Out with the old and in with the new.

This year went out like a lion, I just hope the new one comes in more like a lamb.

Tuesday we were in shirt-sleeve weather and the next day we woke up to a blizzard. 10 inches of blowing snow and last night it was 9 degrees. This is the coldest it has been since I came to AZ. Damn!!! I left Idaho for this? Only got to 27 yesterday but up to a warm 30 so far today. It cleared off so It will get a lot colder tonight I bet. Sunny right now and snow is still here. Gonna take time to melt this time. Probably not this cold up in Idaho right now.

Hope everyone has a HAPPY NEW YEAR............Granny

2nd day of winter.

Well it's that time of year again. Don't really feel like Christmas down here. No snow here yet but lots of rain.



Phillip has gotten into the spirit of things and made some candy. He made the Tuttie Fruttie creams, fudge and cow pies. Hey! I been eating it in spite of the fact I was given a new sure fire weight loss diet..... " If it tastes good, Spit it out"....... In fact he has been busy cooking and baking up a storm. We got a huge turkey for thanksgiving and he has turned all the leftovers into pasties and pot pies and froze them. He also made a big batch of lasagna with the last of the chard from the garden and put a bunch of it into small disposable loaf pans and froze them as well. When we take off for the day he puts them in the cooler and takes them along with us to thaw. When we get home they can be popped into the oven and baked. We were given a bag of oranges and he juiced most of them because they were on the almost too ripe side to eat. He made a pie with some of the juice and if you think I spit that out you're crazy. First time I ate orange chiffon pie. Boy it was good. I know what he can do with the rest of the juice. It's so nice having someone else do the cooking. Right guys?
Really raining out there now. Even a little lightning a while ago. They have posted flood warnings for most of AZ for this evening.
Winter storm warnings up in north country. Wet here but not real cold. One good thing, it will wash the dirt off all the rocks we dug up last week and laid out. Had a bag full and wished I had water to wash off others so I could see if they were good enough to pack out. Now after this is all over and things dry out a bit we can go back in , look at them and pick out them best ones.

Hope all of you have a MERRY CHRISTMAS.......Granny

Wow!! It's been a while since I have posted to the blog.

Phil and I went out to Bagdad this morning. Even tho it is at a much lower elevation we saw that the trees had freeze dried leaves down there as well. Never got a chance to change color. Still lots of yellow flowers still blooming and lots of bees around them. They are some kind of tiny blooms that smell like mosquito repellent Phillip says but I think they smell kinda nice. I had my chair setting right by a couple of the plants and the smell was pleasant and not overpowering like some flowers can get. There were some plants with tiny pink buds that were still closed. I don't know if they will bloom out til it warms up again or not. Didn't see any snakes this time out but there was a few chipmunks and a horned toad running around. Oh yes and the ever present ants.

This is a strange area out here. Some of the hills and mountains are basaltic and some are granitic. Lots of sedimentary areas and it makes one wonder what came first. All I know is AZ has had some mighty changable geo history. I would like to go back in time and be able to look down and see just what it looked like down thru the millions of years as it happened. You know, kinda like time lapse photography. Damn interesting I think. I did find a bag full of interesting rocks and specimens.

Had a brain echo a week or so ago. Dreamed that we were up at Dave's. I told Phillip and Dave I wanted a car that would go on a lot less gas and how we could make it. We got it made ( dream never showed me how) and it looked strange. Had a large scoop on the roof and 2 smaller scoops on each side of the hood above the lights. Darn thing started to run on gas then as it started moving the air going in the scoops powered turbines that ran the car as long as it moved over 35 miles an hour. under that speed, the motor used gas to run. I never even got a chance to drive it. Dream must have went on another route and I don't remember it. Kookie but interesting while it happened.

Well it's getting near my bedtime. I want to take a shower and hit the sack. I'm pooped out from pounding the hard ground with my dull rock pick. Santa better bring me a new one .

Granny

Out and about

It has finally cooled off a little down here so Phillip and I decided to head up in the hills and try our luck at panning. The river up here is nothing but a trickle this time of year. We did see a few holes that had enough water in them to pan but were too late as it seems that every body and his cat and dog were camped up there and panning. We cruised around a bit and couldn't find a good spot. Oh well, seems like everyone else has the same idea about getting rich panning for gold. Phillip said he might as well look around the old camp sites with the locater. Found nothing but trash, and a couple of pennies and a nickle. Not old ones either. Had a nice time out and got fresh air and did some walking around. Had lunch under some pinon pines. Soon as it cools off a bit more we might have better luck down on the desert with the locaters. Maybe take water and pan the one place down but the Buckshot mine. We did pretty good there before. That was before the last time we went there last fall and some oldtimer was camped right where we set up to pan the dirt screened out of the wash. Only shady spot around to set up. He wasn't working in the wash we liked but he was drywashing an old wash where the tailings from a prospect had been dumped. Don't know how good he was doing but when Phillip and I sampled that wash it was poor in colors.
Last wed. we decided to go arrowhead hunting up in Walnut creek. It is up in Williamson Valley on the old backroad to Seligman, AZ. That's up north from here. We have done good up there looking for arrowheads. I only found a broken one and a broken drill. Believe it or not but Phillip got skunked. We did stop and pick up and husk about 5 pounds of walnuts. Phillip has been cracking them and so far has about 1 cup cracked. These black walnuts are hard as hell to crack and get the meats out of but they taste so good in fudge and cookies. He still has more than half left to crack. We hit them just at the right time this year. Most of the time we get back here from up north too late and the pigs and other critters have gotten most of them. We have gotten them before but a lot of times it has rained and then the darn things are too hard to husk with out getting your hands dyed a semi permanent brown. It's weird how the husks smell a lot like cinnamon.
The pinon pines didn't have a good set this year around here anyway so we haven't gathered any pine nuts this year yet. Some times that happens. We haven't been down Waggoner way yet so there may be some trees down there that have cones on them.
The pigs got the sweet potatoes. They rooted down about 2 feet to make sure they got every tuber. The damn things. Got to get a higher fence for the garden and plant every thing inside the fence if we ever plan to get sweet potatoes.
Well time for bed,......Granny

A Beautiful Message

This morning I had a brain echo. It was a beautiful message. Thought I'd pass it on .

OH CRAP !!! I forgot it.

More dear oh deer

Yeah the damn deer did come back for desert. Got the squash all the way down to the nub in the middle of the plants. Don't seem to like the old leaves. Phillip covered up the beets,chard and new cukes with wire. Just a little late to save the squash in the garden. I have some planted up close to the house out in front where the deer hasn't ventured yet. I hope it is too close to the house to suit it. They are in bloom now and have small squash on them. Got some cukes and watermelon out with the flowers that are doing good so far. Maybe the marigolds will keep the deer from smelling them. So far so good. Been in the high 90's here yet so maybe all will make it to maturity.

Here is a puzzle or two to look at. I got them from a guy who used to live in Spokane and now has moved down to Walla Walla to live with his Daughter on a farm.

When you look at this do you see grey spots in between the black squares?

Stare at this one for 30 or 40 seconds and then look at a light colored blank wall. You will be surprised at what you see.

Granny

Getting motivated!

Last night I had the intent to get up early and try my hand at fishing the Blue River north of Silverthorn. I set my alarm for 6:30 A.M. so I would be there before the sun rolled into the valley. When the alarm went off this morning though I felt like fishing was less favorable than crawling back into bed for more sleep. I checked the reg's and thought "ehhh... I can only keep two fish and both of them have to be over 16 inches..." I have fished the Blue before and I've caught some decent fish, by that I mean I fished it the summer of 2003 with 15 outings and landed one rainbow that was about 13 inches. Sooooo, I crawled back into bed. I got up about 9:45 and felt pathetic. Since I was not going fishing I felt I had to motivate so that I would not feel like a total lazy slob. So I ate some breakfast and put on my hiking clothes and hit the trail. The goal was to walk out my door and hike all the way to Buffalo Bill Cody's grave site/museum, which is about 5 miles uphill from where I live.

Steph and Sis are familiar with the network of trails that link up to the Lookout Mt. Road where the museum is. However, they may not be familiar with this new trail. The Jefferson Co. park system must have cut the trail not too long ago.

There were other changes as well, this section of Apex trail has been re-routed.

One thing I thought was a bit scary is that it looks like they have been thinning out trees on the "Enchanted Forest" loop. I think it is kind of scary because we have had three big fires in Colorado and here is a tinder box of cut trees all dry as a bone.

After slugging up the trail I finally made it to the top. Here is a picture looking west from the museum parking lot.

Here's a picture looking down on Denver. Denver doesn't have the best air quality so this picture is a bit hazy. The haze that normally exists is supplemented with the fires going to the north, so this would be a neater looking picture under different circumstances.
Around 4:00 I made it back home with tired feet and a tad dehydrated. It was worth it though and I feel like I did something today other than loaf around. Maybe next week I'll go fishing on the Blue River.

First frost

We  got frost enough to kill the garden a few nights ago. The lettuce actually survived, and I figured it would be the first to go on a cold night. The arbor filled in quite nice but the east tower has a bit of frost damage on the top. The M-wall is pretty much finished for now, until spring, unless I get some time and cooperation from old Ma Nature.

I have built a royal exalted grand throne in the far corner of this picture. It is Poobahtic design and location, towering over all other rock benches around the area. From the driveway the top of the throne is about 6 1/2 feet tall, from the floor of the Corgi Coliseum below the throne it's about 10 feet to the top. 

The M-wall has been fun, but when my neighbor saw how it was going he decided to build a huge retaining wall at his place and that was about fours days of hard rock lifting work. I am so burned out on rocks right now. I could barely muster the energy to finish my project, [still not finished]

So,,,anyway from the Royal Exalted Grand Poobah thrown I can throw the Kong for the Corgis and get good distance because I am so high above the ground. And of course it is a most lofty and prestigious position from where I may be adequately worshiped. Yes,,I said "worshiped" ,,,,Oh! It's good to be Poobah.

Dear me deer.

The damn deer did come back and brought others with him. They ate everything in sight, even the flowers.
Didn't eat the squash or the cukes but maybe they are saving them for desert. Phillip is just going to have to put in a better fence next year or maybe have venison in the freezer.

Since we still have summer squash I will pass on a recipe or two to anyone else who has some.

Zucchini fritters.

2 cups shredded zucchini
1/4 cup shredded onion
2 eggs
1 tab. oil
1/4 tsp salt
dash pepper
dash garlic salt (optional)
1 cup cottage cheese
1/2 cup pancake mix

Beat well and fry big spoonfuls in hot oil. Smash with spoon a little to flatten.
Eat as a side dish or pour on the syrup for breakfast.
If you feel you can handle it then fry up a couple slices of bacon to crumble and add to the mix.

Surprise crisp.

1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup butter or oleo
1/4 cup shortning
1 3/4 cup flour
1 1/2 cups quick oatmeal
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
Mix together and pat half in a 9X13 or larger cake pan.
pour in the cooked mixture and top with the other half dry mix.
bake at 350 for 30 to 45 min or until browned and bubbles come up the sides, which ever is first. Serve with whip cream or ice cream . don't tell anyone what is in it and they won't guess.

Filling

4 cups shredded zucchini
1 large shredded apple
juice and zest of 1 lemon
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/3 cup water
Put all in a sauce pan and cook till soft and slightly thickened.

Good stuff ...Granny

Fishing trip!!

That's what I said to myself this weekend when I got a crazy idea in my head. I had pondered the idea of throwing my camping gear in the truck and driving down to the only place in Colorado where I have had excellent luck fishing. The place I'm talking about is the Crystal River which is near Redstone, CO south of Carbondale, CO (home of Northface co.) At first I had doubts. What is the weather going to be like? Is it going to be worth the three hour drive just for an overnight trip? I checked the weather and it was supposed to be totally sunny with highs in the low 80's and zero chance of rain. So I said "fk it I'm heading down. I was on my second hole when I realized I made the right decision. Bamm! a hungry brown trout gobbled up my lure and I thought "ok, maybe this is the only fish I get this weekend but will I be able to catch more than one.?" As the trip continued my doubts vanished with each hungry fish attacking my lures on just about every cast. Here's a picture of that first brown.

About and hour later I landed two little rainbow trout. By this time I was thinking "if I catch any more fish I'm going to have to put more ice in the cooler." So I drove back to Carbondale for some supplies and it was also getting pretty hot and I wanted to cool off "hmmmff... low 80's huh, feels more like 97 to me." So I thought I would kill some time and cool down by slamming a Gatorade and making a few phone calls from the shade of a bench outside the store. After I made a few calls the sun was starting to go down. I decided to try a few more places on the river and then find a place to 'car camp' overnight. The last few holes I tried at the end of the day were not so hot and thought 3 fish in one day is not too shabby (especially since the last time I caught three fish in one day in Colorado was the year 2002). It was time to get some dinner and set up camp since the sun was starting to drop below the mountains. I tried setting up my tent only to find out that the elastic cord that holds the tent poles together completely lost its elasticity. "Hmm... ok no tent that sucks... well it's a good thing that the weather prediction had zero chance of rain because I'll be sleeping under the stars tonight."

So I felt like I was really roughing it, I mean who needs a tent anyway. So much so that I thought about how I would describe my "roughing it" setup in terms of everyday living. For instance here is a picture of my "roughing it" kitchen.

Here is a picture of my "roughing it" dining room and kitchen table and refrigerator.

When your "roughing it" rooms can be magically transformed to suit another purpose. For example, my dining room can change into the bedroom, presto change-o!

"Roughing it" can be achieved by finding out that some of your stuff doesn't work (like a tent) but your "roughing it" can be enhanced by forgetting items like eating utensils. So I had warmed up some jambalaya and realized I forgot a spoon. So I slurped down the juice and the solid pieces I ate with some makeshift chopsticks that I whittled out of sapling branches. Hey! it worked!

So after putting stuff away I crawled into my sleeping bag and then I thought "oh no I have to take a whiz." In a tent I hate this because you have to get out of your sleeping bag, unzip the door on your tent, slip on shoes or brave walking barefoot and hoping to not step on anything sharp. However, when sleeping in the back of your truck you can crawl out of your bag stand up and pee off the side without stepping on the ground. I should mention that one should not do this if there is a strong wind blowing in your face. I was lucky and there was no wind at all. The stars were beautiful and it is kinda neat to go to sleep by counting shooting stars but it was pretty cold.

The next day of fishing was awesome and in one and a half hours I caught two monster browns and a little rainbow, I figured that 3 fish was good enough and that I would try one more hole on the way back to Golden. The last place I tried to fish apparently had a natural hot spring. It was pretty random to smell the slight hint of sulphur and see steam coming off of a trickle of water coming out of the side of the riverbank. I tested the water with my finger and it wasn't scalding but was hotter than I like my shower. If I go down there again (probably next summer) I'll pack swim trunks and go for a dip.

The great Montana road trip

Howdy, a few weeks ago Steph and I got her moved up and settled into her new surroundings in Billings, MT. My boss was gracious enough to give me some time off so that it wouldn't be a up to Billings and back again kind of a trip. So being that this was the last time we had together before I went back to Golden we wanted to make the best of it. We were able to spend three days in Glacier Nat. Park and spend some time visiting with Ma & Pa. I was able to squeeze in a little fishing and we did some huckleberrry picking. We came back with a pretty good gob of berries. Anyway, I was a bit of a shutterbug on this trip and snapped off a few pictures. I thought I would share my favorites.

At the Logan pass visitor center there was a mama mt. goat and her baby. Steph and I were a bit peeved at the idiot people pretty much getting on top of the animals to get a picture. The mama goat didn't seem to mind too much but the poor baby was stressed out. You could tell that the poor thing wanted to stay close to mom but kept running away when people were breathing on the mother. Luckily a ranger came by and told people to get back. Anyway, I wanted a picture but didn't want to be a jerk. Steph said "how about we go into the visitor center and take a picture through the glass?" I thought "I'll have to turn off the flash and there will not be enough light, but what the hey I'll give it a shot." It actually worked!

Here is a picture taken from the tour bus on Going to the Sun road. They had a free shuttle, which was nice because we could let someone else do the driving and we could look out the window. The downside was that it ate up most of the day and we spent a lot of time waiting for the next bus, because it not just one bus east and one bus west. It was pretty complicated in that you had to really be on the ball and know which bus to take at which time or you could be stranded on the other end of the park.

Some cool water falls, the St. Mary Falls if I remember correctly.

Here is a picture taken from the Many Glacier visitor center.

Here is a picture of Trick Falls, named so because it looks like water is just randomly shooting out of a rock wall. Pretty cool.

This is a gnarled tree in the area Dad has dubbed the "Twisted Forest." I have no idea what is up with trees in this area. I can only imagine that it is either some localized parasite or some genetic mutation that has been passed on to seedlings and for what ever reason the seeds have not gone to far from the parent tree. Weird

Me catching a monster rainbow trout. By "monster" I mean a seven incher. Hey, it's better than being skunked!

Steph picking huckleberries. She makes a good huckleberry picking companion. She doesn't eat stuff that hasn't been rinsed off. Probably a good idea to wash food first but I have no issues with eating berries right off the bush. So vis a vis, I'm not a good huckleberry picking companion because I will return to the truck with a purple lipped grin.

link

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=opera&hs=AfQ&rls=en&q=i%C3%B1uksuk&btnG=Search&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs
rfai=
This is the link Bill tried to post.

The rains cometh.

This guy was in our yard this morning. If we lived out in the country I wouldn't be surprised but here in town it isn't that common. At least not a buck. Phillp took the picture and went out to look at the garden to see what was left. Seems he was just content to eat the pile of old chard and lettuce Phillip pulled up yesterday so he could plant some more beets, radishes and kohlorabi. At least the compost pile was enough for him. Just hope he don't come back.

We finally got the monsoon season and it really did wonders for the garden. Stuff seems to grow so much better when it rains. Phillip finally got more summer squash than he can cook. Tomatoes are getting ripe so are the eggplants. Cantaloupe will be ready pretty soon. Lost a watermelon to the quail. It grew out through the fence and the quail started to pick on it and now it has been devoured.

Monsoon season put a temp. hold on the prospecting. These thunderstorms build up right out of nowhere and do so quite rapidly. Not enough time to get out of the creeks and tall timber before they hit. No place to be in a lightning storm.

All the water in the birdbaths and the garden draws some birds we don't like. For the most part I love to see all the birds but some of the damn things are like the Mexicans. You give the damn things something to eat and then the first thing you know they breed twice as many more then shit all over you. Then the mess is yours to clean up. Had to start parking the car away from the trees. Just like the Mexicans, I wish the damn birds we don't want would migrate to some other country.

Granny

Why I missed the BBQ

This is why I was not able to come to Jeannine and Bruce's for BBQ. Saturday was the only day I could get the Bobcat from the rental yard. Also that morning Gordie was dropped off by his people who were going to Europe for 17 days. [lucky bastards] I was able to get a bunch of rocks moved and most of them placed. I didn't have the grapple like I thought I was going to so I couldn't build the grotto, or the inuksuk like I wanted. But on the good side the rental yard charged me $80 less than I thought they were going to. Eventually I will get an excavator with a thumb, and I will build these things. In the meantime I have much work to do stacking rock by hand, now that I have the base stones set in place.

Also some shots of the growth on the arbor that I built. Some of the vines are almost reaching the top now.

Water, cool clear water.

Got hotter than hell down here in Wilhoit so Phillip and I headed for the tall timber and some cool water. Phillip set my chair right in the pool and I sat there with my feet in the water and cooled off royally. All I had to do was bend over to pan. It was so nice. Phillip was working in some bedrock he found. Trouble is, it was just about under a boulder as large as a VW beetle and it was hung up on the bank. The water had dropped exposing the rotten bedrock under it. He had found this area the last time we were up there but he didn't have the bar with him. He broke up the bedrock and let the stuff from the cracks fall into the water and sucked it up with the sucker tube. He did real good got some nice pickers and a whole lot of flour gold. The big boulder started to do some moving so he played it safe and he quit breaking up the bedrock under it.

Just take a look at these huge boulders. These dudes are in the creek itself. Makes one wonder what is under them. I doubt if the old times ever moved them. If the rotten bedrock under that one on the bank is any indication, they will be loaded with cracks that have gold in them. The water is dropping fast. We will be lucky to find a pool big enough to pan in before too long.

This is another beautiful weed. These were blooming along side the road on our way down to the river. I have no idea what it is as I haven't found it in the book or on the web yet. It is a cluster of tiny blooms that look like orchids up close. They have long hairy projections s c sticking up out of the top of each orchid shape. No smell and growing in dry dirt that the lupins have keeled over in because of the heat. We picked seeds from the giant pale pink lupins, and some that are a pale yellow. The purple ones are long one but we did get seeds from them.

Its funny how each color blooms at different times.

Thanks Jake, for telling us how to put pictures in with the text and not all of them just at the top.

Granny

Wow! It's the busy season.

Phillip and I got out a while back and headed up the river to do some panning since we had to go up to Prescott anyway.

Phillip put his tools up on the bank and was waiting for his glory hole to clear up so he could use the sucker tube in it. He didn't do too bad. He wouldn't have got a thing with out the tube. He never leaves home without it. Right!!

We both took a lot of pictures and I got this one of a little tree frog perched up on this stump about 3 feet off the ground. He had a dandy climb up I think. I took a couple of pictures of him and when Phillip got back from taking pictures up the river (creek) I showed him the frog. He had climbed all the way to the top and turned around to face us. Phillip got another picture of him but didn't turn out because he was too close so it was blurry.

Looks like Bill has been hard at work. I love the rock work he has in what he calls his grotto, and all the flowers. Wow! and I also love the twin towers arbor. Going to have to get some of the other seeds from him. We gave him some scarlet runner beans a few years back but didn't keep any for myself. I thought I did but nada. I still have to transplant the daisys and the petunias I started. They are almost big enough now. I find we have more daturas and wild alyssum coming up where I planted hollyhocks. I love them both even if they are weeds. Hey Bill! I need you to save some asparagus seeds for me. I would like to get a bed started down here. I'd like to get a rubarb plant too someday. I saw some up at the seed store but they wanted 20 bucks for them.

Jake, you will have to blue your metal gold pan. When you get out and about build a small camp fire and after it burns down a bit, put your pan in it. After it turn blue then rake it out. That helps keep the rust down and makes the gold stay in it better. Softens the metal somewhat so don't quench it. Never but NEVER put oil on it. Clean the rust off with sand if posible before bluing. I dont know how you got by with out a screen before. That's the hard way to gold pan.

I still haven't figured out how to insert pictures in the blog at intervals instead of just at the top. If some one can tell me how I will thank them forever.

Had a brain echo. Dreamed I won the lottery and went to Australia . It was too damn hot down there and I didn't find any opal. Had a tent and the rabbits wouldn't stay out so I had rabbit poop all over the floor. Stepped in some getting out of bed and that woke me up. Now, does that portend to anything but a dumb dream or is it my grandiose karma is going to kick in good for a change? Que sara, sara!

Aching Back Acres

I also recently got off the couch, and returned to the rock pile to work on our fire pit. I made some good use of my highlift, and floor jacks to tip these multi-ton broken granite boulders on end to form the back wall of the fire pit. We want a place where we can build a small fire to cook on, and an area where we can eat, drink and enjoy life on the rocks. [no pun intended] 

A few other pics. One of the area that used to be a huge pit, now showing the new growth of the low grow orchard mix that I planted about two weeks ago. I will bring many tons of granite up to build the retaining wall along the cut bank semi-circle you see in the picture. The teapot short and stout, some marigolds. Also and arbor that I built to trade a man for his brown eggs. The answer to getting farm fresh eggs with no cash. The Barter System! Plus I don't have to take care of stupid damn chickens!

Here is also the first look at my twin towers arbor. We have built at least a hundred arbors in the past several years, most we sold, some we gave away. At least ten couples have been married under our arbors, we get pictures sent to us often of a new couple expressing their vows under one these things. I even know of one that was abandoned after it met with an untimely demise one winter. Sad but true! Until I built the twin towers we have never kept one for ourselves. I will take many pictures of this monster throughout the summer to show the progression of the growing morning glory, and scarlet runner beans we have planted in the whiskey barrels inside the towers. Pictures that I will post here. 

4th of July weekend is off to a good start

I got up at 6:30 without the aid of an alarm clock this morning. This may have been a subliminal effect of my purchase of some new gold panning equipment. Kind of like when your a kid and your folks have to drag you out of bed except on Christmas, when for some magical reason your up 2 hours before your parents. Anyway, I figured the "gold fever" part of my brain was telling me to pack up and head down to the river to try out the new goodies. I bought a couple new pans and a classifier. One of the pans I bought is a plastic job with ridges on one side and that is the one I use for sifting out the black sand. The other pan is a big metal one with two ridges around the whole circumference of the flanged part. The weird thing about the metal pan is that it looks like it is rusting, hmmm... maybe that normal I dunno. Anyway, I love my classifier, I can blaze through 10X more material when I don't have to pick rocks out of my pan. I'll work through the black stuff later on today, hopefully there is at least a pinch of flour in there. Well I hope all is well with everybody and I hope you have some fun adventures this 4th of July weekend!

Here are a few pictures of the last hike Steph and I were on. This time we hiked on the Centennial Cone trail, I had never hiked this before so it was neat to check out some new area.

Gettin' off the couch and doing some hiking!

Steph and I were suffering from cabin fever from being cooped up all winter. So we decided that the best way to shake off the winter blahs was to get out and hike some trails near Golden. What helps is that Steph was a big winter at this years Banff Mt. Film fest. 'Radical Reels' tour.......

http://www.banffcentre.ca/mountainculture/tour/radicalreels/

Every year I go to watch cool videos but hope that I can win some cool stuff as well. Every year I come up empty handed but this year Steph won a stack of books from the Colorado Mountain Club on hiking in the Denver & Boulder area. I priced these same books at Barnes and Noble and they are worth about $150. Not bad! So we have been reading up on cool places to hike and I have been surprised by the trails so close to Denver but really are in nice areas away from road noise and such. I'm all about setting out for adventure (by the seat of your britches) but reading up on places before you go does have some advantages, like finding hidden 'gems' in places you never would think to find them. For about a month and a half we have been going out for a 3 hour hike once a week. We had to take one weekend off because of bad weather. We've been seeing a lot of new places and racking up the mileage on our shoes!

This is a picture of Steph and I on top of Mt. Evans



Here is a picture of Maxwell Creek on the Maxwell Falls trail.


At the end of the "Alderfer/Three Sisters" hike we finally got to get a view of the...... Three Sisters. I can't say that we saw Alderfer though.

Beautiful weeds.

Mexican Thistle


Poppy Thistle


Datura

Although they are beautiful, they are considered weeds here in AZ.

You can buy seeds for the Datura from seed companies. In some parts it is grown as flowers.
Where the ground freezes deeper than hwere in AZ, the plants are an annual. Here in AZ. they are perenial. When we planted the agaves under the windows, we dug one up. It had a tuberous root that was on it's way to China. They are considered toxic but the birds eat the seeds and the wild pigs will eat the green seed pods. I have seen plants 2 feet tall and 4 feet wide covered with huge white trumpets. They are sometimes called Moonflowers because the flowers close up in the heat of day and open again in the evening. They are fertilized mainly by moths. They set on round prickly seed pods that can remain on the plant until the next spring befor bursting open. We have a number of them in the yard. Sweet smell.


The Poppy thistles grow all along the roadsides. In some places they will grow in the fields and yards. We don't have them in our yard. They are coveted by the honey bees. With so many of the plants, the bees must collect a lot of necter. When I took pictures of them they were swarming with honey bees. Very sweet smell.


The Mexican thistles are much shorter than the russian thistles and a whole lot pricklier. They have beautiful huge red flowers. A faint sweet smell and loved by the hummingbirds.

I will post some other flowering weeds in a later post....

Granny