HAPPY NEW YEAR

Phillip and I hope you all had a Merry Christmas.

We also hope the very best for all of you in the coming

New Year.

Howdy...ho

Been a while.....

We just got through a nasty cold snap in temps. Got below zero for the lows and in the single digit to low teen for the highs...but now the highs are in the mid to upper 20's....yeah!! No snow on the ground really. Just have a skiff which does not fully cover the dirt. The sun is shining right now.yahoo!!

Have not been taking my walks because of the cold but Ronelle and I are gong to get started again this weekend. Darn, we were up to 2.5 miles a day. Didn't take walks when I was with Lisa.......too busy or too tuckered out or just too lazy to go!!

Hope all is well with everyone!!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it....Damn

It's raining now but who knows what we will find when we get up in the AM. Blizzard conditions up in the Flagstaff area.

Not a whole lot of anything new going on down here in the south. Didn't win the lottery even.

As usual we won't be putting up a Christmas tree. Hard to get in the mood for it any more.
Phillip says he may make some candy. Who knows. At least this year he is home and not down on the desert camping. We did get some chocolate chips for candy but forgot to get the mini marshmallows to make fudge with. He was talking about making the chocolate creams. I like the carmels best but Phillip don't. Will have to wait and see what he comes up with.

Phillip made the last of the ramshorn apples into turnovers yesterday. Those apples are so good. If we hadn't of had to leave MT when we did, he would have gotten more apples before we left. If I ever win the lottery I want to buy that piece of ground those trees are on.

Sorry that Lisa had to go back to Oregon, hope she got settled in and happy.

Hope everybody is keeping warm and healthy...
Granny

Thanksging day on the desert.

Phillip and I had our thanksgiving day dinner on Wed. and went down on the desert for a few days. We thought that most people would be home for the holiday. WRONG !! I think every body and his dog and cat had the same idea. Never saw as many trailers and motor homes down there at one time as there were this weekend. Most all of them had their ATV's. One good thing, there were no campers where we like to park. We usually camp out in the open desert because the sun light is longer there.

Got this picture of the sunset last night there.

Phillip found another spot to get fire opal and I found a "dragon"... My butt that is. Hiked a hill and slid down, picked up some cactus thorns and desert roses. Not in the same place though.

All in all I had a great time. Hope all of you had a great thanksgiving.

Black Friday came to the desert too. Clouds started rolling in and thought we might get some showers but all cleared up by morning. Wanted to have a campfire but was too breezy this time out.

Saw the fox family again. I don't know if it is the same female of if it was one of her kits from this spring or not. They were in the same den as last year. Forgot the dog food for the kits. They sure are cute. Couldn't get close enough for pictures and they didn't come to camp like they did this spring. Mom might feel they are too young yet to bring over.

Cooler this morning and there was a skim of ice on the birdbath. Had to slide it off then watered

the new trees as well while I was at it.

Got to remember to take pictures of these silver junipers we dug and put between our place and the house next door.

Til next time... Granny

Turkey Day

Happy Thanksgiving. Hope you all have a nice one.

Granny

Sorry, but winter is here!

Well, this is the first time that I have posted pics. I'm not sure how this is going to look. When you all post pics every comes out in one column with text and pics. In this screen things are side by side. Hmmm.

Anyway, in spite of recent postings....winter has come, and I have the proof in my backyard. There are two pics of a pretty sunrise I caught one morning when I took the dogs out.

These will probably be the first and last pics that I will post of this place. In case you haven't heard....I am going back to Oregon. This things has turned out to be a disaster, and the only sensible thing to do is go back to Oregon right now. I'll probable try again in a few years, but for now I'm done. I'm staying through Thanksgiving, then Mom is going to help me by driving the Uhaul down to Oregon for me. It was nice to see you all while I was here though!

Just a taste of summer.

If you like, these might take your minds off snow. Not so Jake and Steph. I think they wallow in it. Gratefully I might add. Phillip took these when we were up at Bill and Cissy's.

Some of the flower seeds they sent me did bloom while we were gone but they were mostly dried out when we got home. I picked what seed pods I could that the birds didn't get. Hope to get some in the ground next spring.

It was nasty cool yesterday but today is like spring. A bit of ice in the one birdbath but the other knocked down and broken by a big black cat that has been hanging around. He has been jumping on it to catch the birds when they drink. I like cats but that one is close to being unwelcome around here. He better stick to mice if he knows what's good for him. Before we left there was a beautiful Siamese cat that stayed a bit under our shop. Haven't seen her since we been back. Phillip is working on some new walking sticks we picked up last week. He finally got the most of the tall tumbleweeds and leaves cleaned up. I have almost gotten in the mood to paint but when I started to look for a picture of an eagle I want to put in the painting I lost my enthusiasm. Have to find a picture and wait for the mood to hit again.

Granny

Not yet ready for winter.....

Well, here we are in the middle of November and I am not MENTALLY ready for winter.... I am still wondering where the autumn season went....I was so excited about getting some pretty fall colored pictures..but we got that cold snap through and that was that.......... We just didn't have a pretty season up here. Oh well, there is always next year.

Got the snow tires put on the car, but I am not yet ready for winter.
Have the pantry stocked up with all of the staple foods plus more but I am not yet ready for winter.
We got the siding completed on the house but I am not yet ready for winter.
We got snow sticking on the ground a few times during the month of October but I am not yet ready for winter.
Snow is expected tonight but I am not yet ready for winter.
The fire light has been dancing steady on the walls in the basement but not I am not ready for winter.
The antifreeze has been checked in our rigs but I am not yet ready for winter.
There is 7 cord of firewood ready to keep us warm but I am not yet ready for winter.
Freezer is stocked up with only enough room for a deer or two (Bruce's orders) and I am not yet ready for winter.
The dogs have put on their winter coats but I am not yet ready for winter.
The Cabinent Mountains are completely covered in white and I am not yet ready for winter!!!!

Damn winter is just going to have to wait...that is all there is to it!!! :) I won't be ready for winter until I get back from Oregon. Then if winter wants to bluster and cough it's chill upon us....I will be ready for it!!

White Gold

In Colorado some of the old mining towns have traded in ore carts and sluice boxes used in finding the yellow gold and traded them for chairlifts and snow guns in hopes of 'mining' people's wallets who are in search of the white gold. Today I was able to get some of that white gold at Copper Mt. (which was an old copper mine back in the day). The weather was great but the lines were pretty long as you can see.

Thank goodness for snow guns because it would be hard to snowboard down the hill on the other side of the canyon. It was nice that Copper had one open run but you had to watch out for the icy patches which are very common on the man made snow.

Here's a pic of the top of the Excelerater lift with the Ten Mile mt. range in the background. This particular ridge separates Copper from Breckenridge.

November-- Turkey month.

I checked out an old rock cabin at Bristol Wells, NV Looks like only snakes, rats and lizards live here now.

The coke ovens at Bristol Wells. We did go up to one mine here but didn't take pictures of it.

We didn't take a lot of still pictures here in NV. Phillip did take videos though.

The weather has been real nice here but there is no water in the river where we like to pan, so we will have to wait til the rainy season before we can get back up there. We did get in some arrowhead hunting.

I know this is turkey month but looks like the week before Christmas in the stores. I guess they want people to start shopping before they run out of money next month. I swear they start putting Xmas stuff out down here before Halloween. Oh well! Can't lick em . Granny

stinky rotten Halloween

Hi there,

I had to search through the recycle bin for a Jake posting, that I could cop a link from and find my way back here. So thanks Jake, for keeping this forum in good working order while everyone was else was just partying their summertime asses off. Yeah, I tend to overlook the blog, when we get busy doing stuff, and without the emails for blog postings coming in that often I barely even thought about this all summer. sorry!

So here it is October 31st 1979, I had turned 19 the month before, and some of you may remember that the drinking age was 19 in Idaho back then. So, yes it was Halloween, and I was drunk as a goblin, or a witch, or any of the ghouls  that had just taken too many tequila shots, and was trying to make it home before puke fell on their shoes. No car, meant no drunk driving, and unfortunately no ride meant a horrible long drunken  walk home. In those days I lived in Coeur d' Alene close to the end of Sherman Ave. so I had to choose between the cross town route or take my chances walking along I-90 which would be pretty dangerous at night in the rain. With a belly full of the gold invincibility juice, I decided it would be the I-90 trek, to Sherman then home to bed. Who knows maybe I'd even get a ride. 

By the time I made it to 7th street I was starting to think that I made a mistake, because many cars passing by were catching me with spray. I was wet and cold, and drunk, and nobody in their right mind would ever stop and let me in their car to soak up their seats. I reached 15th street, and could have left the freeway and walked the surface streets till I made it home, but once again the Jose Cuervo convinced me to stay the course. He asked me how much worse could it get at this point, already soaked, besides the rain had just let up. 

Now I'm getting close to Sherman Ave. and the sky is starting to clear, but the puddles are still full and I have to stay close to the guardrail to keep from getting sprayed by passing cars. As I start to walk down the long off ramp at Sherman Ave. a semi truck swerves over close to me and just drenches me with muddy water. Not an accident, as I soon realized when he took several short blasts on the air horn, in an attempt to rub it in. Oh yes, that trucker really got me good, but I could see him pulling into the truck stop on Sherman Ave. and if there was a god above I'd get my revenge for that terrible and malicious act. That bastard would not get away with that. I had to find something to throw at him, but what? Searching the ground, I found a big rock, and for a few seconds I entertained the thought of putting it through his windshield. It was too big and too heavy and I had about 200 yards to go to catch up to him, and I didn't want to carry it that far. OK, not the rock, but what? Then, in the single small patch of moonlight coming through a hole in the breaking clouds I see it. A perfect grade- A, extra large white egg. An egg just sitting on the side of the off ramp, what are the odds? A perfect projectile for a pissed of drunk to use on the semi that caused him so much anguish. At least, that is what that Jose Cuervo cat was telling me. How could this be more perfect, someone, somehow placed an egg on the side of the off ramp so I could have my revenge. And have it I would, and I picked up the egg, perfect, I cradled it in my palm as I made my way to the truck stop. Soon I was watching that dirty scum sucking scoundrel trucker entering the the building, leaving his truck alone for me to do what I felt needed to be done, to make me whole again. It would be so glorious and so perfect true retribution, a horrible act against me when I was minding my own business, the need for revenge,,the egg, come on how could this be more perfect? When I thought it was safe to come out of the shadows, I made a quick break for it. I reared back and threw that egg as hard as I could, at the windshield of the truck. Yeah,,, it broke in my hand and completely douched me with rotten stinking egg. The smell alone was bad enough that I was convinced that the egg had obviously been left there on the side of the freeway off ramp  at least three Halloweens before. 

The moral of the story!?? Yeah, there has to be a moral of the story. I guess just pick one, "Don't walk on the freeway", "Never throw eggs",, Oh I know,,, "Always drink responsibly." Right, I was 19, drunk on tequila, "Drink responsibly" was unheard of.  In my youth I preferred the drink out of control and compound that with one bad choice after another. Sometimes that worked for me but other times I was just left with egg on my face.

The frost is on the pumpkins.

This is a frosty scene I got from Bill. I don't know which one of them took it but I think it is beautiful. We don't get many frosty scenes down here because the humidity is usually too low. It does cool off though. It was in the 70's over the weekend and Monday, yet this morning there were snow flurries in the sky. Got to about 50 for a high today. Supposed to warm up again this weekend.

Phillip and I went out on the desert yesterday since it cooled off and picked up some smokey quartz crystals we missed after the summer monsoons washed some of the clay off them. We tried to find a road Phillip said he crossed when he hiked into another place he found other quartz crystals. Didn't find out how they got in there. They may have went up or down a wash to gain access to the area. I'll have to google the area to find out for sure. We did pick up a few more small geodes and Phillip found an arrowhead.

While I was up in Alder at the campground I picked some seeds off the different color hollyhocks that grow in front of the place. I want to get them planted right away.

Some of chard in the garden has started to grow again. Going to have to water it. Phillip wants to expand the garden next spring. He wants to add beets and carrots along with the rest of the stuff we had before.

Had a real BAD hair day. Darn stuff is growing in so straight and so much coarser than it used to be. Not to mention I'm beginning to shed like crazy. I guess it is the meds I'm taking. (can it be old age?). To make matters worse I took it upon myself to be my own beautician and stylishly cut it. Methinks I should have gone to the beauty school. Oh well, it will grow back in I guess. When I was up north I had Donna even up the back for me. I don't know if I trust Phillip to do it. Granny

Glad to be back in AZ

I don't have any new Granny cartoons yet... The computer crash wiped all the ones I had stored.. . Gives back-up a good meaning you bet... Gonna take some time to get back in the swing of things since we are back... Lots of stuff to do here for a while... The tumble weeds are still green and waist high in the yard... Phillip has been getting them pulled out and hauled away before the dry up and drop seeds... These are the nasty goat head kind... Nasty stickers on them... I have a lot of cleaning , both of the house and the motor home... And all that washing! Oh my god where did it all come from? Blankets, rugs, rags and clothes... Anyone would think there were a dozen people here now...

I'm so glad you guys kept up the blog while we were up north... I was just reading it before I decided to write a few lines... Jake's comment on prospecting in cold weather reminds me of when Phillip and I have actually broken holes in the ice to have access to a water hole to pan in... Ice was thin, and usually melted as soon as the sun hit it for a while... We were getting good gold from this area and if you don't get to it when there is water you have to haul your own up there... Just build a nice campfire and wear gloves inside heavy rubber ones... No snow on the ground in the mountains at that time...

We had a good time up north this year... Spent time with Donna and Ryan, Bill , Cissy and Amy and Jeannine and Bruce... David and Linda came down to Alder where we were... We didn't find much of anything new in the way of rocks up there this year... Seems we got out of Alder just in the nick of time before winter hit... Got as far as Dillon, MT before Phillip had his first minor crisis... We were leaving town after gassing up when he flipped out because I didn't remind him we need to get 2 qts. of oil... Hey! My fault? You guessed it, my fault... Went down thru the lava fields at craters of the moon, to Bliss where we spent the first night... Next day found us at our favorite camp site about 40 miles out of Wells, NV, where we stashed a cache of opalized wood on the way up north... First day we looked for fossils and found a few up the canyon to Ruby Valley... I was all for getting the wood and moving on the way the sky was looking... But we had planned on staying a few days... Moon was shining bright and it was a bit cool that night but we woke up to 6 inches of snow the next morning... Crisis # 2 quickly accelerated into a full blown one... I had to convince him since we could not, 1. Get up to where we stashed the wood... 2. If we could drive there, we couldn't find it .... 3. The motor home couldn't make it out of the campsite in the snow and nither could the rig unless it was in 4 wheel drive... And last but not least, 5. we were stuck here till the snow melted... I got a book , took out my hearing aid and tuned him out the best I could... The snow melted almost before nightfall... Cleared off, the moon shined and it got pretty cool that night... Next day Phillip hiked and I stayed at camp, sat in the sun and read... Roads were too muddy to drive yet... The next few days we got the wood a few arrowheads and explored new areas.... We left there and went on down to a place we camped at one night on the way up, about 29 miles from Alamo, NV... A real nice flat area behind an immense pile of gravel.... This place is in the White River Narrows area... This is an Archeology area.... Some of the canyons have caves where the Indians lived... .We did a lot of exploring around here.. . Picked up a few arrowheads up in the surrounding mountains... Backtracked to a road that went to Bristol Wells, NV... A mining area not far from Pioche as the crow flies... Went up to a mine, and found nothing to speak of... Back at the wells is where the smelter was... There were 3 beehive kilns for making charcoal, as well as the remains of 2 old rock buildings... Pictures haven't been processed yet... On the way to the wells we ran into a ridge that was solid agate... I have never in my life seen so much agate in one place... Most of it was clear, grey and black and brown and some had a bit of red in it... There had been a claim on it a long time ago looking at claim posts... Looks like they must have been interested in the stuff with the reds and greens, since we cold see big holes and tiny pieces of the pretty stuff... We headed home the next day... We were gassing up and getting lunch at a place at the CA and NV border when crisis #3 hit... This was bordering on major because I clipped a curb with the back tire. If you had been listening to the 2 way about that time you would have thought I had run up over the curb and broken an axle... Most of the driveways by these places here have deep dips for rainwater to run off... You have to take them at an angle so the tow bar carriage don't scrape when you exit... Driveways are narrow for a motor home, and so the curb got clipped... I just turned the damn radio off til we were back on the freeway and into CA a few miles... We got into Hope AZ about 5:00 that evening so we spent the night there because it would be dark by the time we got home... Didn't know if the driveway was passable or not... Crisis #4 hit here... Phillip kept smelling a massive propane leak... Stuff must be pouring out... ( test switch said full tank) I said smells like cow shit to me... He looks all over the motor home looking for the leak... Still smells like cow shit to me... Since he couldn't find a leak anywhere I reminded him that we were not but 5 miles from a big feedlot and the breeze was still going up the canyon and would until the sun went down... After a couple of beers he finally settled down... Next morning he took off while I was having my first cup of coffee... If the drive was washed out he could fix it before I got home... Got home and drive was fine... Glad to be here...

I see Jake and Steph did some traipsing and exploring as well... Those are awsome roads... Pictures are great...

Well! What have the rest of you been up to this Summer?

Granny

Well..it is about time I got back on

gosh,,,It has bee quite a few months since I got on this and read your blogs!! We are gearing up for the winter areiund here!! We got the exterior of the house finished and the railing on the deck finished and that was a biggy project for us.

Way to go Jake & Steph!

Hey! Just wanted to give a shout out to Jake and Steph for stickin' to the blog throughout the summer and sharing their pics and stories. I think Granny will be proud when she logs back in. I just recently re-established my internet connection after my move from Oregon, so I'm doing a little catch-up myself. Well, the home/property purchase up here in Idaho has been quite the disaster, and isn't over yet, so I haven't had anything special to share lately. Maybe if I actually close this deal sometime by the end of the year I can start posting some before and after pictures of the work I'll be doing around here. Keep your fingers crossed!!!

Southwestern Colorado

Hello y'all Steph and I took a bit of a road trip down to the SW corner of our great state and we had a blast!  I didn't get to do much pannin' but I did get a little bit of fishing in and was able to soak up a lot of Colorado's mining history.

This was a fun trip because I was able to show Steph some cool places that I really love and was able to see some places I had never been to before.  One such place was Crested Butte.  We took a dirt road that starts just south of Redstone and goes to CB.  The road is well maintained so it is do-able by a two wheel drive car.  On the way we went through an aspen grove and it was beautiful!  Most aspens I have seen are in clusters, this area was like a ten mile wide aspen canopy it was unbelievable!  Below is a picture of the aspens.

I wish I would have brought my camera into the town of CB but I didn't.  I figured it would be just like all the other ski towns in Colorado (fancy shmancy and full of richy rich condos and other such development).  Not that I'm knocking on ski resorts (I happen to spend a lot of time at them snowboarding) but I kind of have the viewpoint "if you seen one fancy resort you've seen them all."  I am happy to report that CB does not fit this description.  Unlike Breckenridge, Telluride or Aspen, CB still looks like an old mining town.  In 1974 the entire town was designated 'National Historic District' and I imagine that saved the town from the bulldozers and the aggressive development that changed other mining towns turned ski areas.

After CB we hung out in Gunnison for a day and then cruized on to Silverton via the "Silver Thread" and "Alpine Loop" scenic byways.  I love Silverton as I have visited it a few times over the years.  I drug Mom and Dad out there when they came out to Colorado for their 25 th wedding anniversary.  This time around I drug Steph out there and like Mom and Dad I think Steph liked the area too.  After graduating with my bachelors degree I took a five day backpacking trip where I wound up in Silverton.  I had the best meal of my life there.  After five days of freeze dried food and trail mix (and the occasional trout soup whenever I was able to land a fish) it was really really nice to sink my teeth into a cheeseburger.  Anyway, Silverton is a cool town and they really get into their mining history.  In the hills outside of town you can see all kinds of old mining relics such as this tram used to haul ore from the mine to the processing mill.

We started the long drive back home via Ouray (another neat mountain town) and on one of the pull-offs I snapped the picture shown below.  This is the kind of road where you had better follow the speed signs or you may be taking a bit of a tumble.  Notice that there are no guard rails.

Sucker Tube!

Last week I tried out the sucker tube and it is awesome!  It does require a fair bit of technique though.  More than once I had to un-jam rocks that got lodged in the tube.  All I need now is a super sluice and I'll be in business.  I'm hoping to see some good color later on today when I go out for some more panning.  Last week it was fun using the sucker tube but it was kind of a bust because I didn't get any gold.  I think the first time in a long time.  Usually I at least get a few specks of the flour, but that's how it is.  The way I see it, it's like fishing some times to land a trophy other times you get skunked.

Old mining operation

Steph and I took a tour of the Argo Mining operation in Idaho Springs last weekend.  It was pretty neat for fifteen bucks we got a short talk about the history of the Argo Mine and Tunnel; a slide show of different minerals and historical pictures; tour of a mine and stamp mill and a couple bags of "pay dirt" which you could pan out and find the "guaranteed" gold pieces in them.  The talk and slide show was pretty cool although most of what they spoke about I learned from Granda years ago.  The tour of the mine and mill was very cool.  I had to laugh at the bags of pay dirt though.  I have panned out enough soil to know what the amount of black sand and flour looks like.  The bags they gave us I swear was a mix of sand they got off of the freeway spiked with a pinch of black sand and flakes of gold that they got from a different source.  Not that I'm complaining though, the 'pickers' in the two bags pretty much tripled my gold collection.  I have to say though that panning out two bags of dirt wasn't as satisfying as finding the gold myself.  

Here is a picture of Steph and I at a mine, not the Argo but a smaller one that predates the Argo by a few years.

This is a picture of the Argo tunnel.  At the time it was built it, I think it was the longest tunnel in the world.  It went four miles under two different mountains and came out the other side near Central City.  It was built as a drainage conduit for other mines to purge their seeping water buildup.  Things were looking good for the Argo company.  They were able to sell the ore that came out of the tunnel as it was being built.  Other mines were able to stay in business by draining their water by hooking up with the main line going out to Idaho Springs.  This all came to a tragic end when some guys were working on a mine A (I can't remember the name) doing some blasting.  There was an abandoned mine nearby (I can't remember the abandoned mines name so I'll call it B) that had filled up with water.  The guys working in mine A thought that mine B was farther away than it really was.  So they set the charges and boom, followed by a swoosh!  I could only hope that the poor guys that were near the rush of water were instantly killed rather than drowning slowly.  There was another guy that made it out and I guess when he finally got to the end of the tunnel the water running by him was waist deep.  The running water had done significant to the support timbers in the main tunnel, thus closing the tunnel forever.

One last time.

The Agaves have started to bloom. Do we have honey bees, Hummingbirds and all kinds of birds that like to sip nectar? I never dreamed that so many different things like the flowers. Might even be some big moths at night we never see. Good thing they are so tall so the critters are way above our heads and not at body level like most of the other flowers are in the yard. Other than the hollyhocks and one batchlor button plant, all the other flowers in our yard are yellow. The pink poppies haven't opened yet.

Phillip and I were watching a documentary the other morning about the universe. All about black hole and worm holes in space. Gave me an instant brain echo. Reminded me of a dream I had a while back. In the dream, Phillip and I were going back to West Virginia to look up my Dad's ancestors. We were going to drive, so we went to a place that I would call a station. We drove inside and up to a gate. There was a terminal by the gate that you put all the information into. Like where you were going, who you were and why you were going there. How to pay and so forth. When we were done we drove up a ramp and onto what I will call a sled of some sort. A door closed behind us and we were pushed or pulled into a translucent tunnel. We had nothing else to do until we reached WVA so we decided to have our lunch. As we ate a sandwich, chips and drank a can of pop, we could see out the sides of this tunnel a wee bit and there were other pods rushing alongside, above and crossed under and all the while merging in the same tunnel that we were on. We no more finished lunch, than we were at the station in WVA. I don't remember what happened after we arrived because I woke up from the knowledge of the fast travel. Some mode of transportation I'd say. Makes one wonder if this is one of those dreams of mine that will come true in the future.

This will be my last post til I get back from up north. We want to be in Idaho by the 4th of July.

That don't mean that the rest of you guys can't post in the meantime.

Til fall, adios. Granny

Vacation time!

Hello all...

Jason and I have been very busy lately! But things are now slowing down and we are SO excited to be coming to Idaho/Montana for a visit and Hanks family BBQ. (Don't worry, I'll bring my own veggie burgers!) See everyone soon!

Trying to figure this thing out.....

Thanks for the "Remembering Dad". Hard to believe that it's been 16 years....... Hey, how do you attach a file to this thing? I wanted to post my newsletter, Nugget News. Or I could send it via email to everyone if they want. All I need is their email address sent to bob@goldfeverminingsupply.com . When are you coming up? We are leaving Thursday morning for San Diego to attend a wedding of a friend of ours. The whole family is going without the grandkids. Mary & I, the boys and their wives and Mary's Mom & Dad. Can you believe it, they are in their 80's. Will return next Tuesday. Should be fun as long as the weather is nice. Michael just got back from his second trip to Yeman and will be here for another couple of months until he gets sent someplace else. Matthew just finished his schooling for Non-Evasive Cardio and will be taking his boards soon. Not sure if he can get a job around here. His wife is a Respiratory Therapist at Kootenai Medical Center. Matt did his clinicals there, but they have no openings yet.

The Park is going hot and heavy. We have lots of members in the club (325+). We get lots of interest right after our gold show. With the economy this year, we are seeing more than normal interest.

Remembering Dad

Dad,Brother and Sisters. That's Charles between Donna and Patricia.

This picture of Dad was taken in 1973.

Since Dad's birthday is the 9th of this month I thought I would drag out a couple of old pictures and post them. I've got some others that none of you guys have copies of and I will post them later if anyone is interested. I guess I got a little bit maudlin when I think it has been 16 years since he passed away. Lots of brain echos there.

I was going thru some of the old pictures and came across the school picture I had taken in the 10th grade. Never know it was me, looking at me now. ...I just wish I knew who got Mom's old photo album with the pictures of all of us Prescott kids when we were little. I'd like to wring their neck since they took it before any of us could get dupes made. We had just got all the pictures sorted and put into albums the summer before I took the folks down to AZ. The rest of the kids were going to clean up the old fire hazard up while we were gone. The album disappeared before we got back.

You guys are lucky, The Agaves are almost ready to bloom and I wanted the next photo of them to be in bloom. Next time you are going to get it. ....AGAIN...

Phillip has been busy making all kinds of different things. He took an old Gerber knife I had, that the handle had broken off of and made a new one out of opalized wood we picked up in Nevada. He has lots of new stuff to show all of you. Right now he is working on a walking stick for Ivy. Going to put a piece of the rock that Grandpa David found in the Ruby river area in it.

If she don't like it he is going to beat her with it. (just kidding).

Had another weird brain echo (dream). This time I was making sandwiches for everybody up in Idaho at the old house. (Kids are small yet). I took 2 tubs out of the cupboard. ( like soft oleo comes in), and opened one and spread it onto the bread. The weird thing was, it was Velveeta cheese with pimentos in it. The other one was Velveeta with bacon bits in it. This was not like the spread that comes in the little glasses or squirts out of a pressure can. I wasn't hungry for cheese when I went to bed. Haven't eaten Velveeta in years.....Go figure.... Granny

Looking up

An agave update. You will have to zoom these in to get a good look.

My how time flies!!

I thought I'd update you on the agaves. These are the 2 that are under Phillip's bedroom window. They were just about up to the eaves last week.

This is the big one that was about 2 feet above the edge of the roof last week. It's about 4 feet above now and starting to put out the lateral bud stems now.

Seems like the world is suffering from rampant hysteria from something or other right now... Flu !...schwein flu maybe...I've heard it said that it is a cultured virus because it's so unusual...Who knows ? A lot depends who you are listening to at any given time...It was forcasted to wipe out a good portion of the US...Killed at least 2 Americans...Meanwhile a myriad of other hazards killed off hundreds of unsuspecting people in the same period...Can't believe all you hear and damn sure not everything you read...The government has the world heating UP at record pace, and the economy falling DOWN at the same breathless rate...One thing for certain, looks like we will live to move onto the next hysteria du jour...

We got wetted...Rained for 4 days straight...Got a good soaking...Did the garden and flowers more good than all the tap water we put on them...Phillip got some of the weeds out of the cactus bed this morning while the ground was soft...Lots of mud right now, but drying up fast...Had to get the chard picked last night and got mud logged doing it...Second planting of chard was 3 different varieties in one pkg...The resident squirrel ate some of the tops off he couldn't begin to eat it all...It sure is good stuff though...Maybe it gave him a belly ache because he graduated to the seeds under the bird feeders...I think the oriels and the finches like the hummingbird feeder just as much or more than the hummers...Some scarlet tanagers come for a sip or two as well...

The hummers don't seem to be as plentiful this year...A couple of guys moved into a new place above us...They have a beautiful yard in the making...They may have got their feeders up first and the hummers hang around there more...I still think that home-made feed for them must be tastier than the stuff you buy... Got the bought en stuff with the last feeder I got...Got to get that all used up then go back to the home-made stuff next year...

Had to go the doctor for my annual check-up last monday...Hooray!! I'm still alive...We went on up to goldpan while we were in the vacinity...Tried a different spot because of the time frame...NADA, nothing, zilch... Can't get gold where there is'nt any by darn...Now we can look at that place and say" been there, done that", and file it away with all the other dead zones we have tried...

Bill, Did Ame check out the link I left on the May 15 post? Granny

Here is  a video of some panning I did a while ago.  I actually found a piece of gold big enough to be seen by the video camera, not a bad day down on the creek.  When I get a chance I want to check out the sucker tube that Grandma mailed me.  Thanks Grandma!  Hopefully I will be able to upload some "sucker tube" video action with a pan full o' gold.

New Growth

As you can see the Agave has grown way above the edge of the roof. Better than 2 feet above the roof edge in fact.

These are the other 2 that I posted as they were just showing the flower heads. They sure do grow fast. I thought we just had 4 going to bloom this year but 1 more on the end of the house decided to bloom also.

Hard to believe.

You gotta see this... http://www.signspro.com/eric-art
Check it out. Granny

Just Finished

This stone is a ruby Phillip found on the tailing piles...It wasn't thick enough to orientate to the star, and not clear enough to facet as such. So I faceted the top and left the bottom flat...I think it turned out ok...It's 9X7... Granny

Back it up

Happy Mom's Day, sorry to hear about your C drive going down, that's a bitch. It must be the time of year for losing hard drives. Ame has a Western Digital that had about 750 gigs of her pictures, art, music, and programs, basically everything she had. It stopped loading the other day, and we are not sure if she will be able to recover that stuff or not. There is a local company in Hayden that says they will try, to recover, but if they can she has to buy another portable to put the data on. I suggested that instead of getting a single terabyte like the last time get a couple that will hold maybe 500 or 750 gigs. One can be her work horse and the other can be just for backup. Now what hard drive should she buy? Who knows which brand is most reliable? We have had a DiskGo Edge, 400 gig, for about 4 years and it has been a total work horse, the whole time. I just fear that it may be one of those deals where you are convinced it is the greatest thing out there then you get a hunk of crap that fails in the first few weeks. Also DiskGo is not very well known, as far as I can tell. I hate to take such chances with the storage device that holds so much. 

Gosh, things were so much easier when I knew absolutely nothing about computers. I went online one day around Christmas, looked at Hard Drives that were external, "Oh, look! This one holds 400 gigs!" Never did any research on it, didn't even know how to. I bought the DiskGo, on Amazon, from an Auto Parts store, somewhere back east. Absolutely no clue what I was going to end up with. Now having been all over inside and outside of our computer, I think I have less confidence that I can get it right than I did back then. 

The only thing that I know for sure is that I gotta' have the stuff backed up, and have most of it done already, but I have so much more to do. A few months ago we caught an extremely vicious malware virus and it, got past two different security programs, and was not detected in the full computer scans. We lost  ability to update the security, and any updates for that matter, [that's where we detected it first] then we could not load personal settings, finally we couldn't even load windows, and I had to hook up an old computer to go online to find the fix. We had to download two other programs [trail versions] to isolate the worm and destroy it. 

After that scare we backed up the C drive on DVD, it took up about 13 discs but worth it to know that we have a second chance if we lose the thing. I will someday get another computer, and I am determined not to repeat the mistakes I made the first two times. I think that the biggest mistake that I made was not knowing what I would be doing with the computer and consequently ended up with much less than I needed. I did it with the first computer when I bought the basic box no guts. Then after finding out that we needed guts to do some of the things that we wanted to do we bought a bigger box and it had some guts, but the guts were incomplete and we soon found that we needed transplants and lots more guts. If I would have learned my lesson the first time I could have saved hundreds of dollars by having ordered the box with all the right guts and not have had to pay more later and install them all myself. On the hand I would not have the hardware knowledge that I have after installing  Sound, TVtuner, Ethernet, and better Graphics cards. I recently had to replace the CPU and while I was in there with the Mother Board all exposed I decide to double the RAM. The fact that I learned how to do that stuff is great and all that but I wonder if I could be happier with all the money that I would have saved by having built the box with all the guts I needed in the first place.

OK,  so,.. two things, the back up thing being one, and the getting the right box with the right guts is of course the other. Oh, and I guess I should throw in there how important it is to do monthly dust removal, if you have as much dust in the place as we do. The worst thing to do to that box full of expensive guts is to let it get clogged with dust and dog fur.  I can only assume that the heat build up from clogged fans shortened the life of the CPU. 

I put all those upgrades and add ons in the box so we could have the means to run certain programs efficiently and do all the stuff we needed to do, but I soon saw what it was really all about. I walked in one night, and saw Ame doing homework, although I had to wonder how much work she was getting done. She had two different instant message conversations going, an online homework aid, she was drawing on her tablet, and she was watching live TV in the lower right hand corner of the monitor.  I had to put my foot down on that crap when she brought home a crappy report card. She was clever though, and tried to get away with a lot of crap by blocking the monitor and doing the stuff she thought she could get away with. One evening while she was supposed to be doing just homework, and nothing else, I happened to see her type " Just a minute, my parents are in the room!" When I finally got to the bottom of it I found out that all the kids were using the same online dictionary that was an instant messaging thing, so they could look like they were doing what they were supposed to be doing all the time talking back and forth to each other. That did not go over too well, and she lost many computer privileges for some time for trying to pull the wool over our eyes. I have since installed a VGA multiplier and a 25 foot cable to the TV so now I can push one button on the remote, while we are watching TV at night and I'm seeing just what she is doing on the computer. She is getting much better grades this year.

Well maybe someone can help me out with a suggestion as to what hard drive to buy. I think that online backup cost too much, and we have bandwidth limits with HughesNet. 

Can you believe this?

These agaves above are the ones in pictures 2 and 3 on the last post.

This agave is the one in the first picture in the last post. It is now just 6 inches below the soffit. Phillip is going to try and pull it out away from the roof with a rope and stake it so it won't go thru the roof. Want to see just how high it will be before we leave.

Wow! You talk about a weird brain echo...I had a good one the other night... I dreamed a man and a woman come to the house and wanted to talk to us... They said they were gathering up people who they believed deserved a second chance in life... They told us they would take us to a deserted island and there we could start over...We would be getting a healthy body before we went... The one condition we would have was to leave everything except that which was on a list that they would give us... This island was a large one but there was no conveniences on it... No power, phones, roads or anything... It was completely native and we would have to survive as such... They said anyone in the family could go if they were willing to give up everything they had now for perfect health and a new lifestyle...They would talk to them...They said this world was going to go through some drastic changes and and this was our chance to not be a part of it... Because what we have now was going to be destroyed in the chaos, and our chances of survival were slim if we remained... They didn't know exactly when this was going to happen so we would have to be prepared for a long stay on the island...We had exactly 3 months to sell everything and gather things on the list...If we were willing to go, we would be picked up with all our supplies and transported to the ship...On the list were things we would need to survive until we could build homes... Tents, camping supplies,basic foods, first aid kits and so forth...(forget the camp stove and lantern, no gas on island) Temperate climate so no winter clothing...Building supplies like tools, nails, ropes, hand saws, stuff like that...Mason tools, buckets, tubs, and many other things I can't remember now what...How to books, hobby materials, Treadle sewing machine and stuff to make clothes.

As I looked at all the stuff on the list I wondered just how we could ever collect all the stuff on it... They said if other members of the family decided to go then the list would be split up amongst the whole family... I was wondering how many of the family would go...

Next thing I knew we were on this island. I don't remember how or when we came to be here...

The Island was a fabulous place... Tall timber, rivers with fish, mountains in the distance, small lake where we were camped... Log and rock cabins being built by the family... I was planting the seeds that were on the list...Water diverted from a stream to the garden... We had a chicken coop made of logs and a pigpen made of logs... We had 2 cows and lots of dogs...The whole family was there, even Margaret and 2 of her kids...Some of her family didn't come and neither did Weldon's family... There were a lot of people I didn't know on this Island as well...They were up in the hills and on the other side of the lake...

Now this was weired enough but when I looked up into the sky I could see the Earth sitting out there as plain as day just like it was a moon. I know we weren't dead because there was no one here who had passed on before... The shock of seeing the Earth in the sky woke me up... Darn it.

I made a comment on the last post to Jake's comment. Hope he got it... I will pass tips on as I remember them.

Phillip has a couple of pairs of birds fighting over his bird house. There is room for 4 families but looks like one family to a side will be in the end... They are packing in the stuff...

We have 2 feeders and the birds can empty it in a couple of days... Lots of seeds on the ground so Phillip won't refill it for a while so they can clean up what fell to the ground. Some of the little devils just rake the seeds out to get the ones they like best first... Some of the finches and oriels take sips from the hummingbird feeders...The tiny birds that have nested in the cactus in the front yard like the lettuce Phillp planted... They were out there picking at it even as he watered it this morning...

First radishes are gone and the second batch is about an inch tall...The lettuce is almost gone and the second batch is a good 2 inches tall...Squash setting on and the peas and potatoes are blooming...Pepper plants are blooming and the tomato plant has 3 tomatoes on it. One as big as a ping pong ball...

Phillip finally got the old faceter fixed up so we can both facet on a machine at the same time...

He had to make a new pan for it... Works good...Only thing now is, I hope we don't need a lap the other is using.

Granny

Absolutely furious

I cannot believe this. W.R. Grace has gotten away with hundreds of murders. Less than three months after the trial began, it is over, and the executives acquitted of all charges. This is truly a travesty to Libby. A horrible ending like this reinforces the reason I am a Christian...the next life is the only place crooks like these will get their justice.

Revolting Development

This is an Agave. Before I tell you about the pictures, I gotta tell you I had a major computer crash. Lost my C drive and everything on it that wasn't backed up on discs. I just had installed the new IE 8 disc a few days before and when my AVG virus definitions downloaded and installed, the whole thing went tit's up. Had to F10 the thing to get it started again and found C drive wiped out. Had to restore back to basics. Just now getting things back to normal. The top picture is what the agave looked like sunday when I took this pic. Lost the other one when the thing looked like the ones below.I wanted to show you just how fast these things grow. The stem on this sucker is over 6 inches across. I should measure what it is around.

Today this guy here is almost as tall as the top one. This pic was taken last sunday. This next sunday I will take pics of the same ones and post them . These babies will have to be cut off before we leave here because they are under the eaves of the house. So far we have 4 going to bloom this year. There are lots of little ones that have come up all around the big plants. I was watering my new flowers coming up in the new beds and dropped the hose into one of these agaves. Sliced a hole in the hose and had to tape it up. They make excellent break-in guards.

a burglar would get sliced to ribbons if he fell into one of these. Needle points and sharp as a razor.

I got new flowers galore coming up from the seeds Bill sent. Going to bring up a few small plants with us when we come north. I think they will grow if planted in a protected place.

I lost all the Granny cartoons I had drawn up to post here on the blog. Makes me mad. I will wait til I get back from up north to draw new ones. All the pics I took since last fall are gone. I did back up Phillips pics because I was making them into a movie on the lap top.

Beginning to heat up down here. Phillip and I went back up into the mountains and did some more panning in a different spot. Didn't do too bad either. Will post pics of this spot later.

This spot makes a guy wish they could just lay back in a lounge and listen to the creek and the birds sing, while the rest of the world sailed right on by. Big pines, ash, box elder and elm trees all around. Just heavenly. Granny

Star athlete

It seems like this spring the weather is colder than last year. Last year it seemed colder than the year before and the one before that colder that the previous year. I think that if I searched climatological records I would find that it is just my imagination playing tricks on an ever aging mind. I think about when I was young and I had a tough time trying to understand why dad would always get the blues in the spring. It has always been the time of year when my thoughts were gearing up for projects I had planned for the warm weather months. I stood staring in the mirror this morning, my back aching and wondering where I was going to come up with the energy to start the concrete placement project in the new sempervivum propagation bed. Then it came over me that I wasn't staring at myself in the mirror, I was standing there looking at dad. Wow, really? Now, don't get me wrong I am not saying that I have become my father, far from that, and truth be known he was a hell of a lot more a man than I'll ever be. That's why I could never understand how springtime always got him down. It has occurred to me that it's all about growing older, and the older I get the harder it is to get spring fit, body and mind. With the snow gone a guy wants to get out and start in on the projects he was planning all winter long. 

I'm in a springtime funk, and my first inclination is to curse the cold temperatures, and go back into hibernation. I just have to remember that although dad's back ached and he suffered from the springtime blues, that he never went back into that hibernation. He always seemed to pull himself out of the house and fire up the rototiller. He always hooked the irrigation system, and drug out the hoses. I think that with that in mind I shall get over the springtime funk, and start those projects. Damn, I'm getting old, and I find myself giving these prep-talks each year they get less convincing, but I am gullible so I can talk myself into almost anything.

I wish that I could pile up some of the rocks around here and come up with a time machine. Wouldn't that be great? I'd set that old way-back machine to the early 70s when I was young and healthy, a star athlete and everyone was in awe of me and my extraordinary athletic abilities. Yeah....OK so there were never any of those abilities extraordinary or otherwise. Jeannine was good at her sports, gymnastics and Mike played basketball, Phillip was good baseball player, Bruce and Jake great wrestlers but I could barely walk and chew gum. Well I could walk, and sometimes I had  Bazooka Bubble Gum, but I had to separate those activities. 

I did have one shining moment of glory as an athlete, when I was in school, and the P.E. class was playing dodgeball. There was a day that I won the dodgeball game in spectacular fashion and saved my team from running laps in the gym. Sure I'd love to tell the story, let me set the stage.....It was 1973 springtime rain forced the P.E. class to the gym where we did our usual exercises before splitting into teams for some good healthy competition. The sport of the day chosen by our teacher, Mr. Pixler was that ever wonderful esteem building game, Dodgeball. [losers run laps] I always hated that game, just the name Dodgeball, implies that one needs to be aware of  balls and that if you can't dodge a ball you would be hit with one. Two things right there that I had major difficulty with, being aware, and dodging, not being very good at either, meant that I would once again singled out by Kevin **** on the other team, and nailed in the side of the face with a burner. In those days I was real small, being the next to the shortest boy in my class, towering over Don Devine by a whole 1/2 inch. The balls are placed on the center line, the whistle blows and the gym erupts in the thunderous sound of 29 white shorts clad maniacs running to the line. The only thing out of place was number 30 the boy running the other direction, yeah you guessed it, number 30 was me, hauling ass the other way to the safest corner in the gym. I had this brilliant dodgeball strategy  in mind, one that served me well in the past. My strategy was one where I would basically hide the best  I could, cowering in the corner behind some of the biggest kids letting them get picked off before me. In past games it always worked out that I was standing there hoping not to be seen by Kevin *****, when some bigger kid jumped aside and Wham, I get nailed in the side of the face. I would usually go to the bench and sit, the perfectly round red spot on my face stinging  like heck. This day was going to prove much different than those from the past, I don't know if it was that all the cosmic requirements were met, perhaps the stars all lined up just right. Possibly it was just that the bigger kids I was hiding behind were slower than normal and they were all picked off one by one until I was left alone on my side of the line facing the last player on the other side... that's right Kevin ****.  Kevin**** always had a serious hard on when it came to making the smaller, and weaker kids feel the pain. So there he is staring me down from twenty feet away a great sneer forming on his lips, looking like he had his Wheaties for breakfast, in fact looking like he had double Wheaties, probably beating the hell out of some smaller kid so he could eat his too. I unfortunately didn't have Wheaties that day, I always hated Wheaties, almost as much as I hated Dodgeball. I start to rethink my run to the corner and hide strategy, as the balls started to fly, most missing and hitting the wall only to bounce back completely back to the other side of the line, where he would grab them and throwing them back at me. This type of game play continued for what seemed like hours, him burning balls at me so hard that there was little chance for me to get my hands on one before they rolled to his side. I ran back and forth across the back wall of the gym, trying to not get hit True Dodgeball.  Yelling and screaming could be heard from both benches, his side was saying "Get him!! Get him!!" My side was saying "Hanks you wuss!! grab a damn ball and throw it!!"  The support from my team was indeed overwhelming, and I knew that I would have to make my move soon. Like I said this play went on for sometime and after a while Kevin **** being an incredible lump of crap, that never had to try his hardest to win because he usually chose to face down the smaller, and weaker opponents in these one on one situations, started to get tired. He had started to walk to the ball, often turning his back on me and crossing the entire distance of his side to pick one up. His throw was starting to get slower,  the years of taking the easy way out picking on smaller kids was beginning to catch up to him. I on the other hand was growing up with Mike as a brother, and that gave me some special help dealing with this type of individual, anyone that knows Mike understands what I'm talking about. Kevin**** turns his back on me and slowly walks to retrieve his next missile, certain that it is only a matter of time till he clobbers me good right in the side of the face. He failed to noticed the ball that was slowly rolling my way, almost ready to cross the line and become my  first chance make a throw in the game, not counting the chances I missed hiding in the corner.  I decide, "This is it." and I make my move. I run to the line and squat down waiting for the ball to roll just a few more feet, my arms outstretched reaching as far as could. Kevin ***** makes his way to his ball, picks it up and turns around. The look on his face when he sees me there in the middle of the gym, the ball I'm reaching for still several feet away, was something that I'll never forget. A triumphant smile replaces his little sneer, and he gets a new boost of energy, possibly the second bowl of ill-gotten Wheaties kicking in at that moment. Quickly he rushes over and kicks the ball away before I can reach it, he pulls back to throw, suddenly he realizes he is too close so he steps back a few paces. I try to move but the thought that I am in trouble is at that time still forming in my head, as I look up and see the throw, a real burner. The ball smokes toward me as I try to stand it hits me before I can move, right in the stomach, right in the ole bread basket, and sticks. Being in the squatting position it was like my belly was a catcher's mitt and the ball stayed in the pocket. Game over. 

Yeah, that's right glory was mine, kids hooting and hollering, my team clapping me on the back, Kevin ****'s team shoving him as they took their laps across the gym floor, telling him he was a wuss. Even Mr. Pixler had to shake his head, smiling as he led the class into the locker room.

For someone that never won anything, never made a lay up in basket ball, never hit a home run, never won a foot race, that was finest day of my life up to then, and I cherished until.......Well until the next day when the weather was much nicer, and we went outside for P.E. Mr. Pixler lined us all up and said count off to six...1,2,3,4,5,6, the class was calling out, afterward we were separated into groups according  to the number we called, I was a 6 so I stood and watched 5 other groups of kids hit the line and run a three lap race, each of the winners taken aside to run in a final race. As I go to the line I look around at my competitors in the race, I can't believe it but it's all the special olympic types [including me] from the class.  I start to think that the stars are all lining up again for me, I can beat these guys. The whistle blows and I am off the line first and take the lead, as we reach the turn around point I notice that Mr. Pixler sees that I am in the lead, his head popping up from his clip board a surprised look on his face. We turn and run the other way, I remain in the lead, the last lap comes and as I turn and start the down the home stretch I still lead the pack quite comfortably. As we get closer to the finish line I can see Mr. Pixler's face become bright with excitement the light in his eyes shining a huge smile urging me on. I wonder if he was thinking to himself  "Damn I'm a good teacher,  just look how far Hanks has come"   The second day in a row I could be a winner, I can almost taste the victory. Then in a brief moment all I can taste is blood, as I trip and make a face plant in the turf, splitting my lip, the the pack of competitors unfortunately not even coordinated enough to dodge my sprawled out form laying there bleeding from the mouth, run right over the top of me. I don't think that a single one missed stepping on my back side, as they raced to the finish line. I stand up with the red glow of humiliation deeply burning my face, ten perfect foot prints on the back of my P.E. uniform, the other kids laughing their asses off Kevin **** laughing the loudest. My glory from the previous day a definite thing of the past, I could no longer see Mr. Pixler, who was obviously trying to avoid eye contact. 

That was a just one of those thrill of victory stories turning into the agony of defeat that we all have heard before on "The Wide World Of Sports"  It seems that you don't have to be a star athlete to experience either one.

Yeah, I guess I  can do without that time machine after all. Just this star athlete memory has brought me out of that funk. Spring blooms a new attitude I guess.

Spring! or is it Summer?

Hard to believe that just a week or so ago we had snow coming down. They even had a skiff in parts of Phoenix. Today it was 102 in Phoenix. It was 78 up here on the bench. Kicked the garden back into action.

I had Phillip take the old Dish Network dish and fill the holes with liquid steel so I could use it for a bird- bath. Turns out they like it. There is another old dish out in back of the shed and I will have him do the same with it.. I have an old pedestal from a planter, so I think I will put that one on the pedestal. I will have to put a heavy rock in it or the wind will blow it off. Wind blew the planter that I had on the pedestal before and broke it. That sucker wasn't light by any means. Wind blowing up and down this canyon can get wicked at times. Neighbor next door just put up a giant wind powered generator. What he don't use he will sell back to the power co.

Good deal, but takes Money to make money. I bet that gem wasn't cheap.

Phillip cut some of the agate from Montana. One nice one Dave found. I tumbled a few slices of it to sell. Pretty pink to lavender stuff. Should sell good.

He has been doing some sorting and cleaning out of the shop. About time. I wanted to do some silver work but had to move a ton of stuff he had set aside to work on later and later didn't look any where near. Every time I clear a spot to work, He fills it with "laters".

After they came and took Steve's trailer away I had a bunch of junk to bag up for the dump. Phillip had to move cases of water and all the heavy stuff. He sure accumulated a lot of junk in the short time he stayed with us. I guess he will stay with his Sister in Texas til the end. He has a reoccurring brain tumor. Maybe next fall Phillip can find a new rockhunting partner. Some of the places he goes are just too hard for me to get to anymore.

Jake; get back to me on the magnets. Granny

Wild Pigs

Steph was wondering about Wild Pigs. They are all over the southwest. We have them in the yard all the time. Mostly they are on the desert but they are spreading up into the mountains too. When we were up panning last we saw some but they were too fast to get pics of. We get deer, cattle and of course lots of dogs here in the yard as well. One must have a garden fenced if you want to keep it. Don't fence the flowers so some will get eaten. Here is a web site where you can learn more about these wild pigs.
http://www.jenniferjo.com/javelinas_main.htm

Jake when you get a lot of fine gold in black sand, I will tell you how Grandpa Prescott extracted the gold from it.

Wanted

If any of you people up North run across an inner tube, be it car,truck or bike , hang on to it for me. Check out the thrift shops maybe. I want to cut it into small pieces to use as cushioning in the tumblers when polishing rocks. Can't find any down here. Also no wrecking yards near here.
Granny

This scam is a new one out.

http://www.snopes.com/fraud/contest/oprah.asp Don't know if any of you got this in an e-mail yet but I checked it out and found it to be a scam.

Wow!! Global warming?

This is global warming? We woke up to an inch of snow this AM. Should have got pics, but was so dreary looking. Melted fast when it starting pouring rain... Gonna be a few mud days now... Its still at it out there. pouring down the slight chance of rain we were supposed to have.
One of these days I'd like to get stepping stones put in all the way to the shed and the shop, then I wouldn't be tracking all the mud in with me. One good thing, won't have to water the garden today, maybe tomorrow either.
They were having a big dig down at Stanton this weekend...Play heck getting in the 5 miles of dirt road to get there.
Would have went yesterday but some guys came to get Steve's 5th wheel out of our yard. Had to be here because we didn't know them.
The Iris will be loving this rain. They are about to bloom. Too bad all I have down here are the purple ones... They are not the great big hybrids either.
I was watching the birds yesterday. They are doing the nesting thing. A pair of doves are building a nest in a bush growing under the big Hackberry tree in the front yard. The female is so picky at what she is using in the nest. She will pick up and discard about a dozen twigs before taking one she wants. There is a sparrow who is picking at the mat in front of the shop. pulling out the fibers for her nest. All the strings, threads and lint under the clothes line has dissapeared into the nests around here. There are a pair of Cardinals who have been here since we came. I don't know where they have their nest but it must be close. They stay around all year.
I always see the pair but never see any young ones...There are mocking birds in the oak tree out front and in the neighbors yard. They sure are the noisey ones... Phillip says they sing all night long but once I get my hearing aids out I never hear them... Phillip built a 2 family bird house. He still has to put it up...The wind and rain ruined the old one he had...He had it in a tree. I think he should fix a shelf on the side of the shed and put it there. The birds build nests under the eaves in a couple of places so it should work for them. One pair of sparrows has a nest on the outdoor telephone bell box. It's been there in use for years... He could put it above the security light. the birds always want to build a nest on top of it.
Righ now there are a lot of wild Ageratums blooming out in the yard... When I get the seeds from Bill I want to get them in so they will be established before we leave... Once they are growing the summer monsoons should keep them alive til they go to seed. I got the Hollyhocks growing this way... Only trouble with them is the darn wild pigs seem to like the roots... The ones I planted next to the Agaves are the only ones the pigs leave alone...I need a BIG pig trap... They say they are good to eat...

Wildflower seeds

Here are some of the wildflowers that we have in the mix for this growing season. We will share some of the mix with anyone interested, just let us know soon. We will start planting for this season very soon, so if you want some of the mix better let us know before it's gone. Some is already spoken for but we have plenty left. [for now] Sissy collected seeds from several of the seed patches that we grew last year, also some seeds came from the multitude of mixed wildflower patches that we had growing around the place. 

 We also have around 50 different varieties of Sempervivum [hens and chicks] that have multiplied greatly in the past two years. We will be moving them all into propagation beds this spring so, we have plenty to share, and since we will be digging them all up, it would be a good time to speak up if you want some.