One week, sans adventures

This week has been without adventure. The biggest excitement was the discovery of a baby cottontail in the yard. He was here for at least two days. Made me feel better about the snake. How long can a baby rabbit survive if there is a snake? Now, no rabbit. I think it is because we don't have rabbit food in our yard. Not because the snake (who is GONE!) ate the rabbit. Yeah, that is what I think.
Peggie has been spending time in her studio, getting ready for her embellishments group. The group is five artists who take turns hosting learning events. Peggie is going to teach them couching techniques on Monday. I am pretty good at couching myself. But usually I prefer chairing. Our couch is not in a good location for reading, and the TV is in the other room. So chairing is my preference. If you want to know what kind of couching techniques Peggie is teaching, you will have to ask her. Apparently couching is easier if you have a couching foot, but Peggie doesn't, and she has adapted. Anyway, she has rearranged tables so she can get five people in the studio at once. I guess couching can be done at a table.
Okay, so that is it for now. We are excited that Wildcat basketball has started. They don't have a point guard yet, and they lost their first exhibition game. They will get better. Repeat. They will get better.

half a million acres burned

While we were in Skagway, we heard that the White Mountains were burning. We checked web news accounts and talked with tourists familiar with the area who had recent news. But, really, one must see things for oneself, what? We decided to do just that. Our favorite camping area might be so much ash.

We decided to leave Friday morning, and packed an overnight bag just in case we decided to stay the night somewhere. We took I-10 east to US 191, then to Safford, Clifton, and Morenci, where we had lunch. The price of copper has had a positive effect there, as we noticed new housing had gone in south of Clifton. Folks at the restaurant said that Freeport McMoran is planning for more immediate growth. Good jobs. Good for everybody.

We headed on up 191 and as always the scenery is breathtaking. The first half dozen vehicles we saw were parked. It is hunting season. As we got higher into the mountains we saw more and more campsites in use. Near Blue Vista and Hannagan's Meadow we started seeing burned areas. The subsequent summer rains had provided for green grass to cover the ground in the burned areas, leaving the stark contrast with the black trunks of trees. Except for Escudilla Mountain, the area near Alpine didn't look too bad. Nutrioso looked lots better than we thought it would. We decided to spend the night in Springerville so we could explore further today.

 We headed out to Big Lake. Again, there are large burned areas, but surprisingly, amazing really, there are also lots of live trees. The fire appeared to have run around aimlessly. The campgrounds around Big Lake are fine, but the area south of there, including the West Fork of the Black River are closed off. There is a map at the Forest Service office in Springerville showing half a dozen closed areas.




 We went to the Big Lake fire lookout tower. On the way we found some very nice, unburned, areas to camp. But the tower itself suffered. The wooden structure atop the metal frame burned completely. The metal chairs, table, refrigerator, and other detritus are piled within the metal legs of the tower, right where they fell when the cabin burned. The cinder block bathroom at ground level is completely undamaged. The railroad tie steps up the hill are about half burned. Anyway, we continued to Greer. That was scary. The fire came right down to the river's edge on the east side of town. We saw no damage from the fire in town. However, due to the lack of growth on the mountain side, the Little Colorado appears to have threatened several buildings. Sand bags and plastic covered hay bales are still in place. We had already seen many areas where monsoon swollen streams had jumped long established banks. It looks like this will be a problem for some time to come. New yellow warning signs are everywhere warning of flashfloods, erosion, and falling trees.

Maybe because the grasses are back, even under the pines where they normally wouldn't grow; maybe because much of the area was not burned at all; maybe because we don't have a home or business there; we were pleased that the damage wasn't as bad as we had feared it would be. Many great camping areas are still available, both in and out of campgrounds.

As we walked around today we saw elk tracks everywhere. The forest is full of deer hunters. There is a "bear country" warning poster at the campground at Big Lake. In two days we saw not one animal larger than a squirrel. I did hear an elk calling. But nothing in sight. I hope some of those hunters have better luck.

YIKES!!!

I just cleaned the keyboard because I was having a hard time getting things typed. This entry is a test to see if everything works like it is supposed to.
The title is referring to the snake skin I found in the yard. The trouble with shed snakeskin is the difficulty in determining the type of snake that shed it. Most kinds are fine. They keep the rodent population in check. Rattlesnakes do, too. But with the attendant danger to us human-types. One of the joys of tromping the wilds of Alaska and NW Canada is the total absence of snakes. Normally, I could tromp the civilized parts of my yard without regard to snakes, also. But, then, when you find absolute proof of the presence of reptiles, precautions are called for. I don't like it. Not in my yard. We live in the middle of a massive housing development. In the middle. Not on the edge. Snakes should get run over, grabbed by a kid, chewed by a dog, or just scared off before they get to our yard. We have lots of great hiding places for snakes. Yikes!
The keyboard has passed the test.
Now, if only I could be sure the snake has passed my yard....

Peggie is FIRST!!!!

We set the alarm clock Sunday night. Peggie had to be at the courthouse Monday morning for jury duty. Her working theory was to arrive a few minutes late so her name wouldn't be too high on the sign-in sheet. HaHa.
There were about fifty people in the room. First name called? Peggie Thomas. In the court room...first name called? Peggie Thomas. First person selected to serve on a jury? Peggie Thomas. It was a six member jury and they finished the trial that afternoon. So not too bad. We wonder why she has been selected about twice as often as I have to report, and why she has been on juries and I never have. Weird. I am not complaining.
Interesting side note: five of the six were involved in education, and all six of them had postponed duty from the summer. (Peggie got her notice while we were in Skagway)
We set the alarm clock Monday night. Bill had to go for a pre-annual physical blood draw Tuesday morning. I was out of there minus two tubes of blood in less than ten minutes. Best part is that I was back home at my normal non-alarm-clock time to fix breakfast. You can't breakfast before the blood draw. And I drink my coffee black, so a quick cup before blood is okay.
We won't need to set an alarm again in the forseeable future. Yes, we can foresee the future. We have a crystal ball. Honest. And isn't it redundant to foresee the future? What else could you foresee? And why are TV stations now doing a "futurecast" of the weather? Did they forget what "forecast" means? A real value would be if they could "futurecast" the sports. Then we could win some bets, huh?
No. The crystal ball is NOT helpful with the lottery. Worthless hunk of glass.

follow up to the ongoing..

The filler hose for the truck (it is a '96 model) had to come from California, so it took two days to fix. It has a 26 gallon tank, and took 25.04 gallons. Plenty of fumes left.
The cabinet door is attached, but the wood strip is warped, so the door hangs open an inch or so. The water leak was at one of the valves, not underground, so it is temporarily fixed by shutting off the valve.
The jeep is empty except for the amethyst. Peggie is making headway in her studio and has all her fabric properly stored. The BBQ was very good, and I didn't get sauce on my shirt. The spa is full and hot. We could have used it last night, but we forgot. So tonight we will soak our cares away. Except we have no cares. We are careless.
The next few days will be busy, busy, busy. We see k.d. lang tonight at Centennial Hall; Monday, Peggie has to go to the courthouse for jury duty at 07:30. On Tuesday, I have to get blood drawn at 07:30. I guess I will have to plug in the alarm clock and get it set. So much for careless.

Never let us forget..."adventures" is in the title.

Getting ready for dinner last night, Peggie opened the cabinet....and one of the shelves fell. No breakage, but the cabinet door had pulled the frame away, allowing the shelf to fall. We had to empty two of the shelves until I can reattach the frame. Thought I would get to it today. But...
We decided to go get the truck out of storage so we would have both vehicles to use, and to save the storage charge. So after enjoying the second and third cups of coffee, we headed out. I could combine the trip with getting my hair cut because the barber college is very near the storage lot. I reattached the battery cable and the truck started with just a few cranks. The gas light was on, so we went to get gas at the nearest c-store. I put the pump handle in, and began to fill the tank. Except the gas was going on the ground under the truck. Huh?
We had already concluded that someone had siphoned the tank dry because we wouldn't have stored it empty, and there was a coil of plastic tubing in the truck bed. So I looked under the truck to discover that the clamp on the filler hose was gone. The "someone" had apparently found it easier to get the fuel out by detaching the hose. The clamp was loose and slid down the hose, so I put it back in place and tightened it. Then restarted the fueling process. OOOPS! Gas still going on the ground. So on closer inspection, I discovered that the "someone" (that's a nicer name than I was thinking) had cut a hole in the hose. So now I can't fill the tank, don't know if I have enough gas to get to the shop, so I have to call a tow truck. Well, we have insurance for that. Luckily we are in the middle of a fairly large metro area so the tow truck only took 70 minutes to reach us. Last year in the middle of nowwhere we got a tow just as fast.
But Peggie had her book to read (so she could wait while I got my hair cut) and I can watch people. So we hung out at the c-store for 70 minutes. And I had a new haircut so I looked GOOD while we waited.
So we have been home for two days. So far I have to find and fix a leak in the water line, repair the cabinet, and get the truck fixed (well, I have to go pick it up from the shop). Peggie went to quilt guild tonight and she gets her hair cut tomorrow.
So then we will both be looking GOOD.
I have to decide whether to get the spa ready (to stall on the other chores) or get on with fixing things.
And at some point we have to do some heavy grocery shopping so we can eat healthy again.
But tomorrow we get to try out a new, and reportedly good, BBQ restaurant. I better not get sauce on by shirt.

We have air conditioning and we have gas (not that kind)

We had a great visit with family in Cottonwood and stopped by to see friends in Lake Montezuma on the way home. It was a great visit too and we pulled up to our house around 7:00 p.m. We pulled out our overnight bags and toured the house. Everything looks okay. We plugged in the refrigerator and plugged in lights, etc. Of course I turned on the air conditioner and then turned it off as the house was getting warmer. No big surprise there and I have a window air conditioner in the bedroom so I knew it would be comfortable to sleep. Have we mentioned we LOVE OUR BED!!!! Not so crazy about the air conditioner and its ongoing problems.

This morning Bill went to McDonald's and brought breakfast home while I called the air conditioning people. The guy arrived about 30 minutes later and started working on the system. While he was here the gas guy came out and we soon had hot water and gas to the stove. Window shades came up, blinds opened, and plywood came out of the windows in the back part of the house. The neighbor lady arrived to tell us about the water leak outside (explains our sky-high water bills). Waste Management will bring us a new trash can tomorrow and start collection on Thursday. Comcast (Xfinity now?) said we would have phone, cable, internet tomorrow. When the phone rang a few hours later (yes, a solicitation call) I decided to see if I had internet--YES! A few dead bugs and smears on the counter had us put in a call for the bug man. A call to Farmers Insurance will get the truck's insurance upgraded so we can go pick it up from storage. We had dropped all but comprehensive since it was in storage for six months.

After the service people were gone and a few things were unpacked it was time to go out for Mexican food at our favorite restaurant, stop by the grocery store (light shopping), go to the post office (closed due to Columbus Day--who knew--we're retired!) go to the bank which was open (so I can pay the neighbor lady who watched the house)and then come home and do some more unpacking. No photos of unpacking because we're pretty much finished and didn't think to take photos. We unloaded (ahem...that was Bill) the jeep slowly and put things away (that was both os us) before we brought in more. Part of unpacking is finding the things we put away into cupboards (coffee pot, dish drainer and all the normal clutter of everyday living). Things that go into the studio are in the studio but not unpacked--that's fun, not work so I'll do that in the days ahead. I did take pictures of the studio before I started bringing things in because it will probably never ever ever be that clean, empty, sterile, and put away again.

We're both excited not to come home and deal with getting estimates for floor, ceilings, painting, etc. and all the sorting, cleaning and packing that went with the remodeling last year. I did find myself saying things like "I need to clean out my closet this winter or "we" need to .....this winter." and we both laughed because we're retired and if it doesn't get done this winter there is always next summer or the following winter or....

In the meantime, I have quilt guild tomorrow night with Aimee and Becky and Bill plans to get his hair cut.

And, in case you're wondering, the great big very large geode is sitting in the back of the jeep and it doesn't seem to be weighing it down at all....

We are home!

Too hard to post from my phone. It's GREAT to be home!

Moab on steroids!

You have seen pictures of what our jeep looks like while we move from Skagway to Tucson. The load pretty much mashes the rear shock absorbers into uselessness. So not the best of off-road vehicles with which to challenge the slickrocks of Moab.

So we hire a pro. A pro with a Hummer.

We figure that a pro knows the best places to go to show off the area. And with the scenery being the prime attraction, I'd rather ride and look at distant rocks than drive and see only the rocks in the road. I have watched plenty of YouTube videos of jeeps rolling off the rocks in Moab. Not a pretty picture. Not an experience I want to have. So when our driver asked for a volunteer to stand aside and photograph the experience, I jumped at it.

You should know that this is a re-enactment. We had already gone over this obstacle once. That is Peggie in the high seat at the rear. It was the altitude that took her breath away. We are accustomed to sea level only.

The tour was absolutely amazing. Our guide/driver, Tom, knew a lot about the area and obviously loved his job. We got to see real dinosaur tracks and actually stand on the same ground once traveled by these ancient beasts. That is kind of humbling. A lot of sand has piled up since then. And eroded away, again.

We have decided to return to the area at a future time.

Portland

The ferry arrived in Bellingham at about 8:00 a.m. on Friday morning. We were the first car on in Skagway and we were the last car off in Bellingham. We called my friend Maria on Bainbridge Island and caught another ferry to go and see her. There was an art show, The Mapping Experience, she had told me about and we wanted to see it. After a short visit we headed to Tacoma for another show of quilts at The American Art Co. She had a couple pieces in the show and I was able to see work of some other artists that I've only seen in books. In Bill's words, it was "beyond belief"! The individual pieces were great as well as the way the pieces were hung. It was very inspiring. Tomorrow we plan on visiting a gallery in downtown Portland where we hope to see some work by Trisha Hassler who is combining fiber and metal.

Pendleton, Oregon is next on our list of places to see. We have Skagway friends who have a house there and we'd like to know more about Pendleton. From there, we'll head to Moab and some jeeping--not ours; it's kind of packed!

Stay tuned. I'm sure there are more adventures in the making.