back to the belt sander, and cleaned up the edges. Now the handle is off the knife so we can temper the blades. The above photo shows the knife after I cut the handles, but before sanding them.

A coke fire is much better for tempering than gas, so Ray built a fire and did a demo. First the blade must be made hard by bringing it up to a non magnetic state and slowly quenching in oil. This is the quick qay to do it. A better way would be to bring it up to heat, then let it cool slowly, over night in a bucket of vermiculite.

Now the steel is very hard , but too brittle for a knife, it would just snap when you used it. So the blade now has to be tempered by brining it up to the desired heat for the hardness you want. This is done by watching the colors of the metal. I will be going for a blue/purple, which I might just leave on the steel. I think it would look cool with the cherry wood and silver rivets. I will probably sharpen the blade before tempering, so I have that option.

Knife making-Day 1

2008-12-19T20:22:00.000-08:00

Today I spent the day making a knife over at Pieh Tools Blacksmithing Supplies, where I took the blacksmithing workshop last year. This year it is a knife making workshop with world renowned knife maker, Ray Rybar. With the Holidays around the corner, the timing wasn't great, but I could not pass up a chance to learn from this extremely talented crafts person. We started off with a section of coil spring. I was a little late, as today there was school, but i'm assuming it came off a car. Before beginning, we heard about the different kinds of steel, and the best ones to use for knives. High carbon steel is quite strong, but can be brittle and is difficult to work with, so we used a medium grade, which can also be quite strong, and somewhat more forgiving than steel with a higher carbon content. Then a demo, and off to the forge.

I forgot my D70 in the morning, so I didn't shoot the early couple of stages. First we had to straighten out the spring over the anvil, then we used the power hammer to flatten it out. In the above shot, I have started to form the blade end.

That's Ray on the right and Amy, the owner of Pieh tools. It's always nice when the pro gives your piece a little help!

Starting to look like something...

I was working the handle end at this point, letting it cool so i could figure out a good length.

Almost finished for the here, the handle needs a little more tapering, then a grinding to get the 'profile', or general shape the knife will be before sanding it clean.

Ok, really, how COOL is that?!

Stay tuned....

My commute to Jerome

2008-12-01T14:22:00.000-08:00

OK, so I'm driving to Jerome, and thought that a little photo journey would be good for the blog :)
Keep in mind that I was clicking as I was driving, so the pictures aren't the greatest. First Highway 260 to Cottonwood, about 15 miles. Jerome is up on the right edge of Mingus Mountain, on the left.

Sedona off to the right, about 20 miles.

Entrance to the dirt bike trails, a little less than halfway to Cottonwood.
We saw a tarantula there last summer-awesome!

Made it through the strip mall part of Cottonwood, I am now headed towards Old Town. Funky little part of town with nice little shops and a couple good restaraunts. We found Gelato there!

Through Cottonwood, i'm now in Clarkdale. When Jerome was a mining town, the bigwigs lived in Clarkdale, while the mine workers lived up on the hill. There are two ways to get through Cottonwood. I decided to take the longer way this morning. There is all kinds of construction the other way.

Now I'm headed "up the hill" towards Jerome. Jerome sits on the side of Cleopatra hill on Mingus Mountain, in the Black mountain range.

Had a slow moving RV in front of me, so I could click away.

Up, up, up. It's only about four miles up the hill :)

Almost there. Can you see the "J" on the peak? It lights up at night :)

Straight ahead(red roof) is the Ghost City Inn, a little haunted Hotel.

The co-op is the tall building on the right. It was the Hotel Jerome back in the day, and was pretty fancy for the times. Phones in every room! First and largest single poured concrete building in AZ when it was built in 1917. Deemed almost fireproof. Couldn't get Completely fireproof status because of the wood window frames. We occupy the street level, and there is private studio space and storage on the upper three levels.

On the left, are two shops that also carry my work. The owner, Christy Fisher, is also a member of the Co-op. Apartments on the upper floors.

MAde it! This is the view from where I park my car. The San Francisco Peaks In Flagstaff are coverd with snow.

A look back down the hill. The Co-op is a couple buildings down the street to the right. I took about 90 pictures on the 45 minute journey, but you get the general idea. Not a bad commute!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2008-12-01T14:17:00.000-08:00

We had rain and fog to be thankful for on Thanksgiving, and the day before. The above photo was taken at about 8:30 am on Friday. This was the view out the back.

Same view, two hours later. So nice to have a few rainy days, but just as nice to have the sun come out again!

2008-11-25T16:53:00.000-08:00

Took a field trip with the second graders today. Our first stop was Montezuma's Castle, a Sinaguan Indian cliff dwelling. It was thought to be Aztecan when it was first discovered, hence the name.

The kids had fun reading the info plaques. We had a worksheet with questions to answer.

Overlooking the banks of Beaver Creek, the inhabitants were farmers, and built elaborate irrigation systems to water their crops.

It was a cloudy day, and we even got sprinkled on a tiny bit. Looks like fall!

After lunch, the kids got some play time. Good climbing tree. Doug is in the red shirt.

The view from the top of Montezuma's Well, a limestone sinkhole that pumps a ton(IDK the gals per hr) of water into Beaver Creek.

Waterfront property!

We hiked down to the bottom of the well first and saw where the water leaves the well to feed into the creek. Then we hiked down the outside to see where the water comes out.

This is the outside where the water exits the well, and feeds into Beaver Creek. the water stays a constant 78 degrees. I'm sure I read about why the last time we were there, but can't remember :) Google!

A nice field trip, and a short bus ride!! The castle is about five minutes from school and the well is another fifteen or so. A good time was had by all, and it was nice to be out on a cloudy day!

Rain is supposed to show up tomorrow, and storms are in the forecast through the weekend-yippee!

2008-11-24T05:36:00.000-08:00

I brought my forge and anvil to the Village Gallery for a little demo on Saturday for the grand opening. It was a little like being in a fishbowl, but whatever. The gallery is right on highway 179, the main road going into Sedona from interstate 17, so there is a good amount of traffic driving by.
I hammered for a few hours, until the daylight ran out. i had to let the forge cool down too, so i could pack it back into my car. It wasn't that big a deal to move it, so I would probably do it again. Maybe up in Jerome too!

The boys came with me, and stayed for a couple hours. After a couple trips to the convenience store across the street, they were pretty much done.

boys forging

2008-11-15T12:14:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, Max wanted to try out the forge. I was all over that. Of course when Doug found out what was going on, he had to join the party. They started out making spirals.

Here are the finished products!! Max's is on the left. Pretty darn good for first tries. I'm so proud :)

The sun is setting...

2008-11-06T04:43:00.000-08:00

I wanted to post yesterday, right after the election, but I think the site was too busy-couldn't get the pics to upload.
Anyway, the sun is setting on the Bush administration and it's a beautiful thing!

Obama almost took AZ-What a slap in the face that would have been!!! The future looks promising my friends....

This picture has nothing to do with anything. It rained the other day-yippee! This was about as much as we got, and it was dried up in ten minutes. Hopefully the clouds will start rolling in soon. Last year the rain startd early in dec. We're hoping for lots of snow up in Flagstaff!

Field Trip

2008-11-03T05:15:00.000-08:00

Max is taking a field trip with school today to the Grand Canyon. they will take a bus to Williams, then hop on the train to the Canyon. Lots of travel time, but I'm sure he will have a blast. The kids don't know it, but the train is going to get 'robbed'.

2008-10-30T14:40:00.000-07:00

The building on the left is the site of the newest Cooperative gallery I am joining. One of the artists at the Jerome Co-op works for a resort that is opening this place for tourists to book various tours in Sedona, and they are letting her put artwork in as well. Perfect location on the main road leading to Sedona from the interstate. She's planning on opening tomorrow! Crazy stuff going on right now, but it's all good!

AWWWW

2008-10-30T14:36:00.000-07:00

I caught Joe giving the kitty a little bath. This was the second time. The first time,when I got the camera, and he stopped and put an irritated look on his face. This time he let us watch the love fest. Very sweet.

Montezuma's Well

2008-10-23T06:32:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we took a little field trip to Montezuma's Well, a National Monument just north of CV a little bit. It is a limestone sinkhole, and quite unique for the desert. The water has an exceptionally high carbon dioxide content, making it unfriendly for fish.
I had the macro lens on my camera, so I couldn't get a full shot. Next time.

We were standing way up above the well here. The peak in the middle of the pic is right near our house, so from miles away, we can see where home is.

Instead of hiking down to the edge of the well, we opted for the outside, to see where the water leaves the well and feeds into Beaver Creek. We can take the other trail next time, when I have the right lens on the camera.

Checking out some bugs on the bush. Max complained pretty much the whole time, but I think he had a decent time anyway. Eric headed home to watch football and I took the boys up to Flagstaff for a little Target fix afterwards, so everyone ended up happy.

moon

2008-10-14T18:25:00.000-07:00

I know I've posted a similar picture before, but I couldn't resist the full moon rising! The Mesquite tree looks sort of like antlers. Anybody know why i got that ghost moon?

BRRRRR

2008-10-13T18:35:00.000-07:00

This was the temp Sunday morning about 7:00-BRRRR It warmed up into the sixties. unseasonably cool for this time of year. Probably warmer in EV right about now!

We lit a fire last night and this afternoon. It's way too early to turn on the heat! Plus I need to buy some propane for the furnace. It's supposed to get back into the eighties by the end of the week.

I rode up to Jerome today anyway :)

Parade

2008-10-11T12:26:00.000-07:00

This weekend, CV is celebrating Fort Verde Days, in honor of it's State Park of the same name. Doug and I went to the parade this morning, and we all went to the carnival and Bull Bash(rodeo) last night.
There were lots of people on horses among other floats. Lots of the people in the parade threw out candy to the kids. Made it worth Doug's while for sure!

This is the Grand Marshall.

The guy on the left was bugling.

This group of cavalry men followed the bugler. Maybe he was their announcer.

No batons-these girls wielded jump ropes.

The bag piper was walking with the Sons of the American Legion.

Smokey the Bear!

A little bit of CV history

The iron horses :) The woman on the left lives near us and works at the Elementary school.

More cavalry men

Marines

During Ft. Verde Days, there is a burrow and mustang adoption program. Not this year!

This was my favorite. Click on the picture to enlarge it.

PPart of the Search and Rescue team. Hikers frequently get lost around here.

The parade lasted about 45 minutes, and only had two politicians. The crowd was pretty mellow. I needed cousin Robin there to make some noise with me :) Doug went across the street to sit with his friend, so I watched by myself. I still made a little noise anyway. No pro lifers to wave hangers at today.

It's really windy today so the sun was not an issue. I even had a sweatshirt on!

New Addition

2008-10-11T06:43:00.001-07:00

A few weeks ago, the boys found two kittens in our yard, hiding behind some boards. The mother is a stray in the 'hood. I wasn't home when they decided to bring them in the house, but whatever, they did. I sent them over to the Feed Store a couple weeks later, with the kitties in a cardboard box, and a nice big sign that read "FREE KITTENS!". They were able to give one (Smokey) away, but had no takers on this one. Her name is Tigris(Max has been studying Mesopotamia), and she is very cute. Joe is not real happy about the addition, but he'll get used to her in time. I'm hoping they can eventually become friends!
By the way, I have changed the publishing format of this blog, so you do not have to sign in to post a comment. At least that's what I thought I did. Someone will have to do a test(SUZY?).

First Sign of Fall

2008-10-04T13:42:00.000-07:00

I noticed these red leaves on our Pecan tree the other day. Fall is coming! Instead of feeling dread and sadness to see summer leave, I'm feeling kind of relieved that some cooler weather is on the way. Today is overcast with a few little sprinkles. Only a high of 76! It will be back into the high eighties in a couple days, but this time of year it's only that temp for a few hours in the afternoon. Still got some pool time left.

The chickens follow me around in the yard, hoping for treats. Their favorite is bread of any kind. They always get the leftover crusts from Doug's lunch.

Mr. Rooster is crowing away. The other white one in the background is a rooster too, but the silky is dominant. We average four eggs a day now, so a couple of the hens must be laying every other day.

Blacksmithing weekend

2008-09-21T15:54:00.000-07:00

So I ride up to Jerome on Friday, to drop off some work and pick up a check. Another artist had left a little article in my file about a blacksmithing demo going on in CV this weekend. Turns out, it was on our street, about five houses away! Th Arizona Artist Blacksmith Association has "hammer ins" every other month, and this one was being hosted by our neighbors. So I headed over in the morning, and wrote my membership check. The boys set up their lemonade stand next to the registration table. Gordon Williams did the demo on Saturday. I took his workshop last fall. He is an awesome demonstrator, and a talented blacksmith. After the all day demo, we went on a tour of a few of the CV artists' shops. I love seeing other peoples' work spaces, not to mention the awesome properties around here!

This is Ray Rybar Jr., who makes AMAZING knives with damascus steel. He not only makes the steel, forming incredible patterns in the metal with various types of steel(google damascus), he goes out and digs the ore to actually MAKE the metal from dust. So impressive I can't even stand it. Truly humbling to be in the presence of such greatness. He lives about a mile away right in our 'hood, and has an awesome set of tools.

This is a not so good photo of a part of a sword. It has an Adam and Eve theme. Click the photo to enlarge. The different colors are the different metals-they go all the way through the piece. The surface was etched as well with lettering and other images.

Knife making workshops are in my future!

The Sunday(today) demo was done by Chris Contos, a metal artist from Prescott. A former jeweler, he now does a lot of engraving on steel and some awesome repousse' work. Got to try out one of his chisels, and made a little spiral in some steel. So much playing to do...

Chris is using a chisel to engrave some steel.

This is one of his belt buckels, all hand engraved sterling with gold and copper accents. I'm so greatful the Universe wanted me to become part of this amazingly talented group of people. I look forward to learning many things from them, and maybe even get to share some of my ideas and techniques(I'm not feeling worthy yet) with the AABA. WOW

Happy Birthday to Me

2008-09-13T07:04:00.000-07:00

Our friend Chuck has been visiting for the past week. He is an avid rider, and inspired me to hop on the bike again. We took a couple rides together while Eric was in school. Yesterday was my birthday, and his last opportunity to see the Grand Canyon on this visit, so to the Grand Canyon we rode. We took the (more)scenic route on the way up, going on highway 89A, through Sedona. We stopped here for a little break after winding our way up the mountain north of Sedona, on the way to Flagstaff. Elevation about 7000 ft.

We stopped for lunch in Williams, the last city on Route 66 to be bypassed by Interstate 40. It is known as "The Gateway to the Grand Canyon", and has a train that runs the 50 miles north to the GC.

Made it to the South Rim! Fond memories of my hike down with Suzy. Gotta make it to Phantom Ranch next time!

What an awesome ride! All in all, we rode about three hundred miles, on all kinds of roads. Twisties up through mountains, Interstate highway, and nice two lane, wide open roads. Saw a heard of Elk just south of Flagstaff, and smelled Junipers, Ponderosa Pines, intentional burns(sort of like pine incense), and lovely wilflowers to name a few. Not a bad Birthday. Thanks Eric for encouraging me to go, and to Chuck for putting up with my speed limit riding :)

Rock Stock

2008-08-27T08:40:00.001-07:00

The little buildings behind the stage are part of the Gold King Mine. No longer active, the mine was opened back in the 20's during the copper boom. While mining for copper, gold was found instead. Now the mine is a tourist attraction, with the old buildings and lots of cool stuff to look at. the mine has been closed off, but they have a mock entrance you can walk into.

Last weekend, we went up to Jerome to check out Rock Stock 2008. It was a little music festival set up near the Gold King Mine. There were local bands all day and night. Our musician Max, didn't even come with us, so it was Eric, Doug, and me. Really low key and small. Doug called it a hippie fest :) It would have been more fun if more kids people came with us, as it is an all day event. Some chairs would have been nice too. And a little grill and some munchies. We didn't stay long, but it was a fun event, and we will be better prepared next year.

Doug and I collected some cool rocks with copper in them.

The above photo is looking to the east from Rock Stock. There was a nice storm going on near Sedona.

The hoola hoops were set up for anyone to use. The woman who brought them was quite a twirler!

First Eggs

2008-08-17T11:14:00.000-07:00

The boys were playing outside when Max's friend Chance found a nest in the shed with these eggs. Very exciting! After we ate them (YUM), the boys went on an egg hunt, but did not find any more. I think only one of the girls is laying so far. Every day will be an egg hunt until we can figure out where they all decide to lay their eggs!

2008-08-17T07:43:00.000-07:00

Monsoon season brings some awesome skies. Usually in the afternoon the clouds roll in and stay well into the night. Sometimes, the storm can be seen in the distance, and of we're lucky, it makes its way to us with some nice cooling rain and wind. This past week, just when I think I need to turn on the AC, the winds pick up and the temperature drops 20-30 degrees. The nights have been cooling off, with temps in the sixties, so a fan in the window is perfect for sleeping.

OK, so I figured out how to use photoshop a little. I cropped this photo and upped the contrast. I started using Photoshop and whatever windows thing(easier) is on the computer for the jewelry photos. Cropping and removing impurities from background is quite necessary for jury slides. It's kind of fun to play around with on the landscapes too:)

rainbow

2008-08-09T17:02:00.001-07:00

This was just a little rainbow in the gray sky, but I thought it looked kinda cool, and it was the first one of the season that I photographed.

First Day of School

2008-08-06T14:54:00.000-07:00

First day of school! Max is a big sixth grader and gets to go to the middle school. The bus picked him up at 6:30 this morning and he will get home shortly after 3:00. A longer day than he's used to, but everyone will adjust. The 5:45 wake up might take awhile though.

Doug wanted me to drive him this week, but he is taking the bus home, and told me I didn't have to stay with him on the playground if I didn't want to. I took the hint, and dropped him off at the front door. What a pro!

pepper

2008-08-06T06:42:00.001-07:00

I have done a LITTLE gardening this season. The tomatoes are not too happy, but the peppers are. This one came off a plant by the pool. It is either a jalapeno or tabasco. They're tasty red or green, but they look so pretty when they're red, so I try and wait... My plan is to get a cold weather crop going pretty soon. I can grow greens all winter! mmmmmmm-kale :)
Next up from the fruit trees-peaches.

Last Day of Summer Break

2008-08-05T18:00:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow the boys start school, so we headed to Sedona to swim and swing at Crescent Moon Ranch(Cathedral Rock), and have a little lunch in town. The restaurant we went to had a view of Coffee Pot Rock. I think the name is pretty obvious, but if you can't tell, look at the rock on the right. A percolator, not Mr. Coffee.

On our way into town from Cathedral Rock, I had to stop and take a pic of the clouds. It rained a little on the drive home, and when we got home, we had a nice little storm. We got home just in time to get the clothes in that were hanging out to dry.

Summer break is over for us, back to the school schedule. Max is starting Middle School, and is having mixed feelings. He found out today that his good friend Chance is in his homeroom class, so he's feeling a lot better now. Met Doug's teacher yesterday, and the new bus driver. Doug will start taking the bus home, and maybe after a couple weeks, go both ways on the bus. It would save me gas and time. So much for feeling whacked out about the school bus! I don't think there will be any tears this year either(not mine anyway).

"Beach" Day

2008-07-30T14:22:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, we went to Crescent Moon ranch, one of my favorite places in Sedona. I take all our visitors there. A nice little hike through the woods brings you to the banks of Oak Creek and a spectacular view of Cathedral Rock, the most photographed place in Sedona. I know I have taken a few pics there :) I can't help it. I did find another trail that will take you up into the rocks, so when it cools off a bit, I will check it out. Anyway, there are a couple of rope swings, so finally, we got to swing into the water, which was quite comfortable for a running creek.

Eric and Doug went to the movies while Max and I hung out. Cathedral Rock is now behind Max.

After the movie, Doug got some water time in. I"m guessing it gets pretty crowded here on the weekends. We only come during the week. There are plenty of more remote and less crowded places to do this sort of thing, but having a few people around is sort of comforting to us city folk.

We found this swing in the woods up stream a little ways from the other one. There are all kinds of trails too, but we stayed by the water. Blackberries are getting ripe.

Good reason this place is so popular-it's awesome!! The boys had a blast. The combination of hiking through the woods and swimming is perfect!

Critters

2008-07-30T14:11:00.001-07:00

In addition to all the swimming and swinging, we saw a few interesting critters at Crescent Moon Ranch. This HUGE spider was on the rock that everyone stands on to grab the rope swing. This was by far the biggest spider I've ever seen aside from the Tarantula. The body was probably 1-1.5" long. It's diameter with the legs was 5-6". Talk about heeby jeebies. I will do some research to find out what kind it is. Anyone have any ideas?

We call these lizards stripers. Max is pretty good at catching them. This one was about 8" long

We saw this beetle on the base of a tree. It was about 2" long. Kinda cool looking.

Clouds

2008-07-21T12:01:00.000-07:00

Who knew clouds could be so many different colors at once?

2008-07-21T11:55:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we had a few nice rains. This one was the heaviest, and lasted for a good 15 minutes. No thunder, so the boys stayed in the pool. They get a kick out of swimming in the rain. I got the camera because it was pouring, but the sun was shining. Didn't see a rainbow though.

Moonlight Hike

2008-07-21T11:36:00.001-07:00

Last week, we took a moonlight hike at Red Rock State Park in Sedona. They have guided hikes every full moon. It was about two miles total, and took us through some open fields, riparian habitat along the banks of Oak Creek, and up a rock to 'Eagle's Nest', where we got to see the moon rise. Our hike started out on a paved path, and led us into the woods. It was cool and humid by the creek.

Saw a few deer in this open field. They weren't too bothered by our appearance.

We got to see the sunset and the moonrise at the same time!

I thought about bringing my tripod, but didn't feel like lugging it.

I cropped this quite a bit, so it's a little grainy, but not a bad picture of the moon for no tripod.

Anyway, it was a nice little hike, and I think the boys even enjoyed it! We saw a skunk, the deer, a scorpion, and some gorgeous scenery. I think we will be doing that again.

Chicken(?)

2008-07-21T11:27:00.000-07:00

We're pretty sure now that this 'Silky' is a rooster. He and our other white chicken do quite a bit of crowing lately. They don't just crow at the crack of dawn. Roosters crow all day long on and off. I have no idea why. It's very funny. Some day I will take a video so you can hear for yourselves.

Max enjoys chasing the chicken around, trying to catch them. At the end of the day when they're getting ready to retire for the night is the best time. They're pretty hard to catch if they're out in the yard, but they calm down as soon as they're being held.

Bull Pen

2008-07-15T08:10:00.000-07:00

This past Sunday afternoon, Max and I went on a nice little hike in search of a rope swing in a watering hole near a place called the Bull Pen Ranch. The road to the trailhead is a few miles away from our house, but you have to drive a ways down some dirt roads, so the drive to the trailhead is about 40 minutes. Who cares-look at the view! It was cloudy and raining in spots. Above is the view from the car shortly after turning off of the highway(260).

The blooming century plants(yellow things) were a little far away for the camera, but cool nonetheless. If you click on the photo, it will get big.

We searched for the rope swing once before, a few weeks ago. Max totally thought this tree was a bear, and we all got a little adrenaline rush out of it. Now we call it "Bear Tree". It is real close to the beginning of the trail.

After a walk through the woods, the trail opens up for a bit, before going back into the woods along Clear Creek.

This was our view an the right. Look at the different colors in the rock. I'm thinking I need to study a little geology.

The trail eventually led us here, along the red rocks. I mentioned to Max that it looked like Sedona and he said, "It probably IS Sedona". We had been walking for about 30 min.

We thought this could be the spot, but no rope swing in sight. The trail was stopped by the rock ledge, but picked up across the creek. We crossed over and walked a little further before deciding that the tree with the swing must have fallen into the creek, then turned around.

Another geologic curiosity.

This was another spot we thought the swing could've been. It is a nice place to hang out anyway, swing or no swing. On our way out, we actually saw a couple people hanging out here. Bull Pen is a pretty popular place. We only saw a few groups of people, but lots of evidence(garbage) of humans. For us city folk, the occasional ciggarette butt is comforting in a weird way. It can get a little creepy being out in the middle of nowhere all by yourself. Hopefully, that feeling will eventually pass.

We saw some critters, including this desert millipede. They are venomous, but I don't think they're deadly.

As we were driving home, this view from the road caught my eye. I felt like we were looking down on a rainforest. Around here, you can always tell where rivers or creeks are by the trail of tall trees.

This is the western edge of the White Mountains. We have not been up that way yet, but I think it's kind of like the Door County of Arizona, only with cowboys.

Our hike was about two hours total, not including drive time. We never found the rope swing, but saw some beautiful sights and interesting critters(bright blue lizard), and had some nice time together. I'm sure we will search again.

2008-07-13T08:05:00.000-07:00

The monsoon season has arrived, so we are getting some pretty cool looking skies.
We had some really good rain yesterday, just in time for the BBQ we were having. The kids loved swimming during the downpour, and the rain stopped in time to fire up the grill, so everything worked out perfectly.
I am really feeling the humidity. I have to remember to close the chip bag now, and bring things inside that I don't want getting wet(phones). The tomato plants might actually start growing! The little watering every morning was not happening for them. Now I know they need a deep watering every couple of days.

More on the 4th

2008-07-06T09:17:00.001-07:00

For the Fourth, we headed "over the hill" to Prescott, where Frontier Days was going on. It is a combination of a rodeo, craft fair, carnival and fireworks. It is spread out over town in three different locations, so we packed a lot into the day. We even got a nice thunderstorm! We started off at the rodeo, but the boys got bored after awhile, so we didn't stay for the whole thing. I think they save the bull riding for last, which is really what they wanted to see. We'll have to wait for the Bull Bash in CV.

We thought the calf roping was a little mean(beats being veal), but the bucking broncos were impressive. Serious core workout for the cowboys!

After walking around the craft fair in downtown Prescott, sitting on some nice soft green grass for some chill time(my favorite activity of the day), and getting caught in a thunderstorm, we headed over to Pioneer Park for a carnival and fireworks. Not much of a carnival. Most of the rides had shut down because of the storm, but we had front row seats in the parking lot for the fireworks, which were pretty impressive. The parade was on the 5th, so we missed that, but got a lot of good stuff in on the fourth!

Hail EV

2008-07-06T09:03:00.000-07:00

A few days after our visitors left, we came back to EV for a little visit. Since we both are actually working, five days was all we could manage. We did get to see a bunch of people, and unfortunately, missed some as well. Sorry!
It was nice to get back for a few days, but I could really feel the humidity. After my sinuses finally adjusted to the drier climate, I actually prefer it now.
Got a nice little hail storm while we were at Eric's uncle's house for a visit. After a few pics there, my battery went dead, so I did not get many photos in EV.

Doug enjoyed collecting some hail.

One of the topics of conversation was who gets the porch swing :)

Visitors

2008-07-06T08:31:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, my sister, Meg, niece Carly, nephew Pauly, and Meg's godson, Trey came out for a little visit. We packed a lot into four days and had a good time. I'm really glad we got to spend some nice time together in AZ! Gotta hit Cathedral Rock! We had a girls day out in Sedona, with shopping, hiking, and at the end of the day, we all had our auras and chakras photographed:)

Of course we stacked rocks!

Thought this was a cool flower getting ready for it's evening bloom. Nice example of sacred geometry.

Carly got the camera at Cathedral Rock.

Staying cool in the pool!!

Fun with the chickens.

Carly, your chakras are showing! Doug got the camera in Jerome.

The Haunted Hamburger in Jerome

A little dirt biking at dusk.

4th

2008-07-05T12:15:00.000-07:00

Happy Independence Day everyone!!

It was a year ago today that we left E-Town to explore the Wild West. Hard to believe. Tick tock baby!

More blogging to come. Cut me a little slack, we're on summer break :)

Slide Rock

2008-06-15T06:22:00.001-07:00

My sister, her godson, and my niece and nephew are visiting this weekend, so Friday we went to Slide Rock State Park and Sedona. Pauly(our nephew), who is 17, wanted to jump off the cliff on the right. If you look closely, you can see a person sitting where we jumped from just to the left of the tree in that little patch of sunlight. Yes, I said WE. Pauly and I jumped from up there! I had no plans to jump when I went up there with him, but hey, life is short man. I have to say, it really was not that much fun, but it was quite an adrenaline rush.

The Girls

2008-06-09T07:10:00.000-07:00

The chickens are officially "free range" now. They stay in the coop at night for safety reasons, and then roam around the yard during the day. They always travel in a pack(brood?), and if one gets separated, she makes a certain noise. I've had to go to the rescue more than a couple times:)
Usually in the afternoon, they hang out in front of the house, and peek in sometimes. I think they would like to come in, but they poop WAY too much for that. It's like a little mine field out there. Fortunately, the poop dries up pretty quickly, and I can sweep it into the grass. Good fertilizer.
They're pretty funny animals. One of them started crowing like a rooster(sort of), once in awhile. They are probably vying for dominance now.
They will come to me when I call them, because I usually have treats for them. One of their favs is the inside of peppers, but they also enjoy bread of any kind, apple cores, melon peels, almost anything.

sunset by the pool

2008-06-03T14:04:00.000-07:00

On Sunday, we spent a good deal of the day in the pool. Had lunch and dinner outside. A couple neighbor kids came over after dinner for a swim. I still have to pinch myself sometimes.

Boys' View of Jerome

2008-06-02T09:20:00.000-07:00

I sent the boys onto the streets of Jerome while I did my four hour shift at the Coop last Saturday. I figured the camera would keep them occupied. I like getting a little glimpse of how they see things :) Looks like they found a rock they liked in the above photo.

Always a ton of motorcycles in Jerome. I still haven't ridden up there yet. One of these days...

I thinke they were window shopping for awhile.

Their first stop was the candy store. they waited outside for it to open. mmmmm

What happened here? I'm not seeing a picture, but it may show up when I publish the post.

When I got my camera back, there was a huge sticky mark on the lens. you can kind of see it just to the left of Max's face. can you see his earring? I pierced his ear a few weeks ago.

I think this was their fave, aside from the candy store.

I'm collecting pictures of bark, so Doug got a few for me. thoughtful boy!

These are made by a local artist. He takes bottles and turns them into glasses. We've saved some cool bottles for him to transform for us.

In Jerome, there is a little vacant lot where artists set up tables, sell stuff, and do demos sometimes. This work is made by a guy who lampworks glass.

When they were finished exploring the streets, they came back to the Coop and kept us company.

weeds

2008-06-02T09:15:00.000-07:00

I thought this was a native plant(weed) growing in a little spot next to the house, but when I noticed the buds, I figured I'd wait and see what it turned into. Not bad. Pretty sure it's a Hibiscus, probaby close to seven feet tall now. Lots of smaller plants around it, and tons more buds. I'm glad I didn't yank it.

Life is...

2008-06-02T09:12:00.000-07:00

This bowl of cherries was all we got this year off of our little cherry tree. I didn't even know we had a cherry tree, so what a nice treat! They weren't quite ripe, but tasty nonetheless. Next up should be apricots.

zoo

2008-06-02T08:58:00.000-07:00

Since we're on summer break, the question of the day is: "What should we do today?" If Max had it his way, we would go shopping every day, but we have to balance things out, right? Last week, we went to the Zoo in Prescott, then shopping. It's pretty small as zoos go, but it was nice and laid back, the way I like it!

I gave Doug the camera for the day. At first it was set on manual focus, so most of the pics were deleted. My bad. We enjoyed the Peacocks roaming around, like at the Milwaukee Zoo.

This was the view from the zoo parking lot. I don't know what the name of the lake is, but we will find out, and get a little beach time in! Not quite the same as Lake Michigan, but it will do.

cloudy day

2008-05-23T07:20:00.000-07:00

It's cloudy and rainy today. Kinda nice to appreciate damp and chilly days. It snowed in Flagstaff yesterday at the higher elevations(7500'+). Snow on Memorial Day weekend....almost sounds like Chicago weather!

Temp this morning at about 6:30. Quite a change from the 100 the other day. I guess the weather can get a little extreme here too.

This is our hummingbird feeder outside our front window. This Hummingbird has her nest inside our 'stable', and has for a few years. They migrate down to Mexico for the winter, then come back to the same nest every year.

I make a sugar-water mixture for the food. This picture is just a tiny bit smaller than actual size. She flies around in the barn while I'm working sometimes. Sounds like a giant bumble bee.

2008-05-19T18:17:00.000-07:00

It's been awhile since I posted a sunset. Clear skies don't make for great pics. We had some cool looking clouds roll in yesterday evening, so it was a good sunset last night. Spent the whole day in or by the pool yesterday. It almost reached 100. Totally tolerable with H20!

This was our thermometer in the shade at about 4:45 this afternoon. Someone told me breaking the 100 mark came later than last year(May 1). I was actually chilly(for a little minute) getting out of the pool with the breeze blowing. Crazy! It's supposed to get back down to the 70's by Thursday, and maybe even rain!

2008-05-16T09:07:00.000-07:00

This is Max's birthday/graduation present. Because of the Rock Band video game with drums, he's already pretty good. I was impressed. I'm sure the neighbors will be too :)

If I hadn't spent all that time texturing and painting the walls, we would put carpet on them. Some soundproofing is in order for sure!

snow in may

2008-05-13T21:15:00.000-07:00

It's hard to see in this picture, but there is snow on the top of Mingus Mountain over near Jerome today. It rained here last night and a good part of today. Flagstaff got 4 inches of wet, heavy snow. Pretty wacky stuff. It was chilly here too. High in the 60's.

Played our first softball game of the season last night. Had a great game with a lead off double and three or four more base hits after that. Played in left field, which was fun. My legs are a little sore today, right above the quads. Got another game tomorrow, so the muscles should loosen up!

slumber party

2008-05-11T08:03:00.001-07:00

We had a little slumber party the other night for Max's Birthday. Seven boys total. They kept busy swimming, playing video games, and riding Ryan's(holding the green thing) quad around the yard. Doug cooked pancakes for everyone in the morning. It all went surprisingly smooth :)

Weird Noise

2008-05-06T06:14:00.000-07:00

I woke up at about 2:00am, hearing a strange noise outside. It sounded sort of like water running. Sometimes our neighbor keeps weird hours, so I looked out the window to see if they were watering or something. It was raining! Not too much, but enough to leave some puddles for this morning and calm all the dust down a bit. Smelled fab! I'm actually looking forward to the monsoons.

Pony Express

2008-05-02T20:27:00.001-07:00

Doug had a friend over today. There was no school because of the Verde Valley Fair. Rodeo, carnival, music, etc. I'm digressing. Anyway, we were driving Doug's friend home, and as we turned onto the highway near our house, there was actually traffic backed up for awhile. I thought it was an accident, but then I noticed horse poop on the side of the road and around the curve, I thought I saw a bunch of people on horses. It was the PONY EXPRESS! They do an annual ride and this year for the first time ended it in CV. WHY didn't I have the D70!? We drove right by the posse of about 30 riders, just finishing a 125 mile ride, that began on Wednesday. I thought it was the coolest thing, the boys not so much. Oh well. I swear, I'm gonna bring my camera EVERYWHERE.

For more details, you can check out this article in one of our local papers(CV actually has two), the CV Bugel at: http://campverdebugleonline.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=1&ArticleID=19901. I'm hoping to see some more pics of the event in there soon.

Mulberries

2008-05-02T20:06:00.001-07:00

What a thrill for us when Eric discovered one of our Mulberry trees had berries! We knew we had a few trees, but thought they were not bearers of fruit. After the evening swim, Doug and I picked a bowlful while Max threw a Chinese star at a wall. I guess mulberry picking wasn't his thing today. Doug enjoyed himself immensely, and is looking forward to putting a sheet down and shaking berries off the tree tomorrow. We might have to make a pie.

The berries are smaller than the IL variety, but still pretty tasty. This tree is way more prolific than our tree in EV.

Doug's on a little nakee binge :)

mmmmmmm - berries!

Jerome Artist's Coop

2008-05-01T20:09:00.000-07:00

Today I installed my display and work at the Jerome Artist's Coop. There are 36 artists currently exhibiting work. Not the greatest photo, but you get the idea.

Here's the front. the woman in white through the left window seems to be looking at my work.

I got a call this afternoon to let me know my first pices had sold-a forged steel letter opener. I'm excited and looking forward to becoming involved.

I plan on adding another blog with just my work on it for those interested. Eventually people will be able to make online purchases. Bear(or bare?) with me though, it's on my pretty long to do list.

Pancake Chef

2008-04-30T06:17:00.001-07:00

Doug has been on a little pancake making binge, cooking up a storm. We found pancake batter that squeezes out of a whipped cream can at Cosco, so they started with that. When those were gone I showed him how to make batter from a mix(we'll move to scratch later). Yesterday he added strawberries, and plans on blueberries for today. He enjoys cooking to order, and made a well done pancake for Nana the other day. Next lesson: how to clean the kitchen.

down by the river

2008-04-27T13:36:00.000-07:00

We took a walk to the river this morning. The boys got new fishing pole the other day, so they wanted to try them out. There was a nice log to sit on and watch.

Our river access point is where people drop in their kayaks and canoes. The boat had just gotten in the water. There's a new place in town for renting kayaks and canoes, so we'll be checking that out for sure!

Max is taking a break from fishing to have a little chat with Nana.

The cactus are starting to bloom!

visitors

2008-04-26T16:12:00.000-07:00

My parents are in town for a quick visit this weekend. We have spent most of our time by the pool. Water has to be pretty warm for mom to get in. Today's water temp: 87!
Cathy, are you looking?

Sedona Hike

2008-04-21T07:21:00.001-07:00

Took a nice hike yesterday with my friend Mary in Sedona at Boynton Canyon. We didn't take the trail we meant to, but who cares. We hiked for almost four hours(a little longer than intended) with a sandwich break in the middle.

We thought we were in the middle of nowhere, but then all of a sudden we saw a golf course through the brush. That's kinda how Sedona is. It can be a little weird, but I like it anyway.

This dying Prickly Pear cactus looked cool to me with the dirt on it.

Some Agaves in the forest. Very diverse plant life around here.

Our hike took us along a dry creek bed-awesome! Got a few rocks(duh).

The trees were really cool yesterday. I got some close ups of their different bark. I feel a project coming on now.

This bark looked like mosaic tile.

Great day. We probably hiked close to eight miles. At least it felt like we did. Most of the uphill was on the way out, so the trip back was much faster.

pool progress

2008-04-21T07:17:00.001-07:00

I painted the wall around the pool purple the other day. I like it. Eric was doubtful(silly man), but he likes it too! There's just enough dirt between the fence and the deck to plant a few things. I'm thinking Agaves.
Current pool temp: 81 :)

chickies

2008-04-13T08:10:00.001-07:00

The Chickies are growing really fast. Most of their feathers have grown in, and their feet seem huge! Today Eric is going to put up a fence with a chicken wire roof for a little chicken yard. When they're small, hawks and other birds of prey can scoop them up if they're not protected outside. We have been letting them out, but have to watch them. Can't do that all day.

Grand Canyon Hike

2008-04-12T11:55:00.000-07:00

Suzy took these pictures on our hike in the GC. The tree was shot on the way back up during one of our many breaks.

We were pretty near the top here. As we hiked, the color of the dirt changed with our altitude. Kinda like walking through eons. On the way back up, we were psyched when the dirt turned from the reddish color to a lighter shade of beige.

A little stretch on the way down. We had just begun at this point. If you click on the photo above, you can see a line of trees way far down on the left edge, just below the tree branch. That is Indian Gardens, where we had lunch.

Nice Pics Sooz, thanks!

house guests

2008-04-09T06:53:00.000-07:00

After our trail ride down in Black Canyon City, we headed north to a little larger canyon. On Thursday, Suzy and I hiked about halfway down the Bright Angel Trail, to a camp called Indian Gardens where we had lunch and a little sit down. It was 4.5 miles each way. Let me tell you, the hike back up seemed WAY longer!! It took us 2.5 hours to hike down and 3.5 hours to hike back up. Lots of breaks to catch our breath. I think we made good time! I didn't feel like lugging the D70, so Suzy took all the pics. When I get some, I will post.

Here we are Cathedral Rock. I know I keep posting pics of it, but it is a beautiful place, and really easy to get to.

When you hand the camera to strangers, you don't always get the picture you were thinking about. I personally would have included the rock in the background. Oh well. I'm not lacking in Cathedral Rock photos. By the way, I found a hat. It was the one I had seen last summer at a Dairy Queen up north of Sedona in Oak Creek canyon. Yee Ha!

The three amigos. The sun was in everyone's eyes. They had a good time together. My boys were sad to see Ben leave, but glad their friend got to come and see where they live, meet some friends, hang out and do AZ stuff.

I have no idea what this non picture is about. If I could figure out how to cut it, I would. Now that I published the post, the picture showed up, but I can't seem to cut it. Oh well. Three amigos time two!

We were up in Jerome in front of the Gold King Mine, when the Hummingbirds were all over this one feeder. Pretty cool. I put a feeder outside our front window. I saw a hummingbird near it the other day, but not at it. I might have to move it to a tree or something.

Besides our house guests, we had some day visitors in the past couple weeks. Karen came up on her way to Flagstaff to visit her sister, and bought this Goddess pendant9among other things). It was great to see her, and get caught up on Dawes(she is the principal there). I forgot to get a picture for the blog-sorry Karen!! Thanks for stopping by. Next time I will remember to pull out the D70(i have been slacking a little lately).

In between our trail ride and the Grand Canyon, my long time friend Dorothe' and her two daughters, Lillian and Ann Marie stopped for a quick visit. They were staying in Sedona. The girls enjoyed the baby chicks, and had fun with the boys. While they were here, the pool guy came to start up the pool, so it was a little crazy. Again, I forgot to get some pics-Sorry!!

So, we had a great time with our house guests. It was the first time we had people stay for that length of time(besides family), and it worked out really well. I'm pretty sure everyone had a good time.

Thanks for coming out guys!! I hope you visit again. The pool will be ready for sure-and warm :)

Thanks to everyone for purchasing all the jewelry-enjoy!!