Now, That's A fence

When I was growing up in central New York, the house we lived in was located on a corner lot. My mother had a real case about the kids cutting the corner off and riding their bikes across the corner of the yard. So, she planted a hedge of Spirea on the frontage sides. It grew up to be about 5' high and 4' thick. It was beautiful in the late spring when it flowered with its little white flowers. It looked like a snowbank around the edge of the yard. It must have also interfered with the visibility of drivers coming to the corner because one night somebody wrapped a chain around the five bushes in the corner and tore them out. My mother found them dragged three blocks away. She promptly brought them back and replanted them. But the hedge was a lot of work. It needed to be trimmed and occasionally severely cut back. And it bothered the drivers. So finally she dug it all up and called Acme Fence or someone like that to come and install a chain link fence 4' high all around the property. That was the end of the matter and it worked really well and is still there to this day.

Well, out here they have fences as well, and they're not just to keep kids with bikes under control. As I've mentioned before, most of the folks in this rural community keep a horse or two. A lot of them also raise dogs, but that's another story. In the wider area, there are horse and cattle ranches of really immense proportions. Think thousands of acres. And they all need fences. Most places have a fence made up of T-posts driven into the ground and strung with barbed wire. But commonly there are some really strong fences made of steel poles, welded together in a solid piece. They look like this:

That is just a short section at the entrance to a driveway but we once saw one built like this only with four crossbars and vertical post every 8' running along Rt. 89 south of Prescott. It ran straight and true and all painted white for over four miles without a break. Here's one made from 2" square galvanized tubing:

These fences are not prefabricated, they're built on site from pile pipe with a portable welding and cutting rig.

Of course, all fences need gates. The standard entry around here is made from large diameter steel tubing and stands 12'-14' tall.

As you can see, they're often decorated with words or pictures cut from steel sheet. Because the humidity is so low most of the time, rusting is minimal.

If you look carefully, you'll see Curley exploring in the background. And there's more:

The place across the street has dogs that raise quite a ruckus, but he also has this horse who's nice and quiet.

Up on the corner this guy points the way to Blue Ridge Ranch.

This is quite the sculpture. The body is an old muffler. The arms are exhaust tubing. The rope and his gun are re-rod. The face is an old shovel with cut nails for the whiskers, his eyes are lock washers and his hat is an iron pail lid. Even scrub brushes for sideburns.

Pretty clever and one of the best constructions I've seen. The cut sheet horses and javelinas and other animals are available for sale. I've seen them at shops in West Sedona. But some of this stuff are certainly one-off inspirations.

I went to fill up with water this morning. I was fourth in line.

We have a 300 gallon tank loaded in the back of the pick-up and I have to fill it up about once a week. I have to drive about 8 miles into Dewey to a public water fill. If there's nobody there it takes about ten minutes from the time I pull in to when I pull away. There's no valve or counter, just a slot drop a quarter. Drop the coin and the water comes out the hose. Keep it up until you're done.

My cousin leaves NY to start back today so I'm starting to unload our stuff from the house back into the motor home. It'll be at least the weekend after Labor Day before we get going. I'm trying to map out possible routes back. We're coming back the Northern way through South Dakota so we can stop at Mount Rushmore and whatever else turns up.

How High the Sky

I've been kind of a weather nut all my life, ever since I heard my mother say "red sky in the morning, sailor take warning, red sky at night, sailor's delight". I love to watch the sky and guess what the weather is going to be like. I grew up hearing about how the farmers could foretell the weather and all the country verses that helped. And about the woolly bear caterpillar for the winter and whether the smoke from a campfire rose or settled. So I like to watch the sky.

And out here you can really watch the sky. When we first got out here in May, the sky was always clear and blue, day after day. Pretty boring. But with the start of July we started to see clouds most days. Supposedly, the monsoon season starts the  first part of July and it then rains often until the end of September. Well, that's not quite the case as it didn't start to rain until August and then it's been pretty spotty. But it has rained. So far this month our gage has measured about 5" total. You can see in the photo that the tank or pond in the lower right has a good amount of water in it now. I watched a Great Blue Heron fly in for some hunting yesterday. There are no fish that I know of but there are hundreds of frogs.

The clouds are the same types I grew up watching but the weather signs I grew up learning just don't seem to apply around here. I can watch a cumulus cloud like the one in the picture grow and grow but unlike home where it would sweep across the landscape, here as often as not it just sits there and dumps water on one spot. The other day we went into town and from the hill we could see a terrific rainstorm about two miles wide just dumping on the town and blue sky all around it.

One of the things I know I'll miss is the ability to see for a long distance. I can watch storms build and rain on places that I know are 50 or more miles away. At night I can watch lightning from storms over 100 miles away. At home, I'm lucky to see clouds that are five miles away. I see a rain cloud let loose and I go to the radar map to see just where it is and I'm often surprised at how far way the storm really is.

Because of the way the storms develop out here, actually getting rain is a real hit or miss proposition. Many times I've seen it pouring on three sides of us and not a drop hits here. Or we just get brushed by an outer edge and only get a trace. But if it does rain on top of us it comes down heavy, just like in Carolina. And it runs off and creates flash floods and cuts channels in the dirt roads making them even worse than they usually are.

When we lived up North we were used to heavy snow. When we moved to North Carolina we laughed at the consternation that 3 or 4 inches of snow caused. Now that we're in North Carolina we're used to the heavy rainfall. So it was interesting to see the reaction when Phoenix got .8" of rain yesterday. It was on all the news channels. People tried to drive across flooded roads and got stuck. Flash floods closed roads with silt. Dramatic pictures of rain clouds were featured on the news.
All for less than one inch of rain. What a difference. Incidentally, Arizona has a "Stupid Driver Law" whereby if a motorist ignores a road closed sign and tries to drive across a flooded street and then gets stuck, he can be assessed the cost of the rescue up to $2000.

I'm looking forward to getting back home to watch the sun in the morning and smoke from my campfire.

Spider Update

Not that I've had any request for a sequel, but I thought I'd come back to this one time. The other night I went out to feed the animals and as the dogs raced around I saw some movement on the ground. Closer inspection showed that I have my very own tarantula. Here are the pictures.

The one at the top is the new one and the other is a repeat of the picture I published a few days ago. See how much lighter in color the new one is? I think it's a female. She just sat there and posed and I didn't do anything to bother her. Later she was gone.

Yesterday we went out checking out garage sales. We saw quite a few sales but nothing that shouted out at us. After a while it just got too hot to keep going so we headed back home for a nap. While we were laying down it thundered mightily and got real black but we only got 1/10" of an inch of rain.

Between garage sales and thrift shops, Diane's favorite entertainment these days, we've accumulated enough extra clothes that we thought we'd send some home. I did my duty and emptied out a Sam Adams case to get the box. We got it all loaded and ready to go and took it to the post office yesterday. The guy on the desk said they couldn't accept a package in that kind of box. Why? Because it might still contain beer. How stupid is that? No wonder they have trouble.

Oh well, hope everyone is having a good weekend.

Road Trip

This is the only elk I seem to be able to get a picture of, the kind that are cast out of bronze and will stand there all day.

Friday was road trip day as we went all the way to Phoenix to shop at Cabela's at their big fall sale. They are about an hour and a half from here.

Cabela's is the ultimate sportsman's toy store, offering everything related to the outdoor sports of hunting, fishing, archery, boating and camping. The stores are a show in themselves as they contain several areas of taxidermy related to the big game fields of the world. You can see everything from a stuffed elephant to a stuffed prairie dog. And purchase anything you might need to bag one with. Pretty much, if you've seen one Cabela's, you've seen them all, although I've never been to the home location in Kearney, Nebraska. It's still always fun to visit and since the nearest one to home is up in Wheeling, West Virginia, I wanted to take a look at this one. Besides, they sent us a sale flier. Who could refuse?

Actually, this was a chance to pick up a rifle I had been wanting. This Ruger 10/22 Takedown, was featured on the front of the sale flier. This rifle came out in March and has been so oversold that the local gun shops are quoting weeks of backorder, if they can get one at all. So I was surprised to see it featured in the flier, but given Cabela's enormous purchasing power, I shouldn't have been. At any rate I got one and I'm very pleased with it. It separates into two pieces a stows in its own nylon carry bag. Just the thing to carry in the motor home.

Diane got a top and a fleece jacket, so momma's happy too.

At that point it was about 1:30 and time for lunch. I had scouted out the area with the aid of Google maps and found that right across the highway was a micro-brewery called Gordon Biersch.

They are a chain featuring German style lagers in an upscale environment. They have branches all the way from Hawaii to Buffalo, NY and Myrtle Beach, SC.They have a very nice selection of beer and a very good menu as well. I had a dark lager called Schwarzbier and we shared an order of Lobster and Shrimp Mac and Cheese. It was delicious and I ate most of it. For dessert we had a warm apple bread pudding with sugared pecans and vanilla ice cream. Diane had most of that.

It was about 105 degrees in Glendale so we scooted back up I17 to Dewey and found rain clouds building. We got home about 4:45 and I went out and fed all the stock and about 5:30 it started to pour. It stormed for about an hour and then rained easy until about midnight. That dropped the temperature down to 66 degrees. All together we got 1.300" of rain, enough to fill the tank at the bottom of the hill about half full. And all the plants got a good watering.

I was looking forward to a good day at it turned out to be every bit as good as I had hoped.

This could happen to you!

I didn't take any pics to illustrate this tale, but please read about what happened to me yesterday.

First, a little background. Like a lot of people our age, we take pills. No more than we have to, but sometimes we have to. And that means we have prescriptions to fill. At first, we went to the Winn-Dixie Marketplace a couple of blocks away. It was convenient and we grew to really like the pharmacist who worked there. When W-D closed, he went to Target across town, so we transferred everything over there. Since I was working and driving by the place every day, it was no big deal to stop on the way home from work and pick up our latest dose. They were great. They knew our names and always called us by name and always knew to look for refills for the both of us, even if only one of us was there.

But after I retired, convenience won out and we transferred to the new CVS which had opened in the W-D center around the corner. Well, they can't hold a candle to Target. They must only pay the least they can. The help is surly and rude. They never use our names and they have to be prompted to do a complete job. But, I can pull up to the drive-in window and be done with it so we put up with it for the convenience.

Now throw in a cross country trip. We still have to get refills. CVS is a national chain so it should be no problem, right? Well, yes and no. It turns out that in order to get our prescription refilled, the prescription has to be transferred to the local store. The first time, when they transferred one of my diabetic drugs, they wrote down the wrong version. So when I went to pick it up they wanted a payment of almost $600 instead of the generic $9 it was supposed to be. It took me almost a week and several calls to both old and new locations to get that one straight. In the meantime, I had run out of pills. CVS seems to have their own set of internal rules and procedures meant for the advantage of the druggist but ignoring the end user. The local CVS here is larger than the one back and even more impersonal, if that's possible. As an example, they have a pick-up window in the store and also a drive-up window. But they refuse to assign more than one person to handle both windows no matter how long the lines get to be. I've walked out several times. When I've had wait because I just had to have the pills, it's taken as much as an hour of standing in line. And if you get out of line to answer a question at another window, you start at the back of the line all over again.

Now, yesterday. I had called in to the automated service to get one of diabetic pills renewed, along with three others. They were ready when I went in and I paid for them and brought them home. Incidentally, I've learned that the time between calling in and actually getting the pills takes three days, no matter what they say. Any less and I have to wait while they figure things out. Anyway, I got home and unpacked the pills and looked at the diabetic medicine and they have put my prescription for pills on a tube of ointment! It's not somebody else's prescription. It's my prescription filled wrong! So, of course, I took it back. I didn't even scream at them. The gal I gave it too gave me an incredulous look when she figured out what had happened and went about getting me my pills. I got my pills and she filled out a gift card for $10 for my trouble. Well, that's OK, but she never said I'm sorry or apologized in any way. They have a procedure, apparently. When they screw up, throw money at the customer and it's all right.

The thing about this that scare's me is that it could have been much worse. In this case, it was obvious that the unopened tube of ointment was not a bottle of pills. But most of my pills are dispensed from large bottles into smaller ones and then labeled. What if this had been one of those pills and they got it wrong? Only a close examination of the pills themselves might reveal a mistake. And if you've been taking pills as long as we have, you know that different brands of the same pill can look very different both in shape and in color. So how would you know?
I always scrutinize the pills every time I take one just because of this. I also look them up in WebMD for their effects and appearance and dosage and interactions. But how many people do that? We trust our physicians and pharmacists to get it right. Clearly, they don't always, so buyer beware.

So that's my cautionary tale of the day.

On a brighter note. I got my hair cut. By real barber. At a reasonable price. Diane got a perm at Fantastic Sam's and it turned out well. The gal doing it took a lot of time trying to curl Diane's hair. Diane said her regular hairdresser would never have approved. Still over-priced compared to home but not too much. I wandered around while she was getting her hair done and renewed my membership at Costco, so now I have even more places to spend money. Speaking of which, tomorrow we're taking a road trip to Phoenix to shop at Cabellas. Can't go all that way without buying something, right. And, in the next block is a German micro-brewery for lunch. It'll be a good day.

Arachnophobia Anyone?

Yesterday evening there was knock at the door. I opened it to find that the neighbors had brought over this tarantula for me to photograph. I had yet to see one on my own and they had promised to bring one over if they saw one. This is the Desert Tarantula or Arizona Tarantula and I think this one is a male because he's fairly slim and a dark brown to black coloration. The females, especially of this species are a lighter brown, so much so that they are called Blond Tarantulas. They are also stockier. This guy is about 4" over all just as he sits. His body is around 2" long and he's facing to the right into the corner of the box they brought him over in. I didn't try to disturb him to get a different shot because I didn't want to upset him and they can really move out if they feel threatened. They're not really dangerous as they have only a small amount of venom and their fangs are so short they can't get a purchase on a human. They're also pretty docile and won't even try to bite unless provoked. I let the neighbors take him back over to their place to let him go.

It's been in the low 100's here this week so we've stuck close to home, so by yesterday we wanted to get out. We took off over to Sedona and wandered around for a while, going to an outlet mall and then stopping at an Irish pub for lunch. There were four guys playing darts who were a lot better than I ever got to be. It was entertaining to watch the darts match and then we wanted some dessert. So we drove up Oak Creek Canyon as far as the Dairy Queen for a hot fudge sundae. That's where a group of Navajo display jewelry for sale so we got another look at that but didn't buy this time. Then it was back down the canyon and through town to retrace our route home. I normally like to make a loop when I take a drive but in areas like Sedona, it's good to see it from both directions. The views are spectacular either way and different enough to be entertaining from either direction.

When we got home, we discovered that we'd had .1" of rain, the first this week. We still watch the clouds every day hoping we'll get a cloudburst but it just doesn't happen. Maybe this week!

One of the issues we've faced out here is how to obtain some of the services we would normally get back home. At the top of the list is hair care. After we had been here a little while, Diane wanted to get her hair cut so we asked around our relatives for a place to go. Well, they don't go to get their hair done. The wives just wear theirs long or tied up and they trim their spouses when they need it. We finally were referred to the mother of a friend who leases space in a shop in Prescott. We went in and Diane got her cut and I did as well. She did a good job but it was expensive and I didn't especially like my cut. I've gone to a barber all my life and I don't like the way the beauty shop cuts a man's hair. I don't want it styled, I want it CUT! I want an old man's haircut like I've always gotten.

So now it's time to get hair cut and permed and all that again. Last week we went to Fantastic Sams which is located right next door to the grocery we've been going to, Fry's. So we just took a chance and got Diane's hair colored and it turned out fine. This week we're going back to get her hair permed and hope for the best. They seem to do good work and their prices are not too bad. Back home, Diane got her hair done every Thursday without fail for a very reasonable price. That's not going to happen out here.

Getting her nails done is altogether different. Back in Burlington, we'd go to the nail salon in Wall-mart and get a fill-in for $15. Out here, we've been to two different places and it's cost no lees than $30 each time. And they can't speak English well enough understand what we want. Thanks goodness it's not too often.

That still leaves me wanting to find a barber shop for my next haircut, which needs to be soon. I've spotted a couple of barber poles on our travels around town so I have some starting points.

Friday, Diane wanted to go to the Farmer's Market. I looked it up on the web and there's one near the grocery store so we went. The web site said they open at 3:00 so we got there at a little after 3:00 and there were about four stalls set up. As we got out of the car a gal came over and said that they don't open until 4:00 but we were welcome to look. I told her about the web listing and she said I wasn't the first. You'd think they might change it. It turns out that Diane wanted home grown tomatoes. All they had were onions and squash and potatoes. I had to explain to her that tomatoes don't grow in the desert. She just thought all farmer's markets had the same stuff, regardless. We drowned our sorrows at an Italian restaurant I found on Yelp.

Old Shoes

Arizona is full of rocks. Big, little, crumbly, volcanic and all very abrasive. So shoes get worn out and need to be replaced. So, we wind up with lots of old shoes. Not the shoes in the picture above, the ones in the picture below.

That's right..... horse shoes! We have lots of horse shoes. Boxes of them.

So what to do with all these shoes? Of course, it doesn't take much imagination to turn them in to the scrap iron dealer and get a few bucks. But how 'bout if we apply a little imagination? What could they be? How about curtain rod hangers?

How about that? But that's not all by a long shot.






How about a towel rack?

Well, that's nice, but not all that clever you say? It gets better. Here's some creativity. These are condiment holders for your table. They hold a salt and pepper shaker and a stack of napkins and in the center is a bottle of toothpicks. With custom made hats and pistols and chaps and neckerchiefs!

Horse shoes come in various sizes and can be heated and bent and welded to make all sorts of stuff.




Some of it can get pretty large.

I don't know what this is, probably a plant stand, but it sure uses up the horse shoes.

And here's a hall tree.

And finally, for my money the piece de resistance, a chair.

This chair is surprisingly comfortable and there are certainly lots of places for your red plastic cup.

This work was all done by my cousin's husband with a torch, an arc welder, a pile of horse shoes and lot of imagination. You just never know what you're going to find! I get such a kick out of discovering this sort of thing, just done for pure fun.

Pretty Good Day

When we attended the parade I wrote about earlier, they were handing out fliers advertising a gem and mineral show to be held this weekend at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University here in Prescott. So Friday we decided to visit the show as we haven't been to a good gem show since we lived in Syracuse. It wasn't as big as what we used to go to at the fairgrounds but it was big enough and had a good assortment of gems, crystals, tools and books. I picked up a turquoise cab to mount on the end of my hunting knife and Diane got a pair of silver and opal earrings.

 It was getting on to dinner time by the time we had finished with the show so we took the back way into Prescott to see about dinner. I'm getting pretty good at navigating by dead reckoning if I don't have the GPS with me and we wound up right in the center of the old section of town by the town square.

The square is the center of a lot of activities and is anchored by the county court house.

Since this year is the centennial celebration of Arizona statehood, there are even more events staged than usual. Last weekend was the "Shootout on Whiskey Row" put on by the local Western re-enactment organization featuring gunfights and fancy dress cowboys and saloon girls. Diane wasn't up to going to that so we stayed home, but it would have been fun.

Anyway, back to dinner. The square is bordered on one side by Whiskey Row, a line of shops and restaurants I've written about before. On another side, the old main drag through town, are more shops and restaurants, including the Prescott Brewing Company. That was my goal for dinner and we just beat the crowd. It turns out that every Friday, they offer a special of smoked prime rib. Well, I just had to try it and it was delicious. Just the thing to complement the brew I had, the Black Sheep Ale, a dark IPA with a unique finish. The lineup of brew names reflect aspects of the West or the community.

The inside is decorated with a very eclectic decor and this guy was right in back of our table.

After a dessert of chocolate mousse we wandered back out and down the street. Of course, there's always another store to check out and Diane found a new purse on sale. It has so much bling I told her to tell everybody it came from Vegas.

Then it was over to the square. This night they had a band set up belting out rock tunes. They were pretty good and we stayed for a while to listen and watch the people. Across the street on Whiskey Row, folks were out on the balcony of the old Palace Saloon relaxing and listening to the show. What a way to spend a Friday evening. That's what's in the opening photo.

It was a very good day, interesting and relaxing and without incident.

Saturday morning I went over to get the mail. I let Diane sleep and took Curley so he'd get a little time out. The post office is about 10 miles away and located in what is supposed to be an historical district. There's a bunch of old storefronts and  a bunch of new storefronts made up to look old. I've got to go back some time when things are open. But they have a play area out in front and some exhibits. This is one of the exhibits.

This covered wagon, while not a Conestoga pattern "prairie schooner", is still a reminder of how the job got done until quite recently. It's impressive for its' size, or lack of it. While the front seat is certainly not original, you can see that this rig was only about two butts wide.

Looking down into it from the front reminded me of a coffin with a canvas top. And check out the brakes. That board in front of the rear wheel is connected to the lever on the right side at the front with an iron rod. Pulling on the lever rubs the board against the wheel rim to slow the rig down. Must have been some fun going down hills.

After picking up the mail and herding the dog back into the car I returned to the ranch to find this guy waiting for me on the fence.

Critters

Not too clear a shot but I spotted this coyote coming up the hill through the yard the other evening. We have several of them in the immediate area and I see one or two about twice a week. I often hear them late at night or early in the morning yipping away on one of the surrounding hills. They don't bother us any and it's fun to see them but we have to always be on guard to keep the pets inside at night. The most we've seen at one time is four but there's probably at least twice that number around us. I believe from the sightings and the howling that they come through just about every night. The press portrays the coyote as a sneaky, slinking creature but these animals just exude a confidence and as presence that is impressive. They know just where they are and what the environment around them is, whether prospective meals or possible threats, and they act accordingly.

One of the things that keeps them around is the quantity of food available. We have lots of rabbits, both cottontails and jackrabbits. I can sit on the back deck in the evening and spot anywhere from a half to two dozen rabbits foraging in the field below. And boy, do they run when a coyote comes through, although I've only seen one actual chase. And that was really no contest, with the coyote giving up pretty quickly. We also have a lot of Gambel's quail and while they roost as high as they can get in the stunted trees, they're still fair game for the coyote. Coyotes also eat lizards, of which there are tons, and mice and pack rats. We don't have much of a problem with mice and rats because we keep the feed in rodent proof containers and the cats are always on guard.

For as dry as it is, I'm surprised by the numbers of birds I see. There's a resident flock of cowbirds but also more attractive species. I've seen bluebirds and blue mockingbirds and orioles and hummingbirds. I think I may put up a hummer feeder. There are lots of mockingbirds and one has staked out the back yard as his territory and proclaims it every night from the top of the basketball goal. I got a new app for the iPad called iBird West to help me identify the ones I hadn't seen before.

The day before yesterday it rained for about an hour early in the evening. It was enough to partially fill the pond (tank) at the bottom of the hill. Later on I went to the door and the air was filled with the sound of frogs. It was like a concert. A little later, after the rain stopped, the chorus ended and I haven't heard it since, even though there's still water in the tank. We still desperately need rain and I'll have to go into town tomorrow with the truck and fill up the portable 300 gallon tank.

The other day I was told that the rainy season also brings out another critter. Tarantulas. I haven't seen one yet but the neighbors think they have a nest in their yard as they are seeing them often now. They're usually spotted crossing the road in the evening. I'd like to see one long enough to get some pictures. I'm not afraid of them but they are creepy.

One critter we don't have here is scorpions. I don't know why 'cause they're found not too far away but the climate just isn't quite right for them. It needs to be a little dryer and hotter. I'm just glad I don't have to shake everything out before putting it on.

Surprisingly, I haven't seen more than two or three snakes, and then it's on the road. I haven't seen a single one here in the yard or field. I'd like to see more but I'd have to be out wandering in the hills more and that's not a lot of fun around here.

Today we're supposed to be making a trip to town to check the mail, get some supplies and go to a gem and mineral show. We have to pick up the mail from a PO box in the neighboring town about 10 miles away. There isn't really a viable mail delivery here although UPS and FedEx deliver right to the door. So we check the mail about twice a week.

Well, that's about it for now. I've got to go out an pick some cucumbers before they get too big.