Reunion

We had a long overdue reunion yesterday.  Maggie, Kelli and Steve came to visit for lunch.  It was wonderful to see them in person and get reacquainted after all the long years we've been on distant life paths.  Each of our Dear Friends looked positively radiant and happy.  We spent about 3 hours together, most of it sitting out on the ramada telling stories and sharing thoughts of old times and new.  Kelli drove all the way up from Phoenix to visit.  She remembered when we once had our double bed under the ramada.  (Awesome recollection, Kelli!) We wish her instant success in her desire to move to California's North Coast.  Maggie is as delightful as ever--full of smiles and sparkles and a tale or two.  Steve, of course, is a Master Storyteller of "All Things Fire."  We'd sure like to get him wired up for oral history.  Thanks for a great afternoon, Maggie, Kelli and Steve!

Earlier yesterday we hiked the Blue Grade yet again.  A pack of 5 hound dogs passed us twice.  Their owner was taking them for a six mile run while sitting behind the comfort of his steering wheel.  His 2 or 3 year old son peered quizzically from the passenger window.  The dogs were polite and barely even barked at us.

After our Friends drove off, we called into Fire Dispatch and they gave us the go ahead to burn until 5 pm--the end of the so-called "regulatory period."  We fired up the torch and blackened most of the remaining area on our property.  Whew, that was a piece of work!

Naturally, we also ignited another stack of aromatic juniper wood and watched the sun slowly dim The Rim.  For grins, we roasted six ears of California white corn.  This time of year corn is wildly expensive--we've seen it as high as $1.29 an ear and most stores are charging a "buckaneer."  Safeway has it three for a buck.  How can you go wrong at that price.  We didn't soak them or wrap them in foil--just plopped the naked ears down on the grate and listened to them sizzle.  They turned out really good and never even made it to the dinner table--We chomped down on them right beside the flickering fire.  Ah, roasting ears, one of the joys of summertime.

Looks like we have reached a good interim status quo for the art bench project.  We created a really cool "invitation only" blog to showcase the 20 artist applications.  Meanwhile, we've rearranged the public blog and it looks much better.  You can click here to see it.

There's a busy, busy day ahead today.  We won't go into the details now because too much of today's plans are still in the normal stage of flux and flex.

Meanwhile, I'd like to close this blog post with a comment about today's Sunday Dilbert shown below.  Dilbert ebbs and flows.  Sometimes it's an irrelevant piece of senseless babble.  Sometimes, one or two strips will really knock the ball out of the park.  Today's resonated with me because of my lack of acronyms and my attitude toward work in the months leading up to my recent retirement.  The vignette depicted below could have easily taken place sometime last fall or perhaps in January or February this year.  When Dilbert's "on," Dilbert ROX! (Dilbert, of course, is Copyright 2010. We believe the occasional use of the strip meets with the "fair use" standard of US Copyright laws.  Click here for the main Dilbert website.)

Last Friday in Arizona

We're in our countdown mode again--we call it the glide path. We're taking off Wednesday morning so our remaining time is rapidly shrinking. As NASA would say, it's "T minus 96 hours and counting." Click here for an honest-to-gosh countdown clock that's wired to count down to 7 am next Wednesday.

After breakfast yesterday with Gary and Robin we enjoyed a leisurely Blue Grade stroll--no wind and we weren't walking for time. It was fun and relaxing.

We left a little before 1 pm to go to Bob's place in Sedona. He's done an amazing job in remodeling Betty's old house (built by Bob's Dad). Truly outstanding piece of work!

We did some shopping at two groceries in Sedona and enjoyed a light rain while coming back through the thick traffic.

I finally decided to get serious about grilling by doing up six pork chops on the Patio Caddie. Then we did an experiment with four bone-in chicken breasts and successfully cooked them on the open fire in a legless dutch over on a grate atop the campfire chimney. They turned out great.

Susun finally got her wish to sleep under the stars by setting up the hammock with a sleeping bag. She retreated into the house soon after the temps dropped below the bag's rating.

Today's going to be a nice big day. Maggie, Kelli and Steve are coming to visit at noon. We haven't seen them in forever and we're going to have a fine time together.

The jury's out on whether and when we might be able to burn and spray again. You look at that countdown clock and there's not a lot of wiggle room left in our tenure here.

I suppose you've noticed that Arizona's in the national spotlight. Since it's about politics, we're not going to discuss it on this blog. However, it's hard not to read about it and it's impossible to avoid the ramifications of it. Suffice to say that it's a sad day in Arizona history.

Casa Grande

Thanks, Maria Elena y Tim for a great evening and awesome dinner! We went last night to visit the new home of two Dear Friends who wound up being our neighbors. They recently have almost finished a new home on a nearby hillside with a commanding view of the Verde Valley. Tim began planning this superb green home 8.5 years ago. He spent 5 years in the research phase, 1.5 in the design phase and the past two years putting it all together. What a great piece of Life Work the couple produced. It's about as green as green can be with far too many features to mention. Naturally, it has twin solar systems, one for electricity and one for hot water. What a great job! Maria Elena put together a great South American feast. It was great to get reconnected with them and we look forward to many new adventures in the future.

Gary and Robin are coming for breakfast this morning. It's not quite 6:20 AM and we're already scrambling. Heavy, heavy frost last night--ice encrusted windshields, etc. I will be cooking bacon this morning on the campstove outdoors--BRRR, chilly duty ahead!

We'll be going over to Sedona this afternoon to visit with Bob and see his new addition to Betty's former home.

Susun had a grand day Thursday visiting with friends in the VIllage of Oak Creek. She even got to visit with two of her favorite girls, Haley and Lilly. She finally fessed up that she had played The Tooth Fairy to them years ago. The girls believed in the tooth fairy and Susun agreed to help the girls' Mom, Nicole. Susun came home and asked me to collaborate. We got an email address called "Arizona Tooth Fairy" and we named our Fairy Sophie. Sophie began communicating with the girls and it was a hoot. They fell for it hook line and sinker. Finally, the girls began asking far too technical questions and Susun had to bow out. We concocted a story that Sophie has been called out of state to train Tooth Fairies elsewhere. It worked. Anyway, the threesome laughed heartily yesterday when the truth (or is that tooth?) was told.

Well,gee, looks like I have to leave the warm, comfy confines of my keyboard and head out into the spring chill morning to fire up my Sinner Stove and rustle up some grub. Yeah, we'll take some pictures. Who else is crazy enough to be standing around in 20 degree weather cooking bacon on a Friday morning?

Note the heavy frost on the roof of the straw house. In the second photo, the dew point is such that the steam rising from the bacon makes an appetizing vista in the pre-sunrise aura of a Fine Friday morning!

Cheers, jp

200th Post

Hey, light some candles or something.  Let's have a party.  This is the 200th blog post since January 1.  That's a LOAD!  At this rate I will probably go over 500 posts in a calendar year.  Depending on your point of view, that's either awesome or ridiculous.  Take your pick. 

Yesterday was another humdinger day. All sorts of strange stuff happened. Susun wonders how I will be able to write up Earth Day 2010. Where to start?

I received an email from Wayne. He forwarded an email from a woman I've known since high school--Meg L. We haven't seen or talked to each other for perhaps 20-23 years. She Googled me and up came a post from Wayne's blog that mentioned my name so she took a chance and emailed Wayne. Anyway, thanks to Wayne, Meg and I got back in contact with each other. We swapped some emails and then talked a long time on the phone. She's going to come to Idaho this summer sometime so the three of us can go on a camping adventure. Meg's an amazing person. Thanks, Meg, for your persistence in finding us. AWESOME!

Then I got a call from RJ who's someplace out in the Nevada deserts right now. He's the guy in who got the contract for the Sawtooth NVUM project. He finally decided he wants to hire us to do at least one interview. We're booked for May 16th at the Casino Creek Campground in the Sawtooth National Recreation Area downstream from Stanley on the Salmon River. We will have to meet RJ May 15 to get situated and then do the interview stuff Sunday. The $200 we will earn will get us up into Salmon Country early this year. What a hoot. Maybe it will lead to more work for RJ and maybe not. He has to like us and we have to like him.

Debby D. got her continuation grant turned in on time. Whew--that was cutting it real close. Sue K. emailed yesterday, too. We're trying to sign on as a volunteer with her in Michigan (along the shore of Lake Huron). It would be a Virtual Volunteer gig. Jeff C. emailed and is getting somewhat more interested in having us volunteer to do the Salmon River Guide. Carrie finally made it home from the wilds of Montana. Marti is trying to learn how to blog and we've been swapping the usual array of hilarious emails. Betty and Bob came for lunch and stayed almost two hours. It sure was fun having them here. Tim L. stopped by and we're booked for dinner at his new home nearby.

I went into Camp Verde for some stuff for dinner. The wind laid down and we got lucky--we were able to do a great campfire and the light on the Mogollon Rim was spectacular. All those storm clouds really did strange things to the evening sunlight.

This morning I woke up totally convinced that it was April 23. Why is that meaningful? Well, I realized that the Clayton Idaho website domain name had expired on April 22. I went into a dither, hyperventilating and so forth. I got the domain renewed and only then realized it was April 22 and the domain wouldn't have expired until midnight. That's still a little too close for comfort.

This morning, we drove away from the house at 7:30 am sharp. Gary and his dog were in the back of the truck. Susun dropped us off up near the Beaver Creek Ranger Station. We hiked over 5 miles back downstream in 2.5 hours. Luckily, Gary wasn't interested in hiking at his top pace and neither was I. We were both satisfied with a 2 mph pace. He learned a new way to "connect the dots" as he calls it. I really enjoyed the hike.

Well, okie dokie, now how's that for a 200th post? Lots of groovy stuff!

Have a great day and Cheers! jp

Blown away

Man, the wind is howlin' a whole lot higher than even the NWS people said it would.  WOW, what a blow!
We went up to the Blue Grade and the wind must have had an affect on us.  Susun finished the uphill climb in 29:30 and I was an even 30 minutes, our best times ever.  Coming back down it was the stiffest wind we've ever hiked in.  The road grit was hitting our faces like a sandblaster and, at time, it was impossible to see because of the grits and the wind-spawned watery eyes.  We both had to lean hard into the wind to make any forward progress.  We both put the rush on to get back to the car and finished the round trip in new record time as well--55 minutes!  Right now it's blowing big sheets of dust everywhere.  The low pressure that's coming in must be REALLY low to create these kind of winds.  I'll betcha semi-trailers are blowing over on I-40!  They weren't kidding--this is a BIG storm.  Cheers, jp

Interesting day yesterday

Tuesday turned out rather interesting. I finished up the slideshow of the art bench finalists. That took a couple of hours. Then, we delayed our morning hike until after 8 am.  We wanted to wait to see if we could burn.  You can't burn before 8 am here.  If you do, you get a ticket.  Yep, it's true.

We called right at 8 and learned it was a no burn day. Shuckie darn! Then I had a great conversation with Carrie about the slideshow. She was calling from a Super 8 motel in the middle of nowhere Montana. It was fun to think I was sitting on a tailgate of a Nissan in rural Arizona while she was up in Montana and we we were both working on a project for Idaho Falls. Ah, modern technology.

We went back to the Blue Grade. It's so beautiful there right now. My legs protested mightily at the 500+ elevation gain but I made it in 35 minutes on the uphill and 1:05 for the 3+ mile round truip. I'd give yesterday's effort a B-. Susun, however, actually gets an A-. She was farther ahead of me on an uphill than ever before in the past 9 years! WOW--three minutes ahead!

After we returned home, we both expected the day to be a lazy slacker sort of day. Susun was writing notes and I decided my only productivity would be to hang out on hold while waiting for Cable One Customer Service to help me unravel the mysteries of reconnecting internet in Idaho Falls.

Something happen about 1:30 pm. Somehow, we both became totally motivated and engaged in a whirlwind of activity that didn't stop until 6 pm. Here's everything we accomplished: 1) Recoated watershed roof with tar, 2) Repaired 3 shingles on Straw House roof, 3) Checked and spot cleaned the gutters, 4) Sanded all the window sills, 5) Oiled and stained all the window sills, 6) vacuumed and mopped the inside brick floor, 7) repaired the loose door on the old generator shed (it now houses flammable materials), 8) sanded and prepped both front gate posts, 9) Painted both front gate posts, 10) Sized and cut 2 x 10 lumber to make ramps to change oil, 11)dug out about 100 weeds that sprouted since we sprayed, 12) changed oil and filter in the big trtuck and 13) changed oil and filter in the Nissan.

I list changing oil as two tasks because the Nissan was a bear. The morons who did it last at Commercial Tire in Idaho Falls used the wrong filter. Idiots! I really don't know how I was able to get this oversized filter off the engine block. It took almost three times more than normal time to change the oil on the Nissan.

We both showered up and enjoyed a nice campfire until well after dark.

This morning I sure feel the affects of all that work yesterday. It's going to be a tough hike up Blue Grade again today.

There won't be a campfire tonight. The winds will be howling higher than our old roof tin wind screen can handle. Winds could be gusting up over 50 mph by tonight. Nah, we don't do campfires in those kind of winds. We'll stay inside and listen to Lawrence Welk. (HA!)

Betty and Bob are coming to lunch today. It will be Betty's first trip to the Straw House since the 1990's. Betty is 87 now. She's great! Bob will be bringing her from the facility where she lives in Sedona.

Today's Big Blow is bringing back some reminders of winter. The high country is progged to get as much as 8 inches of snow! We will be getting maybe as much as a half inch of rain down here. That's one reason we decided to hustle yesterday--it was the last chance on this trip to do all that stuff. Next Monday will be our last day to spray again--and hopefully do the final burn. We pack up Tuesday and leave Wednesday morning, hopefully no later than 7 am.

We have all sorts of little nit picky stuff we can do on the telephone--like sit on hold waiting for Cable One Customer Service. I sometimes wonder if Saint Peter keeps a log book on how long everyone has been on hold in their lifetime. Such an arcane statistic could serve as a great barometer of one's patience. You'd get to the Pearly Gates and Saint Peter's check-in assistants would yell out, "Hey Pete, check out this Dude--he spent 15 years on hold with Cable One alone!" Wow, you'd get the real red carpet treatment after everyone learned that factiod!

Have a great day and Cheers! jp

Art Bench Finalists

Here is a slideshow of the 20 art bench finalists plus 3 alternate designs.  I'm putting it here on my personal blog so that Carrie can take a look at it and make sure it's OK to place on the Greenbelt Art Benches blog.  We haven't done an exact count but it looks like about half of our personal picks made the final cut. 

Coffee @ 5

Got up at 4:30 this morning so the coffee was done at 5 am sharp! Our newspaper delivery person is really good--the news was lying in front of the house at 4:30, too. Mostly, the Arizona Republic isn't much worth reading. Too many depressing stories about local politics and so forth. But it's something to stare at while waiting for the caffeine to kick in.

Dear Friend & LBR Gary W. sent along a link with some great photos of the Iceland volcano. Click here to see about 30 great pictures. As some of you know, I have a certain fondness for volcanoes. We've spent hours talking about them on our weather blogs. Oddly, I haven't even written a single post on this particular volcano. This lack of verbiage has even me perplexed. Normally, I'd be chattering like a crazed squirrel about this volcano. I wonder why this one does nothing to get me amped up? Actually, I think I know. Even though the volcano has been wrecking havoc with the airlines, I honestly don't think it's ash plume has gone high enough into the atmosphere to affect weather.
That's really all I care about as far as volcanoes are concerned. Are they going to affect the weather? With this one, I doubt it. Therefore, I haven't written anything about it, until now anyway. The photos are excellent and I am sure you will enjoy looking at them. Thanks, Gary!

We enjoyed a nice hike up Blue Grade yesterday morning. We were 4-5 minutes slower on the uphill portion than the previous day but still finished the 3+ mile round trip in 1:04. A 3 mph pace for people our age rates at least a B+.

We had a nice talk with Debby up in Idaho Falls. We will be helping her today as a an important deadline looms tomorrow. We put in a couple of hours on Carrie's Art Bench project, too. (She and her husband are currently marooned in COlumbus, Montana. Long story.) We sent off a long note to Mike about the Chile Cookoff in July. We met with Rex from the NPS and said we will volunteer for them on our next trip down. Not enough time left this trip.

Meanwhile, we prepared to burn yesterday but Fire Dispatch said we couldn't do so.
We went to Cottonwood instead. Cottonwood did its usual hypnosis number on both of us and we fell into a deep slumber upon our return. Poof, the day was pretty much gone. Upon awakening, it was already campfire time again.

Last night we finally got around to doing some limited cooking atop the chimney-style fire shield. The skillet held two pork chops that were mostly frozen when they entered the cast iron and came out mostly cooked. The big pot held six frozen sausages that were perfectly thawed after their prolonged exposure. On our next trip down here, I really want to get feng shui with cooking on our evening fire. Might as well be doing something productive.

This morning my top priority is to get my portion of Carrie's project up and running. I need to get the slideshow done of the finalist designs. I also need to build a secure site to house their resumes and applications. There's so much personal information on those documents, we simply can't allow them to be accessible to the general public. I am learning how to use one of Google's little known blog features wherein you can build a "by invitation only" blog. So far, it seems to be working quite well--much better than I ever expected.

This blogging platform is so awesome. Even though I know a LOT about the various "tips & tricks" of Google's blogger platform, I sometimes feel like I am only touching the tip of the iceberg with this thing. There is such incredible functionality in it. Getting involved in the "invitation only" thing has really helped open my eyes to a whole new aspect of blogger.

Gee, it's danged near 5:30 now. Funny how that happens. Have a great day & Cheers, jp

Our Arizona Universe

View Our Arizona World in a larger map
Here's a Google Map of the heart of our Arizona World. Due to map scaling issues, we can't show Flagstaff and Mesa, Arizona, on this map. That would be way too out of control. This map pretty much depicts the Verde Valley. We live kind of on the east side of it. We have to go to the west side a lot to shop and sometimes down to the south end of it. Sedona's more or less on the north side of the valley, at least the way this map shows it. Everything is real spread out. We have to drive almost a 60 miles round trip to shop in Cottonwood and nearly a 40 mile round trip. to get our mail! Over here on our side of the valley, we are minutes from what most people would call "the back country." We like that aspect of this location a lot. Our home is located at the tent symbol down below the red triangle with the exclamation point in it.

Potassium

OK, Class, it's time for Sunday School.  Today, we're going to talk Potassium.  It's one of the primary electrolyte minerals that keeps us humans from getting dehydrated.  Sodium is, too, of course, but potassium is harder to find than sodium.  Sodium is in everything--it's everywhere.  Potassium? Not so much.

OK, now I know you have all heard how Gatorade and the whole genre of so-called "sports drinks" are supposed to provide you with the potassium you need to keep from getting dehydrated.  That's bunko, bucko! The good Ol' USDA says you are supposed to have a whopping 4.7 grams of potassium every day!  That's 4700 milligrams. An 8 ounce bottle of Gatorade has less than 100 milligrams of potassium--barely two percent of your recommended daily intake.

I've personally found I am susceptible to a potassium deficit in hot weather. In other words, if I don't watch my potassium intake, I get dehydrated. That means I get a whopping headache or feel real tired or even nauseous. I hate being dehydrated! It's been getting hot here in Arizona--upper 80's. I've been sweating a lot and, therefore, I've become very worried about getting dehydrated. So, that's why I am focused on potassium right now. It's the silver bullet--at least for me. Get plenty of potassium and stay hydrated. Simple.

Well, maybe NOT so simple. Just where the heck does one find potassium? It's not exactly lying around on the street corners. Here's a tip for ya'll--if you need potassium, drink tomato juice or eat canned tomatoes. POOF--you got potassium--in SPADES! Get this, a single can of stewed tomatoes has 1150 milligrams of potassium, more than 11 times the amount that's in a single Gatorade! Chow down on some canned tomatoes or slurp some tomato juice and you're good to go.

According to the USDA, tomatoes rank #1 of all foods for potassium content. Click here for a 26-page ranking of the potassium content of all foods.

It's pretty annoying when we hear people talking about how you need to intake some sports drinks to get your potassium. All you are getting is a huge dose of high fructose corn syrup and some piddling, token potassium. Those drinks are worthless in my opinion. Stick with good ol' primal tomatoes and you're going to be way ahead of the curve.

As our annual warm/hot season approaches, you can bet tomatoes are going to always be close at hand. Today, we were in the hot sun for a couple of hours up at that V Bar V Heritage Days thing. I could feel myself getting on the verge of being dehydrated--so I wolfed down a whole can of Stewed tomatoes when we got home and I feel much better now. Three cheers for potassium!

And three cheers for you, Loyal Blog Readers! jp

Blue Grade

I did a screen shot from a Google Map to show were we are hiking these days.  We park in that little drainage near the lower "X" and then hike up to Blue Grade Tank at the upper "X".  It's somewhat over a 500 foot elevation gain.  We're not sure about the distance--probably a mile and a half or less.  Our time two days ago was 32 minutes up and today it was 31 minutes.  We're trying to break 30 minutes.  Round trip hike time is 1:04 to 1:02. Round trip Door-to-door total time is about 90 minutes, maybe a little more.  Here's a Google map of the Blue Grade hike in proximity to our home.  No one we know calls it "Beaver Creek Road."  How it got its name of Blue Grade is a story lost in the dustbin of history.  Susun's Grand Pa actually worked on this road back in the 1950's.  Prior to the construction of I-17 in the 1960's, it was one of the few ways to get out of the Verde Valley heading north onto the Coconino Plateau and Flagstaff.  The other route was Highway 89 up through Oak Creek Canyon.  Back in those days, Highway 260 didn't exist and you had to take the Fossil Creek Road to get to Strawberry and Payson.  So, the Blue Grade was one of the major routes.  Today, it's very lightly traveled.  If you see two vehicles, that's crowded.
View Blue Grade in a larger map

Wither the weather?

Happy Sunday!  Today is my late Father's birthday.  He would have been 88.  He passed on in 1998.  Happy Birthday, Dad!

Susun had quite the busy day yesterday--she actually LEFT the straw house at 5:30 AM! You read that right. She showed up at the Cottonwood City Park at 6:05 am to help her friend Lin Mickelsen stage the 2nd annual memorial run for the late Brian Mickelsen. About 250 runners and walkers participated. Susun really enjoyed herself and somehow managed to squeeze in time to visit a few thrift stores, too.

Meanwhile, I worked on our budding Salmon River Guide Project. Right now that involves doing a blog. Hopefully, we will sign on as BLM/USFS volunteers this summer to produce a paddlers' guide from Stanley to Corn Creek.

I left at 10:15 am with the idea of finding a route across the National Monument to the nearby mesa. One thing led to another and I then decided to see how to get around the Soda Spring Ranch road closures. The excursion turned into a 2.5 hour jaunt.

In the afternoon, we tackled a rock rip rap project and made the place look a lot better. We also rebuilt the campfire ring and it looks real professional now. Naturally, we had to test it out with a fire and it was another fine evening here at 2nd Chance Ranch.

Today, it's 7 am and we're hoping to get out the door no later than 7:30 am and hike while it's still cool. it was in the upper 80's here yesterday and felt HOT.
We want to get up to the V BAR V petroglyph site by 9:30. They are having their annual hoop-dee-doo today and we hear it's real crowded. If we get there early enough, we might not have to stand in line.

Then? Hum...who knows? Maybe a road trip someplace. Neither of us want to do any work around here today. It's Sunday and isn't Sunday supposed to be a day of Rest? Who said that?

OK, the blog post today is "Wither the weather." It's time once again to begin to look into the crystal ball and try to determine our travel weather and our Eastern Idaho weather patterns. The two graphics are from today's Climate Prediction Center forecasts. One shows clearly that the midweek storm is going to be a humdinger for areas to our north. The other shows that the 8-14 temperature forecast calls for COLD weather upon our return to Tater Nation. Much below normal temps for Eastern Idaho this time of year translates into 30-40 degrees during the daytime and freezing at night. After getting acclimated to the desert and 80+ degree days, that's going to be a real culture shock for us. Hopefully, we will not be driving through an intense spring storm system when we head north.

Have a great day and Cheers! jp

Zombies

We're both zombied out this morning.  We spent the afternoon burning.  We put in a real full 8 hour day.  We're paying the price for it this morning.  Moving low and slow.  Somehow we keep thinking we are younger than are real age.  Why is that?  We always get a hint of our real age the morning after a high speed work day. 

We do have a real nice fire break on our vulnerable east side.  In fact, it truly is The Best Defensible Space we've EVER had since we've owned this property dating back into the mid-1980's.  Hopefully, we will take a panorama photo later to show the fruits of our labor.

We planned to burn more this morning but we're running on empty right now.  Hiking a steep hill seems like a lot more fun than doing more burning.  Maybe a hike will help restore some of our energy. 

Penny, Sue and Tim are coming for lunch today.  It's going to be great to visit with them.  They all have quite the story as a family--that's for sure.

Weed Wars update

We spent 4 hours today doing The Spray Thing.  It took the better part of an hour to get set up and probably more than 30 minutes to de-rig and clear everything.  I guess I was spraying about 2 hours, plus or minus.

Susun fixed a real nice lunch and now it's time to get back in action once again.  This afternoon we're going to do more burning of all the dead weeds that were killed during the first spray thing March 24.  After we finish this afternoon, we should have the best defensible space possible around this house.  There's nothing better than black!  Black don't burn!

We will do at least two more sprays before we leave.  There's a wicked plant we call a "tomato plant" that is covered with stickers.  We despise the thing.  Well, it's germinating right now and I think it's kind of falling between the cracks of our spray schedule.  It looks like we will have to spray just for that particular plant.  Then we will do a final spray of the pre-emergent.  That's the one we are really pinning our hopes on.  We hope that it works well enough to kill the weed seeds and prevent their sprouting when the summer monsoon rains arrive.  If the pre-emergent does it's job then we should be able to show up here next November or December and not stare a huge amount of weed work in the face.  That's the goal--a weed free arrival next fall.  It's Weed Wars, there's no doubt about it.

About the photos:  We thought we'd photo document our setup for Year 2010.  It will be interesting to look back on it in the future and see if and how it might have changed.  The top row is the chemical and spray set up.  The bottom two photos show our PPE--Personal Protective Equipment.  We used the camp stove to heat water to dissolve the AMS (ammonium sulfate) so we could make a big jug of it.  The role of AMS is to help neutralize the hard water here.  The Induce is a non-ionic surfactant.  We're using glyphosate and 2-4-D.  The big jugs are in real concentrated form (41% for the glyphostate and 48 % for the 2-4-D!)

We really got our mixing gig wired up this time around--it was a lot more efficient and safer, too.  You can see all the stuff we wear in the bottom photos.  The Tyvek suit is hanging on the post in the background.  We use the neoprene gloves when we are spraying and the vinyl gloves at all other times.  This time we got our handwash setup much better and we were able to take a break about 45 minutes into the spraying to drink some water.  That helped a LOT.  It's a hassle.  It's expensive.  It's a lot of work.  But it's WAAAAY easier than weed eating!

Brief update

Let's see, I think Tuesday morning was the last blog post.  The past couple of days are pretty blurry.  After getting our art bench picks turned in at the last minute, we hiked the Bell Rock Courthouse loop.  Logged 1:50 as were lollygagging.  After climbing the Long Canyon Hill four days in a row, Bell Rock felt like a health spa.

Spent some time burning a fire break in the afternoon.  Dear Friend Marsha came to visit about 4 and stayed until about 7.  Had a nice campfire and mini-Mex dinner outside by the fire.  Thanks, Marsha, for all your great ideas and positive energy!

Yesterday we decided to walk up the Blue Grade--it's a nice gentle hill that's actually a road.  Susun's GrandPa actually worked on the road way back when.  We love the Blue Grade because you don't have to look where you are putting your feet.  You can enjoy the view and walk safely side-by-side.  We've decided to swap the Blue Grade for the Long Canyon Hill--we've had enough of that one--the downhill on Long Canyon will eventually make one of us fall and hurt ourselves--it's not a matter of "if," just when.  Blue Grade won't hurt us so we're going to do our hillclimbs there.

Susun had a "Girls' Lunch" yesterday so I skee-daddled out of Dodge about noon and returned about 4 pm.  Spent the time over in Cottonwood shopping.  Also had to go to Camp Verde to pick up more herbicides.  Dale left them at Kevin's barn once again.  It's an odd way to do business but  it works for me.

Much to our surprise, the National Park was running water in their new ditch last night.  It was a real hoot and we celebrated with a Giant White Man Fire.  Gary & Robin came over to join the festivities and a good time was had by all.  It was so fun toi see that water flying by along our south fenceline.  Only the Good Ol' NPS could possibly run water than fast through an irrigation ditch.  Gary and I speculated it would probably downcut the ditch a few inches in one single night--it was moving that fast.  Hilarious but a great sight to see.

UP at 5 am this morning and feeling like I am already running late.  Don't you hate that feeling?  It's only 7 am but the morning already feels like it's half over.  Dang.  Looks like today's going to be a spray day.  I'm having trouble getting psyched for putting on all the protective stuff and gearing up to spray.  I sure like to enjoy the rewards of spraying but I sure don't like having to actually DO the spraying.  Oh, well...it sure beats carrying a heavy weed eater all day.

We have officially lined up our first "for sure" volunteer assignment in Idaho Falls.  We will be grinding, scraping and painting a ugly railing that overlooks The Falls of Idaho Falls.  The Parks Director gave the "go" to the idea yesterday and they are lining up tools and paint for me.  I told him I would tackle it in the first week of May and be done by Memorial Day.  I can hardly wait to get started on it.

Perhaps half of our bench choices made the final cut.  I will be producing a show of the finalists here in the next few days.

Well, guess I better get cracking on the spray stuff.  Ugh.  Cheers!  jp

Art Bench Picks

We finally got our bench picks done in the nick of time.  Took almost 3 hours. WHEW!  Click here for a direct link to the photos.

Does one week make a streak?

Yesterday we completed our first seven consecutive days of day hiking.  The first week of a streak is always the toughest.  Since it's not really an official streak yet, it would be easy to be a slacker and say, "Ah, hey, I don't feel like hiking today."  You know how that goes.  Actually, neither of us feels a week makes a streak.  It takes at least two weeks to jump start a streak.  Once you get past the 14 day mark, you can almost figure you have a new habit formed.

We've been real busy each of the past few days--too busy for my liking.  Aren't we supposed to be retired?  That's why we've hiked the Long Canyon Hill five out of the last 7 days.  It's one heck of a workout and it's a short turnaround from door-to-door here at the straw house.  We can almost leave home, do the hike and return within 90 minutes.  We are figuring 2 hours by the time you get your hiking clothes on, load up the packs, sticks, water and a snack.  However, that's 60-90 minutes LESS than the equivalent time it takes to go hike the Bell Rock-Courthouse Loop.

The Long Canyon Hill is a classic "workout trail."  We both slacked off on the pace a few days ago but I remained under 30 minutes while Susun's time grew to 34 minutes.  The last couple of days, I have tried to break 25 minutes only to fall short at 26 minutes each time.  Hopefully, I will crack the 25 mark soon.  I don't anticipate getting much under 25.  Maybe next winter.  Forget about getting under 20.  Not in this lifetime!

Actually, if I can stay solidly under 30 on that hill, I will be a Happy Hiker.  Neighbor Gary says the hill is 700 vertical feet.  We think it's more like 500.  It would be nice to know the real number.  It's rootin', tootin' rough and tough hill, that's for sure.  The trail tread is all SOB rubble.  (SOB="Same Old Basalt").  Some switchbacks on that hill seem steeper than the classic "angle of repose."  Some portions of the trail tread have these little basalt spheres that are like ball bearings.  It's slicker than snot on those sections.  You can fall in a heartbeat.  Susun has already fallen once and I've come close quite a few times.  Thank gawd for hiking sticks with shock absorbers!

Actually, the downhill hike is harder than the uphill hike.  It's not as strenuous, by any means, but it is a lot more hazardous.  This is a good thing.  Hiking "reps" on the Long Canyon Hill will definitely get us in better shape a lot faster than any other trail we know.  That said, it's time to take a break.  Today we're going back to the BRCT over in Sedona.  Hiking a leisurely few miles will be a hoot compared to working out on the LCT.  Last time we did the BRCT, we both came in under 90 minutes.   This time, we're going to hope to stay under 2 hours.  I might even bring the little backpack stove and cook a hot brunch out by Alien Rock.
It's a blustery cool/cold day today.

Well, I'm procrastinating.  I'm actually supposed to be making art bench selections right now.  Guess I better shift gears and go do my duty.  Anyway, we're happy to have logged seven consecutive hiking days and hope we can keep this streak alive and well as long as possible.  It will be interesting to see how it gets perpetuated when we are traveling north at the end of the month.  Cheers!  jp

Wayne Ranney & The Verde Formation

Dear Friend & LBR Wayne Ranney was the Main Attraction at Montezuma Castle National Monument this morning.  We had to really hustle to get there for his presentation.  Even with our hustle, we were still late, arriving well into his fascinating lecture.  Anyway, those of you who know Wayne know he has really perfected his story telling skills, as well as his ability to "play the crowd."  Obviously, as you can tell from the photos, it was the proverbial packed house and Wayne was at his best.  We've put up this slide show because we noticed how adept Wayne was at using his hands during his performance.  We have to say, Wayne, yer hands ROCK!

Anyway, Wayne "wowed" the audience.  It was an awesome sight to see. This year will be the 30th anniversary of meeting Wayne at 711 North San Francisco Street in Flagstaff.  We've followed Wayne's career from the "git go" and it was awesome to see him in his finest form.  He and his Wonderful Wife, Helen, are quite the Duo together.  We are very proud of them and so happy to have had to opportunity to see them together at this event.
Click here to read a local newspaper article about Wayne's thoughts on the Verde Formation.
Wayne's blog is what we call a Public Blog--everyone and anyone is welcome to take a look.
Click here to go to Wayne's blog.

The Three Wheelers have 12 kids.

Our Dear Friends Kate, Brad and Josh have quite the little agricultural operation in a small, rural quasi village in the Verde Valley.  Sometimes they call it El Rancho Chivitos (Goat Ranch).  Brad started getting into chickens when Joshua was a mere 4 years old.  Josh had an egg route by the time he was six.  Josh started in 4-H as soon as he was age-eligible.  Since his very early youth, he's shown the chicken and then sheep.  He's quite the accomplished showman.

About four years ago, Brad decided to get into goats.  Since then, Brad, Kate and Josh have become honest-to-gosh goat experts.  Brad could (and should) write a book on goats.  I keep urging him to do so.  Meanwhile, Joshua is adding to his 4-H awards by showing goats.  I think he told us he has about 14 trophies now.  It's really amazing to watch him at the Verde Valley Fair.  He sure knows how to show off a goat or a chicken. 

Well, The Three Wheelers decided to get a buck.  You may have read the story Josh wrote that we printed here a few days ago.  Meanwhile, four of their does became pregnant.  And wouldn't you know it, all four decided to kid within a two day period.  We went over yesterday to see the first four kids delivered Saturday.  Brad and Kate expected four more from the two remaining pregnant does--twins are normal from this breed of goat.  About a half hour after we left, the next goat delivered triplets!  Then we received an email from Brad this morning.  The last goat had FIVE kids!  This means The Three Wheelers DOUBLED the size of their goat herd in TWO DAYS!  They now have 24 goats.  Early Saturday they had only 12 goats.  Brad wrote quite a nice story about the arrival of the five goats.  It wouldn't be appropriate to print it here in the blog but if you want to read it, email me and I will forward it along for you.

Congratulations to The Three Wheelers--you are awesome and we offer you our heartfelt Cheers and wish you Many, many more Mighty Cheers!  Carry on!  J&S

Cost of camping

Sunday greetings!  One of Sunday's greatest highlights is the Sunday paper.  It's always huge and filled with cool stuff.  Today, for example, I found a coupon for 2 for 1 admission to Flagstaff's Lowell Observatory.  The coupon is good until the end of the year.  I will alert everyone I know who gets the paper to save the coupon.

After reading our local Arizona Sunday paper, I often turn to online Sunday editions, too. It extends my newspaper reading fun. My first choice is The Salt Lake Tribune. They always have neat stuff in that newspaper. Today was no exception. They have this cool article on family camping. It's a typical "feel good" Happy Days article. They are talking about all the cool stuff a family needs to be competent campers these days. Finally, I get to the end of the article and see the price tag for all this cool stuff. My jaw drops. WOW--the Cost of Camping has leaped into the stratosphere! Check it out:

Springbar Traveler 5 » $569.95
Springbar Tent Doormat » $15
Springbar Oversize Covered Foam Pad » $59.95
Cook Partner 6-Burner Propane Stove » $474.99
Cook Partner 6-Burner Propane Stand » $99
Cook Partner Heavy Duty Griddle 16"x26" » $94.99
Yeti Tundra 105 quart Cooler » $399.95
Rolla Roaster » $14.95
Clear View 20lb Propane Fuel Tank » $127.99
Black Diamond Apollo Lantern » $49.95
Eton Emergency Crank Radio FR300 » $32.99
Camp Chef Fire Ring Portable Campfire » $84.95
Alps Dining Table-XL » $99.95
Alps Titan Cot-Lg » $99.99
Alps Lake Side Chair » $49.99
Reliance 7gallon Aqua-Lux H2O container » $23.95
Kelty Soft Top Table-Sm » $24.95
Kelty Mistral 200 » $69.95
GSI Pioneer Camp Set » $99.95
Century Matchless Double Lantern » $39.99

A four hundred dollar cooler? A nearly $500 camp stove? A six hundred dollar tent?
WHOA! Wot hoppened to the cost of camping? Maybe there should be a news article--beware of camping scams! Those camping store sales people must be licking their chops when a Utah family walks through the door, a wad of $2600 in hand.

Click here for the full article.

I'm a sinner

Yeah, I admit it. I'm a sinner. I love bacon. Yessiree! Sign me up! We don't eat bacon that often cuz we know it's "bad for us." But, once in awhile, I just HAVE to have some bacon. There's nothing else on God's Planet to compare to bacon. As far as we're concerned, it's the best part of the Noble Pig.

We actually do have rules about the cooking of bacon. It MUST be done outside. It can't be cooked inside. There's too much grease splatter and the bacon smell lingers forever inside the house. Nope, it's gotta be cooked outside. Second, it has to be served with eggs, preferably really GOOD eggs like Gary & Robin's fresh eggs. That's really all there is to it. Set up the camp stove and have at it.

The smell of bacon in the morning is genuine aroma therapy. When someone else is cooking it and I am not, it drives me nuts. There's some olfactory thing about bacon that triggers primal urges. Maybe it goes back to our caveman days not all that long ago, say the 1980's. Who knows?

Meanwhile, I took a photo of the new steps. It's kind of like trail work only it benefits us and not some unseen members of the public. I love working with rocks, rebar and junipers!

A third down, two thirds to go

Gee, April is one third over today.  April has always been a "fast month."  Some months are real slow.  Take January, for example, January lasts twice as long as any other month.  April?  Poof, gone.  Looks like that's the way it's gonna be this year, too.

I went to Camp Verde yesterday to print out some photos of the Verde River trip to give to Dex and Jodi last night. Unfortunately, I took the wrong camera card and didn't have any river photos to print! However, Walgreen's was offering totally free 8x10's yesterday--no strings attached. So, I made a made a snap decision and decided to print the photo shown here in 8x10. It turned out great and even Susun likes it. Our hiking is coming along well--the "streak" is four days and counting.
We did the Long Canyon Hill in 28 minutes yesterday even though we weren't hiking "for time." (The spreadsheet now has it's own page linkable at top left.)

Gary came over early yesterday morning to set a trap for a gopher. He had success and we now have one less gopher on the grounds of Second Chance Ranch. Dex and Jodi arrived at 6 pm and we enjoyed a raging "white man fire" and then a dinner inside the straw house. The straw house wouldn't exist without the help of many of our Dear Friends. Brad and Kate and Dex and Jodi are four people whose efforts truly made this place possible. We will be forever grateful for their efforts.

Speaking of the straw house, we received our electric bill today covering the time period of March 21 to April 21. It was outrageous. No, not outrageous in a HIGH sense, it is outrageous in a LOW sense--the total bill (including the monthly service charge) is $12.93! I guess that freezer isn't sucking too much juice afterall.

It's amazing how high a quality of life we can have on one 20 amp circuit!

All-in-all, factoring property taxes, homeowners insurance, electric bill, trash pickup, propane tank rental, internet "dormancy fee," etc. we are paying less than $100 a month(on an annualized basis)to have this place available. Our new "fixed income lifestyle" easily affords this expense. Sure beats camping in an RV park.

My big project for the day yesterday was the installation of four steps on a steep slopes near the northwest corner of the property. I scavanged some old juniper fence posts and augered big holes through them. After much chipping of rocks, pounding of rebar and backfilling of the steps, they were completed about 4 pm. They look and behave very nicely. The steps will make visits from Gary & Robin much safer, especially when they walk home in the dark. Gary also brought over some fresh laid eggs and we're going to enjoy them this morning.

Carrie's Art Bench project submission deadline was yesterday. She received a tsunami of applications at the last minute yesterday and now appears to have dozens of designs from which to choose. We are on the "selection committee" and have until Tuesday morning to pick our Top 20. I can already tell you that fishing lure design shown below will make the final cut! We'll post our our selections Monday.

Have a great day and Many Cheers, jp

Hike Log back in action

Might as well be Type A about it!  We both amazed ourselves on the BRCT today--both of us were under an hour and a half.  I don't think I was EVER that fast in the "old days"!  Susun was way ahead of me on the first leg but I beat her by a minute to the finish line.  Great workout.  I ginned up a spreadsheet.  Click Here to check it out.

A Tale of Two Trails

We're fixin' to be OCD about hiking again. For the past 9.5 years, we've had this on-again, off-again obsession with day hiking. I wish it was "on again" all the time but, alas, circumstances conspire to change pretty much any favorite OCD activity.

We started day hiking on December 7, 2001. We had a great run of day hiking clear through September 2002. In fact, we had a "streak" going of 125 straight days of day-hiking. Our streak broke in Red Bluff, California, when we rec'd news that our house had been flooded.

We got another streak going in 2004 that lasted well into 2005. I think my streak then was over about 300 consecutive rain or shine days. It's in my log book someplace. There have been other minor streaks but nothing to compare to the 2004-2005 epic. Heck, I even taught a community college class called "Day Hiking for The Elderly" in March-April 2005.

We had a good run in 2005-2006 but nothing to compare to previous streak. After I herniated my L5 disk in May 2006, my hiking came to an abrupt end. It never really fully recovered as there simply wasn't enough time with the 2.5 year job, etc.

We've discussed how to get ODC about hiking again. And therein lies The Tale of Two Trails.

One trail is the world famous Bell Rock-Courthouse Loop Trail (BRCT). The other is a short section of the Long Canyon Trail (LCT). The BRCT parking lot is typically jam-packed by mid-morning. The first half-mile of this trail is teeming with people and it's often near gridlock from bicycles and people. The LCT is almost always deserted. We've only seen people on it once and that was yesterday.

The BRCT is about 4.5 miles. The section of the LCT we do is less than a mile.
The BRCT is mostly flat and all the grades are either short and or gentle. The LCT is a steep, steep hill that is a 100% climb all the way. Both trails are the closest two official trails to our home. The BRCT is smack-dab in the Village of Oak Creek, a suburb of Sedona. The LCT is more or less nowhere. Luckily, it has a parking area alongside the road to a rich kids school-Southwest Academy.

We've found that the best way to get back into hiking is, well..., to hike. Who'd a thunk it? The second ingredient is to hike every day. And the third ingredient is to really press ourselves to work a little harder each day. These two trails possess all of the above qualifications. They are endearing and compelling trails.
They are easy to access. Plus, both of them are great "timing trails." What's a timing trail? A timing trail is one that lends itself to timing yourself.

The Long Canyon Workout Hill is a classic example. There's an obvious starting point--the iron gate. There's an obvious finish line--twin juniper trees at the top of the hill. Voila, you simply time yourself between those two points. You aim for a faster time for each hill climb. No lolly gagging allowed!

Ditto The BRCT--you can really make that trail a tremendous workout trail but aiming to reduce your loop time. Two days ago we were slightly over 2 hours. Obviously, we are out of hiking shape. My best time there was 1:37 as I recall.
Yesterday on The LCT, I surprised myself with a 27 minute time. Susun was 32 minutes. My best time there was I recall was 23 minutes. I will check it in the historical log book but I am pretty sure that's accurate.

So, we've decided to simply alternate--BRCT one day, LCT the next, aiming for lower times each day. We plan to keep up this routine until the day before we depart Arizona. We know from past experience that this regime will put us back into credible hiking condition.

A classic past example of similar OCD behavior was in May-June 2004. We were coming off a very slacker-sluggish period in our lives. We'd started the Atkin diet on April Fool's Day and lost a bunch of weight. We were headed to our first summer in Idaho. We went into Garfield County, Utah, out by Bryce Canyon and camped one night at a place call "Red Canyon Equestrian CG." Nice place and free.
One night turned into 11 nights and each day we hiked for hours in the free Forest Service "mini-Bryce" area of Red Canyon. The main red Canyon (fee) campground had pay showers so we could wash off the red dust each afternoon. It was great. By the time we left Red Canyon, we were fully back in hiking shape once again. That was the beginning of our extended epic hiking streak.

Well, I write all of this rambling mumbo-jumbo for a simple reason--we're challenging ourselves to "stand & deliver" on getting our hiking groove back. By putting it out here on the blog, it's kind of like, well....what happens if you DON'T follow through, huh? We'd just look like foolish exaggerators, that's all. Our friends would say, "Yeah, they sure talk big sometimes, but where's the delivery, huh?" I think I will even start a public spreadsheet to hold our feet to the fire.

Hiking is not only fun--hiking is life. The more you hike, the healthier you are. it's a widely recognized fact these days. Practically the whole medical establishment is on the "walking is good" band wagon. I'm sure you've noticed that phenomena.

Well, got up late today--7 instead of 5 so we have to shuffle along and ride today's wave. Surf's up, let's go!

Cheers, jp

Volunteer update

As most of my Loyal Blog Readers (LBRs) know, I am still very much "in the mix" with the "world of volunteerism." I thought this morning would be a fine time to ramble awhile about whazzup with volunteerism.

First, one of the really fun projects I am involved with is the Snake River Greenbelt Art Bench Project. Most of you have already read numerous blog references to this topic in past months. Carrie G-S is a delight to work with and she is a genuine textbook example of the very best and brightest that the upcoming Baby Boom Generation (AKA: The Age Wave) will be bringing to The World of Volunteerism. Anyway, Carrie has been busily sending along artist's renditions of various bench ideas. SO far, I think there's 23 proposed bench designs. I am in the midst of trying to figure a way to present the bench designs so that anyone can quickly get an overview of them. That's been my big project this morning. I've spent over an hour on it so far with perhaps 2-3 more hours to go. This is the type of volunteerism that I really love for myself--sitting at the computer and doing something actually productive. Imagine that!

The five graphic slideshow above is a draft concept of how it might be possible to present these designs. If any LBRs have any comments on this format, I sure would appreciate hearing from you.

OK, moving right along: my Loyal Sidekick and Partner @ RSVP, Dear Debby, informed be yesterday that somehow the federal continuation grant dropped through a crack during the my transition into retirement. There's a mere 2 weeks from today to "git 'er dun," soooo....that means I am going to be doing a heck of a lot of Virtual Volunteerism between now and April 21 to help Debby get the $65,000 grant turn in. Without it, RSVP ceases to exist on July First!

This week, I received a call from Stephanie G. of the Idaho Falls Farmers Market. I enjoy working with her SO much. Anyway, there was a momentary panic that the IFFM website had been inadvertently disabled. Luckily, it was a false alarm. We will be heavily involved with IFFM in the years ahead. This year, I suspect we will be doing some videos of various producers and mnaybe serving as prototype IFFM docents, too. We're going to try to schedule our travel so we can be home on weekends--primarily to attend the IFFM. It opens May 1 and we sure hope to be there.

We continue to put a lot of volunteer efforts into assisting the embryonic Friends of Harriman State Park. We were on the phone for quite awhile yesterday with the Asst. Park Manager. There's a fiasco-in-progress taking shape there. It's too long a story to tell here--maybe we will do a separate post on it soon here or elsewhere. Very sensitive, touchy issues. I hope those issues don't torpedo the great work done so far.

We've had some communication with the National Park Service about volunteering for our neighbor--Montezuma Well National Monument. However, it has become quite confusing, as any communications with the federales are wont to be. So, we've put that one on the back burner.

As you know, we logged 3 days as an on-river volunteer. We then let the Salt River Ranger know we'd volunteer for him, too, to do a trip through the whitewater and Wilderness there. He's interested but we haven't heard back from his in the last couple of days.

The idea to volunteer for Max Castillo fell through when he was transferred to Slide Rock State Park. The whole Arizona State Parks scene is in such turmoil, it's simply not feasible to hook up with this this year.

Meanwhile, we contacted our old Secret Shopper Boss, Sue Kocis in Michigan. We're applying to be a Virtual Volunteer for her. Time will tell if that works out.

The Volkssport idea is on hold until we return to Idaho Falls. We think it's in a good situation and is poised to become reality. It simply needs onsite management.

Our relationship with CAHA (Clayton Area Historical Association) continues to prosper. We are looking forward to working with them. We're already booked to be Chili Contest Judges in late July. Mike's agreed to pay our gas money to Clayton, too! Plus, all the chili we can stand to eat.

Gary G. of the Sawtooth Interpretive & Historical Assn. sent in a partnership agreement the other day. It's going to be great to continue to work with him--he's the MOST Awesome volunteer I've ever seen--well, maybe second to Buck H. Maybe tied with Buck. But awesome nonetheless.

We contacted our buddy in the Challis BLM about writing a river guide from Stanley to Corn Creek this summer. He's possibly interested and sent my email to the other agency river managers. It's a long shot but it's worth asking about.

We're going to jump on a personal volunteer project as soon as we return to Idaho Falls. I'm going to paint the railing along the Greenbelt at the intersection of Riverside and Broadway. That peeling paint has been bugging me since the first time I saw it in 2004. I told Dave C. I'm gonna paint it even if I have to pay for the paint myself!

I somehow suspect we will be doing some Program Development Volunteering for RSVP this year. It's just a suspicion and an intuition at this point.

This Friday, the Friends of Montezuma Well are apparently going to plant their Hopi Garden--working with at least one Hopi Elder. I think we will go there and see how they have their "volunteer act" organized. Here's a link about it.

Verde River Trip Photos

Here's 32 photos from the Verde River Trip. I took 188. Google is always tweaking its slideshow functionality. It now appears this show doesn't autoplay. You will need to press the play button to begin (>). Then note that if you mouse over the bottom of a photo you will see a left and right arrows plus the play button. This allow you to take your time reading the captions. YMMV!

Maybe time to play today?

Hum...let's see, maybe we get some time to play today. The wind has laid down this morning (so far)and it's clear, crisp and quite cool in the mid-30's. Do I hear a hike this morning? Time will tell.

Just checked on Idaho Falls weather. The Pokemon weather guys had this to say in their 3 am Area Forecast Discussion: HEAVY SNOW HAS BEEN FALLING IN IDAHO FALLS FOR SEVERAL HOURS NOW AND EXPECT UP TO 5 INCHES IN THE UPPER SNAKE PLAIN THROUGH MID MORNING. Gee...what's happening to the poor little forlorn Easter Bunny? He's freezing his energizers off!

Apparently, the Eastern Idaho area has been getting some early spring weather mayhem lately. I was reading the Island Park News and they were talking about 6-10 foot drifts and snowmobilers being rescued. Hum...if this trend keeps up maybe we will hunker down in Arizona and delay our departure to Tater Nation.

The Big Brush Be Gone Caper yesterday was the last of the Big Grunt Work we have to do here this spring. This visit has been nothing like the November-December marathon. The next biggest chore is additional weed spraying. Luckily, the wind has given me a great excuse to blow off the spraying. (No pun intended, of course.)

We might go to Cottonwood today and we might not. The sound of boots hitting the trail might be a stronger call than a few hours of shopping. I hear stirrings from Miss Susun's vicinity. Guess a new day is yawning, opps, I mean dawning.

Speaking of which--have a great day and MANY Cheers, jp

Brush Be Gone

We're trying to get rid of a lot of brush today.  We borrowed a trailer from a neighbor.  This is all mesquite brush.  That means it's 100% thorns.  Some of the thorns are longer than an inch.  It's wicked stuff.  Somehow, I have to get it all on this trailer and tied down and covered before I can go to the landfill.  Wish us luck! (We "got 'er dun" and were back home @ 2:45--only a 6 hour job. Whew!)

Monday, Monday

As expected the wind is picking up rapidly.  It's progged to get to 65 mph up on the Little Colorado.  The "angle of the dangle" translates that it maybe a 40-45 mph wind down here.  Way too stiff to spray weeds today.  We'll probably haul brush to the landfill.. WOT FUN!

Got up @ 5 am and spent a couple of hours researching conditions and circumstances about The Wave and also Bryce Canyon.  A potential trip to the West Deserts is looking dimmer than it did last night.  Well, The Wave idea bit the dust, too.  All online permits are already taken months in advance.  The only resource is the "walk-in" option.  They give out permits for 10 people each day.  That's ten people TOTAL.  So, I called the BLM in Kanab, Utah, this morning.  Hum...each day there's anywhere from 60-80 people vying for those ten spots.  Nah, we ain't gonna go there.

Meanwhile, believe it or not, the US NRCS SNOTEL at Bryce Canyon Nat'l Park still shows 30 inches of snow.  A potion of one of the key arterial trails is closed due to a rockslide.  I put in a call to them to see if the popular trails are still drifted in their shadowed areas.  Haven't heard back but Bryce is looking dim and dimmer, too.  It's looking less likely that we will try to do a river trip up in Zion NP.  Just not enough time.

We will probably simply stay here and ride out the full moon and take off April 29--just like we speculated a few blog posts ago.  Do the long run to Fillmore or Nephi and then play dodge 'em cars through Salt Lake and get home midday Friday, April 30.  At this point, that's the way I'm betting we will go.

A big deal is happening tonight.  It's the final game of the NCAA Basketball Season--the culmination of what's widely known as March Madness.  It's the Butler Bulldogs against a team a lot of people love to despise--Duke.  I've never cared for Duke and that disdain far predates their rise to a perennial basketball power.  Meanwhile, Butler is about as "down home" as it's possible to get in this day and age.  We have a Dear Friend (Pastor Pam, The Sermonator) who graduated from Butler.  She's rooting mightily for her Bulldogs tonight.  So, please, if you will, join us in rooting as well for those lowly Bulldogs--may they bite the mighty Blue Devils and be Champions of the College World tonight!

Weather Wonk Stuff

We are already beginning our pre-trip planning for our departure north to Idaho.  We became curious today as to how the April weather shakes out.  I reformatted the April statistics for both Beaver Creek ranger Station and Montezuma Castle National Monument.  You can see a Google spreadsheet of this data by clicking here.  In a nutshell, it can be quite hot or quite cold this month.  The Climate Prediction Center seems to feel it's going to be slightly below normal temperatures with lower than normal rainfall.  All of this information bodes well for us to stay well into April.  Our thinking in a prior blog post had us leaving April 29 because we are wienies about the full moon.  Now our thinking is to leave The Straw House maybe as early as April 25 and take a slow and meandering route north.  We're thinking about staying in Fillmore for perhaps a couple of days so we could explore the West Deserts.  If that plan falls by the wayside, we might stay in Panguitch and go hiking in Bryce for a couple of days.  Those trails "should" be snow free by then.

It was a great Easter.  We had a real nice morning--the rabbit started off on the right foot ( no pun intended).  We then went for a short walk with The Three Wheelers--Kate, Brad, and Joshua.  We went to a place of special family significance and enjoyed a thermos of hot coffee.  We got home about 12:30 pm and turned right around and went to the Annual Despain Family Easter Potluck.  It's an awesome family affair--egg hunting, huge gobs of food and all manner of chatter.  We enjoyed getting acquainted with a couple of retired teachers who served their career in Ganado. Dean Despain--The Grand Old Patriarch of the Clan was in his usual low key form.  Children ran hither and yon in their typical Easter dither.  We ate way too many carbohydrates.  Hey, it's Easter!

When we got back from The Despain's, we were both wiped out.  I laid down for a nap at 3 pm and didn't move until 6 pm.  I can't recall the late time I took a 3 hour nap (other than when I was down with the flu or something).  No campfire tonight--too tired.

Been studying the Bonneville Shoreline Trail.  It's been around since 1990 but I only "discovered" it today.  Click here for more information about it.   Be sure to read the History section and also note the Forest Service EA that's dated March 29, 2010.  Very interesting stuff.

Looks like it's going to be pretty windy for awhile.  No weed spraying on the horizon!

Thanks for a great walk back in time, Kate, Brad and Josh!

Easter Bunny

Back in the Old Days, we saw rabbits here all the time. Now, never. Until this morning. Perhaps feeling the imperceptible tug of the holiday, a real live Easter Bunny showed up on the property. "Cue The Bunny!" I opened the door to go get the Sunday paper at 6:15 am and there he or she. What a great way to start the day! Happy Easter!

'Twas a nice anniversary

We enjoyed a great campfire last night.  We spent most of the evening telling stories about how we started building The Straw House on April Fool's Day 1994.  It seems incredible to both of us that it was "only" sixteen years ago.  Gee, all the stuff that's happened in those 16 years is pretty incredible.  I was 46 years old then and Susun, 47.  Wonder what changes will happen in the next sixteen years--I'll be 78 then and Susun, 79.

I remember at least the dinner of my 16th birthday really well--it was a huge steak at the Attica Hotel in Attica, Indiana. My parents were real big on 16th birthdays and they made me feel real special.  I thought turning 16 meant that I had really hit the Big Time.  HA!  The very next day, of course, is burned in my memory and the memory of all those alive at the time--the violent death of President Kennedy.  Who can possibly forget where they were or what they were doing when that news broke?

 At the end of my second 16 year span, I reached a true milestone in my life--moving to Arizona on Valentine's Day 1979.  The third 16 year interval was marked by the completion of this straw house and really hitting stride on what became the culmination of my efforts to "save" the Verde River.  I won't know how the 4th 16-year chapter of my life ends for another couple of years---November 2012 to be exact.  It will be very interesting to see how it all evolves.

Last night, we both realized that the 16 year cycle for The Straw House has brought some really welcome developments.  For the first time, we are resting easy with the weeds here.  That may sound trivial to you but to us it's HUGE.  No one has ANY idea of the amount of time and actual blood, sweat and, yes, tears, I have shed over years of literal hand-to-hand combat with the weeds and the mesquites.  My arms bear lifetime scars from this battle.  For ALL of the time we have owned this property, I have always actually dreaded the onset of weed season.  It was a genuine fear and loathing thing.  Heck, it was never even comfortable to even walk around this property--you would always wind up with some sort of stickers in your socks and shoes.
I never "beat the weeds," they always won-year after freaking year.

Last night, for the first time, we enjoyed total freedom from Weed Anxiety. You have no idea how blissfully liberating that feeling is. It's delicious beyond description! We have finally Beat The Weeds. We won. They're toast. Fried. Done. DEAD! As we looked around the property, we realized that, after 16 years, we've finally reached a stable condition of this place that will allow us to actually enjoy it as never before in our history with it. What a great way to mark 16 years.

We took a nice hike April Fool's morning. It was along Wet Beaver Creek downstream from the 618 road. There are some nice red rock ledges and red bluffs there. The riparian is "old growth" and it's a delightful place. We had a little snack on a beautiful red bluff and enjoyed what we call The Dance Trail. No one ever hikes that trail, especially this time of year. It's one of the best kept secrets of this entire region.

We spent another four hours in Cottonwood. Paid our 2nd half property taxes and bought about $100 worth of groceries. We saved at least as much as that by astute shopping and couponing.

Yesterday was noteworthy in another arcane way. I had a HUGE breakthrough in one of my obsessions--the roasting of green chiles. All of my Southwestern Life, I've roasted green chiles on a grill. This involves painstakingly turning them one-by-one. Also, I have to hand select flat, straight chiles. Lately, the green chiles coming up out of Mexico haven't been flat or straight. They are twisted and knarly and quite literally impossible to roast on a grill. No way, no how. This has been a real vexation for me as I love roasting green chiles. Yes, I am obsessed with roasting green chiles. It's a fundamental part of my life.

So, here I have been deprived of my obsession as I can't even find a flat, straight chile to put atop a grill. What to do? Well, a combination of two things led to my breakthrough last night. First, Houn Dawg (Jeff, The Jon-E Handwarmer Kind) said he used a small propane torch to roast them one-by-one. These torches are generally used to thaw pipes or maybe sometimes solder a copper pipe. Next, I have always admired commercial rotary roasting drums. They roast 50 pounds of chiles at a whack. They're awesome and the envy of my eye. They use huge gobs of propane fed through giant flames as the drum passes by a pipeline of jet propelled fire.

Finally, the lightbulb went off. What if I used our huge weed burning torch? WOuld it work? First, I bought four pounds of the ugliest, most twisted green chiles I could get my hands on. Next, I set up a culinary grill atop two pieces of rebar perched on some white rocks. Then I backstopped this with some stucco lath and put the whole arrangement on bare ground beside our campfire pit. Then I laid out an array of homely chiles atop the grill grate. Finally, I sit the afterburner on the torch tip and had at it. When you apply gas to the torch tip, it truly sounds like a jet taking off on a runway. It's hugely loud and there's a frightful flame coming from the end of this torch tip. If used improperly, these things can be wildly dangerous to life and property.

Well, magic happened and I was able to roast 4 pounds of chiles in a heartbeat. Every little nook and cranny of the chiles was roasted to perfection. They were all blacked and blistered perfectly. It was an incredible sight to behold and really invigorating for a Chile Head like me. WOW--I would hardly believe my good fortune. Now my chile roasting days has been catapulted into a whole new realm. My head is spinning with all the possibilities. Now, I will even be able to roast pasilla peppers. Gee, I will be able to toast off entire masses of jalapenos in a veritable flash! WOW--this is rich stuff!

Life is good! Indeed. Have a great day and Many Cheers! jp

Grand Falls to make new high!

No, this is NOT an April Fool's joke.  I happened to peruse the USGS streamflow table this morning and my eyeballs popped out.  There's been a surge come down East Clear Creek south of Winslow and the Little Colorado at Winslow is running over 1600 cfs this morning.  Yesterday it was a mere 1,000 cfs and the day  before a paltry 600 cfs!  Clearly, the last dribs and drabs of snow have parted company with the watershed and are heading to a meeting of the molecules with the Big Colorado River in deep in Grand Canyon.  Rather than gunk up this blog post with a lot of arcane data, I put it on a separate page.  See above, left.

I clearly thought the Grand Falls has peaked about a week ago near 1500 cfs. Wrong again--this surge will probably eek out a slightly higher peak within the next few days--possibly as early as tomorrow.  I can guarantee you that this Easter Weekend will be primetime to go visit the Grand Falls.  They are SUPERB and not to be missed, especially if you have never seen them before.

Happy April Fool

Nah, I'm not gonna bother doin' no April Fool writeup here.  It's too predictable.  Practically everyone does it.
I'm just glad that March has marched on.  Man, it sure went out like a lion last night--the winds were a howlin'!

Yep, we sure 'nuf had ourselfs a campfire again.  What wind?  That's how come I built an 25-inch tall wind screen.  Laugh at the wind!  Susun rustled up some cowpoke chili and we chowed down on some good grub.

Both of us were plumb tuckered yesterday and didn't saddle up and ride out of our corral until high noon.  We went on over to Camp Weirdy (home of The Cowboys) and signed off on our taxes, bought some stuff and came on back to Second Chance Ranch.  While the wind whistled we each spent time doing stuff in our sheds.  My shed looks downright hospitable now.  You can even walk around without poking yer shins with sharp objects.

Today is Sweet Sixteen for The Straw House.  Yep, precisely sixteen years ago in 1994, we started to build the place.  We purposely chose April Fool's Day to begin.  I'm not sure why.  We have a photo of what we did that first day.  Pretty funny, actually.  We dug a big hole and hand-mixed concrete in an old wheelbarrow and poured it into the square hole.  That was it.  Looking back sixteen years, it's a wonder that we ever got this place finished.  Thanks to all those who made it possible. 

Yesterday was also officially one week since we sprayed for weeds.  We must admit the weed chemical really did a good job.  It's generic Roundup--a chemical called glyphosate.  They say it takes about a week for glyphosate to really do its job.  For the first few days, we were pretty pessimistic about it.  The last 3 days, the affects have really come on strong.  For the first time in our history with this land, we don't have to worry about the foxtail weeds--they are all dead now!  It's totally delightful.

Yesterday, I received a surprise--an email from Dear Friend Joshua W.  Joshua is excels at many things and now we learn he also excels at creative writing, too.  He sent along a link to a short story he wrote.  Click here to read it.  It's a most excellent vignette penned from the eye of a goat.  Joshua also sent his Bandcamp website.  He's composing his own electronic music and posting it online for free downloading.  I told him that Pink Floyd and Moody Blues would love to hire him for their next concert tour.  Next year, Joshua will be a senior at the Sedona Red Rock High School.  Thanks for the email, the story and the music, Joshua!  Ya dun good!

We think we will be leaving Arizona later this month.  The "when" of this plan is TBD (To Be Determined).  We'd like to be home by May 1.  I'd like to attend the May Parks & Recreation Commission.  We have a room booked at Old Faithful Inn May 8.  The keyu piece of this puzzle is the fact that we had our water and power turned off before heading south.  We can only get them turned back on during business hours of a weekday.  The full moon is April 28.  We generally like to avoid traveling in the days leading up to a full moon.  So, if we are "true to form," we will leave lickity-split, crack-of-dawn Thursday April 29--four weeks from today and arrive in River City, Idaho, about lunch time Friday.  Hopefully, we will have all the city's troops lined up to turn back on our power and water before the close of business on Friday at 5 pm.  (They won't turn it on unless someone is inside the house watching for potential burst pipes.  Smart plan.)

Anyway, this is relevant because if the above scenario turns out to be the case, we will be leaving Arizona precisely four weeks from today!

Have a great day and Many Cheers!  jp