Slowing Down

We've been taking it pretty easy the last few days, so not much to report. This morning, my cousin made these bran raisin muffins. Oh boy, were they good! As you can see from the photo, she bakes in cast iron pans. She warmed the pan in the oven and then took a stick of butter and ran it around each cup. The dough sizzles when it hits the cups. Then she bakes it like normal. When they're done, they pop right out of that pan just like teflon.

When you use cast iron, you just clean it up right away. I don't use soap but she does. Just a little bit so as not to disturb the seasoning of the pan then you dry the pan and put it away. Out here, a pan hung on the wall still damp dries out real well. Back home it would rust if I wasn't careful.

The dryness out here is pervasive. It just affects daily life in dozens of ways. First off, you have drink lots of water. We carry bottles of water with us wherever we go. But you feel it in your body. My hands dried right out so now I'm using lotion on them. Nosebleeds will happen without enough water. Gray water gets recycled as irrigation.

Back home this would be called a pond. Here it's called a "tank". It's really a sun pond that catches runoff water when it rains. No rain, no water. This one has damp mud at the center right now. We saw three coyotes checking it out last night.

This is the view out past the front of the motorhome. It's mostly low brush and very small ground cover. The ground cover crunches when you walk across it.

Most of the bushes are this shrub called catclaw acacia. Every branch and  stem is covered with sharp, curved spurs. You don't go running through the bushes around here!






Everything here either bites, stings or sticks you.

Here's a fellow we saw along the road the other day.

The is a Gopher snake, a non-poisonous snake. Actually beneficial as they prey on mice and lizards. This is a little one but there's a big one living at the back of the house foundation.

We're going to Phoenix to get some horse feed tomorrow so I'll get a chance to see the giant Saguaro cactus.