A Good Visit

After taking a four mile walk this morning we packed up a picnic lunch and headed off for Douglas.  Our destination was the home of friends Loren and Betty.  Loren is the father of our friend Larry.  Loren and Betty have a place near Douglas and have a spot to park their motorhome near Big Timber spending only summers in Big Timber.  We had a great visit talking about this area and about friends and family in Big Timber—were your ears burning Larry?? 

We picked up a few groceries at Safeway in Douglas and headed back down the road.  That’s the extent of our day.  Found out it was a good day to be in Arizona when I clicked on Facebook this morning and saw Barb’s photos of McLeod Street in Big Timber--20+ new inches of heavy wet snow. 

Photo borrowed from Barb’s Facebook page.

I also received an email from Caryl with a photo of her award winning quilt.  The quilt which I machine quilted for her won honorable mention at the Arizona State Quilt Guild’s annual quilt show.  The judges found almost nothing to criticize about the quilt and we are both thrilled!

Photo borrowed from Caryl

Morteros

If you just follow behind Al and Kelly you never have to do any research on your own to find things to do. :)))  While Al and Kelly were in this area Al wrote a blog about finding Native American morteros.  I enjoyed Al’s blog and his photographs as usual.  Recently Al sent an email reminding us about the morteros which are located near where we are parked.

Today we jumped in the jeep and took a ride up into the Swisshelm Mountains and got to see an amazing sight--

Morteros—the Native American answer to a mortar and pestle.  The Indians used a pestle of wood or stone and these holes (morteros) to grind seeds from the mesquite trees and other plants making food.  Some of the holes found in Arizona are thought to date back to 500AD.  Several of the morteros we found today were over a foot deep—one source I found states that the groupings of several holes on one large rock could have served as an ancient social networking site—the women (of course it was women) sat and ground the food while visiting.  Could have happened!!??

The area surrounding the morteros is rugged country, huge massive boulders, cactus and mesquite trees—it has a beauty all its own.

That wasp was determined to have his photo taken and I was determined to avoid him!! 

About 3pm Jeanie and Ray stopped by after working at the house nearby and we all enjoyed a little afternoon break—wine, cheese and conversation.  Life is good here in Arizona!

We Just Thought We Had Wind

Yesterday it was windy, today it was scary!  The wind howled, dust blew everywhere, the mountains disappeared behind dust clouds and everything rattled.  You could hardly stand up when going outside—it was hard to hold onto the door of the RV.  A thoroughly miserable day—one we spent inside!

The Swisshelms with a cloud of dust and the dust blowing outside the motorhome.

We did manage a short walk before the gusts really started but we all came back with grit in our teeth, including Emmi!

Michael finished the taxes today, we will ship them off to our accountant tomorrow.  I cut out a little wall hanging—another one of those patterns where the author thinks you are a genius with mind reading skills.  The fabric requirements called for way too much fabric—what a waste.  Cutting directions followed no order and were extremely confusing.  Nowhere in the pattern does it tell  you what size your finished blocks should be—just a frustrating project! 

As for the chocolate bread, Michael and I have decided that isn’t a recipe I will repeat!  When you see the bread your mind thinks cake, when you taste the stuff you think, “that is sure strange tasting cake—kind of flat tasting.”  But, I had to try it!  It smelled good while cooking!

And it looked pretty!

That’s it for our windy, windy day here in southern Arizona.  While out on our walk we ran into Jeanie and Ray as they were coming in to do some work on a nearby home—they brought us eggs, guess Emmi didn’t scare their chickens too much!

Wind, Wind and More Wind

The early morning was cold and calm but that was the last of the calm, the wind has blown all day and tomorrow is supposed to blow harder.  We have no slides in the motorhome so no flapping slide awnings but we did pull in the large awning and all the window awnings.  At least it is warm!

I went to church this morning—Elfrida Baptist Church.  I enjoyed the minister’s message and the church members were very friendly.  The music was different but the smiles on the faces of the teenagers leading that music certainly led you to believe it was the right way! 

Came home and we had a great Sunday lunch—grilled pork loin chops and pineapple slices with roasted potatoes, and Laurie’s roasted brussel sprouts, carrots, pears and onion.  I even sautéed some spinach with garlic.  Very good and very healthy!

This afternoon I sewed finishing a quilt as you go table runner and re-starting one of those UFO’s we quilters talk about.  This is a project from the book Jelly Roll Quilts which I started at the spring quilt retreat in 2010.  The colors just aren’t my normal picks and that makes it a little harder for me.

And from the cookbook Artisan Bread In Five Minutes A Day I mixed up a batch of Chocolate Bread dough.  A loaf is in the oven right now and it smells heavenly, I’ll let you know how it tasted tomorrow!

Michael started finishing up our taxes this afternoon so Emmi and I walked softly! 

Sunset on the Swisshelms

And that’s it for our Sunday.

Grocery Store Run

I sure have a knack for living in places far removed from the grocery story!  At home in Montana the nearest grocery store is 22 miles, in Bouse this winter it was a 26 mile drive to a grocery story and now that we are in the Elfrida area, it is 25 miles to Douglas where I chose not to go instead heading over to Sierra Vista—55 miles one way!  Oh, we do have to eat and were all out of things like apples and lettuce, essential when trying to lose weight!

Emmi stayed home all alone, poor baby and has let neither of us out of her sight for long since we got back—no, she isn’t spoiled, not at all!

Michael washed the floor of the trailer in preparation for painting it tomorrow and I sat on the porch reading a book on my Kindle and watching the birds.

Yesterday Jeanie remarked how different the weather had been this winter, colder and no wind.  She just had to say that didn’t she—we had wind today and are supposed to have lots of wind in the next few days.

Ok, Judy, for days I have thought these little black/white crowned birds were some form of chickadee, today I got out the bird book and found out they are white crowned sparrows.  And they were hanging out with the quail, both the Gambel’s and Scaled.

Not much else going on in our world today, tomorrow friends from Tombstone are coming over.

Decisions Made

“I have a question for you and others.  If you folks are so crazy about boon docking, why does it seem so many of you are looking for property” says Judy.

“interesting question that Judy asked..can't wait to hear the answer!.” says Doug and Sue 

“I’ve been wondering the same thing Judy but was afraid to ask, so thanks for jumping in the ‘Bear Pit’ and saving me from doing so!” says Rick 

OK, I am speaking only for myself and Michael.  We owned property near Benson at one time in a development called Dragoon Mountain Ranch, 40 acres.  We sold that property after deciding home owners associations weren’t for us.  As we have traveled around Arizona through the years the thought of owning property has always been with us, I think that is just the way we are, we see some spot that is beautiful and think, “gosh it would be nice to own property there.” 

Part of the fun for us is in the looking, I (Janna) am able to occupy myself by sewing, quilting and reading.  Michael has a harder time occupying himself when in the motorhome—thus the perceived need to own property.  Michael loves a project and a piece of property with buildings needing built is a project we both would love to tackle.

But……..we both spent some sleepless hours last night and some discussion today—do we need another piece of property, do we need another house and both came up with the answer, NO!!!  We can enjoy all the beauty the southwest has to offer from the comfort of our extremely comfortable motorhome, soon to be more comfortable with the addition of solar panels.  Maybe we need to get out and sight see more, maybe we can’t sit in one spot for months on end as we did in Bouse—we will have to try and find activities to keep both of us busy while enjoying the southwest. 

OK, enough of that question.  This afternoon we were invited to Ray and Jeanie’s for late lunch early dinner.  Do you ever meet people with whom you develop an instant rapport—Jeanie and Ray are those people.  We spent one of the most enjoyable afternoons ever spent today—getting to see their beautiful place, eating Jeanie and Ray’s cooking and drinking some fine wine!  And I got to see Jeanie’s quilting.  A perfect day, absolutely perfect.  Jeanie has a special way with animals and introduced Emmi to their dogs Pearce and Gleeson so that everything was just right.  We met the wandering donkeys and the chickens.

And on the way home were treated to an awesome sunset!

Can I eat that rooster??? “What are those things, Mom?”

Moon rising over the Swisshelms.  Life is good!

More Property Searching

In today’s real estate market you sometimes wonder if the sellers are clueless or is it the real estate people who are clueless????  I called a realtor about a 20 acre bare land parcel (no well, no septic, power at the lot line) and when she told me the price of $150,000 I burst out laughing—I think I offended the woman.  There are places here in this area for sale—40 acres and a house for less than that!  Guess that seller will be keeping that particular piece of land!

I swear, you find friends in the strangest places—we had lunch in Sunizona today and on the way out stopped to read the bulletin board—look who we found

After bumping along over lots of rough dusty roads we came home to relax.  Sat on the porch and took some more photos of the birds—I need help with the yellow ones, Judy—are they lesser goldfinches??

I think the red guy saying, “hey you, are you taking my picture” is a house finch.